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PART THIRD. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 WE left Mr. Parris in the early part of November, 
 1691, at the crisis of his controversy with the 
 inhabitants of Salem Village, under circumstances 
 which seemed to indicate that its termination was 
 near at hand. The opposition to him had assumed a 
 form which made it quite probable that it would succeed 
 in dislodging him from his position. But the end was 
 not yet. Events were ripening that were to give him a 
 new and fearful strength, and open a scene in which he 
 was to act a part destined to attract the notice of the 
 world, and become a permanent poiiiion of human his- 
 tory. The doctrines of demonology had produced their 
 full effect upon the minds of men, and every thing was 
 ready for a final display of their power. The story of 
 the Goodwin children^as told by Cotton Mather, was 
 known. and read in all the dwellings of Hie land, and 
 filled the imaginations~of a credulous age. Deputy- 
 governor Danforth had begun the work of arrests ; and 
 
2 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 persons charged with witchcraft, belonging to neigh- 
 boring towns, were ah^eady in prison. 
 
 Mr. Parris appears to have had in his family several 
 slaves, probably brought by him from the West Indies. 
 One of them, whom he calls, in his clnirch-record book, 
 " my negro lad," had died, a year or two before, at the 
 age of nineteen. Two of them were man and wife. 
 The former was always known by the name of " John 
 Indian;" the latter was called " Tituba." These two 
 persons may have originated the " Salem witchcraft." 
 They are spoken of as having come from New Spahi, as 
 it was then called, — that is, the Spanish West Indies, 
 and the adjacent mainlands of Central and Soutli Amer- 
 ica, — and, in a,ll probability, contributed, from the 
 wild and strange superstitions prevalent among their 
 native tribes, materials which, added to the commonly 
 received notions on such subjects, heightened the in- 
 fatuation of the times, and inflamed still more the 
 imaginations of the credulous. Persons conversant 
 with the Indians of Mexico, and on both sides of the 
 Isthmus, discern many similarities in their systems of 
 demonology with ideas and practices developed here. 
 
 Mr. Parris's former residence in the neighborhood 
 of the Spanisli Main, and the prominent part taken by 
 his Indian slaves in originating the proceedings at the 
 village, may account for some of the features of the 
 transaction. 
 
 .During the winter of 1691 and 1692, a circle of 
 young girls had been formed, who were in the habit 
 of meethig at Mr. Parris's house for the purpose of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 3 ' 
 
 practising palmistiy, and other arts of fortune-tellingT] 
 and of becomiug experts in the wonders of necromancy, ! 
 magic, and spiritualism. It consisted, besides the 
 Indian servants, mainly of the following persons : — 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Parris, was nine years of 
 age. Slie seems to have performed a leading part in 
 the first stages of the affair, and must have been a child 
 of remarkable precocity. It is a noticeable fact, that 
 her father early removed her from the scene. She 
 ■was sent to the town, where she remained in the family 
 of Stephen Sewall, until the proceedings at the village 
 were brought to a close. Abigail Williams, a niece of 
 Mr, Parris, and a member of his household, was 
 eleven years of age. She acted conspicuously in 
 the witchcraft prosecutions from beginning to end. 
 Ann Putnam, daughter of Sergeant Thomas Putnam, 
 the parish clerk or recorder, was twelve years of 
 age. The character and social position of her parents 
 gave her a prominence which an extraordinary develop- 
 ment of the imaginative faculty, and of mental powers 
 generally, enabled her to hold throughout. This young 
 girl is perhaps entitled to be regarded as,, in ^auy 
 respects, the leading agent in all the mischief that fol- 
 lowed. Mary Walcot was seventeen years of age. Her 
 father was Jonathan Walcot (vol. i. p. 225). His first 
 wife, Mary Sibley, to whom he was married in 1664, 
 had died in 1683. She was the mother of Mary. It is 
 a singular fact, and indicates the estimation in which 
 Captain Walcot was held, that, although not a church- 
 member, he filled the office of deacon of the parish 
 
4 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 for several years before the formation of the church. 
 Mercy Lewis was also seventeen years of age. When 
 quite young, she was, for a time, in the family of the 
 Eev. George Burroughs: and, in 1692, was living as a 
 servant in the family of Thomas Putnam ; although, 
 occasionally, she seems to have lived, in the same ca- 
 pacity, with that of John Putnam, Jr., the constable of 
 the village. He was a son of Nathaniel, and resided 
 in the neighborhood of Thomas and Deacon Edward 
 Putnam. Mercy Lewis performed a leading part in 
 the proceedings, had great energy of purpose and 
 capacity of management, and became responsible for 
 much of the crime and horror connected with them. 
 Elizabeth Hubbard, seventeen- years of age, who also 
 occupies a bad eminence in the scene, was a niece 
 of Mrs. Dr. Griggs, and lived in her family. Eliza- 
 beth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, each eighteen 
 years of age, belonged to families in the neighborhood. 
 Mary Warren, twenty years of age, was a servant in the 
 family of John Procter ; and Sarah Churchill, of the 
 same age, was a servanfin that of George Jacobs, Sr. 
 These two last were actuated, it is too apparent, by 
 malicious feelingsJo^Sfds the_^families in which they 
 resided, and contributed largely to the horrible tragedy. 
 /The facts to be exhibited will enable every one who 
 
 carefully considers them, to form an estimate, for him- 
 :| self, of the respective character and conduct of these 
 1 young pei^ons. It_.is_.almost..beyond.helief jtliat they 
 j were wholly actuated bv deliberate and cold-blooded 
 L^5J^gDitj^_-J!ij2J£-^iSS3.^^ liL^^^* view, have been 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. O 
 
 without a parallel _iii monstrosity of wickedness, and 
 bej^oud what can be imagined of the guiltiest and most 
 depraved natures. For myself,!' am ufiable to deter- \ 
 mine how much may be attributed to credulity, ; 
 hallucination, and the delirium of excitement, or to 
 delibei'ate malice aud.falsehood. There is too much 
 evidence of guile and conspiracy to attribute all their 
 actions and declarations to delusion ; and their con- 
 duct throughout was stamped with a bold assurance 
 and audaciojis_bearing. With one or two slight and 
 momentary exceptions, there was a total absence. of 
 compunction or commiseration, and a reckless disre- 
 gard of the agonies and destruction they were scatter- 
 ing around them. They present a subject that justly 
 claims, and will for ever task, the examination of those 
 who are most competent to fathom the mysteries of 
 the human soul, sound its depths, and measure the 
 extent to which it is liable to become wicked and devil- 
 ish. It will be seen that other persons were dra\vn_ 
 to act with these *' afflicted children," as they were 
 called, some from contagious delusion, and some, as, 
 was quite well proved, from a false, mischievous, and> 
 malignant spirit. 
 
 Besides the above-mentioned persons, there were 
 three married women, rather under middle life, who 
 acted with the afflicted children, — Mrs. Ann Putnam, 
 the mother of the child of that name ; Mrs. Pope ; and 
 a woman, named Bibber, who appears to have lived at 
 Wenham. Another married woman, — spoken of as 
 " ancient," — named Goodell, had also been in the 
 
6 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 habit of attending their meetings; but she is not 
 named in any of the documents on file, and was 
 probably witlidrawn, at an early period, from partici- 
 pating in the transaction. 
 
 In tlie course of the winter, they became quite 
 skilful and expert in the arts they were learning, and 
 ^ gradually began to display their attainments to the 
 
 admiration and amazement of beholders. At first, 
 v^'' ,-: they made no charges against any person, but con- 
 f fined themselves to strange actions, exclamations, and 
 
 ^ contortions. They-'WpuM--cr-eep-mto-holesy-and^iider 
 
 bencljes- a-ad—chairs^.. puJL-±hemselves into odd and 
 unnatural postures, make wild and antic gestures, 
 and ulter incoherent and unintelligible sounds. They 
 would be seized with spasms, drop insensible to the 
 floor, or writhe in agony, suffering dreadful tortures, 
 and uttering loud and piercing outcries. The atten- 
 tion of the families in which they held their meetings 
 was called to their extraordinary condition and pro- 
 ceedings ; and the whole neighborhood and surround- 
 ing country soon were filled with the story of the 
 strange and unaccountable sufferings of the " afflicted 
 girls." No explanation could be given, and their 
 ^ condition became worse and worse. The physician of 
 , f; the village, Dr. Griggs, was called in, a consultation 
 X J > had, and the opinion finally and gravely given, that 
 ^i y the afflicted children were bewitched. It was quite 
 •/ common in those days for the faculty to dispose of 
 difficult cases by this resort. When their remedies 
 were baffled, and their skill at fault, the patient was 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 7 
 
 said to be " under an evil hand." In all cases, the 
 sage conclusion was received by nurses, and elderly 
 women called in on such occasions, if the symptoms 
 were out of the common course, or did not yield to the 
 prescriptions these persons were in the habit of apply- 
 ing. Very soon, the whole community became excited 
 and alarmed to the highest degree. All other topics 
 were forgotten. The only thing spoken or thought of 
 was the terrible condition of the afflicted children in 
 Mr. Parris's house, or wherever, from time to time, the 
 girls assembled. They were the objects of universal 
 compassion and wonder. The people flocked from all 
 quarters to witness their sufferings, and gaze with 
 awe upon their convulsions. Becoming objects of 
 such notice, they were stimulated to vary and expand 
 the manifestations of the extraordinary influence that 
 was upon them. They extended their operations be-- 
 yond the houses of Mr. Parris, and the families to which 
 they belonged, to public places ; and their fits, exclama- 
 tions, and outcries disturbed the exercises of prayer 
 meetings, and the ordinary services of the congrega- 
 tion. On one occasion, on the Lord's Day, March 20th, 
 when the singing of the psalm previous to the sermon 
 was concluded, before the person preaching — Mr. 
 Lawson — could come forward, Abigail Williams cried 
 out, " Now stand up, and nanie your text." When lie 
 had read it, in a loud and insolent voice she ex- 
 claimed, " It's a long text." In the midst of the dis- 
 course, Mrs. Pope brok-e in, " Now, there is enough of 
 that," In the afternoon of the same day, while re- 
 
8 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ferring to the doctrine he had been expoimding in the 
 preceding service, Abigail Williams rudely ejaculated, 
 " I know no doctrine you had. If you did name 
 one, I have forgot it." An aged member of the 
 church was present, against whom a warrant on the 
 charge of witchcraft had been procured the day before. 
 Being apprised of the proceeding, Abigail Williams 
 spoke aloud, during the service, calling by name the 
 person about to be apprehended, '^Look where she 
 sits upon the beam, sucldng her yellow-bird betwixt 
 her fingers." Ann Putnam, joining in, exclaimed, 
 " There is a yellow-bird sitting on the minister's hat, 
 as it hangs on the pin in the pulpit." Mr. Lawson 
 remarks, with much simplicity, that these things, oc- 
 curring " in the time of public worship, did something 
 interrupt me in my first prayer, being so unusual." 
 But he braced himself up to the emergency, and went 
 on with the service. There is no intimation that Mr. 
 Parris rebuked his niece for her disorderly behavior. 
 As at several other times, the people sitting near Ann 
 Putnam had to lay hold of her to prevent her proceed- 
 ing to greater extremities, and wholly breaking up the 
 meeting. The girls were supposed to be under an 
 irresistible and supernatural impulse ; and, instead of 
 being sevefety-prmished^^ere looked upon with min- 
 gled pity, terror, and awe, and made objects of the 
 greatest attention. Of course, where members of 
 the minister's family were countenanced in such pro- 
 ceedings, during the exercises of public worship, on 
 the Lord's Day, in the meeting-house, it was not 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 9 
 
 strange that people in general yielded to the excite- 
 ment. But all did not. Several members of the 
 family of Francis Nurse, Peter Cloyse and wife, and 
 Joseph Putnam, expressed their disapprobation of such 
 doings being allowed, and absented themselves from 
 meeting. Perhaps others took the same course ; but 
 whoever did were marked, as the sequel will show. 
 
 In the mean while the excitement was worked up 
 to the highest pitch. The families to which several 
 of the " afflicted children " belonged were led to 
 apply themselves to fasting and prayer, on which occa- 
 sions the neighbors, under the guidance of the minis- 
 ter, would assemble, and unite in invocations to the 
 Divine Being to interpose and deliver them from the 
 snares and dominion of Satan. The " afflicted chil- 
 dren " who might be present would not, as a general 
 thing, interrupt the prayers while in progress, but 
 would break out with their wild outcries and con- 
 vulsive spasms in the intervals of the service. In 
 due time, Mr. Parris sent for the neighboring minis- 
 ters to assemble at his house, and unite with him in 
 devoting a day to solemn religious services and earnest 
 supplications to the throne of Mercy for rescue from 
 tlie power of the great enemy of souls. The minis- 
 ters spent the day in Mr, Parris's house, and the chil- 
 dren performed their feats before their eyes. The 
 reverend gentlemen were astounded at what they 
 saw, fully corroborated the opinion of Dr. Griggs, and 
 formally declared their belief that the Evil One had 
 commenced his operations with a bolder front and 
 
10 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEK VILLAGE. 
 
 Oil a broader scale than ever before in this or any other 
 country. 
 
 This judgment of the ministers was quickly made 
 known everywhere ; and, if doubt remained in any 
 mind, it was suppressed by the irresistible power of an 
 overwhelming public conviction. Individuals were 
 lost in the universal fanaticism. Society was dissolved 
 into a wild and excited crowd. Men and women left 
 their fields, their houses, their labors and employ- 
 ments, to witness the awful unveiling of the demoniac 
 power, and to behold the workings of Satan himself 
 upon the victims of his wrath. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, that it was then an estab- 
 lished doctrine in theology, philosophy, and law, that the 
 Devil could not operate upon mortals, or mortal affairs, 
 except through the intei-mediate instrumentality of 
 human beings in confederacy with him, that is, witches 
 or wizards. The question, of course, in all minds 
 and on all tongues, was, " Who are the agents of the 
 Devil in afflicting these girls ? There must be some 
 among us thus acting, and who are they ? " For some 
 time the girls held back from mentioning names ; or, 
 if they did, it was prevented from being divulged to 
 the public. In the mean time, the excitement spread 
 and deepened. At length the people had become so 
 thoroughly prepared for the work, that it was con- 
 cluded to begin operations in earnest. The continued 
 pressure upon the " afflicted children," the earnest 
 and importunate inquiry, on all sides, " Who is it that 
 bewitches you ? " opened their lips in response, and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 11 
 
 they began to select and bring forward their victims. 
 One after another, they cried out " Good," " Osburu," 
 '' Tituba." On the 29th of February, 1692, warrants 
 were duly issued against those persons. It is observ- 
 able, that the complainants who procured the warrants 
 in these cases were Joseph Hutchinson, Edward Put- 
 nam, Thomas Putnam, and Thomas Preston. This 
 fact shows how nearly unanimous, at this time, was the 
 conviction that the sufferings of the girls were the 
 result of witchcraft. Joseph Hutchinson was a firm- 
 minded man, of strong common sense, and from his 
 general character and ways of thinking and acting, 
 one of ^the last persons liable to be carried away by a 
 popular enthusiasm, and was found among the earliest 
 rescued from it. Thomas Preston was a son-in-law of 
 Francis Nurse, 
 
 As all was ripe for the development of the plot, 
 extraordinary means were taken to give publicity, 
 notoriety, and effect to the first examinations. On the 
 1st of March the t wo lea dii^g magistrates of the 
 neighborhood, men of great note and influence, whose 
 fathers had been among the chief founders of the 
 settlement, and who were -Assistants, — that is, mem- 
 bers of the highest legislative and judicial body in the 
 colony, combining with the functions of a senate those 
 of a court of last resort with most comprehensive 
 jurisdiction, — John Hathorne aiid^ Jonathan Corwin, 
 entered the village, in imposing array, escorted by 
 the marshal, constables, and their aids, with all the 
 trappings of their offices ; reined up at Nathaniel In- 
 
12 AYITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 gersoH's coi'iier, and dismounted at his door. The 
 whole population of the neighborliood, apprised of the 
 occasion, Avas gathered on the lawn, or came flocking 
 along the roads. The crowd was so great that it Avas 
 necessary to adjourn to the meeting-house, which was 
 filled at once by a multitude excited to the highest pitch 
 of indignation and abhorrence towards the prisoners, 
 and of curiosity to witness the novel and imposing 
 spectacle and proceedings. The magistrates took seats 
 in front of the pulpit, facing the assembly ; a long 
 table or raised platform being placed before them ; 
 and it was announced, that they were ready to enter 
 upon the examination. On bringing in and delivering 
 over the accused parties, the officers who had executed 
 the warrants stated that they " had made diligent 
 search for images and such like, but could find none." 
 After prayer. Constable George Locker produced the 
 body of Sarah Good ; and Constable Joseph Herrick, 
 the bodies of Sarah Osburn, and Tituba Mr. Parris's 
 Indian woman. The evidence seems to indicate, that, 
 on these occasions, the prisoners were placed on the 
 platform, to keep them from the contact of the general 
 crowd, and that all might see them. 
 
 ■-Sarah _Goo djw^-as first examined, the other two being 
 removed from the house for the time. In complaining 
 of her, and bringing her forward first, the prosecu- 
 tors showed that they were well advised. There was 
 a general readiness to receive the charge against her, 
 as she was evidently the object of much prejudice in 
 the neighborhood. Her husband, who was a weak, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 13 
 
 ignorant, and dependent person, had become alienated 
 from her. The family were very poor ; and she and 
 her children had sometimes been without a house to 
 shelter them, and left to wander from door to door for 
 relief. Whether justly or not, she appears to have 
 been subject to general obloquy. Probably there was 
 no one in the coiintry around, against whom popular 
 suspicion could have been more readily directed, or in 
 whose favor and defence less interest could be awak- 
 ened. She was a forlorn, friendless, and forsaken 
 creature, broken down by wretchediiess of condition 
 and ill-repute. The following are the minutes of her 
 examination, as found among the files : — 
 
 " The Examination of Sarah Gpod ]iefore__the Worshipful 
 ^ Esgrs. John Hat horhe and Jonathan Gorwin. 
 
 " Sarah Good, what evil spiriFTiave you familiarity 
 with? — None. 
 
 " Have you made no contracts with the Devil ? — No. 
 
 " Why do you hurt these children ? — I do not hurt them. 
 I scorn it. 
 
 "^ Who do you employ then to do it? — I employ nobody. 
 
 " What creature do you employ then ? — No creature : but 
 I am falsely accused. 
 
 " Why did you go away muttering from Mr. Parris his 
 house? — I did not mutter, but I thanked him for what he 
 gave my child. 
 
 " Have you made no contract with the Devil ? — No. 
 
 " Hathorne desired the children all of them to look upon 
 her, and see if this were the person that hurt them ; and so they 
 all did look upon her, and said this was one of the persons 
 that did torment them. Presently they were all tormented. 
 
14 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " Sai-ah Good, do you not see now what you have 
 done ? Why do you not tell us the trutli ? Why do you 
 thus torment these poor children ? — I do not torment 
 them. 
 
 "Who do you employ then? — I employ nobody. I 
 scorn it. 
 
 *' How came they thus tormented ? — What do I know? 
 You bring others here, and now you charge me with it. 
 
 (■<■ Why, Avho was it? — I do not know but it was some 
 you brought into the meeting-house with you. 
 
 "We brought you into the meeting-house. — But you 
 brought in two more. 
 
 "Who was it, then, that tormented the children? — It 
 was Osburn. 
 
 " AVhat is it you say when you go muttering away from 
 persons' houses ? — If I must tell, I will tell. 
 
 "Do tell us then. — If I must tell, I will tell : it is the 
 Commandments. I may say my Commandments, I hope. 
 
 " AVhat Commandment is it? — If I must tell you, I will 
 tell : it is a psalm. - 
 
 "What psalm? 
 
 " (After a long time she muttered over some part of a 
 psalm.) 
 
 "Who do you serve? — I serve God. 
 
 " What God do you serve ? — The God that made heaven 
 and earth (though she was not willing to mention the word 
 ' God'). Her-answej'-S .wfire^a-ft^vei^y wJckgj L spiteful maj i- 
 neii,j:eflecting and retortin g ag ainst thft flnfhnrJiy wij;h base 
 and abu3ive~wxu:ds4._aiid^;rQ^nyJ[ies^he-iA^LsJ:aken iu. It was 
 here said that her husband had said that he was afraid that 
 she either was a witch or would be one very quickly. The 
 worshipful Mr. Hathorne, asked him his reason why he 
 
 \ 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 15 
 
 said so of her, whether he had ever seen any thing by her. 
 He answered 'No, not in this nature; but it was her bad 
 carriage to him : and indeed,' said he, ' I may say with tears, 
 that she is au enemy to all good,' " 
 
 The foregoing is iu the handwriting of Ezekiel Chee- 
 ver. The following is in that of John Hathorne : — 
 
 "Salem Village, March the 1st, 1692. — Sarah Good, 
 upon examination, denied-the jnatter^f^fact (viz.) that she 
 ever used any wij£hcraft,_qr Jiart the abovesaid Children, or 
 any of them. 
 
 " The abovenamed children, being all present, positively 
 accused her of hurting of them sundry times within this 
 two months, and also that morning. Sarah Good denied 
 that she had been at their houses in said time or near them, 
 or had done them any hurt. All the abovesaid children 
 then present accused her face to face ; upon which they 
 were all dreadfully tortured and tormented for a short space 
 of time ; and, the affliction and tortures being over, they 
 charged said Sarah Good again that she had then so tor- 
 tured them, and came to them and did it, although sJie was 
 personally then kept at a considerable distance from them. 
 
 " Sarah Good being asked if that she did not then hurt 
 them, who did it ; and the children being again tortured, 
 she looked upon them, and said that it was one of them 
 we brought into the house with us. We asked her who 
 it was: she then answered, and said it was Sarah Osburu, 
 and Sarah Osburn was then under custody, and not in 
 the house ; and the children, being quickly after recovered 
 out of their fit, said that it was Sarah Good and also 
 Sarah Osburn that then did hurt and torment or afflict 
 them, although both of them at the same time at a distance 
 
16 WITCHCEAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 or remote from them personally. There were also sundry 
 other questions put to her, and answers given thereunto by 
 her accordinof as is also jriven in." 
 
 It will be noticed that the examination Avas con- 
 ducted in the form of questions pnt by the magistrate, 
 Hathorne, based upon a foregone conclusion of the 
 prisoner's guilt, and expressive of a conviction, all 
 along on his part, that the evidence of " the afflicted " 
 against her amounted to, and was, absolute demonstra- 
 tion. It will also be noticed, that, severe as was the 
 opinion of her husband in reference to her general 
 conduct, he could not be made to say that he had ever 
 noticed any thing in her of the nature of Avitchcraft. 
 The torments the girls affected to experience in look- 
 ing at her must have produced an overwhelming effect 
 on the crowd, as they did on the magistrate, and even 
 on the poor, amazed creature herself. She did not 
 seem to doubt the reality of their sufferings. In this, 
 and in all cases, it must be remembered that the account 
 of the examination comes to us from those who were 
 under the wildest, excitement against the prisoners ; 
 that no counsel_was allowed them ; that, if any thing 
 was suffered to be said in their defence byothers, it 
 has failed to reach us ; that the accused persons were 
 wholly unaccustomed to such scenes and exposures, 
 unsuspicious of_the„perils of a cross-examination, or 
 of an^q^uisitiou condiujted^with a design to entrap 
 and^Q.nsnare ; and that what they did say was liable 
 to be misunderstood, as well as misrepresented. We 
 cannot hear their story. All we know is from parties 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEK VILLAGE. 17 
 
 prejudiced, to the highest degree, against them. Sarah 
 Good was ail unfortunate and miserable woman in her 
 circumstances and conditiou: but, from all that ap- 
 pears on the record, making due allowance for the cre- 
 dulity, extravagance, prejudice, folly, or malignity of 
 the witnesses ; giving full effect to every tiling that can 
 claim the character of substantial force alleged against 
 her, it is undeniable, that there was not, beyond the 
 afflicted girls, a particle of evidence to sustain the 
 charge on which she . was arraigned ; and that, in 
 the worst aspect of her case, she was an object for 
 compassion, rather than punishment. Altogether, the 
 proceedings against her, which terminated with her exe- 
 cution, were cruel and shameful to the highest degree. 
 
 On the conclusion of her examination, she was re- 
 moved from the meeting-house, and Sarah Osburn 
 brought in. Her selection, as one of the persons to 
 be first cried out upon, was judicious. The public 
 mind was prepared to believe the charge against her. 
 Her original name was Sarah Warren. She was mar- 
 ried, April 5, 1662, to Eobert Prince, who belonged to 
 a leading family, and owned a valuable farm. He 
 died early, leaving her with two young children, James 
 and Joseph. 
 
 In the early colonial period, it was the custom for 
 persons who desired to come from the old country to 
 America, but had not the means to defray the ex- 
 penses of the passage, to let or sell themselves, for a 
 greater or less length of time, to individuals residing 
 here who needed their service. The practice continued 
 
 VOL. II. 2 
 
18 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 down to the present century. Emigrants who thus 
 sold themselves for a period of years were called 
 '* redemptioners." Alexander Osburn came over from 
 Ireland in this character. The widow of Robert Prince 
 bought out the residue of his time from the person to 
 whom he was thus under contract, for fifteen pounds, 
 and employed him to carry on her farm. After a 
 while, she married him. This, it is probable, gave rise 
 to some criticism ; and, as her boys gi-ew up, became 
 more and more disagreeable to them. The marriage, 
 as was natural, led to unhappy results. In 1720, after 
 Osburn had been dead some years, a curious case was 
 brought into court, in which the sons of Robert Prince 
 testified that Osburn treated their mother and them 
 with great cruelty and barbarity. They had become 
 of age before their mother's death, and had signed 
 their names to a deed conveying away land belonging 
 to their patrimony. The object of the suit was to in- 
 validate the conveyance by proving that they were com- 
 pelled by Osburn to sign the deed, he using threats 
 and violence upon them at the time. There was an 
 extraordinary conflict of testimony in the trial ; some 
 witnesses strongly corroborating the accusations of the 
 Princes, and some equally strong in vindication of 
 the character of Osburn. It was shown, that, in the 
 opinion of several of his neighbors, he was an indus- 
 trious, respectable, and worthy person. It is difficult 
 to determine the precise merits of the case. After the 
 death of his wife, Osburn married Ruth, a daughter of 
 William Cantlebury, and widow of William Sibley. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 19 
 
 She was a woman of unquestioned excellence of char- 
 acter, aud of a large lauded estate. Osburii was her 
 third husband, the first having been Thomas Small. 
 After her marriage to Osburn, ho and she joined the 
 church, aud were reputable persons in all respects. He 
 was well regarded as a citizen, and often on the parish 
 committee. Neither he nor the widow Sibley appear to 
 have been implicated in the witchcraft proceedings in 
 any other particular than that he testified that his then 
 wife Sarah had not been for some time at meeting. 
 There is no indication that this was volunteer testi- 
 mony. He and his wife Ruth were among the firmest 
 opponents of Mr. Parris. There is no mention of his 
 having had children by either of his American wives. 
 His son John, who probably came with him to the 
 country, was an inhabitant of the Village ; and his 
 name is on the rate-list, for the last time, in 1718, his 
 father having died some years before. The Osborne 
 family, in this part of the country, does not appear to 
 have sprung from this source. 
 
 Without attempting to decide where, or in what pro- 
 portions, the blame is to be laid, the fact is evident, that 
 the marriage of the widow Sarah Prince to Alexander 
 Osburn was an unhappy one. Her mind became de- 
 pressed, if not distracted. For some time, she had 
 been bedridden. Of course, as she had occupied a 
 respectable social position, and was a woman of prop- 
 erty, her case naturally gave rise to scandal. Rumor 
 was busy and gossip rife in reference to her ; and it 
 was quite natural that she should have been suggested 
 
20 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 for the accusing girls to pitch upon. Tlie following is 
 an account of her examination by the magistrateSj in 
 the handwriting of John Hathorne : — 
 
 ** Sarah Osburne, upon examiuation, denied the matter of 
 fact, viz., that she ever understood or used any witchcraft, or 
 hurt any of the abovesaid children. 
 
 " The children above named, being all personally present, 
 accused her face to face; which, being done, they were all 
 hurt, afflicted, and tortured very much ; which, being over, and 
 they out of their fits, they said that said Sarah Osburne did 
 then come to them, and hurt them, Sarah Osburne being then 
 kept at a distance personally from them. Sarah Osburne 
 was asked why she then hurt them. She denied it. It being 
 asked of her how she could so pinch and hurt them, and yet 
 she be at that distance personally from them, she answered 
 she did not then hurt them, nor ever did. She was asked who, 
 then, did it, or who she employed to do it. She answered 
 she did not know that the Devil goes about in her likeness to 
 do any hurt. Sarah Osburne, being told that Sarah Good, 
 one of her companions, had, upon examination, accused 
 her, she, notwithstanding, denied the same, according to her 
 examination, which is more at large given in, as therein will 
 appear." 
 
 The following is in the handwriting of Ezekiel 
 Cheever : — 
 
 " Sarah Oshurn her Examination, 
 " What evil spirit have you familiarity with ? — None. 
 "Have you made no contract with the Devil? — No: I 
 never saw the Devil in my life. 
 
 " Why do you hurt these children ? — I do not hurt them. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 21 
 
 " Who do you employ, then, to hurt them? — I employ 
 nobody. 
 
 *' What familiarity have you Avith Sarah Good ? — None : 
 I have not seen her these two years. 
 
 ''Where did you see her then? — One day, agoing to 
 town. 
 
 '* Wliat communications had you with her ? — I had none, 
 only ' How do you do ? ' or so. I do not know her by name. 
 
 " What did you call her, then? 
 
 " (Osburu made a stand at that ; at last, said she called 
 her Sarah.) 
 
 *■'■ Sarah Good saith that it was you that hurt the children. 
 — I do not know that the Devil goes about in my likeness to 
 do any hurt. 
 
 " Mr. Hathorne desired all the children to stand up, and 
 look upon her, and see if they did know her, which they 
 all did ; and every one of them said that this was one of the 
 women that did afflict them, and that they had constantly 
 seen her in the very habit that she was now in. Three evi- 
 dences declared that she said this morning, that she was 
 more like to be bewitched than that she was a witch. Mr. 
 Hathorne asked her what made her say so. She answered 
 that she was frighted one time in her sleep, and either saw, 
 or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian all black, 
 wbich did pinch her in her neck, and pulled her by the back 
 part of her head to the door of the house. 
 
 " Did you never see any thing else ? — No. 
 
 " (It was said by some in the meeting-house, that she had 
 said that she would never believe that lying spirit any more.) 
 
 "What lying spirit is this? Hath the Devil ever de- 
 ceived you, and been false to you ? — I do not know the 
 Devil. I never did see him. 
 
22 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEK VILLAGE. 
 
 " What lying spirit was it, then ? — It was a voice that I 
 thought I heard. 
 
 '^ What did it propound to you ? — That I should go no 
 more to meeting ; but I said I -would, and did go the next 
 sabbath-day. 
 
 " Were you never tempted further? — No. 
 
 " Why did you yield thus far to the Devil as never to go to 
 meeting'sinee ? — Alas ! I have been sick, and not able to go. 
 
 " Her husband and others said that she had not been at 
 meeting three years and two months." 
 
 The foregoing illustrates the unfairness practised 
 by the examining magistrate. He took for^ granted, 
 as we shall find to have been the case in all instances, 
 the guilt of theji'isoner, andT'endeavored to entangle 
 her by leading questions, thus involving her in con- 
 tradiction. By the force of his own assumptions, he 
 had compelled Sarah Good to admit the reality of the 
 sufferings of the girls, and that they must be caused 
 by some one. The amount of what she had said was, 
 that, if caused by one or the other of them, " then it 
 must be Osburn," for she was sure of her own inno- 
 cence. ■ This expression, to which she was driven in 
 self-exculpation, was perverted by the reporter, Ezekiel 
 Cheever, and by the magistrate, into an indirect con- 
 fession and a direct accusation of Osburn. In the 
 absence of Good, the magistrate told Osburn that 
 Good had confessed and accused her. This was a 
 misrepresentation of one, and a false and fraudulent 
 trick upon the other. Considering the feeble condition 
 of Sarah Osburn generally, the snares by which she 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 23 
 
 was beset, the distressing and bewildering circxim- 
 stances in which she was placed, and the infirm state 
 of her reason, as evidenced in her statement of what 
 she saw, or dreamed that she saw and heard, — not 
 having a clear idea which, — her answers, as reported 
 by the prosecutors, show that her broken and disor- 
 dered mind was essentiall}^ truthful and innocent. 
 
 Sarah Osburn was removed from the meeting-house, 
 aud Tituba brought in and examined, as follows : — 
 
 *' Tituba, what evil spirit have you familiarity with? — 
 None. 
 
 " Why do you hurt these children ? — I do not hurt 
 them. 
 
 " Who is it then? — The Devil, for aught I know. 
 
 " Did you never see the Devil ? — The Devil came to me, 
 and bid me serve him. 
 
 "Who have you seen? — Four women sometimes hurt 
 the children. 
 
 "Who were they? — Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, 
 and I do not know who the others were. Sarah Good' and / 
 Osburn would have me hurt the children, but I would 
 not. 
 
 " (She further saith there was a tall man of Boston that 
 she did see.) 
 
 " When did you see them? — Last night, at Boston. 
 
 "What did they say to you? — They said, 'Hurt the 
 children.' 
 
 "And did you hurt them? — No: there is four women 
 and one man, they hurt the children, and then they lay all 
 upon me ; and they tell me, if I will not hurt the children, 
 they will hurt me. 
 
24 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " But did you not hurt them ? — Yes ; but I will hurt them 
 no more. 
 
 "Are you not sorry that you did hurt them? — Yes. 
 
 " And Avhy, then, do you hurt them ? — They say, ' Hurt 
 children, or we will dp worse to you.' 
 
 "What have you seen ? — A man come to me, and say, 
 ^ Serve me.' 
 
 "What service? — Hurt the children: and last night 
 there was an appearance that said, ' Kill the children ; ' and, 
 if I would not go on hurting the children, they would do 
 worse to me. 
 
 "What is this appearance you see? — Sometimes it is 
 like a hog, and sometimes like a great dog. 
 
 '* (This appearance she saith she did see four times.) 
 
 " What did it say to you? — The black dog said, ' Serve 
 me ;' but I said, 'I am afraid.' He said, if T did not, he 
 would do worse to me. 
 
 " What did you say to it ? — I will serve you no longer. 
 Then he said he would hurt me ; and then he looks like a 
 man, and threatens to hurt me. (She said that this man had 
 a yellow-bird that kept with him.) And he told me he had 
 more pretty things that he would give me, if I would serve 
 him. 
 
 "What were these pretty things? — He did not show me 
 them. 
 
 " What else have you seen ? — Two cats ; a red cat, and 
 a black cat. 
 
 " What did they say to you ? — They said, ' Serve 
 me.' 
 
 " When did you see them ? — Last night ; and they said, 
 ' Serve me ; ' but I said I Avould not. 
 
 "What service? — She said, hurt the children. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 25 
 
 "Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning? 
 — The man brought her to me, and made pinch her. 
 
 " Why did you go to Thomas Putnam*s Last night, and 
 hurt his child? — They pull and haul me, and make go, 
 
 "And what -would they have you do? — Kill her with a 
 knife. 
 
 " (Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, when 
 the child saw these persons, and was tormented by them, 
 that she did complain of a knife, — that they would have 
 her cut her head off with a knife.) 
 
 " How did you go ? — We ride upon sticks, and are there 
 presently. -- 
 
 "^o you go through the trees or over them ? — We see 
 nothing, but are there presently, 
 
 " Why did you not tell your master ? — I was afraid : 
 they said they would cut off my head if I told. 
 
 " Would you not have hurt others, if you could? — They 
 said they would hurt others, but they could not. 
 
 "What attendants hath Sarah Good? — A yellow-bird, 
 and she would have given me one, 
 
 " What meat did she give it ? — It did suck her between 
 her fingers, 
 
 "Did you not hurt Mr, Curren's child? — Goody Good 
 and Goody Osburn told that they did hurt Mr. Curren's 
 child, and would have had me hurt him too ; but I did not. 
 
 " What hath Sarah Osburn ? — Yesterday she had a thing 
 with a head like a woman, with two legs and wings. 
 
 " (Abigail Williams, that lives with her uncle Mr. Parris, 
 said that she did see the same creature, and it turned into 
 the shape of Goodie Osburn.) 
 
 " What else have you seen with Osburn? — Another 
 thing,. hairy : it goes upright like a man, it hath only two legs. 
 
26 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 *' Did you not see Sarah Good upon Elizabeth Hubbard, 
 last Saturday? — I did see her set a wolf upon her to afflict 
 her. 
 
 " (The persons with this maid did say that she did com- 
 plain of a wolf. She further said that she saw a cat with 
 Good at another time.) 
 
 *' What clothes doth the man go in? — He goes in black 
 clothes ; a tall man, with white hair, I think. 
 
 ''How doth the woman go? — In a white hood, and a 
 black hood with a top-knot. 
 
 " Do you see who it is that torments these children now ? 
 — Yes : it is Goody Good ; she hurts them in her own shape. 
 
 " Who is it that hurts them now? — I am blind now: I 
 
 cannot see. 
 
 " Written by Ezekiel Cheever. 
 
 "Salem Village, March the 1st, 1692." 
 
 Another report of Tituba's examination has been 
 preserved, and may be found in the second volume of 
 the collection edited by Samuel G. Drake, entitled the 
 *' Witchcraft Delusion in New England." It is in the 
 handwriting of Jonathan Corwin, very full and minute, 
 and shows that the Indian womaii was familiar with all 
 the ridiculous and monstrous fancies then prevalent. 
 The details of her statement cover nearly the whole 
 ground of them. While indicating, in most respects, 
 a mind at the lowest level of general intelligence, 
 they give evidence of cunning and wariness in the 
 highest degree. This document is also valuable, as 
 it affords information about particulars, incidentally 
 mentioned and thus rescued from oblivion, which 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 27 
 
 serve to bring back the life of the past. Tituba de- 
 scribes the dresses of some of the witches : *' A black 
 silk hood, with a white silk hood under it, with top- 
 knots." One of them wore " a serge coat, with a white 
 cap." The Devil appeared " in black clothes some- 
 times, sometimes serge coat of other color." She 
 speaks of the " lean-to chamber " in the parsonage, and 
 describes an aerial night ride " up " to Thomas Put- 
 nam's. " How did you go ? What did you ride 
 upon ? " asked the wondering magistrate. " I ride 
 upon a stick, or pole, and Good and Osburn behind 
 me : we ride taking hold of one another ; don't know 
 how we go, for I saw no trees nor path, but was pres- 
 ently there when we were up." In both reports, Tituba 
 describes, quite graphically, the likenesses in which the 
 Devil appeared to his confederates ; but Corwin gives 
 the details more fully than Cheever. What the latter 
 reports of the appearances in which the Devil accom- 
 panied Osburn, the former amplifies. "The thing with 
 two legs and wings, and a face like a woman," " turns" 
 into a full woman. The " hairy thing " becomes " a 
 thing all over hairy, all the face hairy, and a long nose, 
 and I don't know how to tell how the face looks ; is 
 about two or three feet high, and goeth upright like a 
 man ; and, last night, it stood before the fire in Mr. 
 Parris's hall." 
 
 It is quite evident that the part played by the Indian 
 woman on this occasion was pre-arranged. She had, 
 from the first, been concerned with the circle of 
 girls in their necromantic operations ; and her state- 
 
28 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 meiits show the materials out of which their ridicu- 
 lous and monstrous stories were constructed. She 
 said that there were four who "hurt the children." 
 Upon being pressed by the magistrate to tell Avho they 
 were, she named Osburn and Good, but did " not know 
 who the others were." Two others were marked ; but 
 it was not thought best to bring them out until these 
 three examinations had first been made to tell upon 
 the public mind. Tituba had been apprised of Eliza- 
 beth Hubbard's story, that she had been "pinched" 
 that morning ; and, as well as " Lieutenant Fuller 
 and others," had heard of the delirious exclamation of 
 Thomas Putnam's sick child during the night. "Abi- 
 gail Williams, that lives with her uncle Parris," 
 had communicated to the Indian slave the story of 
 " the woman with two legs and wings." In fact, she 
 had been fully admitted to their councils, and made 
 acquainted with all the stories they were to tell. But, 
 when it became necessary to avoid specifications 
 touching parties whose names it had been decided not 
 to divulge at that stage of the business, the wily old 
 servant escapes further interrogation, " I am blind 
 now: I cannot see." 
 
 Proceedings connected with these examinations were 
 continued several days. The result appears, in the 
 handwriting of John Hathoriie, as follows : — 
 
 "Salem Village, March 1, 169 J. — Tituba, an Indian 
 woman, brought before us by Constable Jos. Herrick, of 
 Salem, upon suspicion of witchcraft by her committed, ac- 
 cording to the complaint of Jos. Hutchinson and Thomas 
 
WITCHCRAFT.' AT SALEM VILLAGE. 29 
 
 Putnam, &c., of Salem Village, as appears per warrant 
 granted, Salem, 29tli February, 169^. Tituba, upon ex- 
 amination, and after some denial, acknowledged the matter 
 of fact, as, according to her examination given in, more 
 fully will appear, and who also charged Sarah Good and 
 Sarah Osburn with the same. 
 
 "Salem Village, March the 1st, 169^. — Sarah Good, 
 Sarah Osburn, and Tituba, an Indian woman, all of Salem 
 Village, being this day brought before us, upon suspicion of 
 witchcraft, &c., by them and every one of them committed ; 
 Tituba, an Indian woman, acknowledging the matter of 
 fact, and Sarah Osburn and Sarah Good denying the same 
 before us ; but there appearing, in all their examinations, 
 sufficient groundto, secure -them all. And, in order to fur- 
 ther examination, they were all per mittimus sent to the jails 
 in the county of Essex. 
 
 "Salem, March 2. — Sarah Osburn again examined, 
 and also Tituba, as will appear in their examinations given 
 in. Tituba again acknowledged the fact, and also accused 
 the other two. 
 
 " Salem, March 3. — Sarah Osburn, and Tituba, Indian, 
 again examined. The examination now given in. Tituba 
 again said the same. 
 
 " Salem, March 5. — Sarah Good and Tituba again ex- 
 amined ; and, in their examination, Tituba acknowledged 
 the same she did formerly, and accused the other two above 
 said. 
 
30 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 "Salem, March the 7th, IGO^. — Sarah Good, Sarah 
 Osburii, and Tituba, an ludian woman, all sent to the jail 
 in Boston, according to their mittimuses^ then sent to their 
 Majesties' jail-keeper." 
 
 It will be noticed that the magistrates did not ven- 
 ture to put into this their final record, what they had 
 unfairly tried to make Sarah Osborn believe, that Sarah 
 Good had been a witness against her. The jail at Ips- 
 wich was at a distance of at least ten miles from the 
 village meeting-house, by any road that could then have 
 been travelled. The transferrence of the prisoners 
 day after day must have been very fatiguing to a sick 
 woman like Sarah Osburu. Sarah Good seems to 
 have been able to bear it. Samuel Braybrook, an assist- 
 ant constable, having charge of her, says, that, on the 
 way to Ipswich, she " leaped off her horse three times ; " 
 that she " railed against the magistrates, and endeav- 
 ored to kill herself." He further. testified, that, at the 
 very time she was performing these feats, Thomas Put- 
 nam's daughter, " at her father's house, declared the 
 same." As Braybrook was many miles from Thomas 
 Putnam's house, at the moment when his wonderful 
 daughter exercised this miraculous extent of vision, it 
 would have been more satisfactory to have had some 
 . other testimony to the fact. I mention this to show of 
 ' what stuff the evidence in these cases was made, and 
 the credulity with which.every thing was swallowed. 
 The prisoners were put to examination each day. 
 
 Osburn and Good steadily maintained their inno- 
 cence. Tituba all along declared herself guilty, and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 31 
 
 accused the other two of having been with lier in con- 
 federacy with the Devil. Mr. Parris made the follow- 
 ing depositionj in relation to these examinations, to 
 which he subsequently swore in Court, at the trial of 
 Sarah Good ; — 
 
 '' The Deposition of Sam : Paruis, aged about thirty 
 and nine years. — Testifieth and saith, that EHzabeth Par- 
 ris, Jr., and Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam, Jr., 
 and Elizabeth Hubbard, were most grievously and several 
 times tortured during the examination of Sarah Good, Sarah 
 Osburn, and Tituba, Indian, before the magistrates at Snlem 
 Village, 1 March, 1692. And the said Tituba being the last 
 of the above said that was examined, they, the above said 
 afflicted persons, were grievously distressed until the said 
 Indian began to confess, and then they Avere immediately 
 all quiet the rest of the said Indian woman's examination. 
 Also Thomas Putnam, aged about forty years, and Ezekiel 
 Cheever, aged about thirty and six years, testify to the whole 
 of the above said; and all the three deponents aforesaid 
 further testify, that, after tlie said Indian began to confess, 
 she was herself very much afflicted, and in the face of 
 authority at the same time, and openly charged the above- 
 said Good and Osburn as the persons that afflicted her, the 
 aforesaid Indian." 
 
 By comparing these depositions with the other docu- 
 ments I have presented, it will he seen how admirably 
 the whole affair was arranged, so far as concerned the 
 part played by Tituba. She commences her testimony 
 by declaring her innocence. The afflicted children 
 are instantly thrown into torments, which, however, 
 
32 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM "VILLAGE. 
 
 subside as soon as she begins to confess. Immediately 
 after commencing her confession, and as she proceeds 
 in it, she herself becomes tormented " in the face of 
 authority," before the eyes of the magistrates and the 
 awestruck crowd. Her power to afflict ceases as she 
 breaks* loose from her compact with the Devil, who 
 sends some unseen confederate, not then brought 
 to light, to wreak his vengeance upon her for having 
 confessed. Tituba, as well as the girls, showed her- 
 self an adept in the arts taught in the circle. 
 
 All we know of Sarah Osburii beyond this date are 
 the following items in the Boston jailer's bill " against 
 the country," dated May 29, 1692 : ^' To chains for 
 Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, 14 shillings:" "To 
 the keeping of Sarah Osburn, from the 7tb of March 
 to the 10th of May, when she died, being nine weeks 
 and two days, ^1. 3s. 5d." 
 
 The only further information we have of Tituba is 
 from Calef, who says, " The account she since gives 
 of it is, that her master did beat her, and otherwise 
 abuse her, to make her confess and accuse (such as 
 he called) her sister-witches ; and that whatsoever she 
 said by way of confessing or accusing others was the 
 effect of such usage : her master refused to pay her fees, 
 unless she would stand to what she had said. Calef 
 further states that she laid in jail until finally " sold for 
 her fees." The jailer's charge for her " diet in prison 
 for a year and a month" appears in a shape that cor- 
 roborates Calef s statements, which were prepared for 
 publication in 1697, and printed in London in 1700. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 33 
 
 Althoxigh zealously devoted to the work of exposing 
 the enormities connected with the witchcraft prosecu- 
 tions, there is no ground to dispute the veracity of 
 Calef as to matters of fact. What he says of the dec- 
 larations of Tituba, subsequent to her examination, is 
 quite consistent with a critical analysis of the details 
 of the record of that examination. It can hardly be 
 doubted, whatever the amount of severity employed to 
 make her act the part assigned her, that she was used 
 as an instrument to give effect to the delusion. 
 
 Now let us consider the state of things that had 
 been brought about in the village, and in the sur- 
 rounding country, at the close of the first week in- 
 March, 1692. ^The terrible sufferings of the girls in 
 Mr. Parris's family and of their associates, for the 
 two preceding months, had become known far and 
 wide. A universal sympathy was awakened in their 
 behalf; and a-sentiment of_hoiXPi' sunk deep into all 
 hearts, at the - dread._demonstration ^ of the diabolical 
 rage in their afflicted and tortured persons. A few, 
 very few, distrusted ; but the great majority, ninety- 
 nine in a_huiidred of all the people, were completely 
 swept into the torrent. Nathaniel Putnam and Nathan- 
 iel Ingersoll were entirely deluded, and continued so 
 to the end. Even Joseph Hutchinson was, for a while, 
 carried away. The physicians had all given their 
 opinion that the girls were suffering from an " evil 
 hand," The neighboring ministers, after a day's fast- 
 ing and prayer, and a scrutinizing inspection of the 
 condition of the afflicted children, had given it, as 
 
 VOL. II. 3 
 
34 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the result of their most solemn judgment, that it was 
 a case of witchcraft. Persons from the neighboring 
 towns had come to the place, and with their own eyes 
 received demonstration of the same fact. Mr. Parris 
 \made it the topic of his public prayers and preaching. 
 The girls, Sunday after Sunday, were under the malign 
 influence, to the disturbance and affrightment of the 
 congregation. In all companies, in all families, all 
 the day long, the sufferings and distraction occurring 
 in the houses of Mr. Parris, Thomas Putnam, and 
 others, and in the meeting-house, were topics of ex- 
 cited conversation ; and every voice was loud in de- 
 manding, every mind earnest to ascertain, Avho were 
 the persons, in confederacy with the Devil, thus tortur- 
 ing, pinching, convulsing, and bringing to the last 
 extremities of mortal agony, these afflicted girls. 
 Every one felt, that, if the guilty authors of the mis- 
 chief could not be discovered, and put out of the way, 
 no one. , was -safe-lbr-a -moment. At length, when the 
 girls cried out upon Good, Osburn, and Tituba, there 
 was a general sense of satisfaction and relief. It was 
 thought that Satan's power might be checked. The se- 
 lection of the first victims was well made. They were 
 just the kind of persons whom the public prejudice 
 and credulity were preparedjo suspect and condemn. 
 Their examination was looked for with the utmost in- 
 terest, and all flocked to witness the proceedings. 
 
 In considering the state of mind of the people, 
 as they crowded into and around the old meeting- 
 house, we can have no difficulty in realizing the 
 
"WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 35 
 
 tremendous effects of what there occurred. It was 
 felt that then, on that spot, the most momentous crisis 
 in the world's history had come. A crime ^ in com- 
 parison with which all other crimes sink out of notice, 
 was being notoriously and defiantly committed in their 
 midst. The great enemy of God and man was let 
 loose among them. What had filled the hearts of 
 mankind for ages, the world over, with dread appre- 
 hension, was come to pass ; and in tliat village the 
 great battle, on whose issue the preservation of the 
 kingdom of the Lord on the earth was suspended, had 
 begun. Indeed, no language, no imagery, no concep- 
 tion of ours, can adequately express the feeling of 
 awful and terrible solemnity with which all were over- 
 whelmed. No body of men ever convened in a more 
 highly wrought state of excitement than pervaded that 
 assembly, when the magistrates entered, in all their 
 stern authority, and the scene opened on the 1st of 
 March, 1692. A minister, probably Mr. Parris, began, 
 according to the custom of the times, with prayer. ' 
 From what we know of his skill and talent in meet- 
 ing such occasions, it may well be supposed that his ) 
 language and manner heightened still more the pas-i 
 sions of the hour. The marshal, of tall and imposing! 
 stature and aspect, accompanied by his constables, 
 brought in the prisoners. Sarah Good, a poverty- 
 stricken, wandering, and wretched victim of ill-fortune 
 and ill-usage, was put to the bar. Every efifort was 
 made by the examining magistrate, aided by the offi- 
 cious interference of the marshal, or other deluded or 
 
36 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 evil-disposed persons, — who, like him, were permitted 
 to interpose with charges or abnsive expressions, — to 
 overawe and confovmd, involve in contradictions, and 
 mislead the poor creature, and force her to confess 
 herself guilty and accuse others. In due time, the 
 "afflicted children" were brought in; and a scene 
 ensued, such as no person in that crowd or in that 
 generation had ever witnessed before. Immediately 
 on being confronted with the prisoner, and meeting 
 her eye, they fell, as if struck dead, to the floor; or 
 screeched in agony ; or went into fearful spasms or 
 convulsive fits ; or cried out that they were pricked with 
 pins, pinched, or throttled by invisible hands. They 
 were severally brought up to the prisoner, and, upon 
 touching her person, instantly became calm^ quiet, 
 and fully restored to their senses. With one voice 
 they all declared that Sarah Good had thus tormented 
 them, by her power as a witch in league with the 
 Devil. The truth of this charge, in the effect pro- 
 duced by the malign influence proceeding from her, 
 was thus visible to all eyes. All saw, too, how in- 
 stantly upon touching her the diabolical efiect ceased ; 
 the malignant fluid passing back, like an electric stream, 
 into the body of the witch. The spectacle was re- 
 peated once and again, the acting perfect, and the delu- 
 sion consummated. The magistrates and all present 
 considered the guilt of the prisoner demonstrated, and 
 regarded her as wilfully and wickedly obstinate in not 
 at once confessing what her eyes, as well as theirs, 
 saw. Her^efusal to confess was considered as the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 37 
 
 highest,pji'oof of her.-guilt. They passed judgment 
 against her, committed her to the marshal, who hurried 
 her to prison, bound her with cords, and loaded her 
 with irons ; for it was thought that no ordinary fasten- 
 ings could hold a witch. Similar proceedings, with 
 suitable variations, were had with Sarah Osburn and 
 Tituba, The confession of the last-named, the imme- 
 diate relief thereafter of the afflicted children, and the 
 dreadful torments which Tituba herself experienced, 
 on the spot, from the unseen hand of the Devil 
 wreaking vengeance upon her, put the finishing touch 
 to the delusion. The excitement was kept up, and 
 spread far and wide, by. the officers and magistrates 
 riding in cavalcade, day after day, to and from the 
 town and village; and by the constables, with their 
 assistants, carrying their manacled prisoners from 
 jail to jail in Ipswich, Salem, and Boston, 
 
 The point was now reached when the accusers could 
 safely strike at higher game. But time was taken to 
 mature arrangements. Great curiosity was felt to 
 know who the other two were whom Tituba saw in con- 
 nection with Good and Osburn in their hellish opera- 
 tions. The girls continued to suffer torments and fall 
 in fits, and were constantly xirged by large numbers of 
 people, going from house to house to witness their suf- 
 ferings, to reveal who the witches were that still afflicted 
 them. When all was prepared, they began to cry out, 
 with more or less distinctness ; at first, in significant 
 but general descriptions, and at last calling names. 
 The next victim was also well chosen. -An account 
 
38 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 has been given, in the First Part, of the notoriety 
 which circumstances had attached to Giles Corey. 
 In 1691 he became a member of the church, being 
 then (Vol. I. p. 182) eighty years of age. Four 
 daughters, all probably by his first wife Margaret, the 
 only children. of whom there is any mention, were 
 married to John Moulton, John Parker, and Henry 
 Crosby, of Salem, and William Cleaves, of Beverly. 
 On the 11th of April, 1664, Corey was married to 
 Mary Britt, who died, as appears by the inscription on 
 her gravestone in the old Salem burial-ground, Aug. 
 27, 1684. Martha was his third wife. Her age 
 is unknown. It was entered on the record of the 
 village church, at the time of her admission to it, 
 April 27, 1690 ; but the figures are worn away from 
 the edge of the page. She was a very intelligent and 
 devout person. 
 
 When the proceedings relating to witchcraft began, 
 she did not approve of them, and expressed her want 
 of faith in the " afflicted children." She discounte- 
 nanced the whole affair, and would not follow the 
 multitude to the examinations ; but was said to have 
 spoken freely of the course of the magistrates, saying 
 ■ that their eyes were blinded, and that she could 
 open them. It seemed to her clear that they were 
 violating common sense and the Word of God, and 
 she was confident that she could convince them of 
 their errors. Instead of falling into the delusion, 
 she applied herself with renewed earnestness to keep 
 her own mind under the influence of prayer, and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 39 
 
 spent more time in devotion than ever before. Her 
 husband, however, was completely carried away by 
 the prevalent fanaticism, believed all he heard, and 
 freqnented the examinations and the exhibitions of 
 the afflicted children. Tliis disagreement became 
 quite serious. Her preferring to stay at home, shun- 
 ning the proceedings, and expressing her disappi'o- 
 bation of what was going on, caused an estrangement 
 between them. Her peculiar course created com- 
 ment, in which he and two of his sons-in-law took 
 part. Some strong expressions were used by him, 
 because she acted so strangely at variance with every- 
 body else. Her spending so much time on her knees 
 in devotion was looked upon as a matter of suspicion. 
 It was said that she tried to prevent him from follow- 
 ing up the examinations, and went so far as to remove 
 the saddle from the horse brought up to convey him 
 to some meeting at the village connected with the 
 witchcraft excitement. Angry words, uttered by him, 
 were heard and repeated. As she was a woman of 
 notable piety, a professor of religion, and a member 
 of the church, it was evid-ent that her case, if she were 
 proceeded against, would still more heighten the panic, 
 and convulse the public mind. It would give ground 
 for an idea which the managers of the affair desired 
 to circulate, that the Devil had succeeded in making 
 inroads into the very heart of the church, and was 
 bringing into confederacy with him aged and eminent 
 church-members, who, under color of their profession, 
 threatened to extend his influence to the overthrow of 
 
40 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE- 
 
 all religion. It was, indeed, established in the popular 
 sentiments, as a sign and mark of the Devil's coming, 
 that many professing godliness would join his standard. 
 For a day or two, it was whispered round that per- 
 sons in great repute for piety were in the diabolical 
 confederacy, and about to be unmasked. The name 
 of Martha Corey, whose open opposition to the pro- 
 ceedings had become known, was passed among the 
 girls in an under-breath, and caught from one to an- 
 other among those managing the atfair. On the 12th 
 of March, Edward Putnam and Ezekiel Chcever, having 
 heard Ann Putnam declare tliat Goody Corey did 
 often appear to her, and torture her by pinching and 
 otherwise, thought it their duty to go to her, and see 
 what she would say to this complaint ; " she being in 
 church covenant with us." They mounted their hor- 
 ses about " the middle of the afternoon," and first went 
 to the house of Thomas Putnam to sec his daughter 
 Ann, to learn from her what clothes Goody Corey ap- 
 peared to her in, in order to judge whether she might 
 not have been mistaken in the person. The girl told 
 them, that Goody Corey, knowing that they contem- 
 plated making this visit, had just appeared in spirit 
 to her, but had blinded her so that she could not 
 tell what clothes she wore. Highly wrought upon by 
 the extraordinary statement of the girl, which they 
 received with perfect credulity, the two brethren re- 
 mounted, and pursued their way. Goody Corey had 
 heard thiat her name had been bandied about by the 
 accusing girls : she also knew that it was one of their 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 41 
 
 arts to pretend to see the clothes people were wearing 
 at the time their spectres appeared to them. This 
 required, indeed, no great amount of neci^omancy ; as 
 it is not probable that there was much variety in the 
 costume of farmer's wives, at that time, while about 
 their ordinary domestic engagements. 
 
 Tixey found her alone in her house. As soon as 
 they commenced conversation, " in a smiling manner 
 she said, ' I know what you are come for ; you are come 
 to talk with me about being a witch, but I am none : 
 I cannot help people's talking of me. ' " Edward Put- 
 nam acknowledged that their visit was in consequence 
 of complaints made against her by the afflicted chil- 
 dren. She inquired whether they had undertaken to 
 describe the clothes she then wore. They answered 
 that they had not, and proceeded to repeat what Ann 
 Putnam had said to them about her blinding her so 
 that she could not see her clothes. At this she smiled, 
 no doubt at Ann's cunning artifice to escape having to 
 say what dress she then had on. She declared to the 
 two brethren^ that " she did not think that there were 
 any witohes." After considerable talk, in which they 
 did not get much to further their purpose, they took 
 their leave. The accoxmt of this interview, given by 
 Putnam and Cheever, indicates that Martha Corey 
 was a sensible, enlightened, and sprightly woman, per- 
 fectly free from tlie delusion of the day, courteous in 
 her manners and bearing, and a Christian, well 
 grounded in Scripture. 
 
 The two brethren returned forthwith to Thomas 
 
42 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Putnam's bouse. Ann told tliem that Goody Corey- 
 had not troubled her, nor her spectre appeai^cd, in 
 their absence. She was not inclined to afford them 
 an opportunity to apply the test of the dress. Both 
 the women showed great acuteness and caution. As 
 Corey expected the visit, and had heard that the girls 
 pretended to be able to say what dress persons were 
 wearing, she probably had attired herself in an un- 
 usual way on the occasion, to put them at fault, and 
 expose the falseness of their claims to preternatural 
 knowledge; and Ann Putnam — her sagacity suggest- 
 ing the risk she was running in the matter of Corey's 
 dress — took refuge in the pretence of blindness. The 
 brethren were too much under delusion to see through 
 the sharp practice of both of them, but considered the 
 fact of Corey's inquiring of them whether Ann de- 
 scribed her dress, as, under the circumstances, proof 
 positive against the former. 
 
 Wishing to make assurance doubly sure, and to 
 fasten the charge upon Martha Corey, the managers of 
 the affair sent for her to come to the house of Thomas 
 Putnam two days after this conference. Edward Put- 
 nam was present, and testified that his niece Ann, 
 immediately upon the entrance of Goodwife Corey, 
 experienced the most dreadful convulsions and tor- 
 tures and distinctly and positively declared that Corey 
 was the author of her sufferings. This was regarded 
 as conclusive evidence ; and, on the 19th of March, a 
 warrant was issued for her arrest. She was brought 
 to the house of Nathaniel Ingersoll, on Monday the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 43 
 
 21st; and the following is the account of her cxamma- 
 tiou, in the handwriting of Mr. Parris. The proceed- 
 ings took place in the meeting-house at the village. 
 They were introduced by a prayer from the Rev. 
 Nicholas Noyes. On some of these occasions Mr. 
 Hale and perhaps others, but usually Mr. Noyes or 
 Mr. Pari-is officiated. We may suppose, from Avhat 
 we know of their general deportment in connection 
 with these scenes, that their performances, under the 
 cover of a devotional exercise, expressed and enforced 
 a decided prejudgment of the case in hand against 
 the prisoners, and partook of the character of indict- 
 ments as much as of prayers. 
 
 " TJie Examination of Martha Corey. 
 
 " Mr. Hathorne ; You are now in the hands of author- 
 ity. Tell me, now, why you hurt these persons. — I do not. 
 
 " Who doth? — Pray, give me leave to go to prayer. 
 
 " (This request was made sundry times.) 
 
 " We do not send for you to go to prayer ; but tell me why 
 you hurt these. — I am an innocent person. I never had to 
 do with witchcraft since I was born. I am a gospel woman. 
 
 "Do not you see these complain of you ? — The Lord 
 open the eyes of the magistrates and ministers : the Lord 
 show his power to discover the guilty. 
 
 "Tell us who hurts these children. — I do not know, 
 
 " If you be guilty of this fact, do you think you can hide 
 it? — The Lord knows. 
 
 "Well, tell us what you know of this matter. — Why, 
 I am a gospel woman ; and do you think I can have to do 
 with witchcraft too ? 
 
 " How could you tell, then, that the child was bid to oh- 
 
44 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 serve what clothes you wore, when some came to speak Avith 
 you? 
 
 " (Cheever interrupted her, and bid her not begin with a 
 lie; and so Edward Putnam declared the matter.) 
 
 " Mr. Hathorne : Who told you that ? — He said the 
 child said. 
 
 "' CiiEEVER : You speak falsely. 
 
 " (Then Edward Putnam read again.) 
 *' Mr- Hathorne : Why did you ask if the child told what 
 clothes you wore ? — My husband told me the others told. 
 
 " Who told you about the clothes ? Why did you ask 
 that questiou? — Because I heard the children told what 
 clothes the others wore. 
 
 *' Goodman Corey, did you tell her ? 
 
 " (The old man denied that he told her so.) 
 
 " Did you not say your husband told you so ? 
 
 *' (No answer.) 
 
 " Who hurts these children? Now look upon them. — 
 I cannot help it, 
 
 " Did you not say you Avould tell the truth why you 
 asked that question? how came you to the knowledge? — 
 I did but ask. 
 
 " You dare thus to lie in all this assembly. You are 
 now before authority. I expect the ti*uth : you promised it. 
 Speak now, and tell who told you what clothes. — Nobody. 
 
 " How came you to know that the children would be 
 ( examined what clothes you wore ? — Because I thought the 
 child was wiser than anybody if she knew. 
 
 " Give an answer : you said your husband told you, — 
 . He told me the children said I afflicted them. 
 
 " How do you know what they came for ? Answer me 
 this truly ; will you say how you came to know Avhat they 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 45 
 
 came for? — I had heard speech that the children said I 
 troubled them, and I thought that they might come to ex- 
 amine. 
 
 '* But how did you know it ? — I thought they did. 
 
 " Did not you say you would tell the truth ? who told you 
 what they came for ? — Nobody. 
 
 " How did you know ? — I did think so. 
 
 " But you said you knew so. 
 
 " (Childrek : There is a man ivhispering in her ear.) 
 
 " Hathorne continued: What did he say to you? — 
 We must not believe all that these distracted children say. 
 
 '"' Cannot you tell what that man whispered? — I saw 
 nobody. 
 
 " But did not you hear ? — No. 
 
 " (Here was extreme agony of all the afflicted.) 
 
 " If you expect miercy of God, you must look for it in 
 God's way, by confession. Do you think to find mercy by 
 aggravating your sins ? — A true thing. 
 
 '' Look for it, then, in God's way. — So I do. 
 
 " Give glory to God and confess, then. — But I cannot 
 confess, 
 
 " Do not you see how these afflicted do charge you ? — 
 We jnust-TiUt T5elieve distracted persons. ^- ^ 
 
 " Who do you improve to hurt them ? — I improved none. 
 
 " Did not you say our eyes were blinded, you would open 
 them? — Yes, to accuse the innocent. 
 
 " (Then Crosby gave in evidence.) 
 
 " Why cannot the girl stand before you ? — I do not know. 
 
 " What did you mean by that ? — I saw them fall down. 
 
 " It seems to be an insulting speech, as if they could not 
 stand before you. — They cannot stand before others. 
 
 "But you said they cannot stand before you. Tell me 
 
46 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 what WHS that turning upon the spit by you ? — You believe 
 the children that are distracted. I saw no spit. 
 
 " Here are more than two that accuse you for witchcraft. 
 What do you say ? — I am innocent. 
 
 " (Then Mr. Hathorue read further of Crosby's evidence.) 
 
 "What did you mean by that, — the Devil could not 
 stand before you ? 
 
 " (She denied it. Three or four sober witnesses con- 
 firmed it.) 
 
 " What can I do ? Many rise up against me. 
 
 '* Why, confess. — So I would, if I were guilty. 
 
 " Here are sober persons. What do you say to them ? 
 You are a gospel woman ; will you lie ? 
 
 " (Abigail cried out, ' Next sabbath is sacrament-day ; 
 but she shall not come there.') 
 
 " I do not care. 
 
 " You charge these children with distraction : it is a note 
 of distraction when persons vary in a minute ; but these fix 
 upon you. This is not the manner of distraction. — When 
 j all are against me, what can I help it ? 
 
 " Now tell me the truth, will j^ou ? Why did you say that 
 the magistrates' and ministers* eyes were blinded, you 
 would open them ? 
 
 " (She laughed, and denied it.) 
 
 " Now tell us how we shall know who doth hurt these, if 
 you do not ? — Can an innocent person be guilty ? 
 
 " Do you deny these words ? — Yes. 
 
 " Tell us who hurts these. We came to be a terror to 
 evil-doers. You say you would open our eyes, we are 
 blind. — If you say I am a witch, 
 
 *' You said you would show us. 
 
 ** (She denied it.) 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 47 
 
 "Why do you not uow show us? — I cannot tell: I do 
 not know. 
 
 " What did you strike the maid at Mr. Tho. Putnam's 
 with ? — I never struck her in my life. 
 
 " There are two that saw 3'ou strike her with an iron rod. 
 — I had no hand in it. 
 
 " Who had ? Do you believe these children are be- 
 witched ? — They may, for aught I know : I have no hand 
 in it, 
 
 "You say you are no witch. Maybe you mean you 
 never covenanted with the Devil. Did you never deal with 
 any familiar? — No, never. 
 
 " What bird was that the children spoke of? 
 
 " (Then witnesses spoke : What bird was it ?) 
 
 " I know no bird. 
 
 " It may be you have engaged you will not confess-; but 
 God knows. — So he doth. 
 
 "Do you believe you shall go unpunished? — I have 
 nothing to do with witchcraft, 
 
 " Why was you not willing your husband should come to 
 the former session here ? — But he came, for all. 
 
 "Did not you take the saddle off? — I did not know 
 what it was for. 
 
 " Did you not know what it was for ? — I did not know 
 that it would be to any benefit. 
 
 " (Somebody said that she would not have them help to 
 find^out witches.) 
 
 " Did you not say you would open our eyes ? Why do 
 you not? — I never thought of a witch. 
 
 " Is it a laughing matter to see these afflicted persons ? 
 
 " (She denied it. Several prove it.) 
 
 " Ye are all against me, and I cannot help it. 
 
48 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 "Do not you believe there are witches in the country? 
 
 — I do not know that there is any. 
 
 " Do not you know that Tituba confessed it ? — I did not 
 hear her speak. 
 
 " I find you will own nothing without several v/itnessos, 
 and yet you will deny for all. 
 
 " (It was noted, when she bit her lip, several of the 
 afflicted were bitten. When she was urged upon it iRiat she 
 bit her Up, saith she, What harm is there in it ?) 
 
 " (Mr. XoTES : I believe it is apparent she practiseth 
 witchcraft in the congregation : there is no need of images.) 
 
 " What do you say to all these things that are apparent ? 
 
 — If you will all go hang me, how can I help it ? 
 
 " Were you to serve the Devil ten years ? Tell how many. 
 
 " (She laughed. The children cried there was a yellow- 
 bird with her. When Mr. Hathorne asked her about it, she 
 laughed. When her hands were at liberty, the afflicted per- 
 sons Avere pinched.) 
 
 " Why do not you tell how the Devil comes in your shape, 
 and hurts these ? You said you would. — How can I know 
 how? 
 
 " Why did you say you would show us ? 
 
 " (She laughed again.) 
 
 " What book is that you would have these children write 
 in ? — What book ? AVhere should I have a book ? I showed 
 them none, nor have none, nor brought none. 
 
 " (The afflicted cried out there was a man whispering in 
 her ears.) 
 
 " What book did you carry to Mary Walcot ? — I carried 
 none. If the Devil appears in my shape — 
 
 " (Then Needham said that Parker, some time ago, 
 thought this woman was a witch.) 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 49 
 
 *' Who is your God ? — The God that made me. 
 
 "What is his name? — Jehovah. 
 
 " Do you know any other name ? — God Almighty. 
 
 " Doth he tell you, that you pray to, that he is God Al- 
 mighty ? — Who do I worship but the God that made 
 [me]? 
 
 " How many gods are there? — One. 
 
 "How many persons? — Three. 
 
 " Cannot you say, So there is one God in three blessed 
 persons ? 
 
 [The answer is destroyed, being written in the fold of the 
 paper, and wholly worn off.j 
 
 " Do not you see these children and women are rational 
 and sober as their neighbors, when your hands are fas- 
 tened ? 
 
 " (Immediately they were seized with fits : and the 
 standers-by said she was squeezing her fingers, her hands 
 being eased by them that lield them on purpose for 
 trial. 
 
 " Quickly after, the marshal said, ' She hath bit her lip ; ' 
 and immediately the afflicted were in an uproar.) 
 
 *' [Tell] why you hurt these, or who doth? 
 
 " (She denieth any hand in it.) 
 
 " Why did you say, if you were a witch, you should have 
 no pardon? — Because I am a woman." 
 
 "Salem Village, March the- 21st, 1692. — The Rev- 
 erend Mr. Samuel Parris, being desired to take, in writing, 
 the examination of Martha Corey, hath returned it, as afore- 
 said. 
 
 " Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did 
 then see, together with the charges of the persons then pres- 
 
 VOL. II. 4 
 
50 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ent, we committed Martha Corey, the wife of Giles Corey, 
 of Salem Farms, unto the gaol in Salem, as per mittimus 
 then ^iven out. 
 
 The foregoing is a full copy of the original docu- 
 ment. One of Giles Corey's daughters, Deliverance, 
 had married, June 5, 1683, Henry Crosby, who lived 
 on land conveyed to him by her father in the imme- 
 diate neighborhood. He was the person whose written 
 testimony was read by the magistrate. Its purport 
 seems to have been to prove that Martha Corey had said 
 that the accusing girls could not stand before her, and 
 that the Devil could not stand before her. She had, 
 undoubtedly, great confidence in her own innocence, 
 and in the power of truth and prayer, to silence false 
 accusers, and expressed herself in the forcible language 
 which Parris's report of the examination shows that 
 she was well able to use. It is almost amusing to see 
 how the pride of the magistrates was touched, and 
 their wrath kindled, by what she was reported to have 
 said, " that the magistrates' and ministers' eyes were 
 blinded, and that she would open them." It rankled 
 in Hathorne's breast: he returns to it again and 
 again, and works himself up to a higher degree of 
 resentment on each recurrence, Mr, Noyes's ire was 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 51 
 
 roused, and he, too, put in a stroke. It will be noticed, 
 that she avoided a contx-adiction of her husband, and 
 could not be brought to give the names of persons from 
 "whom she had received information. " If you will all 
 go hang me, how can I help it ? " " Ye are all against 
 me." " What can I do, when many rise up against 
 me ? " " When all are against me, what can I [say 
 to] help it ? " Situated as she was, all that she could 
 do was to give them no advantage, or opportunity to 
 ensnare her, and to avoid compromising others ; and 
 it must be allowed that she showed much presence 
 and firmness of mind. Her request, made at the 
 opening of the examination, and at " sundry times," 
 to "go to prayer," somewhat confounded them. She 
 probably was led to make and urge the request par- 
 ticularly in consequence of the tenor of Mr. Noyes's 
 prayer at the opening. She felt that it was no more 
 than fair that there should be a prayer on her side, as 
 well as on the other. It might well be feared, that, if 
 allowed to offer a prayer, coming from a person in her 
 situation, an aged professor, and one accustomed to ex- 
 press herself in devotional exercises, it might produce 
 a deep impression upon the whole assembly. To re- 
 fuse such a requestliadi^a^hard look ; but, as the magis- 
 trates saw, it never would have done to have permitted 
 it. It would have reversed the position of all con- 
 cerned. The latter part of the examination has the 
 appearance that she was suspected to be unsound ou a 
 particular article of the prevalent creed. It is much 
 to be regretted that the abrasion of the . paper at the- 
 
52 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 folding has obliterated her last answer to this part ot 
 the inquisition. It is singular that Mr. Parris has left 
 the blank in her final answer. Probably she used her 
 customary expression, " I am a gospel woman." The 
 writing, at this point, is very clear and distinct; and a 
 vacant space is left, just as it is given above. 
 
 The fact that Martha Corey was known to be an 
 •eminently religious person, and very much given to 
 acts of devotion, constituted a serious obstacle, no 
 doubt, in the way of the prosecutors. Parris's record 
 'of the examination shows how they managed to get 
 -over it. They gave the impression that her frequent 
 and long prayers were addressed to the Devil. 
 
 The disagreement between her and her husband, 
 touching the witchcraft prosecutions, brought him into 
 a very uncomfortable predicament. "With his charac- 
 teristic imprudence of speech, he had probably ex- 
 pressed himself strongly against her unbelief in the 
 sufferings of the girls and her refusal to attend 
 the exhibitions of their tortures, or the examination 
 -of persons accused. He was, unquestionably, highly 
 ^shocked and incensed at her open repiidiation of the 
 whole doctrine of witclicraft. Although he had be- 
 come, in his old age, a professor and a fervently reli- 
 . -gious man, perhaps he fell back, in his resentment of 
 her course, into his life-long rough phrases, and said 
 that she acted as though the Devil was in her. He 
 jnight have said that she prayed like a witch. Being 
 entirely carried away by the delusion, he had his own 
 marvellous stories to tell about his cattle's beino; be- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 53 
 
 witched, &c. His talk, undoubtedly, came to the 
 ears of the prosecutors ; and they seem to have taken 
 steps to induce him to come forward as a witness 
 against her. The following document is among the 
 papers : — 
 
 " The evidence of Giles Corey testifieth and saith, that 
 last Saturday, io the evening, sittiag by the fire, my wife 
 asked me to go to bed. I told her I would go to prayer ; 
 and, when I went to prayer, I could not utter my desires 
 with any sense, nor open my mouth to speak. 
 
 " My wife did perceive it, and came towards me, and said 
 she was coming to me. 
 
 '• After this, in a little space, I did, according to my 
 measure, attend the duty. 
 
 " Some time last week, I "fetched an ox, well, out of the 
 "woods about noon : and, he laying down in the yard, I went 
 to raise him to yoke him ; but he could not rise, but dragged 
 his hinder parts, as if he had been hip-shot. But after did 
 rise. 
 
 " I had a cat sometimes last week strangely taken on the 
 sudden, and did make me think she would have died pres- 
 ently. My wife bid me knock her in the head, but I did 
 not ; and since, she is well. 
 
 " Anotlier time, going to duties, I was interrupted for a 
 space ; but afterward I was helped according to my poor 
 measm-e. My wife hath been wont to sit up after I went to 
 bed : and I have perceived her to kneel down on the hearth, 
 as if she were at prayer, but heard nothing. 
 
 " At the examination of Sarah Good and others, my 
 wife was willing 
 
 "March 24, 1692." 
 
54 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 The foregoing document does not express the idea 
 that he tliought his wife was a witch. He states what 
 lie observed, and what happened to him and to his 
 cattle. He evidently supposed they were bewitched, 
 and that he was obstructed, in going to prayer, in a 
 strange manner ; but lie does not, in terras, charge it 
 upon her. It gives an interesting insight of the inner- 
 most domestic life of the period, in a fatmhouse, and 
 exhibits striking touches of the character and ways of 
 these two old people. It illustrates the state of the 
 imagiuation prevailing among those who were carried 
 away by the delusion. If an ox had a sprained muscle, 
 or a cat a fit of indigestion, it was thought to be the 
 work of an evil hand. Poor old Giles had come late to 
 a religious life, and, it is to be feared, was a novice in 
 prayer. It is no wonder that he was not an adept in 
 " uttering his desires," and experienced occasionally 
 some difficulty in arranging and expressing his de- 
 votional sentiments. 
 
 There is something very singular in the appearance 
 of the foregoing deposition. Purporting to be a piece 
 of testimony, it was not given in the usual and reg- 
 ular way. It does not indicate before whom it was 
 made. It is not attested in the ordinary manner; 
 apparently, was not sworn to in the presence of per- 
 sons axithorized to act in such cases ; was never offered 
 in court or anywhere. It is a disconnected paper 
 found among the remnants of the miscellaneous col- 
 lection in the clerk's office, and is evidently an un- 
 finished document ; the words in Italics, at the close, 
 being erased by a line running through them. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 65 
 
 It is probable that the parties who tried to get the 
 old mau to testify against his wife discovered that 
 they could not draw any thing from him to answer 
 their designs, but that there was danger that his evi- 
 dence would be favorable to her, and gave up the at- 
 tempt to use him on the occasion. The fact that lie 
 would not lend himself to their purposes perhaps led 
 to resentment on their part, which may explain the 
 subsequent proceedings against him. 
 
 The document, in its chirography, suggests the idea 
 that it was written by Mr. Noyes, which is not improb- 
 able, as Corey was a member of his congregation and 
 church. Noyes was deeply implicated in the prosecu- 
 tions, and violent in driving them on. The hand- 
 writing of the original papers reveals the agency of 
 those who were the most busy in procuring evidence 
 against persons accused. That of Thomas Putnam 
 occurs in very many instances. But Mr, Parris was, 
 beyond all others, the busiest and most active prosecu- 
 tor. The depositions of the child Abigail Williams, 
 his niece and a member of his family, were written by 
 him, as also a great number of others. He took down 
 most of the examinations, put in a deposition of his 
 own whenever lie could, and was always ready to in- 
 dorse those of others. 
 
 It will be remembered, that, when Tituba was put 
 through her examination, she said " four women 
 sometimes hurt the children." She named Good and 
 Osburn, but pretended to have been blinded as to 
 the others, Martha Corey was, in due time, as we 
 
56 ^"witchcraft at salem village. 
 
 have seen, brought out. The fourth was tlie venerable 
 head of a large and prominent family, and a member 
 of the mother-church in Salem. She had never trans- 
 ferred her relations to the village church, with which, 
 however, she had generally worshipped, and probably 
 communed. Being one of the chief matrons of the 
 place, she was seated in the meeting-house with ladies 
 of similar age and standing, occupyhig the same bench 
 or compartment with the widow of Thomas Putnam, 
 Sr. The women were seated separately from the 
 men ; and the only rule applied among them was emi- 
 nence in years and respectability. 
 
 It has always been considered strange and unac- 
 countable, that a person of such acknowledged worth 
 as Rebecca Nurse, of infirm health and advanced 
 years, should have been selected among the early vic- 
 tims of the witchcraft prosecutions. Jealousies and 
 prejudices, such as often infest rural neighborhoods, 
 may have been engendered, in minds open to such 
 influences, by the prosperity and growing influence of 
 her family. It may be that animosities kindled by the 
 long and violent land controversy, with which, many 
 parties had been incidentally connected, lingered in 
 some breasts. There are decided indications, that the 
 passions awakened by the angry contest between, the 
 village and " Topsfield men," and which the collisions 
 of a half-century had all along exasperated and hard- 
 ened, may have been concentrated against the Nurses. 
 Isaac Easty, whose wife was a sister of Rebecca Nurse, 
 and the Townes, who were her brothers or near kins- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 57 
 
 men, were the leaders of the Topsfield men. It is a 
 significant circumstance, in this connection, that to 
 one of the most vehement resolntions passed at meet- 
 ings of the inhabitants of the village, against the 
 claims of Topsfield, Samuel Nnrse, her eldest son, 
 and Thomas Preston, her eldest son-in-law, entered 
 their protest on the record ; and, on another similar 
 occasion, her husband Francis Nurse, her son Samuel, 
 and two of her sons-in-law, Preston and Tarbell, took 
 the same course. So far as the family sided with 
 Topsfield in that controversy, it naturally exposed 
 them to the ill-will of the people of tlie village. An 
 analysis of the names and residences of the persons 
 proceeded against, throughout the prosecutions, will 
 show to what an extent hostile motives were supplied 
 from this quarter. The families of Wildes, How, 
 Hobbs, Towne, Easty, and others who were " cried 
 out" upon by the afflicted children, occupied lands 
 claimed by parties adverse to the village. What, 
 more than all these causes, was sufficient to create a^ 
 feeling against the Nurses, is the fact that they were 
 opposed to the party which had" existed from the begin- 
 ning in the parish composed originally of the friends 
 of Bayley. To crown the whole, wheii the excitement 
 occasioned by the extraordinary doings in Mr. Parris's 
 family began to display itself, and the " afflicted chil- 
 dren " were brought into notice, the members of this 
 family, with the exception, for a time, of Thomas Pres- 
 ton, discountenanced the whole thing. They absented 
 themselves from meeting, on account of the disturb- 
 
58 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ances and disorders the girls were allowed to make 
 during the services of worship, in the congregation, 
 on the Lord's Day. Unfriendly remarks, from what- 
 ever cause, made in the hearing of the girls, provided 
 subjects for them to act upon. Some persons behind 
 them, suggesting names in this way, whether careless- 
 ly or with malicious intent, were guilty of all the 
 misery that was created and blood that was shed. 
 
 It became a topic of rumor, that Rebecca Nurse was 
 soon to be brought out. It reached the ears of her 
 friends, and the following document comes in at this 
 point : — 
 
 " We "whose names are underwritten being desired to go 
 to Goodman Nurse his house, to speak with his wife, and to 
 tell her that several of the afflicted persons mentioned her ; 
 and accordingly we went, and we found her in a weak and 
 low condition in body as she told us, and had been sick 
 
 ; almost a week. And we asked how it was otherwise with 
 her : and she said she blessed God for it, she had more of 
 his presence in this sickness than sometime she have had, but 
 not so much as she desired ; but she would, with the apostle, 
 press forward to the mark ; and many other places of Scrip- 
 ture to the like purpose. And then, of her own accord, she 
 
 , began to speak of the affliction that was amongst them, and 
 in particular of Mr. Parris his family, and how she was 
 grieved for them, though she had not been to see them, by 
 reason of fits that she formerly used to have ; for people 
 said it was awful to behold : but she pitied them with all 
 her heart, and went to God for them. But she said she 
 heard that there was persons spoke of that were as innocent 
 as she was, she believed ; and, after much to this purpose, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 59 
 
 we told her Ave heard that she Avas spoken of also. ' Well,' she 
 said, ' if it be so, the will of the Lord be done: ' she sat still \ 
 a while, being as it were amazed ; and then she said, ' Well, 
 as to this thing I am as innocent as the child unborn ; but 
 surelj'',' she said, * Avhat sin hath God found out in me unre- [ 
 pented of, that he should lay such an affliction upon me in 
 my old age?' and, according to our best observation, we 
 could not discern that she knew what we came for before 
 we toid her. Israel Porter, 
 
 Elizabeth Porter. 
 "To the substance of what is above, Ave, if called thereto, 
 are ready to testify on oath. Daniel Andreav, 
 
 Peter Cloyse." 
 
 Elizabeth Porter, who joins her husband in making 
 this statement, was a sister of John Hathorne, the 
 .examining magistrate, and the mother-in-law of Joseph 
 Putnam, who was among the very few that condemned 
 the proceedings from the first. She stood, therefore, 
 between the two parties. The character of each of 
 the signers and indorsers of this interesting paper 
 is sufficient proof that its statements are trnthful. It 
 cannot but excite the most affecting sensibilities in 
 every breast. Tliis venerable lady, whose conversa- f 
 tion and bearing were so truly saint-like, was an in- 
 valid of extremely delicate condition and appearance, 
 the mother of a large family, embracing sons, daugh- 
 ters, grandchildren, and one or more great-grand- f 
 children. She was a woman of piety, and simplicity 
 of heart. In all probability, she shared in the ? 
 popular belief on the subject of witchcraft, and sup- 
 
60 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 posed that the suffer higs of the children were real, 
 and that they were afflicted by an " evil hand." At the 
 very time that she was sorrowfully sympathizing with 
 them and Mr. Parris's family, and praying for them, 
 they were circulatuig suspicions against her, and 
 maturing their plans for her destruction. 
 
 Rebecca Nurse was a daughter of AVilliam Towne, 
 of Yarmouth, Norfolk County, England, where she 
 was baptized, Feb. 21, 1621. Her sister Mary, who 
 married Isaac Easty, was baptized at the same place, 
 Auo;. 24, 1634. The records of the First Church at 
 Salem, Sept. 3, 1648, give the baptism of " Joseph and 
 Sarah, children of Sister Towne." Sarah was at that 
 time seven years of age. She became the wife of 
 Edmund Bridges, and afterwards of Peter Cloyse. 
 
 On the 23d of March, a warrant was issued, on com- 
 plaint of Edward Putnam, and Jonathan, son of John 
 Putnam, for the arrest of " Rebecca, wife of Fran- 
 cis Nurse ; " and the nest morning, at eight o'clock, 
 she was brought to the house of Nathaniel Inger- 
 soU, in the custody of George Herrick, the marshal of 
 Essex. There were several distinct indictments, four 
 of which, for having practised " certain detestable arts 
 called witchcraft" upon Ann Putnam, Mary Walcot, 
 Elizabeth Hubbard, and Abigail Williams, are pre- 
 served. The examination took place forthwith at the 
 meeting-house. The age, character, connections, and 
 appearance of the prisoner, made the occasion one of 
 the extremest interest. Hathorne, the magistrate, be- 
 gan the proceedings by addressing one of the afflicted : 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 61 
 
 *' What do you say ? Have you seen tliis woman hurt 
 you?" The answer was, *' Yes, she beat me this 
 morning." Hathorne, addressing another of the af- 
 flicted, said, " Abigail, have you been hurt by this 
 woman?" Abigail answered, "Yes." At that point, 
 Ann Putnam fell into a grievous fit, and, while in 
 her spasms, cried out that it was Rebecca Nurse who 
 was thus afflicting her. As soon as Ann's fit was over, 
 and order restored, Hathorne said, " Goody Nurse, 
 here are two, Ann Putnam the child, and Abigail 
 Williams, complain of your hurting them. What do 
 you say to it?" The prisoner replied, "I can say, 
 before my eternal Father, I am innocent, and God will 
 clear my innocency." Hathorne, apparently touched 
 for the moment by her language and bearing, said, 
 " Here is never a one in the assembly but desires it ; 
 but, if you be guilty, pray God discover you." Henry 
 Kenney rose up from the body of the assembly to 
 speak. Hathorne permitted the interruption, and said, 
 " Goodman Kenney, what do you say ? " Then Ken- 
 ney complained of the prisoner, " and further said, 
 since this Nurse came into the house, he was seized 
 twice with an amazed condition." Hathorne, address- 
 ing the prisoner, said, " Not only these, but the wife of 
 Mr. Thomas Putnam, accuseth you by credible infor- 
 mation, and that both of tempting her to iniquity and 
 of greatly hurting her." The prisoner again affirmed 
 her innocence, and said, in answer to the charge of 
 having hurt flrese persons, that " she had not been 
 able to get out of doors these eight or nine days." 
 
62 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Hatliorne then called upon Edward Putnam, who, as 
 the record says, " gave in his relate," which undoubt- 
 edly was a statement of his having seen the afflicted 
 in their sufferings, and heard them accuse Rebecca 
 Nurse as their tormentor. Hathorne said, "Is this 
 true. Goody Nurse?" She denied that she had ever 
 hurt them or any one else in her life. Hathorne 
 repeated, " You see these accuse you : is it true ? " 
 She answered, "No." He again put the question, 
 " Are you an innocent person relating to this witch- 
 craft?" It seems, from his manner, that he was be- 
 ginning really to doubt whether she might not be 
 innocent ; and perhaps the feeling of the multitude 
 was yielding in her favor. 
 
 Here Thomas Putnam's wife cried out, " Did you not 
 bring the black man with you ? Did you not bid me 
 tempt God, and die? How oft have you eat and 
 drank your own damnation?" This sudden outbreak, 
 from such a source, accompanied with the wild and 
 apparently supernatural energy and uncontrollable ve- 
 hemence with which the words were uttered, roused 
 the multitude to the utmost pitch of horror ; and the 
 prisoner seems to have been shocked at the dreadful 
 exhibition of madness in the woman and in the assem- 
 bly. Releasing her hands from confinement, she spread 
 them out towards heaven, and exclaimed, " Lord, 
 help me ! " Instantly, the whole company of - the 
 afflicted children " were grievously vexed." After a 
 while, the tumult subsided, and Hathorne again ad- 
 dressed her, " Do you not see what a solemn condition 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 63 
 
 these are in? When your hands ai'e loosed, the per- 
 sons are afflicted." Then Mary Walcot and Elizabeth 
 Hubbard came forward, and accused her. Hathorne 
 again addressed her, " Here are these two grown per- 
 sons now accuse. What say you ? Do not you see these 
 afflicted persons, and hear them accuse you ? " She 
 answered, " The Lord knows I have not hurt them. 
 I am an innocent person." Hathorne continued, " It 
 is very awful to all to see these agonies, and you, an 
 old professor, thus charged with contracting with the 
 Devil by the effects of it, and yet to see you stand with 
 dry eyes where there are so many wet." She an- 
 swered, " You do not know my heart." Hathorne, 
 " You would do well, if you are guilty, to confess, and 
 give glory to God." — "I am as clear as the child 
 unborn." Hathorne continued, " What uncertainty 
 there may be in apparitions, I know not-: yet this with 
 me strikes hard upon you, that you are, at this very 
 present, charged with familiar spirits, — this is your 
 bodily person they speak to ; they say now they see 
 these familiar spirits come to your bodily person. 
 Now, what do you say to that ? " — "I have none, 
 sir." — "If you have, confess, and give glory to God. 
 I pray God clear you, if you be innocent, and, if you 
 are guilty, discover you ; and therefore give me an 
 upright answer. Have you any familiarity with these 
 spirits ? " — " No : I have none but with God alone." 
 It looks as if again the magistrate began to open 
 his mind to a fair view of the case. He seems to 
 have sought satisfaction in reference to all the charges 
 
64 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 that had been made against her. She was suffering 
 from infirmities of body, the result not only of age, but 
 of the burdens of life often pressing down the physical 
 frame, particularly of those who have borne large fami- 
 lies of children. The magistrate had heard some 
 malignant gossip of this kind, and he asked, " How 
 came you sick ? for there is an odd discourse of that in 
 the mouths of many." She replied that she suffered 
 from weakness of stomach. He inquired, more spe- 
 cifially, "Have you no wounds?" Her answer was, 
 that her ailments and weaknesses, all her bodily infirmi- 
 ties, were the natural effects of what she had expe- 
 rienced in a long life. " I have none but old age." — 
 '' You do know whether you are guilty, and have 
 familiarity with the Devil ; and now, when you are 
 here present, to see such a thing as these testify, — a 
 black man whispering in your ear, and birds about 
 you, — what do you say to it ? " — '^ It is all false : I 
 am clear." — " Possibly, you may apprehend you are 
 no witch ;, but have you not been led aside by tempta- 
 tions that way ? " — "I have not." At this point, it 
 almost seems that Hathorne was yielding to the moral 
 effect of the evidence she bore in her deportment and 
 language, the impress of conscious innocence in her 
 countenance, and the manifestation of true Christian 
 purity and integrity in her whole manner and bearing. 
 Instead of pressing her with further interrogatories, 
 he gave way to an expression, in the form of a solilo- 
 quy or ejaculation, " What a sad thing is it, that a 
 church-member here, and now another of Salem, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 65 
 
 should thus be accused and charged!" Upon hear- 
 ing this rather ambiguous expression of the magis- 
 trate, Mrs. Pope fell into a grievous fit. 
 
 Mrs. Pope was the wife of Joseph Pope, living with 
 his mother, the widow Gertrude Pope, on the farm 
 shown on the map. She had followed up the meet- 
 ings of the circle, been a constant witness of the 
 sufferings of the " afHicted children," and attended 
 all the public examinations, until her nervous sys- 
 tem was excited beyond restraint, and for a while 
 she went into fits and her imagination was bewil- 
 dered. She acted with the accusers, and participated 
 in their sufferings. On some occasions, her conduct 
 was wild and extravagant to the highest degree. At 
 the examination of Martha Corey, she was conspicuous 
 for the violence of her actions. In the midst of the 
 proceedings, and in the presence of the magistrates 
 and hundreds of people, she threw her muff at the 
 prisoner ; and, that missing, pulled off her shoe, and, 
 more successful this time, hit her square on the head^ 
 '^Hers seems, however, to have been a case of mere 
 delusion, amounting to temporary insanity. That it 
 was not deliberate and cold-blooded imposture is ren- 
 dered probable by the fact, that she was rescued from 
 the hallucination, and, with her husband, among the 
 foremost to deplore and denounce the whole affai^ 
 But, when a w'oman of her position acted in this man- 
 ner, on such an occasion, and then went into convul- 
 sions, and the whole company of afflicted persons 
 joined in, the confusion, tumult, and frightfulness of 
 
66 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the scene can hardly he imagnied, certainly it cannot 
 be described in words. 
 
 Quiet being restored, Hathorne proceeded: ** Tell 
 us, have you not Iiad visible appearances, more than 
 what is common in nature?" — "I have none, nor 
 never had in my life."- — " Do you think tliese suffer 
 voluntary or involuntary ? " — "I cannot tell." — " That 
 is strange : every one can judge." — "I must be si- 
 lent." — "They accuse you of hurting them; and, if 
 you think it is not unwillingly, but by design, you 
 must look upon them as murderers." — "^ I cannot tell 
 what to think of it." This answer was considered as 
 very aspersive in its bearing upon the witnesses, and 
 she was charged with having called them murderers. 
 Being hard of hearing, she did not always take in the 
 whole import of questions put to her. She denied 
 that she said she thought them murderers ; all she 
 said, and that she stood to to the last, was that 
 she could not tell what to make of their conduct. 
 Finally, Hathorne put this question, and called for an 
 answer, " Do you think these suffer against their wills 
 or not ? " She answered, " I do not think these suffer 
 against their wills." To this point she was not afraid 
 or unwilling to gOj in giving an opinion of the con- 
 duct of the accusing girls. Infirm, half deaf, cross- 
 questioned, circumvented, surrounded with foil}"", up- 
 roar, and outrage, as she was, they could not intimidate 
 her to say less, or entrap her to say more. 
 
 Then another line of criminating questions was 
 started by the magistrate : " Why did you never visit 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 67 
 
 these afflicted persons?" — "Because I was afraid I 
 should have fits too." On every motion of her body, 
 " fits followed upon the complainants, abundantly and 
 very frequently." As soon as order was again re- 
 stored, Hathorne, being, as he always was, wholly con- 
 vinced of the reality of the sufferings of the " afflicted 
 children," addressed her thus, "Is it not an unac- 
 countable case, that, when you are examined,, these 
 persons are afflicted? " Seeing that he and the whole 
 assembly put faith in the accusers, her only reply was, 
 " I have got nobody to look to but God." As she 
 uttered these words, she naturally attempted to raise 
 her hands, whereupon " the afflicted persons were 
 seized with violent fits of torture." After silence was 
 again restored, the magistrate pressed his questions 
 still closer. " Do you believe these afflicted persons 
 are bewitched ? " She answered, " I do think they 
 are." It will be noticed that there was this difference 
 between Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey : The latter 
 was an utter heretic on the point of the popular faith 
 respecting witchcraft ; she did not believe that there 
 were any witches, and she looked upon the declara- 
 tions and actions of the "afflicted children" as the 
 ravings of " distracted persons." The former seems to 
 have held the opinions of the day, and had no disbe- 
 lief in witchcraft: she was willing to admit that the 
 children were bewitched ; but she knew her own inno- 
 cence, and nothing could move her from the conscious- 
 ness of it. Mr. Hathorne continued, " When this 
 witchcraft came upon the stage, there was no suspicion 
 
68 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 of Tituba, Mr. Parris's Indian woman. She professed 
 much love to that child, — Betty Parris ; but it was her 
 apparition did the mischief: and why should not you 
 also be guilty, for your apparition doth hurt also?" 
 Her answer was, " Would you have me belie myself? " 
 Weary, probably, of the protracted proceedings, her 
 head drooped on one side; and forthwith the necks of 
 the afflicted children were bent in the same way. This 
 new demonstration of the diabolical power that pro- 
 ceeded from her filled the house with increased awe, 
 and spread horrible conviction of her guilt through all 
 minds. Elizabeth Hubbard's neck was fixed in that 
 direction, and coxild not be moved. Abigail Williams 
 cried out, " Set up Goody Nurse's head, the maid's 
 neck will be broke." Whereupon, some persons held 
 the prisoner's head up, and " Aaron Way observed that 
 Betty Hubbard's was immediately righted." To con- 
 summate the effect of the whole proceeding, Mr. Par- 
 ris, by direction of the magistrates, " read what he 
 had in characters taken from Mr. Thomas Putnam's 
 wife in her fits." We shall come to the matter thus 
 introduced by Mr. Parris, at a future stage of the story. 
 It is sufficient here to say, that it contained the most 
 positive and minute declarations that the apparition of 
 Rebecca Nurse had appeared to her, on several occa- 
 sions, and horribly tortured her. After hearing Parris's 
 statement, Hathorne asked the prisoner, " What do you 
 think of this ? " Her reply was, " I cannot help it : 
 the Devil may appear in my shape." It may be men- 
 tioned, that Mrs. Ann Putnam was present during this 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 69 
 
 examination, and, in the course of it, went into the 
 most dreadful bodily agony, charging it on Rebecca 
 Nurse. Her sufferings were so violent, and held on so 
 long, that the magistrates gave permission to her hus- 
 band to carry her out of the meeting-house, to free her 
 from the malignant presence of the prisoner. The 
 record of the examination closes thus: — 
 
 *' Salem Village, March 24th, 169^. — The Reverend Mr. 
 Samuel Parris, being desired to take in writing the examina- 
 tion of Rebecca Nurse, hath returned it as aforesaid. 
 
 " Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we then did 
 see, together Avith the charges of the persons then present, 
 w^e committed Rebecca Nurse, the wife of Francis Nurse 
 of Salem Village, imto Her Majesty's jail in Salem, as per 
 mittimus then given out, in order to further examination. 
 
 The presence of Ann Putnam, the mother, on this 
 occasion ; the statement from her, read by Mr. Parris ; 
 and the terrible suiFerings she exhibited, produced, no 
 doubt, a deep effect upon the magistrates and all 
 present. Her social position and personal appearance 
 undoubtedly contributed to heighten it. For two 
 months, her house had been the constant scene of the 
 extraordinary actings of the circle of girls of -which her 
 daughter and maid-servant were the leading spirits. 
 
70 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Her mind had been absorbed in the mysteries of 
 spiritualism. The marvels of necromancy and magic 
 had been kept perpetually before it. She had been 
 living in the invisible world, with a constant sense 
 of supernaturalism surrounding her. Unconsciously, 
 perhaps, the passions, prejudices, irritations, and ani- 
 mosities, to which she had been subject, became mixed 
 with the vagaries of an excited imagination ; and, laid 
 open to the inroads of delusion as her mind liad long 
 been by perpetual tamperings with spiritual ideas and 
 phantoms, she may have lost the balance of reason and 
 sanity. This, added to a morbid sensibility, probably 
 gave a deep intensity to her voice, action, and counte- 
 nance. The effect upon the excited multitude miist 
 have been very great. Although she lived to realize 
 the utter falseness of all her statements, her monstrous 
 fictions were felt by her, at the time, to be a reality. 
 
 In concluding his report of this examination, Mr. 
 Parris says, " By reason of great noises by the 
 afflicted and many speakers, many things are preter- 
 mitted." He was probably quite willing to avoid 
 telling the whole story of the disgraceful and shock- 
 ing scenes enacted in the meeting-house that day. 
 Deodat Lawson was present during the earlier part of 
 the proceedings. He says that Mr. Hale began with 
 prayer ; that the prisoner " pleaded her iunocency 
 with earnestness ; " that, at the opening, some of the 
 girls, Mary Walcot among them, declared that the pris- 
 oner had never hurt them. Presently, however, Mary 
 Walcot screamed out that she was bitten, and charged 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 71 
 
 it upon Rebecca Nurse. The marks of teeth were 
 produced on her wrist. Lawson sa3^s, " It was so dis- 
 posed that I had not leisure to attend the whole time 
 of examination." Tlie meaning is, I suppose, that he 
 desired to withdraw into the neighboring fields to con 
 over his manuscript, and make himself more able to 
 perform with effect the part he was to act that after- 
 noon, " There was once," he saj'^s, " such an hideous 
 screech and noise (which I heard as I walked at a little 
 distance from the meeting-house) as did amaze me ; 
 and some that were within told me the whole assem- 
 bly was struck with consternation, and they were afraid 
 that those that sat next to them were imder tlae in- 
 fluence of witchcraft." The whole congregation was in 
 an uproar, every one afflicted by and affrighting every 
 other, amid a universal outcry of terror and horror. 
 
 As it was a part of the policy of the managers of 
 the business to utterly overwhelm the influence of all 
 natural sentiment in the community, they coupled 
 with this proceeding against a venerable and infirm 
 great-grandmother, another of the same kind against 
 a little child. Immediately after the examination of 
 Rebecca Nurse was concluded, Dorcas, a daughter of 
 Sarah Good, was brought before the magistrates. She 
 was between four and five years old. Lawson says, 
 " The child looked hale and well as other children." 
 A warrant had been issued for her apprehension, the 
 day before, on complaint of Edward and Jonathan 
 Putnam. Herrick the marshal, who was a man that 
 magnified his office, and of much personal pride, did 
 
72 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 not, perhaps, fancy the idea of bringing up such a 
 little prisoner ; and he deputized the operation to 
 Samuel Braybrook, who, the next morning, made re- 
 turn, in due form, that " he had taken the body of 
 Dorcas Good," and sent her to the house of Nathaniel 
 Ingersoll, where she was in custody. It seems that 
 Braybrook did not like the job, and passed the hand- 
 ling of the child over to still another. Whoever per- 
 formed the service probably brought her in his arms, 
 or on a pillion. The little thing could not have 
 walked the distance from Benjamin Putnam's farm. 
 When led in to be examined, Ann Putnam, Mary Wal- 
 cot, and Mercy Lewis, all charged her with biting, 
 pinching, and almost choking them. The two former 
 went through their usual evolutions in the presence of 
 the awe and terror stricken magistrates and multitude. 
 They showed the marks of her little teeth on their 
 arms ; and the pins with which she pricked them were 
 found on their bodies, precisely where, in their shrieks, 
 they had averred that she was piercing them. The 
 evidence was considered overwhelming ; and Dorcas 
 was, per mittimus^ committed to the jail, Avhere she 
 joined her mother. By the bill of the Boston jailer, 
 it appears that they both were confined there : as they 
 were too poor to provide for themselves, " the country " 
 was charged with ten shillings for " two blankets for 
 Sarah Good's child." The mother, we know, was 
 kept in chains ; the child was probably chained too. 
 Extraordinary fastenings, as has been stated, were 
 ' thought necessary to hold a witch. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 73 
 
 Tlicre was no longer any doubt, in tlie mass of the 
 community, that the Devil had effected a lodgement at 
 Salem Village. Church-members, persons of all social 
 positions, of the highest repute and profession of piety, 
 eminent for visible manifestations of devotion, and 
 of every age, had joined his standard, and become 
 his active allies and confederates. 
 
 The effect of these two examinations was unques- 
 tionably very great in spreading consternation and 
 bewilderment far and wide ; but they were only the 
 prelude to the woi'k, to that end, arranged for the day. 
 The public mind was worked to red heat, and now was 
 the moment to strike the blow that would fix an im- 
 pression deep and irremovable upon it. It was Thurs- 
 day, Lecture-day ; and the public services usual on the 
 occasion were to be held at the meeting-house. 
 
 Deodat Lawson had arrived at the village on the 
 19th of March, and lodged at Deacon IngersoU's. The 
 fact at once became known ; and Mary Walcot imme- 
 diately went to the deacon's to see him. She had a fit 
 on the spot, which filled Lawson with amazement and' 
 horror. His turn of mind led him to be interested in 
 such an excitement ; and he had become additionally 
 and specially exercised by learning that the afflicted 
 persons had intimated that the deaths of his wife and 
 daughter, which occurred during his ministry at the 
 village, had been brought about by the diabolical 
 agency of the persons then beginning to be unmasked, 
 and brought to justice- He was prepared to listen to 
 the hints thus thrown out, and was ready to push 
 
74 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the prosecutions on with an earnestness in which 
 resentment and rage were mingled with the blindest 
 credulity. After Mary Walcot had given him a speci- 
 men of what the girls were suffering, he walked over, 
 early in the evening, to Mr. Parris's house ; and there 
 Abigail Williams went into the craziest manifestations, 
 throwing firebrands about the house in the presence 
 of her uncle, rushing to the back of the chimney as 
 though she would fly up through its wide flue, and per- 
 forming many wonderful works. The next day being 
 Sunday, he preached ; and the sex'vices were inter- 
 rupted, in the manner already described, by the out- 
 breaks of the afflicted, under diabolic influence. The 
 next day, he attended the examination of Martha 
 Corey. On Wednesday, the 23d, he went up to 
 Thomas Putnam's, as he says, " on purpose to see his 
 wife." He " found her lying on the bed, having had a 
 sore fit a little before : her husband and she both 
 desired me to pray with her while she was sensible, 
 which I did, though the apparition said I should not go 
 to prayer. At the first beginning, she attended ; but, 
 after a little time, was taken with a fit, yet continued 
 silent, and seemed to be asleep." She had represented 
 herself as being in conflict with the shape, or spectre, 
 of a witch, which, she told Lawson, said he should not 
 pray on the occasion. But he courageously ventured 
 oh the work. At the conclusion of the prayer, " her 
 husband, going to her, found her in a fit. He took her 
 off the bed to sit her on his knees ; but at first she 
 was so stiff she could not be bended, but she after- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 75 
 
 wards sat down." Then she went into that state of 
 supernatural vision and exaltation in which she was 
 accustomed to utter the wildest strains, in feiwid, ex- 
 travagant, but solemn and melancholy, rhapsodies : she 
 disputed with the spectre about a text of Scripture, 
 and then poured forth the most terrible denunciations 
 upon it for tormenting and tempting her. She was 
 evidently a very intellectual and imaginative woman, 
 and was perfectly versed in all the imagery and lofty 
 diction supplied by' the prophetic and poetic parts of 
 Scripture. Again she was seized with a terrible fit, 
 that lasted " near half an hour." At times, her mouth 
 was drawn on one side and her body strained. At 
 last she broke forth, and succeeded, after many violent 
 struggles against the spectre and many convulsions of 
 her frame, in saying what part of the Bible Lawson 
 was to read aloud, in order to relieve her. " It is," 
 she said, " the third chapter of the Eevelation." — " I 
 did," says Lawson, " something scruple the reading 
 it." He was loath to be engaged in an affair of that 
 kind in which the Devil was an actor. At length he 
 overcame his scruples, and the effect was decisive. 
 " Before I had near read through the first verse, she 
 opened her eyes, and was well." Bewildered and 
 amazed, he went back to Parris's house, and they 
 talked over the awful manifestations of Satan's power. 
 The next morning, he attended the examination of 
 Rebecca Nurse, retiring from it, at an early hotir, 
 to complete his preparation for the service that had 
 been arranged for him that afternoon. 
 
76 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 I say arranged, because the facts in this case prove 
 long-concerted arrangement. He was to preach a 
 sermon that day. Word must have been sent to him 
 weeks before. After reaching the village, every hour 
 had been occupied in exciting spectacles and engross- 
 ing experiences, filling his mind with the fanatical en- 
 thusiasm requisite to give force and fire to tlie delivery 
 of the discourse. He could not possibly have written 
 it after coming to the place. He must have brought 
 it in his pocket. It is a thoroughly elaborated and 
 carefuU}^ constructed performance, requiring long and 
 patient application to compose it, and exhausting all 
 the resources of theological research and reference, 
 and of artistic skill and finish. It is adapted to the 
 details of an occasion which was prepared to meet 
 it. Not only the sermon but the audience were the 
 result of arrangement carefully made in the stages of 
 preparation and in the elements comprised in it. 
 The preceding steps had all been seasonably and 
 appositely taken, so that, when the regular lecture 
 afternoon came, Lawson would have his voluminous 
 discourse ready, and a cougi'egation be in waiting to 
 hear it, with minds suitably wroxight upon by the 
 preceding incidents of the day, to be thoroughly and 
 permanently impressed by it. The occasion had been 
 heralded by a train of circumstances drawing every- 
 body to the spot. The magistrates were already there, 
 some of them by virtue of the necessity of official 
 presence in the earlier part of the day, and others came 
 in from the neighborhood ; the ministers gathered from 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 77 
 
 the towns in the vicuiitj ; men and women came from 
 all quarters, flocking along the highways and the by- 
 ways, large numbei'S on horseback, and crowds on 
 foot. Probably the village meeting-house, and the 
 grounds around it, presented a spectacle such as never 
 was exhibited elsewhere. Awe, dread, earnestness, a 
 stern but wild fanaticism, were stamped on all coun- 
 tenances, and stirred the heaving multitude to its 
 depths, and in all its movements and utterances. It 
 is impossible to imagine a combination of circum- 
 stances that could give greater advantage and power 
 to a speaker, and Lawson was equal to the situation. 
 No discourse was ever more equal, or better adapted, 
 to its occasion. It was irresistible in its power, and 
 carried the public mind as by storm. 
 
 The text is Zechariah, iii. 2 : " And the Lord said 
 unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, Satan ! even the 
 Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not 
 this a brand plucked out of the fire ? " After an 
 allusion to the rebellion of Satan, and his fall from 
 heaven with his " accursed legions," and after repre- 
 senting them as filled " with envy and malice against 
 all mankind," seeking "by all ways and means to 
 work their ruin and destruction for ever, opposing 
 to the utmost all persons and things appointed by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ as means or instruments of their 
 comfort here or salvation hereafter," he proceeds, in 
 the manner of those days, to open his text and spread 
 out his subject, all along exhibiting great ability, skill, 
 and power, showing learning in his illustrations, draw- 
 
78 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ing aptly and abundantly from the Scriptures, and, 
 at the right points, rising to high strains of eloquence 
 in diction and imagery. 
 
 He describes, at great length and with abundant 
 instances ingeniously selected from sacred and pro- 
 fane literature, the marvellous power with which Satan 
 is enabled to operate upon mankind. He says, — 
 
 " He is a spirit, and hence strikes at the spiritual part, 
 the most excellent (constituent) part of man. Primarily 
 disturbing and interrupting the animal and vital spirits, he 
 maliciously operates upon the more common powers of the 
 soul by strange and frightful representations to the fancy 
 or imagination ; and, by violent tortures of the body, often 
 threatening to extinguish life, as hath been observed in 
 those that are afflicted amongst us. And not only so, 
 but he vents his malice in diabolical operations on the more 
 sublime and distinguishing faculties of the rational soul, 
 raising mists of darkness and ignorance in the understand- 
 ing. . . . Sometimes he brings distress upon the bodies of 
 men, by malignant operations in, and diabolical impressions 
 on, the spirituous principle or vehicle of life and motion. . . , 
 There are certainly some lower operations of Satan (where- 
 of there are sundry examples among us), which the bodies 
 and souls of men and w^omen are liable unto. And who- 
 soever hath carefully observed those things must needs be 
 convinced, that the motions of the persons afflicted, both as 
 to the manner and as to the violence of them, are the mere 
 effects of diabolical malice and operations, and that it can- 
 not rationally be imagined to proceed from any other cause 
 whatever. . . . Satan exerts his malice mediately by employ- 
 ing some of mankind and other creatures, and he frequently 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. -79/' 
 
 useth other persons or things, that his designs may be the '\ 
 
 more undiscernible. Thus he used the serpent in the first '- 
 
 temptation (Gen. iii. 1). Hence he contracts and indents | 
 with witches and wizards, that they shall be the instruments ; 
 by whom he may more secretly affect and afflict the bodies , 
 and minds of others ; and, if he can prevail upon those that f 
 make a visible profession, it may be the better covert unto 
 his diabolical enterprise, and may the more readily pervert 
 others to consenting unto his subjection. So far as we can 
 look into those hellish mysteries, and guess at the adminis- 
 tration of that kingdom of darkness, we may learn that 
 witches make witches by persuading one the other to sub- 
 scribe to a book or articles, &c. ; and the Devil, having them 
 in his subjection, by their consent, he will use their bodies 
 and minds, shapes and representations, to ajSTright and afflict 
 others at his pleasure, for the propagation of his infernal 
 kingdom, and accomplishing his devised mischiefs to the 
 souls, bodies, and lives of the children of men, yea, and 
 of the children of God too, so far as permitted and is 
 possible. . , . He insinuates into the society of the adopted '""^ ] 
 children of God, in their most solemn approaches to him, "/ 
 
 in sacred ordinances, endeavoring to look so like the true 
 saints and niinisters of Christ, that, if it were possible, he 
 would deceive the very elect (Matt. xxiv. 24) by his sub- 
 tilty : for it is certain he never works more like the Prince 
 of darkness than when he looks most like an angel of light ; 
 and, when he most pretends to holiness, he then doth most 
 secretly, and hy consequence most surely, undermine it, and 
 those that most excel in the exercise thereof. " 
 
 The following is a specimen of the style in which 
 he stirred up the people : — 
 
80 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " The application of this doctrine to ourselves remains 
 now to be attended. Let it be for solemn warning and 
 awakening to all of us that are before the Lord at this time, 
 and to all others of this whole people, who shall come to 
 the knowledge of these dh-cful operations of Satan, which 
 the holy God hath permitted in the midst of us. 
 
 " The Lord doth terrible things amongst us, by lengthen- 
 ing the chain of the roaring lion in an extraordinary man- 
 ner, so that the Devil is come down in great wrath (Rev. 
 xii. 12), endeavoring to set up his kingdom, and, by racking 
 torments on the bodies, and afFrightening representations 
 to the minds of many amongst us, to force and fright them 
 to become his subjects. I may well say, then, in the words of 
 the prophet (Mic. vi. 9), ' The Lord's voice crieth to the city,' 
 and to the country also, with an unusual and amazing loud- 
 ness. Surely, it warns us to awaken out of all sleep, of 
 security or stupidity, to arise, and take our Bibles, turn to, 
 and learn that lesson, not by rote only, but by heart. 1 Pet. 
 V. 8 : ' Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the 
 Devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom amongst 
 you he may distx-ess, delude, and devour.' . . . Awake, awake 
 then, I beseech you, and remain no longer under the domin- 
 ion of that prince of cruelty and malice, whose tyrannical 
 fury we see thus exerted against the bodies and minds of 
 these afflicted persons ! . , . This warning is directed to all 
 manner of persons, according to their condition of life, both 
 in civil and sacred order ; both high and low, rich and poor, 
 old and young, bond and free. Oh, let the observation of 
 these amazing dispensations of God's unusual and strange 
 Providence quicken us to our duty, at such a time as this, 
 in our respective places and stations, relations and capacities ! 
 The great God hath done such things amongst us as do 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 81 
 
 make the ears of those that hear them to tingle (Jer. xix. 3) ; 
 and serious souls are at a loss to "vvhat these things may 
 grow, aud what wq shall find to be the end of this dreadful 
 visitation, in the permission whereof the provoked God as 
 a lion hath roared, Avho can but fear ? the Lord hath 
 spoken, who can but prophesy? (Amos iii. 8.) The loud 
 trumpet of God, in this thundering providence, is blown in 
 the city, and the echo of it heard through the country, surely 
 then the people must and ought to be afraid (Amos iii. 6). 
 . . . You are therefore to be deeply humbled, and sit in the 
 dust, considering the signal hand of God in singling out 
 this place, this poor village, for the first seat of Satan's 
 tyranny, and to make it (as 'twere) the rendezvous of devils, 
 where they muster their infernal forces ; appearing to the 
 afflicted as coming armed to carry on their malicious de- 
 signs against the bodies, and, if God in mercy prevent not, 
 against the souls, of many in this place. . . . Be humbled 
 also that so many members of this church of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ should be under the influences of Satan's malice in 
 these his operations ; some as the objects of his tyranny 
 on their bodies to that degree of distress which none can 
 be sensible of but those that see and feel it, who are in the 
 mean time also sorely distressed in their minds by frightful 
 representations made by the devils unto them. Other pro- 
 fessors and visible members of this church are under the 
 awful accusations and imputations of being the instruments 
 of Satan in his mischievous actings. It cannot but be 
 matter of deep humiliation, to such as are innocent, that 
 the righteous and holy God should permit them to be named 
 in such pernicious and unheard-of practices, and not only 
 so, but that he who cannot but do right should suffer the 
 stain of suspected guilt to be, as it were, rubbed on and 
 
 VOL. II. 6 
 
82 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 soaked in by many sore and amazing circumstances. And 
 it is a matter of soul-abasement to all that are in the bond 
 of God*s holy covenant in this place, that Satan's seat should 
 be amongst thera, "where he attempts to set up his kingdom 
 in opposition to Christ's kingdom, and to take some of the 
 visible subjects of our Lord Jesus, and use at least their 
 shapes and appearances, instrumentally, to afflict and torture 
 other visible subjects of the same kingdom. Surely his de- 
 sign is that Christ's kingdom may be divided against itself, 
 that, being thereby weakened, he may the better take oppor- 
 tunity to set up his own accursed powers and dominions. 
 It calls aloud then to all in this place in the name of the 
 blessed Jesus, and words of his holy apostle (1 Peter v. G), 
 ' Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.' 
 
 " It is matter of terror, amazement, and astonishment, 
 to all such wretched souls (if there be any here in the con- 
 gregation ; and God, of his infinite mercy, grant that none of 
 you may ever be found such ! ) as have given up tbeir names 
 and souls to the Devil ; who by covenant, explicit or im- 
 plicit, have bound themselves to be his slaves and drudges, 
 consenting to be instruments in whose shapes he may tor- 
 ment and afflict their fellow-creatures (even of their own 
 kind) to the amazing and astonishing of the standers-by. 
 I would hope I might have spared this use, but I desire 
 (by divine assistance) to declare the whole counsel of God ; 
 and if it come not as conviction where it is so, it may serve 
 for warning, that it may never be so. For it is a most 
 dreadful thing to consider that any should change the ser- 
 vice of God for the service of the Devil, the worship of the 
 blessed God for the worship of the cursed enemy of God and 
 man. But, oh ! (which is yet a thousand times worse) how 
 shall I name it ? if any that are in the visible covenant of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 83 
 
 God should break that covenant, and make a league with 
 Satan ; if any that have sat down and eat at Clirist's Table, 
 should so lift up their heel against hira as to have fellow- 
 ship at the table of devils, and (as it hath been represented 
 to some of the afflicted) eat of the bread and drink of the 
 wine that Satan hath mingled. Surely, if this be so, the 
 poet is in the right, " Audax omnia perpeti. Gens humana 
 ruit per vetitum nefas ; " audacious mortals are grown to a 
 fearful height of impiety ; and we must (5ry out in Scripture 
 language, and that emphatical apostrophe of the Prophet 
 Jeremy (chap. ii. 12), ' Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, 
 and be horribly afraid : be ye very desolate, saith the Lord/ 
 , . , ir you are in covenant with the Devil, the iutercession 
 of the blessed Jesus is against you. His prayer is for the 
 subduing of Satan's power and kingdom, and the utter con- 
 founding of all his instruments. If it be so, then the great 
 God is set against you. The omnipotent Jehovah, one God 
 in three Persons ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in their 
 several distinct operations and all their divine attributes, — 
 are engaged against you. Therefore know ye that are 
 guilty of such monstrous iniquity, that He that made you will 
 not save you, and that He that formed you will show you no 
 favor (Isa. xxvii. 11). Be assured, that, although you 
 should now evade the condemnation of man's judgment, and 
 escape a violent death by the hand of justice; yet, unless 
 God shall give you repentance (which we heartily pray for), 
 there is a day coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be 
 revealed by Jesus Christ (Rom. ii. 16). Then, then, your sin 
 will find you out ; and you shall be punished with everlast- 
 ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and doomed 
 to those endless, easeless, and remediless torments prepared 
 for the Devil and his angels (Matt. xxv. 41). . . . If you 
 
84 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 have been guilty of such impiety, the prayers of the people 
 of God are agaiust you on that account. It is their duty to 
 pray daily, that Satan's kingdom may be suppressed, weak- 
 ened, brought down, and at last totally destroyed ; hence that 
 all abettors, subjects, defenders, and promoters thereof, may 
 be utterly crushed and confounded. They are constrained 
 to suppress that kindness and compassion that in their 
 sacred addresses they once bare unto you (as those of their 
 own kind, and framed out of the same mould), praying with 
 one consent, as the royal prophet did against his malicious 
 enemies, the instruments of Satan (Ps. cix. 6), * Set thou 
 a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right 
 hand ' (i.e.), to withstand all that is for his good, and promote 
 all that is for his hurt ; and (verse 7) ' When he is judged, 
 let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.' 
 
 " Be we exhorted and directed to exercise true spiritual 
 sympathy with, and compassion towards, those poor, afflicted 
 persons that are by divine permission under the direful in- 
 fluence of Satan's malic6. There is a divine precept enjoin- 
 ing the practice of such duty : Heb. xiii. 3, ' Remember 
 them that suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the 
 body.' Let us, then, be deeply sensible, and, as the elect of 
 God, put on bowels of mercy towards those in misery 
 (Col. iii. 12). Oh, pity, pity them! for the hand of the 
 Lord hath touched them, and the malice of devils hath 
 fallen upon them. 
 
 " Let us be sure to take unto us and put on the whole 
 armor of God, and every piece of it ; let none be wanting. 
 Let us labor to be in the exercise and practice of the whole 
 company of sanctifying graces and religious duties. This 
 important duty is pressed, and the particular pieces of that 
 armor recited Eph. vi. 11 and 13 to 18. Satan is repre- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 85 
 
 senting his infernal forces ; and the devils seem to coine 
 armed, mustering amongst us. I am this day commanded 
 to call and cry an alarm unto jou : Arm, arm, arm ! handle 
 your arms, see that you are fixed and in a readiness, as 
 faithful soldiers under the Captain of our salvation, that, by 
 the shield of faith, ye and we all may resist the fiery darts 
 of the wicked ; and may be faithful unto death in our 
 spiritual warfare ; so shall we assuredly receive the crown of 
 life (Rev. ii. 10). Let us admit no parley, give no quar- 
 ter : let none of Satan's forces or furies be more vigilant 
 to hurt us than we are to resist and repress them, in the 
 name, and by the spirit, grace, and strength of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Let us ply the throne of grace, in the name 
 and merit of our Blessed Mediator, taking all possible 
 opportunities, public, private, and secret, to pour out our 
 supplications to the God of our salvation. Prayer is the 
 most proper and potent antidote against the old Serpent's 
 venomous operations. When legions of devils do come 
 down among us, multitudes of prayers should go up to God. 
 Satan, the worst of all our enemies, is called in Scripture a 
 dragon, to note his malice ; a serpent, to note his subtilty ; 
 a lion, to note his strength. But none of all these can stand 
 before prayer. The most inveterate malice (as that of 
 Haman) sinks under the prayer of Esther (chap. iv. 16). 
 The deepest policy (the counsel of Achitophel) withers 
 before the prayer of David (2 Sam. xv. 31) ; and the 
 vastest army (an host of a thousand thousand Ethiopians) 
 ran away, like so many cowards, before the prayer of Asa 
 (2 Chron. xiv. 9 to 15). 
 
 " What therefore I say unto one I say unto all, in this 
 important case, Prat, prat, prat. 
 
 " To our honored magistrates, here present this day, to 
 
86 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 inquire iuto these things, give me leave, much honored, to 
 offer one word to your consideration. Do all that in you 
 lies to check and rebuke Satan ; endeavoring, by all ways 
 and means that are according to the rule of God, to dis- 
 cover his instruments in these horrid operations. You are 
 concerned in the civil government of this people, being in- 
 vested with power b}' their Sacred Majesties, under this 
 glorious Jesus (the King and Governor of his church), for 
 the supporting of Christ's kingdom against all oppositions 
 of Satan's kingdom and his instruments. Being ordained 
 of God to such a station (Rom. xiii. 1), we entreat you, 
 bear not the sword in vain, as ver, 4 ; but approve your- 
 selves a terror of and punishment to evil-doers, and a praise 
 to them that do well (1 Peter ii. 14); ever remember- 
 ing that ye judge not for men, but for the Lord (2 Chron. 
 xix. 6) ; and, as his promise is, so our prayer shall be for 
 you, without ceasing, that he would be with you in the judg- 
 ment, as he that can and will direct, assist, and reward you. 
 Follow the example of the upright Job (chap. xxix. 16) : Be 
 a father to the poor ; to these poor afflicted persons, in piti- 
 ful and painful endeavors to help them ; and the cause that 
 seems to be so dark, as you know not how to determine it, 
 do your utmost, in the use of all regular means, to search it 
 out. 
 
 " There is comfort in considering that the Lord Jesus, the 
 Captain of our salvation, hath already overcome the Devil. 
 Christ, that blessed seed of the woman, hath given this cursed 
 old serpent called the Devil and Satan a mortal and incura- 
 ble bruise on the head (Gen. iii. 15). He was too much 
 for him in a single conflict (Matt. iv.). He opposed his power 
 and kingdom in the possessed. He suffered not the devils 
 to speak, because they knew him (Mark i. 34), He com- 
 
"WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 87 
 
 pleted his victory by his death on the cross, and destroyed his 
 dominion (Heb. ii. 14), that through death he might destroy 
 death, and him that had the powers of death, that is the 
 Devil ; and by and after his resurrection made show openly 
 unto the world, that he had spoiled principalities and powers, 
 triumphing over them (Col. ii. 15). Hence, if we are by 
 faith united to him, his victory is an earnest and prelibation 
 of our conquest at last. All Satan's strugglings now are 
 but those of a conquered enemy. It is no small comfort to 
 consider, that Job's exercise of patience had its beginning 
 from the Devil ; but we have seen the end to be from the 
 Lord (James v. 11). That we also may find by experience 
 the same blessed issue of our present distresses by Satan's 
 malice, let us repent of every sin that hath been committed, 
 and labor to practise every duty which hath been neglected. 
 Then we shall assuredly and speedily find that the kingly 
 power of our Lord and Saviour shall be magnified, in deliv- 
 ering his poor sheep and lambs out of the jaws and paws of 
 the roaring lion." 
 
 These extended extracts are given from Lawson's 
 discourse, partly to enable every one to estimate the 
 effect it must have prodnced, under the circumstances 
 of the occasion, but mainly because they present a 
 living picture of the sentiments, notions, modes of 
 thinking and reasoning, and convictions, then preva- 
 lent. No description given by a person looking back 
 from our point of view, not having experienced the 
 delusions of that age, no matter -who might attempt 
 the task, could adequately paint the scene. The 
 foregoing extracts show better, I think, than any docu- 
 ments that have come down to us, how the subject lay 
 
Gb WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 in the minds of men at that time. They bring before 
 us directl}'-, without the intervention of any secondary 
 agency, the thoughts, associations, sentiiuents, of that 
 generation, in breathing reality. They carry us back 
 to the hour and to the spot. Deodat Lawson rises from 
 his unknown grave, comes forth from the impenetrable 
 cloud which enveloped the closing scenes of his mortal 
 career, and we listen to his voice, as it spoke to th^ 
 multitudes that gathered in and around the meeting- 
 house in Salem Village, on Lecture-day, March 24, 
 1692. He lays bare his whole mind to our immediate 
 inspection. In and through him, we behold the mind 
 and heart, the forms of language and thought, the feel- 
 ings and passions, of the people of that day. We min- 
 gle with the crowd that hang upon his lips ; we behold 
 their countenances, discern the passions that glowed 
 upon their features, and enter into the excitement that 
 moved and tossed them like a tempest. We are thus 
 prepared, as we could be in no other way, to compre- 
 hend our story. 
 
 The sermon answered its end. It re-enforced the 
 powers that had begun their work. It spread out 
 the whole doctrine of witchcraft in a methodical, elabo- 
 rate, and most impressive form. It justified and com- 
 mended every thing that had been done, and every 
 thing that remained to be done ; every step in the pro- 
 ceedings ; every process in the examinations ; every kind 
 of accusation and evidence that had been adduced ; 
 every phase of the popular belief, however wild and 
 monstrous ; every pretension of the afflicted children 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 89 
 
 to preternatural experiences and communications, and 
 every tale of apparitions of departed spirits and the 
 ghosts of murdered men, women, and children, which, 
 engendered in morbid and maniac imaginations, had 
 been employed to fill him and others with horror, in- 
 spire revenge, and drive on the general delirium. And 
 it fortified every point by the law and the testimony, by 
 passages and scraps of Scripture, studiously and skil- 
 fully culled out, and ingeniously applied. It gave 
 form to what had been vague, and authority to what 
 had floated in blind and baseless dreams of fancy. It 
 crystallized the disordered vagaries, that had been 
 seething in turbulent confusion in the public mind, 
 into a fixed, organized, and permanent shape. 
 
 Its publication was forthwith called for. The manur 
 script was submitted to Increase and Cotton Mather of 
 the North, James Allen and John -Bailey of the First, 
 Samuel Willard of the Old South, churches in Boston, 
 and Charles Morton of the church in Charlestown. 
 It was printed with a strong, unqualified indorsement 
 of approval, signed by the names severally of these the 
 most eminent divines of the country-. The discourse 
 was dedicated to the " worshipful and worthily honored 
 Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Cor- 
 win, Esqrs., together with the reverend Mr. John Hig- 
 ginson, pastor, and Mr. Nicholas Noyes, teacher, of the 
 Church of Christ at Salem," with a preface, addressed 
 to all his " Cliristian friends and acquaintance, the 
 inhabitants of Salem Yillage." It was republished in 
 London in 1704, under the immediate direction of its 
 
90 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 author. The subject is described as " Christ's Fidel- 
 ity, the only Shield against Satan's Malignity;" and 
 the titlepage is enforced by passages of Scripture (Rev. 
 xii. 12, and Rom. xvi. 20). The interest of the vol- 
 ume is highly increased by an appendix, giving the 
 substance of notes taken by Lawson on the spot, dur- 
 ing the examinations and trials. They are invaluable, 
 as proceeding from a chief actor in the scenes, who Avas 
 wholly carried away by the delusion. They describe, 
 in marvellous colors, the wonderful manifestations of 
 diabolical agency in, upon, and through the afflicted 
 children ; resembling, in many respects, reports of 
 spiritual communications prevalent in our day, al- 
 though not quite coming up to them. These state- 
 ments, and the preface to the discourse, are given 
 in the Appendix to this volume. In a much briefer 
 form, it was printed by Benjamin Harris, at Boston, 
 in 1692; and soon after by John Dunton, in Lon- 
 don. 
 
 Before dismissing Mr. Lawson's famous sermon, our 
 attention is demanded to a remarkable paragraph in it. 
 His strong faculties could not be wholly bereft of rea- 
 son ; and he had sense enough left to see, what does 
 not appear to have occurred to others, that there might 
 be a re-action in the popular passions, and that some 
 might be called to account by an indignant public, if 
 not befoi-e a stern tribunal of justice, for the course of 
 cruelty and outrage they were pursuing, with so high 
 a hand, against accused persons. He was not entirely 
 satisfied that the appeal he made in his discourse to 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 91 
 
 the people to suppress and crush out all vestiges of 
 humau feeling, and to stifle compassion and pity in 
 their breasts, would prevail. He foresaw that the 
 friends and families of innocent and murdered victims 
 might one da}^ call for vengeance ; and he attempts to 
 provide, beforehand, a defence that is truly inge- 
 nious : — 
 
 " Give no place to the Devil by rash censuriug of others, 
 without sufficient grounds, or false accusing any willingly. 
 This is indeed to be like the Devil, who hath the title/ 
 jdid^oXog, in the Greek, because he is the calumniator </r 
 false accuser. Hence, when we read of such accusers jn 
 the latter days, they are, in the original, called /lm^o).ot^ 
 calumniator es (2 Tim.'iii. 3). It is a time of temptation 
 amongst you., such as never was before : let me entreat 
 you not to be lavish or severe in reflecting on the malice 
 or envy of your neighbors, by whom any of you have been 
 accused, lest, whilst you falsely—charge one another, — 
 viz., the relations of the afflicted and relations of the ac- 
 cused, — the grand accuser (who loves to fish in troubled 
 waters) should take advantage jipon you. Look at sin, the; 
 procuring cause [ God in justice, the sovereign efficient ; and 
 Satan, the enemy, the principal instrument, both in afflicting 
 some and accusing others. And, if innocent persons be sus- 
 pected, it is to be ascribed to God's pleasure, supremely per- 
 mitting, and Satan's malice subordiuately troubling, by 
 representation of such to the afflicting of others, even 
 of such as have, all the while, we have reason to believe 
 (especially some of them), no kind of ill-will or disrespect 
 unto those that have been complained of by them. This 
 giving place to the Devil avoid ; for it will have uncomforta- 
 
92 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ble and pernicious influence upon the affairs of this place, 
 by letting out peace, and bringing in confusion and every 
 evil Avork, which we heartily pray God, in mercy, to pre- 
 vent." 
 
 This artifice of statement, speciously covered, — 
 while it outrages every sentiment of natural justice, 
 and breaks every bond of social responsibility, — is 
 found, upon close inspection, to be a shocking imputa- 
 tion against the divine administration. It represents 
 the Deity, under the phrases " sovereign efficient " and 
 " supremely permitting" in a view which affords equal 
 shelter to every other class of criminals, even of the 
 deepest dye, as well as those who were ready and eager 
 to bring upon their neighbors the charge of confederacy 
 with Satan. 
 
 ^-The next Sunday — March 27 — was the regular 
 communion-day of the village church ; and Mr. Parris 
 prepared duly to improve the occasion to advance the 
 movement then so strongly under way, and to deepen 
 still more the impression made by the events of the 
 week, especially by Mr. Lawson's sermon. He accord- 
 ingly composed an elaborate and effective discourse of 
 his own ; and a scene was arranged to follow the regular 
 service, which could not but produce important results. 
 An unexpected occurrence — a part not in the pro- 
 gramme — took place, which created a sensation for 
 the moment ; but it tended, upon the whole, to heighten 
 the public excitement, and, without much disturbing 
 the order, only precipitated a little the progress of 
 events. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEH VILLAGE. 93 
 
 It may well be supposed, that the congregation as- 
 sembled that day with minds awfully solemnized, and 
 altogether in a condition to be deeply affected by the 
 services. A respectable person always prominently 
 noticeable for lier devout participation in the worsliip 
 of the sanctuary, and a member of the churchj had, 
 on Monday, after a public examination, been com- 
 mitted to prison, and was there in irons, waiting to be 
 tried for her life for the blackest of crimes, — a con- 
 federacy with the enemy of the souls of men, the 
 archfraitor and rebel against the throne of God. 
 On Thursday, another venerable, and ever before 
 considered pious, matron of a large and hifiuential 
 family, a participant in their worship, and a member of 
 the mother-church, had been consigned to the same 
 fate, to be tried for the same horrible crime. A little 
 child had been proved to have also joined in the infer- 
 nal league. No one could tell to what extent Satan 
 had lengthened his chain, or who, whether old or 
 young, were in league with him. Every soul was still 
 alive to the impressions made by Mr. Lawson's great 
 discourse, and by the throngs of excited people, in- 
 cluding magistrates and ministers, that had been gath- 
 ered in the village. 
 
 The character and spirit of Mr. Parris's sermon are 
 indicated in a prefatory note in the manuscript, " occa- 
 sioned by dreadful witchcraft broke out here a few 
 weeks past ; and one member of this church, and another 
 of Salem, upon public examination by civil authority, 
 vehemently suspected for she-witches." The running 
 
94 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 title is, " Christ knows how many devils there are in 
 his church, and who they are;" and the text is John 
 vi. 70, 71, "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen 
 you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? He spake of 
 Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon ; for he it was that 
 should betray him, being one of the twelve." 
 
 Peter Cloyse was born May 27, 1639. He came to 
 Salem from York, in Maine, and was one of the origi- 
 nal members of the village church. He appears to 
 liave been a person of the greatest respectability and 
 strength of character. He married Sarah, sister of 
 Rebecca Nurse, and widow of Edmund Bridges. She 
 was admitted to the village church, Jan. 12, 1690, be- 
 ing then about forty-eight years of age. It may well 
 be supposed that she and her family were overwhelmed 
 with affliction and horror by the proceedings against 
 her sister. But, as she and her husband were both 
 communicants, and it was sacrament-day, it was 
 thought best for them to summon resolution to attend 
 the service. After much persuasion, she was induced 
 to go. She was a very sensitive person, and it must 
 have required a great effort of fortitude. Her mind 
 was undoubtedly much harrowed by the allusions made 
 to the events of the week ; and, when Mr. Parris an- 
 nounced his text, and opened his discourse in the 
 ] spirit his language indicates, she could bear it no 
 I longer, but rose, aifd left the meeting. A fi-esh wind 
 blowing at the time caused the door to slam after her. 
 The congregation was probably startled ; but Parris 
 was not long embarrassed by the interruption, and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 95 
 
 she was attended to in due season. At the close 
 
 of the service, the following scene occurred. I 
 
 give it as Parris describes it in his church-record 
 book : — 
 
 " After the common auditory was dismissed, and before 
 the church's communion at the Lord's Table, the foUowiog 
 testimony against the error of our Sister Mary Sibley, who 
 had given direction to my Indian man in an unwarrantable 
 way to find out witches, was read by the pastor : — 
 
 " It is altogether undeniable that our great and blessed 
 God, for wise and holy ends, hath suffered many persons,. 
 in several families, of this little village, to be grievously 
 vexed and tortured in body, and to be deeply tempted, to 
 the endangering of the destruction of their souls ; and all 
 these amazing feats (well known to many of us) to be done 
 by witchcraft and diabolical operations. It is also well 
 known, that, when these calamities first began, which was 
 in my own family, the affliction was several weeks before 
 such hellish operations as witchcraft were suspected. Nay, 
 it was not brought forth to any considerable light, until 
 diabolical means were used by the making of a cake by 
 my Indian man, who had his direction from this our sister, 
 Mary Sibley; since which, apparitions have been plenty,, 
 and exceeding much mischief hath followed. But, by these 
 means (it seems), the Devil hath been raised amongst us, 
 and his rage is vehement and terrible ; and, when he shall 
 be silencedj the Lord only knows. But now that this our 
 sister should be instrumental to such distress is a great 
 grief to myself, and our godly honored and reverend neigh- 
 bors, who have had the knowledge of it. Nevertheless, I 
 do truly hope and believe, that this our sister doth, truly 
 
96 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 fear the Lord ; and I am well satisfied from her, that, what 
 she did, she did it igiiorantly, from what she had heard of 
 this nature from other igaoraut or worse persons. Yet we 
 are in dut}'^ bound to protest against such actions, as being 
 indeed a going to the Devil for help against the Devil : we 
 having no such directions from nature, or God*s word, it 
 must therefore be, and is, accounted, by godly Protestants 
 who Avrite or speak of such matters, as diabolical ; and there- 
 fore calls this our sister to deep humiliation for what she 
 has done, and all of us to be watchful against Satan's wiles 
 and devices. 
 
 " Therefore, as we, in duty as a church of Christ, are 
 deeply bound to protest against it, as most directly contrary 
 to the gospel, yet, inasmuch as this our sister did it in igno- 
 rance as she professeth and we believe, we can continue her 
 in our holy fellowship, upon her serious promise of future 
 better advisedness and caution, and acknowledging that she 
 is indeed sorrowful for her rashness herein. 
 
 " Brethren, if this be your mind, that this iniquity should 
 be thus borne witness against, manifest it by your usual sign 
 of lifting up your hands. — The brethren voted generally, or 
 universally : none made any exceptions. 
 
 " Sister Sibley, if you are convinced that you herein did 
 sinfully, and are sorry for it, let us hear it from your own 
 mouth. — She did manifest to satisfaction her error and grief 
 for it. 
 
 " Brethren, if herein you have received satisfaction, 
 testify it by lifting up your hands. — A general vote passed ; 
 no exception made, 
 
 "Note. — 25th March, 1692. I discoursed said sister 
 in my study about her grand error aforesaid, and also then 
 read to her what I had writteu as above to be read to the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 97 
 
 church ; and said Sister Sibley assented to the same with 
 tears and sorrowful confession." 
 
 This proceeding was of more importance than ap- 
 pears, perhaps, at first view. It was one of Mr. Par- 
 ris's most skilfnl moves. Tlie course pursued by the 
 "afflicted" persons had, thus far, in reference to 
 those engaged in the prosecutions, been in the right 
 direction. But it was manifest, after the exhibitions 
 they had given, that they wielded a fearful power, too 
 fearful to be left without control. They could cry 
 out iipon whomsoever they pleased ; and against their 
 accusations, armed as they were with the power to 
 fix the charge of guilt upon any one by giving ocular 
 demonstration that he or she was the author of their 
 sufferings, there could be no defence. They might 
 turn, at any moment, and cry out upon Parris or 
 Lawson, or either or both of the deacons. Nothing 
 could withstand the evidence of their fits, convul- 
 sions, and tortures. It was necessary to have and 
 keep them under safe control, and, to this end, to 
 prevent any outsiders, or any injudicious or inter- 
 meddling people, from holding intimacy with them. 
 Parris saw this, and, with his characteristic boldness 
 of action and fertility of resources, at once put a stop 
 to all trouble, and closed the door against danger, 
 from this quarter. 
 
 Samuel Sibley was a member of the church, and a 
 near neighbor of Mr. Parris. He was about thirty- 
 six years of age. His wife Mary was thirty-two years 
 of age, and also a member of the church. They 
 
98 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 were persons of respectable standing and good repute. 
 Nothing is known to her disadvantage, but her fool- 
 isli connection with the mystical operations going on 
 in Mr. Parris's family ; and of this she was heartily 
 ashamed. Her penitent sensibility is quite touch- 
 ingly described by Mr. Parris. It is true that what 
 she had done was a trifle in comparison with what 
 was going on every day in the families of Mr. Parris 
 and Thomas Putnam: but she had acted "rashly," 
 without " advisedness " from the right quarter, under 
 the lead of " ignorant persons ; " and therefore it was 
 necessary to make a great ado about it, and hold her 
 up as a warning to prevent other persons from med- 
 dling in such matters. Her husband was an uncle 
 of Mary Walcot, one of the afflicted children ; and 
 it was particularly important to keep their relatives, 
 and members of their immediate families, from taking 
 any part or action in connection with them, except 
 under due "advisedness," and the direction of persons 
 learned in such deep matters. The family connec- 
 tions of the Sibleys were extensive, and a blow struck 
 at that point would be felt everywhere. The pro- 
 cedure was undoubtedly effectual. After Mary Sibley 
 had been thus awfully rebuked and distressingly ex- 
 posed for dealing with " John Indian," it is not likely 
 that any one else ever ventured to intermeddle with 
 the " afflicted," or have any connection, except as 
 outside spectators, with the marvellous phenomena 
 of " diabolical operations." It will be noticed, that, 
 while Mr. Parris thus waved the sword of disciplinary 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 99 
 
 vengeance against any who should dare to intrude 
 upon the forbidden ground, he occupied it himself 
 without disguise, and maintained his hold upon it. 
 He asserts the reality of the " amazing feats " prac- 
 tised by diabolical power in their midst, and enforces 
 in the strongest language the then prevalent views 
 and pending proceedings. 
 
 The operations of the week, including tlie solemn 
 censure of Mary Sibley, had all worked favorably for 
 the prosecutors and managers of the business. The 
 magistrates, ministers, and whole body of the people, 
 had become committed ; the accusing girls had proved 
 themselves apt and competent to their work ; the public 
 reason was prostrated, and natural sensibility stunned. 
 All resisting forces were powerless, and all collateral 
 dangers avoided and provided against. The move- 
 ment was fully in hand. The next step was maturely 
 considered, and, as we shall see, skilfully taken. 
 
 It is to be observed, that there was, at this time, 
 a break in the regular government of Massachusetts. 
 In the spring of 1689, the people had risen, seized 
 the royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros, and put 
 him in prison. They summoned their old charter 
 governor, Simon Bradstreet, then living in Salem, 
 eighty-seven years of age, to the chair of state ; called 
 the assistants of 1686 back to their seats, who pro- 
 vided for an election of representatives by the people 
 of the towns ; and the government thus created con- 
 ducted affairs until the arrival of Sir William Pliipps, 
 in May, 1692, when Massachusetts ceased to be a 
 
100 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 
 
 coloiiv, and was thenceforth, nntil 1774, a royal prov- 
 ince. Dnruig these three years, from May, 1689, to 
 May, 1692, the government was based upon an up- 
 rising of the people. It was a period of pure and 
 absolute iadependencc of the crown or parliament 
 of England. Although Bradstreet's faculties were un- 
 impaired and his spirit true and firm, his age pre- 
 vented his doing much more than to give his loved 
 and venerated name to the darhig movement, and to 
 the official service, of the people. Tlie executive func- 
 tions were, for the most part, exercised by the deputy- 
 governor, Thomas Danforth, who was a person of 
 great ability and jDublic spirit. Unfortunately, at this 
 time he was zealously in favor of the witchcraft prose- 
 cutions. Bradstreet was throughout opposed to them. 
 Had time held off its hand, and his physical energies 
 not been impaired, he would undoubtedly have re- 
 sisted and prevented them. Danforth, it is said by 
 Brattle, came to disapprove of them finally: but he 
 began them by arrests in other towns, months before 
 any thing of the kind was thought of in Salem Village ; 
 and he contributed, prominently, to give destructive 
 and wide-spread power, in an early stage of its devel- 
 opment, to the witchcraft delusion here. 
 
 After the lapse of a week, preparations were com- 
 pleted to renew operations, and a higher and more com- 
 manding character given to them. On Monday, April 4, 
 Captain Jonathan Walcot and Lieutenant Nathaniel 
 Ingersoll went to the town, and, " for themselves and 
 several of their neighbors," exhibited to the assistants 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 101 
 
 residing there, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, 
 complaints against " Sarah Clojse, the wife of Peter 
 Cloyse of Salem Village, and Elizabeth Procter of 
 Salem Farms, for high suspicion of sundry acts of 
 witchcraft." There the plan of proceedings in refer- 
 ence to the above-said parties was agreed upon. It 
 was the result of consultation ; communications prolv 
 ably passing with the deputy- governor in Boston, or 
 at his residence in Cambridge. On the 8th of April, 
 warrants were duly issued, ordering the marshal to 
 bring in the prisoners '' on Monday morning next, 
 being the eleventh day of this instant April, about 
 eleven of the clock, in the public meeting-house in the 
 town." It had been arranged, that the examination 
 should not be, as before, in the ordinary way, before 
 the two local magistrates, but, in an extraordinary 
 way, before the highest tribunal in the colony, or a 
 representation of it. For a preliminary hearing, with 
 a view merely to commitment for trial, this surely may 
 justly be characterized as an extraordinary, wholly 
 irregular, and, in all points of view, reprehensible 
 procedure. When the day came, the meeting-house, 
 which was much more capacious than that at the 
 village, was crowded ; and the old town filled with 
 excited throngs. Upon opening proceedings, lo and 
 behold, instead of the two magistrates, the government 
 of the colony was present, in the highest character 
 it then had as " a council " ! The record says, — 
 
 "Salem, April 11, 1692. — At a Council held at Salem, 
 and present Thomas Danforth, Esq., deputy-governor ; 
 
102 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 James Kussell, John Hathorne, Isaac Addlngton, Major 
 Samuel Appleton, Captain Samuel Sewall, Jonathan Cor- 
 win, Esquires." 
 
 E-ussell was of Chaiiestowii, Addiiigtou and Sewall 
 of Boston, and Appleton of Ipswich. Mr. Parris, 
 " being desired and appointed to write the examina- 
 tion, did take the same, and also read it before the 
 conncil in public." This document has not come 
 down to us ; but Hutchinson had access to it, and 
 the substance of it is preserved in his '' History of 
 Massachusetts." 
 
 The marshal (Herrick) brought in Sarah Cloyse 
 and Elizabeth Procter, and delivered them " before 
 the honorable council : " and the examination was 
 begun. 
 
 The deputy-governor first called to the stand John 
 Indian, and plied him, as was the course pursued on 
 all these occasions, with leading questions : — 
 
 " John, who hurt you ? — Goody Procter first, and then 
 Goody Cloyse. 
 
 " What did she do to you? — She brought the book to 
 me. 
 
 "John, tell the truth: who hurts you? Have you been 
 hurt? — The first was a gentlewoman I saw. 
 
 *' Who next ? — Goody Cloyse. 
 
 " But who hurt you next? — Goody Procter. 
 
 " What did she do to you ? — She choked me, and 
 brought the book, 
 
 " How oft did she come to torment you? — A good many 
 times, she and Goody Cloyse. 
 
"WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 103 
 
 " Do they come to you in the night, as well as the day ? 
 — They come most in the day. 
 
 " Who ? — Goody Cloyse and Goody Procter. 
 
 " Where did she take hold of you ? — Upon my throat, to 
 stop my breath. 
 
 "Do you know Goody Cloyse and Goody Procter? — 
 Yes : here is Goody Cloyse." 
 
 We may well suppose that these two respectable 
 women must have been filled with indignation, shocked, 
 and amazed at the statements made by the Indian, 
 following the leading interrogatories of the Court, 
 Sarah Cloyse broke out, ^' When did I hurt thee ? " 
 He answered, "A great many times." She exclaimed, 
 " Oh, you are a grievous liar ! " The Court proceeded 
 with their questions ; — 
 
 " What did this Goody Cloyse do to you ? — She pinched 
 and bit me till the blood came. 
 
 " How long since this woman came and hurt you ? — Yes- 
 terday, at meeting. 
 
 "At any time before? — Yes : a great many times." 
 
 Having drawn out John Indian, the Court turned to 
 the other afflicted ones : — 
 
 " Mary Walcot, who hurts you? — Goody Cloyse. 
 " What did she do to you ? — She hurt me. 
 " Did she bring the book ? — Yes. 
 
 "What was you to do with it? — To touch it, and be 
 well. 
 
 " (Then she fell into a fit.)" 
 
 This put a stop to the examination for a time ; but 
 it was generally quite easy to bring witnesses out of a 
 
104 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 fit, and restore entire calmness of mind. All tliat was 
 necessarj^ was to lift them up, and carry them to the 
 accused person, the touch of any part of whose body 
 would, in an instant, relieve the sufferer. This having 
 been done, the esamination proceeded : — 
 
 *'Doth she come alone? — Sometimes alone, and some- 
 times in company Avith Goody Nurse and Goody Corey, and 
 a great many I do not know, 
 
 " (Then she fell into a fit again.)" 
 
 She was, probably, restored in the same way as be- 
 fore ; but, her part being finished for that stage of the 
 proceeding, another of the afflicted children took the 
 stand : — 
 
 " Abigail WiUiams, did you see a company at Mr. Par- 
 ris's house eat and drink? — Yes, sir: that was in the 
 sacrament.'' 
 
 I would call attention to the form of the foregoing 
 questions. Hutchinson says that " Mr. Parris was 
 over-officious : most of the examinations, although in 
 the presence of one or more magistrates, were taken 
 by him." He put the questions. They show, on this 
 occasion, a minute knowledge beforehand of what the 
 witnesses are to say, which it cannot be supposed 
 Danforth, Russell, Addington, Appleton, and Sewall, 
 strangers, as they were, to the place and the details of 
 the affair, could have had. Tlie examination pro- 
 ceeded : — 
 
 "How many were there? — About forty, and Goody 
 Cloyse and Goody Good were their deacons. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 105 
 
 "What was it? — ^ They said it was our blood, and they 
 had it twice that day." 
 
 The interrogator again turned to Mary Walcot, and 
 inquired, — 
 
 *' Have you seen a white man ? — Yes, sir : a great many 
 tinies. 
 
 " What sort of a man Avas he ? — A fine grave man ; and, 
 when he came, he made all the witches to tremble. 
 
 '* (Abigail Williams confirmed the same, and that they had 
 such a sight at Deacon IngersoU*s.) 
 
 "Who Avas at Deacon IngersoU's then? — Goody Cloyse, 
 Goody Nurse, Goody Corey, and Goody Good. 
 
 " (Then Sarah Cloyse asked for water, and sat down, as 
 one seized with a dying, fainting fit; and several of the 
 afiflicted fell into fits, and some of them cried out, ' Oh ! her 
 spirit has gone to prison to her sister Nurse.')" 
 
 The audacious lying of the witnesses ; the horrid 
 monstrousuess of their charges against Sarah Cloyse, 
 of having bitten the flesh of the Indian brute, and 
 drank herself and distributed to others, as deacon, at i )( 
 an infernal sacrament, the blood of the wicked crea- 
 tures making these foul and devilish declarations, 
 known by her to be utterly and wickedly false ; and 
 the fact that they were believed by the deputy, the 
 council, and the assembly, — were more than she 
 could bear. Her soul sickened at such unimaginable 
 depravity and wrong ; her nervous system gave way ; 
 she fainted, and sunk to the floor. The manner in 
 which the girls turned the incident against her shows 
 how they were hardened to all human feeling, and the 
 
106 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 cunning art which, on all occasions, characterized their 
 proceedings. That such an insolent interruption and 
 disturbance, on their part, was permitted, without re- 
 buke from the Court, is a perpetual dishonor to every 
 member of it. The scene exhibited at this moment, 
 in the meeting-house, is worthy of an attempt to im- 
 agine. The most terrible sensation was naturally pro- 
 duced, by the swooning of the prisoner, the loudly 
 uttered and savage mockery of the girls, and their 
 going simultaneously into fits, screaming at the top of 
 their voices, twisting into all possible attitudes, stiffened 
 as in death, or gasping with convulsive spasms of 
 agony, and crying out, at intervals, " Tliere is the black 
 man whispering in Cloyse's ear," " There is a yellow- 
 bird flying round her head." John Indian, on such 
 occasions, used to confine his achievements to tum- 
 bling, and rolling his ugly body about the floor. The 
 deepest commiseration was felt by all for the " afflict- 
 ed," and men and women rushed to hold and soothe 
 them. There was, no doubt, much loud screeching, and 
 some miscellaneous faintings, through the whole crowd. 
 At length, by bringing the sufferers into contact with 
 Goody Cloyse, the diabolical fluid passed back into her, 
 they were all relieved, and the examination was re- 
 sumed. Elizabeth Procter was now brought forward. 
 In the account given, in the First Part, of the popu- 
 lation of Salem Village and tlie contiguous farms, her 
 husband, John Procter, was introduced to our ac- 
 quaintance. From what we then saw of him, we are 
 well assured that he would not shrink from the protec- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 107 
 
 tiou and defence of his wife. He accompanied her 
 fi'om her arrest to her arraignment, and stood by 
 her side, a strong, bi-ave, and resolute guardian, trying 
 to support her under the terrible trials of her situation, 
 and ready to comfort and aid her to the extent of his 
 power, disregarded of all consequences to himself. 
 The examination proceeded : — 
 
 " Elizabeth Procter, you understand whereof you are 
 charged ; viz., to be guilty of sundry acts of witchcraft. 
 What say you to it ? Speak the truth ; and so you that are 
 afflicted, you must speak the truth, as you will answer it be- 
 fore God another day. Mary Walcot, doth this Avoman hurt 
 you ? — I never saw her so as to be hurt by her. 
 
 " Mercy Lewis, does she hurt you ? 
 
 " (Her mouth was stopped.) 
 
 '* Ann Putnam, does she hurt you ? 
 
 " (She could not speak.) 
 
 ''Abigail Williams, does she hurt you? 
 
 " (Her hand was thrust in her own mouth.) 
 
 "John, does she hurt you? — This is the woman that 
 came in her shift, and choked me. 
 
 " Did she ever bring the book ? — Yes, sir. 
 
 " What to do ? — To write. 
 
 *' What? this woman? — Yes, sir. 
 
 "Are you sure of it? — Yes, sir. 
 
 " (Again Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam were spoke 
 to by the Court ; but neither of them could make any answer, 
 by reason of dumbness or other fits.) 
 
 " What do you say. Goody Procter, to these things ? — 
 I take God in heaven to be my witness, that I know nothing 
 of it, no more than the child unborn. 
 
108 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 ** Ann Putnam, doth this woman hurl you ? — Yes, sir : a 
 great many times. 
 
 " (Thea the accused looked upon them, and they fell into 
 fits.) 
 
 " She does not bring the book to you, docs she ? — ^Yes, sir, 
 often ; and saith she hath made her maid set her hand to it. 
 
 " Abigail Williams, does this woman hurt you? — Yes, 
 sir, often. 
 
 " Does she bring the book to you? — Yes. 
 
 *'What would she have you do with it? — To write in 
 it, and I shall be well." 
 
 Turning to the accused, Abigail said, " Did not 
 you tell me that your maid had written ? " Goody 
 Procter seems to have been utterly amazed at the 
 conduct and charges of the girls. She knew, of 
 course, that what they said was false ; but perhaps she 
 thought them crazy, and therefore objects of pity and 
 compassion, and felt disposed to ti'eat thetn kindly, 
 and see whether they could not be recalled to their 
 senses, and restored to their better nature : for Parris, 
 in his account, says that at this point she answered the 
 question thus put to her by Abigail thiis : " Dearchild, 
 it is not so. There is another judgment, dear child." 
 But kindness was thrown away upon them ; for Par- 
 ris says that immediately " Abigail and Ann had 
 fits." After coming out of them, " they cried out, 
 ' Look you! there is Goody Procter upon the beam.' " 
 Instantly, as we may well suppose, the whole audience 
 looked where they pointed. Their manner gave as- 
 surance that they saw her " on the beam," among the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 109 
 
 rafters of the meetiag-liouse ; but she was invisible to 
 all other eyes. The people, no doubt, were filled with 
 amazement at such supernatui*alism. But John Proc- 
 ter, her husband, did not believe a word of it: and it 
 is not to be doubted that he expressed his indignation 
 at the nonsense and the outrage in his usual bold, 
 strong, and unguarded language, which brought down 
 the vengeance of the girls at once on his own head ; 
 for Parris, in his report, goes on to say : — 
 
 '' (By and by, both of them cried out of Goodman Procter 
 himself, and said he was a -wizard. Immediately, many if 
 not all of the bewitched had grievous fits.) 
 
 " Ann Putnam, who hurt you ? — Goodman Procter, and 
 his wife too. 
 
 " (Afterwards, some of the afBicted cried, ' There is Proc- 
 ter going to take up Mrs. Pope's feet!' and her feet were 
 immediately taken up.) 
 
 " What do you say, Goodman Procter, to these things ? — 
 I know Dot. I am innocent. 
 
 " (Abigail Williams cried out, ' There is Goodman Proc- 
 ter going to Mrs. Pope ! ' and immediately said Pope fell 
 into a fit.)" 
 
 At this point, the deputy, or some member of the 
 Court interposed, if I interpret rightly Parris's report, 
 which is here obscurely expressed, inasmuch as he 
 does not say who spoke ; but the import of the words 
 indicates that they proceeded from some member of 
 the Court, who was perfectly deceived: — 
 
 " You see, the Devil will deceive you : the children could 
 see what you was going to do before the woman was hurt. 
 
110 WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 I would advise you to repentance, for the Devil is bringing 
 you out- 
 
 " (Abigail Williams cried out again, ' There is Goodman 
 Procter going to hurt Goody Bibber T and immediately 
 Goody Bibber fell into a fit. There was the like of Mary 
 Walcot, and divers others. Benjamin Gould gave in his 
 testimony, that he had seen Goodman Corey and his wife, 
 Procter and his wife, Goody Cloyse, Goody Nurse, and 
 Goody Griggs in his chamber last Thursday night. Eliza- 
 beth Hubbard was in a trance during the wliole examination. 
 During the examination of Elizabeth Procter, Abigail Wil- 
 liams and Ann Putnam both made offer to strike at said 
 Procter ; but, when Abigail's hand came near, it opened, — 
 whereas it was made up into a fist before, — and came down 
 exceeding lightly as it drew near to said Procter, and at 
 length, with open and extended fingers, touched Procter's 
 hood very lightly. Immediately, Abigail cried out, her fin- 
 gers, her fingers, her fingers burned ; and Ann Putnam took 
 on most grievously of her head, and sunk down.)" 
 
 Hutchinson, after giving Parris's account of this 
 examination, expresses himself thus ; " No wonder the 
 whole country was in a consternatJ.on, when persons of 
 sober lives and unblemished characters were com- 
 mitted to prison upon suclFsort of evidence. Nobody 
 was safe." All things considered, it may perhaps be 
 said, that, filled as the witchcraft proceedings were 
 throughout with folly and outrage, there was nothing 
 worse than this examination, conducted by the deputy- 
 governor and council, on the 11th of April, 1692, in 
 the great meeting-house of the First Church in Salem. 
 It must have been a scene of the wildest disorder, par- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. Ill 
 
 ticularly in the latter part of it. No wonder that the 
 people in general were deluded, when the most learned 
 councillors of the colony countenanced, participated 
 in, and gave effect to, such disorderly procedures in a 
 house of worship, in the presence of a high judicial 
 tribunal, and of the then supreme government of the 
 colony ! 
 
 Benjamin Gould gave his volunteer testimony with- 
 out " advisedness," and quite incontinently. He 
 brought out Goodman Corey before the managers were 
 quite ready to fall upon him ; and he antedated, by a 
 considerable length of time, any such imputation upon 
 Goody Griggs. It was well for Elizabeth Hubbard to 
 have been in a trance, so that she could not hear the 
 mention of her aunt's name. The council seems to 
 have adjourned to the next day, at the same place, 
 when Mr. Parris " gave further information against 
 said John Procter," which, unfortunately, has not 
 come down to us. The result was, that Sarah Cloyse, 
 John Procter, and Elizabeth his wife, were all commit- 
 ted for trial, and, with Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, 
 and Dorcas Good, were sent to the jail in Boston, in the 
 custody of Marshal Herrick. 
 
 The proceedings of the 11th and 12th of April pro- 
 duced a great effect in driving on the general infatua- 
 tion. Judge Sewall, who was present as one of the 
 council, in his diary at this date, says, "Went to 
 Salem, where, in the meeting-house, the persons ac- 
 cused of witchcraft were examined ; was a very great 
 assembly ; 'twas awful to see how the afflicted persons 
 
112 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 were agitated." In the margin is written, apparently 
 some time afterwards, the interjection '•'■ VceJ^'' thrice 
 repeated, — "Alas, alas, alas!" What perfectly de- 
 luded him and Danforth, and everybody else, were the 
 exhibitions made by the •' afflicted children." Tliis is 
 the grand phenomenon of the witchcraft proceedings 
 here in 1692. It, and it alone, carried them tlirough. 
 Those girls, by long practice in " the circle," and day 
 by day, before astonished and wondering neighbors 
 gathered to witness their distresses, and especially on 
 the more public occasions of the examinations, had 
 acquired consummate boldness and tact. In simula- 
 tion of passions, sufferings, and physical affections ; in 
 sleight of hand, and in the management of voice and 
 feature and attitude, — no necromancers have sur- 
 passed them. There has seldom been better acting in 
 a theatre than they displayed in the presence of the 
 astonished and horror-stricken rulers, magistrates, 
 ministers, judges, jurors, 'spectators, and prisoners. 
 No one seems to have dreamed that their actings and 
 sufferings could have been the result of cunning or 
 imposture. Deodat Lawson was a man of talents, had 
 seen much of the world, and was by no means a simple- 
 ton, recluse, or novice ; but he was wholly deluded by 
 them. The prisoners, although conscious of their own 
 innocence, were utterly confounded by the acting of the 
 girls. The austere principles of that generation for- 
 bade, with the utmost severity, all theatrical shows and 
 performances. But at Salem Village and the old 
 town, in the respective meeting-houses, and at Deacon 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 113 
 
 Nathaniel Ingersoll's, some of the best playing ever got 
 up in this country was practised ; and patronized, for 
 weeks and months, at tlie very centre and heart of 
 Puritanism, by 'Hlie most straitest sect" of that 
 solemn order of men. Pastors, deacons, church- 
 members, doctors of divinity, college professors, officers 
 of state, crowded, day after day, to behold feats which 
 have never been surpassed on the boards of any thea- 
 tre ; which rivalled the most memorable achievements 
 of pantomimists, thaumaturgists, and stage-players ; 
 and made considerable approaches towards the best 
 performances of ancient sorcerers and magicians, or 
 modern jugglers and mesmerizers. 
 
 The meeting of the council at Salem, on the 11th of 
 April, 1692, changed in one sense the whole charac- 
 ter of the transaction. Before, it had been a Salem 
 affair. After this, it was a Massachusetts affair. The 
 colonial government at Boston had obtruded itself 
 upon the ground, and, of its own will and seeking, ir- 
 regularly, and without call or justification, had taken 
 the whole thing out of the hands of the local author- 
 ities into its own management. Neither the town nor 
 the village of Salem is responsible, as a principal 
 actor, for what subsequently took place. To that 
 meeting of the deputy-governor and his associates 
 in the colonial administration, at an early period of 
 the transaction, the calamities, outrages, and shame 
 that followed must in justice be ascribed. Had it 
 not taken place, the delusion, as in former instances 
 and other places here and in the mother-country, 
 
114 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 
 
 would have remained within its original local limits, 
 and soon disappeared. That meeting, and the pro- 
 ceedings then had, gave to the fanaticism the momen- 
 tum that drove it on, and extended its destructive 
 influence far and wide. 
 
 The next step in the proceedings is one of the most 
 remarkable features in the case. It is, in some points 
 of view, more suggestive of suspicion, that there was, 
 behind the whole, a skilful and cunning management, 
 ingeniously contriving schemes to mislead the public 
 mind, than almost any other part of the transaction. 
 Mary Warren, as has been said, was a servant in the 
 family of John Procter. She was a member of the 
 " circle" that had so long met at Mr. Parris's house 
 or Thomas Putnam's. She was a constant attendant 
 at its meetings, and a leading spirit among the girls. 
 She did not take an open part against her master or 
 mistress at their examination, although she acted 
 with avidity and malignity against tliem as an accu- 
 sing witness at their trials, two months afterwards. 
 It is to be noticed, that Ann Putnam and Abigail 
 Williams, at the examination of Elizabeth Procter, 
 April 11, accused her of having induced or com- 
 pelled " her maid to set her hand to the book." 
 
 On the 18th of April, warrants were got out against 
 Giles Corey and Mary Warren, both of Salem Farms ; 
 Abigail Hobbs, daughter of William Hobbs, of Tops- 
 field ; and Bridget Bishop, wife of Edward Bishop, of 
 Salem, — to be brought in the next forenoon, at about 
 eight o'clock, at the house of Lieutenant Nathaniel 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 115 
 
 Ingersoll, of Salem Village. How Mary "Warren be- 
 came transformed from an accuser to an accused, 
 from an afflicted person to an afflicter, is the question. 
 It is not easy to fathom the conduct of these girls. 
 They appear to have acted upon a plan deliberately 
 formed, and to have bad an understanding with each 
 other. At the same time, occasionally, they had or 
 pretended to have a falling-out, and came into con- 
 tradiction. This was perhaps a mere blind, to pre- 
 vent the suspicion of collusion. The accounts given 
 of Mary Warren seem to render it quite certain that 
 she acted with deliberate cunning, and was a guilty 
 conspirator with the other accusers in carrying on 
 the plot from the beginning. No doubt, it frequently 
 occurred to those concerned in it, that suspicious 
 might possibly get into curx^ency that they were acting 
 a part in concert. It was necessary, by all means, to 
 guard against such an idea. This may be the key to 
 interpret the arrest and proceedings against Mary 
 Warren. If it is, the affair, it must be confessed, was 
 managed with great shrewdness and skill. She con- 
 ducted the sti^atagem most dexterously. All at once 
 she fell away from the circle, and began to talk against 
 the " afflicted children," and went so far as to say, 
 that they " did but dissemble." Immediately, they 
 cried out upon her, charged her with witchcraft, and 
 had her apprehended. After being carried to prison, 
 she spoke in strong language against the proceedings. 
 Four persons of unquestionable truthfulness, in prison 
 with her, on the same charge, prepared a deposition 
 
116 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to this effect : " We heard Marj Warren several times 
 say that the magistrates might as well examine Key- 
 sar's daughter that had been distracted many years, 
 and take notice of what she said, as well as any of the 
 afflicted persons. ' For,' said Mary Warren, ' when I was 
 afflicted, I thought I saw the apparitions of a hundred 
 persons ; ' for she said her head was distempered that 
 she could not tell what she said. And the said Mary 
 told us, that, when she was well again, she could not 
 say that she saw any of the apparitions at the time 
 aforesaid." I will now give the substance of her ex- 
 amination, which commenced on the 19th of April. 
 Mr. Parris was, as usual, requested to take minutes 
 of the proceedings, which have been preserved : — 
 
 " Examination of Mary Warren^ at a Court held at Salem 
 Village^ hy John Mathorne and Jonathan Gorwin, Esqrs. 
 
 *' (As soon as she was coming towards the bar, the afflicted 
 fell into fits.) 
 
 " Mary Warren, you stand here charged with sundry 
 acts of witchcraft. What do you say for yourself? Are 
 you guilty or not? — I am innocent, 
 
 " Hath she hurt you ? (Speaking to the sufferers.) 
 
 " (Some were dumb. Betty Hubbard testified against 
 her, and then said Hubbard fell into a violent fit.) 
 
 " You were, a little while ago, an afflicted person ; now 
 you are an afflicter. How comes this to pass? — I look 
 up to God, and take it to be a great mercy of God. 
 
 "What! do you take it to be a great mercy to afflict 
 others ? 
 
 " (Now they were all but John Indian grievously afflicted, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 117 
 
 and Mrs. Pope also, -who was not afflicted before hitherto 
 this day; and, after a few moments, John Indian fell into 
 a violent fit also.) " 
 
 ^* Well, here " (Mr. Parris, the reporter, goes on 
 to say) "was one that just now was a tormenter in 
 her apparition, and she owns that she had made a 
 league with the Devil." The marvel was, that, having 
 before been a sufferer, as one of the afflicted accusers, 
 she had then, at that moment, appeared in the oppo- 
 site character, and owned herself to have become a 
 confederate with the Evil One. Having established 
 this conviction in the minds of the magistrates and 
 spectators, the point was reached at which she com- 
 pleted the delusion by appearing to break away from 
 her bondage to Satan, assume the functions of a con- 
 fessing and abjuring witch, and retake her place, with 
 tenfold effect, among the accusing witnesses. The 
 manner in which she rescued herself from the power 
 of Satan exhibits a specimen of acting seldom sxir- 
 passed. The account proceeds thus : — 
 
 " Now Mary Warren fell into a fit, and some of the 
 afflicted cried out that she was going to confess ; but Goody 
 Corey, and Procter and his wife, came in, in their apparition, 
 and struck her down, and said she should tell nothing." 
 
 What is given here in Italics, as an " apparitions^ 
 was of course based upon the declarations of the 
 accusing witnesses. It was an art they often prac- 
 tised in offering their testimony. They would cry 
 out, that the Devil, generally in the shape of a black 
 man, appeared to them at the time, whispering in the 
 
118 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ear of the accused, or sitting on the beams of the 
 meeting-house in "vrhich the examinations were gen- 
 erally conducted. On this occasion, they declared that 
 three of the persons, then in jail in some other place, 
 came in tiieir apparitions, forbade Mary Warren's 
 confession, and struck her down. To give full effect 
 to their statement, she went through the process of 
 tumbling down. Although nothing was seen by any 
 other person present, the deception was perfect. The 
 R.ev. Mr. Parris wrote it all down as having actually 
 occurred. His record of the transaction goes on as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Mary Warren continued a good space in a fit, that she 
 did neither see nor hear nor speak. 
 
 " Afterwards she started up, and said, ' I will speak,' and 
 cried out, ' Oh, I am sorry for it, I am sorry for it ! ' and 
 wringed her hands, and fell a little while into a fit again, 
 and then came to speak, but immediately her teeth were 
 set ; aad then she fell into a violent fit, and cried out, ' O 
 Lord, help me ! O good Lord, save me ! ' 
 
 '* And then afterwards cried again, 'I will tell, I will 
 tell ! ' and then fell into a dead fit again. 
 
 "And afterwards cried, 'I will tell, they did, they did, 
 they did ; ' and then fell into a violent fit again. 
 
 " After a little recovery, she cried, ' I will tell, I will tell. 
 They brought me to it ; ' and then fell into a fit again, 
 which fits continuing, she was ordered to be led out, and 
 the next to be brought in, viz., Bridget Bishop. 
 
 " Some time afterwards, she was called in again, but 
 immediately taken with fits for a while. 
 
 " ' Have you signed the Devirs book ? — No.' 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 119 
 
 " ' Have you not touched it ? — No/ 
 
 " Then she fell into fits again, and was sent forth for air, 
 
 "After a considerable space of time, she was brought in 
 again, but could not give account of things by reason of fits, 
 and so sent forth. 
 
 " Mary Warren called in afterwards in private, before 
 magistrates and ministers. 
 
 " She said, ' I shall not speak a word : but I will, I will 
 speak-, Satan ! She saith she will kill me. Oh ! she saith 
 she owes me a spite, and will claw me off. Avoid Satan, 
 for the name of God, avoid! * and then fell into fits again, 
 and cried, 'Will ye? I will prevent ye, in the name of 
 God.' " 
 
 The magistrate inquired earnestly : — 
 
 " ' Tell us how far have you yielded ? ' 
 
 " A fit interrupts her again. 
 
 " ' What did they say you should do, and you should be 
 well?' 
 
 " Then her lips were bit, so that she could not speak : 
 so she was sent away." 
 
 Mr. Parris, the reporter of the case, adds : — 
 
 "Note that not one of the sufferers was afflicted durino^ 
 
 o 
 
 her examination, after once she began to confess, though 
 they were tormented before." 
 
 She was subsequently examined in the prison 
 several times, falling occasionally into fits, and ex- 
 hibiting the appearance of a long-continued conflict 
 •with Satan, who was supposed to be resisting her 
 inclination to confess, and holding her with violence 
 
120 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to the contract she had made with him. The magis- 
 trates and ministers beheld with amazement and awe 
 what they believed to be precisely a similar scene to 
 that described by the evangelists when the Devil strove 
 against the power of the Saviour and his disciples, 
 and would not quit his hold upon the young man, 
 but " threw him down, and tare him." At length, as 
 in that case, Satan was overcome. After a protracted, 
 most violent, and terrible contest, Mary Wan-en got 
 released from his clutches, and made a full and cii'- 
 cimistantial confession. 
 
 Whoever studies carefully the account of Mary 
 Warren's successive examinations can hardly ques- 
 tion, I think, that she acted a part, and acted it with 
 wonderful cunning, skill, and effect. 
 
 This examination, beginning on Tuesday, the 19th 
 of April, continued after she was committed to prison 
 in Salem, at the jail there, for several days, and was 
 renewed at intervals until the middle of May. After 
 she had thoroughly broken away from Satan, she re- 
 vealed all that she had seen and heard while asso- 
 ciating with him and his confederate subjects : her 
 testimony was implicitly received, and it dealt death 
 and destruction in all directions. It is a circumstance 
 strongly confirming this view, that Mary .Warren was 
 soon released from confinement. It was the general 
 practice to keep those, who confessed, in prison, to retain 
 in that way power over them, and prevent their re- 
 canting their confessions. She is found, by the papers 
 on file, to have acted afterwards, as a capital witness. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 121 
 
 ag ainst te a persons, all of whom were convicted, and 
 seven executed. Eesides these, she testified, with the 
 appearance of animosity and vindictiveness, against her 
 master John Procter, and her mistress his wife ; thus 
 contributing to secure the conviction of both, and 
 the death of the former. In how many more cases 
 she figured in the same character and to the same 
 effect is unknown, as the papers in reference to only 
 a very small proportion of them have come down to 
 us. The interpretation I give to the course of Mary 
 Warren exhibits her guilt, and that of those partici- 
 pating in the stratagem, as of the deepest and blackest 
 dye. But it seems to be the only one which a scrutiny 
 of the details of her examinations, and of the facts of 
 the case, allows us to receive. The effect was most 
 decisive. The course of the accusing children in 
 crying out against one of their own number satisfied 
 the public, and convinced still more the magistrates, 
 that they were triithful, honest, and upright. They 
 had before given evidence that they paid no regard 
 to family influence or eminent reputation. They had 
 now proved that they had no partiality and no favor- 
 itism, but were equally ready to bring to light and to 
 justice any of their own circle who might fall into 
 the snare of the Evil One, and become confederate 
 with him. No dramatic artist, no cunning impostor, 
 ever contrived a more ingenious plot ; and no actors 
 ever carried one out better than Mary Warren and 
 the afi&icted children. 
 
 Giles Corey incurred hostility, perhaps, because his 
 
122 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 deposition relating to his wife did not come up to the 
 mark required. It is also highly probable, that, though 
 incensed at her conduct at the time, reflection had 
 brought him to his senses ; and that the circumstances 
 of her examination and commitment to prison produced 
 a re-action in his mind. If so, he would have been 
 apt to express himself veiy freely. His examination 
 took place April 19th, in the meeting-house at the 
 Yillage. The girls acted their usual part, charging 
 him, one by one, with having afflicted them, and 
 proving it on the spot by tortures and sufferings. 
 After they had severally got through, they all joined 
 at once in their demonstrations. The report made 
 by Parris says, " All the afflicted were seized now 
 with fits, and troubled with pinches. Then tlie Court 
 ordered his hands to be tied." The magistrates lost 
 all control of themselves, and flew into a passion, ex- 
 claiming, " What ! is it not enough to act witchcraft 
 at other times, but must you do it now, in face 
 of authority?" He seems to have been profoundly 
 affected by the marvellousness of the accusations, and 
 the exhibition of what to him was inexplicable in the 
 sufferings of the girls ; and all he could say was, " I 
 am a poor creature, and cannot help it." — " Upon the 
 motion^of his head again, they had their heads and 
 necks afflicted." The magistrates, not having recov- 
 ered their composure, continued to pour their wrath 
 upon him, " Why do you tell such wicked lies against 
 witnesses ? " — " One of his hands was let go, and 
 several were afflicted. He held his head on one side, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 123 
 
 and then the heads of several of the afflicted were 
 held on one side. He drew in his cheeks, and the 
 cheeks of some of the afflicted were sucked in." Goody 
 Bibber was on hand, and played her accompaniment. 
 She also uttered malignant charges against him, and 
 -" was siiddenl}^ seized with a violent fit." One of 
 Bibber's statements was that he had called her husband 
 " damned devilish rogue." Through all this outrage, 
 Corey was firm in asserting his innocence. His lan- 
 guage and manner were serious, and solemnized by 
 a sense of the helplessness of his situation and the 
 wicked falsehoods heaped upon him. His disagree- 
 ment with his wife about the witchcraft proceedings 
 being well known, the accusers endeavored to make 
 it out that they had often quarrelled. But he insisted 
 that the only difference which had before existed be- 
 tween them was a conflict of opinion on one point. 
 In his family devotions, he used this expression, " liv- 
 ing to God and dying to sin." She " found fault " with 
 the language, and criticised it. He thought it was all 
 right ! The characteristic spirit of the old man was 
 roused most strikingly by one of the charges. Bib- 
 ber and others testified that Corey had said he had 
 seen the Devil in the shape ' of a black hog, and 
 was very much frightened. He could not stand 
 under the imputation of cowardice, and lost sight of 
 every other element in the accusation but that. The 
 magistrate asked, " What did you see in the cow- 
 house? Why do you deny it?" — ''I saw nothing 
 but my cattle." — "(Divers witnessed that he told 
 
124 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 them he "vras frighted.)" — " Well, what do you say 
 to these witnesses ? What was it frighted you ? " — 
 " I do not know that ever I spoke the word in my 
 life." 
 
 But while his character retained its manliness, and 
 his soul was truly insensible to fear, he was very 
 much oppressed and distressed by his situation. The 
 share he had, with two of his sons-in-law, in bringing 
 his wife into her awful condition, and in driving on 
 the public infatuation at the beginning, was more than 
 he could endure to think of, and he was charged with 
 having meditated suicide. Perhaps he had already 
 formed the purpose afterwards carried into effect, and 
 may have dropped expressions, under that thought, 
 which to others might appear to indicate a design of self- 
 destruction. He was accused of having said that " he 
 would make away with himself, and charge his death 
 upon his son." His sons-in-law, Crosby and Parker, 
 were acting with the crowd that were pursuing him 
 to his death. Little did it enter the imagination of 
 any one then, that there was a method by which he 
 could " make away with himself," leaving the entire 
 act of the destruction of his life upon his persecutors, 
 and the sin to be apportioned between him and them 
 by the All-wise and All-just. 
 
 Abigail Hobbs had been a reckless vagrant creature, 
 wandering through the woods at night like a half- 
 deranged person ; but she had wit enough to see that 
 there was safety in confession. She pretended to 
 have committed, by witchcraft, crimes enough to have 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 125 
 
 hanged her a dozen times. If she had stood to her 
 confession, we should have heard of her no more. 
 
 Bridget Bishop's examination filled the intervals of 
 time while Mary Warren was being carried out of the 
 meeting-house to recover from her fits. Both Parris 
 and Ezekiel Cheever took minutes of it, from which 
 the substance is gathered as follows : • — 
 
 On her coming in, the afflicted persons, at the same 
 moment, severally fell into fits, and were dreadfully 
 tormented. Hathorne addressed her, calling upon her 
 to give an account of the witchcrafts she was " con- 
 versant in." She replied, "I take all this people to 
 witness that I am clear." He then asked the chil- 
 dren, " Hath this woman hurt you ? " They all cried 
 out that she had. The magistrate continuedj " You 
 are here accused by four or five : what do you say to 
 it ? " — "I never saw these persons before, nor I 
 never* was in this place before. I never did hurt 
 them in my life." 
 
 At a meeting of the afflicted children and others, 
 some one declared that Bridget Bishop was present " in 
 her shape " or apparition, and, pointing to a particular 
 spot, said, " There, there she is ! " Young Jonathan 
 Walcot, exasperated by his sister's sufferings, struck at 
 the spot with his sword ; whereupon Mary cried out, 
 " You have hit her, you have torn her coat, and I heard 
 it tear." This story had been brought to Hathorne's 
 ears ; and abruptly, as if to take her off her guard, 
 
 * The double negative, as often used, merely intensified the nega- 
 tion. See "Measure for Measure/' act i. scene 1. 
 
126 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 he said, "Is not your coat cut?" She answered, 
 "No." They then examined the coat, and found what 
 they regarded as having been " cut or torn two ways." 
 It was probably the fashion in which the garment was 
 made ; for she was in the habit of dressing more artis- 
 tically than the women of the Village. At any rate, 
 it did not appear like a direct cut of a sword ; but 
 Jonathan got over the difficulty by saying that " the 
 sword that he struck at Goody Bishop was not naked, 
 but was within the scabbard." This explained the 
 whole matter, so that Cheever says, in his report, 
 that " the rent may very probably be the very same 
 that Mary Walcot did tell that she had in her coat, 
 by Jonathan's striking at her appearance"! Parris 
 says, with more caution, more indeed than was usual 
 with him, " Upon some search in the Court, a rent, 
 that seems to answer what was alleged, was found." 
 Plathorne, having heard the scandals they had cir- 
 culated against her, proceeded ; " They say you be- 
 witched your first husband to death." — " If it please 
 Your Worship, I know nothing of it." — "What do 
 you say of these murders you are charged with ? " 
 — "I hope I am not guilty of murder." As she said 
 this, she .turned up her eyes, probably to give solem- 
 nity to her declaration. At the opening of the ex- 
 amination, she looked round upon the people, and 
 called them to witness her innocence. She had found 
 out by this time, that no justice could be expected from 
 them ; and feeling, with Rebecca Nurse on a recent 
 similar occasion, " I have got nobody to look to but 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 127 
 
 Grod," she turned her eyes heavenward. Instantly, the„ 
 eyeballs of all the gii'ls were rolled up in their sockets, 
 and fixed. The effect was awful, and still more in- 
 creased as they went, after a moment or two, into 
 dreadful torments. Hathorne could no longer con- 
 tain himself, but broke out, " Do you not see how they 
 are tormented ? You are acting witchcraft before us ! 
 What do you say to this ? Why have you not a heart 
 to confess the truth?" She calmly replied, "I am 
 innocent. I know nothing, of it. I am no witch. I 
 know not what a witch is." Tlie " afflicted children " 
 charged her with having tried to persuade them to sign 
 the Devil's book. As she had never before seen one of 
 them, she was indignant at this barefaced falsehood, 
 and, as Cheever says, " shooT: her head " in her resent- 
 ment ; which, as he further says, put them all into great 
 torments. Parri§ represents that in every motion of 
 her head they were tortured. ' Marshal Herrick, as 
 usual, put in his oar, and volunteered charges against 
 her. She bore herself well through the shocking scene, 
 and did not shrink, at its close, from expressing her 
 unbelief of the whole thing : " I do not know whether 
 there be any witches or no." When she was removed 
 from the place of examination, the accusers all had 
 fits, and broke forth in outcries of agony. After being 
 taken out, one of the constables in charge of her asked 
 her if she was not troubled to see the afflicted per- 
 sons so tormented ; and she replied, " No." In answer 
 to further questions, she indicated that she could not 
 
128 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 tell what to think of them, and did not concern her- 
 self about them at all. 
 
 Giles Corey, Bridget Bishop, Abigail Ilobbs, together 
 with Mary Warren, were duly committed to prison. 
 
 Two days after, April 21, warrants were issued 
 " against William Hobbs, husbandman, and Deliver- 
 ance his wife; Nehemiah Abbot, Jr., weaver; Mary 
 Easty, the wife of Isaac Easty ; and Sarah Wilds, the 
 wife of John Wilds, — all of the town of Topsfield, or 
 Ipswich ; and Edward Bishop, husbandman, and Sarah 
 his wife, of Salem Village ; and Mary Black, a negro of 
 Lieutenant Nathaniel Putnam's, of Salem Village also ; 
 and Mary English, the wife of Philip English, merchant 
 in Salem." All of them were to be delivered to the 
 magistrates for examination at the house of Lieu- 
 tenant Nathaniel Ingersoll, at about ten o'clock the 
 next morning, in Salem Village ; and were brought 
 in accordingly. 
 
 What the papers on file enable us to glean of these 
 nine persons is substantially as follows : William 
 Hobbs was about fifty years of age, and one of the 
 earliest settlers of the Village, although his resi- 
 dence was on the territory afterwards included in 
 Topsfield. His daughter Abigail, of whom I have 
 just spoken, appears from all the accounts to have 
 acted at this stage of the transaction a most wicked 
 part, ready to do all the mischief in her power, and 
 allowing herself to be used to any extent to fasten 
 the imputation of witchcraft upon others. Several 
 persons testified that, long before, she had boasted that 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 129 
 
 she was not afraid of any thing, " for she had sold 
 herself body and soul to the Old Boy ; " one witness 
 testified, that, " some time last winter, I was dis- 
 coursing with Abigail Hobbs about her wicked car- 
 riages and disobedience to her father and mother, 
 and she told me she did not care what anybody said to 
 her, for she had seen the Devil, and had made a cove- 
 nant or bargain with him ; " another, Margaret Knight, 
 testified, that, about a year before, " Abigail Hobbs 
 and her mother were at my father's house, and Abi- 
 gail Hobbs said to me, ' Margaret, are you baptized ? ' 
 And I said, ' Yes.' Then said she, * My mother is 
 not baptized, but I will baptize her ; ' and immediately 
 took water, and sprinkled in her mother's face, and 
 said she did baptize her ' in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost.' " 
 
 She was arrested, and brought to the Yillage, on the 
 19th of April. The next day, she began her opera- 
 tions by declaring that " Judah White, a Jersey maid " 
 that lived with Joseph Ligersoll at Casco, " but now 
 lives at Boston," appeared to her "in apparition" the 
 day before, and advised her to " fly, and not to go to 
 be examined," but, if she did go, " not to confess any 
 thing: " she described the dress of this " apparition," 
 — she "came to her in fine clothes, in a sad-colored 
 silk mantle, with a top-knot and a hood." — " She con- 
 fesseth further, that the Devil in the shape of a man 
 came to her," and charged her to afflict the girls ; 
 bringing images made of wood in their likeness with 
 thorns for her to prick into the images, which she 
 
 VOL. II. 9 
 
 \ 
 
130 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 did : whereupon the girls cried out that thej were hurt 
 bj her. She further confessed, that, " she was at the 
 great meeting in Mr. Parris's pasture, when they ad- 
 ministered the sacrament, and did eat of the red bread 
 and drink of the red wine, at the same time." This 
 confession established her credibility at once ; and, 
 the next day, the warrants were issued for the nine 
 persons above mentioned, against whom they had 
 secured in her an effective witness. She had resided 
 for some time at Casco Bay; and we shall soon see 
 how matters began in a few days to work in that direc- 
 tion. There are two indictments against this Abigail 
 Hobbs: one charging her with having made a cove- 
 nant with " the Evil Spirit, the Devil," at Casco Bay, 
 in 1688 ; the other with haviiig exercised the arts of 
 witchcraft upon the afflicted girls, at Salem Village, 
 in 1692. 
 
 When her unhappy father was brought to examina- 
 tion, he found that his daughter was playing into the 
 hands of the accusers ; and that his wife, overwhelmed 
 by the horrors of the situation, although for a time 
 protesting her innocence and lamenting that she had 
 been the mother of such a daughter, had broken 
 down and confessed, saying whatever might be put 
 in her mouth by- the magistrates, the girls, or the 
 crowd. Under these circumstances, he was brought 
 forward for examination. Parris took minutes of it. 
 It is to be regretted, that the paper is much dilapidated, 
 and portions of the lines wholly lost. What is left 
 shows that the mind of William Hobbs rose superior 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 131 
 
 to the terrors and powers arrayed against it. The 
 magistrate commenced proceedings by inquiring of the 
 girls, pointing to the prisoner, " Hath this man hurt 
 you ? " Several of them answered " Yes." Goody 
 Bibber, who seems generally to have been a very 
 zealous volunteer backer of the girls, on this occasion, 
 for a wonder, answered " No." The magistrate, ad- 
 dressing the prisoner, " What say you ? Are you 
 guilty or not ? " — Answer : " I can speak in the pres- 
 ence of God safely, as I must look to give account 
 another day, that I am as clear as a new-born babe ? " 
 — " Clear of what ? " — " Of witchcraft." — " Have 
 you never hurt these?" — "No." Abigail Williams 
 cried out that he " was going to Mercy Lewis ! " 
 Whereupon Mercy was seized with a fit. Then Abigail 
 cried out again, "He is coming to Mary Walcot!" 
 and Mary went into her fit. The magistrate, in con- 
 sternation, appealed to him ; " How can you be clear," 
 when your appearance is thus seen producing such 
 effects befoi'e our eyes ? Then the children went 
 into fits all together, and " hallooed " at the top 
 of their voices, and " shouted greatly." The magis- 
 trate then brought up the confession of his wife 
 against him, and expostulated with him for not con- 
 fessing ; the afflicted, in the mean while, bringing the 
 whole machinery of their convulsions, shrieks, and 
 uproar to bear against him : but he calmly, and in 
 brief terms, denied it. 
 
 The circle of accusing girls seems to have been a 
 receptacle, into which all the scandal, gossip, and 
 
 IL^ 
 
132 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 defamation of the surrounding country was emptied. 
 Some one had told them that William Hobbs was not 
 a regular attendant at meeting. They passed it on to 
 the magistrate, and he put this question to tlie accused : 
 "When were you at any public religious meeting?" 
 He replied, ''Not a pretty Avhile." — " Why so?" 
 
 — "Because I was not well: I had a distemper that 
 none knows." The magistrate said, "Can you act 
 witchcraft here, and, by casting your eyes, inrn folks 
 into fits?" — "You may judge your pleasure. My 
 soul is clear." — "Do you not see you hurt these by 
 your look?"— "No: I do not know it." After 
 another display of awful sufferings, caused, as they 
 protested, by the mere look of Hobbs, the magistrate, 
 with triumphant confidence, again put it home to him, 
 "Can you now deny it?" He answered, "I can 
 deny it to my dying day." The magistrate inquired 
 of him for what reason he withdrew from the room 
 whenever the Scriptures were read in his family. He 
 plumply denied it. Nathaniel Ingersoll and Thomas 
 Haynes testified that his daughter had told them 
 so. The confessions of his wife and daughter were 
 over and over again brought up against him, but to 
 no effect. " Who do you worship ? " said the magis- 
 trate. "I hope I worship God only." — "Where?" 
 
 — "In my heart." The examination failed to con- 
 found or embarrass him in the least. He could not 
 be drawn into the expression of any of the feelings 
 which the conduct of his graceless and depraved 
 daughter or his weak and wretched wife must have 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 133 
 
 excited. He quietly protested that lie knew nothing 
 about witchcraft ; and, towards the close, with solemn 
 earnestness of utterance, declared that his innocence 
 was known to the " great God in heaven." 
 
 He was committed for trial. All that the docu- 
 ments in existence inform us further, in relation to 
 William Hobbs, is that he remained in prison until 
 the 14th of the next December, when two of his neigh- 
 bors, John Nichols and Joseph Towne, in some way 
 succeeded in getting him bailed out ; they giving bonds 
 in the sum of two hundred pounds for his appear- 
 ance at the sessions of the Court the next month. 
 But it was not, even then, thought wholly safe to 
 have him come in; and the fine was incurred. He 
 appeared at the term in May, the fine was remitted, 
 and he discharged by proclamation. On the 26th of 
 March, 1714, he gave evidence in a case of common- 
 age rights. He was then seventy-two years of age. 
 Of his wife and daughter, I shall again have occasion 
 to speak. 
 
 For all that is known of the case of Nehemiah 
 Abbot, we are indebted to Hutchinson, who had 
 Parris's minutes of the examination before him. 
 Hutchinson says, that, of " near an hundred " whose 
 examinations he had seen, he was the only one who, 
 having been brought before the magistrates, was finally 
 dismissed by them. Perhaps even this case was not 
 an exception : for a document on file shows that a 
 person named Abbot of the same locality was sub- 
 sequently arrested and imprisoned ; but unfortunately 
 
134 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the Christian name has been obliterated, or from 
 some cause is wanting. It seems, from Hutchinson's 
 minutes, that he protested his innocence in manly 
 and firm declarations. Mary Walcot testified that she 
 had. seen his shape. Ann Putnam cried out that she 
 saw him "upon the beam." The magistrates told 
 him that his guilt was certainly px^oved, and that, if 
 he would find mercy of God, he must confess. '^ I 
 speak before God," he answered, " that I am clear 
 from this accusation." — "What, in all respects?" 
 — "Yes, in all respects." The girls were struck 
 with dumbness ; and Ann Putnam, re-affirming that 
 he was the man that hurt her, " was taken with a 
 fit." Mary Walcot began to waver in her confidence, 
 and Mercy Lewis, said, " It is not the man." This 
 unprecedented variance in the testimony of the girls 
 brought matters to a stand ; and he was sent out for 
 a time, while others were examined : — 
 
 " When he was brought in again, by reason of nauch 
 people, and many in the windows, so that the accusers 
 could not have a clear view of him, he was ordered to be 
 abroad, and the accusers to go forth to him, and view him 
 in the light, which they did in the presence of the magis- 
 trates and many others, discoursed quietly with him, one 
 and all acquitting him ; but yet said he was like that man, 
 but he had not the wen they saw in his apparition. Note, 
 he was a hilly-faced man, and stood shaded by reason of his 
 own hair ; so that for a time he seemed to some bystanders 
 and observers to be considerably like the person the afflicted 
 did describe.'' 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 135 
 
 Such is Parris's statement, as quoted by Hutchiu- 
 son. What was the real cause or motive of this dis- 
 crepancy among the witnesses does not appear. The 
 facts, that at first they went into fits in beholding him, 
 were all struck dumb for a while, and xVnn Put- 
 nam saw him on the beam, were likely to have an 
 mifavorable effect upon the minds of the people, and 
 threatened to explode the delusion. But Ann, with 
 a quickness of wit that never failed to meet any emer- 
 gency, when Mercy Lewis said it was not the man, 
 cried out in a fit, " Did you put a mist before my 
 eyes ? " She conveyed the idea that the power of 
 Satan blinded her, and caused her to mistake the 
 man. This answered the purpose ; and, although Abbot 
 got clear, for the time at least, all were more than 
 ever convinced that the Evil One, in misleading Ann, 
 had shown his hand on the occasion. 
 
 The examination of Sarah Wildes had no peculiar 
 features. The afflicted children and Goody Bibber 
 saw her apparition sitting on the beam while she 
 was bodily present at the bar, and went through their 
 usual fits and evolutions. She maintained her inno- 
 cence with dignity and firmness ; and the magistrate, 
 prejudging the case against her, rebuked her obsti- 
 nacy in not confessing, in his accustomed manner. 
 
 No account has come down of the examinations of 
 Edward Bishop, or Sarah his wife. He was the third 
 of that name, probably the son of the " Sawyer." 
 His wife Sarah was a daughter of William Wildes 
 of Ipswich, and, it would seem, a sister of John 
 
136 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Wildes, the examination of whose wife has just been 
 mentioned. Some of the evidence indicates that she 
 was a niece of Rebecca Nurse. They all belonged 
 to that class of persons who, under the general appella- 
 tion of " the Topsfield men," had been in such frequent 
 collision with the people of the Village. Edward 
 Bishop was forty-four years of age, and his wife forty- 
 one. They had a family, at the time of their imprison- 
 ment, of twelve children. Sarah Bishop had been 
 dismissed from the church at the Village, and rec- 
 ommended to that at Topsfield, May 25, 1690. They 
 had land in Topsfield, as well as in tlie Village, and 
 were more intimately connected in social relations with 
 the former than the latter place. They effected their 
 escape from prison, and survived the storm. Mary, 
 the wife of Philip English, was committed to prison. 
 We have no record of her examination. 
 
 Mary Black, the negro woman, belonged to Na- 
 thaniel Putnam, but lived in the family of his son 
 Benjamin. Her examination shows that she was an 
 ignorant but an innocent person. She knew nothing 
 about the matter, and had no idea what it all meant. 
 To the questions with which the magistrate pressed 
 her, her answers were, " I do not know," " I cannot 
 tell." The only fact brought out against her besides 
 the actings of the girls was this : " Her master saith 
 a man sat down upon the form with her about a 
 twelvemonth ago." Parris, in his minutes, gives this 
 piece of evidence, but does not enlighten us as to its 
 import. The magistrate asked her, " What did the man 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALE51 VILLAGE. 137 
 
 say to you ? " Her answer was : " He said nothing." 
 This is all they got out of her ; and it is all the light 
 we have on the mysterious fact, that a man was once 
 seated, at some time within twelve months, on the 
 same form or bench with poor Mary Black. The 
 magistrate asked the girls, " Doth this negro hurt 
 you?" They said "Yes." — "Why do you Imrt 
 them ? " — "I did not hurt them." This question was 
 put to her, " Do you prick sticks ? " perhaps the y 
 meaning was, Do you prick the afflicted children ^ 
 with sticks ? The simple creature evidently did not 
 know what they were driving at, and answered, " No : 
 I pin my neckcloth." The examiner asked her, 
 " Will you take out the pin, and pin it again ? " She 
 did so, and several of the afflicted cried out that they 
 were pricked. Mary Walcot was pricked in the arm 
 till the blood came, Abigail Williams was pricked 
 in the stomach, and Mercy Lewis was pricked in the 
 foot. It is probable, that, in this case, the girls, as 
 they often appear to have done, provided themselves 
 by concert beforehand with pins ready to be stuck 
 into the assigned parts of their bodies, and managed 
 to get the queer and unusual question put. The 
 whole thing has the appearance of being pre-arranged ; 
 and it answered the purpose, filling the crowd with 
 amazement, and excluding all possible doubt from the 
 minds of the magistrates. Mary was committed to 
 prison, where she remained until discharged, in May, 
 1693, by proclamation from the governor. 
 
 Mary Easty, wife of Isaac Easty, and sister of Re- 
 
 ; 
 
 /• • ' 
 
138 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 becca Nurse and Sarah Cloyse, was about fifty-eiglit 
 years of age, and the mother of seven children. Her 
 husband owned and lived upon a large and valuable 
 farm, which not many years since was the property 
 and country residence of the late Hon. B. W. Crown- 
 inshield, and is now in the possession of Tliomas 
 Pierce, Esq. Her examination was accompanied by 
 the usual circumstances. The girls had lits, and were 
 speechless at times : the magistrate expostulated with 
 her for not confessing her guilt, which he regarded 
 as demonstrated, beyond a question, by the sufferings 
 of the afflicted. " Would you have me accuse my- 
 self?'' — "How far," he continued, "have you com- 
 plied with Satan?" — "Sir, I never complied, but 
 prayed against him all my days. What would you 
 have me do?" — "Confess, if you be guilty." — "I 
 will say it, if it was my last time, I ^m clear of 
 this sin." The magistrate, apparently affected by her 
 manner and bearing, inquired of the girls, " Are you 
 certain this is the woman ? " They all went into fits ; 
 and presently Ann Putnam, coming to herself, said 
 " that was the woman, it was like her, and she told me 
 her name." The accused clasped her hands together, 
 and Mercy Lewis's hands were clenched ; she separ 
 rated her hands, and Mercy's were released ; she in- 
 clined her head, and the girls screamed out, " Put up 
 her head ; for, while her head is bowed, the necks of 
 these are broken." The magistrate again asked, " Is 
 this the woman ? " They made signs that they could 
 not speak ; but afterwards Ann Putnam and others 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 139 
 
 cried out: "0 Goody Easty, Goody Eastj, you are 
 the woman, you are the wo:nau ! " — "What do you 
 say to this ? " — " Why, God will kaow." — '• ^Xv, God 
 knows now." — "I know he does." — " What did you 
 think of the actions of others before your sisters came 
 out ? did you think it was witchcraft ? " — ''I cannot 
 tell." — "Why do you not think it is witchcraft?" 
 — "It is an evil spirit; but whether it be witchcraft 
 I do not know." She was committed to prison. 
 
 It will be noticed that seven out of the nine exam- 
 ined at this time either lived in Topsfield or were 
 intimately connected with the church and people there. 
 The accusing girls had heard them angrily spoken of 
 by the people around them, and availed themselves, 
 as at alPtimes, of existing prejudices, to guide them 
 in the selection of their victim. 
 
 The escape of Abbot, and the wavering, in his case 
 and that of Easty, indicated by the magistrates on this 
 occasion, alarmed the prosecutors ; and they felt that 
 something must be done to stiffen Hathorne and Cor- 
 win to their previous rigid method of procedure. The 
 following letter was accordingly written to them that 
 very day, immediately after the close of the examina- 
 tions : — 
 
 " These to the Honored John Hathorne and Jonathan Cortvin, 
 
 Esqrs.^ living at Salem^ present, 
 
 " Salem Village, this 21st of April, 1692. 
 " Much Honored, — After most humble and hearty 
 thanks presented to Your Honors for the great care and 
 pains you have already taken for us, — for "which you know 
 
140 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 we are never able to make you recompense, and we believe 
 you do Qot expect it of us ; therefore a full reward will be 
 given you of the Lord God of Israel, whose cause and in- 
 terest you have espoused (and we trust this sliall add to 
 your crown of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus) : and 
 we — beholding continually the tremendous works of Divine 
 Providence, not only every day, but every hour — thought it 
 our duty to inform Your Honors of what we conceive you 
 have not heard, which are high and dreadful, — of a Avheel 
 within a wheel, at which our ears do tingle. Humbly crav- 
 ing continually your prayers and help in this distressed case, 
 — so, praying Almighty God continually to prepare you, 
 that you may be a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them 
 that do well, we remain yours to serve in what we are able, 
 
 " Thomas Putnam." 
 
 What was meant by the " wheel within a wheel," 
 the "high and dreadful" things which were making 
 their ears to tingle, but had not yet been disclosed 
 to the magistrates, we shall presently see. On the 
 30th of April, Captain Jonathan Walcot and Sergeant 
 Thomas Putnam (the writer of the foregoing letter) 
 got ont a warrant against Philip English, of Salem, 
 merchant ; Sarah Morrel, of Beverly ; and Dorcas 
 Hoar, of the same place, widow. Morrel and Hoar 
 were delivered by Marshal Herrick, according to the 
 tenor of the warrant, at 11, a.m., May 2, at the house 
 of Lieutenant Nathaniel Ingersoll, in Salem Village. 
 The warrant has an indorsement in these words : 
 " Mr. Philip English not being to be found. G. H." 
 As the records of the examinations of Philip English 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 141 
 
 and his wife have not been preserved, and only a few 
 fragments of the testimony relating to their case are 
 to be found, all that can be said is that the girls and 
 their accomplices made their usual charges against 
 them. There are two depositions in existence, how- 
 ever, which afford some explanation of the causes that 
 exposed Mr. English to hostility, and indicate the kind 
 of evidence that was brought against him. Having 
 many landed estates, in various places, and extensive 
 business transactions, he was liable to frequent ques- 
 tions of litigation. He was involved, at one time, in 
 a lawsuit about the bounds of a piece of land in 
 Marblehead. A person named William Beale, of that 
 town, had taken great interest in it adversely to the 
 claims of English; and some harsh words passed 
 between them. A year or two after the affair, Beale 
 states, " that, as I lay in my bed, in the morning, pres- 
 ently after it was fair light . abroad in the room," 
 " I saw a dark shade," &c. To Ijis vision it soon 
 assumed the shape of Philip English. On a previ- 
 ous occasion, when riding through Lynn to get testi- 
 mony against English in the aforesaid boundary case, 
 he says, " My nose gushed out bleeding in a most 
 extraordinary manner, so that it ioloodied a hand- 
 kerchief of considerable bigness, and also ranXdown 
 upon my clothes and upon my horse's mane." He 
 charged it upon English. These depositions were 
 sworn to in Court, in August, 1692, and January, 
 1693. How they got there does not appear, as English" 
 was never brought to trial. All that relates to Mr. 
 
142 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 English and his wife may be despatched at this pomt. 
 Ou the 6th of May, a warrant Avas procured at Boston, 
 " To the marshal-general, or his lawful deputy," to 
 apprehend Philip Engiisli wherever found within the 
 jurisdiction, and convey him to the " custody of the 
 marshal of Essex." Jacob Manning, a deputj^-mar- 
 shal, delivered him to the marshal of Essex on the 
 30th of May; and he Avas brought before the magis- 
 trates on the next day, and, after examination, com- 
 mitted to prison. He and his Avife effected their 
 escape from jail, and found refuge in New York 
 until the proceedings were terminated, when they 
 returned to Salem, and continued to reside here. 
 She survived the shock given by the accusation, the 
 danger to which she had been exposed, and the suffer- 
 ings of imprisonment, but a short time. They occu- 
 pied the highest social position. He was a merchant, 
 conducting an extensive business, and had a large 
 estate ; owning fourteen buildings in the town, a 
 wharf, and twenty-one sail of vessels. His dAvelling- 
 house, represented in the frontispiece of this volume, 
 stood until a recent period, and is remembered by many 
 of us. Its site was on the southern side of Essex 
 Street, near its termination ; comprising the area be- 
 tween English and Webb Streets. It must have been 
 a beautiful situation ; commanding at that time a 
 full, unobstructed view of the Beverly and Marblehead 
 shores, and all the waters and points of land between 
 them. ' The mansion was spacious in its dimensions, 
 and bore the marks of having been constructed in the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 143 
 
 best style of elegance, strength, and finisli. It was 
 indeed a curious and venerable specimen of the do- 
 mestic architecture of its day. A first-class house 
 then ; in its proportions, arrangements, and attach- 
 ments, it would compare well with first-class houses 
 now. Mrs. English was a lady of eminent character 
 and culture. Traditions to this effect have come down 
 with singular uniformity through all the old families 
 of the place. She was the only child of Richard 
 HoUingsworth, and inherited his large property. The 
 Rev. William Bentley, D.D., in his "Description of 
 Salem," and whose daily life made him conversant 
 with all that relates to the locality of Mrs. English's 
 residence, says that the officer came to apprehend 
 her in the evening, after she had retired to rest. He 
 was admitted by the servants, and read his warrant 
 in her bedchamber. Guards were placed around the 
 house. To be accused by the afflict^ children was , 
 then regarded as certain death. " In thesmorning," 
 says Bentley, "^he attended the devotions of her 
 family, kissed her children with great composure, 
 proposed her plan '> for their education, took leave of 
 them, and then told the officer she was ready to die." 
 Dr. Bentley suggests that unfriendly feelings may 
 have existed a^inst Mr. English in consequence of 
 some. controversies he had been engaged in with the 
 town about the* title to lands; that the superior 
 style in which 1t|s family lived had subjected them 
 to vulgar prejudice; that the existence oT this, feel- 
 ing becoming known to the " afflicted girls " led them 
 
144 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to cry out against him and his wife. It may be so. 
 They availed themselves of every such advantage ; 
 and particularly liked to strike high, so as the more 
 to astound and overawe the public mind. 
 
 I find no further mention of Sarah Morrel. She 
 doubtless shared the fate of tliosc escaping death, — a 
 long imprisonment. When Dorcas Hoar was brought 
 in, there was a general commotion among the afflicted, 
 falling into fits all around. After coming out of them, 
 they vied with each other in heaping all sorts of accu- 
 sations upon the prisoner ; Abigail Williams and 
 Ann Putnam charging her with having choked a 
 Avomau in Boston ; Elizabeth Hubbard crying out that 
 she was pinching her, " and showing the marks to 
 the standers by. The marshal said she pinched her 
 fingers at the time." The magistrate, indignantly 
 believing the whole, said, " Dorcas Hoar, why do you 
 hurt these ? " — "I never hurt any child in my life." 
 The girls then charged her with having killed her hus- 
 band, and with various other crimes. Mary Walcot, 
 Susanna Sheldon, and Abigail Williams said they 
 saw a black man whispering in her ear. The spirit 
 of the prisoner was raised ; and she said, " Oh, you 
 J are liars, ajjd God will stop the mouth of liars ! '^ The 
 ,' anger of the magistrates was roused by this bold out- 
 ■ break. " You are not to speak after this manner in 
 \ the Court."— -"I will speak the truth as long as I 
 ' live/' she fearlessly replied. Parris says, at the close 
 of his account, " The afflicted were much distressed 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 145 
 
 during lier examination." Of course, she was sent to 
 prison. 
 
 Susanna Martin of Amesbury, a widow, was arrested 
 on a warrant dated April 30, and examined at the 
 Village church May 2. She is described as a short 
 active woman, wearing a hood and scarf, plump and 
 well developed in her figure, of remarkable personal 
 neatness. One of the items of the evidence against 
 her was, that, *' in an extraordinary dirty season, when 
 it was not fit for any person to travel, she came on 
 foot" to a house at Newbury. The woman of the 
 house, the substance of whose testimony I am giving? 
 having asked, " whether she came from Amesbury 
 afoot," expressed her surprise at her having ventured 
 abroad in such bad walking, and bid her children make 
 way for her to come to the fire to dry herself. She 
 replied " she was as dry as I was," and turned her 
 coats aside ; " and I could not perceive that the soles 
 of her shoes were wet. I was startled at it, that she 
 should come so dry ; and told her that I should have 
 been wet up to my knees, if I should have come so 
 far on foot." She replied that '/she scorned to have a 
 drabbled tail.'\ The good woman who treated Susanna 
 Martin on this occasion with such hospitable kind- 
 ness received the impression, as appears by the import 
 of her deposition, that, because Martin came into the 
 house so wonderfully dry, she was therefore a witch. 
 The ionly inference we are likely to draw is, that she 
 was a particularly ueat person ; careful to pick her 
 
 VCL, II. 10 
 
146 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 way ; and did not wear skirts of the dimensions of 
 our times. 
 
 The language reported by this witness to have been 
 used by Susanna Martin created in her, at the time, 
 visible mortification, as well as resentment. A writer 
 at the period, not by any means inclined to give a rep- 
 resentation favorable to the prisoners, reports her ex- 
 pression thus : " She scorned to be drabbled." She 
 was undoubtedly a woman who spoke her mind freely, 
 and with strength of expression, as the magistrates 
 found. Pi'om this cause, perhaps, she had shocked 
 the prejudices and violated the conventional scrupu- 
 losities then prevalent, to such a degree as to incur 
 much comment, if not scandal. Tliere had been a 
 good deal of gossip about her ; and, some time before, 
 she had been proceeded against as a witch. But there 
 was no ground for any serious charges against her 
 character. Like Mrs. Ann Hibbens, perhaps the head 
 and front of her offending was that she had more 
 wit than her neighbors. She certainly was a strong- 
 minded woman, as her examination shows. Two re- 
 ports of it, each in the handwriting of Pari'is, have 
 come down to us. They are almost identical, and in 
 substance as follows : — 
 
 On the appearance of the accused, many of the wit- 
 nesses against her instantly fell into fits. The magis- 
 trate inquired of them, — 
 
 "Hath this woman hurt you?" 
 
 " (Abigail Williams declared that she had hurt her 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 147 
 
 often. * Ann Putnam threw her glove at her in a fit,' and 
 the rest were struck dumb at her presence.) 
 
 " "What ! do you laugh at it ? said the magistrate. — Well 
 I may at such folly. 
 
 " Is this folly to see these so hurt? — I never hurt man, 
 woman, or child. 
 
 " (Mercy Lewis cried out, * She hath hurt me a great 
 many times, and plucks me down.' Then Martin laughed 
 again. Several others cried out upon her, and the magis- 
 trate again addressed her.) 
 
 " What do you say to this ? — I have no hand in 
 witchcraft. 
 
 " What did you do ? did you consent these should be 
 hurt ? — No, never in my life. 
 
 "What ails these people? — I do not know, 
 
 "But what do you think ails them? — I do not desire 
 to spend my judgment upon it. 
 
 " Do you think they are bewitched ? — No : I do not think 
 they are. 
 
 " Well, tell us your thoughts about them. — My thoughts 
 are mine own Avhen they are in ; but, when they are out, they 
 are another's. 
 
 " Who do you think is their master? — If they be deal- 
 ing in the black art, you may know as well as I. 
 
 "What have you done towards the hurt of these? — I 
 have done nothing. 
 
 " Why, it is you, or your appearance. — I cannot help it. 
 
 "How comes your appearance just now to hurt these? 
 — How do I know? 
 
 "Are you not willing to tell the truth? — I cannot tell. 
 He that appeared in Samuel's shape can appear in any one's 
 shape. 
 
148 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " Do you believe these afflicted persons do not say true ? 
 — They may He, for aught I know. 
 
 "May not you lie? — I dare not tell a lie, if it would 
 save my life." 
 
 At this point, the marshal declared that " she 
 pinched her hands, and Elizabeth Hubbard was imme- 
 diately afflicted. Several of the afflicted cried out 
 that they saw her upon the beam " of the meeting- 
 house over their heads ; and there was, no doubt, a 
 scene of frightful excitement. The magistrate, in 
 the depth of his aAve and distress, earnestly appealed 
 to the accused, " Pray God discover you, if you 
 be guilty." Nothing daunted, she replied, '' Amen, 
 amen. A false tongue will never make a guilty 
 person." A great uproar then arose. The accusers 
 fell into dreadful convulsions, amojig the rest John 
 Indian, who cried out, " She bites, she bites ! " The 
 magistrate, overcome by the sight of these suffer- 
 ings, again appealed to her, " Have not you com- 
 passion for these afflicted ? " She calmly and firmly 
 answered, " No : I have none." The uproar rose 
 higher. The accusers all declared that they saw 
 the '^ black man," Satan himself, standing by her 
 side. They pretended to try to approach her, but 
 were suddenly deprived of the power of locomotion. 
 John Indian attempted to rush upon her, but fell 
 sprawling upon the floor. The magistrate again ap- 
 pealed to her: "What is the reason these cannot 
 come near you?" — "I cannot tell. It may be the 
 Devil bears me more malice than another." — "Do 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 149 
 
 you not see God evidently discovering you ? " — '^ No, 
 not a bit for that." — "All the congregation besides 
 think so."- — "Let them think what they will." — 
 "What is the reason these cannot come to you?" — "I 
 do not know but tliey can, if they will ; or else, if you 
 please, I will come to them." — " What was tliat the 
 black man whispered to you?" — " Tiiere was none 
 wliispered to me." She was committed to prison. 
 
 In the mean while, preparations had been going on 
 to bring upon the stage a more striking character, 
 and give to the excited public mind a greater shock 
 than had yet been experienced. Intimations had been 
 thrown out that higher culprits than had been so far 
 brought to light were in reserve, and would, in due 
 time, be unmasked. It was hinted that a minister 
 had joined the standard of the Arch-enemy, and was 
 leading the devilish confederacy. In the accounts 
 given of the diabolical sacraments, a man in black 
 had been described, but no name yet given. As 
 Charles the Second, while they were hanging the regi- 
 cides, at the Restoration, was looking about for a 
 preacher to hang, and used Hugh Peters for the 
 occasion ; so the " afflicted children," or those acting 
 behind them, wanted a minister to complete the drama- 
 tis personce of their tragedy. His connection with 
 the society and its controversies, and the animosities 
 which had thus become attached to him, naturally 
 suggested Mr. Burroughs. He was then pursuing, 
 as usual, a laborious, humble, self-sacrificing minis- 
 try, in the midst of perils and privations, away 
 
150 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEBI VILLAGE. 
 
 down in the frontier settlements on the coast of 
 Maine, and little dreamed of wiiat was brewing, for 
 his ruin and destruction, in his former parish at the 
 village. This is what Thomas Putnam had in his 
 mind when he spoke of a " wlieel within a wheel," 
 and "the high and dreadfnl" things not then dis- 
 closed that were to make " ears tingle." 
 
 It was necessary to be at once cautious and rapid 
 in their movements, to prevent the public from getting 
 information which, b}'^ reaching the ears of Burroughs, 
 might put him on his guard. It was no easy thing 
 to secure him at the great distance of his place of resi- 
 dence. If he should become apprised of what was going 
 on, his escape into remoter and inaccessible settlements 
 would have baffled the whole scheme. Nothing there- 
 fore was done at the village, but the steps to arrest him 
 originated at Boston. Elisha Hutchinson, a magis- 
 trate there, issued the proper order, addressed to 
 John Partridge of Portsmouth, Field-marshal of the 
 provinces of New Hampshire and Maine, dated April 
 30, 1692, to arrest George Burroughs, " preacher at 
 Wells ; " he being " suspected of a confederacy with the 
 Devil." Partridge was directed to deliver him to the 
 ciistody of the marshal of Essex, or, not meeting him, 
 was requested to bring him to Salem, and hand him 
 over to the magistrates there. The " afflicted chil- 
 dren " had begun, shortly before, to use his name. 
 Abigail Hobbs had resided some years before at 
 Casco ; and from her they obtained all the scandal 
 she had heard there, or chose to fabricate to suit the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEiM VILLAGE. 151 
 
 purpose of the prosecutors. The "way in wliich the 
 minds of the deluded people were worked up against 
 Mr. BuiTOughs is illustrated in a deposition subse- 
 quently made to this effect : — 
 
 Benjamin Hutchinson testified, that, on the 21st of 
 April, 1692, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Abi- 
 gail Williams told him that she saw a person whom 
 she described as Mr. George Burroughs, ^* a little black 
 mmister that lived at Casco Bay." Mr. Burroughs 
 was of small stature and dark complexion. She gave 
 an account of his wonderful feats of strength, said 
 that he was a wizard ; and that he " had killed three 
 wives, two for himself and one for Mr. Lawson." She 
 affirmed that she saw him then. Mr. Burroughs, it 
 will be borne in mind, was at this time a hundred 
 miles away, at his home in Maine. Hutchinson 
 asked her where she saw him. She said " There," 
 pointing to a rut in the road made by a cart-wheel. 
 He had an iron fork in his hand, and threw it where 
 she said Burroughs was standing. Instantly she fell 
 into a fit ; and, when she came out of it, said, " ' You 
 have torn his coat, for I heard it tear.' — 'Where- 
 abouts ? ' said I. ^ On one side,' said she. Then we 
 came into the house of Lieutenant Ingersoll ; and I 
 went into the great room, and Abigail came in and 
 said, ^ There he stands.' I said, ' Where ? where ? ' and 
 presently di-ew my rapier." Then Abigail said, he has 
 gone, but " ' there is a gray cat.' Then I said, ' Where- 
 abouts ? ' ' There ! ' said she, ^ there ! ' Then I struck 
 with my rapier, and she . fell into a fit ; and, when it 
 
 \ 
 
152 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 was over, she said, 'You killed her.'" Poor Hutch- 
 inson could not see the cat he had killed any more 
 than Burroughs's coat he had torn. Abigail ex- 
 plained the myster}^ to his satisfaction, by saying that 
 the spectre of Sarah Good had come in at the moment, 
 and carried away the dead cat. This was all in broad 
 daylight; it being, as Hutchinson testified, "about 
 twelve o'clock." The same day, " after lecture, in said 
 Ingersoll's chamber/' Abigail Williams and Mary 
 Walcot were present. They said that " Goody Hobbs, 
 of Topsfield, had bit Mary Walcot by the foot." Then 
 both fell into a fit ; and on coming out, " they saw 
 William Hobbs and his wife go both of them along 
 the table." Hutchinson instantly stabbed, with his 
 rapier, " Goody Hobbs on her side," as the two girls 
 declared. They further said that the room was " full 
 of them," that is of witches, in their apparitions ; then 
 Hutcliinsou and Eleazer Putnam " stabbed with their 
 rapiers at a venture." The girls cried out, that they 
 " had killed a great black woman of Stonington, and 
 an Indian who had come with her : " the girls said 
 further, " The floor is all covered with blood ; " and, 
 rushing to the window, declared that they saw a great 
 company of witches on a hill, and that three of them 
 "lay dead" there, — "the black woman, the Indian, 
 and one more that they knew not." This was about 
 four o'clock in the afternoon. This evidence was given 
 and received in court. It shows the audacity with 
 which the girls imposed upon the credulity of a people 
 wrought up by their arts to the highest pitch of in- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 153 
 
 sane infatuation ; and illustrates a condition of things, 
 at that time and place, that is truly astonishing. 
 
 On the evening before Hutchinson was imposed 
 upon, as just described, by Abigail Williams and Mary 
 Walcot, Ann Putnam had made most astonishing dis- 
 closures, at her father's house, in his presence and 
 that of Peter Prescott, Robert Morrel, and Ezeldel 
 Cheever. An account of the affair was drawn up by 
 her father, and sworn to by her, in these words : — 
 
 '* The Deposition of Ann Putnam, who testifielh and 
 saith, on the 20th of April, 1692, at evening, she saw the 
 apparition of a minister, at which she was grievously af- 
 frighted, and cried out, ' Oh, dreadful, dreadful ! here is a 
 minister come ! What ! are ministers witches too ? Whence 
 came you, and what is your name ? for I will complain of 
 you, though you be a minister, if you be a wizard.' Imme- 
 diately I was tortured by him, being racked and almost 
 choked by him. And he tempted me to Avrite in his book, 
 which I refused with loud outcries, and said I would not 
 write in his book though he tore me all to pieces, but told 
 him it was a dreadful thing that he, which was a minister, 
 that should teach children to fear God, should come to 
 persuade poor creatures to give their souls to the Devil. 
 ' Oh, dreadful, dreadful ! Tell me your name, that I may 
 know who you are.' Then again he tortured me, and 
 urged me to write in his book, which I refused. And 
 then, presently, he told me that his name was George 
 Burroughs, and that he had had three wives, and that he had 
 bewitched the two first of them to death ; and that he killed 
 Mrs. Lawson, because she was so unwilling to go from the 
 Village, and also killed Mr. Lawson*s child because he went 
 
154 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to the eastward with Sir Edmon, and preached so to the 
 soldiers ; aud that he had bewitched a great many soldiers 
 to death at the eastward when Sir Edmon was there ; and 
 that ,he had made Abigail Hobbs a witch, and several 
 ■witches more. And he has continued ever since, by times, 
 tempting me to write in his book, and grievously torturing 
 me by beating, pinching, and almost choking me several 
 times a day. He also told me that he was above a witch. 
 He was a conjurer." 
 
 Her father and the other persons present made 
 oath that they saw aud heard all this at the time ; 
 that " they beheld her tortures and perceived her 
 hellish temptations by her loud outcries, ' I will not, 
 I will not write, though you torment me all the days 
 of my life.' " It will be observed that this was the 
 evening before Thomas Putnam wrote his letter to 
 the magistrates, preparing them for something " high 
 and dreadful " that was soon to be brought to light. 
 
 A similar scene took place not long afterwards, in 
 the presence of her father and her uncle Edward, to 
 which they also testify. It was thus described by 
 her under oath : — 
 
 " The Deposition of Ann Putnam, who testifieth and 
 saith, that, on the 8th of May, at evening, I saw the appa- 
 rition of Mr, George Burroughs, who grievously tortured 
 me, and urged me to write in his book, which I refused. 
 He then told me that his tAvo first wives would appear 
 to me presently, and tell me a great many lies, but I should 
 not believe them. Then immediately appeared to me the 
 forms of two women in winding-sheets, and napkins about 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 155 
 
 their heads, at which I was greatly affrighted ; and they 
 turned their faces towards Mr. Burroughs, and looked very 
 red and angry, and told him that he had been a cruel 
 man to them, and that their blood did cry for vengeance 
 against him ; and also told him that they should be clothed 
 with white robes in heaven, when he should be cast into 
 hell : and immediately he vanished away. And, as soon as 
 he was gone, the two women turned their faces towards 
 me, and looked as pale as a white wall ; and told me that 
 they were Mr. Burroughs's two first wives, and that he had 
 murdered them. And one of them told me that she was 
 his first wife, and he stabbed her under the left arm, and 
 put a piece of sealing-wax on the wound. And she pulled 
 aside the winding-sheet, and showed me the place ; and also 
 told me, that she was in the house where Mr. Parris now 
 lives, when it was done. And the other told me, that Mr, 
 Burroughs and that wife which he hath now, killed her in 
 the vessel, as she was coming to see her friends, because 
 they would have one another. And they both charged me 
 that I should tell these thinj2:s to the mao:istrates before 
 Mr. Burroughs' face ; and, if he did not own them, they 
 did not know but they should appear there. This morning, 
 also, Mrs. Lawson and her daughter Ann appeared to me, 
 whom I knew, and told me Mr. Burroughs murdered them. 
 This morning also appeared to me another woman in a 
 winding-sheet, and told me that she was Goodman Fuller's 
 first wife, and Mr. Burroughs killed her because there was 
 some difference between her husband and him." 
 
 This was indeed most extraordinary language and 
 imagery to have been used by a child of twelve years \ 
 of age. It is not strange, that, upon a community, 
 
156 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 whose fancies and fears had been so long wrought iipon, 
 holding their views, the effect was awfnlly great. The 
 very fact that it was a chiki that spoke made her 
 declarations seem supernatural. Then, again, they 
 were accompanied with such ocular demonstration, 
 in her terrible bodily sufferings, that none remained in 
 doubt of the truthfulness and reality of what they lis- 
 tened to and beheld. It did not enter their imagina- 
 tions, for a moment, that there was any deception or 
 imposture, or even delusion, on her part. Her case is 
 truly a problem not easily solved even now. While 
 we are filled with horror and indignation at the thought 
 that she figures as a capital and fatal witness in all 
 the trials, it is impossible not to feel that a wisdom 
 greater than ours is necessary to fathom the dark mys- 
 tery of the phenomena presented by her and her 
 mother and other accusers, in this monstrous and ter- 
 rible affair. 
 
 Tliese occurrences, happening just before Mr. Bur- 
 roughs was brought to the village as a prisoner, were 
 bruited from house to house, from mouth to mouth, 
 and worked the people to a state of horrified exaspera- 
 tion against him ; and he was met with execration, 
 when, on the 4th of May, Field-marshal Partridge ap- 
 peared with him at Salem, and delivered him to the 
 jailer there. When we consider the distance and the 
 circumstances of travel at that time, it is evident that 
 the officers charged with the service acted with the 
 greatest promptitude, celerity, and energy. The tradi- 
 tion is, that they found Mr. Burroughs in his humble 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 157 
 
 home, partaking of his frugal meal; that he was 
 snatched from the table without a moment's opportu- 
 nity to provide for his family, or prepare himself for 
 the journey, and hurried on his way roughly, and 
 without the least exphmation of what it all meant. 
 As soon as it was known that he was in jail in Salem, 
 arrangements were commenced for his examination. 
 The public mind was highly excited ; and it was deter- 
 mined to make the occasion as impressive, effective, 
 and awe-striking as possible. Another "field-day" 
 was to be had. On the 9th of May, a special session of 
 the Magistracy was held, — William Stoughton coming 
 from Dorchester, and Samuel Sewall from Boston, to 
 sit with Hathorne and Corwin, and givfe greater 
 solemnity and severity to the proceedings. Stoughton 
 presided. The first step in the proceedings was to have 
 a private hearing, in the presence of the magistrates 
 and ministers only ; and the report of what passed 
 there gives proof of what is indicated more or less 
 clearly in several passages in the accounts that have 
 come down to us in reference to Mr. Burroughs, — 
 that he was regarded as not wholly sound in doctrine 
 on points not connected with witchcraft, was treated 
 with special severity on that account, and made the 
 victim of bigoted prejudice among his brethren and in 
 the churches. In this secret inquisition, he was called 
 to account for not attending the communion service 
 on one or two occasions ; he being a member of the 
 church at Roxbury. It was also brought against him, 
 that none of his children but the eldest had been 
 
158 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 baptized. What the facts, in these respects, were, it 
 is impossible to say ; as we know of them only through 
 the charo-es of his enemies. After this, he was carried 
 to the place of public meeting ; and, as he entered the 
 room, '' many, if not all, the bewitched were grievously 
 tortured." After the confusion had subsided, Su- 
 sanna Sheldon testified that Burroughs' two wives 
 had appeared to her "in their winding-sheets," and 
 said, " That man killed them." He was ordei^ed to 
 look on the witness ; and, as he turned to do so, he 
 " knocked down," as the reporter affirms, " all (or 
 most) of the afflicted that stood behind him." Ann 
 Putnam, and the several other " afflicted children," 
 bore their testimony in a similar strain against him, 
 interspersing at intervals, all their various convulsions, 
 outcries, and tumblings. Mercy Lewis had " a dread- 
 ful and tedious fit." Walcot, Hubbard, and Sheldon 
 were cast into torments simultaneously. At length, 
 they were " so tortured " that " authority ordered 
 them " to be removed. Their sufferings were greater 
 than the magistrates and people could longer endure 
 to look upon. The question was put to Burroughs, 
 " what he thought of these things." He answered, 
 " it was an amazing and humbling providence, but he 
 understood nothing of it." Throwing aside all the 
 foolish and ridiculous gossip and all the monstrous 
 fables that belong to the accusations against him, and 
 looking at the only known facts in his history, it 
 appears that Mr. Burroughs was a man of ingenuous 
 nature, free from guile, unsuspicious of guile in 
 
■WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 159 
 
 others ; a disinterested, humble, patient, and generous 
 person. He had suffei*ed much wrong, and endured 
 great hardships in life ; but they had not impaired his 
 readiness to labor and suffer for others. There was 
 no combativeness or vindictiveness in his disposition. 
 Even in the midst of the unspeakable outrages he was 
 experiencing on this occasion, he does not appear to 
 be incensed or irritated, but simply " amazed." To 
 have such horrid crimes laid to him, instead of rousing 
 a violent spirit within him, impressed him with a hum- 
 bling sense of an inscrutable Providence. There is a 
 remarkable similarity in the manner in which Rebecca 
 Nurse and George Burroughs received the dreadful 
 accusations brought against them. " Surely," she 
 said, " what sin hath God found out in me unrepented 
 of that he should lay such an affliction upon me in my 
 old age ? " His words are, " It is an humbling provi- 
 dence of God." The more we reflect upon this lan- 
 guage, and go to the depths of the spirit that suggested 
 it, the more we realize, that, in each case, it arose from 
 a sanctified Christian heart, and is an attestation in 
 vindication and in honor of the sufferers from whose 
 lips it fell, that outweighs all passions and prejudices, 
 reverses all verdicts, and commands the conviction of 
 all fair and honest minds. 
 
 After the " afflicted " had been sent out of the room, 
 there was testimony to show that Mr. Burroughs had 
 given proof of physical strength, which, in a man of 
 his small stature, was sure evidence that he was in 
 league with the Devil. Many marvellous statements 
 
160 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 
 
 were made to this effect, some of the most extrava- 
 gant of which he denied. He undoubtedly was a 
 person of great sti-ength. He had cultivated muscu- 
 lar exercise and development while an undergraduate 
 at Cambridge, and was early celebrated as a gymnast. 
 After a while, the accusers and afflicted were again 
 brought in. Abigail Hobbs testified that she was pres- 
 ent at a " witch meeting, in the field near Mr. Parris's 
 house," in which Mr. Burroughs acted a conspicuous 
 part. Mary Warren swore that " Mr. Burroughs had 
 a trumpet which he blew to summon the witches to 
 their feasts " and other meetings " near Mr. Parris's 
 house." This trumpet had a sound that reached over 
 the country far and wide, sending its blasts to Ando- 
 ver, and wakening its echoes along the Merrimack, to 
 Cape Ann, and the uttermost settlements everywhere ; 
 so that the witches, hearing it, would mount their 
 brooms, and alight, in a moment, in Mr. Parris's 
 orchard, just to the north and west of the parsonage ; 
 but its sound was not heard by any other ears than 
 those of confederates with Satan. While the girls were 
 giving their testimony, every once in a while they 
 would be dreadfully choked, appearing to be in the 
 last stages of suffocation and strangulation ; and, com- 
 ing to, at intervals, would charge it upon Burroughs 
 or other witches, calling them by name ; generally, 
 however, confining their selection to persons already 
 apprehended, and not bringing in others until meas- 
 ures were matured. Mr. Burroughs was committed 
 for trial. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 161 
 
 The examination of Mr. Burroughs presented a 
 spectacle, all things considered, of rare interest and 
 curiosity, — the grave dignity of the magistrates ; the 
 plain, dark figure of the prisoner ; the half-crazed, half- 
 demoniac aspect of the girls ; the wild, excited crowd ; 
 the horror, rage, and pallid exasperation of Lawson, 
 Goodman Fuller and others, also of the relatives and 
 friends of Burroughs's two former wives, as the deep 
 damnation of their taking off and the secrets of their 
 bloody graves were being brought to light ; and the 
 child on the stand telling her awful tale of ghosts 
 in winding-sheets, with napkins round their heads, 
 pointing to their death-wounds, and saying that " their 
 blood did cry for vengeance" upon their murderer. 
 The prisoner stands alone : all were raving around him, 
 while he is amazed ; astounded at such folly and 
 wrong in others, and humbly sensible of his own un- 
 worthiness ; bowed down under the mysterious Provi- 
 dence, that permitted such things for a season, yet 
 strong and steadfast in conscious innocence and up- 
 rightness. 
 
 To complete the proceedings against Burroughs at 
 this time, and raise to the highest point the public 
 abhorrence of him, effective use was made of Deliver- 
 ance Hobbs, the wife of William Hobbs, of whom I 
 have spoken before. She was first examined April 
 22. During the earlier part of the proceedings, she 
 maintained her integrity and protested her innocence 
 in a manner which shows that her self-possession held 
 good. But the examination was protracted ; her 
 
 TOL. II. 11 
 
162 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 strength -vras exhausted ; the declarations of the ac- 
 cusers, their dreadful sufferings, the prejudgment of the 
 case against her by the magistrates, and the combined 
 mfluences of all the circumstances around her, broke 
 her down. Her firmness, courage, and truth fled ; and 
 she began to confess all that was laid to her charge. 
 The record is interesting as showing how gradually 
 she was overwhelmed and overcome. But while men- 
 tioning the names of others whom she pretended to 
 have been associated with as witches, she did not speak 
 of Eurroughs. She referred to those who had been 
 brought out before that date, but not to him. The in- 
 tended movement against him had not then been 
 divulged. On the 3d of May, the day before he arrived, 
 after it was known that officers had been sent to arrest 
 him, she was examined again. On this occasion, she 
 charged Burroughs with having been present, and 
 taken a leading part in witch-meetings, which she had 
 described in detail, at her first examination, without 
 mentioning him at all. This proves that the confess- 
 ing prisoners were apjorised of what it was desired 
 they should say, and that their testimony was pre- 
 pared for them by the managers of the affair. The 
 following is one of the confessions made by this woman, 
 subsequent to her public examination. I give it partly 
 to show what a flood of falsehood was poured upon 
 Burroughs, and partly because it will serve as a 
 specimen of the stuff of which the confessions were 
 composed : — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 163 
 
 " The First Examination of Deliverance liohhs in Prison, 
 — She contiQued in the free acknowledging herself to be a 
 covenant witch: and further coufesseth she was warned to 
 a meeting yesterda}- morning, and that there "was present 
 Procter and his wife, Goody Nurse, Giles Corey and his wife, 
 Goody Bishop alias Oliver ; and Mr. Burroughs was their 
 preacher, and pressed them to bewitch all in the village, 
 telling them they should do it gradually, and not all at once, 
 assuring them they should prevail. He administered the 
 sacrament unto them at the same time, with red bread and 
 red wine like blood. She affirms she saw Osburn, Sarah 
 Good, Goody Wilds, Goody Nurse : and Goody Wilds dis- 
 tributed the bread and wine ; and a man in a long-crowned 
 white hat sat next the minister, and they sat seemingly at a 
 table, and they filled out the wine in tankards. The notice 
 of this meeting was given her by Goody Wilds. She, her- 
 self affirms, did not nor would not eat nor drink, but all the 
 rest did, who were there present ; therefore they threatened 
 to torment her. The meeting was in the pasture by Mr. 
 Parris's house, and she saw when Abigail Williams ran out 
 to speak with them ; but, by that time Abigail was come a 
 little distance from the house, this examinant was struck 
 blind, so that she saw not with whom Abigail spake. She 
 further saith, that Goody Wilds, to prevail with her to sign, 
 told her, that, if she would put her hand to the book, she 
 would give her some clothes, and would not afflict her any 
 more. Her daughter, Abigail Hobbs, being brought in at 
 the same time, while her mother was present, was im- 
 mediately taken with a dreadful fit ; and her mother, being 
 asked who it was that hurt her daughter, answered it was 
 Goodman Corey, and she saw him and the gentlewoman of 
 Boston strivinp; to break her daughter's neck." 
 
164 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Oil the next da}^, warrants were procured against 
 George Jacobs, Sr., and iiis graiid-daiighter, Margaret 
 Jacobs. They were forthwith seized and brought in 
 by Constable Josepli Neal, of Salem, whose return is 
 as follows : " May 10, 1692. Then I apprehended the 
 bodies of George Jacobs, Sr., and Margaret, daughter of 
 George Jacobs, Jr., according to the tenor of the above 
 warrant." The examinations, on this occasion, were 
 held at the house of Thomas Beadle, in the town of 
 Salem. All the preliminary examinations, so far as 
 existing documents shoAV, were either in the meeting- 
 house at the village or that of the town ; or at the 
 house of Nathaniel IngersoU at the village, or Thomas 
 Beadle in the town, — both being inns, or places of 
 public entertainment. Beadle's house was on the south 
 side of Essex Street, on land now occupied by Nos. 
 63 and 65. The eastern boundary of the lot Avas forty- 
 nine feet from Ingersoll's Lane, now Daniels Street. 
 Its front on Essex Street was about sixty feet, and -its 
 depth about one hundred and forty-five feet. What is 
 now No. Q5 is on the very spot where Beadle's tavern 
 stood ; and with the exception of six feet built, as an 
 addition, on the eastern side, subsequently to 1733, is 
 probably tlie identical house. The ground now occu- 
 pied by No. 63 was then an open space. It appears by 
 bills of expenses brought " against the country," that 
 the inn of Samuel Beadle, a brother of Thomas, was 
 also sometimes used for purposes connected with the 
 prosecutions. Thomas Beadle's bill amounted to £58. 
 lis. 5d, ; that of Samuel to £21. The latter, being 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 165 
 
 near the jail, was probably used for the entertainment 
 of constables and tlie keeping of their horses, as well 
 as other incidental purposes connected with the trans- 
 portation of prisoners. 
 
 A tradition has long prevailed, that the house, still 
 standing, of Jndge Jonathan Corwin, at the western 
 corner of North and Essex Streets, was used at these 
 examinations. One form in which this tradition has 
 come down is probably correct. The grand jury was 
 often in session while the jury for trials was hearing 
 cases in the Court>-house. There may not have been 
 suitable accommodations for both in that building. 
 The confused sounds and commotions incident to the 
 trials would have been annoying to the grand jury. 
 The tradition is, that a place was provided and used 
 temporarily by that body, in the Corwin house, sup- 
 posed to have been the spacious room at the south- 
 eastern corner. As the investigations of the grand 
 jury were not open to the public, its occasional sittings 
 would not be seriously incompatible with the con- 
 venience of a family, or detrimental to the grounds or 
 apartments of a handsome private residence. Indeed, 
 it would hardly have been allowable or j^racticable to 
 have had the examinations before the magistrates in 
 any other than a public house. They were always fre- 
 quented by a promiscuous crowd, and generally scenes 
 of tumultuary disorder. 
 
 George Jacobs, Sr., was an aged man. He is repre- 
 sented in the evidence as " very gray-headed ; " and he 
 must have been quite infirm, for he walked with two 
 
166 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 staffs. His hair was iu long, thin, white locks ; and, 
 as he was uncommonl}'" tall of stature, he must have had 
 a venerable aspect. Perhaps he was the " man in a long- 
 crowned white hat," referred to by Deliverance Ilobbs. 
 The examination shows that his faculties \verc vigor- 
 ous, his bearing fearless, and his utterances strong and 
 decided. The magistrates began : " Here are them that 
 accuse you of acts of witchcraft." — " Well, let us hear 
 who are they and what are they." When Abigail 
 Williams testified against him, going through un- 
 doubtedly her usual operations, he could not refrain 
 from expressing his contempt for the whole tiling by a 
 laugh ; explaining it by saying, " Because I am falsely 
 accused — your worships all of you, do you think this 
 is true ? " They answered, " Nay : what do you think ? " 
 '' I never did it." — " Who did it ? " — " Don't ask me." 
 The magistrates always took it for granted that the 
 pretensions and sufferings of the girls were real, and 
 threw upon the accused the responsibility of explaining 
 them. They continued : " Why should we not ask 
 you ? Sarah Churchill accuseth you. There she is." 
 Jacobs was of opinion that it was not for him to ex- 
 plain the actions of the girls, but for the prosecuting 
 party to prove his guilt. " If you can prove that I 
 am guilty, I will lie under it." Then Sarah Churchill, 
 who was a servant in his family, said, " Last niglit, 
 I was afflicted at Deacon Ingersoll's ; and Mary Walcot 
 said it was a man with two staves : it was my master." 
 It seems, that, after the proceedings against Burroughs 
 were over, a meeting of " the circle" took place in the 
 
WITCHCRAFr AT SALEM VILLAGE. 167 
 
 evening, at Deacon Ingersoll's, at which there was a 
 repetition of the actings of the girls ; and that Mary 
 Walcot suggested to Churchill to accuse her master. 
 This shows the way in which the delusion was kept 
 up. Probably, such meetings were held at one house 
 or another in the village, and fresh accusations brought 
 forward, continually. Jacobs appealed to the magis- 
 trates, trying to recall them to a sense of fau-ness. 
 " Pray, do not accuse me : I am as clear as your wor- 
 ships. You must do right judgment." Sarah Churchill 
 charged him with having hurt her ; and the magistrates, 
 pushing her on to make further charges, said to her, 
 " Did he not appear on the other side of the river, and 
 hurt you ? Did not you see him ? " She answered, 
 " Yes, he did." Then, turning to him, the magistrates 
 said, " There, she accuseth you to your face : she char- 
 geth you that you hurt her twice." — " It is not true. 
 What would you have me say ? I never wronged no 
 man in word nor deed." — -"Is it no harm to afflict 
 these ? " — "I never did it." — " But how comes it to 
 be in your appearance?"—" The Devil can take any 
 likeness," — "Not without their consent." Jacobs 
 rejected the imputation, " You tax me for a wizard : 
 you may as well tax me for a buzzard. I have done no 
 harm." Churchill said, " I know you lived a wicked 
 life." Jacobs, turning to the magistrates, said, " Let 
 her make it out." The magistrates asked her, " Doth 
 he ever pray in his family? " She replied, " Not un- 
 less by himself." The magistrates, addressing him: 
 " Why do you not pray in your family ? " — "I cannot 
 
168 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 read." — " Well, but you may pray for all that. Can 
 you say the Lord's Prayer ? Let us hear you." The 
 reporter, Mr. Parris, says, " He missed hi several 
 parts of it, and could not repeat it right after many 
 trials." The magistrates, addressing her, said, " Were 
 you not frighted, Sarah Cliurchill, wlieu the repre- 
 sentation of your master came to j^ou ? " — "Yes." 
 Jacobs exclaimed, '• Well, burn me or hang me, T will 
 stand in the truth of Christ : I know nothing of it." 
 In answer to an inquiry from the magistrates, he denied 
 having done any thing to get his son George or grand- 
 daughter Margaret to '' sign the book." 
 
 The appearance of the old man, his intrepid bearing, 
 and the stamp of conscious innocence on all he said, 
 probably produced some impression on the magistrates, 
 as they did not come to any decision, but adjourned 
 the examination to the next day. The girls then 
 came down from the village in full force, deter- 
 mined to put him through. When he was brought 
 in, they accordingly, all at once, " fell into the most 
 grievous fits and screechings." When they sufficiently 
 came to, the magistrates turned to the girls : " Is this 
 the man that hurts you ? " They severally answered, 
 — Abigail Williams : *' This is the man," and fell into a 
 violent fit. Ann Putnam : " This is the man. He hurts 
 me, and brings the book to me, and would have me 
 write in the book, and said, if I would write in it, 
 I should be as well as his grand-daughter." Mercy 
 Lewis, after much interruptions by fits : " This is the 
 man: he almost kills me." Elizabeth Hubbard: "He 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 169 
 
 never hurt me till to-day, when he came upon the 
 table." Mary Walcot, after much interruption by fits : 
 " This is the man : he used to come with two staves, 
 and beat me with one of them." After all this, the 
 magistrates, thinking he could deny it no longer, turn 
 to him, " What do you say ? Are you not a witch ? " 
 " No : I know it not, if I were to die presently." Mercy 
 Lewis advanced towar-ds him, but, as soon as she got 
 near, " fell into great fits."- — " What do you say to 
 this ? " cried the magistrates. " Why, it is false. I 
 know not of it any more than the child that was born 
 to-night." The reporter says, " Ann Putnam and 
 Abigail Williams had each of them a pin stuck in 
 their hands, and they said it was this old Jacobs." 
 He was committed to prison. 
 
 The following piece of evidence is among the loose 
 papers on file in the clerk's office : — 
 
 '' The Deposition .of Sarah Ingersoll, aged about 
 thirty years. — Saith, that, seeing Sarah Churchill after her 
 examination, she came to me crying and wringing her 
 hands, seemingly to be much troubled in spirit. I asked 
 her what she ailed. She answered, she had undone her- 
 self. I asked her in Avhat. She said, in belying herself and 
 others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book, 
 whereas, she said, she never did. I told her I believed she 
 had set her hand to the book. She answered, crying, and 
 said, ' No, no, no : I never, I never did.' I asked her then 
 what made her say she did. She answered, because they 
 threatened her, and told her they would put her into the 
 dungeon, and put her along with Mr. Burroughs ; and thus 
 
170 WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 several times she followed me up and down, telling me that 
 she had undone herself, in belying herself and others. I 
 asked her why she did not deny she Avrote it. She told me, 
 because she had stood out so long in it, that noAV she durst 
 not. She said also, that, if she told Mr. Noyes but once 
 she had set her hand to the book, he would believe her ; but, 
 if she told the truth, and said she had not set her hand to the 
 book a hundred times, he would not believe her. 
 
 •' Sahaii Ingersoll." 
 
 This paper has also the signature of " Ann An- 
 drews." 
 
 This incident probably occurred during the exami- 
 nation of George Jacobs ; and the bitter compunction 
 of Churchill was in consequence of the false and ma- 
 lignant course she had been pursuing against her old 
 master. It is a relief to our feelings, so far as she is 
 regarded, to suppose so. Bad as her conduct was as 
 one of the accusers, on other occasions after I am. 
 sorry to say as well as before, it shows that she was 
 not entirely dead to humanity, but realized the iniquity 
 of which she had been guilty towards him. It is the 
 only instance of which we find notice of any such a 
 remnant of conscience showing itself, at the time, 
 among those perverted and depraved young persons. 
 The reason, why it is probable that this exhibition of 
 Churchill's penitential tears and agonies of remorse 
 occurred immediately after the first day of Jacobs's 
 examination, is this. It was one of the first, if not 
 the first, held at the house of Thomas Beadle. Sarah 
 IngersoU would not have been likely to have fallen in 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 171 
 
 with her elsewhere. It is evident, from the tenor and 
 purport of the document, that the deponent was not 
 entirely carried away by the prevalent delusion, and 
 probably did not follow up the proceedings generally. 
 But it was quite natural that her attention should 
 have been called to proceedings of interest at Beadle's 
 house, particularly on that first occasion. She lived 
 in the immediate vicinity. The indorsement by Ann 
 Andrews, the daughter of Jacobs, increases the prob- 
 ability that the occurrence was at his examination. 
 
 The representatives of the family of John Ingersoll, 
 — a brother of Deacon Nathaniel Ingersoll, — in 1692, 
 occupied a series of houses on the west side of Dan- 
 iels Street, leading from Esses Street to the harbor. 
 The widow of John's son Nathaniel lived at the corner 
 of Essex and Daniels Streets ; the next in order was 
 the widow of his son John ; the nest, his daughter 
 Buth, wife of Richard Rose ; the next, the widow of 
 his son Richard ; the last, his son Samuel, whose house 
 lot extended to the water. Sarah, the witness in this 
 case, was the wife of Samuel, and afterwards became 
 the second wife of Philip English. One of her .chil- 
 dren appears to have married a son of Beadle. Their 
 immediate proximity to the Beadle house, and conse- 
 quent intimacy with his family, led them to become 
 conversant with what occurred there ; ''and Sarah Inger- 
 soll was, in that way, likely to meet Churchill, and to 
 have the conversation with her to which she deposes. 
 
 This brief deposition of Sarah Ingersoll is, in many 
 particulars, an important and instructive paper. It 
 
172 TV^ITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 
 
 exhibits incidentally the means employed to keep the 
 accusing girls and confessing -witnesses from falling 
 back, and, by overawing them, to prevent their acknowl- 
 edging the falseness of their testimony. It shows how 
 difficult it was to obtain a hearing, if they were dis- 
 posed to recant. It presents Mr. No3^cs — as all along 
 there is too much evidence compelling us to admit 
 — acting a part as bad as that of Parris ; and it dis- 
 closes the fact, that Mr. Burroughs, although not yet 
 brought to trial, was immured in a dungeon. 
 
 No papers are on file, or have been obtained, in 
 reference to the examination of Margaret Jacobs, which 
 was at the same time and place with that of her grand- 
 father. We shall hear of her in subsequent stages of 
 the transaction. 
 
 On the same day — May 10 — that George and Mar- 
 garet Jacobs were apprehended and examined, a wai'- 
 rant was issued against John Willard, " husbandmanj" 
 to be brought to Thomas Beadle's house in Salem. 
 On the 12th, John Putnam, Jr., constable, made return 
 that he had been to " the house of the usual abode of 
 Jolm Willard, and made search for him, and in several 
 other houses and places, but could not find him ;" and 
 'that " his relations and friends " said, " that, to their 
 best knowledge, he was fled." On the 15th, a warrant 
 was issued to the marshal of Essex, and the constables 
 of Salem, " or any other marshal, or marshal's constable 
 or constables within this their majesty's colony or terri- 
 tory of the Massachusetts, in New England," requiring 
 them to apprehend said Willard, " if he may be found 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 173 
 
 in your precincts, who stands charged with sundr}'' 
 acts of witchcraft, by him done or committed on the 
 bodies of Bray "Wilkins, and Samuel Wilkins, the son 
 of Henry Wilkins," and others, upon complaint made 
 "by Thomas Fuller, Jr., and Benjamin Wilkins, Sr., 
 yeomen ; who, being found, you are to convey from 
 town to town, from constable to constable, ... to 
 be prosecuted according to the direction of Constable 
 John Putnam, of Salem Village, who goes with the 
 same." On the 18th of May, Constable Putnam 
 brought in Willard, and delivered him to the magis- 
 trates. He Avas seized in Groton. There is no record 
 of his examination ; but we gather, from the papers 
 on file, the following facts relating to this interesting 
 case : — 
 
 It is said that Willard had been called upon to aid 
 in the arrest, custody, and bringing-in of persons ac- 
 cused, acting as a deputy-constable ; and, from his 
 observation of the deportment of the prisoners, and 
 from all he heard and saw, his sympathies became 
 excited in their behalf; and he expressed, in more or 
 less unguarded terms, his disapprobation of the pro- 
 ceedings. He seems to have considered all hands 
 concerned in the business — accusers, accused, magis- 
 trates, and people — as alike bewitched. One of the 
 witnesses against him deposed, that he said, in a " dis- 
 course " at the house of a relative, " Hang them : they 
 are all witches." In consequence of this kind of 
 talk, in which he indulged as early as April, he in- 
 curred the ill-will of the parties engaged in the prose- 
 
174 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM! VILLAGE. 
 
 cutious ; and it was Avhispercd about that he was 
 himself in the diabolical confederacy. He Avas a 
 grandson of Bray Wilkins ; and the mind of the old 
 man became prejudiced against him, and most of his 
 family connections and neighbors partook of the feel- 
 ing. When Willard discovered that such rumors were 
 in circulation against him, he went to his grand- 
 father for counsel and the aid of his prayers. He 
 met with a cold reception, as appears by the deposition 
 of the old man as follows : — 
 
 " AVhen John Willard was first complained of by the 
 afflicted persons for afflicting of them, he came to my house, 
 greatly troubled, desiring me, with some other neighbors, to 
 pray for him. I told him I was then going from home, and 
 could not stay ; but, if I could come home before night, I 
 should not be unwilling. But it was near night before I came 
 home, and so I did not answer his desire; but I heard no more 
 of him upon that account. AVhether my not answering his 
 desire did not offend him, I cannot tell ; but I was jealous, 
 afterwards, that it did." 
 
 Willard soon after made an engagement to go to 
 Boston, on election-week, with Henry Wilkins, Jr. A 
 son of said Henry Wilkins, named Daniel, — a youth 
 of seventeen years of age, who had heard the stories 
 against Willard, and believed them all, remonstrated 
 with his father against going to Boston with Willard, 
 and seemed much distressed at the thought, saying, 
 among other things, " It were well if the said Willard 
 were hanged." 
 
 Old Bray Wilkins must go to election too ; and so 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 175 
 
 started off on horseback, — the only mode of travel 
 then practicable from Will's Hill to Winnesimit Fcrrj^, 
 — with his wife on a pillion behind him. He was eighty- 
 two years of age, and she probably not mucli less ; for 
 she had been the wife of his youth. The old couple 
 undoubtedly had an active time that week in Boston. 
 It was a great occasion, and the whole country flocked 
 in to partake in the ceremonies and services of the 
 anniversary. On Election-day, with his wife, he rode 
 out to Dorchester, to dine at the house of his '^ brother. 
 Lieutenant Richard Wa3^" Deodat Lawson and his 
 new wife, and several more, joined them at table. Be- 
 fore sitting down, Henry Wilkins and John Willard 
 also came in. Willard, perhaps, did not feel very 
 agreeably towards his grandfather, at the time, for 
 having shown an unwillingness to pray with him. The 
 old man either saw, or imagined he saw, a very \in- 
 pleasant expression in Willai*d's countenance. " To 
 my apprehension, he looked after such a sort upon me 
 as I never before discerned in any." The long and 
 hard travel, the fatigues and excitements of election- 
 week, were too much for the old man, tough and rugged 
 as lie was ; and a severe attack of a complaint, to which 
 persons of his age are often subject, came on. He 
 experienced great sufferings, and, as he expressed it, 
 " was like a man on a rack." 
 
 " I told my wife immediately that I was afraid that Willard 
 had done me wrong ; my pain continuing, and finding no re- 
 lief, my jealousy continued. Mr. Lawson and others there 
 were all amazed, and knew not what to do for me. There was 
 
176 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 a "woman accounted skilful came hoping to help me, and after 
 she had used means, she asked me whetlier none of those 
 evil persons had done me damage. I said, I could not say 
 they had, but I was sore afraid they had. She answered, 
 she did fear so too. . . . As near as I remember. I lay in 
 this case three or four da3's at Boston, and afterward, Avith 
 the jeopardy of my life (as I thought), I came home." 
 
 On his return, lie found his grandson, the same 
 Daniel who had warned Henry Wilkins against going 
 to Boston with John Willard, on his death -bed, in 
 great suffering. Another attack of his own malady 
 came on. There was great consternation in the neigh- 
 borhood, and throughout the village. The Devil and 
 his confederates, it was thought, were making an awful 
 onslaught upon the people at Will's Hill. Parris and 
 others rushed to the scene. Mercy Lewis and Mary 
 "Walcot were carried up to tell who it was that was be- 
 witching old Bray, and young Daniel, and others of the 
 Wilkinses who had caught the contagion, and were 
 experiencing or imagining all sorts of bodily ails. 
 They were taken to the room Avhere Daniel was ap- 
 proaching his death-agonies ; and they both affirmed, 
 that they saw the spectres of old Mrs. Buckley 
 and John Willard "upon his throat and upon his 
 . breast, and pressed him and choked him ; " and the 
 cruel operation, they insisted upon it, continued until 
 the boy died. The girls were carried to the bedroom 
 of the old man, who was in great suffering; and, when 
 they entered, the question was put by the anxious and 
 excited friends in the chamber to Mercy Lewis, whether 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEftf VILLAGE. 177 
 
 she saw any thing. She said, " Yes : they are looking 
 for John Willard." Presently she pretended to have , 
 caught sight of his apparition, and exclaimed, " There \ 
 he is upon his grandfather's belly." This was thought 
 wonderful indeed ; for, as the old man says in a depo- 
 sition he drew xip afterwards, " At that time I was in 
 grievous pain in the small of my belly." 
 
 Mrs. Ann Putnam had her story to tell about John 
 Willard. Its substance is seen in a deposition drawn 
 up about the time, and is in the same vein as her 
 testimony in other cases ; presenting a problem to 
 be solved by those who can draw the line between 
 semi-insane hallucination and downright fabrication. 
 Her deposition is as follows : — 
 
 "That the shape of Samuel Fuller and Lydia "Wilkins. 
 this day told me at my own house by the bedside, who ap- 
 peared in winding-sheets, that, if I did not go and tell Mr. 
 Hathorne that John Willard had murdered them, they would 
 tear me to pieces. I knew them when they were living, and 
 it was exactly their resemblance and shape. And, at the 
 same time, the apparition of John Willard told me that he 
 had killed Samuel Fuller, Lj'dia Wilkins, Goody Shaw, and 
 Fuller's second wife, and Aaron Way's child, and Ben Fuller's 
 child ; and this deponeut's child Sarah, six weeks old ; and 
 Piiilip Knight's child, with the help of William Hobbs ; and 
 Jonathan Knight's child and two of Ezekiel Cheever's child- 
 ren with the help of William Ilobbs ; Anne Eliot and 
 Isaac Nichols with the help of AYilliara Hobbs ; and that if 
 Mr. Hathorne would not believe them, — that is, Samuel 
 Fuller and Lydia Wilkins, — perhaps they would appear to 
 
 VOL. II. 12 
 
178 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the magistrates. Joseph Fuller's apparition the same dtiy 
 also came to me, and tokl me that Goody Corey hud killed 
 him. The spectre aforesaid told me, that vengeance, ven- 
 geance, was cried by said Fuller. This relation is true. 
 
 " Ann rtJTNAflr." 
 
 It appears by such papers as are to be found relating 
 to Willard's case, that a coroner's jury was held over the 
 body of Daniel AVilkius, of which Nathaniel Putnam 
 was foreman. It is much to be regretted that the 
 finding of that jury is lost. It would be a real 
 curiosity. That it was very decisive to the point, 
 affirmed by Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcot, that Daniel 
 was choked and sti^angled by the spectres of John 
 Willard and Goody Buckley, is apparent from the 
 manner in which Bray Wilkins speaks of it. In an 
 argument between him and some persons who were 
 expressing their confidence that John Willard was an 
 innocent man, he sought to relieve himself from re- 
 sponsibility for Willard's conviction by saying, " It 
 was not I, nor my son Benjamin Wilkins, but the 
 testimony of the afflicted persons, and the jury con- 
 cerning the murder of my grandson, Daniel Wilkins, 
 that would take away his life, if any thing did." Mr. 
 Parris, of course, was in the midst of these proceedings 
 at WilFs Hill; attended the visits of the afflicted girls 
 when they went to ascertain who were the witches 
 murdering young Daniel and torturing the old man ; 
 was present, no doubt, at the solemn examinations and 
 investigations of the sages who sat as a jury of inquest 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 179 
 
 over the former, and, in all likcliliood, made, as 
 usual, a written report of the same. As soon as he 
 got back to his house, he discharged his mind, and 
 indorsed the verdict of the coroner's jury hy this 
 characteristic insertion in his church-records : " Dan : 
 Wilkins. Bewitched to death." The very next 
 entry relates to a case of which this obituary line, iii 
 Mr. Parris's church-book, is the only intimation that 
 has come down to us, " Daughter to Ann Douglas. By 
 witchcraft, I doubt not." Willard's examination was 
 at Beadle's, on the 18th. With this deluge of accusa- 
 tions and tempest of indignation beating upon him, he 
 had but little chance, and was committed. 
 
 While the marshals and constables were in pursuit 
 of Willard, the time was well improved by the prose- 
 cutors. On the 12th of May, warrants were issued to 
 apprehend, and bring " forthwith " before the magis- 
 trates sitting at Beadle's, " Alice Parker, the wife of 
 John Parker of Salem ; and Ann Pudeator of Salem, 
 widow." Alice, commonly called Elsie, Parker was 
 the wife of a mariner. We know but little of her. 
 We have a deposition of one woman, Martha Dutch, 
 as follows : — 
 
 " This deponent testified and saith, that, about two years 
 last past, John Jarman, of Salem, coming in from sea, I 
 (this deponent and Alice Parker, of Salem, both of ns stand- 
 ing together) said unto her, ' What a great mercy it was, for 
 to see them come home well ; and through mercy,' I said, 
 ' my husband had gone, and come home well, many times.' 
 And I, this deponent, did say unto the said Parker, that ' I 
 
180 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 did hope he Avould come home this voyage well also.* And 
 the said Parker made answer imto me, and said, ' No : never 
 more in this world.' The which came to pass as she then 
 told me ; for he died abroad, as I certainly hear." 
 
 Perhaps Parker had information which had not 
 reached the ears of Dutch, or she may have been 
 prone to take melancholy views of the dangers to 
 which seafaring people are exposed. It was a< strange 
 kind of evidence to be admitted agamst a person in a 
 trial for witchcraft. 
 
 Samuel Shattuck, who has been mentioned (voh i. 
 p. 193) in connection with Bridget Bishop, had a 
 long story to tell about Alice Parker. He seems to 
 have been very active in getting up charges of witch- 
 craft against persons in his neighborhood, and on the 
 most absurd and frivolous grounds, Parker had 
 made a friendly call upon his wife ; and, not long after, 
 one of his children fell sick, and he undertook to 
 suspect that it was " under an evil hand." In simi- 
 lar circumstances, he took the same grudge against 
 Bridget Bishop. Alice Parker, hearing that he had 
 been circulating suspicions to that effect against her, 
 went to his house to remonstrate ; an angry alter- 
 cation took place between them; and he gave his 
 version of the affair in evidence. There was no one 
 to px'esent the other side. But the whole thing has, 
 not only a one-sided, but an irrelevant character, in no 
 wise bearing upon the point of witchcraft. All the 
 gossip, scandal, and tittle-tattle of the neighborhood 
 for twenty years back, in this case as in others, was 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 181 
 
 raked up, and allowed to be adduced, however utterly 
 remote from the questions belonging to the trial. 
 
 The following singular piece of testimony against 
 Alice Parker may be mentioned. John Westgate was 
 at Samuel Beadle's tavern one night with boon com- 
 panions ; among them John Parker, the husband of 
 Alice. She disapproved of her husband's spending his 
 evenings in such company, and in a bar-room; and 
 felt it necessary to put a stop to it, if she could. 
 Westgate says that she " came into the company, and 
 scolded at and called her husband all to nought ; 
 whereupon I, the said deponent, took her husband's 
 part, telling her it was an unbeseeming thing for her to 
 come after him to the tavern, and rail after that rate. 
 With that she came up to me, and called me rogue, 
 and bid m.e mind my own business, and told me I had 
 better have said nothing." He goes on to state, that, 
 returning home one night some time afterwards, he ex- 
 perienced an awful fright. " Going from the house of 
 Mr. Daniel King, when I came over against John 
 B-obinson's house, I heard a great noise ; . . . and there 
 appeared a black hog running towards me with open 
 mouth, as though he would have devoured me at that 
 instant time." In the extremity of his terror, he tried 
 to run away from the awful monster; but, as might 
 hare been expected under the circumstances, he tum- 
 bled to the ground. " I fell down upon my hip, and my 
 knife run into my hip up to the haft. When I came 
 home, my knife was in my sheath. When I drew it 
 out of the sheath, then immediately the sheath fell all 
 
182 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to pieces." And fuutlicr tliis deponent testifieth, that, 
 after he got up from his fall, his stocking and shoe 
 was full of blood, and that lie was forced to crawl 
 along by tlie fence all the way home; and the hog fol- 
 lowed him, and never left him till he came home. He 
 further stated that he was accompanied all the way by 
 his " stout dog," which ordinarily was much inclined 
 to attack and " worry hogs," but, on tliis occasion, " ran 
 away from him, leaping over the fence and crying 
 mucli." In view of all these things, Westgate con- 
 cludes his testimony thus : " Which hog I then ap- 
 prehended was either the Devil or some evil thing, 
 not a real hog ; and did then really judge, or determine 
 in my mind, that it was either Goody Parker or by her 
 means and procuring, fearing that she is a witch," 
 The facts were probably these : The sheath was broken 
 by his fall, his skin bruised, and some blood got into his 
 stocking and shoe. The knife was never out of the 
 sheath until he drew it ; there was no mystery or witch- 
 craft in it. Nothing was ever more natural than the 
 conduct of the dog. Wlien he saw Westgate frightened 
 out of his wits at nothing, trying to run as for dear 
 life when there was no pursuer, staggering and pitch- 
 ing along in a zigzag direction with very eccentric 
 motions, falling heels over head, and then crawling 
 along, holding himself up by the fence, and all the 
 time looking back with terror, and perhaps attempting 
 to express his consternation, the dog could not tell 
 what to make of it ; and ran off, as a dog would be 
 likely to have done, jumping over tlie fences, barking, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 183 
 
 and littering the usual canine ejaculations. Dogs 
 sympatliize with their masters, and, if there is a frolic 
 or other acting going on, are fond of joining in it. 
 The wliole thing was in consequence of Westgate's jiot 
 having profited by Alice Parker's rebuke, and dis- 
 continued his visits by night to Beadle's bar-room. 
 The only reason why he saw the " black hog with the 
 open mouth," and the dog did not see it, and therefore 
 failed to come to his protection, was because he had 
 been drinking and the dog had not. 
 
 We find among the papers relating to these trans- 
 actions many other instances of this kind of testimony ; 
 sounds heard and sights seen by persons going home 
 at night through woods, after having spent the evening 
 under the bewildering influences of talk about witches, 
 Satan, ghosts, and spectres; sometimes, as in this case, 
 stimulated by other causes of excitement. 
 
 Perhaps some persons may be curious to know the 
 route by which Westgate made out to reach his home, 
 while pursued by the horrors of that midnight experi- 
 ence. He seems to have frequented Samuel Beadle's 
 bar-room. That old Narragansett soldier owned a lot 
 on the west side of St. Petei-'s Street, occupying the 
 southern corner of what is now Church Street, which 
 was opened ten years afterwards, that is, in 1702, by 
 the name of Epps's Lane. On that lot his tavern stood. 
 He also owned one-third of an acre at the present cor- 
 ner of Brown and St. Peter's Streets, on which he had 
 a stable and barn ; so that his grounds were on both 
 sides of St. Peter's Street, — one parcel on the west, 
 
184 WITCHCUAPT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 nearly opposite the present front of the church ; the 
 other on the east side of St. Peter's Street, opposite 
 the sonth side of the chiircli. From this locality 
 "Westgate started. He prohably did not go down 
 BroAvn Street, for that \yas then a dark, unfrequented 
 lane, but thought it safest to get into Essex Street. 
 He made his way along that street, passing the Com- 
 mon, the southern side of which, at that time, with the 
 exception of some house-lots on and contiguous to 
 the site of the Franklin Building, bordered on Essex 
 Street. The casualt}^ of his fall ; the catastrophe to 
 his hip, stocking, and shoe ; and the witchery practised 
 upon his knife and its sheath, — occurred " over against 
 John Robinson's house," which was on the eastern 
 corner of Pleasant and Essex Streets. Christopher 
 Babbage's house, from which he thought the " great 
 noise " came, was next beyond Hobinson's. He cx^awled 
 along the fences and the sides of the houses until he 
 reached the passage-way on the western side of Thomas 
 Beadle's house, and through that managed to get to 
 his own house, which was directly south of said Bea- 
 dle's lot, between it and the harbor. 
 
 There is one item in reference to Alice Parker, 
 which indicates that the zeal of the prosecutors in 
 her case, as in that of Mr. Burrouo;hs, and perhaps 
 others, was aggravated by a suspicion that she was 
 heretical on some points of the prevalent creed of the 
 day. Parris says that " Mr. Noyes, at the time of her 
 examination, affirmed to her face, that, he being with 
 her at a time of sickness, discoursing with her about 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 185 
 
 witchcraft, whether she were not guilty, she an- 
 swered, ' if slie was as free from other sins as from 
 witchcraft, she would not ask of tlie Lord merc3^' " 
 The manner of expression in this passage shows that 
 it was thought that there was something ver}^ shocking 
 in her answer. Mr. Nojes " affirmed to her face." 
 No doubt it was thought that she denied the doctrine 
 of original and transmitted, or imputed sin. 
 
 Ann Pudeator (pronounced Pud-e-tor) was the widow 
 of Jacob Pudeator, and probably about seventy years of 
 age. The name is spelt variously, and was originally, as 
 it is sometimes found, Poindexter. She was a woman 
 of property, owning two estates on the north line of the 
 Common ; that on which she lived comprised what is 
 between Oliver and Winter Streets. She was arrested 
 and brought to examination on the 12tli of May. 
 There is ground to conclude, from the tenor of the 
 documents, that she was then discharged. Some peo- 
 ple in the town were determined to gratify their spleen 
 against her, and procured her re-arrest. The exami- 
 nation took place on the 2d of July, and she was then 
 committed. The evidence was, if possible, more 
 frivolous and absurd than in other cases. The girls 
 acted their usual parts, giving, on this occasion, a par- 
 ticularly striking exhibition of the transmission of 
 the diabolical virus out of themselves back into the 
 witch by a touch of her body. *-* Ann Putnam fell into 
 a fit, and said Pudeator was commanded to take her 
 by the wrist, and did ; and said Putnam was well pres- 
 ently. Mary "Warren fell into two fits quickly, after 
 
186 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 one another ; and botli times Avas helped by said 
 Pudeator's taking her by the wrist." 
 
 When well acted, this must have been one of the 
 most impressive and effective of all the methods em- 
 ployed in these performances. To see a young woman 
 or girl suddenly struck down, speechless, pallid as in 
 death ; with muscles rigid, eyeballs fixed or rolled back 
 in their sockets ; the stiffened frame either wholly pros- 
 trate or/irawu up into contorted attitudes and shapes, 
 or vehementl}' convulsed with racking pains, or drop- 
 ping with I'elaxed muscles into a lifeless lump ; and to 
 hear dread shrieks of delirious leavings, — must have 
 produced a truly frightful effect upon an excited and 
 deluded assembly. The constables and their assistants 
 would go to the rescue, lift the body of the sufferer, 
 and bear it in their arms towards the prisoner. The 
 magistrates and the crowd, hushed in the deepest 
 silence, would watch with breathless awe the result of 
 the experiment, while the officers slowly approached 
 the accused, who, when they came near, would, in 
 obedience to the order of the magistrates, hold out a 
 hand, and touch the flesh of the afflicted one. In- 
 stantly the spasms cease, the eyes open, color returns 
 to the countenance, the limbs resume their position 
 and functions, and life and intelligence are wholly re- 
 stored. The sufferer comes to herself, walks back, and 
 takes her seat as well as ever. The effect upon the 
 accused person must have been confounding. It is a 
 wonder that it did not oftener break them down. It 
 sometimes did. Poor Deliverance Hobbs, when the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 187 
 
 process was tried upon licr, was wholly overcome, and 
 passed from conscious and calmly asserted innocence 
 to a helpless abandonment of reason, conscience, and 
 herself, exclaiming, " I am amazed ! I am amazed ! " 
 and assented afterwards to every charge brought 
 against her, and said whatever she was told, or sup- 
 posed they wished her to say. 
 
 On the 14th of May, warrants were issued against 
 Daniel Andrew ; George Jacobs, Jr. ; his wife, Rebecca 
 Jacobs ; Sarah Buckley, wife of William Buckley ; and 
 Mary Whittredge, daughter of said Buckley, — all of 
 Salem Village ; Elizabeth Hart, wife of Isaac Hart, 
 of Lynn; Thomas Farrar, Sr., also of Lynn; Eliza- 
 beth Colson, of Reading ; and Bethiah Carter, of 
 Woburn. There is nothing of special interest among 
 the few papers that are on file relating to Hart, Colson, 
 or Carter. The constable made return that he had 
 searched the houses of Daniel Andrew and George 
 Jacobs, Jr., but could not find them. He brought in 
 forthwith the bodies of Sarah Buckley, Mary Whit- 
 tredge, and Rebecca Jacobs. Farrar and the rest were 
 brought in shortly afterwards. 
 
 Daniel Andrew was one of the leading men of the 
 village, and the warrant against him was proof that 
 soon none would be too high to be reached by the 
 prosecutors. He felt that it was in vain to attempt to 
 resist their desti^uctive power ; and, getting notice in 
 some way of the approach of the constable, with his 
 near neighbor, friend, and connection, George Jacobs, 
 
188 -WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Jr., effected his escape, and found refuge in a foreign 
 country. 
 
 Rebecca, the wife of George Jacobs, Jr., Avas the 
 victim of a partial derangement. Her daughter Mar- 
 garet was already in jail. Her husband had escaped 
 by a hurried flight, and his father was in prison await- 
 ing his trial. She was left in a lonely and unprotected 
 condition, in a country but thinly settled, in the midst 
 of woods. The constable came with his warrant for 
 her. She was driven to desperation, and was inclined 
 to resist ; but he persuaded her to go with him by hold- 
 ing out the inducement that she would soon be per- 
 mitted to return. Four young children, one of them 
 an infant, were left in the house ; but those who were 
 old enough to walk followed after, crying, endeavor- 
 ing to overtake her. Some of the neighbors took them 
 into their houses. The imprisonment of a woman in 
 her situation and mental condition was an outrage ; 
 but she was kept in irons, as they all were, for eight 
 months. Her mother addressed an humble but car- 
 nest and touching petition to the chief-justice of the 
 court at Salem, setting forth her daughter's condition ; 
 but it was of no avail. Afterwards, she addressed a 
 similar memorial to " His Excellency Sir William 
 Phips, Knight, Governor, and the Honorable Council 
 sitting at Boston," in the following terms : — 
 
 ^'•The Humble Petition of Rebecca Fox, of Cambridge, show- 
 eth, that, whereas Rebecca Jacobs (daughter of your hum- 
 ble petitiouer) has, a long time, — even many months, — 
 now lain in prison for witchcraft, and is Avell known to be a 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 189 
 
 persoa crazed, distracted, and broken in mind, your humble 
 petitioner does most humbly and earnestly seek unto Your 
 Excellency and to Yoiir Honors for relief in this case. 
 
 " Your petitioner, — who knows well the condition of her 
 poor daughter, — together with several others of good re- 
 pute and credit, are ready to offer their oaths, that the said 
 Jacobs is a woman crazed, distracted, and broken in her 
 mind ; and that she has been so these twelve years and 
 upwards. 
 
 " However, for (I think) above this half-year, the said 
 Jacobs has lain in prison, and yet remains there, attended 
 with many sore difficulties. 
 
 " Christianity and nature do each of them oblige your 
 petitioner to be very solicitous in this matter ; and, ahhough 
 many weighty cases do exercise your thoughts, yet j^our 
 petitioner can have no rest in her mind till such time as 
 she has offered this her address on behalf of her daugh- 
 ter. 
 
 " Some have died already in prison, and others have been 
 dangerously sick; and how soon others, and, among them, 
 my poor child, by the difficulties of this confinement may be 
 sick and die, God only knows. 
 
 " She is uncapable of making that shift for herself that 
 others can do ; and such are her circumstances, on other 
 accounts, that your petitioner, who is her tender mother, has 
 many great sorrows, and almost overcoming burdens, on her 
 mind upon her account ; but, in the midst of all her perplexi- 
 ties and troubles (next to supplicating to a good and mer- 
 ciful God), your petitioner has no way for help but to make 
 this her afllicted condition known unto you. So, not doubting 
 but Your Excellency and Your Honors will readily hear the 
 cries and groans of a poor distressed woman, and grant what 
 
190 -WITCHCRAFT AT SALEK VILLAGE. 
 
 help and enlargemeut 3'ou may, your petitioner heartily begs 
 God's gracio^ijs presence with you ; and subscribes herself, iu 
 all humble manner, your sorrowful and distressed peti- 
 tioner, Rebecca Fox." 
 
 No heed was paid to this petition ; and the unfortu- 
 nate woman remained in jail until — after the delu- 
 sion had passed from the minds of the people — a 
 grand jury found a bill against her, on which she 
 was brought to trial, Jan. 3, 1693, and acquitted. 
 There is no more disgraceful feature in all the pro- 
 ceedings than the long imprisonment of this woman, 
 her being brought to trial, and the obdurate deafness 
 to humanity and reason of the chief-justice, the gov- 
 ernor, and the council. 
 
 No papers are found relating to the examination of 
 Thomas Farrar ; but the following deposition shows the 
 manner in which prosecutions were got up : — 
 
 " The Deposition of Ann Putnam, who testifieth and 
 saith, that, on the 8th of May, 1692, there appeared to me 
 the apparition of an old, gray-headed man, with a great 
 nose, which tortured me, and almost choked me, and urged 
 me to write in his book; and I asked him what was his 
 name, and from whence he came, for I would complain of 
 hira ; and he told me he came from Lynn, and people do call 
 him •• old Father Pharaoh ; ' and he said he was ray grand- 
 father, for my father used to call him father : but I told him 
 I would not call him gi-andfather ; for he was a wizard, 
 and I would complain of hira. And, ever since, he hath 
 afflicted me by times, beating me and pinching me and 
 almost choking me, and urging me continually to write in his 
 book." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 191 
 
 " AYe, "whose names are underwritten, having been con- 
 versant wiih Ann Putnam, have heard her dechire what is 
 above written, — what she said she saw and heard from the 
 apparition of old Pharaoh, — and also have seen her tor- 
 tures, and perceived her hellish temptations, by her loud out- 
 cries, ' I will not write, old Pharaoh, — I will not write in 
 your book.' Thomas Putnam, 
 
 Robert Morrell." 
 
 She had heard this person spoken of as " old Father 
 Pharaoh," with his "great nose;" and, from a mere 
 spirit of mischief, — for the fun of the thing,— cried 
 out upon him. Many of the documents exhibit a levity 
 of spirit among these girls, which show how hardened 
 and reckless they had become. The following deposi- 
 tions are illustrative of this state of mind among 
 them : — 
 
 " The Deposition of Clement Coldum, aged sixty 
 years, or thereabout. — Saith that, on the 29 th of May, 1692, 
 being at Salem Village, carrying home Elizabeth Hubbard 
 from the meeting behind me, she desired me to ride faster, 
 I asked her why. She said the woods were full of devils, 
 and said, ' There ! ' and ' There they be 1 ' but I could see 
 none. Then I put on my horse; and, after I had ridden 
 a while, she told me I might ride softer, for we had outridden 
 them. I asked her if she was not afraid of the Devil. She 
 answered me, ' No : she could discourse with the Devil as well 
 as with me,' and further saith not. This I am ready to tes- 
 tify on oath, if called thereto, as witness my hand. 
 
 " Clement Coldum." 
 
 " The Testimony of Daniel Elliot, aged twenty-seven 
 years or thereabouts, who testifieth and saith, that I, beino- 
 
192 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 at the house of Lieutenant Ingersoll, on the 28th of March, 
 in the year 1692, there being present one of the afflicted per- 
 sons, who cried out and said, ' There's Goody Procter.' Wil- 
 liam Raymond, Jr., being there present, tohl the girl he 
 believed she lied, for he saw nothing. Tlien Goody Inger- 
 soll told the girl she told a lie, for there was nothing. Then 
 the girl said she did it for sport, — they must have some 
 sport." 
 
 Sarah Buckley was examined May 18, and her daugh- 
 ter Mary Whittredge probably on the same day. We 
 have Parris's report of the proceedings iu reference to 
 the former. The only witnesses against her were the 
 afflicted children. They performed their grand opera- 
 tion of going into fits, and being carried to the accused 
 and subjected to her touch ; Ann Putnam, Susanna 
 Sheldon, and Mary Warren enacting the part in suc- 
 cession. Sheldon cried out, " There is the black man 
 whispering iu her ear!" The magistrates and all 
 beholders were convinced. She was committed to 
 prison, and remained in irons for eight months before 
 a trial, which resulted in her acquittal. So eminently 
 excellent was the character of Good wife Buckley, that 
 her ari'cst and imprisonment led to expressions in her 
 favor as honorable to those who had the courage to 
 utter them as to her. The following certificates were 
 given, previous to her trial, by ministers in the neigh- 
 borhood : — 
 
 " These are to certify whom it may or shall concern, that 
 I have known Sarah, the wife of AVilliam Buckley, of Salem 
 Village, more or less, ever since she was brought out of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 193 
 
 England, which is above fifty years ago; and, during all that 
 time, I never knew nor heard of any evil in her carriage, or 
 conversation nubecomlng a Cliristian ; likewise, she was 
 bred up by Christian parents all the time she lived here at 
 Ipswich. I further testify, that the said Sarah was admitted 
 as a member into the church of Ipswich above forty years 
 since ; and that I never heard from others, or observed by 
 myself, any thing of her that was inconsistent with her pro- 
 fession or unsuitable to Christianity, either in word, deed, 
 or conversation, and am strangely surprised that any person 
 should speak or think of her as one worthy to be suspected 
 of any such crime that she is now charged with. In testi- 
 mony hereof I have here set my hand this 20th of June, 
 1692. William Hubbard." 
 
 " Being desired by Goodman Buckley to give my testi- 
 mony to his wife's conversation before this great calamity 
 befell her, I cannot refuse to bear witness to the ti'uth ; viz., 
 that, during the time of her living in Salem for many years 
 in communion with this church, having occasionally fre- 
 quent converse and discourse with her, I have never observed 
 myself, nor heard from any other, any thing that was un- 
 suitable to a conversation becoming the gospel, and have 
 always looked upon her as a serious, Godly woman. 
 
 " John Higginson." 
 
 " Marblehead, Jan. 2, 169|-. — Upon the same request, 
 having had the like opportunity by her residence many years 
 at Marblehead, I can do no less than give the alike testimony 
 for her pious conversation during her abode in this place 
 and communion with us. Samuel Cheeyer." 
 
 William Hubbard was the venerable minister of Ips- 
 wich, described by Hutchinson as " a man of learning, 
 
 TOL. II. 13 
 
194 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 and of a candid and benevolent mind, accompanied 
 with a good degree of Catholicism." He is described 
 bj another writer as " a man of singular modesty, 
 learned without ostentation." He will be remem- 
 bered with honor for his long and devoted service in 
 the Christian ministry, and as the historian of New 
 England and of the Indian wars. 
 
 John Higginsou was worthy of the title of the 
 " Nestor of the New-England clergy." He was at this 
 time seventy-six 3'ears old, and had been a preacher 
 of the gospel fifty-five years. For thirty-three years 
 he had been pastor of the First Church in Salem, of 
 which his father was the first preacher. No character, 
 in all our annals, shines with a purer lustre. John 
 Dunton visited him in 1688, and thus speaks of him: 
 "All men look to him as a common father; and old 
 age, for his sake, is a reverend thing. He is eminent 
 for all the graces that adorn a minister. His very 
 presence puts vice out of countenance ; his conversa- 
 tion is a glimpse of heaven." The fact, that, while his 
 colleague, Nicholas Noyes, took so active and disas- 
 trous a jiart in the prosecutions, he, at an early stage, 
 discountenanced them, shows that he was a person of 
 discrimination and integrity. That he did not conceal 
 his disapprobation of the proceedings is demonstrated, 
 not only by the tenor of his attestation in behalf of 
 Goodwife Buckley, but by the decisive circumstance 
 that the " afflicted children " cried out against his 
 daughter Anna, the wife of Captain William Dolliver, 
 of Gloucester ; got a warrant to apprehend her ; and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 195 
 
 had her brought to the Salem jail, and committed as a 
 
 witch. They never struck at friends, but were sure to 
 
 punish all who were suspected to disapprove of the 
 
 proceedings. How long Mrs. DoUiver remained in 
 
 prison we are not informed. But it was impossible to 
 
 break down the influence or independence of Mr. 
 
 Higginson. It is not improbable that he believed in 
 
 witchcraft, with all tlie other divines of his day ; but 
 
 he feared not to bear testimony to personal worth, and 
 
 could not be brought to co-operate in violence, or fall 
 
 in with the spirit of persecution. The weight of his 
 
 character compelled the deference of the most heated 
 
 zealots, and even Cotton Mather himself was eager to 
 
 pay him homage. Four years afterwards, he thus 
 
 writes of him : " This good old man is yet alive ; and 
 
 he that, from a child, knew the Holy Scriptures, does, 
 
 at those years wherein men use to be twice children, 
 
 continue preaching them with such a manly, pertinent, 
 
 and judicious vigor, and with so little decay of his 
 
 intellectual abilities, as is indeed a matter of just 
 
 admii^ation." 
 
 Samuel Cheever was a clergyman of the highest 
 
 standing, and held in universal esteem through a long 
 
 life. 
 
 From passages incidentally given, it has appeared 
 
 v.. 
 
 that it was quite common, in those times, to attribute 
 accidents, injuries, pains, and diseases of all kinds, to 
 an " evil hand." It was not confined to this locality. 
 When, however, the public mind had become excited 
 to so extraordinary a degree by circumstances con- 
 
196 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 nected with the prosecutions in 1G92, this tendency of 
 the popular credulity was very much strengthened. 
 Believing that the sufferer or patient was the victim of 
 the malignity of Satan, and it also being a doctrine 
 of the established belief that he could not act upon 
 human beings or affairs except through the instru- 
 mental agency of some other human beings in con- 
 federacy with hinij the question naturally arose, in 
 every specific instance, Who is the person in this dia- 
 bolical league, and doing the will of the Devil in this 
 case ? Who is the witch ? It may well be supposed, 
 that the suffering person, and all surrounding friends, 
 would be most earnest and anxious in pressing this 
 question and seeking its solution. The accusing girls 
 at the village were thought to possess the power to 
 answer it. This gave them great importance, grati- 
 fied their vanity and pride, and exalted them to the 
 character of prophetesses. They were ready to meet 
 the calls made upon them in this capacity ; would be 
 carried to the room of a sick person ; and, on entering 
 it, would exclaim, on the first return of pain, or diffi- 
 culty of respiration, or restless motion of the patient, 
 " There she is ! " There is such a one's appearance, 
 choking or otherwise tormenting him or her. If the 
 minds of the accusing girls had been led towards 
 a new victim, his or her name would be used, and a 
 warrant issued for his apprehension. If not, then the 
 name of some one already in confinement would be 
 used on the occasion. It was also a received opinion, 
 that, while ordinary fastenings would not prevent a 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 197 
 
 witch from going abroad, " in her apparition," to any 
 distance to afflict persons, a redoubling of them might. 
 Whenever one of the accusing girls pretended to see 
 the spectres of persons already in jail afflicting any 
 one, orders would forthwith be given to have them 
 more heavily chained. Every once in a while, a 
 wretched prisoner, already suffering from bonds and 
 handcnffs, would be subjected to additional manacles 
 and chains. This was one of the most cruel features 
 in these proceedings. It is illustrated by the follow- 
 ing document ; — 
 
 " The Deposition of Benjamin Hutchinson, who testi- 
 fieth aud saith, that my wife was much afflicted, presently 
 after the last execution, with violent pains in her head and 
 teeth, and all parts of her body ; but, on sabbath day was 
 fortnight in the morning, she being in such excessive misery 
 that she said she believed that she had an evil hand upon 
 her : whereupon I went to Mary Walcot, one of our next 
 neighbors, to come and look to see if she could see anybody 
 upon her ; and, as soon as she came into the house, she said 
 that our two next neighbors, Sarah Buckley and Mary Whit- 
 tredge, were upon my wife. And immediately my wife had 
 ease, and Mary Walcot was tormented. Whereupon I 
 went down to the sheriff, and desired him to take some 
 course with those women, that they might not have such 
 power to torment : and presently he ordered them to be 
 fettered, and, ever since that, my wife has been tolerable 
 well ; and 1 believe, in my heart, that Sarah Buckley and 
 Mary Whittredge have hurt my wife and several others by 
 acts of witchcraft. 
 
 " Benjamin Hutchinson owned the above^written evi- 
 
198 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 dence to be the truth, upon oath, before the grand inquest, 
 15-7, 1692.'* 
 
 The e^idellce is quite conclusive, from considera- 
 tions suggested by the foregoing document, and indi- 
 cations scattered through the papers generally, that 
 all persons committed on the charge of witclicraft 
 were kept heavily ironed, and otherwise strongly fas- 
 tened. Only a few of the bills of expenses incurred 
 are preserved. Among them we find the following: 
 For mending and putting on Rachel Clenton's fel^ 
 ters ; one pair of fetters for John Howard ; a pair of 
 fetters each for John Jackson, Sr., and John Jackson, 
 Jr. ; eighteen pounds of iron for fetters ; for making 
 four pair of iron fetters and two pair of handcuffs, 
 and putting them on the legs and hands of Goodwife 
 Cloyse, Easty, Bromidg, and Green ; chains for Sarah 
 Good and Sarah Osburn ; shackles for ten prisoners ; 
 and one pair of irons for Mary Cox. When we re- 
 flect upon the character of the prisoners generally, — 
 many of them delicate and infirm, several venerable 
 for their virtues as well as years,- — and that they 
 were kept in this cruelly painful condition from early 
 spring to the middle of the next January, and the 
 larger part to the May of 1693, in the extremes of heat 
 and cold, exposed to the most distressing severities of 
 both, crowded in narrow, dark, and noisome jails un- 
 der an accumulation of all their discomforts, restraints, 
 privations, exposures, and abominations, our wonder 
 is, not that many of them died, but that all did not 
 break down in body and mind. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 199 
 
 Sarah Buckle}'' and her daughter were not brought 
 to trial until after the power of the prosecution to 
 pursue to the death had ceased. Thcj were acquitted 
 in January, 169$? Tlieir goods and chattels had all 
 been seized by the officers, as was the usual prac- 
 tice, at the time of their arrest. In humble circum- 
 stances before, it took their last shilling to meet the 
 charges of their imprisonment. They, as all others, 
 were required to provide their own maintenance 
 while in prison ; and, after trial and acquittal, were 
 not discharged until all costs were paid. Five pounds 
 had to be raised, to satisfj^ the claims of the officers of 
 the court and of the jails, for each of them. The result 
 was, the family was utterly impoverished. The poor 
 old woman, with her aged husband, suffered much, 
 there is reason to fear, from absolute want during all 
 the rest of their days. Their truly Christian virtues 
 dignified their poverty, and secured the respect and 
 esteem of all good men. The Rev. Joseph Green has 
 this entry in his diary : " Jan. 2, 1702. — Old William 
 Buckley died this evening. He was at meeting the 
 last sabbath, and died with the cold, I fear, for want 
 of comforts and good tending. Lord forgive ! He was 
 about eighty years old. 1 visited him and prayed 
 with him on Monday, and also the evening before he 
 died. He was very poor ; but, I hope, had not his 
 portion in this life." Tlie ejaculation, " Lord for- 
 give ! " expresses the deep sense Mr. Green had, of 
 which his whole ministry gave evidence, of the inex- 
 pressible sufferings and wrongs brought upon families 
 
200 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 by the witchcraft prosecutions. The case of Sarah 
 Buckley, her husbaucl and family, was but one of 
 many. The humble, harmless, innocent people who 
 experienced that fearful and pitiless persecution had 
 to drink of as bitter a cup as ever was permitted by an 
 inscrutable Providence to be presented to human lips. 
 In reference to them, we feel as an assurance, what 
 good Mr. Green humbly hoped, that " they had not 
 their portion in this life." Those who went firmly, 
 patiently, and calmly through that great trial without 
 losing love or faith, are crowned with glory and honor. 
 
 The examination and commitment of Mary Easty, 
 on the 21st of April, have already been desci'ibed. For 
 some reason, and in a way of which we have no in- 
 formation, she was discharged from prison on the 18th 
 of May, and wholly released. This seems to have 
 been very distasteful to the accusing girls. They 
 were determined not to let it rest so ; and put into 
 operation their utmost energies to get her back to im- 
 prisonment. On the 20th of May, Mercy Lewis, being 
 then at the house of John Putnam, Jr., was taken 
 with fits, and experienced tortures of unprecedented 
 severity. The particular circumstances on this occa- 
 sion, as gathered from various depositions, illustrate 
 very strikingly the skilful manner in which the girls 
 managed to produce the desired effect upon the public 
 mind. 
 
 Samuel Abbey, a neighbor, whether sent for or not 
 we are not informed, went to John Putnam's house 
 that morning, about nine o'clock. He foimd Mercy in 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 201 
 
 a terrible condition, crying out with piteous tones of 
 anguish, " Dear Lord, receive my soul." — " Lord, let 
 them not kill me quite." — " Pray for the salvation of 
 my soul, for they will kill me outright." He was de- 
 sired to go to Thomas Putnam's house to bring his 
 da\ighter Ann, " to see if she could see who it was that 
 hurt Mercy Lewis." He found Abigail Williams with 
 Ann, and they accompanied him back to John Put- 
 nam's. On the way, they both cried out that they 
 saw the apparition of Goody Easty afflicting Mercy 
 Lewis. When they reached the scene, they exclaimed, 
 " There is Goody Easty and John Willard and Mary 
 Whittredge afflicting the body of Mercy Lewis ; " Mercy 
 at the time laboring for breath, and appearing as 
 choked and strangled, convulsed, and apparently at 
 the last gasp. " Thus," says Abbey, " she continued 
 the greatest pai't of the day, in such tortures as no 
 tongue can express." Mary Walcot was sent for. 
 Upon coming in, she cried out, " There is the appari- 
 tion of Goody Easty choking Mercy Lewis, pressing 
 upon her breasts with both her hands, and putting a 
 chain about her neck." A message was then de- 
 spatched for Elizabeth Hubbard. She, too, saw the 
 shape of Goody Easty, " the very same woman that 
 was sent home the other day," aided in her diabolical 
 operations by Willard and Whittredge, " torturing 
 Mercy in a most dreadful manner." Litelligence of 
 the shocking sufferings of Mercy was circulated far 
 and wide, and people hurried to the spot from all 
 directions. Jonathan Putnam, James Darling, Benja- 
 
202 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 rniu Hutcliuisou, and Samuel Braybrook readied the 
 house during the evening, and found Mercy " in a case 
 as if death would have quickly followed." Occasion- 
 ally, Mercy would have a respite ; and, at sucli inter- 
 vals, EHzabetli Hubbard would fill the gap. "These 
 two fell into fits by turns ; the one being well while 
 the other was ill." Each of them continued, all the 
 while, crying out against Goody Easty, uttering in 
 their trances vehement remonstrances against her 
 cruel operations, representing her as bringing their 
 winding-sheets and coffins, and threatening to kill 
 them " if they would not sign to her book." Their 
 acting was so complete that the bystanders seem to 
 have thought that they heard the words of Easty, as 
 well as the responses of the girls ; and that they saw 
 the " winding-sheet, coffin," and " the book." In the 
 general consternation, Marshal Herrick was sent for. 
 What lie saw, heard, thought, and did, appears from 
 the following : — 
 
 "May 20, 1692. — The Testimony of George Her- 
 rick, aged thirty-four or thereabouts, and John Putnam, 
 Jr., of Salem Village, aged thirty-five years or there- 
 abouts. — Testifieth and saith, that, being at the house of 
 the above-said John Putnam, both saw IMercy Lewis in a 
 very dreadful and solemn condition, so that to our appre- 
 hension she could not continue long in this world without a 
 mitigation of those torments we saw her in, which caused 
 us to expedite a hasty despatch to apprehend Mary Easty, 
 in hopes, if possible, it might save her life; and, returning 
 the same night to said John Putnam's house about midnight, 
 
\yiTCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 203 
 
 we fouud the said Mercy Lewis in a dreadful fit, but her 
 reason was then returned. Again slie said, 'What! have 
 you brought me the winding-sheet, Goodwife Easty ? AVell, 
 I had rather go into the winding-sheet than set my hand to 
 the book ; ' but, after that, her fits -were weaker and weaker, 
 but still complaining that she was very sick of her stomach. 
 About break of day, she fell asleep, but still continues ex- 
 tremely sick, and was taken with a dreadful fit just as we 
 left her ; so that Ave perceived life in her, and that was all." 
 
 Edward Putnam, after stating that the grievous 
 afflictions and tortures of Mercy Lewis were charged, 
 by her and the other four girls, upon Maiy Easty, 
 deposes as follows : — 
 
 " I myself, being there present with several others, looked 
 for nothing else but present death for almost the space of 
 two days and a night. She was choked almost to death, 
 insomuch we thought sometimes she had been dead ; her 
 mouth and teeth shut; and all this very often until such 
 time as we understood Mary Easty was laid in irons." 
 
 Mercy^s fits did not cease immediately upon Easty^s 
 being apprehended, but on her being committed to 
 prison and chains by the magistrate in Salem. 
 
 An examination of distances, with the map before 
 us, will show the rapidity with which business was 
 despatched on this occasion. Abbey went to John 
 Putnam, Jr.'s house at nine o'clock in the morning of 
 May 20. He was sent to Thomas Putnam's house "for 
 Ann, and brought her and Abigail Williams back with 
 him. Mary Walcot was sent for to the house of her 
 father. Captain Jonathan Walcot, and went up at one 
 
204 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 o'clock, '' about an hour by sun." Then Elizabeth 
 Hubbard, who lived at the house of Dr. Griggs, " was 
 carried up to Constable John Putnam's house:" 
 Jonathan Putnam, James Darling, Benjamin Hutchin- 
 son, and Samuel Braybrook got tliere in the evening, as 
 they say, " between eiglit and eleven o'clock." In the 
 mean time, Marshal Herrick had arrived. Steps were 
 taken to get out a warrant. John Putnam and Benja- 
 min Hutchinson went to Salem to Hathorne for the 
 purpose. They must have started soon after eight. 
 Hathorne issued the warrant forthwith. It is dated 
 May 20. Herrick went with it to the house of Isaac 
 Easty, made the ai-rest, sent his prisoner to the jail 
 in Salem, and returned himself to John Putnam's 
 house " about midnight ; " staid to witness the appar- 
 ently mortal sufferings of Mercy until " about break 
 of day ; " returned to Salem ; had the examination be- 
 fore Hathorne, at Thomas Beadle's : the whole thing 
 was finished, Mary Easty in irons, information of the 
 result carried to John Putnam's, and Meixy's agonies 
 ceased that afternoon, as Edward Putnam testifies. 
 
 I have given this particular account of the circum- 
 stances that led to and attended Mary Easty's second 
 arrest, because the papers belonging to the case afford, 
 in some respects, a better insight of the state of things 
 than others, and because they enable us to realize the 
 power which the accusing girls exercised. The con- 
 tinuance of their convulsions and spasms for such a 
 length of time, the large number of persons who wit- 
 nessed and watched them in the broad daylight, and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 205 
 
 the perfect success of their operations, show how 
 thoroughly thej had become trained in their arts. I 
 have presented the occurrences in the order of time, 
 so that, by estimating the distances traversed and the 
 period within which they took place, an idea can be 
 formed of the vehement earnestiiess with which men 
 acted in the " hurrying distractions of amazing afflic- 
 tions " and overwhelming terrors. This instance also 
 gives lis a view of the horrible state of things, when 
 any one, however respectable and worthy, was liable, 
 at any moment, to be seized, maligned, and destroyed. 
 
 Mary Easty had previously experienced the malice 
 of the persecutors. For two months she had suffered 
 the miseries of imprisonment, had just been released, 
 and for two days enjoyed the restoration of liberty, the 
 comforts of her home, and a re-union with her family. 
 She and they, no doubt, considered themselves safe 
 from any further outrage. After midnight* she was 
 roused from sleep by the unfeeling marshal, torn from 
 her husband and children, carried back to prison, 
 loaded with chains, and finally consigned to a dreadful 
 and most cruel death. She was an excellent and 
 pious matron. Her husband, referring to the transac- 
 tion nearly twenty years afterwards, justly expressed 
 what all must feel, that it was '^ a hellish molesta- 
 tion." 
 
 One of the most malignant witnesses against Mary 
 Easty was " Goodwife Bibber." She obtruded herself 
 in many of the cases, acting as a sort of outside mem- 
 ber of the " accusing circle," volunteering her aid in 
 
206 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 carrying on the persecutions. It was an outrage for 
 the magistrates or judges to have countenanced such 
 a false defamer. There are, among the papers, 
 documents which show that she ought to have been 
 punished as a calumniator, rather than be called to 
 utter, under oath, lies-against respectable people. The 
 following deposition was sworn to in Court : — 
 
 " The Testimony of Joseph Fowler, who testifieth that 
 Goodman Bibbei' and his wife lived at my house; and I did 
 observe and take notice that Goodwife Bibber was a woman 
 who was very idle in her calHng, and very much given to 
 tattling and tale-bearing, making mischief amongst her 
 neighbors, and ver}^ much given to speak bad words, and 
 would call her husband bad names, and was a woman of a 
 very turbulent, unruly spirit." 
 
 Joseph Fowler lived in Wenham, and was a person 
 of respectability and influence. His brother Philip 
 was also a leading man ; was employed as attorney 
 by the Village Parish in its lawsuit with Mr. Parris ; 
 and married a sister of Joseph Herrick. They were 
 the grandsons of the first Philip, who was an early 
 emigrant from Wales, settling in Ipswich, where he 
 had large landed estates. Henry Fowler and his two 
 brothers, now of Danvers, are the descendants of this 
 family: one of them, Augustus, distinguished as a 
 naturalist, especially in the department of ornithology ; 
 the other, Samuel Page Fowler, as an explorer of our 
 early annals and local antiquities. In 1692, one of 
 the Fowlers conducted the proceedings in Court 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 207 
 
 against the head and front of the witchcraft prose- 
 cution ; and the other had the courage, in the most 
 fearful hoiir of the delusion, to give open testimony in 
 the defence of its victims. It is an interesting circum- 
 stance, that one of the same name and descent, in his 
 reprint of the papers of Calef and in otlier pub- 
 lications, has done as much as any other person of our 
 day to bring that whole transaction under the light of 
 truth and justice. 
 
 John Porter, who was a grandson of the original 
 John Porter and the orip-inal William Dodsie and a 
 man of property and family, with his wife Lydia; 
 Thomas Jacobs and Mary his wife ; and Richard Wal- 
 ker, — all of Wenham, and for a long time neighbors of 
 this Bibber, — testify, in corroboration of the statement 
 of Fowler, that she was a woman of an unruly, tur- 
 bulent spirit, double-tongued, much given to tattling 
 and tale-bearing, making mischief amongst her neigh- 
 bors, very much given to speak bad words, often 
 speaking against one and another, telling lies and 
 uttering malicious wishes against people. It was 
 abundantly proved that she had long been known to be 
 able to fall into fits at any time. One witness said 
 " she would often fall into strange fits when she was 
 crossed of her humor ; " and another, " that she could 
 fall into fits as often as she pleased." 
 
 On the 21st of May, warrants were issued against 
 the wife of William Basset, of Lynn ; Susanna Hoots, of 
 Beverly ; and Sarah, daughter of John Procter of Salem 
 Farms ; a few days after, against Benjamin, a son of 
 
208 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 said John Procter ; Mary Dcrich, wife of Michael Der- 
 ich, and daughter of William Basset of Lynn ; and the 
 wife of Robert Pease of Salem. Such papers as relate 
 to these persons vary in no particular worthy of notice 
 from those already presented. 
 
 On the 28th of May, warrants were issued against 
 Martha Carrier, of Audover; Elizabeth Fosdick, of Mai- 
 den ; Wilmot Read, of Marblehead ; Sarah Rice, of 
 Reading; Elizabeth How, of Topsficld ; Captain John 
 Alden, of Boston ; William Procter, of Salem Farms ; 
 
 Captain John Flood, of Rumney Marsh ; Tooth- 
 
 aker and her daughter, of Billerica ; and Abbot, 
 
 between Topsfield and Wenham line. On the SOth, 
 a warrant was issued against Elizabeth, wife of Ste- 
 phen Paine, of Charlestown ; on the 4th of June, 
 against Mary, wife of Benjamin Ireson, of Lynn. Be- 
 sides these, there are notices of complaints made and 
 warrants issued against a great number of people in 
 all parts of the country ; Mary Bradbury, of Salisbury ; 
 Lydia and Sarah Dustin, of Reading ; Ann Sears, of 
 Woburn ; Job Tookey, of Beverly ; Abigail Somes, of 
 Gloucester ; Elizabeth Carey, of Charlestown ; Candy, 
 a negro woman ; and many others. Some of them have 
 points of interest, demanding particular notice. 
 
 The case of Martha Carrier has some remarkable 
 features. It has been shown, by passages already 
 adduced, that every idle rumor ; every thing that the 
 gossip of the credulous or the fertile imaginations of 
 the malignant could produce ; every thing, gleaned from 
 the memory or the fancy, that could have an unfavora- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 209 
 
 ble bearing upon au accused person, however foreign 
 or irrelevant it might be to the charge, was allowed to 
 be brought in evidence before the magistrates, and re- 
 ceived at the trials. We have seen that a child under 
 five years of age was arrested, and put into prison. 
 Children were not only permitted, but induced, to 
 become witnesses against their parents, and parents 
 against their children. Husbands and wives were 
 made to criminate each other as witnesses in court. 
 .When Martha Carrier was arrested, four of her chil- 
 dren were also taken into custody. An indictment 
 against one of them is among the jDapers. Under the 
 terrors brought to bear upon them, they were prevailed 
 on to be confessors. The following shows how these 
 children were trained to tell their story ; — 
 
 *' It was asked Sarah Carrier by the magistrates, — 
 
 " How long hast thou been a witch ? — Ever since I was 
 SIX years old. 
 
 " How old are you now? — Near eight years old: bro- 
 ther Richard says I shall be eight years old in November 
 next. 
 
 " Who made you a witch ? — My mother : she made me 
 set my hand to a book, 
 
 *' How did you set your hand to it? — I touched it with 
 my fingers, and the book was red : the paper of it was 
 white. 
 
 " She said she never had seen the black man : the place 
 where she did it was in Andrew Foster's pasture, and Eliza- 
 beth Johnson, Jr., was there. Being asked who was there 
 besides, she answered, her aunt Toothaker and her cousin. 
 
 VOL. II. 14 
 
210 WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 Being asked -when it -was, she said, when she was bap- 
 tized. 
 
 " What did they promise to give you ? — A Wack dog. 
 
 " Did the dog ever come to you ? — No. 
 
 " But you said you saw a cat once : what did that say to 
 you ? — It said it would tear me in pieces, if I would not set 
 my hand to the book. 
 
 " She said her mother baptized her, and the Devil, or 
 black man, was not there, as she saw ; and her mother 
 said, when she baptized her, ' Thou art mine for ever and 
 ever. Amen.' 
 
 '' How^ did you afflict folks ?' — I pinched them. 
 
 " And she said she had no puppets, but she Avent to them 
 that she afflicted. Being asked whether she went in her 
 body or her spirit, she said in her spirit. She said her 
 mother carried her thither to afflict, 
 
 "How did your mother carry you Avhen she w^as in 
 prison? — She came like a black cat. 
 
 " How^ did you know it was your mother ? — The cat told 
 me so, that she was my mother. She said she afflicted 
 Phelps's child last Saturday, and Elizabeth Johnson joined 
 with her to do it. She had a wooden spear, about as long 
 as her finger, of Elizabeth Johnson ; and she had it of the 
 Devil, She would not own that she had ever been at the 
 witch-meeting at the village. This is the substance. 
 
 "Simon Willard." 
 
 The confession of another of her children is among 
 the papers. It runs thus : — 
 
 " Have you been in the DeviUs snare ? — Yes. 
 
 " Is your brother Andrew ensnared by the Devil's snare ? 
 
 — Yes, 
 
"WITCHCHAPT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 211 
 
 '* How long has your brother bceu a witch ? — Near a 
 month. 
 
 " How long have you been a witch ? — Not long. 
 
 " Have you joined in afflicting the afflicted persons? — 
 Yes. 
 
 *' You helped to hurt Timothy Swan, did you ? — Yes. 
 
 " How long have you b'een a witch ? — About five 
 weeks. 
 
 " Who Avas in corapan}- when you covenanted with the 
 Devil ? — Mrs. Bradbury. 
 
 " Did she help you afflict? — Yes. 
 
 " Who was at the village meeting when you were there? 
 — Goodwife How, Goodwife Nurse, Goodwife Wildes, Proc- 
 ter and his wife, IMrs. Bradbury, and Corey's wife. 
 
 " What did they do there ? — Eat, and drank wine, 
 
 '*Was there a minister there? — No, not as I know of. 
 
 "From whence had you your wiue? — From Salem, I 
 think, it was. 
 
 " Goodwife Oliver there ? — Yes : I knew her." 
 
 la concluding his report of the trial of this wretched 
 woman, whose children were thus made to become the 
 instruments for procuring her death, Dr. Cotton Ma- 
 ther expresses himself in the following language : — 
 
 '• This rampant hag (Martha, Carrier) was the person of 
 whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children 
 among the rest, agreed that the Devil had promised her that 
 she should be queen of Hell." 
 
 It is quite evident that this " rampant hag" had no 
 better opinion of the dignitaries and divines who 
 managed matters at the time than they had of her. 
 
212 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 The record of her examination shows that she was not 
 afraid to speak her mind, and in ph\in terms too. 
 When brought before the magistrates, the following 
 were their questions and her ans^^'ers. The accusing 
 witnesses having severally made their charges against 
 her, declarino; that she had tormented them in various 
 ways, and threatened to cut their throats if they would 
 not sign the Devil's book, which, the}'" said, she had 
 presented to them, the magistrates addressed her in 
 these words : '^ What do you say to this you are 
 charged with ? " She answered, " I have not done it.'' 
 One of the accusers cried out that slie was, at that 
 moment, sticking pins into her. Another declared 
 that she was then looking upon "the black man," — 
 the shape in which they pretended the DcAdl appeared. 
 The magistrate asked the accused, " What black man is 
 that? " Her answer was, " I know none." The accusers 
 cried out that the black man was present, and visible 
 to them. The magistrate asked her, " What black 
 man did you see ? " Her answer was, " I saw no black 
 man but your own presence." Whenever she looked 
 upon the accusers, they were knocked down. The 
 magistrate, entirely deluded by their practised acting, 
 said to her, " Can you look upon these, and not knock 
 them down ? " Her answer was, " They will dissem- 
 ble, if I look upon them." He continued : " You see, 
 you look upon them, and they fall down." She broke 
 out, " It is false : the Devil is a liar. I looked upon 
 none since I came into the room but you." Susanna 
 Sheldon cried out, in a trance, " I wonder what could 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. Zl6 
 
 you murder thirteen persons for." At this, her spirit 
 became aroused: the accusers fell into the n.ost in- 
 tolerable outcries and agonies. The accused, rebuked 
 the magistrate, charging him with unfairness in not 
 paying any regard to what she said, a.M receiving 
 everj thing that the accusers said. '' It is a shameful 
 thing, that you should mind these folks that are out of 
 their wits j '- and, turning to those who were bringing 
 these false and ridiculous charges against her, she said, 
 ^^ You lie : I -am wronged." The energy and courage 
 of the prisoner threw the accusers, magistrates, and 
 the whole crowd into confusion and uproar. The rec- 
 ord closes the description of the scene in these words : 
 " The tortures of the afflicted were so great that there 
 was no enduring of it, so that she was ordered away, 
 and to be bound hand and foot with all expedition ; the 
 afflicted, in the mean while, almost killed, to the great 
 trouble of all spectators, magistrates, and others." 
 
 Parris closes his report of this examination as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " Note. — As soon as she was well bound, they all had 
 strange and sudden ease. Mary Walcot told the magis- 
 trates that this woman told her she had been a witch this 
 forty years." 
 
 This shows the sort of communications the girls 
 were allowed to hold with the magistrates, exciting 
 their prejudices against accused persons, and filling 
 their ears with all sorts of exaggerated and false 
 stories. However much she may have been maligned 
 
214 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 by her neighbors, some of whom had long been in the 
 habit if circulating slanders against her, the whole 
 tenor o/ the papers relating to her shows that she 
 always iiidignantly repelled the charge of being a 
 witch, and \-is the last person in the world to have 
 volunteered such a statement as Mary Walcot re- 
 ported. 
 
 The examination of Martha Carrier nrast have been 
 one of the most striking scenes of the whole drama of 
 the witchcraft proceedings. The village meeting-house 
 presented a truly wild and exciting spectacle. The 
 fearful and horrible superstition which darkened the 
 minds of the people was displayed in their aspect and 
 movements. Their belief, that, then and there, they 
 were witnessing the great struggle between the king- 
 doms of God and of the Evil One, and that every thing 
 was at stake on the issue, gave an awe-struck intensity 
 to their expression. The blind, unquestioning confi- 
 dence of the magistrates, clergy, and all concerned in 
 the' prosecutions, in the evidence of the accusers; the 
 loud outcries of their pretended suiferings ; their con- 
 tortions, swoonings, and tumblings, excited the usual 
 consternation in the assembly. In addition to this, 
 there was the more than ordinary bold and defiant 
 bearing of the prisoner, stung to desperation by the 
 outrage upon human natui-e in the abuse practised 
 upon her poor children ; her firm and unshrinking 
 courage, facing the tempest that was raised to over- 
 whelm her, sternly i-ebuking the magistrates, — "It 
 is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 215' 
 
 that are out of their wits;" — her whole demeanor, 
 proclaiming her conscious innocence^ and proving that 
 she chose chains, the dungeon, and the scaffold, rather 
 than to belie herself. Seldom has a scene in rea,i life, 
 or a picture wrought by the inspiration of genius and the 
 hand of art, in its individual characters or it& general 
 grouping, surpassed that presented on this occasion. 
 
 Hutchinson has preserved the record of another 
 examination of a different character. An ignorant 
 negro slave-woman was brought before the rnagis- 
 trates. She was cunning enough, not only to confess, 
 but to cover herself with the cloak of having been led 
 into the difficulty by her mistress. 
 
 "Candy, are you a witch? — Candy no witch in her 
 country. Candy's mother no witch. Candy no witch, Bar- 
 bados. This country, ipistress give Candy witch. 
 
 " Did your mistress make you a witch in this country? — 
 Yes : in this country, mistress give Candy witch. 
 
 "What did your mistress do to make you witch? — 
 Mistress bring book and pen and ink ; make Candy write 
 in it." 
 
 Upon being asked what she wrote, she took a pen 
 and ink, and made a mark. Upon being asked how 
 she afflicted people, and where were the puppets she 
 did it with, she said, that, if they would let her go out 
 for a moment, she would show them how. They al- 
 lowed her to go out, and she presently returned with 
 two pieces of cloth or linen, — one with two knots, 
 the other with one tied in it. Immediately on seeing 
 these articles, the "afflicted children " were " greatly 
 
216 ■V^^ITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 affrighted," and fell into violent fits. Wlicn they 
 came to, they declared tliat the " hlack man," Mrs. 
 Ha\N4vCs, and the negro, stood by the puppets of rags, 
 and pinched them. "Whereupon they fell into fits 
 again. '' A bit of one of the rags being set on fire," 
 they all shrieked that they were burned, and " cried 
 out dreadfully." Some pieces being dipped in water, 
 they went into tlie convulsions and struggles of drown- 
 ing persons ; and one of them rushed out of the room, 
 and raced down towards the river. ^ 
 
 Candy and the girls having played their parts so 
 well, there was no escape for pooi^Mrs. Hawkes but hi 
 confession, which she forthwith made. They were 
 both committed to prison. Fortunately, it was not 
 convenient to bring them to trial until the next Janu- 
 ary, when, the delusion having blown over, they were 
 acquitted. 
 
 Besides those already mentioned, there were others, 
 among the victims of this delusion, whose cases excite 
 our tenderest sensibility, and deepen our horror in the 
 contemplation of the scene. It seems, that, some time 
 before the transactions took pjlace in Salem Village, a 
 difficulty arose between two families on the borders of 
 Topsfield and Ipswich, such as often occur among 
 neighbors, about some small matter of property, 
 fences, or boundaries. Their names were Perley and 
 How. A daughter of Perley, about ten years of age, 
 hearing, probably, strong expressions by her parents, 
 became excited against the Hows, and charged the 
 wife of How with bewitching her. She acted much 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 217 
 
 after the maiiuer of the '* afQictcd girls " in Salem 
 Village, which was near the place of her residence. 
 Yeiy soon the idea became current that Mrs. How 
 was a witch ; and every thing that happened amiss to 
 any one was laid at her door. She was cried out 
 against by the ''afflicted children" in Salem Village, 
 and carried before the magistrates for examination on 
 the 31st of May, 1692. Upon being brought into her 
 presence, the accusers fell into their usual fits and 
 convulsions, and charged her with tormenting them. 
 To the question, put by the magistrates, " What say 
 you to this charge ? " her answer was, " If it was the 
 last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent 
 of any thing m this nature." The papers connected 
 with her trial bear abundant testimony to the escel- 
 lent character of this pious and amiable woman. A 
 person, who had lived near her twenty-four years, 
 states, in her deposition, " that she had found her a 
 neighborly woman, conscientipus in her dealing, faith- 
 ful to her promises, and Christianlike in her conversa- 
 tion," Several others join in a deposition to this 
 effect : " For our own parts, we have been well ac- 
 quainted with her for above twenty years. We never 
 saw but that she carried it very well, and that both 
 her words and actions were always such as well be- 
 came a good Christian." 
 
 The following passages illustrate the wicked arts 
 sometimes used to bring accusations upon innocent 
 persons, and give affecting proof of the excellence of 
 the character and heart of Elizabeth How : — 
 
218 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " The Testimony of Samuel Phillips, aged about sixty- 
 seven, minister of the word of God in Rowley, who saith that 
 Mr. Payson (minister of God's word also in Rowley) and 
 myself went, being desired, to Samuel Perly, of Ipswich, 
 to see their young daughter, who was visited with strange 
 fits ; and, in her fits (as her fiUher and mother alfirmed), 
 did mention Goodwife How, the wife of James How, Jr., 
 of Ipswich, as if she was in the house, and did afflict her. 
 When we were in the house, the child had one of her fits, 
 but made no mention of Goodwife How ; and, Avhen the 
 fit was over, and she came to herself, Goodwife How went 
 to the child, and took her by the hand, and asked her 
 whether she had ever done her any hurt ; and she answered, 
 ' No, never ; and, if I did complain of you in my fits, I 
 knew not that I did so.' I further can affirm, upon oath, 
 that young Samuel Parley, brother to the afflicted girl, 
 looked out of a chamber window (I and the afflicted child 
 : being without doors together), and said to his sister, ' Say 
 Goodwife How is a witch, — say she is a Avitch ; ' and the 
 child spake not a word that way. But I looked up to 
 the window where the youth stood, and rebuked him for his 
 boldness to stir up his sister to accuse the said Goodwife 
 How ; whereas she had cleared her from doing any hurt to 
 his sister in both our hearing; and I added, ' No wonder 
 that the child, in her fits, did mention Goodwife How, when 
 her nearest relations were so frequent in expressing their 
 suspicions, in the child's hearing, when she was out of her 
 fits, that the said Goodwife How was an instrument of mis- 
 chief to the child.' " 
 
 Mr. Payson, in reference to the same occasion, de- 
 posed as follows : — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 219 
 
 " Being in Perley's liouse some considerable time before 
 the said Goodwife How came in, their afflicted daughter, 
 upon something that her mother spake to her with tartness, 
 presently fell into one of her usual strange fits, during which 
 she made no mention (as I observed) of the abovesaid How 
 her name, or any thing relating to her. Some time after, the 
 said How came in, when said girl had recovered her capa- 
 city, her fit being over. Said How took said girl by the 
 hand, and asked her whether she had ever done her any 
 hurt. The child answered, ' No ; never,* with several ex- 
 pressions to that purpose." 
 
 The bearing of Elizabeth How, under accusations 
 so cruelly and shamefully fabricated aud circulated 
 against her, exhibits one of the most beautiful pic- 
 tures of a truly forgiving spirit and of Christlike 
 love anywhere to be found. Several witnesses say, 
 " We often spoke to her of some things that were 
 reported of her, that gave some suspicion of that she 
 is now charged with ; and she, always professing her 
 inuocency, often desired our prayers to God for her, 
 that God would keep her in his fear, and support 
 her under her burden. We have often heard her 
 speaking of those persons that raised those reports of 
 her, and we never heard her speak badly of them for 
 the same; but, in our hearing, hath often said that 
 she desired God that he would sanctify that affliction, 
 as well as others, for her spiritual good." Others tes- 
 tified to the same eifect. Simon Chapman, and Mary, 
 his wife, say that " they had been acquainted with the 
 wife of James How, Jr., as a neighbor, for this nine or 
 
220 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ten years;" that tliej had resided in the same house 
 with her ■• by the fortnight together ; " that they never 
 knew any thing but what was good in her. They 
 ^" found, at all times, by her discourse, she Avas a 
 woman of affliction, and mourning for sin in herself 
 and others ; and, when she met with any affliction, she 
 seemed to justify God and say that it was all better 
 than she deserved, though it was by false accusations 
 from men. She used to bless God that she got good 
 by affliction; for it made her examine her own heart. 
 TTe never heard her revile any person that hath ac- 
 cused her with witchcraft, but pitied them, and said, 
 ' I pray God forgive them ; for they harm themselves 
 more than me. Though I am a great sinner, I am 
 clear of that; and such kind of affliction doth but 
 set me to examining my own heart, and I find God 
 wonderfully supporting me and comforting me by his 
 word and promises.' " 
 
 Joseph Knowlton and his wife Mary, who had lived 
 near her, and sometimes in the same family with her, 
 testified, that, having heard the stories told about 
 her, they were led to — 
 
 " take special notice of her life and conversation ever since. 
 And I have asked her if she could freely forgive them that 
 raised such reports of her. She told me yes, with all her 
 heart, desiring that God would give her a heart to be more 
 humble under such a providence ; and, further, she said she 
 was willing to do any good she could to those who had done 
 unneighborly by her. Also this I have taken notice, that she 
 would deny herself to do a neighbor a good turn." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 221 
 
 The father of her husband, — James How, Sr., aged 
 about mucty-four years, — in a communication ad- 
 dressed to the Court, declared that — 
 " he, living by her for about thirty years, hath taken notice 
 that she hath carried it well becoming her place, as a daugh- 
 ter, as a wife, in all relations, setting aside human infirmi- 
 ties, as becometh a Christian; with respect to myself as a 
 father, very dutifully ; and as a wife to my son, very careful, 
 loving, obedient, and kind, — considering his want of eye- 
 sight, tenderly leading him about by the hand. Desiring 
 God may guide your honors, ... I rest yours to serve/' 
 
 The only evidence against this good woman — be 
 yond the outcries and fits of the " afflicted children," 
 enacted in their usual skilful and artful style - — con- 
 sisted of the most wretched gossip ever circulated in 
 an ignorant and benighted community. It came from 
 people in the back settlements of Ipswich and Tops- 
 field, and disclosed a depth of absurd and brutal super- 
 stition, which it is difficult to believe ever existed in j 
 New England. So far as those living in secluded i 
 and remote localities are regarded, this was the most I 
 benighted period of our history. Except where, as 
 in Salem Village, special circumstances had kept up 
 the general intelligence, there was much darkness 
 on the popular mind. The education that came over / 
 with the first emigrants from the mother-country had [ 
 gone with them to their graves. The system of com- 
 mon schools had not begun to produce its fruit in 
 the thinly peopled outer settlements. There is no 
 more disgraceful page in our annals than that which 
 
222 ■WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 details the testimony given at the trial, and records the 
 conviction and execution, of Elizabeth How. 
 
 But the dark shadows of that day of folly, cruelty, 
 and crime, served to bring into a brighter and purer 
 light virtues exhibited by many persons. We meet 
 affecting instances, all along, of family fi<?elity and 
 true Christian benevolence. James How, as has been 
 stated, was stricken with blindness. He had two 
 daughters, Mary and Abigail. Although their farm 
 was out of the line of the public-roads, travel very diffi- 
 cult, and they must have encountered many hardships, 
 annoyances, and, it is to be feared, sometimes unfeeling 
 treatment by the way, one of them accompanied their 
 father, twice every week, to visit their mother in her 
 prison-walls. They came on horseback ; she man- 
 aging the bridle, and guiding him by the hand after 
 alighting. Their humble means were exhausted in 
 these offices of reverence and affection. One of the 
 noble girls made her way to Boston, sought out the 
 Governor, and implored a reprieve for her mother; 
 but in vain. The sight of these young women, leading 
 their blind father to comfort and provide for their 
 "honored mother, — as innocent," as they declared 
 her to be, " of the crime charged, as any person in the 
 world," — so faithful and constant in their filial love 
 and duty, relieved the horrors of the scene ; and it 
 ought to be held in perpetual remembrance. The 
 shame of that day is not, and will not be, forgotten ; 
 neither should its beauty and glory. 
 
 The name of Elizabeth How, before marriage, was 
 
 \ 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 223 
 
 Jackson. Among the accounts rendered against the 
 country for expenses incurred in the witchcraft prose- 
 cutions are these two items : " For John Jackson, Sr., 
 one pair of fetters, five shillings; for John Jackson, 
 Jr., one pair of fetters, five shillings." There is also 
 an item for carrying *^ the two Jacksons " from one 
 jail to another, and back again. No other reference to 
 them is found among the papers. They were, per- 
 haps, a brother and nephew of Elizabeth How. There 
 is reason to suppose that her husband, James How, 
 Jr., was a nephew of the Rev. Francis Dane, of An- 
 dover. 
 
 The examination of Job Tookey, of Beverly, presents 
 some points worthy of notice. He is described as 
 a " laborer," but was evidently a person, although per- 
 haps inconsiderate of speech, of more than common 
 discrimination, and not wholly deluded by the fanati- 
 cism of the times. He is charged with having said 
 that he " would take Mr. Burroughs's part ; " " that 
 he was not the Devil's servant, but the Devil was his." 
 When the girls testified that they saw his shape afflict- 
 ing persons, he answered, like a sensible man, if they 
 really saw any such thing, " it was not he, but the 
 Devil in his shape, that hurts the people." Susanna 
 Sheldon, Mary Warren, and Ann Putnam, all de- 
 clared, that, at that very moment while the examina- 
 tion was going on, two men and two women and one 
 child "rose from the dead, -and cried, 'Vengeance! 
 vengeance ! ' " Nobody else saw or heard any thing : 
 but the girls suddenly became dumb ; their eyes were 
 
224 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 fixed on vacancy, all looking toNvarcls the same spot ; 
 and their whole appearance gave assurance of the 
 trnth of what they said. In a short time, Mary War- 
 ren recovered the use of her vocal organs, and ex- 
 claimed, '• There are three men, and three Avomen, and 
 two children. They arc all in their winding-sheets : 
 they look pale upon us, but red upon Tookey, — red as 
 blood." Again, she exclaimed, in a startled and 
 affrighted manner, ^' There is a young child under the 
 table, crying out for vengeance." Elizabeth Booth, 
 pointing to the same place, was struck speechless. 
 In this way, the murder of about every one who had 
 died at Eoyal Side, for a year or two past, was put 
 upon Tookey. Some of them were called by name ; 
 the others, the giiis pretended not to recognize. The 
 wrath and horror of the whole community were ex- 
 cited against him, and he was committed to jail, by the 
 order of the magistrates, — Bartholomew Gedney, 
 Jonathan Corwin, and John Hathorne. 
 
 No character, indeed, however blamelesSj level}'' or 
 venerable, was safe. The malignant accusers struck 
 at the highest marks, and the consuming fire of popu- 
 lar frenzy was kindled and attracted towards the most 
 commanding objects. Marj' Bradbury is described, in 
 the indictment against her, as the " wife of Ca^Dtain 
 Thomas Bradbury, of Salisbury, in the county of Es- 
 sex, gentleman." A few of the documents that are 
 preserved, belonging to her case, will give some idea 
 what sort of a person she was : — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 225 
 
 " The Answer of Mary Bradbury to the Charge of Witch- 
 crafty or Familiarity with the Devil. 
 
 *' I do plead ' Not guilty.' I am wholly innocent of any 
 such ■wickedness, through the goodness of God that have kept 
 me hitherto. I am the servant of Jesus Christ, and have 
 given myself up to him as my only Lord and Saviour, and to 
 the diligent attendance upon him in all his holy ordinances, in 
 utter contempt and defiance of the Devil and all his works, as 
 horrid and detestable, and, accordingly, have endeavored to 
 frame my life and conversation according to the rules of his 
 holy word ; and, in that faith and practice, resolve, by the 
 help and assistance of God, to continue to my life's end. 
 
 " For the truth of what I say, as to matter of practice, I 
 humbly refer myself to my brethren and neighbors that know 
 me, and unto the Searcher of all hearts, for the truth and 
 uprightness of m.y heart therein (human frailties and un- 
 avoidable infirmities excepted, of which I bitterly complain 
 every day) . IMart Bradbury." 
 
 "July 28, 1692. — Concerning my beloved wife, Mary 
 Bradbury, this is what I have to say : We have been married 
 fifty-five years, and she hath been a loving and faithful wife 
 to me. Unto this day, she hath been wonderful laborious, 
 diligent, and industrious, in her place and employment, about 
 the bringing-np of our family (which have been eleven chil- 
 dren of our own, and four grandchildren). She was both 
 prudent and provident, of a cheerful spirit, liberal and char- 
 itable. She beiug now very aged and weak, and grieved 
 under her affliction, may not be able to speak much for her- 
 self, not being so free of speech as some others may be. 
 I hope her life and conversation have been such amongst her 
 VOL. n. 15 
 
226 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 neighbors as gives a better and more real tcstimouy of lier 
 than can be expressed by words. 
 
 " Owned by me, Tiio. Buaduuuy." 
 
 The Rev. James Allin made oath before Robert Pike, 
 an assistant and magistrate, as follows: — 
 
 " I, having lived nine years at Salisbury in the work of 
 the ministry, and now four years in the office of a pastor, to 
 my best notice and observation of Mrs. Bradbury, she hath 
 lived according to the rules of the gospel amongst us ; was a 
 constant atteuder upon the ministry of the word, and all the 
 ordinances of the gospel ; full of works of charity and mercy 
 to the sick and poor : neither have I seen or heard any thing 
 of her unbecoming the profession of the gospel." 
 
 Robert Pike also afifirmed to the truth of Mr. Allin's 
 statement, from " iipwards of fifty years' experience," 
 as did John Pike also : they both declared themselves 
 ready and desirous to give their testimony before the 
 Court. 
 
 One hundred and seventeen of her neighbors — the 
 larger part of them heads of families, and embracing 
 the most respectable people of that vicinity — signed 
 their names to a paper, of which the following is a 
 copy ; — 
 
 ■ " Concei'ning Mrs. Bradbury's life and conversation, we, 
 the subscribers, do testify, that it was such as became the 
 gospel ; she was a lover of the ministry, in all appearance, 
 and a diligent attender upon God's holy ordinances, being of 
 a courteous and peaceable disposition and carriage. Neither 
 did any of us (some of whom have lived in the town with her 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 227 
 
 above fifty years) ever hear or ever know that she ever had 
 any difierence or falling-out with any of her neighbors, — 
 man, woman, or child, — but was always ready and willing 
 to do for them what lay in her power night and day, though 
 with hazard of her health, or other danger. More might be 
 spoken in her commendation, but this for the present." 
 
 Although this aged matron and excellent Christian 
 lady was convicted and sentenced to death, it is most 
 satisfactory to find that she escaped from prison, and 
 her life was saved. 
 
 The following facts show the weight which ought to 
 have been attached to these statements. The position, 
 as well as character and age, of Mary [Perkins] Brad- 
 bury entitled her to the highest consideration, in the 
 structure of society at that time. This is recognized 
 in the title "Mrs.," uniformly given her. She had 
 been noted, through life, for business capacity, energy, 
 and influence ; and, in 1692, was probably seventy-five 
 years of age, and somewhat infirm in health. Her 
 husband, Thomas Bradbury, had been a prominent 
 character in the colony for more than fifty years. In 
 1641, he was appointed, by the General Court, Clerk of 
 the Writs for Salisbury, with the functions of a magis- 
 trate, to execute all sorts of legal processes in that 
 place. He was a deputy in 1651 and many subse- 
 quent years ; a commissioner for Salisbury in 1657, 
 empowered to act in all criminal cases, and bind over 
 offenders, where it was proper, to higher courts, to 
 take testimonies upon oath, and. to join persons in 
 marriage. He was required to keep a record of all his 
 
228 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 doings. If the parties agreed to that effect, he was 
 authorized to hoar and detenniue cases of every kind 
 and degree, without the intervention of a jury. The 
 towns north of the Merrimac, and all beyond now 
 within the limits of New Hami^shirc, constituted the 
 County of Norfolk : and Thomas Bradbury, for a long 
 series of years, was one of its commissioners and as- 
 sociate judges. From the first, he was conspicuous 
 in military matters ; having been commissioned by the 
 General Court, in 1648, Ensign of the trainband in 
 Salisbury. He rose to its command ; and, in the latter 
 portion of his life, was universally spoken of as " Cap- 
 tain Bradbury." All along, the records of the General 
 Court, for half a century, demonstrate the estimation 
 in which he was held ; various important trusts 
 and special services requiring integrity and ability 
 being from time to time committed to him. His 
 family was influentially connected. His son William 
 married the widow of Samuel Maverick, Jr,, who was 
 the son of one of the King's Commissioners in 1664 : 
 she was the daughter of the Rev. John Wheelwright, 
 a man of great note, intimately related to the cele- 
 brated Anne Hutchinson, and united with her by 
 sympathy in sentiment and participation in exile. 
 
 Robert Pike, born in 1616, was a magistrate in 1644. 
 He was deputy from Salisbury in 1648, and many 
 times after ; Associate Justice for Norfolk in 1650 ; 
 and Assistant in 1682, holding that high station^ by 
 annual elections, to the close of the first charter, and 
 during the whole period of the intervening and insur- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 229 
 
 gent government. He "was named as one of the 
 council that succeeded to the House of Assistants, 
 when, under the new charter, Massachusetts became 
 a royal province. He was always at the head of 
 military affairs, having been commissioned, by the 
 General Court, Lieutenant of the Salisbury trainband 
 in 1648 ; and, iyi the later years of his life, he held the 
 rank and title of major. John Pike, probably his son, 
 resided iia Hampton in 1691, and was minister of 
 Dover at his death in 1710. 
 
 Surely, the attestations of such men as the Pikes, 
 father and son, and the E-ev. James Allin, to the 
 Christian excellence of Mary Bradbury, must be al- 
 lowed to corroborate fully the declarations of her 
 neighbors, her husband, and herself. 
 
 The motives, and influences that led to her arrest and 
 condemnation in 1692 demand an explanation. The 
 question arises. Why should the attention of the accu- 
 sing girls have been led to this aged and most re- 
 spectable woman, living at such a distance, beyond the 
 Merrimac ? A critical scrutiny of the papers in 
 the case affords a clew leading to the true answer. 
 
 The wife of Sergeant Thomas Putnam, as has been 
 stated (vol. i. p. 253), was Ann Carr of Salisbury. 
 Her father, George Carr, was an early settler in that 
 place, and appears to have been an enterprising and 
 prosperous person. The ferry for the main travel of 
 the country across the Merrimac was from points 
 of land owned by him, and always under his charge. 
 He was engaged in ship-building, — employing, and 
 
230 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 having in liis family, young men ; among them a son of 
 Zerubabel Endicott, bearing the same name. 
 
 Among the papers in the case is the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 " The Deposition of Kichard Cakr, who testifieth and 
 saith, that, about thirteen years ago, presently after some 
 difference that happened to be between my honored father, 
 Mr. George Carr, and Mrs. Bradbury, the prisoner at the bar, 
 upon a sabbath at noon, as we were riding home, by the 
 house of Captain Tho : Bradbury, I saw Mrs. Bradbury go 
 into her gate, turn the corner of, and immediately there 
 darted out of her gate a blue boar, and darted,at my father's 
 horse's legs, which made him stumble ; but I saw it no more. 
 And my father said, ' Boys, what do you see ? ' We both 
 answered, 'A blue boar.' 
 
 " Zerubabel Endicott testifieth and saith, that I lived at 
 Mr, George Carr, noAv deceased, at the time above mentioned, 
 and was present with Mr. George Carr and Mr. Eichard 
 Carr. And I also saw a blue boar dart out of Mr. Brad- 
 bury's gate to Mr. George Carr's horse's legs, which made 
 him stumble after a strange manner. And I also saw the 
 blue boar dart from Mr. Carr's horse's legs in at Mrs. Brad- 
 bury's window. And Mr. Carr immediately said, ' Boys, 
 what did you see ? ' And Ave both said, ' A blue boar.' Then 
 said he, 'From whence came it?' And we said, 'Out of 
 Mr. Bradbury's gate.' Then said he, ' I am glad you see it 
 as well as I.' Jurat in Curia, Sept. 9, '92." 
 
 Stephen Sewall, the clerk of the courts, with his 
 usual eagerness to make the most of the testimony 
 against persons accused, adds to the deposition the 
 following : — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 231 
 
 " And they both further sa3^, on their oatlis, that Mr. 
 Carr discoursed with them, as they went home, about what 
 had happened, and they all concluded that it was Mrs. 
 Bradbury that so appeared as a blue boar." 
 
 At the date of this occurrence, Richard Carr was 
 twenty years of age, and Zcriibabcl Endicott a lad of 
 of fifteen. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that there was " some 
 difference between" George Carr and Mrs. Bradbury, 
 if he was in the habit of indulging in such talk about 
 her as he took the leading part in on this occasion. 
 He evidently encouraged in his " boys " the absurd 
 imaginations with which their credulity had been 
 stimulated. They were prepared by preconceived no- 
 tions to witness something preternatural about the 
 premises of Mrs. Bradbury; and, in their jaundiced 
 vision, any animal, moving in and out of tlie gate, 
 might naturally assume the likeness of a " blue boar." 
 Such ideas circulating in the family, and among the 
 apprentices of Carr, would soon be widely spread. 
 No doubt, Zerubabel, on his visits to his home, told 
 wondrous stories about Mrs. Bradbury. His brother 
 Samuel, then a youth of eighteen, had his imagination 
 filled with them ; and some time after, on a voyage to 
 " Barbadoes and Saltitudos," in which severe storms 
 and various disasters were experienced, attributed them 
 all to Mrs. Bradbury ; and, " in a bright moonshining 
 night, sitting upon the windlass, to which he had been 
 sent forward to look out for land," the wild fancies of 
 his excited imao-ination took effect. He heard " a 
 
232 -n^ITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 rumbling noise," and thought he saw the legs of some 
 person. ^^ Presently he was shook, and looked over 
 his shoulder, and saw the appearance of a woman, 
 from her middle upwards, having a white cap and 
 white neckcloth on her, which then affrighted him very 
 much; and, as he was turning of the windlass, he saw 
 the aforesaid two legs." Such superstitioiis phantasms 
 seem to be natural to the experiences of sailor-life, 
 and perhaps still linger in the forecastle and at the 
 night-watch. 
 
 The habit of maligning Mrs. Bradbury as a witch 
 dated back in the Carr family more than thirteen years, 
 as the following deposition proves. I give it precisely 
 as it is in the original. As in a few other instances in 
 this work, the spelling and punctuation are preserved 
 as curiosities. Like all the papers in the case, with 
 one exception, presented in court against Mrs. Brad- 
 bury, it is in the handwriting of Sergeant Thomas 
 Putnam : • — 
 
 " The Deposistiox of James Carr. who testifieth and 
 saith that about 20 years agoe one day as I was accidently 
 att the house of mr wheleright and his daughter the widdow 
 maverick then hued there : and she then did most curtuously 
 invite me to com oftener to the house and wondered I was 
 grown such a stranger, and with in a few days affter one 
 evening I Avent thether againe : and when I came thether 
 againe : william Bradbery was y"" who was then a suter to 
 the said widdow but I did not know it tell afflerwards : 
 affter I came in the widdow did so corsely treat the sd 
 william Bradbery that he went away semeing to be angury ; 
 
^YITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 233 
 
 presently affter this I was taken afFter a strange mauei* as if 
 liueiug creature did run about euery part of my body redy 
 to tare mc to peaces and so I continewcd for about 3 qurters 
 of a 3^ear by times & I applyed myself to doctor Crosbe who 
 gave me a grate deal of visek but could make non work tho 
 he steept tobacco in bosit drink he could make non to work 
 ■where upon he tould me that he beleved I was behaged : 
 and I tould him I had thought so a good while : and he 
 asked me by horn I tould him I did not care for spaking for 
 one was counted an honest woman : but he uging I tould 
 him and he said he did beleve that m" Bradbery was a grat 
 deal worss then goody martin : then presently affter this one 
 night I being a bed & brod awake there came sumthing to 
 me which I thought was a catt and went to strick it ofe the 
 bed and was sezed fast that I could not stir hedd nor foot, 
 but by and coming to my strenth I herd sumthing a coming to 
 me againe and I prepared my self to strick it : and it coming 
 upon the. bed I did strick at it and I beleve I hit it : and 
 after that visek would Avork on me and I beleve in my hart 
 that m'* Bradbery the prisoner att the barr has often afflec- 
 ted me by acts of wicthcraft. 
 
 " Jurat in Curia Sep™^ 9. 92. " * 
 
 * In the innumerable depositions written by Thomas Putnam, he is 
 not so careful to be correct, in his chirography and construction, as in 
 his parish-records. But, if the reader is iuchned to make the experi- 
 ment, he will find, that, if the above document should be properly 
 pointed and spelled, according to our fashion at the present day, it 
 would read well, and is clearly and forcibly put together. Spelling, at 
 that time, was phonetic, and it enables us to ascertain tlie then preva- 
 lent pronunciation of words. " Corsely,'' no doubt, shows how the 
 word was then spoken. " Angury " was, with a large class of words 
 now dissyllables, then a trisyllable. " Tould," " spaking," and many 
 other words above, are spelled just as they were then pronounced. 
 
234 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEjM VILLAGE. 
 
 But the whole of George Carr's family did not sjm- 
 pathize in this morbid state of prejudice, or cherish 
 such foolish and malignant foncies, against Mrs. Brad- 
 bury. One of the sons, WilUam, had married, Aug. 
 20, 1672, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Pike. It ap- 
 pears, by the following deposition, which is in the 
 handwriting of Major Pike, that there had been an- 
 other love affair between the families, leading to a 
 melancholy result, inflaming still more the morbid and 
 malign prejudice against Mrs. Bradbu.ry ; but William 
 repudiated it utterly ; — 
 
 " The Testimony of William Carr, aged forty-one, or 
 thereabouts, is that my brother John Carr, when he was 
 young, was a man of as good capacity as most men of his 
 age ; but faUing in love with Jane True (now wife of Captain 
 
 " Wicthcraft " is always, I believe, spelled this way by Thomas Put- 
 nam. He had not got rid of the old Anglo-Saxon sound of the word 
 " witch/' brought by his father from Buckinghamsliire, sixty years 
 before, — " wicca/* 
 
 The condition of medical science and practice, at that period, is curi- 
 ously illustrated in this paper. It is plain that the distemper of James 
 Carr was purely in the realm of the sensibilities and fancy ; and " doctor 
 Crosbe'' is not wholly to blame because his *'visek" did not "work." 
 A good smart nightmare, with a feeling that he had given a thorough 
 basting to the spectre, in the form of a cat, of the supposed author of 
 his woful and aggravated disappointment in love, was what he needed ; 
 and it cured him. " A posset of sack " was FalstafiTs refuge, from the 
 plight into which he had been led by " building upon a foolish woman's 
 promise/' when he emerged from the Thames and the *' buck-basket." 
 Many others, no doubt, in drowning sorrow and mortification, have 
 found it "the sovereignest thing on earth." But, as administered by 
 physicians of the Dr. Crosby school, with tobacco steeped in it, it must 
 liave been a " villanous compound." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEH VILLAGE. 235 
 
 John March), and my father beiug persuaded hj [ ] of 
 
 the family (which I shall not name) not to let him marry 
 so young, my father would not give him a portion, -vvhere- 
 upon the match broke off, -which my brotlier laid so much to 
 heart that he grew melanclioly, and by degrees much crazed, 
 not being the man, that he was before, to his dying day. 
 
 " I do further testify that my said brother was sick about 
 a fortnight or three weeks, and then died ; and I was present 
 with him when he 3ied. And I do affirm that he died peace- 
 ably and quietly, never manifesting the least trouble in the 
 world about anybody, nor did not say any thing of Mrs. 
 Bradbury nor anybody else doing him hurt ; and yet I was 
 with him till the breath and life were out of his body." 
 
 The usual form, jurat in euricCy is written at the foot 
 of this deposition, but evidently by a much later hand ; 
 and this leads me, to mention the improbability that 
 any testimony in favor of the accused ever reached 
 the Court at the trials. They had no counsel: the 
 attorney-general had prejudged all the cases ; and his 
 mind and those of the judges repudiated utterly any 
 thing like an investigation. Every friendly voice was 
 silenced. The doors were closed against the defence. 
 Robert Pike, an assistant under the old and a council- 
 lor under the new government, endeavored in vain to 
 enter them. 
 
 William Carr was a person of great respectability, 
 and bore the appointment, by the General Court, of 
 land-surveyor for the towns in the northern part of 
 the present county of Essex. 
 
 The member of the family who — as stated in the 
 
236 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 foregoing deposition — ^^^'^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ matcli, all the cir- 
 cumstances seem to indicate, was Mrs. Ann Putnam. 
 She perhaps had experienced the effects of a too early 
 marriage, bringing the burden of life upon the consti- 
 tution and the character before they are mature enough 
 to bear it. She may have attributed to this cause 
 the ti'oubles and trials with which her cup had been so 
 bitterly filled, and the blasting of the happiness of her 
 youth. Half deranged, as perpetual excitement from 
 the parish quarrels in reference to Mr. Bayley had made 
 her, she may have become morbidly opposed to the 
 equally early marriage of a brother. Added to this was 
 the fact that Henry True had married one of Mrs. Brad- 
 bury's daughters, and that Jane True was his sister. 
 It cannot be doubted that she entertained the same 
 ideas about Mrs. Bradbury as her father and brothers, 
 James and Hichard ; and, for this reason, also opposed 
 the match of her brother John. Wishing to be relieved 
 from the self-reproach of having caused his derange- 
 ment and death, when the witchcraft delusion broke 
 out at Salem Village and she became wholly absorbed 
 by it, as all other deaths and misfortunes were as- 
 cribed to it, she avowed and maintained the belief, 
 as some had suspected at the time, that the happi- 
 ness, health, reason, and life of her brother had been 
 destroyed by diabolical agency, practised by Mrs. Brad- 
 bury. 
 
 In the state of things long subsisting between the 
 Bradbury and Carr families, we find an explanation of 
 the movement made against Mrs. Bradbury, Young 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 237 
 
 Ann Putnam may have often heard her unpleasantly 
 spoken of by her mother, and it "was natural that she 
 should have " cried out against her." 
 
 The family of Mrs. xinn Putnam seem to have had 
 constitutional traits that illustrate and explain her own 
 character and conduct. They were excitable and sen- 
 sitive to an extraordinary degree. Their judgment, 
 reason, and physical systems, were subject to the power 
 of their fancies and affections. One of her brothers, 
 in consequence of being badly coquetted with and jilted 
 by a young widow, was thrown into an awful condition 
 of body and mind " for about three-quarters of a 
 year." The reason, health, and heart of another were 
 broken ; and he sunk into an early grave, in conse- 
 quence of having been crossed in love. The death of 
 her sister Bayley may have been caused by the imhappy 
 controversies in the village parish. We have seen, 
 and shall see, the all but maniac condition to which 
 excitement brought her own mind. At last, the 
 heaviest blow that can fall upon a fond wife suddenly 
 snapped the brittle cord of her life. These considera- 
 tions must be borne in mind, while we attempt to 
 explain her conduct, and should throw the weight of 
 pity and charity into the scales, if mortal judgment 
 ventures to estimate her guilt. They are known to 
 the Infinite Mind, and never overlooked by -divine 
 mercy. 
 
 I have introduced these singular private details to 
 illustrate what the documents all along show, — that 
 the proceedings against persons charged with witch- 
 
238 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 craft, ill 1692, were instigated by all sorts of personal 
 grudges and private piques, many of tliem of long 
 standing, fomented and kept alive by an unhappy in- 
 dulgence of umvortliy feelings, alwa3^s ready to mix 
 themselves with popular excitements, and leading all 
 concerned headlong to the utmost extent of mischief 
 and wrong. 
 
 The case of Mary Bradbury has been allowed to 
 occupy so large a space, because I desire to disabuse 
 the public mind of a great error on this subject. It 
 has been too much supposed, that the sufferers in the 
 witchcraft delusion were generally of the inferior 
 classes of society, and particularly ignorant and be- 
 nighted. They were the very reverse. They mostly 
 belonged to families in the better conditions of life, and, 
 many of them, to the highest social level. They were 
 all persons of great moral firmness and rectitude, as 
 was demonstrated by their bearing under persecutions 
 and outrage, and when confronting the terrors of death. 
 Their names do not deserve reproach, and their memo- 
 ries ought to be held in honor. 
 
 The following account of the examination of Eliza- 
 beth Gary of Charlestown, given by her husband, 
 Captain Gary, a shipmaster, has the highest interest, 
 as written at the time by one who was an eye-witness, 
 and participated in the sufferings of the occasion : — 
 
 "May 24. — I having heard, some days, that my wife 
 was accused of witchcraft ; being much disturbed at it, by 
 advice went to Salem Village, to see if the afflicted knew 
 her: we arrived there on the 24th of May. It happened 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 239 
 
 to be a day appointed for examination ; accordingly, soon 
 after our arrival, Mr. Hathorue and Mr. Corwia, &c., went 
 to the meeting-house, which was the place appointed for that 
 work. The minister began with prayer; and, having taken 
 cai'e to get a convenient place, I observed that the afflicted 
 were two girls of about ten years old, and about two or 
 three others of about eighteen : one of the girls talked most, 
 and could discern more than the rest. 
 
 " The prisoners were called in one by one, and, as they 
 came in, Avere cried out at, <fcc. The prisoners were placed 
 about seven or eight feet from the justices, and the accusers 
 between the justices and them. The prisoners were ordered 
 to stand right before the justices, with an officer appointed to 
 hold each hand, lest they should therewith afflict them: and 
 the prisoners' eyes must be constantly on the justices; for, 
 if they looked on the afflicted, they would either fall into 
 fits, or cry out of being hurt by them. After an examina- 
 tion of the prisoners, who it was afflicted these girls, &c., 
 they were put upon saying the Lord's Prayer, as a trial of 
 their guilt. After the afflicted seemed to be out of their 
 fits, they would look steadfastly on some one person, and 
 frequently not speak ; and then the justices said they were 
 struck dumb, and after a little time would speak again : then 
 the justices said to the accusers, ' Which of you will go 
 and touch the prisoner at the bar ? ' Then the most coura- 
 geous would adventure, but, before they had made three 
 steps, would ordinarily fall down as in a fit : the justices 
 ordered that they should be taken up and carried to the 
 prisoner, that she might touch them ; and as soon as they 
 were touched by the accused, the justices would say, 'They 
 are well,' before! could discern any alteration, — by which 
 I observed that the justices understood the manner of it. 
 
24:0 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Thus far I was only as a spectator : my ^vifc also was there 
 part of the time, but no notice "was taken of her })y the 
 afilictcd, except once or twice they came to her, and asked 
 her name. But I, having an opportunity to discourse iNIr. 
 Hale (with whom I had formerly acquaintance), I took his 
 advice what I had best do, and desired of him that I might 
 have an opportnnitv to speak with her that accused my 
 wife; which he promised should be, I acquainting him that 
 I reposed my trust in him. Accordingly, he came to me 
 after tlie examination was over, and told me I had now an 
 opportunitv to speak with the said accuser, Abigail AVil- 
 liams, a ^rirl eleven or twelve years old; but that we could 
 not be in private at Mr. Parris's house, as he had promised 
 me : Ave went therefore into the alehouse, where an Indian 
 man attended us, who, it seems, was one of the afflicted ; to 
 him we gave some cider : he showed several scars, that 
 seemed as if they had been long there, and showed them 
 as done by Avitchcraft, and acquainted us that his Avife, Avho 
 also Avas a slave, Avas imprisoned for AAutchcraft. And noAA', 
 instead of one accuser, they all came in, and began to tumble 
 down like swine ; and then three Avomen Avere called in to 
 attend them. "We in the room Avere all at a stand to see 
 who they Avould cry out of; but in a short time they cried out 
 ' Gary ; ' and, immediately after, a "warrant AA'as sent from, 
 the justices to bring my Avife before them, AAdio Avere sitting 
 in a chamber near by, waiting for this. Being brought 
 before the justices, her chief accusers Avere tAA'o girls. My 
 wife declared to the justices, that she never had any knoAvl- 
 edge of them before that day. She was forced to stand 
 Avith her arms stretched out. I requested that I might hold 
 one of her hands, but it was denied me : then she desired 
 me to Avipe the tears from her eyes, and the SAveat from her 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 241 
 
 face, "whicli I did ; then she desired she might lean herself 
 on me, saying she should faint. Justice Ilathorne replied 
 she had strength enough to torment these persons, and she 
 should have strength enough to stand. I speaking some- 
 thing against their cruel proceedings, they commanded me 
 to be silent, or else I should be turned out of tlic room. 
 The Indian before mentioned was also brought in, to be 
 one of her accusers ; being come in, he now ("vvhen before 
 the justices) fell down, and tumbled about like a hog, but 
 said nothing. The justices asked the girls who afflicted the 
 Indian: they answered she (meaning my "wife), and that 
 she now lay upon him. The justices ordered her to touch 
 him, in order to his cure, but her head must be turned 
 another "way, lest, instead of curing, she should make him 
 worse by her looking on him, her hand being guided to 
 take hold of his ; but the Indian took hold of her hand, and 
 pulled her down on the floor in a barbarous manner : then 
 his hand was taken off, and her hand put on his, and the 
 cure was quickly wrought. I being extremely troubled at 
 their inhuman dealings, uttered a hasty speech, ' That God ' 
 would take vengeance on them, and desired that God would 
 deliver us out of the hands of unmerciful men,' Then her 
 mittimus was writ. I did with difficulty and charge obtain 
 the liberty of a room, but no beds in it ; if there had been, 
 could have taken but little rest that night. She was com- 
 mitted to Boston prison ; but I obtained a habeas corpus to 
 remove her to Cambridge prison, which is in our county of 
 Middlesex, Having been there one night, next morning the 
 jailer put irons on her legs (having received such a com- 
 mand) ; the weight of them was about eight pounds : these 
 irons and her other afflictions soon brought her into con- 
 
 VOL. II. 16 
 
242 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 vulsiou fits, SO that I tliought she woukl have died that 
 night. I seut to entreat that the irons miglit be taken otif ; 
 but all entreaties were in vain, if it Avould liavc saved her 
 life, so that in this condition she must continue. The trials 
 at Salem coming on, I Aveot thither to see how things were 
 managed : and finding that the spectre evidence was there 
 received, together with idle, if not malicious stories, against 
 people's lives, I did easily perceive which way the rest would 
 go ; for the same evidence that served for one would serve 
 for all the rest. I acquainted her with her danger ; and that, 
 if she were carried to Salem to be tried, I feared she would 
 never return. I did my utmost that she might have her 
 trial in our own count}'; I with several others petitioning 
 the judge for it, and were put in hopes of it: but I soon 
 saw so much, that I understood thereby it was not in- 
 tended ; "which put me upon consulting the means of her 
 escape, Avhich, through the goodness of God, was effected, 
 and she got to Hhode Island, but soon found herself not 
 safe when there, by reason of the pursuit after her ; from 
 thence she went to New York, along with some others that 
 had escaped their cruel hands, "where "we found his Excel- 
 lency Benjamin Fletcher, Esq., Governor, who was very 
 courteous to us. After this, some of my goods were seized 
 in a friend's hands, "v^nth whom I had left them, and myself 
 imprisoned by the sheriff, and kept in custody half a day, 
 and then dismissed ; but to speak of their usage of the 
 prisoners, and the inhumanity shown to them at the time 
 of their execution, no sober Christian could bear. They 
 had also trials of cruel mockings, which is the more, con- 
 sidering "what a people for religion, I mean the profession 
 of it, we have been ; those that suffered being many of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 243 
 
 them church members, and most of them unspotted in their 
 conversation, till their adversary the Devil took up this 
 method for accusing them. Jonathan Cauy.'* 
 
 The only account we have, written by one who had 
 actually experienced, in his own person, what it was 
 to fall into the hands of those who got up and carried 
 on the prosecutions, is the following. Captain Alden 
 had probably been from an early stage in their opera- 
 tions in the eye of the accusing girls. He was meant, 
 perhaps, by what often fell from them about " the tall 
 man in Boston." We are left entirely to conjecture 
 as to the reason why they singled him out, as not one 
 of them, we may be quite sure, had ever seen him. 
 It may be that some person who had experienced 
 discipline luider his orders as a naval commander 
 bore him a grudge, and took pains to suggest his 
 name to the girls, and provided them with the coarse, 
 vulgar, and ridiculous scandal they so recklessly 
 poured out upon him : — 
 
 '■^ An Account Jioiu John Alden, Sr., ivas dealt with at Salem 
 Village. 
 
 "John Alden, Sr., of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, 
 mariner, on the twenty-eighth day of May, 1692, was 
 sent for by the magistrat-es of Salem, in the countj- of 
 Essex, upon the accusation of a company of poor distracted 
 or possessed creatures or witches ; and, being sent hy Mr. 
 Stoughton, arrived there on the 31st of May, and appeared 
 at Salem Village before Mr. Gedney, Mr. Hathorne, and 
 Mr. Corwin. 
 
 " Those wenches being present who played their jug- 
 
244 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 gliug tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in people's 
 faces, the magistrates demanded of them several times, 
 who it was, of all the people in the room, that hurt them. 
 One of these accusers pointed several times at one Captain 
 Hill, there present, but spake nothing. The same accuser 
 had a man standing at her back to hold her up. He stooped 
 down to her ear : then she cried out, ' Alden, Alden afflicted 
 her/ One of the magistrates asked her if she had ever 
 seen Alden. She answered, 'No.' He asked her how she 
 knew it was Alden. She said the man told her so. 
 
 " Then all were ordered to go down into the street, 
 -where a ring was made ; and the same accuser cried out, 
 ' There stands Alden, a bold fellow, with his hat on before 
 the judges : he sells powder and shot to the Indians and 
 French, and lies with the Indian squaws, and has Indian 
 papooses.' Then was Alden committed to the marshal's 
 custody, and his sword taken from him ; for they said he 
 afflicted them with his sword. After some hours, Alden 
 was sent for to the meeting-house in the Village, before 
 the magistrates, who required Alden to stand upon a chair, 
 to the open vieAv of all the people. 
 
 " The accusers cried out that Alden pinched them then, 
 when he stood upon the chair, in the sight of all the people, 
 a good way distant from them. One of the magistrates 
 bid the marshal to hold open Alden's hands, that he might 
 not pinch those creatures. Alden asked them why they 
 should think that he should come to that village to afflict 
 those persons that he never knew or saw before. Mr. 
 Gedney bid Alden to confess, and give glory to God. Alden 
 said he hoped he should give glory to God, and hoped he 
 should never gratify the Devil : but appealed to all that ever 
 knew him, if they ever suspected him to be such a person ; 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 245 
 
 and challenged an}' one that could bring in any thing on 
 their own knowledge, that might give suspicion of his being 
 such an one. Mr- Gedney said he had known Alden many 
 years, and had been at sea with him, and always looked 
 upon him to be an honest man ; but now he Sviw cause to 
 alter his judgment. Alden answered, he was sorry for that, 
 but he hoped God would clear up his innoccncy, that he 
 would recall that judgment again ; and added, that he hoped 
 that he should, with Job, maintain his integrity till he died. 
 They bid Alden look upon the accusers, which he did, and 
 then they fell down. Alden asked Mr. Gedney what reason 
 there could be given why Alden*s looking upon him did 
 not strike him down as well ; but no reason was given that 
 I heard. But the accusers wei'e brought to Alden to touch 
 them ; and this touch, they said, made them well. Alden 
 began to speak of the providence of God in suffering these 
 creatures to accuse innocent persons, Mr. Noyes asked 
 Alden why he should offer to speak of the providence of 
 God: God, by his providence (said Mr. Noyes), governs 
 the world, and keeps it in peace ; and so went on with 
 discourse, and stopped Alden's mouth as to that. Alden 
 told Mr. Gedney that he could assure him that there was a 
 lying spirit in them ; for I can assure you that there is not 
 a word of truth in all these say of me. But Alden was 
 again committed to the marshal, and his mittimus written. 
 
 "To Boston Alden was carried by a constable : no bail 
 would be taken for him, but was delivered to the prison- 
 keeper, where he remained fifteen weeks ; and then, observ- 
 ing the manner of trials, and evidence then taken, was at 
 length prevailed with to make his escape. 
 
 " Per John Alden." 
 
246 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Alden made his escape about the middle of Septem- 
 ber, at the bloodiest crisis of the traged}^ and just 
 before the execution of nine of the victims, incUiding 
 that of Giles Corey. He is undei-stood to have fled 
 to Duxbury, where his relatives secreted him. He 
 made his appearance among them late at night ; and, 
 on their asking an explanation of his unexpected visit 
 at that hour, replied that he was flying from the 
 Devil, and the Devil was after him. After a while, 
 when the delusion had abated, and people were com- 
 ing to their senses, he delivered himself up, and was 
 bound over to the Superior Court at Boston, the last 
 Tuesday in April, 1693, when, no one appearing to 
 prosecute, he, with some hundred and fifty others, was 
 discharged by proclamation, and all judicial proceed- 
 ings brought to a close. It is to be feared, that ever 
 after, to his dying day, when tlie subject of his ex- 
 pei^ience on the 31st of May, 1692, was referred to, 
 the old sailor indulged in rather strong expressions 
 in relating his reminiscences of Rev. " Mr. Nicho- 
 las Noyes," "Mr. Bartholomew Gedney," and the 
 "wenches" of Salem Yiliage. 
 
 Captain John Alden was a son of John Alden, 
 ever memorable as one of the first founders of Plym- 
 outh Colony. He had been for more than thirty 
 years a resident of Boston, a member of the church, 
 and in all respects a leading and distinguished man. 
 For some time, he had been commander of the armed 
 vessel belonging to the colony, and was a brave and 
 efficient officer and an able and experienced mari- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 247 
 
 ner. He had seen service ia French and Indian wars, 
 had acted two years before, that is in 1690, as com- 
 missioner in conducting* ne^-otiations Avith the native 
 tribes, and, at a later period, was charged with impor- 
 tant trusts as a naval commander. lie was a man 
 of large property, and seventy years of age. He was, 
 as well he might be, utterly confounded and amazed 
 in finding himself charged as a principal culprit hi 
 the Salem witchcraft. The accusing girls were evi- 
 dently delighted to get hold of such a notable and 
 doughty character ; and their tongues were released, 
 on the occasion, from all i^estraints of decorum and 
 decency. "Wlien the ring was formed around him 
 " in the street," in front of Deacon IngersolPs door, 
 his sword unbuckled from his side, and such foul 
 and vulgar aspersions cast upon his good name, he 
 felt, no doubt, that it would have been better to have 
 fallen into the hands of savages of the wilderness or 
 pirates on the sea, than of the crowd of audacious 
 girls that hustled him about in Salem Village. It 
 was a relief to his wounded honor, and gave leisure 
 for the workings of his indignant resentment, to escape 
 from them into Boston jail. Not only his old ship- 
 mate, Bartholomew Gedney, but, as will be seen, the 
 learned attorney-general, who was present, and wit- 
 nessed the whole affair, was fully convinced of his 
 guilt. 
 
 The wife of an honest and worthy man in Andover 
 was sick of a fever. After all the usual means had 
 failed to check the symptoms of her disease, the idea 
 
248 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 became prevalent that slie was su(Tci-iiig under an 
 *' evil hand." The husband, pnrsiiant of the advice 
 of friends, posted down to Salem Village to ascertain 
 from the afflicted girls who Avas bewitcliing his wife. 
 Two of them returned with him to xindover. Never 
 did a place receive such fatal visitors. The Grecian 
 horse did not bring greater consternation to ancient 
 Ilium. Immediately after their arrival, they succeeded 
 in getting more than fifty of the inhabitants into 
 prison, several of whom were hanged. A perfect panic 
 swept like a hurricane over the place. The idea seized 
 all minds, as Hutchinson expresses it, that the only 
 " way to prevent^ an accusation was to become au 
 accuser." — "The number of the afflicted increased 
 every day, and the n\imber of the accused in pro- 
 portion." In this state of things, such a great acces- 
 sion being made to the ranks of the confessing 
 witches, the power of the delusion became irresistibly 
 strengthened. Mr. Dudley Bradstreet, the magistrate 
 of the place, after having committed about forty per- 
 sons to jail, concluded he had done enough, and de- 
 clined to arrest any more. The consequence was 
 that he and his wife were cried out upon, and they 
 had to fly for their lives. They accused his brother, 
 John Bradstreet, with having " afflicted " a dog. Brad- 
 street escaped by flight. The dog was executed. The 
 number of persons who had publicly confessed that 
 they had entered into a league with Satan, and ex- 
 ercised the diabolical power thus acquired, to the 
 injury, torment, and death of innocent parties, pro- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 249 
 
 duced a profound effect upon the public mind. At 
 the same time, the accusers had everywhere increased 
 in number, owing to the inflamed state of imagina- 
 tion universal!}' prevalent which ascribed all ailments 
 or diseases to the agency of witches, to a mere love 
 of notoriety and a passion for general sympathy, to 
 a desire to be secure against the charge of bewitching 
 others, or to a malicious disposition to wreak ven- 
 geance upon enemies. The prisons in Salem, Ipswich, 
 Boston, and Cambridge, were crowded. All the secu- 
 rities of society were dissolved. Every man's life was 
 at the mercy of every other man. Fear sat on every 
 countenance, terror and distress were in all hearts, 
 silence pervaded the streets : all who could, quit the 
 country ; business was at a stand ; a conviction sunk 
 into the minds of men, that a dark and infernal^ con- 
 federacy had got foot-hold in the land, threatening to 
 overthrow and extirpate religion and morality, and 
 establish the kingdom of the Prince of darkness in 
 a country which had been dedicated, by the prayers 
 and tears and sufferings of its pious fathers, to the 
 Church of Christ and the service and worship of 
 the true God. The feeling, dismal and horrible in- 
 deed, became general, that the providence of God 
 was removed from them ; that Satan was let loose, 
 and he and his confederates had free and unre- 
 strained power to go to and fro, torturing and destroy- 
 ing whomever he willed. We cannot, by any extent 
 of research or power of imagination, enter fully into 
 the ideas of the people of that day ; and it is there- 
 
250 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 fore absolutely im2)ossible to appreciate the awful cou- 
 ditiou of the commuuity at the poiut of time to which 
 our narrative has led us. 
 
 In the midst of this state of things, the old colony 
 of Massachusetts was transformed into a royal prov- 
 ince, and a new government organized. Sir William 
 Phlps, the governor, arrived at Boston, with the 
 new charter, on the evening of the 14th of May. 
 William Stoughton, of Dorchester, superseded Thomas 
 Danforth as deputy-governor. In the Council, which 
 took the place of the Assistants, most of the former 
 body were retained. Bartholomew Gedney had a few 
 years before been dropped from the board of Assistants. 
 He was now placed in the Council with John Hathornej 
 Jonathan Corwin, Samuel Appleton, and Robert Pike, 
 of this county. The new government did not interfere 
 with the proceedings in progress relating to the 
 witchcraft prosecutions, at the moment. Examina- 
 tions and commitments went on as before ; only the 
 magistrates, acting on those occasions, were re-enforced 
 by Mr. Gedney, who presided at their sessions. The 
 affair had become so formidable, and the public infatu- 
 ation had reached such a point, that it was difficult 
 to determine what ought to be done. Sir William 
 Phips, no doubt, felt that it was beyond his depth, 
 and yielded himself to the views of the leading men 
 of his council. Stoughton was in full sympathy with 
 Cotton Mather, whose interest had been used in j^ro- 
 curing his appointment over Danfortli. Through him, 
 Mather acquired, and held for some time, great as- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 251 
 
 cendency with the governor. It was -concluded best 
 to appoint a special court of Oyer and Terminer for 
 the witchcraft trials. Stougliton, the deputy-governor, 
 was commissioned as chief-justice. Nathaniel Salton- 
 stall of Haverhill ; Major John Richards of Boston ; 
 Major Bartholomew Gedney of Salem ; Mr. Wait AVin- 
 throp, Captain Samuel Sewall, and Mr. Feter Sargent, 
 all three of Boston, — were made associate judges. 
 Saltonstall early withdrew from the service ; and Jona- 
 than Corwin, of Salem, succeeded to his place on the 
 bench of the sj^ecial court. A majority of the judges 
 were citizens of Boston. 
 
 Jonathan Corwin had been associated with Ha- 
 thorne in conducting the examinations that have been 
 described. He was" a son of George Corwin, who has 
 been noticed in the account of Salem Village. 
 
 A shade of illegality rests upon the very existence 
 of this special court. There has always been a ques- 
 tion whether the new charter gave to the governor 
 and council power to create it without the concur- 
 rence of the House of Hepresentatives. It has been 
 held that such a court could have no other lawful 
 foundation than an act of the General Court. Hutch- 
 inson was evidently of this opinion. This question 
 was a very serious one ; for, as that considerate and 
 able historian and eminent judicial officer says, the 
 tribunal that passed sentence in the witchcraft prose- 
 cutions was " the most important court to the life 
 of the subject which was ever held in the province." 
 The time requii*ed to convene the popular branch of the 
 
252 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 govenimeut is itself, in all cases, an element of safety. 
 In this case, it would have carried the country beyond 
 the period of the delusion, and saved its annals from 
 their darkest and bloodiest page. The condition of 
 things when he arrived, had his counsellors been wise, 
 would have led Sir William Phips forthwith to issue 
 writs of election of deputies, before taking any action 
 whatever. In a free republican government, the ex- 
 ecutive department ought never to attempt to dispose 
 of difficult matters of vital importance without the 
 joint deliberations and responsibility of the represen- 
 tatives of the people. 
 
 So far as the composition of the court is consid- 
 ered, no objection can be made. The justices were 
 all members of the council, and belonged to the high- 
 est order, not only of the magistracy, but of society 
 generally. They constituted as respectable a body of 
 gentlemen as could have been collected. Thomas 
 Newton, of Boston, was commissioned to act as attor- 
 ney-general. The official title of marshal ceasing with 
 the new government, George Corwin was appointed 
 sheriff of the county of Essex. Herriclc appears to 
 have continued in the service as deputy. Sheriff 
 Corwin was twenty-six years of age. He was the 
 grandson of the original George Corwin, and the son 
 of John. His mother was grand-daughter of Gov- 
 ernor Winthrop of Massachusetts, and daughter of 
 Governor Winthrop of Connecticut. His wife was a 
 daughter of Bartholomew Gedney ; so that it appears 
 that two of the judges were his uncles, and one his 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 253 
 
 father-in-law. These personal connections may be 
 borne in mindj as affording ground to believe, that, in 
 the discharge of his painful duties, he did not act with- 
 out advice and suggestions from the highest quarter. 
 
 The court-bouse in which the trials were held stood 
 in the middle of what is now Washington Street, near 
 where Lynde and Church Streets, which did not then 
 exist, now enter it, fronting towards Essex Street, 
 The building was also used as a town-house ; Washing- 
 ton Street being, for this reason, then called '' Town- 
 house Lane." Off against the court-house, on the 
 west side of the lane, was the house of the Rev. Nicho- 
 las Noyes, on the site of the residence of the late 
 Robert Brookhouse. Opposite to it was the estate 
 of Edward Bishop, which fronted westerly on " Town- 
 house Lane" a little over a hundred feet, including 
 the present Jeffrey Court, and extending a few feet 
 beyond the corner of the house of Dr. S. M. Gate, 
 over a portion of Church Street. Its depth, towards 
 St. Peter Street, was about three_ hundred and forty- 
 five feet. Edward Bishop held this estate in the right 
 of his wife Bridget, the widow of Thomas Oliver 
 who had died about 1679. Not long after this mar- 
 riage, Bishop removed to his farm at Eoyal Side. In 
 1685, the " old Oliver house " was either removed or 
 rebuilt, and a new one erected on the same premises, 
 which was occupied by tenants in 1692. These items 
 are given because they will help to illustrate the 
 narrative, and enable us to understand points of 
 evidence in the approaching trial. It is a curious 
 
25-i WITCHCRAFT AT SALEJI VILLAGE. 
 
 circumstance, that the first public victim of the prose- 
 cutions, Bridget Bisliop, had been tlie nearest neighbor 
 and lived directly opposite, to the person who, more 
 than au}^ other inhabitant of the town, was responsible 
 for the blood that was shed, — Nicholas Noyes. The 
 jail, at that time, was on the western side of Prison 
 Lane, now St. Peter Street, north of the jDoint where 
 Federal Street now enters it. The meeting-house 
 stood on what has always been the site of the First 
 Church. The " Ship Tavern " was on ground the 
 front of which is occupied, at present, by " West's 
 Block," nearly opposite the head of Central Street. 
 It had long been owned and kept by John Gedney, 
 Sr. Two of his sons, John and Bartholomew, had 
 married Susanna and Hannah Clarke. John died in 
 1685. His widow moved into the family of her father- 
 in-law ; and, after his death in 1688, continued to keep 
 the house. In 1698 she was married to Deliverance 
 Parkman, and died in 1728. The tavern, in 1692, was 
 known as the "Widow Gedney's." The estate had an 
 extensive orchard in the rear, contiguous, along its 
 northern boundary, to the orchard of Bridget Bishop, 
 which occupied ground now covered by the Lyceum 
 building, and one or two others to the east of it. 
 
 The Court was opened at Salem in the first week 
 of June, 1692. In the mean time, the attorney-general, 
 to prepare for the management of the cases, came to 
 Salem. He addressed the following letter to Isaac 
 Addington, Secretary of the province: — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 255 
 
 "Salem, 31st May, 1G92. 
 "Worthy Sir, — I have 'herewith sent you tlie names 
 of the prisoners that are desired to be transmitted by habeas 
 corpus ; and have presumed to send you a copy thereof, being 
 more, as I presume, accustomed to that practice than your- 
 self, and beg pardon if I have infringed upon you therein. 
 I fear we shall not this week try all that we have sent for ; 
 by reason the trials will be tedious, and the afflicted per- 
 sons cannot readily give their testimonies, being'struck dumb 
 and senseless, for a season, at the name of the accused, I 
 have been all this day at the Village, with the gentlemen 
 of the council, at the examination of the persons, where I 
 have beheld strange things, scarce credible but to the specta- 
 tors, and too tedious here to relate \ and, amongst the rest, 
 Captain Alden and Mr. English have their mittimus, I 
 must say, according to the present appearances of things, 
 they are as deeply concerned as the rest ; for the afflicted 
 spare no person of what quality soever, neither conceal 
 their crimes, though never so heinous. We pray that Tituba 
 the Indian, and Mrs. Thacher's maid, may be transferred 
 as evidence, but desire they may not come amongst the 
 prisoners but rather by themselves ; with the records in 
 the Court of Assistants, 1679, against Bridget Oliver, and the 
 records relating to the first persons committed, left in Mr. 
 Webb's hands by the order of the council. I pray pardon 
 that I cani;iot now further enlarge ; and, with my cordial 
 service, only add that I am, sir, your most humble servant, 
 
 ■:^^Jmrtmu 
 
256 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Hiitclnnsoii says that there was no colony or prov- 
 ince law ao-ainst witchcraft in force when the trials 
 J began ; and that the proceedings were under an act of 
 I James the First, passed in 1603. By that act, persons 
 convicted were to be sentenced to " the pains and 
 penalties of death as felons." By the colonial law, con- 
 viction of capital crimes did not incapacitate the party 
 affected from disposing of property. In this and other 
 respects, there were points of difference, which caused 
 some inconvenience in carrying out the practice of 
 the mother-country ; and the attorney-general had to 
 supply the want of experience in the local officers. 
 
 It may here be mentioned, that no record of the 
 doings of this special court are now to be found, and 
 our only information respecting them is obtained in 
 brief and imperfect statements of writers of the time. 
 Perhaps Hutchinson had the use of the records. He 
 gives the dates of the several sessions of the courts, 
 and of the conviction and execution of the prisoners. 
 Some of the depositions sworn to in court are on file, 
 but without giving in many instances the date when 
 thus offered in the trials. In some cases, they state 
 when they were laid before the grand jury. Only a 
 small part of them are preserved. The matter they 
 contain was, to a considerable extent, brought forward 
 at the preliminary examinations, and has been already 
 adduced. In the following account of the trials, some 
 "further use will be made of these depositions. 
 
 Bridget Bishop was the only person tried at the 
 first session of the Court. She was brought through 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 257 
 
 Prison Lane, up Essex Street, by the First Church, 
 into Town-house Lane, to the Court-house. Cotton 
 Mather says, — 
 
 " There was one strange thing with M'hich the court was 
 newly entertained. As this woman was under a guard, 
 passing by the great and spacious meeting-house, she gave 
 a look towards the house ; and immediately a demon, in- 
 visibly entering the meeting-house, tore down a part of it : 
 so that, though there was no person to be seen there, yet 
 the people, at the noise, running in, found a board, which 
 was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into 
 another quarter of the house." 
 
 It is probable that the streets were thronged by 
 crowds eager to get a sight of the prisoner ; and that 
 the doors, fences, and house-tops were occupied. Some, 
 perhaps, got into the meeting-house ; and, in clamber- 
 ing up to the windows, a board may have been put in 
 requisition, and left misplaced. Incredible almost as 
 it is, this circumstance seems, from Mather's lan- 
 guage, — "the court was entertained," — to have been 
 brought . in evidence at the trial, and regarded as 
 weighty ^and conclusive proof of Bridget's guilt. 
 
 One or two points in the evidence adduced against 
 her, in addition to those mentioned heretofore, deserve 
 consideration. The position taken, at her trial, by 
 the Rev. John Hale of Beverly demands criticism. 
 The charge of witchcraft had been made against her 
 on more than one occasion before ; particularly about 
 the year 1687, when she resided near the bounds of 
 Beverly, at Royal Side. A woman in the neighbor- 
 
 VOL. II. 17 
 
258 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 hood, subject to fits of insanity, had, while passing into 
 one of them, brought the accusation against her ; but, 
 on the return of her reason, solemnly recanted, and 
 deeply lamented the aspersion. In a violent recur- 
 rence of her malady, this woman committed suicide. 
 Mr. Hale had examined the case at the time, and 
 exonerated Bridget Bishop, who was a communicant iii 
 his church, from the charge made against her by the 
 unhappy lunatic. He was satisfied, as he states, that 
 '' Sister Bishop " was innocent, and in no way deserved 
 to be ill thought of. He hoped '^ better of said Goody 
 Bishop at that time." Without any pretence of new 
 evidence touching the facts of the case, he came into 
 court in 1692, and related them, to the effect and 
 with the intent to make them bear against her. He 
 described the appearance of the throat of the woman, 
 after death, as follows : — 
 
 " As to the wounds she died of, I observed three deadly 
 ones ; a piece of her windpipe cut out, and another wound 
 above that through the windpipe and gullet, and the vein 
 they call jugular. So that I then judged and still do appre- 
 hend it impossible for her, with so short a pair of scissors, to 
 mangle herself so without some extraordinary work of the 
 Devil or witchcraft." 
 
 If this was his impression at the time, it is strange 
 that he did not then say so. But there is no appear- 
 ance of any criminal proceedings having been had, by 
 the grand jury or otherwise, against " Sister Bishop " 
 on the occasion. On the contrary, Mr. Hale seems to 
 have acquiesced in the opinion, that the derangement of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 259 
 
 the woman was aggravated, if not caused, by her being 
 overmuch given to searching and pondering upon the 
 dark passages and mysterious imagery of prophecy. 
 The truth, in all probability, is, that Mr. Hale's suspi- 
 cion was an after-thought. The effect produced upon 
 his mental condition by the statements and actings of 
 the " afflicted children " in 1692 was unconsciously 
 transferred to 1687. The delusion, in which he was 
 then fully j^^i'ticipating, led him to put a different 
 interpretation upon the suicidal wounds and horrible 
 end of the wretched maniac, five or sis years be- 
 fore. 
 
 A piece of evidence, which illustrates the state of 
 opinion at that time, relating to our subject, given in 
 this case, is worthy of notice. Samuel Shattuck was 
 a hatter and dyer. His house was on the south side 
 of Essex Street, opposite the western entrance to the 
 grounds of the North Church. Before her removal to 
 the village, Bridget Bishop was in the habit of calling 
 at Shattuck's to have articles of dress dyed. He states 
 that she treated him and his family politely and kindly ; 
 or, as he characterized her deportment after his mind 
 had become jaundiced against her, " in a smooth and 
 flattering manner." He tells his story in a deposition 
 written by him, and signed and sworn to in Court 
 by himself and wife, June 2, 1692. It is as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " Our eldest child, who promised as much health and 
 understanding, both by countenance and actions, as any 
 other children of his years, was taken in a very drooping 
 
260 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 coaditioD ; and, as she came oftoncr to the Louse, he grew 
 ^yorse and Averse. As he would be standing at the door, 
 would full out, and bruise his face upon a great step-stone, 
 as if he had been thrust out by an invisible hand ; often- 
 times falling, and hitting his face against the sides of the 
 house, bruising his face in a very miserable manner. . , . 
 This child taken in a terrible fit, his month and eyes 
 drawn aside, and gasped in such a manner as if he Avas upon 
 the point of death. After this, he grew worse in his fits, 
 and, out of Ihem, would be almost always crying. That, 
 for many months, he would be crying till nature's strength 
 Avas spent, and then Avould fall asleep, and then aAvake, and 
 fall to cryiug and moaning ; and that his very countenance 
 did bespeak compassion. And at length, we perceived his 
 understanding decayed : so that we feared (as it has since 
 proved) that he would be quite bereft of his wits ; for, ever 
 since, he has been stupefied and void of x*eason, his fits still 
 followinfr of him. After he had been in this kind of sickness 
 some time, he has gone into the garden, and has got upon a 
 board of an inch thick, Avhich laj' flat upon the gi*ound, and we 
 have called him ; he Avould come to the edge of the board, and 
 hold out his hand, and make as if he Avould come, but could 
 not till he was helped ofi" the board. . . . My wife has oflTered 
 him a cake and money to come to her ; and he has held out 
 his hand, and reached after it, but could not come till he had 
 been helped off the board, by which I judge some enchant- 
 ment kept him on. . . . Ever since, this child hath been fol- 
 lowed with grievous fits, as if he Avould never recover more ; 
 his head and eyes drawn aside so as if tiiey would never 
 come to rights more ; lying as if he Avere, in a manner, 
 dead; falling anywhere, either into fire or Avater, if he be 
 not constantly looked to ; and, generally, in such an uneasy, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 261 
 
 restless frame, almost a,i\\''ays riinning to and fro, acting so 
 strange that I cannot judge otherwise but that he is be- 
 witched: and, by these circumstances, do believe that the 
 aforesaid Bridget Oliver — now called Bishop — is the cause 
 of it : and it has been the judgment of doctors, such as lived 
 here and foreigners, that he is under an evil hand of witch- 
 craft." 
 
 The means used to give this direction, to the suspi- 
 cious of Shattuck and his "wife are described iu the 
 notice of Bridget Bishop, iu the First Part of this work. 
 
 Shattuck was a sou of the sturdy Quaker of that 
 name who, thirt}'^ years before, had given the govern- 
 ment of the colony so much trouble, and seems to 
 have inherited some of his notions. In his deposition, 
 he mentions, as corroborative proof of Bi^idget Bishop's 
 being a witch, that she used to bring to his dye-house 
 " sundry pieces of lace," of shapes and dimensions 
 entirely outside of his conceptions of what could be 
 needed in the wardrobe, or for the toilet, of a plain and 
 honest woman. He evidently regarded fashionable 
 and vain ajDparel as a snare and sign of the Devi). 
 
 The imaginations of several persons in Shattuck's 
 immediate neighborhood seem to have been wrought 
 up to a high point against Bridget Bishop. John 
 Cook lived on the south side of the street, directly 
 opposite the eastern entrance to the grounds of the 
 North Church, on its present site. John Ely's house 
 was on a lot contiguous to the rear of Cook's, fronting 
 on Summer Street. One of Cook's sons (John), aged 
 eighteen, testified, that, — 
 
262 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 "About five or six years ago, one morning about sun-ris- 
 ing, as I -was in bed, before I rose, I saw Goodwife Bishop, 
 alias Oliver, stand in the chamber by the window: and slie 
 looked on me and gi-iuned on me, and presently struck me on 
 the side of the head, which did very much hurt me ; and then 
 I saw her go out under the end window at a little crevice, 
 about so big as I could thrust my hand into. I saw her 
 again the same day, — which was the sabbath-day, — about 
 noon, walk across the room ; and having, at the time, an 
 apple in my hand, it flew out of my hand into my mother's 
 lap, who sat six or eight foot distance from me, and then she 
 disappeared: and, though my mother and several others 
 were in the same room, yet they affirmed they saw her 
 not." 
 
 Bly and bis wife Rebecca had a difficulty with Bishop 
 in reference to payment for a hog they had bought of 
 her. The following is from their testimony at her trial. 
 After stating that she came to their house and quar- 
 relled with them about it, they go on to say that the 
 animal — 
 
 " was taken with strange fits, jumping up, and knocking her 
 head against the fence, and seemed blind and deaf, and would 
 not eat, neither let her pigs suck, but foamed at the mouth ; 
 which Goody Henderson, hearing of, said she believed she 
 was overlooked, and that they had their cattle ill in such a 
 manner at the Eastward, when they lived there, and used to 
 cure them by giving of them red ochre and milk, which we 
 also gave the sow. Quickly after eating of which, she grew 
 better ; and then, for the space of near two hours together, 
 she, getting into the street, did set off, jumping and running 
 between the house of said deponents and said Bishop's, as if 
 
TVITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 263 
 
 she "were stark mad, and, after that, was well again : and 
 we did then apprehend or judge, and do still, that said 
 Bishop had bewitched said sow.'' 
 
 TTilliam Stacey testified, that, as he was " agoing to 
 mill," meeting Bishop iu the street, some conversation 
 passed between them, and that, — 
 
 " being gone about six rods from her, the said Bisliop, with 
 a small load iu his cart, suddenly the ofF-wheel slumped or 
 sunk down into a hole upon plain ground; that this deponent 
 was forced to get one to help him get the wheel out. After- 
 wards, this deponent went back to look for said hole where 
 his wheel sunk iu, but could not find any hole." 
 
 Stacey further deposed, that, on another occasion, 
 he — 
 
 " met the said Bishop by Isaac Stearns's brick-kiln. After 
 he had passed by her, this deponent's horse stood still with 
 a small load going up the hill ; so that, the horse striving to 
 draw, all his gears and tackling flew in pieces, and the cart 
 fell down." 
 
 These mishaps and marvels occurred in Summer 
 Street, near the foot of Chestnut Street, where the 
 ground was then much lower than it is now. Stacey 
 was ascending the street, on his way through High 
 Street to his father's mill, at the South River. 
 
 Stacey concluded his testimony as follows : - — 
 
 *' This deponent hath met with several other of her 
 pranks at several times, which would take up a great time to 
 tell of. 
 
 " This deponent doth verily believe that the said Bridget 
 Bishop was instrumental to his daughter Priscilla's death. 
 
264 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 About t^\'0 years ago, the cliild was a likely, thriving child ; 
 and suddenly screeched out, and so continued, in an unusual 
 manner, for about a fortnight, and so died in that lamentable 
 nianuer." 
 
 Many of the extraordinary " pranks," charged upon 
 Bridget Bishop, had their scene near to her dwelling- 
 house. John Louder, a servant of John Gedncy, Sr., 
 some years before, had a controversy with her about 
 her fowls, " that used to come into our orchard or gar- 
 den." He swore as follows : — 
 
 " Some little time after "vvhich, I, going well to bed, about 
 the dead of the night, felt a great weight upon my breast, 
 and, awakening, looked ; and, it being bright moonlight, did 
 clearly see said Bridget Bishop, or her likeness, sitting upon 
 my stomach ; and, putting my arms off of the bed to free my- 
 self from the great oppression, she presently laid hold of my 
 throat, and almost choked me, and I had no strength or 
 power in my hands to resist, or help myself; and, in this con- 
 dition, she held me to almost day. Some time after this, my 
 mistress (Susannah Gedney) was in our orchard, and I was 
 then with her ; and said Bridget Bishop, being then in her 
 orchard, — -which was next adjoining to ours, — my mistress 
 told said Bridget that I said or affirmed that she came, one 
 night, and sat upon my breast, as aforesaid, which she de- 
 nied, and I affirmed to her face to be true, and that I did 
 plainly see her ; upon which discourse with her, she threat- 
 ened me. And, some time after that, I, being not very well, 
 stayed at home on a Lord*s Day ; and, on the afternoon of said 
 day, the doors being shut, I did see a black pig in the room 
 coming towards me ; so I went towards it to kick it, and it 
 vanished away.'' 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 265 
 
 Loudei' goes on to say, tliat, iiumediatclj' after this, 
 on the same occasion while he was staying at home 
 from meeting, he saw a black thing jump into the win- 
 dow, and it came and stood just before his face *' upon 
 the bar." The body of it looked like a monkey, only 
 the feet were like a cock's feet with claws, and the 
 face somewhat more like a man's than a monke3'"'s. 
 He says that he was greatly affrighted, " not being 
 able to speak or help myself by reason of fear, I sup- 
 pose ; " and that his mysterious visitor made qiiite a 
 speech to him, representing that it was a messenger 
 sent to say, that, if he would " be ruled by him, he 
 should want for nothing in this world." The virtuous 
 and indignant Louder saj^s that he answered, " You 
 devil, I will kill you ! " and gave it a blow with his 
 fist, but *' could feel no substance ; and it jumped out 
 of the window again." It immediately came in by the 
 porch, although the doors were shut, and said, " You 
 had better take my counsel." Hereupon Louder 
 struck at it with a stick, hitting the ground-sill and 
 breaking the stick, but felt no substance. Louder 
 concludes his testimony as follows : — 
 
 " The arm with which I struck was presently disenabled. 
 Then it vanished away, and I opened the back-door and 
 went out ; and, going towards the house-end, I espied said 
 Bridget Bishop in her orchard going towards her house, and, 
 seeing her, had no power to set one foot forward, but re- 
 turned in again : and, going to shut the door, I again did see 
 that or the like creature, that I before did see within doors, 
 in such a posture as it seemed to be agoing to fly at me ; 
 
266 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 upon which I cried out, ' The -wliolc armor of God be bet-\veen 
 rae and you.' So it sprang back and licAv over the apple- 
 tree, flinging the dirt -with its feet against my stomach, upon 
 ■which I Avas struck dumb, and so continued for about three 
 days' time ; and also shook many of the apples off from the 
 tree which it flew over." 
 
 Before removing to his farm, Edward and Bridget 
 Bishop made the alterations, before mentioned, on their 
 town estate. John Bly, Sr., aged fift3^-seven years, and 
 William Bly, aged fifteen, w^ere employed in the opera- 
 tion of removing the cellar wall of " the ould house ; " 
 and testified, that they found in holes and crevices 
 of said cellar wall " several puppets made up of rags 
 and hogs' bristles, with headless pins in them with the 
 points outward." 
 
 Upon such evidence, Bridget Bishop was condemned, 
 and executed the next week. The death-warrants, in 
 these trials, were collected together in one envelope, 
 marked as such. The envelope remains, but its 
 contents have all been abstracted. The death-warrant 
 of Bridget Bishop "was probably overlooked when the 
 others were gathered together. The consequence is 
 that it has been preserved, and is the only one known 
 to be in existence. 
 
 The sheriff seems to have proceeded, immediately 
 after the execution, to the clerk's ofhce, and indorsed 
 his return on the Avarrant. When he wrote it, he 
 a^dded, after the word " dead," — " and buried her on 
 the spot." On its occurring to him that the burying of 
 the body was not mentioned in the warrant, he drew 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 267 
 
 his pen through the words ; as is seen in the photo- 
 graph. This superfluous clause, thus partially oblit- 
 erated, is the only positive evidence we have of the 
 disposal of the bodies at the time. They were un- 
 doubtedly all thrown into pits dug among the rocks, on 
 the spot, and hastil}^ covered by the officers having in 
 charge the details of the executions. There were no 
 prayers over their graves, except those uttered by them- 
 selves in their last moments. 
 
 The descendants of Bridget Bishop are very numer- 
 ous in Salem ; embracing some of our oldest and most 
 respectable families, and branching widely from them. 
 There is no evidence of issue by her first marriage. 
 Thomas Oliver, her second husband, had daughters by 
 a former wife, who were represented in the next gen- 
 eration under the names of Hilliard, Hooper, and 
 Jones, By his wife Bridget, he had but one child, — a 
 daughter, Christian, born May 8, 1667. She married 
 Thomas Mason, and died in 1693 ; leaving an only child, 
 Susannah, born August 23, 1687. Edward Bishop 
 was her guardian. She married John Becket in 1711, 
 and by him had a son, John, and six daughtei's, as 
 follows : Susannah, married to David Felt, Elizabeth 
 to William Peele, Sarah to Nathaniel Silsbee, Rebecca 
 to William Fairfield, Eunice to Thorndike Deland, and 
 Hannah to William Cloutman. 
 
 After the condemnation of Bridget Bishop, the Court 
 took a recess, and consulted the ministers of Boston 
 and the neighborhood respecting the prosecutions. 
 The response of the reverend gentlemen, while urging, 
 
268 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 in general terms, the importance of caution and cir- 
 cumspection in the methods of examination, decidedly 
 and earnestly recommended that the proceedings should 
 be vigorously carried on ; and they were, indeed, vig- 
 orously carried on. 
 
 Hutchinson says, that, '* at the first trial, there was 
 no colony or provincial law against witchcraft in force. 
 The statute of James the First must therefore have 
 been considered as in force in the province, witchcraft 
 not being an offence at common law. Before the ad- 
 journmeut, the old colon}' law, which makes witch- 
 craft a capital offence, was revived with the other local 
 laws, as they were called, and made a law of the prov- 
 ince." The General Court, which thus revived the 
 law making witchcraft a capital offence, met, June 8, 
 two days before the execution of Bridget Bishop. The 
 proceedings that took place at Salem were thus as- 
 sumed as a provincial matter, for which the immediate 
 locality was not responsible, but the legislature, clergy, 
 and people of the country at large. 
 
 The Court met again on Wednesday, the 29tli of 
 June ; and, after trial, sentenced to death Sarah Good, 
 Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How, Susanna Martin, and 
 Eebecca Xurse, who were all executed on the 19th of 
 July. 
 
 Calef says, that, at the trial of Sarah Good, — 
 
 " One of the afflicted fell in a fit ; and, after coming out of 
 it, cried out of the prisoner for stabbing her in the breast 
 with a knife, and that she had broken the knife in stabbino- 
 
 o 
 
 of her. Accordingly, a piece of the blade of a knife was 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 269 
 
 found about her. Immediately, information being given to 
 the Court, a young man Avas called, who produced a haft and 
 part of the blade, which the Court, having viewed and com- 
 pared, saw it to be the same ; and, upon inquiry, the young 
 man affirmed that yesterday he happened to break that knife, 
 and that he cast away the upper part, — this afilicted person 
 being then present. The young man was dismissed and she 
 "was bidden by the Court not to tell lies ; and was improved 
 after (as she had been before) to give evidence against the 
 prisoners." 
 
 Hutchinson, in relating this circumstance, refers to 
 a case tried before Sir Matthew Hale, when a similar 
 kind of falsehood was proved against an " afflicted " 
 witness ; notwithstanding which he says the person 
 on trial was found guilty, " and the judge and all the 
 court were fully satisfied with the verdict." 
 
 Sarah Good appears to have been an unfortunate 
 woman, having been subject to poverty, and conse- 
 quent sadness and melancholy. But she was not 
 wholly broken in spirit. Mr. Noyes, at the time of 
 her execution, urged her very strenuously to confess. 
 Among other things, he told her " she was a witch, 
 and that she knew she was a witch." She was con- 
 scious of her innocence, and felt that she was op- 
 pressed, outraged, trampled upon, and about to be 
 murdered, under the forms of law ; and her indignation 
 was roused against her persecutors. She could not 
 bear in silence the cruel aspersion ; and, although she 
 was just about to be launched into eternity, the torrent 
 of her feelings could not be restrained, but burst upon 
 
270 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the head of him who uttered the false accusation. 
 " You are a liar," said she. " I am no more a witch 
 than jou are a wizard; and, if you take away my 
 life, God will give you blood to drink." Hutchinson 
 says that, in his day, there was a tradition among the 
 people of Salem, and it has descended to the present 
 time, that the manner of Mr. Noyes's death strangely 
 verified the prediction thus wrung from the incensed 
 spirit of the dying woman. He was exceedingly cor- 
 pulent, of a plethoric habit, and died of an internal 
 hemorrhage, bleeding profusely at the mouth. 
 
 We have no information relating to the execution of 
 Elizabeth How. Her gentle, patient, humble, benig- 
 nant, devout, and tender heart bore her, no doubt, with 
 a spirit of saint-like love and faith, through the dread- 
 ful scenes. We cannot doubt, that, in death as in life, 
 she forgave, prayed for, and invoked blessing upon her 
 persecutors. Neither has any thing come down in ref- 
 erence to the deportment of Sarah Wildes or Susanna 
 Martin. We may take it for granted, that the former 
 was a patient and humble, but firm and faithful suf- 
 ferer ; and that the latter displayed the great energy 
 of spirit, and probably the strength of language, for 
 which she was remarkable. Of the case of Eebecca 
 Nurse we have more information. 
 
 The character, age, and position of this venerable 
 matron created an impression, which called, to the 
 utmost, all the arts and efforts of the prosecution to 
 counteract. Many who had gone fully and earnestly 
 in support of the proceedings against others paused 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 271 
 
 and hesitated in reference to her ; and large numbers 
 who had been overawed into silence before, bravely 
 came forward in her defence. The character of 
 Nathaniel Putnam has been described. He was a man 
 of extraordinaiy strength and acuteness of mind, and 
 in all his previous life had been proof against popular 
 excitement. The death of his brother Thomas, seven 
 years before, had left him the head and patriarch of 
 his great family : as such, he was known as '* Land- 
 lord Putnam." Entire confidence was felt by all in his 
 judgment, and deservedly. But he was a strong 
 religionist, a life-long member of the Church, and ex- 
 tremely strenuous and zealous in his ecclesiastical 
 relations. He was getting to be an old man ; and Mr. 
 Parris had wholly succeeded in obtaining, for the time, 
 possession of his feelings, sympathy, and zeal in the 
 management of the Church, and secured his full co- 
 operation in the witchcraft prosecutions. He had been 
 led by Parris to take the very front in the proceedings. 
 But even Nathaniel Putnam could not stand by in 
 silence, and see Rebecca Nurse sacrificed. A curious 
 paper, written by him, is among those which have been 
 preserved : — 
 
 "Nathaniel Putnam, Sr., being desired by Francis 
 Nurse, Sr., to give information of what I could say concern- 
 ing his -wife's life and conversation, I, the abovesaid, have 
 known this said aforesaid woman forty years, and what I 
 have observed of her, human frailties excepted, her life and 
 conversation have been accordiog to her profession ; and she 
 hath brought up a great family of children and educated 
 
AVITCHCKAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 tlicm -well, so that tliore is in some of lliem iii)parcnt savor of 
 godliness. I have known lier diller with her neighbors; but 
 I never know or heard of any that did accuse her of what 
 she is now cliarged with." 
 
 A similar paper was signed by thirty-nine other per- 
 sons of the village and the immediate vicinity, all of 
 the highest respectability. The men and women who 
 dared to do this act of justice must not be forgotten: — 
 
 " We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being desired 
 by Goodman Nurse to declare what we know concerning his 
 wife's conversation for time past, — we can testify, to all 
 whom it may concern, that we have known her for many 
 years ; and. according to our observation, her life and conver- 
 sation were according to her profession, and Ave never had 
 any cause or grounds to suspect her of any such thing as she 
 is now accused of. 
 
 'Israel Porter. 
 Elizabeth Porter. 
 Edward Bishop, Sr. 
 Haxxaii Bishop. 
 Joshua Eea. 
 Sarah Rea. 
 Sarah Leach, 
 JOHX Pl'txam. 
 Eebeoca Putnam. 
 Joseph Hutchinson, Sr. 
 Lydia Hutchinson. 
 
 AViLLIAM OSBURN. 
 
 Hanjtah Osdurn. 
 Joseph Holton, Sr. 
 Sarah Holton. 
 Benjamix Putnam. 
 Sarah Putnam. 
 Job Swinnerton. 
 Esther Swinnerton. 
 Joseph Herrick, Sr. 
 
 Samuel Abbey. 
 Hepzibah Eea. 
 Daniel Andrew. 
 Sarah Andrew. 
 Daniel Rea. 
 SaPvAh Putnam. 
 Jonathan Putnam. 
 Lydia Putnam. 
 Walter Phillips, Sr. 
 Nathaniel EeltoNj St. 
 Margaret Phillips. 
 Tabitha Phillips. 
 Joseph Houlton, Jr. 
 Samuel Endicott. 
 Elizabeth Buxton, 
 Samuel Aborn, Sr. 
 Isaac Cook. 
 Elizabeth Cook. 
 Joseph Putnam." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 273 
 
 All cxainiiiatiou of the foregoing names in connec- 
 tion with the histoiy of the Village will show conclusive 
 proof, that, if the matter had been left to the people 
 there, it would never have reached the point to whicli 
 it was carried. It was the influence of the magistracy 
 and the govcrnmcut of the colonj^ and the public 
 sentiment prevalent elsewhere, overruling that of the 
 immediate locality, that drove on the storm. 
 
 Israel Porter was the head of a great and powerful 
 family. His wife Elizabeth was, as has been stated, a 
 sister of Hathorne, the examining magistrate. Edward 
 and Hannah Bishop were the venerable heads and 
 founders of a large family. They lived in Beverly, and 
 must each have been about ninety years of age. The 
 list contains the names of the heads of the principal 
 families in the village, — such as John and Rebecca 
 Putnam, the Hutchinsons, Beas, Leaches, Houltons, 
 and Herricks ; and, in the neighborhood, such as the 
 Feltons, Osbornes, and Samuel Endicott. The most 
 remarkable fact it discloses is that it contains the name 
 of one of the two complainants who procured the 
 warrant against Bebecca Nurse, — Jonathan Putnam, 
 the eldest son of John ; and also of his wife Lydia. 
 Subsequent reflection, and the return of his better 
 judgment, satisfied him that he had done a great wrong 
 to-an innocent and worthy person ; and he had the man- 
 liness to come out in her favor. This document ought 
 to have been effectual in saving the life of Bebecca 
 Nurse. It will for ever vindicate her character, and re- 
 flect honor upon each and every name subscribed to it. 
 
 VOL. II, 18 
 
274 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 One of the most cruel features in the prosecution 
 of the -witchcraft trials, and which was practised in all 
 countries where they took place, was the examination 
 of the bodies of the prisoners by a jury of the same 
 sex, under the direction and in the presence of a sur- 
 geon or physician. The person was wholly exposed, 
 and every part subjected to the most searching scrutiny. 
 The process was always an outrage upon human na- 
 ture ; and in the cases of the victims on this occasion, 
 many of them of venerable years andf delicate feelings'^ ^ 
 it was shocking to every natural and instinctive senti- 
 ment. There is reason to fear that it was often con- 
 ducted in a rough, coarse, and brutal manner. Marshal 
 Herrick testifies, that, " by order of Their Majesties' 
 justices," he, accompanied by the jail-keeper Dounton, 
 and Constable Joseph Neal, made an examination of 
 the body of George Jacobs. In persons of his great 
 age, there would, in all likelihood, be shrivelled, desic- 
 cated, and callous places. They found one on the old 
 man, under his right shoulder. Herrick made oath 
 that it was a veritable witch teat, and his deposition 
 describes it as follows: "-About a quarter of an inch 
 long or better, with a sharp point drooping downwards, 
 so that I took a pin, and run it through the said teat ; 
 but there was neither water, blood, or corruption, nor 
 any other matter." As proof positive that this was 
 " the Devil's mark," Herrick and the turnkey testify 
 that " the said Jacobs was not in the least sensible of 
 what had been done " ! 
 
 The mind loathes the thought of handling in this 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 275 
 
 "way refined and sensitive females of matronly char- 
 acter, or persons of either sex, with infirmities of 
 body rendered sacred by years. The results of the ex- 
 amination were reduced to written reports, going into 
 details, and, among other evidences in the trials, 
 spread before the Court and jury.* 
 
 The evidence in the case of Rebecca Nurse was 
 made up of the usual representations and actings of 
 the "afflicted children." Mary Walcot and Abigail 
 Williams charged her with having committed several 
 murders ; mentioning particularly Benjamin Hoiilton, 
 John Harwood, and Rebecca Shepard, and averring that 
 she was aided therein by her sister Cloyse. Mr. Parris, 
 too, gave in a deposition against her ; from which it ap- 
 
 * A few days before her trial, Rebecca Nurse was subjected to this 
 inspection and exploration ; and the jury of women found the witch- 
 mark upon her. On the 28th of June, two days before the meeting of 
 the Court, she addressed to that body the foUowing communication : — 
 
 " To the Honored Court of Oi/er and Terminer, now sitting in Salem, this 28ih 
 of June, Anno 1692. 
 
 *' The humble petition of Rebecca Nurse, of Salem Village, humbly 
 showeth: That whereas some women did search your petitioner at Salem, 
 as I did then conceive for some supernatural mark; and then one of the 
 said women, which is known to be the most ancient, skilful, prudent person 
 of them all as to any such concern, did express herself to be of a contrary 
 opinion from the rest, and did then declare that she saw nothing in or about 
 Your Honor's poor petitioner but what might arise from a natural cause, — I 
 there rendered the said persons a sufficient known reason as to myself of the 
 moving cause thereof, which was by exceeding weaknesses, descending partly 
 from an overture of nature, and difficult exigencies that hath befallen me in 
 the times of my travails. And therefore your petitioner humbly prays 
 that Your Honors would be pleased to admit of some other women to in- 
 quire into this great concern, those that are most grave, wise, and skilful; 
 namely, Mrs. Higginson, Sr., Mrs. Buxton, Mrs. Woodbury, — two of them 
 
276 WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 pears, that, a certain persou being sick, ^Mcrcy Lewis 
 was sent for. She was struck dumb on entering 
 the chamber. She was asked to liold up lier hand, if 
 she saw any of the witches affhcting the patient. 
 Presently she held up her hand, then fell into a 
 trance; and after a wliile, coming to lierself, said 
 that she saw the spectres of Goody Nurse and Goody 
 Cariuer having hold of the head of the sick man. Mr. 
 Parris swore to this statement with the utmost con- 
 fidence in Mercy's declarations. 
 
 The testimony of three persons particularly is re- 
 quired to be given, as illustrating the extraordinary 
 extent to which the mhids of those involved in the 
 affair were under infatuation or hallucination. 
 
 Mrs. Ann Putnam was about thirty years of age. 
 For six months she had been constantly absorbed in 
 what was then, as now, regarded as spiritualism. Her 
 
 being midwives, Sirs. Porter, together with such others as may be choten 
 on that account, before I am brought to my trial. All which I hope your 
 honors wiU tjike into your prudent consideration, and find it requisite so to 
 do; for my life lies now in your hands, under God. And, being conscious of 
 my own innocency, I humbly beg that I may have liberty to manifest it to 
 the world partly by the means abovesaid. 
 
 "And your poor petitioner shall evermore pray, as in duty bound, &c." 
 
 Her daughters — Kebecca, wife of Thomas Preston ; and Mary, wife 
 of John Tarbell — presented the following statement: — 
 
 " AVe whose uames are underwritten — can testify, if called to it, that 
 Goody Nurse hath been troubled with an infirmity of body for many years, 
 which the jury of women seem to be afraid it should be something else." 
 
 There is no intimation, in any of the papers, that the petition of the 
 mother or the deposition of her daughters received tlie least attention 
 from the Comt. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 277 
 
 house had been the scene of a perpetual series of 
 wonders supposed to be disclosures and mauifcsta- 
 tious of a supernatural character. Apparitions, spec- 
 tral shapes of living witches, ghosts of their murdered 
 victims, and demons generally, were of daily and hourly 
 occurrence. The dread secrets of the world unknown 
 had been revealed to her in waking fancies and dreams 
 hy night. An originally sensitive and imaginative 
 nature had been wrought into a condition in which 
 her mental faculties were at once enfeebled and' ex- 
 alted. Besides all this, there were the trials to 
 which her constitution had been subjected by the 
 experiences of maternity so early begun, and the pres- 
 sure upon her mind and heart of the anxieties and 
 cares incident to a large family of young children- 
 An accumulation of disappointments, vexations, and 
 consuming griefs, spread like a dark cloud over her 
 life, — the deaths of her own children, and of her sister 
 Bayley and her children, and of her sister Baker's chil- 
 dren; and, finally, the long-continued, and constantly 
 recurring sufferings, tortures, convulsions, fits, and 
 trances of' her daughter Ann, and her servant-wpman 
 Mercy Lewis, under, as she fully believed, a diabolical 
 hand. — These things -must have given to her/ coun- 
 tenance and tones of voice a wonderful impiressive- 
 ness to all who looked upon or listened to them. Hei. 
 eminent social position, her general reputation, ' — for 
 Lawson, who knew her well, calls her " a veJry sober 
 and pious woman," so far as he could jud-g©?'— *^^® 
 stamp of profound earnestness marked om all her 
 
278 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 language, the glow -which moi*bid excitement long ex- 
 perienced gave to her expression, must have arrested, 
 to a hio'h deo-ree, the attention of the assemhled mul- 
 titude. Au air of sadness, in the wild ravings of 
 imagination, pervades her testimony. I present her 
 deposition in full, as one of the phenomena of this 
 strange transaction : — 
 
 ''The Depositio>" of Ann Putnam, the -wife of Thomas 
 Putnain, aged about thirty years, Avho testifieth and saith, 
 that, on the I8th March, 1C92, I beiug wearied out in help- 
 ing to tend my poor afflicted child and maid, about the 
 middle of the aftei*noon I lay me down on the bed to take 
 a little rest ; and immediately I Avas almost pressed and 
 choked to death, that, had it not been for the mercy of 
 a gracious God and the help of those that Avere ■with me, 
 J could not have lived many moments : and presently I saw 
 the apparition of Martha Corey, who did torture me so as 
 I cannot express, ready to tear me all to pieces, and then 
 departed from me a little Avhile ; but, before I could recover 
 strength or well take breath, the apparition of Martha 
 Corey fell upon me again with dreadful tortures, and hellish 
 temptation to go along with her. And she also brought to 
 me a little red book in her hand and a black pen, urging me 
 vehemently to write in her book ; and several times that 
 day slip did most grievously torture me, almost ready to kill 
 me. And, on the 19th March, Martha Corey again appeared 
 to me ; (^and also Rebecca Nurse, the wife of Francis Nurse, 
 Sr. ; and^ they both did torture me a great many times this 
 day with\ such tortures as no tongue can express, because 
 I would iViot yield to their hellish temptations, that, had I 
 not been ulpheld by an Almighty arm, I could not have lived 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 279 
 
 while night. The 20th March, being sabbath-day, I had 
 a great deal of respite between my fits. 21st March, being 
 the day of the examination of Martha CorC}', I had not 
 many fits, though I was very weak ; my strength being, 
 as I thought, ahiiost gone: but, on tlie 22d Marcli, 1G92, 
 the apparition of Rebecca Nurse did again set upon me in 
 a most dreadful manner, very early in the morning, as soon 
 as it was well light. And now she appeared to mc only in 
 her shift, and brought a little red book in her hand, urging 
 me vehemently to write in her book ; and, because I would 
 not yield to her hellish temptations, she threatened to tear 
 my soul out of my body, blasphemously denying the blessed 
 God, and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul ; 
 and denying several places of Scripture which I told her of, 
 to repel her hellish temptations. And for near two hours 
 together, at this time, the apparition of Rebecca Nurse did 
 tempt and torture me, and also the greater pai't of this 
 day, with but very little respite. 23d March, am agy/in 
 afflicted by the apparitions of Rebecca Nurse and Martha 
 Corej^ but chiefly by Rebecca Nurse. 24th March, being the 
 day of the examination of Rebecca Nurse, I was several 
 times afflicted in the morning by the apparition of Rebecca 
 Nurse, but most dreadfully tortured by her in the time of 
 her examination, insomuch that the honored magistrates 
 gave my husband leave to carry me out of the meeting- 
 house ; and, as soon as I was carried out of the nieetinw- 
 house doors, it pleased Almighty God, for his free grace and 
 mercy*s sake, to deliver me out of the paws of those roaring 
 lions, and jaws of those tearing bears, that, ever fiince that 
 time, they have not had power so to afflict me until this 
 31st May, 1692. At the same moment that I was hearing 
 my evidence read by the honored magistrates, to take my 
 
280 WITCHCRAFT AT SALE>[ TILLAGE. 
 
 oatli, I Avas agalo re-as.^aulted and tortured by my before- 
 nientloued tormentor, Kebecca Nurse." 
 
 "The Testimony of Axx Putnam, Jr., witncsscth and 
 saith, that, bein": in the room Avlien her mother was afflicted, 
 she saw Martha Corey, Sarah Cloyse, and Rebecca Kursc, 
 or their apparition, npon her mother." 
 
 Mrs. Ann Putnam made another deposition under 
 oath, at the same trial, Avliich sliows that slie was 
 determined to overwhehn the prisoner by the multi- 
 tude of her charges. She says that llebecca Nurse's 
 apparition declared to her that " she had killed Benja- 
 min Houlton, John Fuller, and Rebecca Shepard;" 
 and that she and her sister Cloyse, and Edward Bish- 
 op's wife, had killed young John Putnam's child ; and 
 she further deposed as foUoweth : — 
 
 ' " Immediately there did appear to me six children in 
 winding-sheets, which called me aunt, which did most 
 grievously affright me ; and they told me that they were my 
 sister Baker's children of Boston ; and that Goody Nurse, 
 and Mistress Carey of Charlestown, and an old deaf woman 
 at Boston, had murdered them, and charged me to go and 
 tell these things to the magistrates, or else they would tear 
 me to pieces, for their blood did cry for vengeance. Also 
 there appeared to me my own sister Baylcy and three of 
 her children in wiuding-sheets, and told me that Goody 
 Nurse had murdered them." 
 
 There is in this deposition a passage which illus- 
 trates one of the doctrines held at the time on the 
 subject of witchcraft. Mrs. Ann Putnam " testifieth . 
 and saith, that, on the first day of June, 1692, the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 281 
 
 appai'itiou of Rebecca Nurse did again fall Tipoii me, 
 and almost clioke me ; and sbc told me, that, now she 
 was come out of prison, she had power to afflict me, 
 and that now she would afflict mc all this day long." 
 The reference here is probably to the fact, that, on the 
 1st of June, she with many other prisoners was trans- 
 ferred from the jail in Boston to that in Salem ; and 
 that, "all that day long" being outside of prison 
 walls, she had greater power to afflict than Avhen 
 chained in a cell. This was undoubtedly the received 
 opinion, and it is curiously illustrated in the fore- 
 going passage. 
 
 The only breath of disparagement against the char- 
 acter of Goodwife Nurse that can be found in any 
 of the papei-s is in the following deposition : — 
 
 " The Deposition op Sarah HoaLTON, relict of Ben- 
 jamin Houltou, deceased, who testifieth and saitli, that, about' 
 this time three years, my dear and loving husband, Benjamin 
 Houlton, deceased, was as well as ever I knew him in ray 
 life till one Saturday moruing, that Rebecca Nurse, Avho 
 now stands charged for witchcraft, came to our house, and 
 fell a railing at him because our pigs got into her field. 
 Though our pigs were sufficiently yoked, and their fence was 
 down in several places, yet all we could say to her could 
 no ways pacify her ; but she continued railing and scolding 
 a great while together, calling to her son Beuj. Nurse to go 
 and get a gun and kill our pigs, and let none of them go out 
 of the field, though my poor husband gave her never a 
 misbeholding word. And, widiin a short time after this, my 
 poor husband going out very early in the morning, as he 
 
282 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ■was coming in again, he was taken with a strange fit in the 
 entry ; being struck blind and stricken down two or tlirce 
 times, so that, wlien he came to himself, he told me he 
 thonght he should never have come into the house any more. 
 And, all summer after, he continued in a languishing con- 
 dition, being much pained at his stomach, and often struck 
 blind : but, about a fortnight before he died, he was taken 
 with strange and violent fits, acting much like to our poor 
 bewitched persons when we thought tliey would have died ; 
 and the doctor that Avas with him could uot find what his 
 distemper was. And, the day before he died, he was very 
 cheerly ; but, about midnight, he was again most violently 
 seized upon with violent fits, till the next night, about mid- 
 night, he departed this life by a cruel death. 
 ''^ Jurat in Curia." 
 
 In explanation of the import of tliis testimony, it is 
 to be observed, that the estate of Benjamin Houlton 
 was contiguous to that of Francis Nurse. They were 
 separated by a fence, which, as in such cases, was re- 
 quired for half its length to be kept in order by one 
 party, the remaining half by the other. What the 
 exact facts were cannot be ascertained, as we have 
 the story of one side only. The widow Houlton ap- 
 pears to have been a tender-hearted, and, for aught we 
 know, good woman. Some years afterwards, she was 
 married, as his second wife, to Benjamin Putnam, — a 
 very respectable person, and, on the death of his father 
 Nathaniel, the head of that branch of the family. He 
 was, for many 3^ears, deacon of the church. But she 
 was, it must be conceded, a prejudiced witness ; and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 283 
 
 her judgment for the time was wholly beclouded by 
 the prevalent superstitions. Tlie garden had been, 
 from the days of Towusend Bishop, a choice portion 
 of the Nurse estate. In all farms, it was a most im- 
 portant and valuable item ; and was generally under 
 the special care and management of the wife, daugh- 
 ters, and younger lads of the husbandman. Rebecca 
 Nurse was an efficient helpmeet; contributing her 
 whole share to the success of the great enterprise of 
 clearing the estate, as well as hi bringing up and 
 educating a large family. It was, no doubt, veiy pro- 
 voking to her, as it would be to any one, to have 
 vegetable and flower beds devastated by the ravages of 
 a neighbor's stray pigs. To what extent her " railing 
 and scolding " went, she was not allowed to contribute 
 her statement, to enable us to judge. The affair 
 probably produced considerable gossip, and seems to 
 be alluded to in Nathaniel Putnam's certificate in be- 
 half of E-ebecca Nurse. There is reason to believe 
 that the widow Houlton was one of the first to realize 
 what great injustice had been done by her and others 
 to the good name of Rebecca Nurse. 
 
 Notwithstanding this evidence, so deeply were the 
 jury impressed with the eminent virtue and true 
 Christian excellence of this venerable woman, that, in 
 spite of the clamors of the outside crowd, the monstrous 
 statements of accusing witnesses, and the strong lean- 
 ing of the Court against her, the jury brought in a 
 verdict of " Not guilty." Galef, and Hutchinson after 
 him, describe the effect, and what followed : — 
 
284 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " Immediately, all the accusers In the Court, and, suddenly 
 after, all the afflicted out of Court, made an hideous outer}^; 
 to tire amazement, not only of the spectators, but the Court 
 also seemed strangely surprised. One of the judges ex- 
 pressed himself not satisfied: another of them, as he was 
 going off the bench, said they would have her indicted anew. 
 The chief-justice said he would not impose on the jury, but 
 intimated as if they had not well considered one expression 
 of the prisoner when she was upon trial ; viz., that when one 
 Hobbs, who had confessed herself to be ti Avitch, was brought 
 into Court to witness against her, the prisoner, turning her 
 head to her, said, ' "What ! do you bring her ? She is one of 
 us ; ' or words to that effect. This, together with the 
 clamors of the accusers, induced the jury to go out again, 
 after their verdict, 'Not guilt3^' " 
 
 The foreman of the jury, Thomas Fisk, made this 
 statement on the 4th of July, a few days after the 
 trial : — 
 
 " After the honored Court had manifested their dissatis- 
 faction of the verdict, several of the jury declared them- 
 selves desirous to go out again, and thereupon the Court 
 gave leave ; but, when we came to consider the case, I could 
 not tell how to take her words as an evidence against her, 
 till she had a further opportunity to put her sense upon them, 
 if she would take it. And then, going into Court, I mentioned 
 the words aforesaid, which by one of the Court were 
 affirmed to have been spoken by her, she being then at the 
 bar, but made uo reply nor interpretation of them ; •where- 
 upon these words were to me a principal evidence against 
 her." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 285 
 
 Upon being informed of the use made of licr words, 
 the prisoner put in the following declaration : — 
 
 " These presents do humbly show to Uje honored Court 
 and jury, that I being informed that the jury brought me 
 in guilty upon my saying that Goodwifc Ilobbs and her 
 daughter were of our company ; but I intended no olJicr- 
 wise than as they were prisoners "with us, and therefore 
 did then, and yet do, judge them not legal evidence against 
 their fellow-prisoners. And I beiug something hard of 
 hearing and full of grief, none informing me how the Court 
 took up my "words, and therefore had no opportunity to de- 
 clare -what I intended when I said they were of our com- 
 pany." 
 
 It ^Yas perfectly natural for her to have spoken of 
 them as " of our company," not only from the fact 
 that they had long been crowded together in the same 
 jails, but as they had accompanied each other in the 
 transferrence from one jail to another, from time to 
 time. A few days before, a large party, of which she 
 •was one, had been brought from. Boston, spending the 
 ■whole day together on the route. Sarah Good, John 
 Procter and wife, Susanna Martin, Bridget Bishop, 
 and Alice Parker happen to be mentioned as belonging 
 to it. Calef further states : - — 
 
 " After her condemnation, the governor saw cause to 
 grant a reprieve, "which, when known (and some say im- 
 mediately upon granting), the accusers renewed their dis- 
 mal outcries against her ; insomuch that the governor was by 
 some Salem gentlemen prevailed with to recall the .reprieve, 
 and she was executed with the rest. 
 
286 WITCHCRAFT AT SALESt VILLAGE. 
 
 ** The testimonials of her Christian behavior, both in the 
 course of her life aud at her death, and her extraordinaiy 
 care in ediieatio": her chihlren, and settin;? them a jrood ex- 
 ample, under the hands of so many, are so numerous, that 
 for brevity they are here omitted.'* 
 
 The extraordinary coucluct of " tlie Salem geiitle- 
 iiieii," ill preventing the intended, exercise of executive 
 discretion and clemency on this occasion, is explained, 
 it is probable, by the fact, stated by Neal in his " History 
 of New England," that there was an organized associa- 
 tion of private individuals, a committee of vigilance, 
 ill Salem, during the continuance of the delusion, who 
 had undertaken to ferret out and prosecute all sus- 
 pected persons. He says that many were arrested and 
 thrown into prison by their influence and interference. 
 It is hardly to be doubted, that the persons who busied 
 themselves to prevent the reprieve of Rebecca Nurse 
 acted under the authority and by the direction of this 
 self-constituted body of inquisitors. The agency of 
 such unauthorized and irresponsible combinations is 
 always of questionable expediency. When acting in 
 the same line with an excited populace, they are ex- 
 tremely dangerous. 
 
 There is no more disgraceful record in the judicial 
 annals of the country, than that which relates the trial 
 of this excellent woman. Tlie wave of popular fury 
 made a clear breach over the judgment-seat. The loud 
 and malignant outcry of an infatuated mob, inside 
 and outside of the Court-house, instead of being yielded 
 to, ought to have been, not only sternly rebuked, but 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 287 
 
 visited with prompt and exemplary punislimeiit. The 
 judges were not only overcome and intimidated from 
 the faithful discharge of their sacred duty by a 
 clamoring crowd, but the}'" played into their hands. 
 Hutcliiusou justly remarks, that their conduct was in 
 violation of that rule to execute " law and justice 
 in mercy," which ought always to be written on their 
 hearts. " In a capital case, the Court often refuses a 
 verdict of ' Guilty ; ' but rarely, if ever, sends a jury out 
 again upon one of ' Not guilty.' " The statement made 
 by the foreman of the jur^^, with the subsequent ex- 
 planation of the prisoner, taken in connection with 
 the ground on which the chief-justice sent the jury 
 out again after i-endering their verdict of "Not guilty," 
 made it the duty of the Court and the executive to 
 give to her the benefit of that verdict. 
 
 At the trial of her mother, Sarah Nurse — aged 
 twenty-eight years or thereabouts — offered this piece 
 of testimony : that, " being in the Court, this 29th of 
 June, 1692, 1 saw Good wife Bibber pull pins out of her 
 clothes, and held them between her fingers, and clasped 
 her hands round her knee ; and then she cried out, and 
 said, Goody Nurse pinched her." In all these trials, 
 Mercy Lewis was a principal witness and actor ; yet 
 we find, among the papers, testimony from the most 
 respectable and reliable persons, that she was not to 
 be trusted. There was also testimony which ought 
 to have broken the force of the depositions of Ann 
 Putnam and her mother. Pour days after the ex- 
 amination and commitment of Rebecca Nurse, John 
 
288 WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 Tarl)cil and Samuel Nurse went to the house of Thomas 
 Putnam to fiud out in what way tlicir mother had beeu 
 made the object of such shockuig accusations. They 
 were men whose credibility was never brought in ques- 
 tion. Their declarations, on this occasion, were not 
 disputed, and, if not true, might have been overthrown : 
 for there were many witnesses of the facts they stated. 
 Tarbell swore as follows: "Upon discourse of many 
 things, I asked whether the girl that was afflicted did 
 first speak of Goody Nurse, before others mentioned 
 her to her. Thej^ said she told them she saw the 
 apparition of a pale-faced woman that sat in her 
 grandmother's ,seat, but did not know her name. 
 Then I replied and said, ' But who was it that told her 
 that it was Goody Nurse ? ' Mercy Lewis said it was 
 Goody Putnam that said it was Goody Nurse. Goody 
 Putnam said that it was Mercy Lewis that told her. 
 Tiuis the}' turned it upon one another, saying, ' It was 
 3^ou,' and ' It was 3- ou that told her.' " Samuel Nurse 
 testified to the same. 
 
 There was another piece of evidence, which, though 
 brought against Rebecca Nurse, bears liarder, as we 
 read it now, upon Ann Putnam than any one else, 
 and makes it more difficult to palliate her conduct 
 on the supposition of partial insanity. It is, all along, 
 one of the obscure problems of our subject to deter- 
 mine how far delusion may have been accompanied by 
 fraud and imposture. Edward Putnam testified, that 
 " Ann Putnam, Jr., was bitten by Rebecca Nurse, as she 
 said, about two of the clock of the day " after Rebecca 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 289 
 
 Nurse had been committed to jail, and while she was 
 several miles distant, in Salem ; and the said Nurse also 
 struck said Ann Putnam with her spectral chain, leaving 
 a mark, " being in a kind of a round ring, and three 
 streaks across the ring: slie had six blows with a chain 
 in the space of half an liour ; and she had one re- 
 markable one, with six streaks across her arm." 
 Edward Putnam swears, " I saw the mark, both of bite 
 and chains." The Court, no doubt, were solemnly 
 impressed by this amazing evidence ; but it is hard to 
 avoid the conclusion that Ann Putnam was guilty of 
 elaborate falsehood and a studied trick. 
 
 In the trials at this session, one of the " afflicted 
 children" cried out against the Rev. Samuel Willard, 
 of the Old South Church, in Boston. " She was sent 
 out of Court, and it was told about that she was mis- 
 taken in the person." There was surely evidence 
 enough against the honesty and credibility of the 
 accusers to leave the judges without excuse, and 
 justly meriting perjjetual condemnation for not pay- 
 ing heed to it. 
 
 The case of Rebecca Nurse proves that a verdict 
 could not have been obtained against a person of her 
 character charged with witchcraft in this county, had 
 not the most extraordinary efforts been made by the 
 prosecuting officer, aided by the whole influence of 
 the Court and provincial authorities. ^ The odium of 
 the proceedings at the trials and at the executions 
 cannot fairly be laid upon Salem, or the people of this 
 vicinity. 
 
 VOL. II. 19 
 
290 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 But nothing can extenuate the infamy that must for 
 ever rest upon the names of certain parties to the 
 proceedings. Not to attempt here to measure the 
 guilt of the accusing mtucsses, it may be mentioned 
 that it was the deliberate conviction of the family of 
 Rebecca Nurse, that Mr. Parris, more than all other 
 persons, was responsible for her execution ; whether 
 by his officious activity ui driving on the prosecution, 
 or in preventing her reprieve, cannot be known. Of 
 the prominent part taken by Mr. Noyes in the cruel 
 treatment of this woman, there is no room for doubt. 
 The records of the First Church in Salem are dark- 
 ened by the following entry : — 
 
 " 1692, July 3. — After sacrament, the elders propounded 
 to the church, — and it was, by an unanimous vote, consented 
 to, — that our sister Nurse, being a convicted witch by the 
 Court, and condemned to die, should be excommunicated; 
 which was accordingly done in the afternoon, she being 
 present." 
 
 The scene presented on this occasion must have 
 been truly impressive at the time, as it is shocking to 
 us in the retrospect. The action of the chtirch, at the 
 close of the morning service, of course became uni- 
 versally known ; and the " great and spacious meeting- 
 house" was thronged by a crowd that filled every 
 nook and corner of its floor, galleries, and windows. 
 The sheriff and his subordinates brought in the pris- 
 oner, manacled, and the chains clanking from her 
 aged form. She was placed in the broad aisle. Mr. 
 
"WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 291 
 
 Higginson and Mr. Noves — the elders, as the clergy 
 were then called — were in tlie pulpit. The two ruling 
 elders — who were lay officers — and the two deacons 
 "were in their proper seats, directly below and in front 
 of the pulpit. Mr. Noyes pronounced the dread sen- 
 tence, which, for such a crime, was then believed to be 
 not merely an expulsion from the church on earth, but 
 an exclusion from the church in heaven. It was meant 
 to be luiderstoou as an eternal doom. As it had been 
 proved, in his estimation, beyond a question, that she 
 had given her soul to the Devil, he delivered her over 
 to the great adversary of God and man. 
 
 Prom the dismal cell, which, for but a few days 
 longer, was to hold her body, he proclaimed the trans- 
 ferrence of her soul to — 
 
 " A dungeon horrible on all sides round, 
 As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 
 No light, but rather darkness visible ; 
 Kegions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
 And rest can never dwell ; hope never comes 
 That comes to all ; but torture witbout end, 
 As far removed from God, and light of heaven, 
 As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole." 
 
 Language and imagery, exhausting the resources of 
 the divine genius of the greatest of poets, fail to give 
 expression to what was felt to be the import of this 
 fearful sentence. It sunk the recipient of it below the 
 reach of human sympathy. She was regarded, by that 
 blinded multitude, with a horror that cast out pity, and 
 was full of hate. But in our view now, and, as we 
 believCj in the view of God and angels then, she 
 
292 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 occupied au infinite height above her persecutors. 
 Her mind was serenely fixed upon higher scenes, and 
 filled with a peace which the Avorld could not take 
 away, or its cruel wrongs disturb. She went back to 
 her prison walls, and then to the scaffold, with a pious 
 and humble faith which has not failed to be recorded 
 among men, as it has been rewarded where the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the Aveary are at rest. 
 
 Calef, as already quoted, gives the impression pro- 
 duced by her demeanor at her death. Hutchinson 
 expresses in the following words the judgment of his- 
 tory and the sense of all coming times : — 
 
 '•'■ Mr. Noyes, the minister of Salem, a zealous prosecutor, 
 excommunicated the poor old woman, and deUvered her 
 to Satan, to whom he supposed she had formally given her- 
 self up many years before ; but her life and conversation 
 had been such, that the remembrance thereof, in a short 
 time after, wiped off all the reproach occasioned by the civil 
 or ecclesiastical sentence against her.'' 
 
 It is impossible to close the story of the lot assigned 
 to this good woman by au inscrutable Providence, 
 without again contemplating it in a condensed reca- 
 pitulation. In her old age, experiencing a full share 
 of all the delicate infirmities which the instincts of 
 humanity require to be treated with careful and rev- 
 erent tenderness, she was ruthlessly snatched from the 
 bosom of a loving family reared by her pious fidelity in 
 all Christian graces, from the side of the devoted com- 
 panion of her long life, from a home that was endeared 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 293 
 
 by every grateful association and comfort ; immured in 
 the most wretched and crowded jails ; kept loaded with 
 irons and bound with cords for months ; insulted and 
 maligned at the preliminary examinations ; outraged 
 in her person by rough and unfeeling handling and 
 scrutiny ; and in her rights, by the most flagrant and 
 detestable judicial oppression, by which the benefit of 
 a verdict, given in her favor, had been torn away ; 
 carried to the meeting-house to receive the sentence 
 of excommunication in a manner devised to harrow 
 her most sacred sentiments ; and finally carted through 
 the streets by a route every foot of which must have 
 been distressing to her infirm and enfeebled frame ; 
 made to ascend a rough and rocky path to the place 
 of execution, and there consigned to the hangman. 
 Surely, there has seldom been a harder fate. 
 
 Her body was probably thrown with the rest into a 
 hole in the crevices of the rock, and covered hastily 
 and thinly over by the executioners. It has been the 
 constant tradition of the family, that, in some way, it 
 was recovered ; and the spot is pointed out in the burial- 
 place belonging to the estate, where her ashes rest by 
 the side of her husband, and in the midst of her 
 children. It is certain, that, at least, one other body 
 was thus exhumed, and taken to its own proper place 
 of burial. From the known character of Francis 
 Nurse and his sons and sons-in-law, we may be sure 
 that what others could do they did not suffer to re- 
 main undone. It is left to the imagination to present 
 the details of the sad and secret enterprise. In the 
 
294 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 darkness of midnight, tlic}^ found and identified the 
 body, and bore it tended}^ in their arms along the 
 silent roads and by-wa3^s, across fields and over fences, 
 to the old home, Avhere it was received by the assem- 
 bled family, mourned over, and cared for; and, during 
 that or the ensuing night, deposited, with tears and 
 prayers, in their own consecrated grounds. Her de- 
 scendants of successive generations owned and rever- 
 ently guarded the spot. They own and guard it to- 
 day. The interesting reminiscences connected with 
 the early history of the Nurse house have been alluded 
 to. It has witnessed an extraordinary variety of the 
 conditions of domestic vicissitude. Scenes rising be- 
 fore the mind in contemplative retrospection, while 
 gazing upon it, present the extreraest contrasts' of 
 human experience. On the evening of the 25th of 
 October, 1678, Mary and Elizabeth Nurse were mar- 
 ried. Such an occurrence was undoubtedly the oc- 
 casion of the highest joy and gladness in a happy 
 household. The old mansion shone in light, and 
 echoed voices of cheer. How altered its aspect! 
 "What darkness and silence brooded over and within 
 it, while those same daughters waited, watched, and 
 listened, through the solemn hours of that night of 
 woe and horror, for the coming of their father, hus- 
 bands, and brothers, bearing to the home, from which 
 she had been so cruelly torn, the remains of their 
 slaughtered mother ! 
 
 The subsequent history of the house presents a 
 circumstance of siup-ular interest in connection with 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 295 
 
 our story. All the members of the three branches of 
 the Putnam family, with the exception of Joseph, seem 
 to have been carried away by the witchcraft delusion, 
 in its early stages, and were more or less active in 
 pushing on the prosecutions. We have seen how fierce 
 was the maniac testimony of Mrs. Ann Putnam and 
 her daughter against Rebecca Nurse. The lapse of 
 time, by a Providence that wonderfully works its ends, 
 has repaired the breaches made by folly and wrong. 
 The descendants of the numerous family of Mrs. Ann 
 Putnam have disappeared from the scene: none of 
 them bearing the name are in the village. The de- 
 scendants of Deacon Edward Putnam have also scat- 
 tered in emigration to other places. Nathaniel and 
 John, the heads of the other two branches of the 
 family, although involved in the witchcraft delusion, 
 each signed papers in favor of E-ebecca Nurse ; their 
 descendants, as well as those of Joseph, are still 
 numerous in the village, hold their old position of 
 respectability and influence, and many of them occupy 
 the lands of their ancestors. Stephen, the grandson 
 of Nathaniel, married Miriam, the grand-daughter of 
 John. Their son Phinehas, in 1784, bought the Nurse 
 homestead from Benjamin Nurse, the great-grandson 
 of Rebecca. Orin Putnam, the great-grandson of 
 Phinehas, to whom the estate descends, married in 
 1836 the daughter of Allen Nurse, a direct descendant 
 of Rebecca, and placed her at the head of her old an- 
 cestral homestead. The children of that marriage, 
 with their father and grandfather, constitute the family 
 
296 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM "VILLAGE. 
 
 that dwell in and own the venerable mansion. This 
 singnlar restoration, snggesting such pleasing senti- 
 ments, adds another to the remarkable elements of in- 
 terest belonging to the history of the Townsend-Bishop 
 House. 
 
 The descendants of Francis and Rebecca Nurse 
 are numerous, and have honorably perpetuated the 
 name. Among them may be mentioned the Rev. 
 Peter Nurse, a graduate of Harvard College in 1802, 
 for some years librarian of that institution, an excellent 
 scholar, and long universally respected as a clergy- 
 man ; and Amos Nurse, a graduate of the same 
 college in 1812, — an eminent physician connected with 
 the medical faculty of Bowdoin College, a man of dis- 
 tinguished talent and influence in public affairs, and 
 senator in Congress from the State of Maine. 
 
 The Court met again on the 5th of August, and 
 tried G^eorge Burroughs; John Procter and Elizabeth, 
 his wife ; George Jacobs, Sr. ; John Willard ; and 
 Martha Carrier. They were all condemned, and, with 
 the exception of Elizabeth Procter, executed on the 
 19th of the same month. 
 
 Hutchinson describes the trial of Burroughs. After 
 speaking of the evidence of the "afflicted persons" 
 and the confessing witches, he mentions other circum- 
 stances which were thought to corroborate it : " One 
 was, that, being a little man, he had performed feats 
 beyond the strength of a giant; viz., had held out a 
 gun of seven feet barrel with one hand, and had carried 
 a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore." Bur- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 297 
 
 roughs said that an Indian present at tlie time did tlie 
 same. Instant!}-, the accusers said it was " the bhick 
 man, or the Devil, who." they swore, "looks like an 
 Indian." Another 2:)iece of evidence was, llui.t he 
 went from one place to another, on a certain occasion, 
 in a shorter time than was possible had not the Devil 
 helped him. He said, in answer, that another man ac- 
 companied him. Their reply to this was, that it was 
 the Devil, using the apj>earance of another man. So 
 whatever he said was turned against him. Hutch- 
 inson says, " Upon the whole, he was confounded, 
 and used many twistings and turnings, which, I think, 
 we cannot wonder at." This fair and judicious writer, 
 like Brattle, appears in the foregoing remark to have 
 adopted the common scandal, put in circulation by 
 parties interested to disparage Mr. Burroughs. The 
 papers in this case, that have come down to us, are 
 more numerous than iu reference to many others 
 among the sufferers ; and they do not bear such an 
 impression. Mr. Burroughs was astounded at the 
 monstrous folly and falsehood with which he was sur- 
 rounded. He was a mau without guile, and incapable 
 of appreciating such wickedness. He tried, iu sim- 
 plicity and ingenuousness, to explain what was brought 
 against him ; aud this, probably, was all the " twisting 
 and turning" he exhibited. 
 
 Hutchinson had the benefit of consulting all the 
 papers belonging to this aiid other trials ; but neither 
 he nor Calef seems to have noticed one remarkable 
 fact : many of the depositions, how many we cannot 
 
298 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 tell, were procured after the trials were over, and sur- 
 reptitiously foisted iu among the papers to bolster iip 
 the proceedings. We find, for instance, the following 
 deposition : — 
 
 " Thomas Greenslitt, aged about forty years, being 
 deposed, testifietb that, about the first breaking-out of this 
 last Indian war, being at the house of Captain Joshua 
 Scotto at Black Point, he saw Mr. George Burrows, "who 
 was lately executed at Salem, lift a gun of six-foot barrel 
 or thereabouts, putting the forefinger of liis right hand into 
 the muzzle of said gun, and that he held it out at arms' 
 end, only with that finger : and further this deponent testifieth, 
 that, at the same time, he saw the said Burrows take up a 
 full barrel of molasses with but two of the fingers of one of 
 his hands in the bung, and carry it from the stage head to the 
 door at the end of the stage, without letting it down ; and that 
 Lieutenant Richard Hnnniwell and John Greenslitt were then 
 present, and some others that are dead. Sept. 15, '92." 
 
 Not only the date to this deposition, but its express 
 language, proves that it could not have been used at the 
 trial. There is another, to the same effect and of the 
 same date, that is, nearly a month after Burroughs was 
 thrown into his grave. There are others of the same 
 kind. This stamps the management of the prosecutions, 
 and of those concerned in the charge of the papers, 
 with an irregularity of the grossest kind, which partakes 
 strongly of the character of fraud and falsehood. 
 
 When it was found that there was beginning to 
 grow up a want of confidence in " spectre evidence " 
 and the testimony of the afflicted children, those con- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 299 
 
 ceriied in the prosecutions became alarmed lest a 
 re-action of public sentiment might take place. The 
 persons who had brought Mr. Burroughs to his death 
 concluded that their best escape from public indig- 
 nation was to accumulate evidence against him after 
 he was m his grave, particulai^y on the point of his 
 superhuman strength ; and they got up these depo- 
 sitions, and caused them to be put among the papers 
 on file. Great stress was laid, by those who were 
 interested in damaging his character and suppressing 
 sympathy in his fate, upon this particular proof of 
 his having been in confederacy with the Devil. In- 
 crease Mather said, that, in his judgment, it was con- 
 clusive evidence that he "had the Devil to be his j-V^ 
 familiar," and that, had he been on the jury, he could 
 not, on this account, have concurred in a verdict of 
 acquittal ; and Cotton Mather, feeling the importance 
 of making the most of Mr. Burroughs's extraordinary 
 strength, gives way to his tendency to indulge in the 
 marvellous, as follows: — 
 
 " God had been pleased so to leave this George Bur- 
 roughs, that he had ensnared himself by several instances f 
 which he had formerly given of preternatural strength, 
 and which were now produced against him. He was a very 
 puny man, yet he had often done things beyond the strength 
 of a giant. A gun of about seven-foot barrel, and so heavy 
 that strong men could not steadily hold it out with both 
 hands, — there were several testimonies given in by persons 
 of credit and honor, that he made nothing of taking up 
 such a gun behind the lock with but one hand, and holding 
 it out, like a pistol, at arms' end. Yea, there were two 
 
300 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 testimonies, that George Burroughs, with only putting the 
 forefinger of his right hand into the muzzle of a heavy gun, 
 a fowling-piece of about six or seveo foot barrel, did lift 
 up the guu, and hold it out at arms' end, — a gun which the 
 deponents thought strong men could not with both hands 
 lift up, and hold at the butt end, as is usual." 
 
 It is further observable, in reference to the fore- 
 going deposition from Greenslitt, that it ^yas given 
 six days after the condemnation of his mother, Ann 
 Pudeator, and a week before her execution. Cotton 
 Mather says that he " was overpersuaded by others 
 to be out of the way upon George Burronghs's trial," 
 six weeks before. He did not fail, however, to come 
 to Salem to be with his mother at her trial and until 
 her death, and being here was compelled to give his 
 deposition. His mother's life was at the mercy of 
 the prosecutors ; and he was tempted, in the vain hope 
 of conciliating that mercy, to gratify them by making 
 the statement about Burroughs a month after his 
 execution, and whom it could not then harm. What 
 he said was probably no more than the truth. It has 
 been found that the power of the human muscles can 
 he cultivated to a surprising extent ; and the feats 
 ascribed to Burroiighs, without making much allow- 
 ance for a natural degree of exaggeration, have been 
 fully equalled in our day. 
 
 Calef gives the following account of his execution : — 
 
 " Mr. Burroughs was carried in a cart with the others, 
 through the streets of Salem, to execution. When he was 
 upou the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 301 
 
 innocency, ■with sncli solemn and serious expressions as 
 were to the admiration of all present. His prayer (which 
 he concluded by repeating tlie Lord's Prayer) was so ■well 
 worded, and uttered with such composeduess and such (at 
 least seeming) fervency of spirit, as was very affecting, and 
 drew tears from many, so that it seemed to some that the 
 spectators would hinder the execution. The accusers said 
 the black man stood and dictated to him. As soon as he 
 was turned off, Mr. Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a 
 horse, addressed himself to the people, partly to declare that 
 he (Mr. Burroughs) was no ordained minister, and partly 
 to possess the people of his guilt, saying that the Devil often 
 had been transformed into an angel of light ; and this some- 
 what appeased the people, and the executions went on. When 
 he was cut down, he was dragged by a halter to a hole, or 
 grave, between the rocks, about two feet deep ; his shirt and 
 breeches being pulled off, and an old pair of trousers of one 
 executed put on his lower parts : he was so put in, together 
 with Willard and Carrier, that one of his hands, and his 
 chin, and a foot of one of them, was left uncovered." 
 
 Cotton Mather, not satisfied with this display of 
 animosity, at a moment when every human heart, how- 
 ever imbittered by prejudice, is hushed for the time 
 in solemn silence, attempts, in an account afterwards 
 given of Mr. Burroughs's trial, to blacken his char- 
 acter by an elaborate dressing-up of the absurd stories 
 told by the accusers, and a perverse misrepresenta- 
 tion of the demeanor of the accused. He relates with 
 apparent glee what was regarded as a wonderful- 
 achievement of adroitness on the part of Chief-justice 
 Stoughton in trapping Mr. Burroughs, and putting 
 the laugh upon him in Court. 
 
302 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 " It cost the Court a wonderful deal of trouble to hear 
 the testimonies of the sufferers; for, -when tliej were going 
 to give in their depositions, they would for a long Avhile 
 be taken with fits, that made them quite uucapable of saying 
 any thing. The chief judge asked the prisoner, who he 
 thought hindered these witnesses from giving their testimo- 
 nies ; and he answered, he supposed it was the Devil. The 
 honorable person then replied, ' How comes the Devil so 
 loath to have any testimony borne against you?' Which 
 cast him into very great confusion." 
 
 From what fell from him, at the preliminary ex- 
 amination, it is evident that it did not occur to him 
 as a possibility that human nature could be capable 
 of the guilt of such a wilful fabrication and imposture 
 on the part of the " afflicted children." He beheld 
 their sufferings, and he knew his own innocence. He 
 felt, whatever his theological creed might have been, 
 that a Devil was required to explain the mystery. 
 The apparent sufferings of the accusing witnesses con- 
 vinced Court, jury, and all, of the guilt of the accused. 
 The logic of the chief-justice was perfectly absurd. 
 For, if the Devil caused the sufferings, he was an adverse 
 party to the prisoner. This, however, overthrows the 
 whole theory of the prosecution, which was that the pris- 
 oner and the Devil were in league with each other. But 
 the judge, jury, and people, all equally blinded and 
 stupefied by the delusion, did not see it; and they 
 chuckled over the alleged confusion of the prisoner. 
 All thoughtful persons will concur in Mr. Burroughs's 
 opinion, that, if ever a diabolical power had possession 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. S03 
 
 of human beings, it was in the case of the wretched 
 creatures who enacted the part of the accusing girls 
 in the witchci^aft proceedings. In his account of the 
 trialj Mather makes statements which show that he 
 was privy to the fact, that testimony, subseqxiently 
 taken, was lodged with the evidence belonging to the 
 case. Tlie documents prove that it was done to an 
 extent beyond what he acknowledges. 
 
 Considering that none dared to show the least sym- 
 pathy with the persons on trial, that they had none to 
 counsel or stand by them, that the public passions 
 wei'e incensed against them as against no other per- 
 sons ever charged with crime, — it being vastly more 
 flagrant than any other crime, a rebellion against 
 heaven and earth, God and man ; a deliberate selling of 
 the soul to the Arch-enemy of souls for the ruin of all 
 other souls, — in view of all these things, it is truly as- 
 tonishing, that, by the documents themselves, proceed- 
 ing, as in almost all cases they do, from hostile and 
 imbittered sources, we are compelled to the conviction, 
 that, in their imprisonments, trials, and deaths, the 
 victims of this savage delusion manifested — in most 
 cases eminently, and in all substantially — the marks, 
 not only of innocent, but of elevated and heroic minds. 
 A review of what can be gleaned in reference to 
 Mr. Burroughs at Casco Bay and Salem Village, and 
 a considerate survey and scrutiny of all that has 
 reached us from the day of his arrest to the moment 
 of his death, have left a decided impression, that he \ ; 
 was an able, intelligent, true-minded man ; ingenuous, ^ 
 
304 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 sincere, humble in his spirit ; faithful and devoted as a 
 minister ; and active, generous, and disinterested as 
 a citizen. His descendants, under his own name and 
 the names of Newman, Fowle, Holbrook, Fox, Thomas, 
 and others, have been numerous and respectable. The 
 late Isaiah Thomas, LL.D., was on ^of th em. 
 
 From the account given of(^John Procterj in the 
 First Part, it is apparent that he was a person of 
 decided character, and, although impulsive and liable 
 to be imprudent, of a manly spirit, honest, earnest, 
 and bold in word and deed. He saw through the 
 whole thing, and was convinced that it was the result 
 of a conspiracy, deliberate and criminal, on the part of 
 the accusers. He gave free utterance to his indig- 
 nation at their conduct, and it cost him his life. 
 
 A few days before his trial, he made his will. There 
 is no reference in it to his particular situation. His 
 signature to the document is accurately represented 
 among the autographs given in this work. It was 
 written while the manacles wei'e on him. Notwith- 
 standing the danger to which any one was exposed who 
 exiDressed sympathy for convicted or accused persons, 
 or doubt of their guilt, a large number had the manli- 
 ness to try to save this worthy and honest citizen. 
 John "Wise, one of the ministers of Ipswich, heads 
 the list of petitioners from that place. The document 
 is in his handwriting. Thirty-one others joined in the 
 act, many of them among the most respectable citizens 
 of that town. Mr. Wise was a learned, able, and 
 enlightened man. He had a free spirit, and was per- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM YILLAGE. 305 
 
 haps the only mhiister iu the neigliborhood or country, 
 who was discerning eno^lgh to see the erroneousness of 
 the proceedings from the beginning. The petition is 
 as follows : — 
 
 '* The Humble and Sincere Declaration of us, Suhscrihers, 
 
 Inhabitants in Ipsioich, on the Behalf of our Neighbors^ 
 
 John Procter and his Wlfe^ now in Trouble and 
 
 under Sicspicion of Witchcraft. 
 
 " TO THE HONORABLE COURT OP ASSISTANTS NOW SITTING 
 IN BOSTON. 
 
 *''' Honored and Right Worshipful, — The aforesaid John 
 Procter may have great reason to justify the Divine Sover- 
 eignty of God under these severe remarks of Providence 
 upon his peace and honor, under a due reflection upon his 
 life past ; and so the best of us have reason to adore the 
 great pity and indulgence of God*s providence, that we are 
 not exposed to the utmost shame that the Devil can invent, 
 under the permissions of sovereignty, though not for that 
 sin foreaamed, yet for our many transgressions. For vre do 
 at present suppose, that it may be a method within the se- 
 verer but just transactions of the infinite majesty of God, 
 that he sometimes may permit Sathan to personate, dis- 
 semble, and thereby abuse innocents and such as do, in the 
 fear of God, defy the Devil and all his works. The great 
 rage he is permitted to attempt holy Job with ; the abuse he 
 does the famous Samuel in disquieting his silent dust, by 
 shadowing his venerable person in answer to the charms of 
 witchcraft ; and other instances from good hands, — may be 
 arguments. Besides the unsearchable footsteps of God's 
 judgments, that are brought to light every morning, that as- 
 voL. II. 20 
 
306 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 tonish our ^veake^ reasons; to (each us adoration, trembling, 
 depeudenre, Sec, Bat we must not trouble Your Honors by 
 being tedious. Therefore, being smitten with the notice of 
 what hath happened, we reckon it Avilhin the duties of our 
 ciiarit};, that teachcth us to do as we would be done by, to 
 offer thus much for the clearing of our neighbors' innocency ; 
 viz., that we never had the least knowledge of such a ne- 
 faudous wickedness in our said neighbors, since they have 
 been Avithiu our acquaintance. Neither do we remember 
 any such thoughts in us concerning them, or any action by 
 them or either of them, directly tending that Avay, no more 
 than might be in the lives of any other persons of the clear- 
 est reputation as to an}' such evils. What God may have 
 left ihem to, we cannot go into God's pavilion clothed with 
 clouds of darkness round about; but, as to what we have 
 ever seen or heard of them, upon our consciences we judge 
 them innocent of the crime objected. His breeding hath 
 been amongst us, and w^as of religious parents in our place, 
 and, by reason of relations and properties within our town, 
 hath had constant intercourse with us. We speak upon our 
 personal acquaintance and observation ; and so leave our 
 neighbors, and this our testimony on their behalf, to the wise 
 thoughts of Your Honors. 
 
 Jn'? Wise. Xatiianill Perkins Benjamin Marshall 
 
 William Story Sen": Thomas Lovkine. John Andrews JuT 
 
 Reinalld Foster William Cogswell. William Butler. 
 
 Thos. Chote. Thomas Varny. AVilliam Andrews. 
 
 John Bdrnum St John Fellows, John Andrews. 
 
 William Thomsonn, Wm. Cogswell JuT John Chote SeT 
 
 Tho. Low Sen^ Jonathan Cogswell, Joseph Procter. 
 
 Isaac Foster. John Cogswell Jfl. Samuel Gidding 
 
 John Burnum jun"; John Cogswell. Joseph Evleth 
 
 William Goodhew. Thomas Andrews. James White. 
 
 Isaac Perkins. Joseph Andreavs." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 307 
 
 I have given the names of the men who signed this 
 paper, as copied from the original. It is due to their 
 memory ; and tlieir descendants may well be grati- 
 fied by the testimony thus borne to their courage and 
 justice. 
 
 Their neighbors living near the bounds of the village 
 presented the following paper, in the handwriting of 
 Felton, the first signer. From the appearance of the 
 document, it seems that a portion of it, probably con- 
 taining an equal number of names, has been cut out 
 by scissors. 
 
 " VTe whose names are underwritten, having several 
 years known John Procter and his wife, do testify that 
 we never heard or understood that they were ever suspected 
 to be guilty of the crime now charged upon them ; and sev- 
 eral of us, beiog their near neighbors, do testify, that, to our 
 apprehension, they lived Christian-like in their family, and 
 Avere ever ready to help such as stood in need of tlieir help, 
 
 *' Nathaniel Eelton, Sr., and Mary his wife. 
 Samuel Maksh, and Priscilla his wife. 
 James Houlton, and Ruth his wife. 
 John Felton. 
 Nathaniel Pelton, Jr. 
 Samuel Fratll, and An his wife. 
 Zachariah Marsh, and Mart liis wife. 
 Samuel Endecott, and Hanah his wife 
 Samuel Stone. 
 George Locker. 
 
 Samuel Gaskil, and Provided his wife. 
 George Smith. 
 Edward Gaskil." 
 
 In addition to this testimony in their favor, evidence 
 was offered, at their trial, that one of the accusing 
 
808 WITCHCUAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 witnesses had denied, out of Court, what she had 
 sworn to in Court ; and dechired that she must, at the 
 time, have been '' out of her head," and tliat she had 
 never intended to aecusc them. It was further proved, 
 that another of the accusing witnesses acknowledged 
 that she had sworn falsely, and tried to explain away 
 her testimony in Court, acknowledging that what the 
 gh'ls said was " for sport. They must have some 
 sport." But neither the testimony in their favor from 
 those who had known them through life, nor the pal- 
 pable and decisive manner in which the evidence 
 against them had been impeached and exposed, could 
 open the eyes of the infatuated Court and jury. 
 
 After his conviction, he requested, in vain, time 
 enough to prepare himself for death, and make the 
 necessary arrangements of his business and for the 
 welfare of his family ; and the statement has come 
 down to us, that Mr. Noyes refused to pray with him, 
 unless he would confess himself guilty. The following 
 letter, addressed by him to the ministers named, in 
 behalf of himself and fellow-prisoners, gives a truly, 
 shocking account of the outrages connected with the 
 prosecutions. It illustrates the courage of the writer 
 in exposing them, and is a sensible and manly appeal 
 and remonstrance. There is ground for supposing 
 that the ministers addressed were known not to be 
 entirely carried away by the delusion. The fact that 
 Mr. Mather — meaning, of course, Increase Mather — 
 is the first named, corroborates other evidence that he 
 was beginning to entertain doubts about the propriety 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. S09 
 
 of the proceedings. Of the Rev. James Allen, much 
 has been said in connection with the Townscnd-Bishop 
 farm. He had been a clergyman in England, and was 
 silenced by the Act of Uniformity, in 16G2. He came 
 to Xew England ; and, after officiating as an assistant 
 to the Rev. Mr. Davenport, in the First Chnrch at Bos- 
 ton, for six years, was oi'dained as its preacher in 16G8. 
 He was of independent fortune, and subsequently took 
 a leading part with those opposed to the party that had 
 favored the witchcraft prosecutions. He must have 
 known Rebecca Nurse quite intimately, and much of 
 the influence used in her favor, and which almost saved 
 her, may be attributed to him ; there was a particular 
 intimacy between him and Increase Mather, and to- 
 gether they held Cotton Mather somewhat in check, 
 occasionally at least. The Rev. Joshua Moody had 
 been settled in the ministry at Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire. In the maintenance of the principles of 
 religious liberty he suffered a long imprisonment, and 
 was afterwards exiled by arbitrary power. He was 
 then invited to the First Church in Boston, where he 
 preached from 1684 to 1693, w;hen he returned to 
 Portsmouth. He died in 1697. By his active exer- 
 tions, Mr. and Mrs. English were enabled to escape 
 from the jail at Boston. The Rev. Samuel Willard, 
 pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, was one of 
 the most revered and beloved ministers in the country. 
 His publications were numerous, learned, and valuable ; 
 consisting of discourses, tracts, and volumes. His 
 " Body of Divinity " is an elaborate and systematic 
 
310 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 work, comprising two hundred and fifty lectures on the 
 Assembly's Catechism. That Procter was not in error 
 in supposing Mr. Willard open to reason on the sub- 
 ject is demonstrated by the fact, that the " afflicted 
 girls " were beginning to cry out against this eminent 
 divine. The Eev. John Bailey was one of the ejected 
 ministers who had here sought refuge from oppression 
 in the mother-country. He was a distinguished per- 
 son, associated with Mr. xiUen aud Mr. Moody in 
 the ministry of the First Cluirch at Boston. Cotton 
 Mather made him the subject of the strongest eiilo- 
 gium in his " Magnalia." Procter addressed his letter 
 to these persons because he believed them to be su- 
 perior in wisdom and candid in spirit. It cannot be 
 doubted that the good men did what they could in 
 his behalf, but in vain. 
 
 " Salem Prison, July 23, 1692. 
 "Jij\ Mather, Mr. Allen, Mr, Moody, Mr, Willard, and 
 Mr. Bailey. 
 
 " Reverend Gentlemen, — The ianoceucy of our case, 
 "with the enmity of our accusers and our judges and jury, 
 whom nothing but our innocent blood will serve, havin*; con- 
 demned us already before our trials, being so much incensed 
 and enraged against us by the Devil, makes us bold to beg 
 and implore your favorable assistance of this our humble 
 petition to His Excellency, that if it be possible our innocent 
 blood may be spared, which undoubtedly otherwise Avill be 
 shed, if the Loixl doth not mercifully step in ; the magis- 
 trates, ministers, juries, and all the people in general, being 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 311 
 
 SO much enraged and incensed against us by the delusion of 
 the Devil, which "\ve can term no other, by reason we know, 
 in our own consciences, we are all innocent persons. Here 
 are five persons who have lately confessed themselves fo be 
 witches, and do accuse some of us of being along with them 
 at a sacrament, since we were committed into close prison, 
 which we know to be lies. Two of the five are (Carrier's 
 sons) young men, who would not confess any thing till they 
 tied them neck and heels, till the blood was ready to come 
 out of their noses; and it is credibly believed and reported 
 this was the occasion of making them confess what they 
 never did, by reason they said one had been m Avitch a 
 month, and another five weeks, and that their mother n:iade 
 them so, who has been confined here this nine weeks. My 
 son, William Procter, when he was examined, because he 
 would not confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, 
 they tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed out at his 
 nose, and would have kept him so twenty-four hours, if one, 
 more merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and 
 caused him to be unbound. 
 
 " These actions are very like the Popish cruelties. They 
 have already undone us in our estates, and that will not 
 serve their turns without our innocent blood. If it cannot 
 be granted that we can have our trials at Boston, we humbly 
 beg that you would endeavor to have these magistrates 
 changed, and others in their room ; begging also and be- 
 seeching you, that you would be pleased to be here, if not 
 all, some of you, at our trials, hoping thereby you may be 
 the means of saving the shedding of our innocent blood. 
 Desiring your prayers to the Lord in our behalf, we rest, 
 your poor afflicted servants, 
 
 "JouN Procteu [and others]." 
 
312 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 The bitterness of the prosecutors against Procter 
 was so vehement, that they not only arrested, and tried 
 to destroy, his wife and all his family above the age of 
 infancy, in Salem, but all her relatives in Lynn, many 
 of whom were thrown into prison. The helpless 
 children were left destitute, and the house swept of 
 its provisions by the sheriff. Procter's wife gave 
 birth to a child, about a fortnight after his execution. 
 This indicates to what alone she owed her life. 
 
 John Procter had spoken so boldly against the pro- 
 ceedings, and all who had part in them, that it was 
 felt to be necessarj^ to put him out of the way. He 
 had denounced the entire company of the accusers, and 
 their revenge demanded his sacrifice. They brought 
 the whole power of their cunning and audacious arts 
 to bear against him, and pursued him to the death 
 with violence and rage. The manly and noble deport- 
 ment exhibited in his dying liour seems to have made 
 a deep impression on the minds of some, and gave 
 an effectual blow to the delusion. The descendants 
 of John Procter have always understood that his re- 
 mains were recovered from the spot where the hang- 
 man deposited them, and placed in his own grounds, 
 where they rest to-day. 
 
 No account has come to us of tlie deportment of 
 George Jacobs, Sr., at his execution. As he was re- 
 markable in life for the firmness of his mind, so he 
 probably was in death. He had made his will before 
 the delusion arose. It is dated Jan. 29, 1692 ; and 
 shows that he, like Procter, had a considerable estate. 
 

 
 eurUW (P^^^^*-^"^' 
 
 )?lOW/ 4",,,,^ 
 
^ ^ j7 ' 
 
 ^^ 
 
 y?^ 
 
 (^■M^rtmu 
 
 KOci^VA- OoVHW^pf 
 
 / ^^^. 
 
 )^itl*rC^ H^ka 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEJI VILLAGE. 315 
 
 Bartholomew Gedaey is one of the attestuig witnesses, 
 and probably wrote the document. After his convic- 
 tion, on the 12th of August, he caused another to be 
 written, which, in its provisions, reflects light upon the 
 state of mind produced by the condition in which he 
 found himself. In his infirm old age, he had been con- 
 demned to die for a crime of which he knew himself 
 innocent, and which there is some reason to believe he 
 did not think any one capable of committing. He re- 
 garded the whole thing as a wicked conspiracy and 
 absurd fabrication. ' He had to end his long life upon a 
 scaffold in a week from that day. His house was deso- 
 lated, and his property sequestered. His only son, 
 charged with the same crime, had eluded the sheriff, 
 — leaving his family, in the hurry of his flight, unpro- 
 vided for — and was an exile in foreign lands. The 
 crazy wife of that son was in prison and in chains, 
 waiting trial on the same charge ; her little children, 
 including an unweaned infant, left in a desei^ted and 
 destitute condition in the woods. The older children 
 were scattered, he knew not where, while one of them 
 had completed the bitterness of his lot by becoming 
 a confessor, upon being arrested with her mother as a 
 witch. This grand-daughter, Margaret, overwhelmed 
 with fright and horror, bewildered by the statements 
 of the accusers, and controlled probably by the ar- 
 guments and arbitrary methods of address employed by 
 her minister, Mr. Noyes, — whose peculiar function in 
 these proceedings seems to have been to drive persons 
 accused to make confession — had been betrayed into 
 
316 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 that position, and became a confessor, and accuser of 
 others. Under these circumstances, the old man made 
 a will, giving to his son George his estates, and secur- 
 ing the succession of them to his male descendants. 
 But, in the mean while, without his then knowing 
 it, Margaret had recalled her confession, as appears 
 from the following documents, which tell their own 
 story : — 
 
 '•'• The Humble Declaration of Margaret Jacobs unto the 
 Honored Court now sitting at Salem showcth, that, whereas 
 your poor and humble declarant, being closely coufined 
 here in Salem jail for the crime of witchcraft, — which 
 crime, thanks be to the Lord ! I am altogetlier ignorant of, 
 as will appear at the great day of judgment, — may it please 
 the honored Court, I Avas cried out upon by some of the 
 possessed persons as affiictiog them ; whereupon I was 
 brought to my exaniination ; which persons at the sight of 
 me fell down, which did very much startle and affright me. 
 The Lord above knows I knew^ nothing in the least measure 
 how or who afflicted them. They told me, without doubt I 
 did, or else they would not fall down at me ; they told me, if 
 I would not confess, I should be put down into the dungeon, 
 
 ' and would be hanged, but, if I would confess, I should 
 have my life : the which did so affright me, with my own 
 
 ' vile, wicked heart, to save my life, made me make the like 
 confession I did, which confessiou, may it please the honored 
 Court, is altogether false and untrue. The very first night 
 after I had made confession, I was in such horror of con- 
 science that I could not sleep, for fear the Devil should carry 
 me away for telling such horrid lies. I was, may it please 
 the honored Court, sworn to my confession, as I understand 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 317 
 
 since ; but tlien, at that time, was iguoraut of it, not knowing 
 what an oath did mean. The Lord, I hope, in Avhom I 
 trust, out of the abundance of his mercy, will forgive me 
 my false forswearing myself. What I said was altogether 
 false against my grandfather and Mr. Burroughs, which I 
 did to save my life, and to have my liberty : but the Lord, 
 charging it to my conscience, made me in so much horror, 
 that I could not contain myself before I had denied ray con- 
 fession, which I did, though I saw nothing but death before 
 me ; choosing rather death with a quiet conscience, than to 
 live in such horror, -which I could not suffer. Where, upon 
 my denying my confession, I was committed to close prison, 
 where I have enjoyed more felicity in spirit, a thousand 
 times, than I did before in my enlargement. And now, 
 may it please Your Plonors, your declarant having in part 
 given Your Honors a description of my condition, do leave it 
 to Your Honors' pious and judicious discretions to take pity 
 and compassion on my young and tender years, to act and 
 do with me as the Lord above and Your Honors shall see 
 good, having no friend but the Lord to plead my cause for 
 me ; not being guilty, in the least measure, of the crime of 
 witchcraft, nor any other sin that deserves death from man. 
 And your poor and humble declarant shall for ever pray, as 
 she is bound in duty, for Your Honors' happiness in this life, 
 and eternal felicity In the world to come. So prays Your 
 Honors' declarant, 
 
 Margaret Jacobs." 
 
 The following letter was written by this same young 
 person to her father. Let it be observed that her 
 grandfather had been executed the day before, partly 
 upon her false testimony. 
 
318 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " From the Dungeon in Solan Prison. 
 
 "August 20, 1692. 
 " Honored Father, — After my humble duty remem- 
 bered to you, hoping iu the Lord of your good health, as, 
 blessed be God I I enjoy, though in abuudance of affliction, 
 being close confined here in a loathsome dungeon: the Lord 
 look down in mercy upon me, not knowing how soon I shall 
 be put to death, by means of the afflicted persons ; my 
 grandfather having suffered already, and all his estate 
 seized for the king. The reason of my confiuement is this : 
 I having, through the magistrates' threatenings, and my own 
 vile and wretched heart, confessed several things contrary 
 to my conscience and knowledge, though to the wounding of 
 my own soul ; (the Lord pardon me for it 1) but, oh ! the ter- 
 rors of a wounded conscience who can bear ? But, blessed 
 be the Lord ! he would not let me go on in my sins, but in 
 mercy, I hope, to m}^ soul, would not suffer me to keep it 
 any longer : but I was forced to confess the truth of all be- 
 fore the magistrates, who would not believe me ; but it is 
 their pleasure to put me in here, and God knows how soon 
 I shall be put to death. Dear father, let me beg your 
 prayers to the Lord on my behalf, and send us a joyful and 
 happy meeting in heaven. My mother, poor woman, is very 
 crazy, and remembers her kind love to you, and to uncle ; 
 viz., D. A. So, leaving you to the protection of the Lord, 
 I rest, your dutiful daughter, Margaret Jacobs." 
 
 A temporary illness led to the postponement of her 
 trial ; and, before the next sitting of the Court, the 
 delusion had passed away. 
 
 The "uncle D. A.," referred to, was Daniel An- 
 drew, their nearest neighbor, who had escaped at the 
 
WITCHCRAl^T AT SALEM VILLAGE. 319 
 
 same time "with hei' father. She calls him " uncle." 
 He Avas, it is probable, a brother of John Andrew who 
 had married Ann Jacobs, sister of her father. Words 
 of relationship were then used Avith a wide sense. 
 
 Margaret read the recantation of her confession 
 before the Court, and was, as she sa3's, forthwith 
 ordered by t]iem into a dungeon. She obtained per- 
 mission to visit Mr. Burrouglis the day before his 
 execution, acknowledged that she had belied him, 
 and implored his forgiveness. ITe freely forgave, and- 
 pra3'^ed with her and for her. It is probable, that, 
 at the same time, she obtained an interview with her 
 grandfather for the same purpose. At any rate, the 
 old man heard of her heroic conduct, and forthwith 
 crowded into the space between two paragraphs in 
 his will, in small letters closely written (the jailer 
 probably being the amanuensis), a clause giving a leg- 
 acy of " ten pounds to be paid in silver" to his grand- 
 daughter, Margaret Jacobs. There is the usual dec- 
 laration, that it " was inserted before sealing and 
 signing." This will having been made after con- 
 viction and sentence to death, and having but two 
 witnesses, one besides the jailer, was not allowed in 
 Probate, but remains among the files of that Court. 
 As a link in the foregoing story, it is an interesting 
 relic. The legacy clause, although not operative, was 
 no doubt of inexpressible value to the feelings of Mar- 
 garet : and the circumstance seems to have touched 
 the heart even of the General Court, nearly tAventy 
 years afterwards ; for they took pains specifically to 
 
320 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 provide to have the same sum paid to Margaret, out 
 of the Province treasury. 
 
 She was not tried at the time appointed, in conse- 
 quence, it is stated, of "an imposthume in the head," 
 and finall}' escaped the fate to which she chose to 
 consign herself, rather than remain under a violated 
 conscience. In judging of her, we cannot fail to make 
 allowance for her " young and tender years," and to 
 sympathize in the sufferings through which she passed. 
 In making confession, and in accusing others, she had 
 done that which filled her heart with horror, in the 
 retrospect, so long as she lived. In recanting it, and 
 giving her body to the dungeon, and offering her life 
 at the scaffold, she had secured the forgiveness of 
 Mr. Burroughs and her aged grandfather, and de- 
 serves our forgiveness and admiration. Every human 
 heart must rejoice that this young girl was saved. 
 She lived to be a worthy matron and the founder 
 of a numerous and respectable family. 
 
 George Jacobs, Sr., is the only one, among the vic- 
 tims of the witchcraft prosecutions, the precise spot of 
 whose burial is absolutely ascertained. 
 
 The tradition has descended through the family, that 
 the body, after having been obtained at the place of 
 execution, was strapped by a young grandson on the 
 back of a horse, brought home to the farm, and buried 
 beneath the shade of his own trees. Two sunken 
 and weather-worn stones marked the spot. There the 
 remains rested until 1864, when they were exhumed. 
 They were enclosed again, and reverently rcdeposited 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 321 
 
 in the same place. The skull -was in a state of con- 
 siderable preservation. An examination of the jaw- 
 bones showed that he was a very old man at tlie time 
 of his death, and had previously lost all his teeth. The 
 length of some parts of the skeleton showed that he was 
 a very tall man. These circumstances corresponded 
 with the evidence, which was that he was tall of stat- 
 ure ; so infirm as to walk with two staffs ; with long, 
 flowing white hair. The only article found, except the 
 bones, was a metallic pin, which might have been used 
 as a breastpin, or to hold together his aged locks. It 
 is an observable fact, that he rests in his own ground 
 still. He had lived for a great length of time on that 
 spot ; and it remains in his family and in his name 
 to this day, having come down by direct descent. It is 
 a beautiful locality : the land descends with a gradual 
 and smooth declivity to the bank of the river. It is 
 not much more than a mile from the city of Salem, 
 and in full view from the main road. 
 
 John Willard appears to have been an lionest and 
 amiable person, an industrious farmer, having a com- 
 fortable estate, with a wife and three young children. 
 He was a grandson of Old Bray Wilkins ; whether by 
 blood or marriage, I have not been able to ascertain. 
 The indications are that he married a daughter of 
 Thomas or Henry Wilkins, most probably the former, 
 with both of whom he was a joint possessor of lands. 
 He came from Groton ; and it is for local antiqua- 
 ries to discover whether he was a relative of the Kev. 
 Samuel Willard of Boston. If so, the fact would 
 
 VOL. II. 21 
 
322 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 shed much light upon our story. Tlicre is but one 
 ■piece of evidence among the papers relating to his 
 trial that deserves particular notice. It sliows the 
 horrid character of the charges made by the girls 
 against prisoners at the bar, from their nature inca- 
 pable of being refuted and "which the prisoners knew 
 to be false, but tlie Court, jury, and crowd implicitly 
 believed. It also illustrates the completeness of the 
 machinery got up by the "accusing girls" to give 
 effect to their evidence. In addition to the evil gossip 
 that could be scoured from all the country round, 
 and to spectres of witches and ghosts of the dead, 
 they brought into the scene angels and divine beings, 
 and testified to what they were told by them. " The 
 shining man," or the white man, was meant, in the fol- 
 lowing deposition, to be a spirit of this description : — 
 
 " The Testimoxx of Susanna Sheldon, aged eighteen 
 years or thereabouts. — Testifieth and saitb, that, the day of 
 the date hereof (9th of May, 1692), I saw at Nathaniel Inger- 
 soll's house the apparitions of these four persons, — WilHam 
 Shaw's first wife, the Widow Cook, Goodman Jones and 
 his child ; and among these came the apparition of John 
 Willard, to whom these four said, ' You have murdered us.' 
 These four having said thus to Willard, they turued as red 
 as blood. And, turning about to look at me, they turned as 
 pale as death. These four desired me to tell Mr. Hathorne. 
 Willard, hearing them, pulled out a knife, saying, if I did, 
 he would cut my throat." 
 
 The deponent goes on to say, that these several 
 apparitions came before her on another occasion, and 
 the same language and actions took place, and adds ; — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALERt VILLAGE. 823 
 
 *' There did appear to me a sliiaing man, who said I 
 should go and tell what I had heard and seen to Mr. 
 Hathorne. This Willard, being there present, told me, if I 
 did, he Avould cut my throat. At this time and place, (his 
 shining man told me, that if I did go to tell this to Mr, 
 Hathorne, that I should be well, going and coming, but I 
 should be afflicted there. Then said I to the shining man, 
 * Hunt Willard away, and I would believe what he said, that 
 he might not choke me.' With that the shining man held 
 up his hand, and Willard vanished aivay. About two hours 
 after, the same appeared to me again, and the said Willard 
 with them ; and I asked them where their w^ounds were, 
 and they said there would come an angel from heaven, and 
 would show them. And forth witli the augel came. I 
 asked what the man's name was that appeared to me last, 
 and the angel told his name was Southwick. And the angel 
 lifted up his winding-sheet, and out of his left side he pulled 
 a pitchfork tine, and put it in again, and likewise he opened 
 all the winding-sheets, and showed all their wounds. And 
 the w^hite man told me to tell Mr. Hathorne of it, and I 
 told him to hunt Willard away, and I would ; and he held 
 up his hand, and he vanished a^vay." 
 
 In the same deposition, this girl testifies that " she 
 saw this Willard suckle the apparitions of two black 
 pigs on his breasts;" that Willard told her he had 
 been a witch twenty years ; that she saw Willard 
 and other wizards kneel in prayer " to the black 
 man with a long-crowned hat, and then they vanished 
 away." 
 
 Such was the kind of testimony which the Court 
 received with awe-struck and bewildered credulity, 
 
324 "\^'ITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 and Avliicli took away the lives of valuable and blame- 
 less mea. All ^\"e know of the manner of Willard's 
 death is a passage from Brattle, who states that a deep 
 impression was produced by the admirable deportment 
 of the sufferers dnring the awful scenes before and at 
 their executions : giving every evidence of conscious 
 innocence and a Christian character and faith, on the 
 part especially of '^ Procter and Willard, whose whole 
 management of themselves from the jail to the gal- 
 lows, and wliilst at the gallows, was very affecting, and 
 melting to the hearts of some considerable spectators 
 whom I could mention to ^'"ou : but they are executed, 
 and so I leave them." 
 
 On the 9th of September, the Court met again ; and 
 Martha Corey ^ Mary Easty^ Alice Parker^ Ann Pudea- 
 tor, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury were tried and 
 condemned ; and, on the 17th, Margaret Scott, Wilmot 
 Reed, Samuel Ward-well, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulk- 
 ner, Rebecca Eames, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster, and 
 Abigail Hobbs received the same sentence. Those in 
 Italics were executed Sept. 22, 1692. Of the circum- 
 stances in relation to them, in reference to their death 
 and at the time of their execution, but little infor- 
 mation has reached us. The following extract from 
 Mr. Parris's church-records presents a sti'iking pic- 
 ture ; — 
 
 "11 September, Lord's Day. — Sister Martha Corey — 
 taken into the church 27 April, 1690 — was, after examina- 
 tion upon suspicion of witchcraft, 27 March, 1G92, com- 
 mitted to prison for that fact, and was condemned to the 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 325 
 
 gallows for the same yesterday ; aud was this day in piiblic, 
 by a general consent, voted to be excommunicated out of the 
 church, and Lieutenant Nathaniel Putnam and the two dea- 
 cons chosen to signify to her, with the pastor, the mind of 
 the church herein. Accordingly, this 14 September, 1G92, 
 the three aforesaid brethren \veut with the pastor to her in 
 Salem Prison; whom we found very obdurate, justifying 
 herself, and condemning all that had done any thing to her 
 just discovery or condemnation. Whereupon, after a little 
 discourse (for her imperiousness "would not suffer much), 
 and after prayer, — which she was willing to decline, — 
 the dreadful sentence of excommunication was pronounced 
 against her." 
 
 Calef informs us, that " Martha Corey, protesting 
 her innocency, concluded her life with an eminent 
 prayer upon the ladder.'' 
 
 Nothing has reached us particularly relating to the 
 manner of death of Alice or Mary Parker, Ann Pude- 
 ator, Margaret Scott, or Wilmot Reed. They all as- 
 serted their innocence ; and their deportment gave no 
 ground for any unfavorable comment by their persecu- 
 tors, who were on the watch to turn every act, word, 
 or look of the siifFerers to their disparagement. Wil- 
 mot Reed probably adhered to the unresisting demea- 
 nor which marked her examination. It was all a 
 mystery to her ; and to every question she answered, 
 " I know nothing about it." Of Mary Easty it is 
 grateful to have some account. Her own declarations 
 in vindication of her innocence are fortunately pre- 
 served ; and her noble record is complete in the fol- 
 
326 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 lowing documents. Tlie first appears to have been 
 addressed to the Special Court, and was presented 
 immediately before the trial of Mary Easty. No ex- 
 planation has come down to us why Sarah Cloyse was 
 not then also brought to trial. Circumstances to 
 which we have no clew rescued her from the fate of 
 her sisters. 
 
 " The EitmUe Bequest of Mary Easty and Sarah Cloyse 
 to the Honored Court hunibly shoiueth, that, Avbereas we two 
 sisters, Mary Easty and Sarah Cloyse, stand now before the 
 honored Court charged with the suspicion of witchci*aft, our 
 humble request is — First, that, seeing we are neither able to 
 plead our own cause, nor is counsel allowed to those in our 
 condition, that you who are our judges would please to be 
 of counsel to us, to direct us wherein we may stand in need. 
 Secondly, that, w^hereas we are not conscious to ourselves of 
 any guilt in the least degree of that crime whereof we are 
 now accused (in the presence of the living God we speak 
 it, before whose awful tribunal we know we shall ere long 
 appear), nor of any other scandalous evil or miscarriage 
 inconsistent with Christianity, those who have had the long- 
 est and best knowledge of us, being persons of good report, 
 may be suffered to testify upon oath what they know con- 
 cerning each of us ; viz., Mr. Capen, the pastor, and those 
 of the town and church of Topsfield, who are ready to say 
 something which we hope may be looked upon as very con- 
 siderable in this matter, with the seven children of one of 
 us ; viz., Mary Easty : and it may be produced of like na- 
 ture in reference to the wife of Peter Cloyse, her sister. 
 Thirdly, that the testimony of witches, or such as are af- 
 flicted as is supposed by witches, may not be improved to 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 327 
 
 condemn us without other legal evidence coocuiTlng. We 
 hope the honored Court and jury will be so tender of the 
 lives of such as we are, who have for many years lived 
 under the unblemished reputation of Christianity, as not to 
 condemn them without a fair and equal hearing of what 
 may be said for us as well as against us. And your poor 
 suppliants shall be bound ahva3^s to pray, &c." 
 
 The following was presented by Mary Easty to the 
 judges after she had received sentence of death. It 
 would be hard to find, in all the records of human suf- 
 fering and of Christian deportment under them, a 
 more affecting production. It is a most beautiful 
 specimen of strong good-sense, pious fortitude and 
 faith, genuine dignity of soul, noble benevolence, and 
 the true eloquence of a pure heart ; and was evidently 
 composed by her own hand. It may be said of her — 
 and there can be no higher eulogium — that she felt 
 for others more than for herself. 
 
 " The Hunihle Petition of 3fary Easty unto Ms Excel- 
 lency Sir William Fhips, and to the Honored Judge and 
 Bench now sitting in Judicature in Salein^ and the Reverend 
 Ministers^ humbly shoivethj that, whereas your poor and 
 humble petitioner, being condemned to die, do humbly beg 
 of you to take it in your judicious and pious consideration, 
 that your poor and humble petitioner, knowing my own 
 innoceney, blessed be the Lord for it ! and seeing plainly the 
 wiles and subtilty of my accusers by myself, cannot but 
 judge charitably of others that are going the same way of 
 myself, if the Lord steps not mightily in. I was confined a 
 whole month upon the same account that I am condemned 
 
328 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 now for, and then cleared by the afflicted persons, as some 
 of Your Honors know. And in two days' time I was cried 
 out upon them, and have been confined, and now am con- 
 demned to die. The Lord above knows my innocency then, 
 and likewise does now, as at the great day will be known 
 to men and angels. I petition to Your Honors not for my 
 own life, for I know I must die, and my appointed time is 
 set; but the Lord he knows it is that, if it be possible, no 
 more innocent blood may be shed, which undoubtedly cannot 
 be avoided in the way and course you go in. I question 
 not but Your Honors do to the utmost of your powers in the 
 discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches, and would 
 not be guilty of innocent blood for the world. But, by my 
 own innocency, I know you are in the wrong way. The 
 Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work, if 
 it be his blessed will that no more innocent blood be shed ! 
 I would humbly beg of you, tliat Your Honors would be 
 pleased to examine these afflicted persons strictly, and keep 
 them apart some time, and Hl^ewise to try some of these 
 confessing witches ; I being confident there is several of them 
 has belied themselves and others, as will appear, if not in 
 this world, I am sure in the world to come, whither I am now 
 agoing. I question not but you will see an alteration of these 
 things. They say myself and others having made a league 
 with the Devil, we cannot confess. I know, and the Lord 
 knows, as will . , , appear, they belie me, and so I question 
 not but they do others. The Lord above, who is the Searcher 
 of all hearts, knows, as I shall answer it at the tribunal 
 seat, that I know not the least thing of witchcraft ; therefore 
 I cannot, I dare not, belie my own soul, I beg Your Honors 
 not to deny this my humble petition from a poor, dying, 
 innocent person. And I question not but the Lord will give 
 a blessing to your endeavors." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 329 
 
 The parting interview of this admirable woman with 
 her husband, children, and friends, as she was about 
 proceeding to the place of execution, is said to have 
 been a most solemn, affecting, and truly sublime scene. 
 Calef sa^^s that her farewell communications, on this 
 occasion, were reported, by persons who listened to 
 them, to have been " as serious, religious, distinct, 
 and affectionate as could well be expressed, drawing 
 tears from the eyes of almost all present." 
 
 Ann Pudeator had been formerly the wife of a per- 
 son named Greenslitt, who left her with five children. 
 Her subsequent husband, Jacob Pudeator, died in 
 1682, and by will gave her his whole estate, after the 
 payment of legacies, of five pounds each, to her Green- 
 slitt children, who appear to have been living in 1692 
 at Casco Bay. These provisions, as well as the ex- 
 pressions used by Pudeator, indicate that he regarded 
 her with affection and esteem. The following docu- 
 ment is all that we know else of her character particu- 
 larly, except that she was a kind neighbor, and ever 
 prompt in offices of charity and sympathy. 
 
 " The Sumhle Petition of Ann Pudeator unto the Honored 
 Judge and Bench noio sittiiig in Judicature in Salein^ humhly 
 showethj that, whereas your poor and humble petitioiier, 
 being condemned to die, and knowing in my own conscience, 
 as I shall shortly answer it before the great God of heaven, 
 who is the Searcher and Knower of all hearts, that the evi- 
 dence of Jno. Best, Sr., and Jno. Best, Jr., and Samuel 
 Pickworth, which was given in against me in Court, were 
 all of them altogether false and untrue, and, besides the 
 
330 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 abovesaid Jao. Best liath been formerly whipped and like- 
 wise is recorded for a liar. I would humbly beg of Your 
 Honors to take it into your judicious and pious considera- 
 tion, that my life may not be taken away by such false 
 evidences and witnesses as these be; likewise, the evidence 
 given in against me by Sarah Churchill and Mary Warren 
 I am altogether ignorant of, and know nothing in the least 
 measure about it, nor nothing else concerning the crime 
 of witchcraft, for which I am condemned to die, as will be 
 known to men and angels at the great day of judgment. 
 Begging and imploring your prayers at the Throne of Grace 
 in my behalf, and your poor and humble petitioner shall for 
 ever pray, as she is bound in dut}', for Your Honors' health, 
 and happiness in this life, and eternal felicity in the world 
 to come." 
 
 Abigail, the wife of Francis Faulkner, and daughter 
 of the Rev. Francis Dane, of Andover, who was among 
 those sentenced on the 17th of September, had been 
 examined, on the 11th of August, by Hathorne, Cor- 
 win, and Captain John Higginson, sitting as magis- 
 trates. Upon the prisoner's being brought in, the 
 afflicted fell down, and went into fits, as usual. The 
 magistrates asked the prisoner what she had to say. 
 She replied, " I know nothing of it." The girls then 
 renewed their performances, declaring that her shape 
 was at that moment torturing them. The magistrates 
 asked her if she did not see their sufferings. She 
 answered, " Yes ; but it is the Devil does it in my 
 shape." Ann Putnam said that her spectre had afflict- 
 ed her a few days before^ pulling her off" her horse. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEJt TILLAGE. 331 
 
 Upon the touch of hei^ person, the sufferhigs of the 
 afflicted would cease for a tune. The prisoner held 
 a handkerchief in her hand. The girls would screech 
 out, declaring that, as she pressed the handkerchief, 
 they were dreadfully squeezed. She thi*ew the hand- 
 kerchief on the table ; and they said, '' There are the 
 shapes of Daniel Eames and Captain Floyd [two per- 
 sons then in prison on the charge of witchcraft] sitting 
 on her handkerchief." Mary Warren enacted the part 
 of beuig dragged against her will under the table by 
 an invisible hand, from whose grasp she was at once 
 released, upon the prisoner's being made to touch her. 
 Notwithstanding all this, she protested her innocence, 
 and was remanded to jail. On the 30th, she was 
 brought out again. In the mean while, six had been 
 executed. The usual means were employed to break 
 her down ; but all that was gained was, that she 
 owned she had expressed her indignation at the con- 
 duct of the afflicted, and was much excited against 
 them " for bringing her kindred out, and she did 
 wish them ill : and, her spirit being raised, she did 
 pinch her hands together, and she knew not but 
 that the Devil might take that advantage ; but it 
 was the Devil, and not she, that afflicted them." 
 This was the onjy concession she would make ; and 
 they were puzzled to determine whether it was a con- 
 fession, or not, — it having rather the appearance of 
 clearing herself from all implication with the Devil, 
 and leaving him on their hands • — ■ at any rate, they con- 
 cluded to regard it in the latter sense ; and she was 
 
382 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 duly convicted, and sentenced to death. Sir William 
 Phips ordered a reprieve ; and, after she had been 
 thirteen weeks in prison, he directed her to be dis- 
 charged on the ground of insufficient evidence. This, 
 I think, is the only instance of a special pardon granted 
 during tlie proceedings. 
 
 Samuel Wardwell, like most of the accused belong- 
 ing to Andover, had originally joined the crowd of 
 the confessors ; but he was too much of a man to re- 
 main in that company. He took back his confession, 
 and met his death. While he was speaking to the 
 people, at the gallows, declaring his innocency, a puff 
 of tobacco-smoke from the pipe of the executioner, 
 as Calef informs us, " coming in his face, interrupted 
 his discourse: those accusers said that the Devil did 
 hinder him with smoke." The wicked creatxxres fol- 
 lowed their victims to the last with their malignant 
 outrages. The cart that carried the prisoners, on this 
 occasion, to the hill, " was for some time at a set : 
 the afflicted and others said that the Devil hindered 
 it," &c. 
 
 The route by which they were conveyed from the 
 jail, which was at the north corner of Federal and 
 St. Peter's Streets, to the gallows, must have beeii 
 a cruelly painful and fatiguing one, particularly to in- 
 firm and delicate persons, as many of them were. It 
 was through St. Peter's, \ip tlie whole length of Essex, 
 and thence probably along Boston Street, far towards 
 Aborn Street ; for the hill could only be ascended from 
 that direction. It must have been a rough and jolting 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 333 
 
 operation ; and it is not strange that the cart got 
 " set." It seems that the prisoners were caiTied in 
 a single cart. It was a hirge one, provided probably 
 for the occasion : and it is not unlikely that the reason 
 why some who had been condemned were not exe- 
 cuted, was that the cart could not hold them all at 
 once. They were executed, one in June, five in July, 
 five in August, and eight in September, with the in- 
 tention, no doubt, b}"" taking them in instalments, to 
 extend the acts of the tragedy, from month to month, 
 indefinitely. 
 
 It was necessary for the safety of the accusers and 
 prosecutors to prevent a revulsion of the public mind, 
 or even the least diminution of the popular violence 
 against the supposed witches. As they all protested 
 their innocence to the moment of death, and exhibited 
 a remarkably Christian deportment throughout the 
 dreadful scenes they were called to encounter from 
 their arrest to their execution, there was reason to 
 apprehend that the people would gradually be led to 
 feel a sympathy for them, if not to entertain doubts of 
 their guilt. To prevent this, and remove any impres- 
 sions favorable to them that might be made by the 
 conduct and declarations of the convicts, the prosecu- 
 tors were on the alert. After the prisoners had been 
 swung off, on the 2'2d of September, '' turning him to 
 the bodies, Mr. Noyes said, ' What a sad thing it is [ 
 to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there ! ' " It 
 was the last time his eyes were regaled by such a 
 sight. There were no more executions on Witch Hill. 
 
334 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Three daj-s before, a life had been taken by the 
 officers of the law in a maimer so extraordhiary, and 
 marked by features so shocking, that they find no par- 
 allel in the annals of America, and will continue to 
 arrest for ever the notice of mankind. The history 
 and character of old Giles Corey have been given in 
 preceding parts of this work. The only papers relat- 
 ing to him, on file as having been sworn to before the 
 Grand Jury, are a few brief depositions. If he had 
 been put on trial, we might have had more. Elizabeth 
 Woodwell testifies, that " she saw Giles Corey at meet- 
 ing at Salem on a lecture-day, since he has been in 
 prison. He or his apparition came in, and sat in the 
 middlemost seat of the men's seats, by the post. This 
 was the lecture-day before Bridget Bishop was hanged. 
 And I saw him come out with the rest of the people." 
 Mary Walcot, of course, swore to the same. And 
 Mary Warren swore that Corey was hostile to her 
 and afflicted her, because he thought she " caused her 
 master (John Proctei") to ask more for a piece of 
 meadow than he (Corey) was willing to give." She 
 also charged him with " afflicting of her" by his spec- 
 tre while he was in prison, and " described him in all 
 his garments, both of hat, coat, and the color of them, 
 — with a cord about his waist and a white cap on his 
 head, and in chains." There is reason to believe, 
 that, while in prison, ho experienced great distress of 
 mind. Although he had been a rough character in 
 earlier life, and given occasion to much scandal by his 
 disregard of public opinion, he always exhibited symp- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 335 
 
 toms of a generous aud sensitive nature. His foolish 
 conduct in becoming so passionately engaged in the 
 witchcraft proceedingSj at their earliest stage, as to be 
 incensed against his wife because she did not approve 
 of or believe in theuij and which led him to utter sen- 
 timents and expressions that had been used against 
 her ; and so far yielding to the accusers as to allow 
 them to get from him the depositiou, which, while it 
 failed to satisfy their demands, it was shameful for 
 him to have been persuaded to give, — all these things, 
 which after his own apprehension and imprisonment he 
 had leisure to ponder upon, preyed on his mind. He 
 saw the awful character of the delusion to which he 
 had lent himself; that it had brought his prayerful 
 and excellent wife to the sentence of death, which had 
 already been executed upon many other devout and 
 worthy persons. He knew that he was innocent of the 
 crime of witchcraft, and was now satisfied that all 
 others were. Besides his own unfriendly course to- 
 wards his wife, two of his four sons-in-law had turned 
 against her. One (Crosby) had testified, and another 
 (Parker) had allowed his name to be used, as an ad- 
 verse witness. In view of all this, Corey made up his 
 mind, determined on his course, and stood to that 
 determination. He resolved to expiate his own folly 
 by a fate that would satisfy the demands of the stern- 
 est criticism upon his conduct ; proclaim his abhor- 
 rence of the prosecutions ; and attest the strength of 
 his feelings towards those of his children who had 
 been false, and those who had been true, to his wife. 
 
336 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 He caused to be drawn up what has been called a will, 
 although it is in reality a deed, and was duly recorded 
 as such. Its phraseology is very strongly guarded, 
 and made to give it clear, full, and certain effect. It 
 begins thus : " Know ye, <tc., that I, Giles Corey, lying 
 under great trouble and affliction, through which I am 
 very weak in body, but in perfect memory, — knowing 
 not how soon I may depart this life ; in consideration 
 of which, and for the fatherly love and affection which 
 I have and do bear unto my beloved son-in-law, Wil- 
 liam Cleeves, of the town of Beverl}^ and to my son- 
 in-law, John Moulton, of the town of Salem, as also for 
 divers other good causes and considerations me at the 
 present especially moving ; " and proceeds to convey 
 and confirm all his property — " lands, meadow, hous- 
 ing, cattle, stock, movables and immovables, money, 
 apparel, . . . and all other the aforesaid premises, 
 with their appurtenances" — to the said Cleeves and 
 Moulton " for ever, freely and quietly, without any 
 manner of challenge, claim, or demand of me the said 
 Giles Corey, or of any other person or persons what- 
 soever for me in my name, or by my cause, means, or 
 procurement;" and, in the use of all the language 
 applicable to that end, he warrants and binds him- 
 self to defend the aforesaid conveyance and grant to 
 Cleeves and Moulton, their heirs, executors, adminis- 
 trators, and assigns for ever. The document was 
 properly signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence 
 of competent witnesses, whose several signatures are 
 indorsed to that effect. It was duly acknowledged 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 337 
 
 before " Thomas Wade, Justice of the Peace m Essex," 
 and recorded forthwith. This trausactiou took place 
 in the jail at Ipswich. 
 
 His whole property being thus securely conveyed to 
 his faithful sons-in-law, and placed beyond the reach 
 of his own weakness or change of purpose, Corey re- 
 solved on a course that would surely try to the utmost 
 the power of human endurance aud firmness. He 
 knew, that, if brought to trial, his death was certain. 
 He did not know but that^conviction and execution, 
 through the attainder connected with it, might invali- 
 date all attempts of his to convey his property. But 
 it was certain, that, if he should not be brought to trial 
 and conviction, his deed would stand, and nothing 
 could break it, or defeat its effect. He accordingly 
 made up his mind not to be tried. When called into 
 court to answer to the indictment found by the Grand 
 Jury, he did not plead " Guilty," or " Not guilty," but 
 stood mute. How often he was called forth, we are 
 not informed ; but nothing could shake him. No 
 power on earth could unseal his lips. 
 
 He knew that he could have no trial that would 
 deserve the name. To have pleaded "Not guilty" 
 would have made him, by his own act, a paii;y to the 
 proceeding, and have been, by implication, an assent 
 to putting his case to the decision of a blind, mad- 
 dened, and utterly perverted tribunal. He would not, 
 by any act or utterance of his, leave his case with 
 " the country " represented by a jury that embodied 
 the passions of the deluded and infatuated multitude 
 VOL. n. 22 
 
338 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 around him. He knew that tlie gates of justice were 
 closed, and that truth had fled from the scene. He 
 would have no part nor lot in the matter; refused to 
 recognize the court, made no response to its questions, 
 and was dumb in its presence. He stands alone in 
 the resolute defiance of his attitude. He knew the 
 penalty of suffering and agony he would have to pay; 
 but he freely and fearlessly encountered it. All that 
 was needed to carry his point was an unconquerable 
 firmness, and he had it. He rendered it impossible to 
 bring him to trial ; and thereby, in spite of the power 
 and wrath of the whole country and its authorities, 
 retained his right to dispose of his property ; and bore 
 his testimony against the wickedness and folly of the 
 hour ill tones that reached the whole world, and will 
 resound through all the ages. 
 
 When Corey took this ground, the Court found itself 
 in a position of no little difficulty, and was probably at 
 a loss what to do. No information has come to us 
 of the details of the proceedings. If the usages in 
 England on such occasions were adopted, the prisoner 
 was three times brought before the Court, and called 
 to plead : the consequences of persisting in standing 
 mute being solemnly announced to him at each time. 
 If he remained obdurate, the sentence of peine forte 
 et dure was passed upon him ; and, remanded to 
 prison, he was put into a low and dark apartment. 
 He would there be laid on his back on the bare floor, 
 naked for the most part. A weight of iron would be 
 placed upon him, not quite enough to crush him. He 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 339 
 
 would have no sustenance, save only, on the first day, 
 three morsels of the worst bread ; and, on the second 
 day, tliree draughts of standing water that should be 
 nearest to the prison door: and, in this situation, such 
 would be alternately his daily diet till he died, or till 
 he answered. The object of this terrible punishment 
 was to induce the prisoner to plead to the indictment ; 
 upon doing which, he would be brought to trial in the 
 ordinary way. The motive that led prisoners to stand 
 mute in England is stated to have been, most gener- 
 ally, to save their property from confiscation. The 
 practice of putting weights upon them, and gradually 
 increasing them, was to force them, by the slowly in- 
 creasing torture, to yield. 
 
 How far the English practice was imitated in the 
 case of Corey will remain for ever among the di-ead 
 secrets of his prison-house. The tradition is, that the 
 last act in the tragedy was in an open field near the 
 jail, somewhere between Howard-street Burial Ground 
 and Brown Street. It is said that Corey urged the exe- 
 cutionei's to increase the weight which was crushing 
 him, that he told them it was of no use to expect him 
 to yield, that there could be but one way of ending 
 the matter, and that they might as well pile on the 
 rocks. Calef says, that, as his body yielded to the 
 pressure, his tongue protruded from his mouth, and 
 an official forced it back with his cane. Some persons 
 now living remember a popular superstition, lingering 
 in the minds of some of the more ignorant class, that 
 Corey's ghost haunted the grounds where this barbar- 
 
340 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ous deed was done ; and that boys, as they sported in 
 the vicinity, were in the habit of singing a ditty begin- 
 ning thus : — 
 
 "'More weight! more weight! ' 
 Giles Corej he cried." 
 
 For a person of more than eighty-one years of age, 
 this must be allowed to have been a marvellous exhi- 
 bition of prowess ; illustrating, as strongly as any 
 thing in human history, the power of a resolute will 
 over the utmost pain and agony of body, and demon- 
 strathig that Giles Corey was a man of heroic nerve, 
 and of a spirit that could not be subdued. 
 
 It produced a deep effect, as it was feared that it 
 would. The bearing of all the sufferers at all the 
 stages of the proceedings, and at their execution, had 
 told in their favor ; but the course of Giles Corey pro- 
 foundly affected the public mind. This must have 
 been noticed by the managers of the prosecutions; and 
 they felt that some extraordinary expedient was neces- 
 sary to renew, and render more intense than ever, the 
 general infatuation. From the very beginning, there 
 had been great skill and adroitness in arranging the 
 order of incidents, and supplying the requisite excite- 
 ments at the right moments and the right points. 
 Some persons — it can only be conjectured who — 
 had, all along, been behind the scenes, giving direction 
 and materials to the open actors. This unseen power 
 was in the village ; and the movements it devised 
 generally proceeded from Thomas Putnam's house, or 
 the parsonage. It was on hand to meet the contingency 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 341 
 
 created by Corey's having actually carried out to the 
 last his resolution to meet a form of death that would, 
 if any thing could, cause a re-actiou in the public mind ; 
 and the following stratagem Avas contrived to turn the 
 manner of his death into the means of more than ever 
 blinding and infatuating the people. It was the last 
 and one of the most artful strokes of policy by the 
 prosecutors. On the day after the death of Corey, and 
 two days before the execution of his wife, Mary Easty, 
 and the six others, Judge Sewall, then in Salem, re- 
 ceived a letter from Thomas Putnam to this effect : — 
 
 " Last night, my daughter Ann was grievous!}^ tormented 
 by witches, threatening that she should be pressed to death 
 before Giles Corey ; but, through the goodness of a gracious 
 God, she had at last a little respite. Whereupon there 
 appeared unto her (she said) a man in a windiag-sheet, 
 who told her that Giles Corey had murdered him by pressing 
 him to death with his feet ; but that the Devil there ap- 
 peared unto him, and covenanted with him, and promised 
 him that he should not be hanged. The apparition said God 
 hardeued his heart, that he should not hearken to the advice 
 of the Court, and so die an easy death ; because, as it said, 
 it must be done to him as he has done to me. The appari- 
 tion also said that Giles Corey was carried to the Court for 
 this, and that the jury had found the murder; and that her 
 father knew the man, and the thing was done before she 
 was born," 
 
 Cotton Mather represented this vision, made to Ann 
 Putnam, as proof positive of a divine communication 
 to her, because, as he says, she could not have received 
 
342 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 her information from a luunau source, as everybody 
 had forgotten the affair long ago ; and that she ne\^er 
 could have heard of it, happening, as it did, before she 
 was born. Bringing up this old matter to meet the effect 
 produced by Corey's death was indeed a skilful move ; 
 and it answered its purpose probably to a considerable 
 extent. The man whom Corey was thus charged with 
 having murdered seventeen 3^ears before died in a man- 
 ner causing some gossip at the time ; and a coroner's 
 jury found that he had been " bruised to death, having 
 dodders of blood about the heart." Bringing the 
 affair back to the public mind, with the story of Ann 
 Putnam's vision, was well calculated to meet and 
 check any sympathy that might threaten to arise in 
 favor of Corey. But the trick, however ingenious, 
 will not stand the test of scrutiny. Mather's state- 
 ment that everybody had forgotten the transaction, 
 and that Ann could only have known of it super- 
 naturally, is wholly untenable ; for it was precisely 
 one of those things that are never forgotten in a 
 country village : it had always been kept alive as a 
 part of the gossip of the neighborhood in connection 
 with Corey; and her own father, as is unwittingly 
 acknowledged, knew the man, and all about it. Of 
 course, the girl had heard of it from him and others. 
 The industry that had ransacked the traditions and 
 collected the scandal of the whole country, far and 
 near, for stories that were brought in evidence against 
 all the prisoners, had not failed to pick up this choice 
 bit against Corey. The only reason why it had not 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 343 
 
 before been brought out was because he had not been 
 on trial. The man who died with " dodders of blood 
 about his lieart," seventeen years before, was an un- 
 foi^tnuate and worthless person, who had incurred 
 punishment for his misconduct while a servant on 
 Corey's farm, and afterwards at the hands of his own 
 family : and he does not appear to have mended his 
 morals upon passing into the spiritual world ; for the 
 statement of his ghost to Ann Putnam, that the jury 
 had found Corey guilty of murder, and that the 
 Court was hindered by some enchantment from pro- 
 ceeding against him, is disproved by the record which 
 is, — as has been mentioned in the First Part, vol. i. 
 p. 185, — that the man was carried back to his house 
 by Corey's wife, and died there some time^ after ; and 
 the Court did no more than fine Corey for the punish- 
 ment he had inflicted upon him while in his service, 
 and which the evidence showed was repeated by his 
 parents after his return to his own family. 
 
 Thomas Putnam's letter and Ann's vision were the 
 last things of the kind that occurred. The delusion 
 was approaching its close, and the people were begin- 
 ning to be restored to their senses. 
 
 When it became known that Corey's resolution was 
 likely to hold out, and that no torments or cruelties of 
 any kind could subdue his firm and invincible spirit, 
 Mr. Noyes hurried a special meeting of his church on 
 a week-day, and had the satisfaction of dealing the 
 same awful doom upon him as upon Eebecca Nurse. 
 The entry in the record of the First Church is as 
 follows : — 
 
344 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " Sept. 18, G. Corey was excommunicated : tlie cause 
 of it Avas, that he beius; accused and indicted for the sin of 
 witchcraft, he refused to plead, and so incurred the sen- 
 tence and penalty of pain fort dure; being undoubtedly 
 either guilty of the sin of witchcraft, or of throwing himself 
 upon sudden and certaiQ death, if he were otherwise inno- 
 cent." 
 
 This attempt to introduce a form of argument into 
 a church act of excommunication is a slight but 
 significant symptom of its having become felt that the 
 breath of reason had begun to raise a ripple upon 
 the surface of the public mind. It increased slowly 
 but steadily to a gale that beat with severity upon Mr. 
 Noyes and all his fellow-persecutors to their dying day. 
 
 After the executions, on the 22d of September, the 
 Court adjourned to meet some weeks subsequently ; 
 and it was, no doubt, their expectation to continue 
 from month to month to hold sessions, and supply, 
 each time, new cart-loads of victims to the hangman. 
 But a sudden collapse took place in the machinery, 
 and they met no more. The executive authority inter- 
 vened, and their functions ceased. The curtain fell un- 
 expectedly, and the tragedy ended. It is not known pre- 
 cisely what caused this siidden change. It is probable, 
 that a revolution had been going on some time in the 
 public mind, which was kept for a while from notice, 
 but at last became too apparent and too serious to be 
 disregarded. It has generally been attributed to the 
 fact, that the girls became over-confident, and struck 
 too high.^ They had ventured, as we have seen, to cry 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 345 
 
 I out against the Rev. Samuel Willard, but were re- 
 buked and sileiiced by the Court. Whoever began to 
 waver in his confidence of the correctness of the pro- 
 ceedings was in danger of being attacked by them; 
 and, as a general thing, when a person was " cried out 
 upon," it may be taken as proof that he had spokeu 
 against them. Increase Mather, the president of Har- 
 vard College, called by Eliot " the father of the New- 
 England clergy," was understood not to go so far as 
 his son Cotton' in sustaining the proceedings ; and a 
 member of his family was accused. The wife of Sir 
 William Phips sympathized with those who suffered 
 prosecution, and is said to have written an order for 
 the release of a prisoner from jail. She was cried out 
 upon. It may have been noticed, that, though Jona- 
 than Corwin sat with Hathorne as an examining 
 magistrate and assistant, and signed the commitments 
 of the prisoners, he never took an active part, but was 
 a silent and passive agent in the scene. He was sub- 
 sequently raised to the bench ; but there is reason 
 to believe that his mind was not clear as to the cor- 
 rectness of the proceedings. This probably became 
 known to the accusing girls ; for they cried out re- 
 peatedly against his wife's mother, a respectable and 
 venerable lady in Boston. The accusers, in aiming 
 at such characterSj overestimated their power; and 
 the tide began to turn against them. But what 
 finally broke the spell by which they had held the 
 minds of the whole colony in bondage was their 
 accusation, in October, of Mrs. Hale, the wife of the 
 
346 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 , minister of the First Church in Beverly. Her genuine 
 \ and distinguished virtues had won for licr a reputation, 
 and secured in the hearts of the people a confidence, 
 which superstition itself could not sully nor shake. 
 Mr. Hale had been active in ail the previous proceed- 
 ings ; but he knew the innocence and piety of his wife, 
 and he stood forth between her and the storni he had 
 helped to raise : although he had driven it on while 
 others were its victims, he turned and resisted it when 
 it burst in upon his own dwelling. The whole com- 
 munity became convinced that the accusers in crying 
 out upon Mrs. Hale, had perjured themselves, and 
 from that moment their power was destroyed ; the 
 awful delusion was dispelled, and a close put to one of 
 the most tremendous tragedies in the history of real 
 life. The wildest storm, perhaps, that ever raged in 
 the moral world, became a calm ; the tide that had 
 threatened to overwhelm every thing in its fury, sunk 
 back to its peaceful bed. There are few, if any, other 
 instances in history, of a revolution of opinion and 
 feeling so sudden, so rapid, and so complete. The 
 images and visions that had possessed the bewildered 
 imaginations of the people flitted away, and left them 
 standing in the sunshine of reason and their senses ; 
 and they could have exclaimed, as they witnessed them 
 passing ofif, in the language of the great master of the 
 drama and of human nature, but that their rigid 
 Puritan principles would not, it is presumed, have 
 permitted them, even in that moment of rescue and 
 deliverance, to quote Shakspeare, — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 347 
 
 " The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 
 And these are of them. Whither are tliey vanished ? 
 Into the air; and wliat seemed corporal, melted 
 As breath into the wind." 
 
 Sir William Pliips well knew that the public senti- 
 ment demanded a stop to be put to the prosecutions. 
 Besides that many of the people had lost all faith in 
 the grounds on which they had been conducted, an 
 influence from the higher orders of society began to 
 make itself felt. Hutchinson says, " Although many 
 such had suffered, yet there remained in prison a 
 number of women of as reputable families as any in 
 the towns where they lived, and several persons, of 
 still superior rank, were hinted at by the pretended 
 bewitched, or by the confessing witches. Some had 
 been publicly named. Dudley Bradstreet, a justice 
 of peace, who had been appointed one of President 
 Dudley's council, and who was son to the worthy old 
 governor, then living, found it necessary to abscond. 
 Having been remiss in prosecuting, he had been charged 
 by some of the afflicted as a confederate. His brother, 
 John Bradstreet, was forced to fly also." 
 
 The termination of the proceedings was probably 
 effectually secured by the spirited course of certain] 
 parties in Andover, who, at the first moment of its 
 appearing that the public sentiment was changing, 
 commenced actions for slander against the accusers. 
 
 The result of the whole matter was, that, while some 
 of the judges, magistrates, and ministers persisted in 
 their fanatical zeal, the great body of the people, high 
 and low, were rescued from the delusion. 
 
 <? 
 
 V 
 
348 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 While, ill the course of our story, we have witnessed 
 some shocking instances of the violation of the most 
 sacred affections and obligations of life, in husbands 
 and wives, pai'ents and children, testifying against 
 each other, and exerting themselves for mutual de- 
 struction, we must not overlook the many instances 
 in which filial, pai'ental, and fraternal fidelity and love 
 have shone conspicuously. It was dangerous to be- 
 friend an accused person. Procter stood by his wife 
 to protect her, and it cost him his life. Children 
 protested against the treatment of their parents, and 
 they were all thrown into prison. Daniel Andrew, 
 a citizen of high standing, who had been deputy to 
 the General Court, asserted, in the boldest language, 
 his belief of Rebecca Nurse's innocence ; and he had 
 to fly the country to save his life. Many devoted 
 sons and daughters clung to their parents, visited 
 them in prison in defiance of a bloodthirsty mob ; 
 kept by their side on the way to execution ; expressed 
 their love, sympathy, and reverence to the last ; and, 
 by brave and perilous enterprise, got possession of 
 their remains, and bore them back under the cover 
 of midnight to their own thresholds, and to graves 
 kept consecrated by their prayers and tears. One 
 noble young man is said to have effected his mother's 
 escape from the jail, and secreted her in the woods 
 until after the delusion had passed away, provided food 
 and clothing for her, erected a wigwam for her shel- 
 ter, and surrounded her with every comfort her situ- 
 ation would admit of. The poor creature must, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 349 
 
 however, have endured a great amount of suffenng ; 
 for one of her larger limbs was fractured in the all 
 hut desperate attempt to rescue her from the prison- 
 walls. 
 
 The Special Court being no longer suffered to meet, 
 a permanent and regular ti'ibunal, called the Superior 
 Court of Judicature, was established, consisting of the 
 Deputy-governor, William Stoughton, Chief-justice; and 
 Thomas Danforth, John Richards, Wait Winthrop, 
 and Samuel Sewall, associate justices. They held a 
 Court at Salem, in January, 1693. Hutchinson says 
 that, on tliis occasion, the Grand Jury found about 
 fifty indictments. The following persons were brought 
 to trial : Rebecca Jacobs, Margaret Jacobs, Sarah Buck- 
 ley, Job Tookey, Hannah Tyler, Candy, Mary Marston, 
 Elizabeth Johnson, Abigail Barker, Mary Tyler, Sarah 
 Hawkes, Mary Wardwell, Mary Bridges, Hannah Post, 
 Sarah Bridges, Mary Osgood, Mary Lacy, Jr., Sarah 
 Wardwell, Elizabeth Johnson, Jr., and Mary Post. 
 The three last were condemned, but not executed: all 
 the rest were acquitted. Considering that the " spec- 
 tral evidence " was wholly thrown out at these trials, 
 the facts that the grand jury, under the advice of the 
 Court, brought in so many indictments, and that three 
 were actually convictedj are as discreditable to the 
 regular Court as the convictions at the Special Court 
 are to that body. It has been said that the Special 
 Court had not an adequate representation of lawyers 
 in its composition ; and the results of its proceeduigs 
 have been ascribed to that circumstance. It has been 
 
350 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 held up disparaging!}^ in comparison with the regu- 
 lar Court that succeeded it. But, in fact, the regular 
 Court consisted of persons all of whom sat in the 
 Special Court, with the exception of Dauforth. But 
 his proceedings in originating the arrests for witch- 
 craft in the fall of 1691, and his action wheu pre- 
 siding at the preliminary examination of John Procter, 
 Elizaheth Procter, and Sarah Cloyse, at Salem, April 
 11, 1692, show that, so far as the permission of gross 
 irreo'ularities and the admissiou of ahsurd kinds of 
 testimony are concerned, the regular Court gained 
 nothing by his sitting with it, unless his views had 
 been thoroughly changed in the mean time. The truth 
 is, that the judges, magistrates, and legislature were 
 as much to blame, in this whole business, as the 
 ministers, and much more slow to come to their senses, 
 and make amends for their wrong-doing. 
 
 All the facts known to us, and all the statements 
 that have come down to us, require us to believe, that 
 none who confessed, and stood to their confession, 
 were brought to trial. All who were condemned either 
 maintained their innocence from the first, or, if per- 
 \,suaded or overcome into a confession, voluntarily took 
 'it back and disowned it before trial. If this be so, 
 then the name of every person condemned ought to 
 be held iu lasting honor, as preferring to die leather 
 than lie, or stand to a lie. It required great strength 
 of mind to take back a confession ; relinquish life and 
 liberty; go down into a dungeon, loaded with ii^ons ; 
 and from thence to ascend the gallows. It relieves 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 351 
 
 the miud to think, that Abigail Hobbs, wicked and 
 shocking as her conduct had Ijccn towards Mr. Bur- 
 roughs and others, came to herself, and offex-ed her 
 life in atonement for her sin. 
 
 The Court continued the trials at successive sessions 
 during the spring, all resulting in acquittals, until in 
 May, 1693, Sir William Phips, by proclamation, dis- 
 charged all. Hutchinson says, " Such a jail-delivery 
 has never been known in New England." The num- 
 ber then released is stated to have been one hundred 
 and fifty. How many had been apprehended, during 
 the whole affair, we have no means of knowing. 
 Twenty, counting Giles Corey, had been executed. 
 Two at least, Ann Foster and Sarah Osburn, had died 
 in jail : it is not improbable that others perished 
 under the bodily and mental sufferings there. We 
 find frequent expressions indicating that many died 
 in prison. A considerable number of children, and 
 some adults whose friends were able to give the heavy 
 bonds required and had influence enough to secure 
 the favor, had some time before been removed to 
 private custody. Quite a considerable number had 
 succeeded in breaking jail and eluding recapture. 
 Upon the whole, there must have been several hun- 
 dreds committed. Even after acquittal by a jury, and 
 the Grovernor's proclamation, none were set at liberty 
 until they had paid all charges ; including board for 
 the whole time of their imprisonment, jailer's fees, 
 and fees of Court of all kinds. The families of many 
 had become utterly impoverished. 
 
B 
 
 352 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ' The sufferings of the prisoners and of their re- 
 latives and connections arc perhaps best illustrated 
 by presenting the substance of a fe^Y of the petitions 
 for their release, found among the files. The friends of 
 the parties, in these cases, were not in a condition to 
 give the bonds, and they probably remained in jail 
 until the general discharge; and how long after, be- 
 fore the means could be raised to pay all dues, we 
 camiot know.* 
 
 * On the 19tli of October, 1692, Thomas Hart, of Lynn, presented 
 a memorial to the General Court, stating that his mother, Elizabeth 
 Hart, had then been in Boston jail for nearly six months : '* Though, 
 in all this time, nothing has appeared against lier "whereby to render 
 her deserving of imprisonment or death, . . . being ancient, and not able 
 to undergo the hardship that is inflicted from lying in misery, and 
 death rather to be chosen than a life in her circumstances." He says, 
 that his father is "ancient and decrepit, and wholly unable" to take 
 any steps in her behalf; that he feels "obliged by all Christian duty, 
 as becomes a child to parents," to lay her case before the General 
 Court. " The petitioner having lived from his childhood under the 
 same roof with his mother, he dare presume to affirm that he never 
 saw nor knew any evil or sinful practice wherein there was any show 
 of impiety nor witchcraft by her ; and, were it otherwise, he would 
 not, for the world and all the enjoyments thereof, nourish or support 
 any creature that he knew engaged in the drudgery of Satan. It is 
 well known to all the neighborhood, that the petitioner's mother has 
 lived a sober and godly life, always ready to discharge the part of a 
 good Christian, and never deserving of afflictions from the liands 
 of men for any thing of this nature." He humbly prays "for the 
 speedy enlargement of this person so much abused." I present two 
 more petitions. They lielp to fill up the picture of the sufferings and 
 hardships borne by individuals and families. 
 
 " To the IJonored General Court now sitting in Boston^ the Humble Petition 
 of Nicholas Rist^ of Reading^ showeth, that whereas Sara Kist, wife of the 
 petitioner, was taken into custody the first day of June last, and, ever 
 
sammsmmsisss^ 
 
 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 353 
 
 Margaret Jacobs had to remaiu iu jail after the 
 Governor's proclamation had directed the release of 
 all prisoners, because she could not pay the fees and 
 charges. Her grandfather had been executed, and 
 all his furniture, stock, and moveable property seized 
 by the marshal or sheriff. Her father escaped the 
 warrant by a sudden flight from his home under 
 the cover of midnight, and was in exile " beyond the 
 seas ; " her mother and herself taken at the time by 
 the officers serving the warrants against them ; the 
 younger children of the family, left without protection, 
 had dispersed, and been thi'own upon the charity of 
 neighbors ; the house had been stripped of its contents, 
 left open, and deserted. She had not a shilling in 
 the world, and knew not whei^e to look for aid. She 
 
 since lain in Boston jail for witchcraft; though, in all this time, nothing has 
 been made appear for which she deserved imprisonment or death : the peti- 
 tioner has been a husband to the said woman above twenty years, in all 
 which time he never had reason to accuse her for any impiety or witch- 
 craft, but the contrary. She lived with him as a good, faithful, dutiful 
 wife, and always had respect to the ordinances of God while her strength 
 remained; and the petitioner, on that consideration, is obliged in conscience 
 and justice to use all lawful means for the support and preservation of her 
 life; and it is deplorable, that, in old age, the poor decrepit woman should 
 lie under confinement so long in a. stinking jail, when her circumstances 
 rather require a nurse to attend her. 
 
 " May it, therefore, please Your Honors to take this matter into your 
 prudent consideration, and direct some speedy methods whereby this an- 
 cient decrepit person may not for ever lie in such misery, wherein her life is 
 made more afflictive to her than death." 
 
 " The Humble Petition of Thomas Barrett^ of Chelmsford, in New Eng- 
 land, in behalf of his daughter Martha Sparkes, wife of Henry Sparkes, who 
 is now a soldier in Their Majesties^ Service at the Eastei'n Paris, and so hath 
 been for a considerable time, humbly showeih, That your petitioner's daughter 
 hath lain in prison in Boston for the space of twelve months and five daj's, 
 VOL. II. 23 
 
354 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 was taken back to prison, and remained there for some 
 time, until a person named Gammon, apparently a 
 stranger, happened to liear of her case, and, touched 
 with compassion, raised the money required, and re- 
 lea'feed her. It was long before the affairs of the 
 Jacobs' family were so far retrieved as to enable them 
 to refund the money to the noble-hearted fisherman. 
 How many others lingered in prison, or how long, we 
 have no means of ascertaining. 
 
 In reviewing the proceedings at the examinations 
 and trials, it is impossible to avoid being struck with 
 the infatuation of the magistrates and judges. They 
 acted throughout in the character and spirit of prose- 
 cuting officers, put leading and ensnaring questions 
 to the prisoners, adopted a browbeating deportment 
 towards them, and pursued them with undisguised 
 hostility. They assumed their guilt from the first, 
 
 being commiUed by Thomas Danforth, Esq., the late deput3'-governor, upon 
 suspicion of witchcraft; since which no evidence hath appeared against her 
 in any such matter, neither hath any given bond to prosecute her, nor 
 dotli any one at this day accuse her of any such thing, as 3-our petitioner 
 knows of. That your petitioner hath ever since liept two of her children ; 
 the one of five years, the other of two years old, which hath been a con- 
 siderable trouble and charge to him in his poor and mean condition : besides, 
 your petitioner hath a lame, ancient, and sick wife, who, for these five 
 years and upwards past, hath been so afflicted as that she is altogether 
 rendered uncapable of aff"ording herself any help, which much augments 
 his trouble. Your poor petitioner earnestly and humbly entreats Tour 
 Excellency and Honors to take his distressed condition into your consider- 
 ation 5 and that you will please to order the releasement of his daughter 
 from her cou6nement, whereby she may return home to her poor children 
 to look after them, having nothing to pay the charge of her confinement, 
 
 " And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray. 
 "Nov. 1,1692." 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 3j55 
 
 and endeavored to force them to confess ; treating them 
 as obstuiate culprits because they would not. Every 
 kind of irregularity was permitted. The marshal was 
 encouraged in perpetual interference to prejudice the 
 persons on trial, watching and reporting aloud to the 
 Court every movement of their hands or heads or 
 feet. Other persons were allowed to speak out, fi'om 
 the body of the crowd, whatever they chose to say ad- 
 verse to the prisoner. Accusers were suffei*ed to make 
 private communications to the magistrates and judges 
 before or during the hearings. The presiding officers 
 showed dff their smartness in attempts to make the 
 persons on trial before them appear at a disadvantage,. 
 In some instances, as in the case of Sarah Good, the 
 magistrate endeavored to deceive the accused by rep- 
 resenting falsely the testimony given by another. The 
 people in and around the court-room were allowed to 
 act the part of a noisy mob, by clamors and threaten- 
 ing outcries; and juries were overawed to bring in 
 verdicts of conviction, and rebuked from the bench if 
 they exercised their rightful prerogative without regard 
 to the public passions. The chief-justice, in particular, 
 appears to have been actuated by violent prejudice ^- 
 against the prisoners, and to have conducted the trials, 
 all along, with a spirit that bears the aspect of ani- 
 mosity. 
 
 There is one point of view in which he must be held 
 responsible for the blood that was shed, and the in- 
 famy that, in consequence, attaches to the proceedings. 
 It may well be contended, that not a conviction would 
 
356 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 have taken place, but for a notion of his which he 
 arbitrarily enforced as a rule of law. It was a part of 
 the tlicorv relating: to witchcraft, that the Devil made 
 use of the spectres, or apparitions, of sonic persons to 
 afflict others. From this conceded postulate, a division 
 of opinion arose. Some maintained that the Devil 
 could emplo}^ only the spectres of persons in league 
 with him ; others affirmed, that he could send upon his 
 evil errands the spectres of innocent persons, Avithout 
 their consent or knowledge. The chief-justice held the 
 former opinion, against the judgment of many others, 
 arbitrarily established it as a rule of Court,' and per- 
 emptorily instructed juries to regard it as binding 
 upon them in making their verdicts. The conse- 
 quence was that a verdict of " Guilty" became inevi- 
 table. But few at that time doubted the veracity of the 
 '* afflicted persons," which was thought to be demon- 
 strated to the very senses by their fits and sufferings, 
 in the presence of the Court, jury, and all beholders. 
 When they swore that they saw the shapes of Bridget 
 Bishop, or Bebecca Nurse, or George Burroughs, 
 choking or otherwise torturing a person, the fact was 
 regarded as beyond question. 
 
 The prisoners took the ground, that the statements 
 made by the witnesses, even if admitted, were not proof 
 against them ; for the Devil might employ the spec- 
 tres of innocent persons, or of whomsoever he chose, 
 without the knowledge of the persons whose shapes 
 were thus used by him. When Mrs. Ann Putnam 
 swore that she had seen the spectre of Rebecca Nurse 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 357 
 
 afQIcting various persons ; and tlmt the said spectre 
 acknowledged to lier, that " she had killed Benjamin 
 Houltou, and John Fuller, and Rebecca Shcpard," — 
 the answer of the prisoner was, ^' I cannot help it: the 
 Devil niaj^ appear in my shape." Wlien the examining 
 magistrate put the question to Susanna Martin, '' How 
 conies your appearance to hurt these?" Martin re- 
 plied, " I cannot tell. He that appeared in SamueFs 
 shape, a glorified saint, can appear in any one's shape." 
 The Rev. John Wise, in his noble appeal in favor 
 of John Procter, argued to the same point. But the 
 chief-justice was inexorably deaf to all reason ; com- 
 pelled the jur}'' to receive, as absolute law, that the 
 Devil could not use the shape of an innocent person ; 
 and, as the " afflicted " swore that they saw the shapes 
 of the prisoners actually engaged in the diabolical 
 work, there was no room left for question, and they 
 must return a verdict of " Guilty." 
 
 In this way, innocent persons were slaughtered by a 
 dogma in the mind of an obstinate judge. Dogmas 
 have perverted courts and governments in all ages. 
 A fabrication of fancy, an arbitrary verbal proposition, 
 has been exalted above reason, and made to extinguish 
 common sense. The world is full of such dogmas. 
 They mislead the actions of men, and confound the 
 page of history. " The king cannot die " is one of 
 them. It is held as an axiom of political and con-' 
 stitutional truth. So an entire dynasty, crowded with 
 a more glorious life than any other, is struck from the 
 annals of an empire. In the public records of Eng- 
 
358 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 land, tlie existence of the Commonwealth is ignored ; 
 and the traces of its great events are erased from the 
 archives of the government, wliich, in all its formulas 
 and official papers, proclaims a lie. A hunted fugitive, 
 wanderins: in disouise throim'h foreign lands, without 
 a foot of ground on the globe that he could call his own, 
 is declared in all public acts, parliamentary and judicial, 
 and even by those assuming to utter the voice of 
 history, to have actually reigned all the time. In our 
 country and in our day, we are perplexed, and our 
 public men bewildered, by a similar dogma. The 
 merest fabric of human contrivance, a particular form 
 of political society, is impiously clothed with an 
 essential attribute of God alone ; and ephemei^al poli- 
 ticians are announcing, as an eternal law of Providence, 
 that " a State cannot die." The mischiefs that result, 
 in the management of human affairs, from enthroning 
 dogmas over reason, truth, and fact, are, as they ever 
 have been, incalculable. 
 
 Chief-justice Stoughton appears to have kept his 
 mind chained to his dogma to the last. It rendered 
 him wholly incapable of opening his eyes to the light 
 of truth. He held on to spectral evidence, and his 
 corollary from it, when everybody else had aban- 
 doned both. He would not admit that he, or any one 
 concerned, had been in error. He never could bear to 
 hear any persons express penitence or regret for the 
 part they had taken in the proceedings. When the 
 public delusion had so far subsided that it became 
 difficult to procure the execution of a witch, he was 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 359 
 
 disturbed and inceused to such a degree that he i^ 
 abandoned his seat on the bench. Duruig a session of 
 the Court at Charlestown, in January, 1692-3, " word 
 was brought in, that a reprieve was sent to Salem, and 
 had prevented the execution of seven of those that 
 were there condemned, which so moved the chief 
 judge that he said to this effect : ' We were in a way 
 to have cleared the land of them ; who it is that 
 obstructs the cause of justice, I know not : the Lord 
 be merciful to the country ! ' and so went off the 
 bench, and came no more into that Court." 
 
 I have spoken of the judges as appearing to be in- 
 fatuated, not on account of the opinions they held on 
 the subject of Avitchcraft, for these were the opinions 
 of their age ; nor from the peculiar doctrine their 
 chief enforced upon them, for that was entertained by 
 many, and, as a mere theory, was perhaps as logically 
 dedueible from the prevalent doctrines as any other. 
 Their infatuation consisted in not having eyes to see, 
 or ears to hear, evidences continually occurring of the 
 imtruthful arts and tricks of the afflicted children, of 
 their cunning evasions, and, in some instances, palpable 
 falsehoods. Then, further, there was solid and sub- 
 stantial evidence before them that ought to have made 
 them pause and consider, if not doubt and disbelieve. 
 We find the following paper among the files : — 
 
 " The Testimony of John Putnam, Sr., and Rebecca 
 HIS Wife, saith that our son-in-law John Fuller, and our 
 daughter Rebecca Shepard, did both of them die a most 
 violent death (and died acting very strangely at the time of 
 
360 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 their death) ; further saith, that Ave did judge then that they 
 both died of a maliguaut fever, and had no suspicion of 
 withcraft of any, neither can Ave accuse tlie prisoner at the 
 bar of any such thing." 
 
 When we recall the testimony of Aim Putnam the 
 mother, and find that the afflicted generally charged 
 the death of the above-named persons upon the shape 
 of Rebecca Nurse, we perceive how absolutely Captain 
 John Putnam and his wife discredit their testimony. 
 The opinion of the father and mother of Puller and 
 Shepard ouglit to have had weight with the Court. 
 They were persons of the highest standing, and of 
 recognized intelligence and judgment. They were old 
 church-members, and eminently orthodox in all their 
 sentiments. They were the heads of a great family. 
 He had represented the town in the General Court 
 the year before. No man in this part of the country 
 was more noted for strong good sense than Captain 
 John Putnam. This deposition is honorable to their 
 memory, and clears them from all responsibility for 
 the extent to which the afflicted persons were allowed 
 to sway the judgment of the Court. Taken in con- 
 nection with the paper signed by so large a portion 
 of the best people of the village, in behalf of R-ebecca 
 Nurse, it proves that the blame for the shocking pro- 
 ceedings in the witchcraft prosecutions cannot be laid 
 upon the local population, but rests wholly upon the 
 Court and the public authorities. 
 
 The Special Court that condemned the persons 
 charged with witchcraft in 1692 is justly open to 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 361 
 
 censure for the absence of all discrimination of evi- 
 dence, and for a prejudgment of the cases ^submitted 
 to them. In A'ie^v of the then existing law and the 
 pi-actice in the mother-country under it, they ought 
 to have the benefit of the admission that they did, in 
 other respects than those mentioned, no more and no 
 worse than was to be expected. And Cotton Mather, 
 in the " Magnalia," vindicates them on this ground : — 
 
 "They consulted the precedeuts of former times, and 
 precepts laid down by learned writers about witchcraft ; as, 
 Keeble on the Common Law, chap. * Conjuration' (an author 
 approved by the twelve judges of our nation) : also, Sir 
 Matthew Hale's Trials of Witches, printed anno 1682 ; 
 Glanvill's Collection of Sundry Trials in England and Ire- 
 land in the years 1658, '61, '63, '64, and '81 ; Bernard's 
 Guide to Jury-men ; Baxter's and R. B., their histories about 
 Witches, and their Discoveries ; Cotton Mather's Memo- 
 rable Providences relating to Witchcraft, printed 1685." 
 
 So far as the medical pi^ofession at the time is 
 concerned, it must be admitted that they bear a full 
 share of responsibility for the proceedings. They gave 
 countenance and curi'ency to the idea of witchcraft 
 in the public mind, and were very generally iu the. 
 habit, when a patient did not do well under their pre- 
 scriptions, of getting rid of all difficulty by saying 
 that " an evil hand " was upon him. Their opinion 
 to this effect is cited throughout, and appears in a 
 large number of the documents. There were coroners' 
 juries in cases where it was suspected that a person 
 
362 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 died of witchcraft. It is much to be regretted that 
 none of their verdicts have been preserved. Drawn 
 up by an attending " chirurgeon," thc}^ would illus- 
 trate the state of professional science at that day, by 
 informing us of the marks, indicatious, and conditions 
 of the bodily organization by which the traces of the 
 Devil's hand were believed to be discoverable. All 
 we know is that, in particular cases, as that of Bray 
 Wilkins's grandson Daniel, the jury found decisive 
 proof that he had died by " an evil hand." 
 
 It is not to be denied or concealed, that the clergy 
 were instrumental in bringing on the witchcraft delu- 
 sion in 1692. As the supposed agents of the mischief 
 belonged to the supernatural and spiritual world, which 
 has ever been considered their peculiar province, it was 
 thought that the advice and co-operation of ministers 
 were particularly appropriate and necessary. Oppo- 
 sition to prevailing vices and attempts to reform society 
 were considered at that time in the light of a conflict 
 with Satan himself; and he was thought to be the ablest 
 minister who had the greatest power over the invisible 
 enemy, and could most easily and effectively avert his 
 blows, and counteract his baleful influence. This 
 gave the clergy the front in the battle against the 
 hosts of Belial. They were proud of the position, 
 and were stimulated to distinguish themselves in the 
 conflict. Cotton Mather represents that ministers 
 were honored by the special hostility of the great 
 enemy of souls, " more dogged by the Devil than 
 any other men," just as, according to his philosophy. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 363 
 
 the lightning struck the steeples of churches more 
 fx^equently than other buildings because the Prince 
 of the Power of the Air particularly hated the places 
 where the sound of the gospel was heard. There were, 
 moreover, it is to be feared, ministers whose ambition 
 to acquire influence and power had been allowed to 
 become a ruling principle, and who favored the de- 
 lusion because thereby their object could be most 
 surely achieved b}^ carrying the people to the great- 
 est extremes of credulity, superstition, and fanatical 
 blindness. 
 
 Eut justice requires it to be said that the ministers, 
 as a general thing, did not take the lead after the 
 proceedings had assumed their most violent aspect, 
 and the disastrous effects been fully brought to view. 
 It may be said, on the contrary, that they took the 
 lead, as a class, in checkijig the delusion, and rescuing 
 the public mind from its control. Prior to the time 
 when they were called upon to give their advice to the 
 government, they probably followed Cotton Mather : 
 after that, they seemed to have freed themselves gen- 
 erally from his influence. The names of Dane and 
 Barnard of Andover, Higginson of Salem, Clieever 
 of Marblehead, Hubbard and Wise of Ipswich, Payson 
 and Phillips of Eowley, AUin of Salisbury, and Capeu 
 of Topsfield, appear in behalf of persons accused. 
 To come forward in their defence shows courage, and 
 proves that their influence was in the right direction, 
 even while the proceedings were at their height. Mr. 
 Hale, of Beverly, abandoned the prosecutions, and ex- 
 
364 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 pressed his disapprobation of them, before the govern- 
 ment or the Court relaxed the vigor of their opera- 
 tions, as is sufficiently proved by the fact that the 
 "afflicted children" cried out against his wife. Wil- 
 lard, and James Allen, and Moody, and John Bailey, 
 and even Increase Mather, of Boston, openly discoun- 
 tenanced the course things "were taking. The latter 
 circulated a letter from his London correspondent, a 
 person whose opinion was entitled to weight, con- 
 demning in the strongest terms the doctrine of the 
 chief-justice, as follows : " All that I speak with 
 much wonder that any man, much less a man of such 
 abilities, learning, and experience as Mr. Stoughton, 
 should take up a persuasion that the Devil cannot 
 assume the likeness of au innocent, to afflict another 
 person. In my opinion, it is a persuasion utterly 
 destitute of any solid reason to render it so much 
 as probable." The ministers may have been ambng 
 the first to bring on the delusion ; biit the foregoing 
 facts prove, that, as a profession, they were the first 
 to attempt to check and discountenance the prose- 
 cutions. While we are required, in all fairness, to 
 give this credit to the clergy in general, it would be 
 false to the obligations of historical truth and justice 
 to attempt to palliate the conduct of some of them. 
 Whoever considers all that Mr. Parris, according to 
 his own account, said and did, cannot but shrink 
 from the necessity of passing judgment upon him, 
 and find relief in leaving him to that tribunal which 
 alone can measure the extent of human responsibility, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 365 
 
 and sound the depths of tlic lieart. Lawsou threw 
 into the conflaoTatiou all tlic combustible matefials 
 his eloquence and talents, heated, it is to be feared, 
 by resentment, could contribute. Dr. Bcntlej, in his 
 "Description and History of Salem" (Mass. Hist. 
 Coll., 1st series, vol. vi.) says, '•'• Mr. Noj^es came out 
 and publicly confessed his error, never concealed a 
 circumstance, never excused himself; visited, loved, 
 blessed, the survivors whom ho had injured; asked) 
 forgiveness always, and consecrated the residue of^ 
 his life to bless mankind." It is to be hoped that ■ 
 the statement is correct. There were several points 
 of agreement between Noyes and Bentley. Both were 
 men of ability and learning. Like Bentley, Noj^es 
 lived and died a bachelor ; and, like him, was a man of 
 lively and active temperament, and, in the general tenor 
 of his life, benevolent and disinterested. Perhaps con- 
 geniality in these points led Bentley to make the state- 
 ment, just quoted, a little too strong. He wrote more 
 than a century after the witchcraft proceedings ; just 
 at that point when tradition had become inflated by 
 all manner of current talk, of fable mixed with fact, 
 before the correcting and expunging hand of a severe 
 scrutiny of records and documents had commenced 
 its work. The drag-net of time had drawn along 
 with it every thing that anybody had said ; but the 
 process of sifting and discrimination had not begun. 
 His kindly and ingenuous nature led him to believe, 
 and prompted him to write down, all that was ami- 
 able, and pleasing to a mind like his. So far as the 
 
366 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 records and documents give us information, there is 
 reason to apprehend, that Mr. Noyes, like Stoughton, 
 another old bachelor, never recovered his mind from 
 the frame of feeling or conviction in which it was 
 during the proceedings. His name is not found, as 
 are those of other ministers, to any petitions, memo- 
 rials or certificates, in favor of the sufferers during 
 the trials, or of reparation to their naemories or to the 
 feelings of their friends. He does not appear to liave 
 taken any part in arresting the delusion or rectifying 
 the public mind. 
 
 Of Cotton Mather, more is required to be said. He 
 aspired to be considered the leading champion of the 
 Church, and the most successful combatant against the 
 Satanic powers- He seems to have longed for an op- 
 portunity to signalize himself in this particular kind of 
 warfare ; seized upon every occurrence that would admit 
 of such a coloring to represent it as the result of dia- 
 bolical agency ; circulated in his numerous publications 
 as many tales of witchcraft as he could collect through- 
 out New and Old England, and repeatedly endeavored 
 to get up cases of the kind in Boston. /There is 
 some ground for suspicion that he was instrumental 
 in originating the fanaticism in Salem ; at any rate, he 
 took a leading part in fomenting it. And while there 
 is evidence that he endeavored, after the delusion sub- 
 sided, to escape the disgrace of having approved of the 
 proceedings, and ^pretended to have been in some 
 measure opposed to them, it can be too clearly shown 
 that he was secretly and cunningly endeavoring to 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 367 
 
 renew them during the next year in his own parish in 
 Boston.* 
 
 How blind is man to the future ! The state of 
 things which Cotton Mather labored to bring about, in 
 order that he might increase his own influence over an 
 infatuated people, by being regarded by them as mighty 
 
 * I know nothing more artful and Jesuitical than his attempts to 
 avoid the reproach of having been active in carrying on the delusion 
 in Salem and elsewhere, and, at the same time, to keep up such a 
 degree of credulity and superstition in the minds of the people as to 
 render it easy to plunge them into it again at the first favorable 
 moment. In the following passages, he endeavors to escape the odium 
 that had been connected with the prosecutions : — 
 
 " The world knows how many pages I have composed and pub- 
 lished, and particular gentlemen in the government know how many 
 letters I have written, to prevent the excessive credit of spectral ac- 
 cusations. 
 
 " In short, I do humbly but freely affirm it, that there is not a 
 man living in this world, who has been more desirous than the poor 
 man I to shelter my neighbors from the inconveniences of spectral 
 outcries : yea, I am very jealous I have done so much that way as to 
 sill in what I have done ; such have been the- cowardice and fearful- 
 ness whereunto my regard unto the dissatisfaction of other people has 
 precipitated me. I know a man in the world, who has thought he lias 
 been able to convict some such witcbes as ought to die ; but his re- 
 spect unto the public peace has caused him rather to try whether he 
 could not renew them by repentance." 
 
 In his Life of Sir William Phips, he endeavors to take the credit 
 to himself of having doubted the propriety of the proceedings while 
 they were in progress. This work was published without his name, 
 in order that he might commend lumself with more freedom. The 
 advice given by the ministers of Boston and the vicinity to the gov- 
 ernment has been spoken of. Cotton Mather frequently took occasion 
 to applaud and magnify the merit of this production. In one of his 
 writings, he speaks of " the gracious words " it contained. In his Life 
 of Phips, he thus modestly takes the credit of its authorship to him- 
 
368 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to cast out and vanquish evil spirits, and as able to 
 hold Satan himself in chains by his pra3^ers and his 
 piety, brought him at length into such disgrace that 
 his power was broken down, and lie became the object 
 of public ridicule and open insult. And the excite- 
 ment that had been produced for the purpose of 
 
 self: it was " drawn up, at tlieir (the ministers') desire, by Mr. Mather 
 the younger, as I have been informed." And, in order tlie more 
 effectually to give the impression tliat lie was rather opposed to the 
 proceedings, he quotes those, portions of the paper which recommended 
 caution and circumspection, leaving out those other passages in which 
 it was vehemently urged to carry the proceedings on " speedily and 
 vigorously." 
 
 This single circumstance is decisive of the disingenuity of Dr. 
 Mather. As it was the purpose of the government, in requesting tiie 
 advice of the ministers, to ascertain their opinion of the expediency 
 of continuing the prosecutions, it was a complete and deliberate per- 
 version and falsification of their answer to omit the passages which 
 encouraged the proceedings, and to record those only which recom- 
 mended caution and circumspection. The object of Mather in sup- 
 pressing the important parts of the document has, however, in some 
 measure been answered. As the " Magnalia/' within which his Life of 
 Phips is embraced, is the usual and popular source of information and 
 reference respecting the topics of which it treats, the opinion has pre- 
 vailed, that the Boston ministers, especially " Mr. Mather the younger," 
 endeavored to prevent the transactions connected with the trial and 
 execution of the supposed witches. Unfortunately, however, for the 
 reputation of Cotton Mather, Hutchinson has preserved the address of 
 I the ministers entire : and it appears that they approved, applauded, and 
 3 j stimulated the prosecutions; and that the people of Salem and the 
 [^surrounding country were the victims of a delusion, the principal 
 / promoters of which have, to a great degree, been sheltered from re- 
 proach by the dishonest artifice, wliich has now been exposed. 
 
 But, like other ambitious and grasping politicans, he was anxious to 
 have the support of all parties at the same time. After making court 
 to those who were dissatisfied with the prosecutions, he thus commends 
 himself to all who approved of them ; — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 369 
 
 restoring and strengthening the influence of the clerical 
 and spiritual leaders resulted in effects which reduced 
 that influence to a still lower point. The intimate 
 connection of Dr. Mather and other prominent ministers 
 with the witchcraft delusion brought a reproach upon 
 the clergy from which they have not yet recovered. 
 
 "And why, after all my unwearied cares and pains to rescue the 
 miserable from the lions and bears of hell wliich liad seized them, ^ 
 and after all my studies to disappoint the devils in their designs to ' 
 confound my neighborhood, must I be driven to the necessity of an 
 apology? Truly, the hard representations wherewith some ill men 
 have reviled my conduct, and the countenance which other men have 
 given to these representations, oblige me to give mankind some 
 account of my behavior. No Christian can (I say none but evil- 
 workers can) criminate my visiting sucli of my poor flock as liave at 
 any time fallen under the terrible and sensible molestations of evil 
 angels. Let their afflictions have been what they will, I could not have 
 answered it unto my glorious Lord, if I had withheld my just comforts 
 and counsels from them ; and, if I have also, with some exactness, 
 observed the methods of the invisible world, when they have thus be- 
 come observable, I have been but a servant of mankind in doing so : 
 yea, no less a person than the venerable Baxter has more than once or 
 twice, in the most public manner, invited mankind to thank me for 
 ' that service/' 
 
 In other passages, he thus continues to stimulate and encourage the 
 advocates of the prosecutions : — 
 
 "Wherefore, instead of all apish shouts and jeers at histories 
 which have such undoubted confirmation as that no man that has 
 breeding enough to regard the common laws of human society will 
 offer to doubt of them, it becomes us rather to adore the goodness of 
 God, who does not permit such things every day to befall us all, as he 
 sometimes did permit to befall some few of our miserable neighbors. 
 
 " And it is a very glorious thing that I have now to mention : The 
 devils have, with most horrid operations, broke in upon our neigh- 
 borhood ; and God has at such a rate overruled all the fury and malice 
 of those devils, that all the afflicted have not only been delivered, but, 
 VOL. II. 24 
 
370 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 Ill addition to the designing exertions of ambitious 
 ecclesiastics, and the benevolent and praiseworthy 
 efforts of those whose only aim was to pi^omote a real 
 and thorough reformation of religion, all the passions 
 of our nature stood ready to throw their concentrated 
 energy into the excitement (as they are sure to do, 
 whatever may be its character), so soon as it became 
 sufficiently strong to encourage their action. 
 
 The whole force of popular superstition, all the 
 
 I hope, also savingly brought home unto God ; and the reputation of 
 no one good person in the world lias been damaged, but, instead 
 thereof, the souls of many, especially of the rising generation, have 
 been thereby awakened unto some acquaintance with religion. Our 
 young people, who belonged unto the praying-meetings, of both sexes, 
 apart, would ordinarily spend whole nights, by whole weeks together, 
 in prayers and psalms upon these occasions, in which devotions the 
 devils could get nothing but, like fools, a scourge for their own 
 backs ; and some scores of otber young people, who were strangers to 
 real piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of hell 
 evidently set forth before their eyes, when they saw persons cruelly 
 frighted, wounded and starved by devils, and scalded with buruiug 
 brimstone, and yet so preserved in this tortured state, as that, at the 
 end of one month's wretchedness, they were as able still to undergo 
 another ; so that, of these also, it might now be said, ' Behold, they 
 pray.' In the whole, the Devil got just nothing, but God got praises, 
 Christ got subjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the church got 
 additions, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits. I am not so 
 vain as to say that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto 
 this good order of things ; but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder 
 this good." 
 
 I cannot, indeed, resist the conviction, that, notwithstanding all his 
 attempts to appear dissatisfied, after they had become unpopular, with 
 the occurrences in the Salem trials, he looked upon them with secret 
 pleasure, and would have been glad to have had them repeated in 
 Boston. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 371 
 
 fanatical propensities of the ignorant and deluded mul- 
 titude, united with the best feelings of our nature to 
 heighten the fury of the storm. Piety was indignant 
 at the supposed rebellion against the sovereignty of 
 God, and was roused to an extreme of agitation and 
 apprehension in witnessing such a daring and fierce 
 assault by the Devil and his adherents upon the 
 churches and the cause of the gospel. Virtue was 
 shocked at the tremendous guilt of those who were 
 believed to have entered the diabolical confederacy ; 
 while public order and secu.rity stood aghast, amidst 
 the invisible, the supernatural, the infernal, and 
 apparently the irresistible attacks that were making 
 upon the foimdations of society. In baleful com- 
 bination with principles, good in themselves, thus 
 urging the passions into wild operation, there were 
 all the wicked and violent affections to which human- 
 ity is liable. Theological bitterness, personal animosi- 
 ties, local controversieSj private feuds, long-cherished 
 grudges, and professional jealousies, rushed forward, 
 and raised their discordant voices, to swell the horrible 
 din ; credulity rose with its monstrous and ever-ex- 
 panding form, on the ruins of truth, reason, and the 
 senses ; malignity and cruelty rode triumphant through 
 the storm, by whose fury every mild and gentle senti- 
 ment had been shipwrecked ; and revenge, smiling in 
 the midst of the tempest, welcomed its desolating 
 wrath as it dashed the mangled objects of its hate 
 along the shore. 
 
 The treatment of the prisoners, by the administra- 
 
372 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM "VILLAGE. 
 
 tive and subordinate officers in cliargc of them, there 
 is reason to apprehend, was more than ordinarily 
 harsh and unfeeling. The^fatc of Willard prevented 
 expressions of kindness towards them. The crime 
 of which they were accused put tliem outside of the 
 pale of human charities. All who believed them guilty 
 looked upon them, not only with horror, but hate. To 
 have deliberately abandoned God and heaven, the 
 salvation of Christ and the brotherhood of man, Avas 
 regarded as detestable, execrable, and xittcrly and for 
 ever damnable. This was the universal feeling at 
 the time when the fanaticism was at its height; or, 
 if there were any dissenters, they dared not show 
 themselves. What the poor innocent sufferers ex- 
 perienced of cruelty, wrong, and outrage from this 
 cause, it is impossible for words to tell. It left them 
 in prison to neglect, ignominious ill-treatment, and 
 abusive language from the menials having charge of 
 them ; it made their trials a brutal mockery ; it 
 made the pathway to the gallows a series of insults 
 from an exasperated mob. If dear relatives or faith- 
 ful friends kept near them, they did it at the peril 
 of their lives, and were forbidden to utter the senti- 
 ments with which their hearts were breaking. There 
 was no sympathy for those who died, or for those 
 who mourned. 
 
 It may seem strange to us, at this distance of time, 
 and with the intelligence prevalent in this age, that 
 persons of such known, established, and eminent repu- 
 tation as many of those whose cases have been par- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 373 
 
 ticularly noticed, could possibly have been imagined 
 guilty of the crime imp\itcd to them. Tiie question 
 arises iu eveiy mind, Why did not their characters 
 save them from conviction, and even from suspicion ? 
 The answer is to be found iu the peculiar views then 
 entertained of the power and agency of Satan. It was 
 believed that it would be one of the signs of his coming 
 to destroy the Church of Christ, that some of the 
 "elect" would be seduced into his service, — that he 
 would drag captive in his chains, and pervert into 
 instruments to further his wicked cause, many who 
 stood among the highest in the confidence of Chris- 
 tians. This belief made them more vehement iu their 
 proceedings against ministers, church-members, and 
 persons of good repute, who were proved, by the over- 
 whelming evidence of the " afflicted children " and 
 the confessing witches, to have made a compact with 
 the Devil. There is reason to fear that Mr. Bur- 
 roughs, and all acciised persons of the highest repu- 
 tation before for piety and worth, especially all who 
 had been professors of religion and accredited church- 
 members, suffered more than others from the severity 
 of the judges and executive officers of the law, and 
 from the rage and hatred of the people. It was in- 
 deed necessary, in order to keep up the delusion 
 and maintain the authority of the prosecutions, to 
 break down the influence of those among the accused 
 and the sufferers who had' stood the highest, and bore 
 themselves the best through the fiery ordeal of the 
 examinations, trials, and executions. 
 
374 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 It is indeed a very remarkable fact, which has 
 justly been enlarged upon by several who have had 
 their attention turned to this subject, that, of* the 
 whole number that suffered, none, in the final scene, 
 lost their fortitude for a moment. Many were quite 
 aged ; a majority, women, of whom some, brought up 
 in delicacy, were wholly unused to rough treatment 
 or physical suffering. They must have undergone 
 the most dreadful hardships, suddenly snatched from 
 their families and homes ; exposed to a torrent of 
 false accusations imputing to them the most odious, 
 shameful, and devilish crimes ; made objects of the 
 abhorrence of their neighbors, and, through the noto- 
 riety of the affair, of the world ; carried to and fro, 
 over rugged roads, from jail to jail, too often by un- 
 feeling sub-officials ; immured in crowded, filthy, and 
 noisome prisons ; heavily loaded with chains, in dun- 
 geons ; left to endure insufficient attention to neces- 
 sary personal wants, often with inadequate food and 
 clothing ; all expressions of sympathy for them with- 
 held and forbidden, — those who ought to have been 
 their comforters denouncing them in the most awful 
 language, and consigning them to the doom of ex- 
 communication from the church on earth and from 
 the hope of heaven. Surely, there have been few 
 cases in the dark and mournful annals of human 
 suffering and wrong, few instances of " man's in- 
 humanity to man," to be compared with what the vic- 
 tims of this tragedy endured. Their bearing through 
 the whole, from the arrest to the scaffold, reflects 
 
memmin^ssss9 
 
 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 375 
 
 credit upon our common nature. The fact that Ward- 
 well lost his firmness, for a time, ought not to exclude 
 his name from the honored list. Its claim to be 
 enrolled on it was noblj retrieved by his recantation, 
 and his manly death. 
 
 There is one consideration that imparts a higher 
 character to the deportment of these persons than 
 almost any of the tests to which the firmness of the 
 mind of man has ever been exposed. There was 
 nothing outside of the mind to hold it up, but every 
 thing to bear it down. All that they had in this world, 
 all on which they could rest a hope for the next, was 
 the consciousness of their innocence. Their fidelity 
 to this sense of innocence — for a lie would have saved 
 them — their unfaltering allegiance to this conscious- 
 ness ; the preservation of a calm, steadfast, serene 
 mind ; their faith and their prayers, rising above the 
 maledictions of a maniac mob, in devotion to God and 
 forgiveness to men, and, as in the case of Martha Corey 
 and George Burroughs, in clear and collected expres- 
 sions, — this was truly sublime. It was appreciated, 
 at the time, by many a heart melted back to its 
 humanity ; and paved the way for the deliverance of 
 the world, we trust for ever, from all such delusions, 
 horrors, and spectacles. The sufferers in 1692 deserve 
 to be held in grateful remembrance for having illus- 
 trated the dignity of which our nature is capable ; for 
 having shown that integrity of conscience is ati armor 
 which protects the peace of the soul against all the 
 powers that can assaU it; and for having given an 
 
376 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 example, that will be seen of all and in all times, of 
 a courage, constancy, and faithfulness of which all 
 are capable, and which can give the victory over 
 infirmities of age, weaknesses and pains of body, and 
 the most appalling combination of outrages to the 
 mind and heart that can be accumulated by tlie vio- 
 lence and the wrath of man. Superstition and igno- 
 rance consigned their names to obloquy, and shrouded 
 them in darkness. But the day has dawned ; the shad- 
 ows are passing away ; truth has risen ; the reign of 
 superstition is over ; and justice will be done to all 
 who have been true to themselves, and stood fast 
 to the integrity of their souls, even to the death. 
 
 The place selected for the executions is worthy of 
 notice. It was at a considerable distance from the jail, 
 and could be reached only by a circuitous and difficult 
 route. It is a fatiguing enterprise to get at it now, 
 although many passages that approach it from some 
 directions have since been opened. But it was a point 
 where the spectacle would be witnessed by the whole 
 surrounding country far and near, being on the brow 
 of the highest eminence in the vicinity of the town. 
 As it was believed by the people generally that they 
 were engaged in a great battle with Satan, one of 
 whose titles was " the Prince of the Power of the 
 Air," perhaps they chose that spot to execute his con- 
 federates, because, in going to that high point, they 
 were flaunting him in his face, celebrating their tri- 
 umph over him in his own realm. There is no contem- 
 poraneous nor immediately subsequent record, that 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 377 
 
 the executions took place on the spot assigned hj 
 tradition ; but that tradition has been uniform and 
 continvious, and appears to be verified by a singular 
 item of evidence that has recently come to light. A 
 letter written by the late venerable Dr. Holyoke to a 
 friend at a distance, dated Salem, Nov. 25, 1791, has 
 found its way back to the possession of one of his grand- 
 daughters, which contains the following passage : " In 
 the last month, there died a man in this town, by the 
 name of John Symonds, aged a hundx'ed years lacking 
 about six months, having been born in the famous '92. 
 He has told me that his nurse had often told him, that, 
 while she was attending his motlier at the time she lay 
 in with him, she saw, from the chamber windows, those 
 unhappy people hanging on Gallows' Hill, who were 
 executed for witches by the delusion of the times." 
 John Symonds lived and died near the southern end 
 of Beverly Bridge, on the south side of what is now 
 Bridge Street. He was buried from his house, and 
 Dr. Bentley made the funeral prayer, in which he is 
 said to have used this language : " God ! the man 
 who with his own hands felled the trees, and hewed 
 the timbers, and erected the house in which we are 
 now assembled, was the ancestor of him whose re- 
 mains we are about to inter." It is inferrible from 
 this that Symonds was born in the house from which 
 he was buried. Gallows Hill, now " Witch Hill " is in 
 full view from that spot, and would be from the 
 chamber windows of a house there, at any time, even 
 in the season when intervening trees were in their 
 
378 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 fullest foliage, "while no other point in that direction 
 would be discernible. From the only other locality 
 of persons of the name of Symonds, at that time, 
 in North Fields near the North Bridge, Witch Hill 
 is also visible, and the only point in that direction 
 that then would have been. 
 
 "Witch Hill" is a part of an elevated ledge of 
 rock on the western side of the city of Saleni, broken 
 at intervals ; beginning at Legg's Hill, and trending 
 northerly. The turnpike from Boston enters Salem 
 through one of the gaps in this ridge, which has been 
 widened, deepened, and graded. North of the turn- 
 pike, it rises abruptly to a considerable elevation, called 
 "Norman's Rocks." At a distance of between three 
 and four hundred feet, it sinks again, making a wide 
 and deep guUey ; and then, about a third of a mile 
 from the turnpike, it re-appears, in a precipitous and, 
 at its extremity, inaccessible cliff, of the height of 
 fifty or sixty feet. Its southern and western aspect, 
 as seen from the rough land north of the turnpike, is 
 given in the headpiece of the Third Part, at the begin- 
 ning of this volume. Its sombre and desolate appear- 
 ance admits of little variety of delineation. • It is 
 mostly a bare and naked ledge. At the top of this 
 cliff, on the southern brow of the eminence, the exe- 
 cutions are supposed to have taken place. The out- 
 line rises a little towards the north, but soon begins to 
 fall off to the general level of the country. From that 
 direction only can the spot be easily reached. It is 
 hard to climb the western side, impossible to clamber 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 379 
 
 up the southern face. Settlement creeps down from 
 the north, and has partially ascended the eastern ac- 
 clivity, but can never reach the brink. Scattered 
 patches of soil are too thin to tempt cultivation, and 
 the rock is too craggy and steep to allow occupation. 
 An active and flourishing manufacturing industry 
 crowds up to its base ; but a considerable surface at 
 the top will for ever remain an open space. It is, as 
 it were, a platform raised high in air. 
 
 A magnificent panorama of ocean, island, headland, 
 bay, river, town, field, and forest spreads out and 
 around to view. On a clear summer day, the iDicture 
 can scarcely be surpassed. Facing the sun and the 
 sea, and the evidences of the love and bounty of 
 Providence shining over the landscape, the last look 
 of earth must have suggested to the sufferers a wide 
 contrast between the mercy of the Creator and the 
 wrath of his creatures. They beheld the face of the 
 blessed God shining upon them in his works, and they 
 passed with renewed and assured faith into his more 
 immediate presence. The elevated rock, uplifted by 
 the divine hand, will stand while the world stands, 
 in bold relief, and can never be obscured by the 
 encroachments of society or the structures of art, — 
 a fitting memorial of their constancy. 
 
 When, in some coming day, a sense of justice, ap- 
 preciation of moral firmness, sympathy for suffering 
 innocence, the diffusion of refined sensibility, a dis- 
 criminating discernment of what is really worthy of 
 commemoration among men, a rectified taste, a gen- 
 
380 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 eroiis public spirit, and gratitude for the light that 
 surrounds and protects us against error, folly, and 
 fanaticism, shall demand the rearing of a suitable 
 monument to the memory of those ^v\\o in 1G92 pre- 
 ferred death to a falsehood, the pedestal for tlie lofty 
 column will be found ready, reared by the Creator on 
 a foundation that can never be shaken while the globe 
 endures, or worn away by the elements, man, or time 
 • — the brow of Witch Hill. On no other spot conld 
 such a tribute be more worthily bestowed, or more 
 conspicuously displayed. 
 
 The effects of the delusion upon the countiy at 
 large were very disastrous. It cast its shadows over 
 a broad surface, and they darkened the condition of 
 generations. The material interests of the people 
 long felt its blight. Breaking out at the opening of 
 the season, it interrupted the planting and cultivating 
 of the grounds. It struck an entire summer out of 
 one year, and broke in upon another. The fields were 
 neglected ; fences, roads, barns, and even the meeting- 
 house, went into disrepair. Burdens were accumu- 
 lated upon the already over-taxed resources of the 
 people. An actual scarcity of provisions, amounting 
 almost to a famine, continued for some time to press 
 upon families. Farms were brought under mortgage 
 or sacrificed, and large numbers of the people were 
 dispersed. One locality in the village, which was the 
 scene of this wild and tragic fanaticism, bears to this 
 day the marks of the blight then brought upon it. 
 Although in the centre of a town exceeding almost 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 381 
 
 all others iu its agricultural development and thrift, 
 — every acre elsewhere showing the touch of modern 
 improvement and culture, — the "old meeting-house 
 road," from the crossing of the Essex Railroad to the 
 point where it meets the road leading north from Tap- 
 lejville, has to-day a singxxlar appearance of abandon- 
 ment. The Surveyor of Highways ignores it. The 
 old, gray, moss-covei'ed stone walls are dilapidated, 
 and thrown out of line. Not a house is on either 
 of its borders, and no gate opens or path leads to 
 any. Neglect and desertion brood over the contiguous 
 grounds. Indeed, there is but one house standing 
 directly on the roadside until you reach the vicinity of 
 the site of the old meeting-house ; and that is owned 
 and occupied by a family that bear the name and are 
 the direct descendants of Rebecca Nurse. On both 
 sides there are the remains of cellars, which declare 
 that once it was lined by a considerable jDopiilation. 
 Along this road crowds thronged in 1692, for weeks- 
 and months, to witness the examinations. 
 
 The ruinous results were not confined to the village, 
 but extended more or less over the country generally. 
 Excitement, wrought up to consternation, spread every- 
 where. People left their business and families, and 
 came from distant points, to gratify their curiosity, 
 and enable themselves to form a judgment of the char- 
 acter of the phenomena here exhibited. Strangers 
 from all parts swelled the concourse, gathered to 
 behold the sufferings of " the afflicted " as manifested 
 at the examinations ; and flocked to the surrounding 
 
382 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 eminences and the grounds immediately in front of 
 Witch Hill, to catch a view of the convicts as they 
 approached the j^lace selected for their execution, 
 offered their dying prayers, and hung suspended high 
 in air. Such scenes always draw together great multi- 
 tudes. None have possessed a deeper, stronger, or 
 stranger attraction ; and never has the dread spectacle 
 been held out to view over a wider area, or from so 
 conspicuous a spot. The assembling of such multi- 
 tudes so often, for such a length of time, and from 
 such remote quarters, must have been accompanied and 
 followed by wasteful, and in all respects deleterious, 
 effects. The continuous or frequently repeated ses- 
 sions of the magistrates, grand juiy, and jury of 
 trials ; and the attendance of witnesses summoned 
 from other towns, or brought from beyond the juris- 
 diction of the Province, and of families and parties 
 interested specially in the proceedings, — must have 
 occasioned an extensive and protracted inteiTuption 
 of the necessary industrial pursuits of society, and 
 heavily increased the public burdens. 
 
 The destruction dealt upon particular families ex- 
 tended to so many as to constitute in the aggregate a 
 vast, wide-spread calamity.* 
 
 * The following is a statement of the loss inflicted upon the estate 
 of George Jacobs, Sr. The property of the son was utterly de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 ** An Account of what was seized and taken away from my Failier^s Estate^ 
 George Jacobs^ Sr.^ late of Balem^ deceased, by Skeriff Corwln and his 
 Assistants in the year 1692. 
 
 " When my said father was executed, and I was forced to fly out of the 
 counhy, to my great damage and distress of my family, my wife and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 383 
 
 The facts that belong to the story of the witchcraft 
 delusiou of 1692, or that may in any way explain or 
 illustrate it, so far as they can be gathered from the 
 imperfect and scattered records and papers that have 
 come down to us, have now been laid before you. 
 But there are one or two inquiries that force themselves 
 upon thoughtful minds, which demand consideration 
 before we close the subject. 
 
 daughter imprisoned, — viz., my "wife eleven months, and my dnughter 
 seven months in prison, — it cost them twelve pounds money to the officers, 
 besides other charges. 
 
 Five cows, fair large cattle, ^3 per cow ^15 00 
 
 Eight loads of English hay taken out of the barn, §5is. per load . 14 
 A parcel of apples that made 24 barrels cider to halves; viz., 12 
 
 ban-els cider, 8s. per barrel .... 4 16 
 
 Sixty bushels of Indian corn, 2s. Gd. per bushel 7 10 
 
 A mare 200 
 
 Two good feather beds, and furniture, rugs, blankets, sheets, bol- 
 
 ■ sters and pillows 10 
 
 Two brass kettles, cost 600 
 
 Money, 12s.; a large gold thumb ring, 20s 1 12 
 
 Five swine 3 15 
 
 A quantity of pewter which I cannot exactly know the worth, 
 
 perhaps 300 
 
 67 13 
 Besides abundance of small things, meat in the house, fowls, 
 
 chairs, and other things took clear away above 12 
 
 79 13 
 " Geokge Jacobs." 
 When Edward Bishop and his wife Sarah were arrested, household 
 goods which were valued by the sheriff himself at ten pounds, — he 
 refusing that sum for their restitution, — six cows, twenty -four swine, 
 forty-six sheep, were taken from his farm. The imprisonment of him- 
 self and wife (prior to their escape) aggregated thirty-seven weeks. 
 Ten shillings a week for board, and other charges and prison fees 
 
384 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 What are wc to think of those persons who com- 
 menced and continued the accusations, — the "afflict- 
 ed children" and their associates? 
 
 In some instances and to some extent, the steps 
 they took and the testimony they bore may be ex- 
 plained by referring to the mysterious energies of the 
 imagination, the power of enthusiasm, the influence 
 of sympathy, and the general prevalence of credulityj 
 
 amounting to five pounds, were assessed upon his estate, and taken by 
 distraint. A family of twelve cliildren was left without any to direct 
 or care for them, and the product of the farm for that year wholly 
 cut off. 
 
 There were taken from the estate of Samuel "VVardwell, who was 
 executed, five cows, a heifer and j'earling, a horse, nine hogs, eight 
 loads of hay, six acres of standing com, and a set of carpenters' tools. 
 Prom the estate of Dorcas Hoar, a widow, there were taken two 
 cows, an ox and mare, four pigs, bed, bed-curtains and bedding, and 
 other household stuff. 
 
 Persons apprehended were made to pay all charges of every kind 
 for their maintenance, fuel, clothes, expenses of transportation from 
 jail to jail, and inexorable court and prison fees. The usual fee to the 
 clerk of the courts was ^1. 17s. 5c?., sometimes more ; sometimes, al- 
 though very rarely, a little less. He must have received a large 
 amount of money in the aggregate tliat year. The prisoners were 
 charged for every paper that was drawn up. If a reprieve was ob- 
 tained, there was a fee. When discharged, there was a fee. The 
 expenses of the executions, even hangmen's fees, were levied on the 
 families of the sufferers. Abraham Foster, whose mother died in 
 prison, to get her body for burial, had to pay £fl. 10s. 
 
 When the value of money at that time is considered, and we bear 
 in mind that most of the persons apprehended were farmers, who 
 have but little cash on hand, and that these charges were levied on 
 their stock, crops, and furniture in their absence, and in the un- 
 restrained exercise of arbitrary will, by the sheriff or constables, we 
 can judge how utterly ruinous the operation must have been. 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 385 
 
 ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism at the time ; 
 and it is not probable, that, when they began, they 
 had any idea of the tremendous length to which 
 they were finally led on. 
 
 It was perhaps their original design to gratify a love 
 of notoriety or of mischief by creating a sensation and 
 excitement in their neighborhood, or, at the worst, to 
 wreak their veiageance upon one or two individuals 
 who had offended them. They soon, however, became 
 intoxicated by the terrible .success of their imposture, 
 and were swept along by the frenzy they had occa- 
 sioned. It would be much more congenial with our 
 feelings to believe, that these misguided and wretched 
 young persons early in the proceedings became them- 
 selves victims of the delusion into which they plunged 
 every one else. But we are forbidden to form this 
 charitable judgment by the manifestations of art and 
 contrivance, of deliberate cunning and cool malice, 
 they exhibited to the end. Once or twice they were 
 caught in their own snare ; and nothing but the 
 blindness of the bewildered community saved them 
 from disgraceful exposure and well-deserved punish- 
 ment. They appeared as the prosecutors of every 
 poor creature that was tried, and seemed ready to 
 bear testimony against any one upon whom suspicion 
 might happen to fall. It is dreadful to reflect upon 
 the enormity of their wickedness, if they were con- 
 scious of imposture throughout. It seems to tran- 
 scend the capabilities of human crime. There is, 
 perhaps, a slumbering element in the heart of man, 
 VOL. II. 25 
 
386 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 that sleeps for ever iu the bosom of the innocent and 
 good, and requires the perpetration of a great sin 
 to wake it into action, but which, when once aroused, 
 impels the transgressor onward with increasing mo- 
 mentum, as the descending ball is accelerated in its 
 course. It may be that crime begets an appetite for 
 crime, which, like all other appetites, is not quieted 
 but inflamed by gratification. 
 
 Their precise moral condition, the degree of guilt 
 to be ascribed, and the sentence to be passed upon 
 them, can only be determined by a considerate re- 
 view of all the circumstances and influences around 
 them. 
 
 For a period embracing about two months, they had 
 been in the habit of meeting together, and spending 
 the long winter evenings, at Mr. Parris's house, prac- 
 tising the arts of fortune-telling, jugglery, and magic. 
 What they had heard in the traditions and fables of 
 a credulous and superstitious age, — stories handed 
 down in the interior settlements, circulated in com- 
 panies gathered around the hearths of farmhouses, 
 indulging the excitements of terrified imaginations ; 
 filling each other's minds with wondrous tales of 
 second-sight, ghosts and spii'its from the unseen world, 
 together with what the Westrlndian or South-Amer- 
 ican slaves could add, — was for a long time the food 
 of their fancies. They experimented continually upon 
 what was the spiritualism of their day, and grew 
 familiar with the imagery and the exhibitions of the 
 marvellous. The prevalent notions concerning witch- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 387 
 
 craft operations and spectral manifestations came into 
 full effect among them. Living in the constant con- 
 templation of such things, their minds became inflamed 
 and bewildered ; and, at the same time, they grew ex- 
 pert in practising and exhibiting the forms of pretended 
 supernaturalism, the conditions of diabolical distrac- 
 tion, and the terrox'S of demonology. Apparitions rose 
 before them, revealing the secrets of the past and of 
 the future. They beheld the present spectres of per- 
 sons then bodil}'^ far distant. They declared in lan- 
 guage, fits, dreams, or trance, the immediate operations 
 upon themselves of the Devil, by the agency of his 
 confederates. Their sufferings, while thus under *' an 
 evil hand," were dreadful to behold, and soon drew 
 wondering and horror-struck crowds around them. 
 
 At this point, if Mr. Parris, the ministers, and magis- 
 trates had done their duty, the mischief might have 
 been stopped. The girls ought to have been rebuked 
 for their dangerous and forbidden sorceries and divi- 
 nations, their meetings broken up, and all such tamper- 
 ings with alleged supernaturalism and spiritualism 
 frowned down. Instead of this, the neighboring minis- 
 ters were summoned to meet at Mr. Parris's house 
 to witness the extraordinary doings of the girls, and 
 all they did was to indorse, and pray over, them. 
 Countenance was thus given to their pretensions, and 
 the public confidence in the reality of their state- 
 ments established. Magistrates from the town, church- 
 members, leading people, and people of all sorts, flocked 
 to witness the awful power of Satan, as displayed in 
 
388 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the tortures and contortions of the " afflicted chil- 
 dren ; " who became objects of wonder, so far as 
 their feats were regarded, and of pity in view of their 
 agonies and convulsions. 
 
 The aspect of the evidence rather favors the sup- 
 position, that the girls originally had no design of 
 accusing, or bringing injury upon, any one. But 
 the ministers at Parris's house, physicians and oth- 
 ers, began the work of destruction by pronouncing 
 the opinion that they were bewitched. This carried 
 with it, according to the received doctrine, a con- 
 viction that there were witches about; for the Devil 
 could not act except through the instrumentality of 
 beings in confederacy with him. Immediately, the 
 girls were beset by everybody to say who it was that 
 bewitched them. Yielding to this pressure, they first 
 cried out upon such persons^ as might have been most 
 naturally suggested to them, — Sarah Good, apparently 
 without a regular home, and wandering with her chil- 
 dren from house to house for shelter and relief; Sarah 
 Osburn, a melancholy, broken-minded, bed-ridden per- 
 son ; and Tituba, a slave, probably of mixed African 
 and Indian blood. At the examination of these per- 
 sons, the girls were first brought before the public, 
 and the awful power in their hands revealed to them. 
 The success with which they acted their parts ; the 
 novelty of the scene ; the ceremonials of the occasion, 
 the magistrates in their imposing dignity and author- 
 ity, the trappings of the marshal and his officers, the 
 forms of proceedmg, — all which they had never seen 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 389 
 
 before ; the notice taken of them ; the importance at- 
 tached to them ; invested the affair with a strange 
 fascination in their eyes, and awakened a new class 
 of sentiments and ideas in their minds. A hjve 
 of distinction and notoriety, and the several passions 
 that are gratified by the expression by others of sym- 
 pathy, wonder, and admiration, were brought into 
 play. The fact that all eyes were upon them, Avith 
 the special notice of the magistrates, and the entire 
 confidence with which their statements were received, 
 flattered and beguiled them. A fearful responsibi- 
 lity had been assumed, and they were irretrievably 
 committed to their position. While they adhered to 
 that position, their power was irresistible, and they 
 were sure of the public sympathy and of being 
 cherished by the public favor. If they faltered, they . 
 would be the objects of universal execration and of the / 
 severest penalties of law for the wrongs already done, 
 and the falsehoods already sworn to. There was no 
 retracing their steps ; and their only safety was in con- 
 tinuing the excitement they had raised. New victims 
 were constantly required to prolong the delusion, 
 fresh fuel to keep up the conflagration ; and they 
 went on to cry out upon others. With the exception 
 of two of their number, who appear to have indulged ', 
 spite against the families in which they were servants, 
 there is no evidence that they were actuated by private 
 grievances or by animosities personal to themselves. 
 They were ready and sure to wreak vengeance upon 
 any who expressed doubts about the truth of their 
 
390 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 testimony, or the propriety of the proceedings ; but, 
 beyond this, they were very indifferent as to whom 
 they should accuse. Tliey were willing, as to that 
 matter, to follow the suggestions of others, and availed 
 themselves of all the gossip and slander and unfriendly 
 talk in their families that reached their ears. It was 
 found, that a hint, with a little information as to per- 
 sons, places, and circimistances, conveyed to them by 
 those who had resentments and grudges to gratify, 
 would be sufficient for the purpose. There is reason 
 to fear, that there were some behind them, giving 
 direction to the accusations, and managing the fright- 
 ful machinery, all the way through. The persons who 
 were apprehended had, to a considerable extent, been 
 obnoxious, and subject to prejudice, in connection 
 with quarrels and controversies related in Part I., 
 vol. i. They were " Topsfield men," or the oppo- 
 nents of Bayley or of Parr is, or more or less con- 
 nected with some other feuds. As further proof that 
 the girls were under the guidance of older heads, it 
 is obvious, that there was, in the order of the pro- 
 ceedings, a skilful arrangement of times, sequences, 
 and concurrents, that cannot be ascribed to them. No 
 novelist or dramatist ever laid his plot deeper, dis- 
 tributed his characters more artistically, or conducted 
 more methodicall}^ the progress of his story. 
 
 In the mean while, they were becoming every day 
 more perfect in the performance of their parts ; and 
 their imaginative powers, nervous excitability, and 
 flexibility and rapidity of muscular action, were kept 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 391 
 
 under constant stimulus, and attaining a higher 
 development. The effect of these things, so long 
 continued in connection with the perpetual pretence, 
 becoming move or less imbued with the character of 
 belief, of their alliance and communion Avith spiritual 
 beiugs and manifestations, may have unsettled, to some 
 extent, their minds. Added to this, a sense of the 
 horrid consequences of their actions, accumulating with 
 every pang they inflicted, the innocent blood they were 
 shedding, and the depths of ruin into which they 
 were sinking themselves and others, not only demoral- 
 ized, but to some extent, perhaps, crazed them. It is 
 truly a marvel that their physical constitutions did not 
 break down under the exhausting excitements, the 
 contortions of frame, the force to which the bodily 
 functions were subjected in trances and fits, and the 
 strain upon all the vital energies, protracted through 
 many months. The wonder, however, would have 
 been greater, if the mental and moral balance had 
 not thereby been disturbed. 
 
 Perpetual conversance with ideas of supernatural- 
 ism ; daily and nightly communications, whether in the 
 form of conscious imposture or honest delusion, with 
 the spiritual world, continued through a great length 
 of time, — as much at least as the exclusive contem- 
 plation of any one idea or class of ideas, — must be al- 
 lowed to be unsalutary. Whatever keeps the thoughts 
 wholly apart from the objects of real ^.nd natural life, 
 and absorbs them in abstractions, caniot be favorable 
 to the soundness of the faculties or [the tone of the 
 
392 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 mind. This must espcciall}^ be the effcctj if the sub- 
 jects thus monopolizing the attention partake of the 
 marvellous and m3^sterious. When these things are 
 considered, and the external circumstances of the 
 occasion, the wild social excitement, the consternation, 
 confusion, and horror, that vrore all crowded and heaped 
 up and kept pressing upon the soul without inter- 
 mission for months, the wonder is, indeed, that not 
 only the accusers, prosecutors, and sufferers, but the 
 whole people, did not lose their senses. Never was 
 the great boon of life, a sound mind in a sound body, 
 more liable to be snatched away from all parties. The 
 depositions of Ann Putnam, Sr., have a tinge of sad- 
 ness ; — a melancholy, sickly mania running through 
 them. Something of the kind is, perhaps, more or less 
 discernible in the depositions of others. 
 
 Let us, then, relieve our common nature from the 
 load of the imputation, that, in its normal state, it is 
 capable of such inconceivable wickedness, by giving to 
 these wretched persons the benefit of the supposition 
 that they were more or less deranged. This view 
 renders the lesson they present more impressive and 
 alarming. Sin in all cases, when considered by a 
 mind that surveys the whole field, is itself insanity. 
 In the case of these accusers, it was so great as to 
 prove, by its very monstrousness, that it had actually 
 subverted their nature and overthrown their reason. 
 They followed their victims to the gallows, and jeered, 
 scoffed, insulted them in their dying hours. Sarah 
 
 \ Churchill, according to the testimony of Sarah Inger- 
 
 V 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 393 
 
 soil, on one occasion came to herself, and manifested 
 the symptoms of a restored moral consciousness : but 
 it was a temporary gleam, a lucid interval ; and she 
 passed back into darkness, continuing, as before, to 
 revel in falsehood, and scatter destruction around her. 
 With this single exception, there is not the slightest 
 appearance of compunction or reflection among them. 
 On the contrary, they seem to have been in a frivolous, 
 sportive, gay frame of thought and spirits. There is, 
 perhaps, in this view of their conduct and demeanor, 
 something to justify the belief that they were really 
 demented. The fact that a large amount of skilful 
 art and adroit cunning was displayed by them is not 
 inconsistent with the supposition that they had become 
 partially insane ; for such cunning and art are often 
 associated with insanity. 
 
 The quick wit and ready expedients of the " afflicted 
 children " are very remarkable. They were prompt 
 with answers, if any attempted to cross-examine them, 
 extricated themselves most ingeniously if ever brought 
 into embarrassment, and eluded all efforts to entrap or 
 expose them. Among the papers is a deposition, the 
 use of which at the trials is not apparent. It does not 
 purport to bear upon any particular case. Joseph 
 Hutchinson was a firm-minded man, of strong common 
 sense. He could not easily be deceived; and, al- 
 though he took part in the proceedings at the begin- 
 ning, soon became opposed to them. It looks as if, by 
 close questions put to the child, Abigail Williams, on 
 some occasion of his casually meeting her, he had tried 
 
394 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 to expose the falseness of her accusations, and that he 
 was made to put the conversation into the shape of a 
 deposition. It is as follows : — 
 
 " The Deposition of JosErii Hutchixson, aged fifty- 
 nine years, do testify as followetli : " Abigail Williams, I 
 have heard you speak often of a book that has been offered 
 to 5'ou. She said that there were two books : one Avas a 
 short, thick book ; and the other was a long book. I asked 
 her what color the book was of. She said the books were 
 as red as blood. I asked her if she had seen the books 
 opened. She said she had seen it many times. I asked 
 her if she did see any writing in the book. She said there 
 were many lines written ; and, at the end of every line, there 
 was a seal. I asked her, who brought the book to her. 
 She told me that it was the black man. I asked her who 
 the black man was. She told me it was the Devil. I asked 
 her if she was not afraid to see the Devil. She said, at the 
 first she was, and did go from him ; but now she was not 
 afraid, but could talk with him as well as she could with me." 
 
 There is an air of ease and confidence in the 
 answers of Abigail, which illustrates the promptness 
 of invention and assurance of their grounds which the 
 girls manifested on all occasions. They were never at 
 a loss, and challenged scrutiny. Hutchinson gained 
 no advantage, and no one else ever did, in aii en- 
 counter with them. 
 
 "Whatever opinion may be formed of the moral or 
 mental condition of the " afflicted children," as to 
 their sanity and responsibility, there can be no doubt 
 that they were great actors. In mere jugglery and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 395 
 
 sleight of hand, they bear no mean comparison with 
 the workers of wonders, in that line, of our own day. 
 Long practice had given them complete control over 
 their countenances, intonations of voice, and the entire 
 muscular and nervous organization of their bodies ; so 
 that they could at will, and on the instant, go into fits 
 and convulsions, swoon and fall to the floor, put their 
 frames into strange contortions, bring the blood to the 
 face, and send it back again. They could be deadly 
 pale at one moment, at the next flushed ; their hands 
 would be clenched and held together as with a vice ; 
 their limhs stiff and rigid or wholly relaxed ; their 
 teeth would be set ; they would go through the par- 
 oxysms of choking and strangulation, and gasp for 
 breath, bringing froth and blood from the m.outh ; they 
 would utter all sorts of screams in unearthly tones ; 
 their eyes remain fixed, sometimes bereft of all light 
 and expression, cold and stony, and sometimes kindled 
 into flames of passion ; they would pass into the state 
 of somnambulism, without aim or conscious direction 
 in their movements, looking at some point, where was 
 no apparent object of vision, with a wild, unmeaning 
 glare;' There are some indications that they had 
 acquired the art of ventriloquism ; or they so wrought 
 upon the imaginations of the beholders, that the sounds 
 of the motious and voices of invisible beings were be- 
 lieved to be heard. They, would _s^art, tremble, and 
 be pallid before apparitions, seen, of course, only by 
 themselves; but their acting was so perfect that all 
 present thought they saw them too. They would 
 
396 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 address and hold colloquy with spectres and ghosts ; 
 and the resjDonses of the unseen beings would be audi- 
 ble to the fancy of the bewildered crowd. Tlicy would 
 follow with their eyes the airy visions, so that others 
 imagined they also beheld them. This was surely a 
 high dramatic achievement. Their representations 
 of pain, and every form and all the signs and marks of 
 bodily suffering, — as in the case of Ann Putnam's 
 arm, and the indentations of teeth on the flesh in many 
 instances, — utterly deceived everybody; and there 
 were men present who could not easily have been im- 
 posed upon. The Attorney-general was a barrister fresh 
 from Inns of Court in London. Deodat Lawson had 
 seen something of the world ; so had Joseph Herrick. 
 Joseph Hutchinson was a sharp, stern, and sceptical 
 observer. John Putnam was a man of great practical 
 force and discrimination ; so was his brother Nathaniel, 
 and others of the village. Besides, there were many 
 from Boston and elsewhere competent to detect a trick ; 
 but none could discover any imposture in the girls. 
 Sarah Nurse swore that she saw Goody Bibber cheat in 
 the matter of the pins ; but Bibber did not belong to the 
 village, and was a bungling interloper. The accusing 
 girls showed extraordinary skill, ingenuity, and fancy 
 in inventing the stories to which they testified, and 
 seemed to have been familiar with the imagery which 
 belonged to the literature of demonology. This has 
 led some to suppose that they must have had access to 
 books treating the subject. Our fathers abhorred, with 
 a perfect hatred, all theatrical exhibitions. It would 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 397 
 
 have filled them with horror to propose going to a play. 
 But unwittingly, week after week, month in and month 
 out, ministers, deacons, hrethrcn, and sisters of the 
 church rushed to Nathaniel IngersoU's, to the village 
 and town meeting-houses, and to Thomas Beadle's 
 Globe Tavern, and gazed with wonder, awe, and 
 admiration upon acting such as has seldom been sur- 
 passed on the boards of any theatre, high or low, 
 ancient or modern. 
 
 There is another aspect that perplexes and con- 
 founds the judgments of all who read the story. It 
 is this : As it is at present the universal opinion that 
 the whole of this witchcraft transaction was a delu- 
 sion, having no foundation whatever but in the imagi- 
 nations and passions ; and as it is now certain, that all 
 the accused, both the condemned and the pardoned, 
 were entirely innocent, — how can it be explained that 
 so many were led to confess themselves guilty ? The 
 answer to this question is to be found in those gen- 
 eral principles which have led the wisest legislators 
 and jurists to the conclusion, that, although on their 
 face and at first thought, they appear to be the very 
 best kind of evidence, yet, maturely considered, con- 
 fessions made under the hope of a benefit, and some- 
 time even without the impulses of such a hope, are 
 to be received with great caution and wariness. Here 
 were fifty-five persons, who declared themselves guilty 
 of a capital, nay, a diabolical crime, of which we know 
 they were innocent. It is probable that the motive 
 of self-preservation influenced most of them. An 
 
398 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 awful death was in immediate j-irospect. There was 
 no escape from the wiles of the accusers. The delu- 
 sion had obtained full possession of the people, the 
 jury, and the Court. B}^ acknowledging a compact 
 with Satan, they could in a moment secure their lives 
 and liberty. It was a position which only the firmest 
 minds could safely occupy. The principles and the 
 prowess of ordinary characters could not withstand 
 the temptation and the pressure. They yielded, and 
 were saved from an impending and terrible death. 
 
 As ■ these confessions had a decisive effect in pre- 
 cipitating the public mind into the depths of its delu- 
 sion, gave a fatal power to the accusers, and carried 
 the proceedings to the horrible extremities which have 
 concentrated upon them the attention of the world, 
 they assume an importance in the history of the affair 
 that demands a full and thoroxigh exposition. At the 
 examination of Ann Foster, at Salem Village, on the 
 15th of July, 1692, the following confession was, " after 
 a while," extorted from her. It was undoubtedly the 
 result of the overwhelming effect of the horrors of 
 her condition upon a distressed and half-crazed mind. 
 It shows the staple materials of which confessions 
 were made, and the forms of absurd superstition with 
 which the imaginations of people were then filled : — 
 
 The Devil appeared to her in the shape of a bird at 
 several times, — such a bird as she never saw the hke before ; 
 and she had had this gift (viz., of striking the afflicted down 
 with her eye) ever since. Being asked why she thought 
 that bird was the Devil, she answered, because he came 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 399 
 
 "white and vanished away black ; and that the Devil told 
 her she should have this gift, and that she must believe him, 
 and told her she should have prosperity: and she said that 
 he had appeared to her three times, and always as a bird, 
 and the last time about half a year since, and sat upon 
 a table, — -had Uvo legs and great eyes, and that it was the 
 second time of his appearance that he promised her pros- 
 perity. She further stated, that it was Goody Carrier 
 that made her a witch. She told her, that, if she would not 
 be a witch, the Devil would tear her to pieces, and carry 
 her away, — at which time she promised to serve the Devil ; 
 that she was at the meeting of the witches at Salem Village ; 
 that Goody Carrier came, and told her of the meeting, and 
 would have her go : so they got upon sticks, and went said 
 journey, and, being there, did see Mr. Burroughs, the minis- 
 ter, who spake to them all; that there were then twenty- 
 five persons met together ; that she tied a knot in a rag, 
 and threw it into the fire to hurt Timothy Swan, and that 
 she did hurt the rest that complained of her by squeezing 
 puppets like them, and so almost choked them ; that she 
 and Martha Carrier did both ride on a stick or pole when 
 they went to the witch-meeting at Salem Village, and that 
 the stick broke as they were carried in the air above the 
 tops of the trees, and they fell : but she did hang fast about 
 the neck of Goody Carrier, and they were presently at the 
 village ; that she had heard some of the witches say that 
 there were three hundred and ^vq in the whole country, 
 and that they would ruin that place, the village ; that there 
 were also present at that meeting two men besides Mr. 
 Burroughs, the minister, and one of them had gray hair ; 
 and that the discourse among the witches at the meeting 
 in Salem Village was, that they would afflict there to set 
 up the Devil's kingdom. 
 
400 WITCHCRAFT AT SALERI VILLAGE. 
 
 The confession of which the foregoing is the sub- 
 stance appears to have been drawn out at four several 
 examinations on different days, during which she was 
 induced by the influences around her to make her 
 testimony more and more extravagant at each suc- 
 cessive examination. Her daughter, Mary Lacy, called 
 Goody Lacy, was brought up on the charge of witch- 
 craft at the same time ; and, upon finding the mother 
 confessing, she saw that her only safety was in con- 
 fessing also. When confronted, the daughter cried 
 out to the mother, " We have forsaken Jesus Christ, 
 and the Devil "hath got hold of us. How shall we 
 get clear of this Evil One ? " She proceeded to say 
 that she had accompanied her mother and Goody 
 Carrier, all three riding together on the pole, to 
 Salem Village. She then made the following state- 
 ment ; " About three or four years ago, she saw Mistress 
 Bradbury, Goody Howe, and Goody Nurse baptized by 
 the old Serpent at Newbury Falls ; that he dipped 
 their heads in the water, and then said they were his, 
 and he had power over them ; that there were six bap- 
 tized at that time, who were some of the chief or higher 
 powers, and that there might be near about a hun- 
 dred in company at that time." It being asked her 
 " after what manner she went to Newbury Falls," she 
 answered, " the Devil carried her in his arms." 
 She said, that, " if she did take a rag, and roll it up 
 together, and imagine it to represent such and such 
 a person, then that, whatsoever she did to that rag so 
 rolled up, the person represented thereby would be 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 401 
 
 ill like maimer afflicted.'' Her daughter, also named 
 Mary Lacy, followed the example of her mother and 
 grandmother, and made confession. 
 
 An examination of the confessions shows, that, "when 
 accused persons made up their minds to confess, they 
 saw, that, to make their safety secure, it was necessary 
 to go the whole length of the popular superstition 
 and fanaticism. In many instances, they appear to 
 have fabricated their stories with much ingenuity and 
 tact, making them tally with the statements of the 
 accusers, adding jDoints and items that gave an air 
 of truthfulness, and falling in with current notions 
 and fancies. They were undoubtedly under training 
 by the girls, and were provided with tlie materials 
 of their testimony. Tlieir depositions are valuable, 
 inasmuch as they enable us to collect about the whole 
 of the notions then prevalent on the subject. If, in 
 delivering their evidences, any prompting was needed, 
 the accusers were at their elbows, and helped them 
 along in their stories. If, in any particular, tliey were 
 in danger of contradicting themselves or others, they 
 were checked or diverted. In one case, a confessing 
 witch was damaging her own testimony, whereupon 
 one of the afiQicted cried out that she saw the shapes 
 or apparitions of other witches interfering with her 
 utterance. The witness took the hint, pretended to 
 have lost the power of expressing herself, and was 
 removed from the stand. 
 
 In some cases, the confessing witches showed great 
 adroitness, and knowledge of human nature. When 
 VOL. II, 26 
 
402 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 a leading minister was visiting them in the prison, 
 one of them cried out as he j^assed lier cell, calling 
 him by name, " Oh ! I remember a text you preached 
 on in England, twenty years since, from these words : 
 ' YoTir sin will find you out; ' for I find it to be true 
 in my own case." This skilful compliment, showing 
 the power of his preaching making an impression 
 which time could not efface, was no doubt flattering 
 to the good man, and secured for her his favorable 
 influence. 
 
 Justice requires that their own explanation of the 
 influences which led them to confess should not be 
 withheld. 
 
 The following declaration of sis women belonging 
 to Andover is accompanied by a paper signed by more 
 than fifty of the most respectable inhabitants of that 
 town, testifying to their good character, in which it 
 is said that '^ by their sober, godly, and exemplary con- 
 versation, they have obtained a good report in the 
 place, where they have been well esteemed and ap- 
 proved in the church of which they are members:" — 
 
 "We "whose names are underwritten, inhabitants of An- 
 dover, when as that horrible and tremendous judgment, 
 beginning at Salem Village, in the year 1692, by some called 
 witchcraft, first breaking forth at Mr. Parris's house, sev- 
 eral young persons, being seemingly afflicted, did accuse 
 several persons for afflicting them ; and many there believing 
 it so to be, we being informed, that, if a person was sick, 
 the afflicted person could tell what or who was the cause 
 of that sickness : John Ballard of Andover, his wife being 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 403 
 
 sick at the same time, he, either from himself, or by the ad- 
 vice of others, fetched two of the persons called the afflicted 
 persons from Salem Village to Andover, which was the be- 
 ginning of that dreadful calamity that befell us in Andover, 
 believing the said accusations to be true, sent for the said 
 persons to come together to the meeting-house in Andover, 
 the afflicted persons being there. After Mr. Barnard had 
 been at prayer, we were blindfolded, and our hands were 
 laid upon the afflicted persons, they being in their fits, and 
 falling into their fits at our coming into their presence, as 
 they said : and some led us, and laid our hands upon them ; 
 and then they said they wei'e well, and that we were guilty 
 of afflicting them. "Whereupon we were all seized as prison- 
 ers, by a warrant from the justice of the peace, and forthwith 
 carried to Salem ; and by reason of that sudden surprisal, 
 we knowing ourselves altogether innocent of that crime, we 
 Avere all exceedingly astonished and amazed, and conster- 
 nated and affrighted, even out of our reason ; and our 
 nearest and dearest relations, seeing us in that dreadful 
 condition, and knowing our great danger, apprehended there 
 was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then 
 circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such 
 and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be, they, 
 out of tenderness and pity, persuaded us to confess what we 
 did confess. And, indeed, that confession that it is said w^e 
 made was no other than what was suggested to us by some 
 gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they 
 knew it, and we knew it, which made us think that it was 
 so ; and, our understandings, our reason, our faculties almost 
 gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition ; as 
 also the hard measures they used with us rendered us in- 
 capable of 'making our defence, but said any thing, and 
 
404 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 every thing "which they desired, and most of wliat ^ve said 
 
 Avas but in efiect a consenting to "what they said. Some 
 
 time after, when Ave were better composed, they telling us 
 
 Avhat we had confessed, we did profess that we were innocent 
 
 and ignorant of such things; and we hearing that Samuel 
 
 Wardwell had renounced his confession, and Avas quickly 
 
 after condemned and executed, some of us Avere told Ave 
 
 Avere going after WardAvell. 
 
 ''Maky Osgood. 
 Mauy Tyler. 
 Deliverance Dane. 
 Abigail Barker. 
 Sarah Wilson. 
 Hannah Tyler.'' 
 
 The means employed, and the influences brought to 
 bear upon persons accused, were, in many cases, such 
 as wholly to overpower them, and to relieve their con- 
 fessions, to a great extent, of a criminal character. 
 They were scarcely responsible moral agents. Li the 
 month of October, Increase Mather came to Salem, to 
 confer with the confessing Avitches in prison. The 
 result of his examinations is preserved in a document 
 of which he is supposed to have been the author. The 
 following extracts afford some explanation of the whole 
 subject : — 
 
 " Goodwife Tyler did say, that, when she Avas first ap- 
 prehended, she had no fears upon her, and did think that 
 nothing could have made her confess against herself. But 
 since, she had found, to her great grief, that she had wron^^ed 
 the truth, and falsely accused herself. She said that, Avhen 
 she was brought to Salem, her brother Bridges rode with 
 her ; and that, all along the Avay from AudoAxr to Salem, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 405 
 
 her brother kept telling her that she must needs be a witch, i 
 since the afflicted accused her, and at her touch were raised 
 out of their fits, and urging her to confess herself a witch. 
 She as constantly told him that she was no witch, that she 
 knew nothing of witchcraft, and begged him not to urge her 
 to confess. However, when she came to Salem, she was 
 carried to a room, where her brother on one side, and Mr. 
 John Emerson on the other side, did tell her that she 
 was certainly a witch, and that she saw the Devil before her 
 eyes at that time (and, accordingly, the said Emerson would 
 attempt w^ith his hand to beat him away from her eyes) ; 
 and they so urged her to confess, that she wished herself in 
 any dungeon, rather than be so treated. Mr. Emerson told 
 her, once and again, ' "Well, I see you will not confess ! 
 "Well, I will now leave you ; and then you are undone, body 
 and soul, for ever.' Her brother urged her to confess, and 
 told her that, in so doing, she could not lie : to which she 
 answered, ' Good brother, do not say so ; for I shall lie if 
 I confess, and then who shall answer unto God for my lie?' 
 He still asserted it, and said that God would not suffer sp ; 
 many good men to be in such an error about it, and that she { 
 would be hanged if she did not confess ; and continued so 
 long and so violently to urge and press her to confess, that 
 she thought, verily, that her life would have gone from her, ' 
 and became so terrified in her mind that she owned, at > 
 length, almost any thing that theyjpropounded to her ; that / 
 she had wronged her conscience in so doing ; she was guilty 
 of a great sin in belying of herself, and desired to mourn for 
 it so long as she lived. This she said, and a great deal 
 more of the like nature ; and all with such affection, sorrow, 
 relenting, grief, and mourning, as that it exceeds any pen to 
 describe and express the same." 
 
406 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 " Goodwife AVilsoii said that she was in the dark as to 
 some things in her confession. Yet she asserted that, 
 knowingly, she never had familiarity with the Devil ; 
 that, knowingly, she never consented to the afilicting of 
 any person, &c. However, she said that truly she was in 
 the dark as to the matter of her being a Avitch. And being 
 asked how she was in the dark, she replied, that the afflicted 
 persons crying out of her as afflicting them made her fear- 
 ful of herself; and that was all that made her say that she 
 was in the dark." 
 
 " Goodwife Bridges said that she had confessed against 
 herself things which were all utterly false ; and that she 
 was brought to her confession by being told that she cer- 
 tainly was a witch, and so made to believe it, — though she 
 had no other grounds so to believe." 
 
 Some explanation of the details "which those, pre- 
 vailed upon to confess, put into their testimony, and 
 which seemed, at the time, to establish and demon- 
 strate the truth of their statements, is afforded by 
 what Mary Osgood is reported, by Increase Mather, to 
 have said to him on this occasion : — 
 
 " Being asked why she prefixed a time, and spake of her 
 being baptized, &c., about twelve years since, she replied 
 and said, that, wheu she had owned the thing, they asked 
 the time, to which she answered that she knew not the 
 time. But, being told that she did know the time, and must 
 tell the time, and the like, she cousidered that about twelve 
 years before (when she had her last child) she had a fit of 
 sickness, and was melancholy ; and so thought that that 
 time might be as proper a time to mention as any, and 
 accordingly did prefix the said time. Being asked about 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 407 
 
 the cat, in the shape of which she had confessed that the 
 Devil had appeared to her, &c., she replied, that, being told 
 that the Devil had appeared to her, and mu^t needs appear 
 to her, &c. (she being a witch), she at length did own that 
 the Devil had appeared to her ; and, being pressed to say in 
 what creature's shape he appeared, she at length did say- 
 that it was in the shape of a cat. Fiemembering that, some 
 time before her being apprehended, as she went out at her 
 door, she saAv a cat, &c. ; not as though she any whit sus- 
 pected the said cat to be the Devil, in the day of it, but 
 because some creature she must mention, and this came 
 into her mind at that time." 
 
 This poor -^oman, as well as several others, besides 
 Goodwife Tyler, who denied and renounced their con- 
 fessions, manifested, as Dr. Mather affirms, the utmost 
 horror and anguish at the thought that they could 
 have been so wicked as to have belied themselves, and 
 brought injury upon others by so doing. They " be- 
 wailed and lamented their accusing of others, about 
 whom they never knew any evil" in their lives. They 
 proved the sincerity of their repentance by abandoning 
 and denouncing their confessions, and thus offering 
 their lives as a sacrifice to atone for their falsehood. 
 They were then awaiting their trial ; and there seemed 
 no escape from the awful fate which had befallen ail 
 persons brought to trial before, and who had not 
 confessed or had withdrawn their confession. Fortu- 
 nately for them, the Court did not meet again in 1692 ; 
 and they were acquitted at the regular session, in the 
 January following. 
 
408 WITCHCRAFT AT SALE^I TILLAGE. 
 
 Ill one of Calef s tracts, he sums up bis views, on 
 the subject of the confessions, as follows : — 
 
 ''Besides the powerful argumeut of life (aud freedom 
 from hardships, not only promised, but also performed to all 
 that owned their guilt), there are numerous iustanccs of the 
 tedious examinations before private persons, many hours 
 ■together; they all that time urging them to confess (and 
 taking turns to persuade tliem), till the accused were wea- 
 ried out by being forced to stand so long, or for Avant of 
 sleep, &c., and so brought to give assent to >vhat they said ; 
 they asking them, 'Were you at such a witch meeting?' or, 
 ' Have you signed the Devil's book?' &c. Upon their reply- 
 ing "- Yes,' the whole was drawn into form, as their con- 
 fession." 
 
 This accounts for the similarity of construction and 
 substance of the confessions generally. 
 Calef remarks : — 
 
 " But that which did mightily farther such confessions 
 -was their nearest relations urging them to it. These, see- 
 ing no other way of escape for them, thought it the best 
 advice that could be given ; hence it was, that the husbands 
 of some, by counsel, often urging, and utmost earnestness, 
 and children upon their knees intreating, have at length . 
 prevailed with them to say they were guilty." 
 
 One of the most painful things in the whole affair 
 was, that the absolute conviction of the guilt of the 
 persons accused, pervading the community, took full 
 effect upon the minds of many relatives and friends. 
 They did not consider it as a matter of the least pos- 
 sible doubt. They therefore looked upon it as wicked 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 409 
 
 obstinacy not to confess, and, in this sense, an addi- 
 tional and most conclusive evidence of a mind alien- 
 ated from truth and wholly given over to Satan. This 
 turned natural love and previous friendships into re- 
 sentment, indignation, and abhorrence, which left the 
 unhappy prisoners in a condition where only the most 
 wonderful clearness of conviction and strength of char- 
 acter could hold them up. And, in many cases where 
 they yielded, it was not from unworthy fear, or for 
 self-preservation, but because their judgment was over- 
 thrown, and their minds in complete subjection and 
 prostration. 
 
 There can, indeed, hardly be a doubt, that, in some 
 instances, the confessing persons really believed them- 
 selves guilty. To explain this, we must look into the 
 secret chambers of the human soul ; we must read 
 the history of the imagination, and consider its power 
 over the understanding. We must transport ourselves 
 to the dungeon, and think of its dark and awful walls, 
 its dreary hours, its tedious loneliness, its heavy and 
 benumbing fetters and chains, its scanty fare, and alli 
 its dismal and painful circumstances. We must re-[ 
 fleet upon their influence over a terrified and agitated,! 
 an injured and broken spirit. We must think of the-, 
 situation of the poor prisoner, cut off* from hope;' 
 hearing from all quarters, and at all times, morning, 
 noon, and night, that there is no doubt of his guilt ; 
 surrounded and. overwhelmed by acciisations and evi- 
 dence, gradually but insensibly mingling and con- 
 founding the visions and vagaries of his troubled 
 
410 ^yITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 dreams Tvitli the reveries of his waking hours, until 
 his reason becomes obscured, his recollections are 
 thrown into derangement, his mind loses the power 
 of distinguishing between what is perpetualh' told him 
 by others and what belongs to the suggestions of his 
 own memor}^ : his imagination at last gains complete 
 ascendency over his other faculties, and he believes 
 and declares himself guilty of crimes of which he is 
 as innocent as the child unborn. The history of the 
 transaction we have been considering, affords a clear 
 illustration of the truth and reasonableness of this 
 explanation. 
 
 The facility with which persons can be persuaded, 
 by perpetually assailing them with accusations of the 
 truth of a charge, in reality not true, even when 
 it is made agamst themselves, has been frequently 
 noticed. Addison, in one of the numbers of his 
 " Spectator," speaks of it in connection with our pres- 
 ent subject : " When an old woman," says he, " begins 
 to dote, and grow chargeable to a parish, she is gen- 
 erally turned into a witch, and fills the whole coun- 
 try with extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, 
 and terrifying dreams. In the mean time, the poor 
 wretch that is the innocent occasion of so many evils 
 begins to be frighted at herself, and sometimes con- 
 fesses secret commerces and familiarities that her 
 imagination forms in a delirious old age. This fre- 
 quently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of 
 compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence 
 towards those poor, decrepit parts of our species 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 411 
 
 iu whom human nature is defaced by iuhrmity aud 
 dotage." 
 
 This passage is important, in addition to the bearing 
 it has upon the point we have been considering, as 
 describing the state of opuiion and feeling in England 
 twenty years after the folly had been exploded here. 
 In another number of the same series of essays, he 
 bears evidence, that the superstitions which here came 
 to a head in 1692 had long been prevalent in the 
 mother-country : " Our forefathers looked upon nature 
 with more reverence and horror before the world was 
 enlightened by learning and philosophy, and loved to 
 astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witch- 
 craft, prodigies, charms, and enchantments. There 
 was not a village in England that had not a ghost in 
 it; the churchyards were all haunted; every large 
 common had a circle of fairies belonging to it ; and 
 there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had 
 not seen a spirit." These fancies still linger in the 
 minds of some in the Old World and in the New. 
 
 After allowing for the utmost extent of prevalent 
 superstitions, the exaggerations incident to a state 
 of general excitement, and the fertile inventive facul- 
 ties of the accusing girls, there is much m the evi- 
 dence that cannot easily be accounted for. In other 
 cases than that of Westgate, we find the symptoms 
 of that bewildered condition of the senses and imagi- 
 nation not at all surprising or unusual in the expe- 
 rience of men staggering home in midnight hours 
 from tavern haunts. Disturbed dreams were, it is 
 
412 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 not improbable, a fruitful source of delusion. A large 
 part of the evidence is susceptible of explanation by 
 tlie supposition, that the witnesses had confounded 
 the visions of their sleeping, with the actual observa- 
 tions and occurrences of their waking hours. At the 
 trial of Susanna Martin, it was in evidence, that one 
 John Kembal had agreed to purchase a puppy from 
 the prisoner, but had afterwards fallen back from his 
 bargain, and procured a puppy from some other per- 
 son, and that Martin was heard to say, " If I live, I 
 will give him puppies enough." The circumstances 
 seem to me to render it probable, that the following 
 piece of evidence given by Kembal, and to which the 
 Court attached great weight, was the result of a night- 
 mare occasioned by his apprehension and dread of the 
 fulfilment of the reported threat : — 
 
 " I, this deponent, coming from bis intended house in 
 the woods to Edmund Elliot's house where I dwelt, about the 
 sunset or presently after ; and there did arise a little black 
 cloud in the north-west, and a few drops of rain, and the 
 wind blew pretty hard. In going between the house of 
 John Weed and the meeting-house, this deponent came by 
 several stumps of trees by the wayside ; and he by impulse 
 he can give no reason of, that made him tumble over the 
 stumps one after another, though he had his axe upon his 
 shoulder which put him in much danger, and made him re- 
 solved to avoid the next, but could not. 
 
 "And, when he came a little below the meeting-house, 
 there did appear a little thing like a puppy, of a darkish 
 color. It shot between my legs forward and backward, as 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 413 
 
 one that were danciug the hay.* Aud this depoDent, heing 
 free from all fear, used all possible endeavors to cut it with 
 his axe, but could not hurt it; and, as he was thus laboring 
 with his axe, the puppy gave a little jump from him, aud 
 seemed to go into the ground. 
 
 " In a little further going, there did appear a black puppy, 
 somewhat bio^ger than the first, but as black as a coal to his 
 apprehension, which came against him with such violence 
 as its quick motions did exceed his motions of his axe, do 
 what he could. And it flew at his belly, and away, and 
 then at his throat and over his shoulder one way, and go 
 off, and up at it again another way ; and with such quick- 
 ness, speed, and violence did it assault him, as if it would 
 tear out his throat or his belly. A good while, he was with- 
 out fear ; but, at last, I felt my heart to fail and sink under 
 it, that I thought my life was going out. And. I recovered 
 myself, and gave a start up, and ran to the fence, and call- 
 ing upon God aud naming the name Jesus Christ, and then 
 it invisibly away. My meaning is, it ceased at once ; but 
 this deponent made it not known to anybody, for fretting 
 his wife."t 
 
 * Love's Labour's Lost, act v., sc. 1. 
 
 t There are several other depositions in these cases, that may per- 
 haps be explained under the head of nightmare. The following are 
 specimens; tliat, for mstance, of Robert Downer, of SaUsbm-y, who 
 testifies and says, — 
 
 *' That, several years ago, Susanna Martin, the then wife of George Mar- 
 tin, being brought to court for a witch, the said Downer, having some words 
 with her, this deponent, among other things, told her he believed that she 
 was a witch, by what was said or witnessed against her; at which she, 
 seeming not well affected, said that a, or some, she-devil would fetch 
 him away shortly, at which this deponent was not much moved; but at 
 night, as he lay in his bed in his own house, alone, there came at his win- 
 
414 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 We are all exposed to the danger of coufoiuiding 
 the impressions left by the imagination, Avlien, set free 
 from all confinement, it runs -wild iu dreams, "with the 
 actual experiences of wakeful faculties iu real life. It 
 is a toi^ic worthy the consideration of writers on evi- 
 dence, and of leo'al tribunals. So also is the effect, 
 upon the personal consciousness, of the continued 
 
 dow the likeness of a cat, and by and by came up to bis bed, took fast hold 
 of his throat, and laj- hard npon him a considerable while, and was like 
 to throttle him. At length, he minded what Susanna Martin threatened 
 him with the da^- before. He strove what he could, and said, 'Avoid, thou 
 she-devil, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost!' 
 and then it let him go, and jumped down upon the floor, and went out at 
 the window again." 
 
 Susanna JIartin. by the boldness and severity of her language, in 
 defending herself against the charge of witchcraft, had evidently, for a 
 long time, rendered herself an object of dread, and seems to have dis- 
 turbed tlie dreams of the superstitious throughout the neighborhood. 
 For instance, Jarvis King, of Salisbury, made oath as follows : — 
 
 "That, about seven or ei;;ht years ago, he had been several times 
 afflicted, in the night-time, by some body or some thing coming up upon 
 him when he was in bed, and did sorely afflict him by lying upon him; 
 and he could neither move nor speak while it was upon him, but sometimes 
 made a kind of noise that folks did hear him and come up to him; and, as 
 soon as anybody came, it would be gone. This it did for a long time, both 
 then and since, but he did never see anybody clearly; but one time, in the 
 night, it came npon me as at other times, and I did then see the person of 
 Susanna Martin, of Amesbur}'. I, this deponent, did perfectly see her; and 
 she came to this deponent, and took him by the hand, and bit him by the 
 finger by force, and then came and lay upon him awhile, as formerly, and 
 after a while went away. The print of the bite is yet to be seen on the 
 little finger of his right hand; for it was hard to heal. He further saith, 
 that several times he was asleep when it came; but, at that time, he was as 
 fairly awaked as ever he was, and plainly saw her shape, and felt her teeth, 
 as aforesaid." 
 
 Barnard Peach made oath substantially as follows : — 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 415 
 
 repetition of the same story, or of liearing it repeated 
 by others. Instances arc given in books, — perhaps 
 can be recalled by our own individual experience or 
 observation, — in which what was originally a delibe- 
 
 " That about six or seven years past, being in bed on a Lord's-day night, 
 he heard a scrambling at the window, and saw Susanna Slartin come in at 
 the window, and jump down upon the floor. She was in her hood and 
 scarf, and the same dress that she was in before, at meeting the same day. 
 Being come in, she was coming up towards this deponent's face, but turned 
 back to his feet, and took hold of them, and drew up his body into a heap, 
 and lay upon him about an hour and a half or two hours, in all which time 
 this deponent could not stir nor speak ; but, feeling himself beginning to be 
 loosened or lightened, and he beginning to strive, he put out his hand among 
 the clothes, and took hold of her hand, and brought it up to his mouth, and 
 bit three of the fingers {as he judges) to the breaking of the bones; which 
 done, the said Martin went out of the chamber, down the stairs, and out of 
 the door. The deponent further declared, that, on another Lord's-day night, 
 ■while sleeping on the hay in a barn, about midnight the said Susanna 
 Martin and another came out of the shop into the barn, and one of them said, 
 ' Here he is,' and then came towards this deponent. He, having a quarter- 
 staff, made a blow at them; but the roof of the barn prevented it, and they 
 went away: but this deponent followed them, and, as they were going 
 towards the window, made another blow at them, and struck them both 
 down; but away they went out at the shop-window, and this deponent saw 
 no more of them. And the rumor went, that the said Martin had a broken 
 head at that time; but the deponent cannot speak to that upon his own 
 knowledge." 
 
 Any one who has had the misfortune to be subject to nightmare 
 will find the elements of his own experience very much resembling 
 the descriptions given by Kembal, Downer, Ring, and Peach. The 
 terrors to which superstition, creduHty, and ignorance subjected their 
 minds ; the fiightful tales of witchcraft and apparitions to which they 
 were accustomed to listen ; and the contagious fears of the neighbor- 
 hood in reference to Susanna Martin, taken in connection with a 
 disordered digestion, an overloaded stomach, and a hard bed, or 
 a strange lodging-place, — are -wholly sufficient to account for all the 
 phenomena to which they testified. 
 
416 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 rate fabrication of falsehood or of fancy has come, 
 at last, to be regarded as a veritable truth and a real 
 occurrence. 
 
 A thorough and philosophical treatise on the sub- 
 ject of evidence is, in view of these considerations, 
 much needed. The liability all men arc under to 
 confound the hctions of their imaginations with the 
 realities of actual observation is not understood with 
 sufficient clearness by the community ; and, so long as 
 it is not understood and regarded, serious mistakes 
 and inconveniences will be apt to occur in seasons 
 of general excitement. We are still disposed to at- 
 tribute more importance than we ought to strong 
 convictions, without stopping to inquire whether they 
 may not be in reality delusions of the understanding. 
 The cause of truth demands a more thorough exami- 
 nation of this whole subject. The visions that ap- 
 peared before the mind of the celebrated Colonel 
 Gardiner are still regarded by the generality of pious 
 people as evidence of miraculous interposition, while, 
 just so far as they are evidence to that point, so far 
 is the authority of Christianity overthrown ; for it is a 
 fact, that Lord Herbert of Cherbury believed with equal 
 sincerity and confidence that he had been vouchsafed 
 a similar vision sanctioning his labors, when about 
 to publish what has been pronounced one of the most 
 powerful attacks ever made upon our religion. It is 
 dangerous to advance arguments in favor of any cause 
 which may be founded upon nothing better than the 
 reveries of an ardent imagination! 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 417 
 
 The phenomena of dreams, of the exercises and 
 convictions which occupy the mind, while the avenues 
 of the senses are closed, and the soul is more or less 
 extricated from its connection with the body, particu- 
 larly in the peculiar conditions of partial slumber, are 
 among the deep mysteries of human experience. The 
 writers on mental philosophy have not given them 
 the attention they deserve. 
 
 The testimony in these trials is particularly valu- 
 able as showing the power of the imagination to com- 
 pletely deceive and utterly falsify the senses of sober 
 persons, when wide awake and in broad daylight. 
 The following deposition was given in Court under 
 oath. The parties testifying were of unquestionable 
 respectability. The man was probably a brother of 
 James Bayley, the first minister of the Salem Tillage 
 parish. 
 
 " The Deposition of Joseph Batley, aged forty-four 
 years. — Testifieth and saith, that, on the twenty-fifth day 
 of May last, myself and ray wife being bound to Boston, 
 on the road, when I came iu sight of the house where John 
 Procter did live, there was a very hard blow struck ou ray 
 breast, which caused great pain in my stomach and amaze- 
 ment in my head, but did see no 'person near me, only my 
 wife behind me on the same horse ; and, when I came 
 against said Procter's house, according to my understanding, 
 I did see John Procter and his wife at said house. Procter 
 himself looked out of the window, and his wife did stand 
 just without the door. I told my wife of it ; and she did 
 look that way, and could see nothing but a little maid at 
 VOL, n. 27 
 
418 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 
 
 the door. Afterwards, about half a mile from the aforesaid 
 house, I was taken speechless for some short time. My 
 wife did ask me several questions, and desired me, that, 
 if I could not speak, I should hold up my hand ; which I 
 did, and immediately I could speak as well as ever. And, 
 ■when we came to the Avay where Salem road cometh into 
 Ipswich road, there I received another blow on my breast, 
 which caused so much pain that I could not sit on my horse. 
 And, when I did alight off my horse, to my understanding, 
 I saw a woman comiug towards us about sixteen or twenty 
 pole from us, but did not know who it was : my wife could 
 not see her. When I did get up on my horse again, to my 
 uuderstanding, there stood a cow where I saw the woman. 
 After that, \ye went to Boston without any further moles- 
 tation ; but, after I came home again to Newbury, I Avas 
 pinched and nipped by something invisible for some time : 
 but now, through God's goodness to me, I am well again. — 
 Jurat in curia by both persons." 
 
 Eayley and his wife were going to Boston on elec- 
 tion week. It was a good two days' journey from 
 Newbury, as the roads then were, and riding as they 
 did. According to the custom of the times, she was 
 mounted on a pillion behind him. They had probably 
 passed the night at the house of Sergeant Thomas 
 Putnam, with whom he was connected by marriage. 
 It was at the height of the witchcraft delirium. 
 Thomas Putnam's house was the very focus of it. 
 There they had listened to highly wrought accounts 
 of its wonders and terrors, had witnessed the amazing 
 phenomena exhibited by Ann Putnam and Mercy 
 Lewis, and their minds been filled with images of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 419 
 
 spectres of living witches, and ghosts of the dead. 
 They had seen with their own eyes the tortures of 
 the girls under cruel diabolical influence, of which 
 they had heard so much, and realized the dread out- 
 break of Satau and his agents upon the lives and 
 souls of men. 
 
 They started the next morning on their way through 
 the gloomy woods and over the solitary road. It was 
 known that they were to pass the house of John 
 Procter, believed to be a chief resort of devilish spirits. 
 Oppressed with terror and awe, Bayley was on the 
 watch, his heart in his mouth. The moment he came 
 in sight, his nervous agitation reached its climax ; 
 and he experienced the shock he describes. When 
 he came opposite to the house, to his horror there 
 was Procter looking at him from the window, and 
 Procter's wife standing outside of the door. He knew, 
 that, in their proper persons and natural bodies, they 
 were, at that moment, both of them, and had been 
 for six weeks, in irons, in one of the cells of the jail 
 at Boston. Bayley's wife, from her position on the 
 pillion behind him, had her face directed to the other 
 side of the road. He told her what he saw. She 
 looked round to the house, and could see nothing but 
 a little maid at the door. After one or two more 
 fits of fright, he reached the Lynn road, had escaped 
 from the infernal terrors of the infected region, and his 
 senses resumed their natural functions. It was sev- 
 eral days before his nervous agitations ceased. Alto- 
 gether, this is a remarkable case of hallucination: 
 
420 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 showing that the wildest fancies brought before tlie 
 mind in dreams may be paralleled in waking honrs ; 
 and that mental excitement may, even tlien, close the 
 avenues of the senses, exclude the perception of real- 
 ity, and substitute unsubstantial visions in the place 
 of actual and natural objects. 
 
 There may be an interest in some minds to know 
 who the "little maid at the door" was. The elder 
 children of John Procter were either married off, or 
 lived on his farm at Ipswich, with the exception of 
 Benjamin, his oldest son, who remained with his father 
 on the Salem fai'm. Benjamin had been imprisoned 
 two days before Bayley passed the house. Four days 
 before, Sarah, sixteen years of age, had also been 
 arrested, and committed to jail. This left only Wil- 
 liam, eighteen years of age, who, three days after, was 
 himself put into prison ; Samuel, seven ; Abigail, be- 
 tween three and four years of age ; and one still 
 younger. No female of the family was then at the 
 house older than Abigail. This poor deserted child 
 was " the little maid." Curiosity to see the passing 
 strangers, or possibly the hope that they might be her 
 father and mother, or her brother and sister, brought 
 her to the door. 
 
 In the terrible consequences that resulted from the 
 .mischievous, and perhaps at the outset merely sport- 
 ive, proceedings of the children in Mr. Parris's family, 
 we have a striking illustration of the principle, that 
 no one can foretell, with respect either to himself or 
 others, the extent of the suffering and injury that may 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 421 
 
 be occasioned by the least departure from truth, or 
 from the practice of deception. la the horrible suc- 
 cession of crimes through which those young persons 
 were led to pass, in the depth of depravity to wliich 
 they were thrown, we discern the fate that endangers 
 all who enter upon a career of wickedness. 
 
 No one can have an adequate knowledge of the 
 human mind, who has not contemplated its develop- 
 ments in scenes like those that have now been related. 
 It may be said of the frame of our spiritual, even with 
 m.ore emphasis than of our corporeal nature, that we 
 are fearfully and wonderfully made. ' In the maturity 
 of his bodily and mental organization, health gliding 
 through his veins, strength and symmetry clothing his 
 form, intelligence beaming from his countenance, and 
 immortality stamped on his brow, man is indeed the 
 noblest work of God. In the degradation and cor- 
 ruption to which he can descend, he is the most 
 odious and loathsome object in the creation. The 
 human mind, when all its faculties are fully devel- 
 oped and in proper proportions, reason seated on 
 its rightful throne and shedding abroad its light, 
 memory embracing the past, hope smiling upon the 
 future, faith leaning on Heaven, and the afiections 
 diffusing through all their gentle warmth, is worthy 
 of its source, deserves its original title of " image of 
 God," and is greater and better than the whole ma- 
 terial universe. It is nobler than all the works of 
 God ; for it is an emanation, a part of God himself, 
 '* a ray from the fountain of light." But where, I 
 
422 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 
 
 aslc, can 3^011 find a moi^e deplorable and miserable 
 object than the mind in ruins, tossed by its own re- 
 bellions principles, and distorted by the monstrously 
 unequal development of its faculties ? You will look 
 in vain iipon the earthquake, the volcano, or the hur- 
 ricane, for those elements of the awful and terrible 
 which are manifested in a community of men whose 
 passions have trampled upon their principles, whose 
 imaginations have overthrown the government of rea- 
 son, and who are swept along by the torrent until all 
 order and security are swallowed up and lost. Such 
 a spectacle we have now been witnessing. We have 
 seen the whole population of this place and vicinity 
 yielding to the sway of their credulous fancies, allow- 
 ing their passions to be worked up to a tremendous 
 pitch of excitement, and rushing into excesses of 
 folly and violence that have left a stain on their 
 memory, and will awaken a sense of shame, pity, and 
 amazement in the minds of their latest posterity. 
 
 There is nothing more mysterious than the self- 
 deluding power of the mind, and there never were 
 scenes in which it was more clearly displayed than 
 the witchcraft prosecutions. Honest men testified, 
 with perfect confidence and sincerity, to the most ab- 
 surd impossibilities ; while those who thought them- 
 selves victims of diabolical influence would actually 
 exhibit, in their corporeal frames, all the appropriate 
 symptoms of the sufferings their imaginations had 
 brought upon them. Great ignorance prevailed in 
 reference to the influences of the body and the mind 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 423 
 
 upon each other. While the imagination was called 
 into a more extensive and energetic action than at 
 any succeeding or previous period, its properties 
 and laws were but little understood : the extent of 
 the connection of the will and the muscular system, 
 the reciprocal influence of the nerves and the fancy, 
 and the strong and universally pervading sympathy 
 between our physical and moral constitutions, were 
 almost wholly unknown. These important subjects, 
 indeed, are but imperfectly understood at the present 
 day. 
 
 It may perhaps be affirmed, that the relations of 
 the human mind with the spiritual world will never 
 be understood while we continue in the present stage 
 of existence and mode of being. The error of our 
 ancestoi's — and it is an error into which men have 
 always been prone to fall, and from which our own 
 times are by no means exempt — was in imagining 
 that their knowledge had extended, in this direction, 
 beyond the boundary fixed unalterably to our re- 
 searches, while in this corporeal life. 
 
 It admits of much question, whether human science 
 can ever find a solid foundation in what relates to the 
 world of spirits. The only instrument of knowledge 
 we can here employ is language. Careful thinkers 
 long ago came to the conclusion, that it is impossible 
 to frame a language precisely and exclusively adapted 
 to convey abstract and spiritual ideas, even if it is 
 possible, as some philosophers have denied, for the 
 mind, in its present state, to have such ideas. All 
 
424 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 attempts to construct such a language, though made 
 by the most ingenious men, have failed. Language 
 is based upon imagery, and associations drawn from 
 so much of the "world as the senses disclose to us ; 
 that is, from material objects and their relations. We 
 are here confined, as it were, within narrow walls. 
 We can catch only glimpses of what is above and 
 around us, outside of those walls. Such glimpses 
 may be vouchsafed, from time to time, to rescue us 
 from sinking into materialism, and to keep alive our 
 faith in scenes of esistence remaining to be revealed 
 when the barriers of our imprisonment shall be taken 
 down, and what we call death lift us to a clearer and 
 broader vision of universal being. 
 
 Of the reality of the spiritual world, we are assured 
 by consciousness and by faith ; but our knowledge of 
 that world, so far as it can go into particulars, or be- 
 come the subject of definition or expression, extends 
 no further than revelation opens the way. In all ages, 
 men have been awakened to the " wonders of the in- 
 visible world;" but they remain "wonders" still. 
 Nothing like a permanent, stable, or distinct science 
 has ever been achieved in this department, Man and 
 God are all that are placed within our ken. Metaphys- 
 ics and Theology are the names given to the sciences 
 that relate to them. The greater the number of books 
 wrftteu by human learning and ingenuity to expound 
 them, the more advanced the intelligence and piety of 
 mankind, the less, it is confessed, do we know of them 
 in detail, the more they rise above our comprehension, 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 425 
 
 the more unfathomable become their depths. Expe- 
 rience, history, the progress of light, all increase our 
 sense of the impossibility of estimating the capacities 
 of the human soul. So also we find that the higher 
 we rise towards the Deity, in the contemplation of his 
 works and word, the more does he continue to tran- 
 scend our power to describe or imagine his greatness 
 and glory. The revelation which the Saviour -brought 
 to mankind is all that the heart of man need desire, 
 or the mind of man can comprehend. We are God's 
 children, and he is our Father. That is all ; and, the 
 wiser and better we become, the more we are con- 
 vinced and satisfied that it is enough. 
 
 Tliere are, undoubtedly, innumerable beings in the 
 world of spirits, besides departed souls, the Eedeemer, 
 and the Father. But of such beings we have, while 
 here, no absolute and specific knowledge. lu every 
 age, as well as in our own, there have been persons 
 who have believed themselves to hold communica- 
 tion with unseen spirits. The methods of entering 
 into such communication have been infinitely diversi- 
 fied, from the incantations of ancient sorcery to the 
 mediums and rappmgs of the present day. In former 
 periods, particularly where the belief of witchcraft 
 prevailed, it was thought that such commimications 
 could be had only with evil spirits, and, mostly, with 
 the Chief of evil spirits. They were accordingly treated 
 as criminal, and made the subject of the severest pen- 
 alties known to the law. In our day, no such penalties 
 are attached to the practice of seeking spiritual com- 
 
426 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 muuicatioiis. Those vr\\o have a fancy for such experi- 
 ments are allowed to amuse themselves in this way 
 without reproach or molestation. It is not charged 
 upon them that they are dealing with tlie Evil One or 
 any of his subordinates. They do not imagine such a 
 thing themselves. I have no disposition, at any time, 
 in any given case, to dispute the reality of the wonder- 
 ful stories told in reference to such matters. All that 
 I am prompted ever to remark is, that, if spirits do 
 come, as is believed, at the call of those who seek to put 
 themselves into communication with them, there is no 
 evidence, I venture to suggest, that they are good 
 spirits. I have never heard of their doing much 
 good, substantially, to any one. No important truth 
 has been revealed by them, no discovery been made, 
 no science had its field enlarged ; no department of 
 knowledge has been brought into a clearer light ; no 
 great interest has been promoted ; no movement of 
 human affairs, whether in the action of nations or the 
 transactions of men, has been advanced or in any way 
 facilitated ; no impulse has been given to society, and 
 no elevation to life and character. It may be that the 
 air is full of spiritual beings, hovering about us ; but 
 all experience shows that no benefit can be derived 
 from seeking their intervention to share with us the 
 duties or the burdens of our present probation. The 
 mischiefs which have flowed from the belief that they 
 can operate upon human affairs, and from attempting 
 to have dealings with them, have been illustrated in 
 the course of our narrative. In this view of the sub- 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 427 
 
 ject, 110 law is needed to prevent real or pretended 
 communication with invisible beings. Enlightened re- 
 flection, common sense, natural prudence, would seem 
 to be sufficient to keep men from meddling at all with 
 practices, or countenancing notions, from which all 
 history proclaims that no good has ever come, but 
 incalculable evil flowed. 
 
 Eor the conduct of life, while here in these bodies, 
 we must confine our curiosity to fields of knowledge 
 open to our natural and ordinary faculties, and em- 
 braced within the limits of the established condition 
 of things. Our fathers filled their fancies with the 
 visionary images of ghosts, demons, ai3parition5, and 
 all other supposed forms and shadows of the invisible 
 world; lent their ears to marvellous stories of com- 
 munications with spirits ; gave to supernatural tales 
 of witchcraft and demonology a wondering credence, 
 and allowed them to occupy their conversation, specu- 
 lations, and reveries. They carried a belief of such 
 things, and a proneness to indulge it, into their daily 
 life, their literature, and the proceedings of tribunals, 
 ecclesiastical and civil. The fearful results shrouded 
 their annals in darkness and shame. Let those re- 
 sults for ever stand conspicuous, beacon-monuments 
 warning us, and coming generations, against super- 
 stition in every form, and all credulous and vain 
 attempts to penetrate be3''ond the legitimate bounda- 
 ries of human knowledge. 
 
 The phenomena of the real world, so far as science 
 discloses them to our contemplation; the records of 
 
428 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 actual history; the lessons of our owu experience ; the 
 utterances of the voice within, audible only to our- 
 selves ; and the teachings of the Divine Word, — are 
 sufficient for the exercise of our faculties and the 
 education of our souls during this brief period of 
 our being, while in these bodies. In God's appointed 
 time, we shall be transferred to a higher level of vision. 
 Then, but not before, we may hope for re-union with 
 disembodied spirits, for intercourse with angels, and 
 for a nearer and more open coiumuniou with all divine 
 beings. 
 
 The principal difference in the methods by which 
 communications were believed to be made between 
 m.ortals and spiritual beings, at the time of the witch- 
 craft delusion and now, is this. Then it was chiefly 
 by the medium of the eye, but at present by the ear. 
 The "afflicted children" professed to have seen and 
 conversed with the ghosts of G-eorge Eurroiighs's former 
 wives and of others. They also professed to have seen 
 the shapes or appearances of living persons in a dis- 
 embodied form, or in the likeness of some animal or 
 creature. Now it is affirmed by those calling tliem- 
 selves Spiritualists, that, by certain rappings or other 
 incantations, they can summon into immediate but 
 invisible presence the spirits of the departed, hold 
 conferences with them, and draw from them infor- 
 mation not derivable, from any sources of human 
 knowledge. There is no essential distinction between 
 the old and the new belief and practice. The con- 
 sequences that resulted from the former would be 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 429 
 
 likely to result from the latter, if it should obtaiu 
 universal or general credence, be allowed to mix with 
 judicial proceedings, or to any extent affect the rights 
 of iDerson, property, or character. 
 
 The " afflicted children " at Salem Yillagc had, by 
 long practice, become wonderful adepts in the art of 
 jugglery, and probably of ventriloqiiism. They did 
 many estraordmary things, and were believed to have 
 constant communications with ghosts and spectres ; 
 but they did not attain to spiritual rapping. If they 
 had possessed that j^ower, the credulity of judges, min- 
 isters, magistrates, and people, would have been utterly 
 oyerwhelmed, and no limit could have been put to the 
 destruction they might have wrought. 
 
 If there was any thing supernatural in the witch- 
 craft of 1692, if any other than human spirits were 
 concerned at all, one thing is beyond a doubt: they 
 were shockingly wicked spirits, and led those who 
 dealt with them to the utmost delusion, crime, and 
 perdition ; and this example teaches all who seek to 
 consult with spirits, through a medium or in any 
 other way, to be very strict to require beforehand 
 the most satisfactory and conclusive evidence of good 
 character before they put themselves into communi- 
 cation with them. Spirits who are said to converse 
 with people, in these modern ages, cannot be con- 
 sidered as having much claim to a good repute. No 
 valuable discovery of truth, no important guidance 
 in human conduct, no useful instruction, has ever 
 been conveyed to mankind through them; and much 
 
430 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 misclnef perhaps may hare resulted from confiding 
 in them. It is not wise to place our minds under 
 the influence of any of our fellow-creatures, in the or- 
 dinary guise of humanity, unless we know something 
 about. them entitling them to our acquaintance ; much 
 less so, to take them into our intimacy or confidence. 
 Spirits cannot be put under oath, or their credibility 
 be subjected to tests. Whether they are spirits of 
 truth or falsehood cannot be known ; and common 
 caution would seem to dictate an avoidance of their 
 company. The fields of knowledge opened to us in 
 the works of mortal men ; the stores of human learn- 
 ing and science ; the pages of history, sacred or pro- 
 fane ; the records of revelation ; and the instructions 
 and conversation of the wise and good of our fellow- 
 creatures, while in the body, — are wide enough for our 
 exploration, and may well occupy the longest lifetime. 
 In its general outlines and minuter details, Salem 
 "Witchcraft is an illustration of the fatal effects of 
 allowing the imagination inflamed by passion to take 
 the place of common sense, and of pushing the curi- 
 osity and credence of the human mind, m this stage 
 of our being, while in these corporeal embodiments, 
 beyond the boundaries that ought to limit their ex- 
 ercise. If we disregard those boundaries, and try to 
 overleap them, we shall be liable to the same results. 
 The lesson needs to be impressed equally upon all 
 generations and ages of the world's future history. 
 Essays have been written and books published to 
 prove that the sense of the miraculous is destined 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM TILLAGE. 431 
 
 to decline as manldud becomes more enlightened, and 
 ascribing a greater or less tendency to the indulgence 
 of this sense to particular periods of the church, or 
 systems of belief, or schools of what is called phi- 
 losophy. It is maintained that it was more prevalent 
 in the mediaaval ages than in modern times. Some 
 assert that it has had a greater development in Catholic 
 than Protestant counti'ies ; and some, perhaps, insist 
 upon the reverse. Some attempt to show that it has 
 m.anifested itself more remarkably among Puritans 
 than in other classes of Protestant Cliristians. The 
 last and most pretentious form of this dogma is, that 
 the sense of the miraculous fades away in the prog- 
 ress of what arrogates to itself the name of Rational- 
 ism. This is one of the delusive results of introducing 
 generalization into historical disquisitions. History 
 deals with man. Man is always the same. The race 
 consists, not of an aggregation, but of individuals, in 
 all ages, never moulded or melted into classes. Each 
 individual has ever retained his distinctness from every 
 other. There has been the same infinite variety in 
 eveiy period, in every race, in every nation. Society, 
 philosophy, custom, can no more obliterate these varie- 
 ties than they can bring the countenances and features 
 of men into uniformity. Diversity everywhere alike 
 prevails. The particular forms and shapes in which 
 the sense of the miraculous may express itself have 
 passed and will pass away in the progress of civiliza- 
 tion. But the sense itself remains ; just as particular 
 costumes and fashions of garment pass away, while the 
 
432 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 human fonnj its front erect and its vision towards 
 the heavens, remains. The sense of the miraculous 
 remains with Protestants as much as with Catliolics, 
 with Churchmen as much as with Puritans, with tliose 
 who reject all creeds, equally with those whose creeds 
 are the longest and the oldest. In our day, it must 
 have been generally noticed, that the wonders of what 
 imagines itself to be Spiritualism are rather more 
 accredited by persons who aspire to the character of 
 rationalists than by those who hold on tenaciously 
 to the old landmarks of Orthodoxy. 
 
 The truth is, that the sense of the miraculous has 
 not declined, and never can. It will grow deeper 
 and stronger with the progress of true intelligence. 
 As long as man thinks, he will feel that he is him- 
 self a perpetual miracle. The more he thinks, the 
 more will he feel it. The mind which can wander into 
 the deepest depths of the starry heavens, and feel 
 itself to be there ; which, pondering over the printed 
 page, lives in the most distant past, communes with 
 sages of hoar antiquity, with prophets and apostles, 
 joins the disciples as they walk with the risen Lord 
 to Emmaus, or mingles in the throng that listen to 
 Paul at Mars' Hill, — knows itself to be beyond the 
 power of space or time, and greater than material 
 things. It knows not what it shall be ; but it feels 
 that it is something above the present and visible. 
 It realizes the spiritual world, and will do so more 
 and more, the higher its culture, the greater its free- 
 dom, and the wider its view of the material nature 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 433 
 
 by wliicli it is environed, while iu this transitory stage 
 of its history. 
 
 The lesson of our story will be found not to discard 
 spiritual things, but to teach us, while in the flesh, 
 not to attempt to break through present limitations, not 
 to seek to know more than has been made known of 
 the unseen and invisible, but to keep the inquiries 
 of our minds and the action of society Avithin the 
 bounds of knowledge now attainable, and extend our 
 curious researches and speculations only as far as 
 we can here have solid ground to stand upon. 
 
 To explain the superstitious opinions that took effect 
 in the witchcraft delusion, it is necessaiy to consider 
 the state of biblical criticism at that period. That 
 department of theological learning was then in a very 
 immature condition. 
 
 The authority of Scripture, as it appeared on the 
 face of the standard version, seemed to require them 
 to pursue the coui-se they adopted ; and those enlarged 
 and just principles of interpretation which we are 
 taught by the learned of all denominations at the pres- 
 ent day to apply to the Sacred Writings had not then 
 been brought to the view of the people or received 
 by the clergy. 
 
 It was gravely argued, for instance, that thei^e was 
 nothing improbable in the idea that witches had the 
 power, in virtue of their compact with the Devil, of 
 riding aloft through the air, because it is recorded, in 
 the history of our Lord's temptation, that Satan trans- 
 ported him in a similar manner to the pinnacle of the 
 
 VOL. II. 28 
 
434 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 temple, and to the summit of an. exceedingly high 
 mountain. And Cotton Mather declares, that, to his 
 apprehension, the disclosures of the wonderful opera- 
 tions of the Devil, upon and through his subjects, that 
 ■were made in the course of the witchcraft prosecu- 
 tions, had shed a marvellous light upon the Scriptures! 
 What a perversion of the Sacred Writings to employ 
 them for the purpose of sanctioning tlie extravagant 
 and delirious reveries of the human imagination ! 
 What a miserable delusion, to suppose that the Word 
 of God could receive illumination from the most ab- 
 surd and horrible superstition that ever brooded in 
 darkness over the mind of man ! 
 
 One of the sources of the delusion of 1692 was 
 ignorance of many natural laws that have been re- 
 vealed by modern science. A vast amount of knowl- 
 edge on these subjects has been attained since that 
 time. In our halls of education, in associations for 
 the diffusion of knowledge, and in a diversified and 
 all-pervading popular literature, what was dark- and 
 impenetrable mystery then has been explained, ac- 
 counted for, and brought within the grasp of all minds. 
 The contemplation of the evils brought upon our 
 predecessors by their ignorance of the laws of nature 
 cannot but lead us to appreciate more highly our 
 opportunities to get knowledge in this department. 
 As we advance into the interior of the physical system 
 to which we belong ; are led in succession from one 
 revelation of beauty and grandeur to another, and the 
 field of light and truth displaces that of darkness and 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 435 
 
 mj'-sterj ; while the fearful images that disturbed the 
 faith and bewildered the thoughts of our fathers are 
 dissolving aud vanishing, the whole host of spirits, 
 ghostSj and demons disappearing, and the presence 
 and providence of God alone found to lill all scenes and 
 cause all effects, — our hearts ought to rise to him in 
 loftier adoration and holier devotion. If, while we 
 enjoy a fuller revelation of his infinite and all-glorious 
 operations and designs than our fathers did, the senti- 
 ment of piety which glowed in their hearts like a coal 
 from the altar of God has been permitted to grow dim 
 in ours, no reproach their errors and faults can pios- 
 sibly authorize will equal that which will justly fall 
 upon us. 
 
 Another cause of their delusion was too great a 
 dependence upon the imagination. We shall find no 
 lesson more clearly taught by history, by experience, 
 or by observation, than this, that man is never safe 
 while either his fancy or his feeling is the guiding 
 principle of his nature. There is a strong and con- 
 stant attraction between his imagination and his pas- 
 sions ; and, if either is permitted to exercise unlimited 
 sway, the other will most certainly be drawn into co- 
 operation with it, and, when they are allowed to act 
 without restraint upon each other and with each other, 
 they lead to the derangement and convulsion of his 
 whole system. They constitute the combustible ele- 
 ments of our being : one serves as the spark to explode 
 the other. Reason, enlightened by revelation and 
 guided by conscience, is the great conservative prin- 
 
436 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 ciple : while that exercises the sovereign power over 
 the fancy and the passions, Ave are safe ; if it is de- 
 throned, no limit can be assigned to the ruin that ma}'' 
 follow. In the scenes we have now been called to 
 witness, we have perceived to what lengths of foil}', 
 cruelty, and crime even good men have been cari*ied, 
 who relinquished the aid, rejected the counsels, and 
 abandoned the guidance of their reason. 
 
 Another influence that operated to produce the catas- 
 trophe in 1692 was the power of contagious sympathy. 
 Every wise man and good citizen ought to be aware of 
 the existence and operation of this power. There 
 seems indeed to be a constitutional, original, sympathy 
 in our nature. When men act in a crowd, their heart- 
 strings are prone to vibrate in unison. Whatever 
 chord of passion is struck in one breast, the same will 
 ring forth its wild note through the whole mass. This 
 principle shows itself particularly in seasons of excite- 
 ment, and its power rises in proportion to the ardor 
 and zeal of those upon whom it acts. It is for every 
 one who desires to be preserved from the excesses of 
 popular feeling, and to prevent the community to which 
 he belongs from plunging into riotous and blind com- 
 motions, to keep his own judgment and emotions as 
 free as possible from a power that seizes all it can 
 reach, draws them into its current, and sweeps them 
 round and round like the Maelstrom, until they are 
 overwhelmed and buried in its devouring vortex. 
 When others are heated, the only wisdom is to deter- 
 mine to keep cool ; whenever a people or an individual 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 437 
 
 is rushing headlong, it is the duty of patriotism and of 
 friendship to check the motion. 
 
 In this connection it maybe remai'ked — and I should 
 be sorry to bring the subject to a close without urging 
 the thought upon your attention — that the mere power 
 of sympathy, the momentum with which men act in a 
 crowd, is itself capable of convulsing society and 
 overthrowing all its safeguards, without the aid or 
 supposed agency of supernatural beings. The early 
 history of the colony of New York presents a case 
 in point. 
 
 In 1741, just half a century after the witchcralt 
 prosecutions in Massachusetts, the city of New York, 
 then containing about nine thousand inhabitants, wit- 
 nessed a scene quite rivalling, in horror and folly, that 
 presented here. Some one started the idea, that a con- 
 spiracy was on foot, among the colored portion of the 
 inhabitants, to murder the whites. The story was 
 passed from one to another. Although subsequently 
 ascertained to have been utterly without foundation, 
 no one stopped to inquire into its truth, or had the 
 wisdom or courage to ^discountenance its circulation. 
 Soon a universal panic, like a conflagration, spread 
 through the whole community ; and the results were 
 most frightful. More than one hundred persons were 
 cast into prison. Four white persons and eighteen 
 negroes were hanged. Eleven negroes were burned 
 at the stake, and fifty were transported into slavery. 
 As in the witchcraft prosecutions, a clergyman was 
 among the victims, and perished on the gallows. 
 
438 "WITCHCRAFT AT SALKM VILLAGE. 
 
 The " New-York Negro Plot," as it was called, 
 was indeed marked by all the features of absurdity iu 
 the delusion, ferocity in the i)opular excitement, and 
 destruction along the path of its progress, which be- 
 longed to the witchcraft i^roceedings here, and shows 
 that any jDeople, given over to the power of contagious 
 passion, may be swept by desolation, and plunged into 
 ruin. 
 
 One of the practical lessons inculcated by ilie his- 
 tory that has now been related is, that no duty is 
 more certain, none more important, than a free and 
 fearless expression of opinion, by all persons, on all 
 occasions. No wise or philosophic person would think 
 of complaining of the diversities of sentiment it is like- 
 ly to develop. Such diversities are the vital principle of 
 free communities, and the only elements of popular 
 intelligence. If the right to utter them is asserted by 
 all and for all, tolerance is secured, and no inconve- 
 nience results. It is probable that there were many 
 persons here in 1692 who doubted the propriety of 
 the proceedings at their commencement, but who were 
 afterwards prevailed upon to fall into the current and 
 swell the tide. If they had all discharged their dut}'' 
 to their country and their consciences by freely and 
 boldly uttering their disapprobation and declaring their 
 dissent, who can tell but that the whole tragedy might 
 have been prevented ? and, if it might, the blood of the 
 innocent may be said, in one sense, to be upon their 
 heads. 
 
 The leading features and most striking aspects of 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 439 
 
 the witchcraft dehisiou have been repeated in places 
 where witches and the interference of supernatural 
 beings are never thought of; whenever a community 
 gives way to its passions, and spurns the admonitions 
 and casts off the restraints of reason, there is a delu- 
 sion that can hardly be described in any other jjhrase. 
 We cannot glance our eye over the face of our country 
 without beholding such scenes : and, so long as they 
 are exhibited ; so long as we permit oui*selves to invest 
 objects of little or no real importance with such an 
 inordinate imaginary interest that we are ready to go 
 to every extremity rather than relinquish them ; so 
 long as we yield to the impulse of passion, and plunge 
 into excitement, and take counsel of our feelings rather 
 than our judgment, — we are following in the footsteps 
 of our fanatical ancestors. It would be wiser to direct 
 our ridicule and reproaches to the delusions of our 
 own times than to those of a previous age ; and it 
 becomes us to treat with charity and mercy the fail- 
 ings of our predecessors, at least until we have ceased 
 to imitate and repeat them. 
 
 It has been my object to collect and arrange all the 
 materials within reach necessary to give a correct and 
 adequate view of the passage of history related and 
 discussed in this work, and to suggest the considera- 
 tions and conclusions required by truth and justice. 
 It is worthy of the most thoughtful contemplation. 
 The moralist, metaphysician, and political philosopher 
 will find few chapters of human experience more 
 fraught with instruction, and may well ponder upon 
 
440 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 the lessons it teaches, scnitiuizc thoroughly all its 
 periods, phases, and branches, analyze its causes, elim- 
 inate its elements, and mark its developments. The 
 laws, energies, capabilities, and liabilities of our na- 
 ture, as exliibited in the character of individuals and 
 iu the action of society, arc remarkably illustrated. 
 The essential facts belonging to the transaction, gath- 
 ered from authentic records and reliable testimonies 
 and traditions, have been faithfully presented. The 
 Witchcraft Delusion of 1692, so far as I have been 
 able to recover it from misunderstanding and oblivion, 
 has been brought to view ; and I indulge the belief, 
 that the subject will commend itself to, and reward, 
 the study of every meditative mind. 
 
 I know not in what better terms the discussion of 
 this subject can be brought to a termination, than in 
 those which express the conclusions to which one of 
 our own most distinguished citizens was brought, after 
 having examined the whole transaction with the eye of 
 a lawyer and the spirit of a judge. The following is 
 from the Centennial Discourse pronounced in Salem 
 on the 18th of September, 1828, by the late Hon. 
 Joseph Story, of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States : — 
 
 '* We may lament, then," says he, "the errors of 
 the times, which led to these prosecutions. But surely 
 our ancestors had no special reasons for shame in a 
 belief which had the universal sanction of their own 
 and all former, ages ; which counted in its train .phi- 
 losophers, as well as enthusiasts ; which was graced 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 441 
 
 by the learning of prelates, as well as by the counte- 
 nance of kings ; which the law supported by its man- 
 dates, and the purest judges felt no compunctions in 
 enforcing. Let Witch Hill remain for ever memorable 
 by this sad catastrophe, not to perpetuate our dishonor, 
 but as an affecting, enduring proof of human infirmity ; 
 a proof that perfect justice belongs to one judgment- 
 seat only, — that which is linked to the throne of 
 God." 
 
 In the work which has now reached its close, many 
 strange phases of humanity have been exposed. We 
 have beheld, with astonishment and horror, the ex^tent 
 to which it is liable to be the agent and victim of delu- 
 sion and ruin. Folly that cannot be exceeded ; wrong, 
 outrage, and woe, melting the heart that contemplates 
 them ; and crime, not within our power or province 
 to measure, — have passed before tis. But not the 
 dark side only of our nature has been displayed. 
 Manifestations of innocence, heroism, invincible devo- 
 tion to truth, integrity of soul triumphing over all the 
 terrors and horrors that can be accumulated in life 
 and in death, Christian piety in its most heavenly radi- 
 ance, have mingled in the drama, whose curtain is now 
 to fall. Noble specimens of virtue in man and woman, 
 old and young, have shed a light, as from above, upon 
 its dark and melancholy scenes. Not only the suffer- 
 ers, but some of those who shared the dread respon- 
 sibility of the crisis, demand our commiseration, and 
 did what they could to atone for their error. 
 
 The conduct of Judge Sewall claims our particu-/ 
 
442 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 lar admiration. He observed anuiially iu private 
 a day of humiliation and prayer, during the re- 
 mainder of his life, to keep fresh in his mind a sense 
 of repentance and sorrow for the part he bore in 
 the trials. On the day of the general fast, he rose 
 in the place where he was accustomed to worship, the 
 Old South, in Boston, and, in the presence of the great 
 assembly, handed up to the pulpit a written confession, 
 acknowledging the error into which he had been led, 
 praying for the forgiveness of God and his people, and 
 concluding with a request to all the congregation to 
 ■unite with him in devout supplication, that it might 
 not bring down the displeasure of the Most High 
 upon his country, his family, or himself. He re- 
 mained standing during the public reading of the 
 paper. This was an act of true manliness and dignity 
 of soul. 
 
 The following passage is found in his diary, under 
 the date of April 23, 1720, nearly thirty years after- 
 wards. It was suggested by the perusal of Neal's 
 " History of New England : " — 
 
 *' In Dr. IsTeaFs ' History of New England,' its nakedness 
 is laid open in the businesses of the Quakers, Anabaptists, 
 witchcraft. The judges' names are mentioned p. 502; my 
 confession, p. 536, vol. ii. The good and gracious God be 
 pleased to save New England and me, and my family ! " 
 
 There never was a more striking and complete fulfil- 
 ment of the apostolic assurance, that the prayer of a 
 righteous man availeth much, than in this instance. 
 God has been pleased, in a remarkable manner, to 
 
WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 443 
 
 save and bless New England. The favor of Heaven 
 was bestowed upon Judge Sewall during the remainder 
 of his life. He presided for many years on the bench 
 where he committed the error so sincerely deplored by 
 him, and was regarded by all as a benefactorj an orna- 
 ment, and a blessing to the community: while his 
 family have enjoyed to a high degree the protection 
 of Providence from that day to this ; have adorned 
 every profession, and every department of society ; 
 have filled with honor the most elevated stations ; 
 have graced, in successive generations, the same lofty 
 seat their ancestor occupied ; and been the objects 
 of the confidence, respect, and love of their fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 Tour thoughts have been led through scenes of the 
 most distressing and revolting character. I leave be- 
 fore your imaginations one bright with all the beauty 
 of Christian virtue, — that which exhibits Judge Sewall 
 standing forth in the house of his God and in the 
 presence of his fellow-worshippers, making a public 
 declai'ation of his sorrow and regret for the mistaken 
 judgment he had co-operated with others in pro- 
 nouncing. Here you have a representation of a truly 
 great and magnanimous spirit ; a spirit to which 
 the divine influence of our religion had given an ex- 
 pansion and a lustre that Roman or Grecian virtue 
 never knew ; a spirit that had achieved a greater vic- 
 tory than warrior ever won, — a victory over itself; 
 a spirit so noble and so pure, that it felt no shame 
 in acknowledging an error, and publicly imploring, 
 
444 WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE. 
 
 for a great wrong clone to his fellow-creatures, the 
 forgiveness of God and man. 
 
 Our Essex poet, whose beautiful genius has made 
 classical the banks of his own Merrimac, shed a 
 romantic light over the early homes and characters 
 of New England, and brought back to life the spirit, 
 forms, scenes, and men of the past, has not failed to 
 immortalize, in his verse, the profound penitence of 
 the misguided but upright judge: — 
 
 " Touching and sad, a tale is told, 
 Like a penitent hymn of the Psalmist old, 
 Of the fast which the good man life-long kept 
 With a haunting sorrow that never slept. 
 As the circling year brought round the time 
 Of an error that left the sting of crime. 
 When he sat on the bench of the witchcraft courts, 
 With the laws of Moses and ' Hale's Reports,' 
 And spake, in the name of both, the word . 
 
 That gave the witch's neck to the cord. 
 And piled the oaken planks that pressed 
 The feeble life from the warlock's breast! 
 All the day long, from dawn to dawn, 
 His door was bolted, his curtain drawn ; 
 No foot on his silent threshold trod, 
 No eye looked on him save that of God, 
 As he baffled the ghosts of the dead with charms 
 Of penitent tears, and prayers, and psalms. 
 And, with precious proofs from the sacred Word 
 Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord, 
 His faith confirmed and his trust renewed. 
 That the sin of his ignorance, sorely rued, 
 Might be washed away in the mingled flood 
 Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood ! " 
 
S U P P L E M E N T. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 [The subject of Salem Witchcraft has been traced to its conclusion, and 
 discussed -within its proper limits, in the foregoing work. But whoever is 
 interested in it as a chapter of history or an exhibition of humanity may feel 
 a curiosity, on some points, that reasonably demands gratification. The 
 questions "will naturally arise, Who were the earliest to extricate themselves 
 and the public from the delusion ? what is known, beyond the facts mentioned 
 in the progress of the foregoing discussion, of the later fortunes of its promi- 
 nent actors? what the view taken in the retrospect by individuals and public 
 bodies implicated in the transaction? and what opinions on the general sub- 
 ject have subsequently prevailed? To answer these questions is the design 
 of this Supplement] 
 
 IT can hardly be said that there was any open and avowed oppo- 
 sition in the community to the proceedings during their early 
 progress. There is some uncertainty and obscurity to what ex- 
 tent there was an unexpressed dissent in the minds of particular 
 private persons. On the general subject of the existence and 
 power of the Devil and his agency, more or less, in influencing 
 human and earthly affairs, it -would be difficult to prove that there 
 was any considerable difference of opinion. 
 
 ' The first undisguised and unequivocal opposition to the pro- 
 ceedings was a remarkable document that has recently come to 
 light. Among some papers which have found their way to the 
 custody of the Essex Institute, is a letter, dated ** Salisburj% -Aug. 
 9, 1692," addressed "To the worshipful Jonathan Corwin, Esq., 
 these present at his house in Salem." It is indorsed, *'A letter 
 
448 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 to my graudHitlicr, on account of the condemnation of the ■witchos/' 
 Its date shows that it wa:s written while the public infatuation and 
 fury -vverc at their height, and the Court was sentencing to death 
 and sending to the gallows its successive cartloads. There is no 
 injunction of secresy, and no shrinking from responsibility. xVl- 
 though the name of the writer is not given in full, he was evidently 
 ■well known to Corwin, and had written to him bcfure on the sub- 
 ject. The messenger, in accordance -with the superscription, un- 
 doubtedly delivered it into the hands of the judge at his residence 
 on the corner of Essex and North Streets. The fact that Jonathan 
 Corwin preserved this document, and placed it in the permanent 
 files of his family papers, is pretty good proof that he appreciated 
 the weight of its arguments. It is not iini^robable that he expressed 
 himself to that effect to his brethren on the bench, and perhaps to 
 others. What he said, and the fact that he was holding such a 
 correspondence, may have reached the cars of the accusers, and 
 led them to commence a movement against him by crying out upon 
 his mother-in-lavr. 
 
 The letter is a most able argument against the manner in -which 
 the trials were conducted, and, by conclusive logic, overthrows the 
 whole fabric of the evidence on the strength of which the Court 
 ■was convicting and taking the lives of innocent persons. No such 
 piece of reasoning has come to us from that age. Its author must 
 be acknowledged to have been an expert in dialectic subtleties, and 
 a pure reasoner of unsurpassed acumen and force. It requires, 
 but it will reward, the closest attention and concentration of 
 thought in following the threads of the argument. It reaches its 
 conclusions on a most difficult subject with clearness and certainty. 
 It achieves and realizes, in mere mental processes, quantities, and 
 forces, on the points at which it aims, what is called demonstration 
 in mathematics and geometry. 
 
 The writer does not discredit, but seems to have received, the 
 then prevalent doctrines relating to the personality, power, and 
 attributes of the Devil ; and, from that standpoint, controverts 
 and demolishes the principles on which the Court was proceeding, 
 in reference to the *' spectral evidence" and the credibility of the 
 " afflicted children" generally. The letter, and the formal argu- 
 ment appended to it, arrest notice in one or two general aspects. 
 There is an appearance of their having pi'occeded from an elderly 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 449 
 
 person, not at all from any marks of infirmity of intellect, but 
 rather from an air of wisdom and a tone of authority which can only 
 result from long experience and observation. The circumstance 
 that an amanuensis Avas emploj-ed, and the author writes the 
 initials of his signature only, strengthens this impression. At 
 the same time, there are indications of a free and progressive 
 spirit, more likely to have had force at an earlier period of life. 
 In some aspects, the document indicates a theological education, 
 and familiai'ity with matters that belong to the studies of a minis- 
 ter ; in others, it manifests habits of mind and modes of expression 
 and reasoning more natural to one accustomed to close legal state- 
 ments and deductions. If the production of a trained professional 
 man of either class, it would justly be regarded as remarkable. 
 If its author belonged to neither class, but was merely a local magis- 
 trate, farmer, and militia officer, it becomes more than remarkable. 
 There must have been a liigh development among the founders of 
 our villages, when the laity could present examples of such a ca- 
 pacity to grasp the most difficult subjects, and conduct such acute 
 and abstruse disquisitions. [See Appendix.] 
 
 The question as to the authorship of this paper may well excite 
 int-erest, involving, as it does, minute critical speculations. The 
 elements that enter into its solution illustrate the difficulties and 
 perplexities encompassing the study of local antiquities, and at- 
 tempts to determine the origin and bearings of old documents or to 
 settle minute points of history. The weight of evidence seems to 
 indicate that the document is attributable to Major Kobei-t Pike, of 
 Salisbur}^ Whoever was its author did his duty nobly, and stands 
 alone, above all the scholars and educated men of the time, in bear- 
 ing testimony openly, bravely, in the very ears of the Court, against 
 the disgraceful and shocking course they were pursuing.* 
 
 * The facts and considerations in reference to the authorship of the letter 
 to Jonathan Corwin may be summarily stated as follows: — 
 
 The letter is signed "R. P." Under these initials is written, "Robert 
 Pain," in a different hand, and, as the ink as well as the chirography shows, 
 at a somewhat later date. R. P. are blotted over, but with ink of such 
 lighter hue that the original letters are clearly discernible under it. A Rob- 
 ert Paine graduated at Harvard College, in 1656. But he was probably the 
 foreman of the grand jury that brought in all the indictments in the witch- 
 craft trials ; and therefore could not, from the declarations in the letter itself, 
 have been its author. The only other person of that name at the time, of 
 VOL. II. 29 
 
450 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 AVilliam Brattle, an eminent citizen and opulent nicrcliant of 
 Boston, and a gentleman of education and uncoumion abilities, 
 wrote a letter to an unknown correspondent of the clerical profes- 
 
 whom we have knoAvledge, was Ins father, who seems, bj' the evidence we 
 have, to have died in 1693. (That date is given in the Harvard Triennial for 
 the death of Robert Paine, the graduate; but erroneously, I think, as signa- 
 tures to documents, and conveyances of propertj' subsequently, can hardly be 
 ascribed to any other person.) Robert Paiuc, the father, from the earliest set- 
 tlement of Ipswich, had been one of the leading men of tho town, aiiparently 
 of larger property than any other, often its deput}'" in the General Court, and, 
 for a great length of time, ruling elder of the church. " I^lder Pain," or Penn, 
 as the name was often spelled, enjoyed the friendship of John Norton, and 
 all the ministers far and near; and religious meetings were often held at his 
 house. "We know nothing to justif)' us in saying that he could not have been 
 the author of this paper; but we also know nothing, except the appearance 
 of his name upon it, to impute it to bim. 
 
 The document is dated from " Salisbury." So far as we know, Elder Paine 
 always lived in Ipswich; although, having propcrt}"^ in the upper count}-, he 
 may have often been, and jwssibly in his last years resided, there. It is, it is 
 true, a strong circumstance, that his name is written, although b3'^ a late hand, 
 under the initials. It shows that the person who wrote it thought that " R. P." 
 meant Robert Paine ; but any one conversant especially with the antiquities of 
 Ipswich, or this part of the county, might naturally fall into such a mistake. 
 The authorship of documents was often erroneously ascribed. The words 
 " Robert Pain " were, probably, not on the paper when the indorsement was 
 made, "A letter to my grandfather," &c. Elder Robert Paine, if living in 1692, 
 was nmety-one j'ears of age. The document under consideration, if com- 
 posed by him, is truly a marvellous production, — an intellectual phenomenon 
 not easily to be paralleled. 
 
 The facts in reference to Robert Pike, of Salisbury, as they bear upon the 
 question of the authorship of the document, are these: He was sevent^'-six 
 years of age in 1692, and had always resided in " Salisbury." The letter and 
 argument are both in the handwriting of Captain Thomas Bradbury, Recorder 
 of old Norfolk County. On this point, there can be no question. Bradbury 
 and Pike had been fellow-to^vnsmen for more than half a century, connected 
 by all the ties of neighborhood and family intermarriage, and jointly or alter- 
 nately had borne all the civic and militar}-^ honors the people could bestow. 
 The document was prepared and delivered to the judge while Mrs. Bradbury 
 was in prison, and just one month before her trial. Pike, as has been shown 
 (p. 226), was deeply interested in her behalf. The original signature (" K. P.") 
 has the marked characteristics of the same initial letters as found in innu- 
 merable autographs of his, on file or record. There are interlineations, be- 
 yond question in Pike's handwriting. These facts demonstrate that both 
 Pike and Bradbury were concerned in producing the document. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 451 
 
 sion, in October, 1G92. It is aix able criticism upon the methods of 
 procedure at tlie trials, coudumning them in the strongest lan- 
 guage; but it was a confidential coumiunication, and not published 
 
 The histoiy of Robert Pike proves that he w.is a man of great ability, Iiad 
 a turn of mind towards logical exercises, and was. fVoin early life, conver- 
 sant with disputations. Nearly ^hy years before, he argued in town-niceting 
 against the propriety, in view of civil and ecclesiastical law, of certain acts 
 of the General Court. They arraigned, disfranchised, and otherwise punished 
 hun for his "litigiousness: " but the weight of his character soon compelled 
 them to restore his ]5olitical rights ; and the people of Salisbury, the very next 
 year, sent him among them as their deputy, and continued him from time to 
 time in that capacity. At a subsequeuit period, he was the leader aud spokes- 
 man of a party in a controversy about some ecclesiastical affairs, involving 
 apparently certain nice questions of theologj', which created a great stir through 
 the country. The contest reached so high a point, that the church at Salis- 
 bury excommunicated him; but the public voice demanded a council of 
 churches, which assembled in September, 1G76, and re-instated Major Pike, 
 condemning his excommunication, '"finding it not justifiable upon divers 
 grounds." On this occasion, as before, the General Court ft"Owned upon and 
 denounced him; but the people came again to his rescue, sending him at the 
 next election into the House of Deputies, and kept him there until raised to 
 the Upper House as an Assistant. He was in the practice of conducting causes 
 in the courts, and was long a local magistrate and one of the county- 
 judges. 
 
 He does not appear to have been present at any of the trials or examina- 
 tions of 1692; but his oificial position as Assistant caused many depositions 
 taken in his neighborhood to be acknowledged and sworn before him. While 
 entertaining the prevalent views about diabolical agency, he always disap- 
 proved of the proceedings of the Court in the particulars to which the argu- 
 ments of the communication to Jonathan Corwin apply, — the "spectre 
 evidence," — and the statements and actings of "the afHicted children." 
 There are indications that sometimes he saw through the folly of the stories 
 told by persons whose depositions he was called to attest. One John Pressy 
 was circulating a wonderful tale about an encounter he had with the spectre 
 of Susanna Martin. Pike sent for him, and took his deposition. Pressy 
 averred, that, one evening, coming from Amesbury Ferry, lie fell in with the 
 shape of Martin in the form of a body of light, which " seemed to be about 
 the bigness of a half-bushel." After much dodging and manoeuvi-ing, and 
 being lost and bewildered, wandering to and fro, tumbling into holes, — where, 
 as the deposition states, no " such pitts " were known to exist, — and other 
 misadventures, he came to blows with the light, and had several brushes with 
 it, striking it with his stick. At one time, " he thinks he gave her at least 
 forty blows." He finally succeeded in finding " his own house: but, being 
 then seized with fear, could not speak till his wife spoke to him at the door, 
 
452 SALEM WITCHCRAFT* 
 
 until many years afterwards. He says that " tlic -witclics' meetings, 
 the DeviPs baptisms and mock sacraments, -which the accusing and 
 confessing witches oft speak of, are nothing else but tlie eflect of 
 their fancy, depraved and deluded by the Devil, and not a reality 
 to be regarded or minded by any wi.so man." He charges the judges 
 with having taken testimony irom the Devil himself, through wit- 
 nesses who swore to what they said the Devil communicated 
 to them, thns indirectly introducing the Devil as a witness ; 
 and he clinches the accusation by quoting the judges themselves, 
 who, when the accusing and confessing witnesses contradicted each 
 other, got over the difliculty by saying that the Devil, in such in- 
 stances, took away the menior}^ of some of them, for the moment, 
 obscuring their brains, and misleading them. He sums up this part 
 of his reasoning in these words : *' If it be thus granted that the 
 Devil is able to represent false ideas to the imaginations of the con- 
 fessoi'S, what man of sense will regard the confessions, or any of the 
 words of these confessors ? " He says that he knows several per- 
 sons *' about the Bay," — men, for understanding, judgment, and 
 piety, inferior to few, if any, in New England, — tliat do utterly 
 condemn the said proceedings. He repudiates the idea that Salem 
 was, in any sense, exclusively responsible for the ti-ansaction ; and 
 affirms that " other justices in the country, besides the Salem jus- 
 
 and was in such a condition that the family was afraid of hmi; which story 
 being carried to the town the next day, it was, upon inquiry, understood, that 
 said Goodwife JIartin was in such a miserable case and in such pain that they 
 swabbed her body, as was reported." He concludes Iiis deposition by saying, 
 that Major Pike " seemed to be troubled that this deponent had not told him 
 of it in season that she might have been viewed to have seen what her ail 
 was." The affair had happened " about twenty-four j'ears ago." Probably 
 neither Pressy nor the Court appreciated the keenness of the major's expres- 
 sion of regret. It broke the bubble of the deposition. The whole storj' was 
 the product of a benighted imagination,- disordered by fear, tilled with inebri- 
 ate vagaries, exaggerated in nightmare, and resting upon wild and empty 
 rumors. Robert Pike's course, in the case of ilrs. Bradbury, hanuonizes with 
 the supposition that he was Corwin's correspondent. 
 
 Materials may be brought to light that will change the evidence on the 
 point. It may be found that Elder Paine died before 1692; that would dispose 
 of the question. It may appear that he was living in Salisbuiy at the time, 
 and acted with Pike and Bradbury, they giving to the paper the authority of 
 his venerable name and years. But all that is now known, constrains me to 
 the conclusion stated in the text. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 453 
 
 tices, have issued out their wan-auts ; " and states, that, of the eiglit 
 *' judges, comiuissioned for this Coui't at Salem, five do belong to 
 SuiFolk County, four of which five do belong to Boston, and there- 
 fore I see no reason why Boston should talk of Salem as though 
 their own judges had had no hand in these proceedings in Sa- 
 lem." 
 
 There is one view of the subject, upon which Brattle presses 
 with much force and severity. There is ground to suspect, that the 
 proceedings were suffered to go on after some of those appearing 
 to countenance them had ceased to have faith in the accusations. 
 He charges, directly, complicity in the escape of Mrs. Carey, Mrs. 
 English, Captain Alden, liezekiah Usher, and others, upon the 
 high officials; and says that while the evidence, upon which so 
 many had been imprisoned, sentenced, and executed, bore against 
 Mrs. Thacher, of Boston, she was never proceeded against. '* She 
 was much complained of by the afflicted persons, and yet the 
 justices would not issue out their warrants to apprehend" her and 
 certain others ; while at the very same time they were issuing, upon 
 no better or other grounds, warrants against so many others. He 
 charges the judges with this most criminal favoritism. The facts 
 hardly justify such an imputation upon the judges. They did not, 
 after the trials had begun, it is probable, ever issue warrants : 
 that was the function of. magistrates. "With the exception, per- 
 haps, of Corwin, I think there is no evidence of there having been 
 any doubts or misgivings on the bench. It is altogether too heavy 
 a charge to bring, without the strongest evidence, upon any one. 
 To. intimate that officials, or any persons, who did not believe in 
 the accusations, connived at the escape of thei^ friends and rela- 
 tives, and at the same time countenanced, pretended to believe, 
 and gave deadly effi^ct to them when directed against others, is 
 supposing a criminality and baseness too great to be readily ad- 
 mitted. In that wild reign of the worst of passions, this would 
 have transcended them all in its iniquity. The only excusable 
 people at that time were those who honestly, and without a doubt, 
 believed in the guilt of the convicted. Those who had doubts, 
 and did not frankly and fearlessly express them, were the guilty 
 ones. On their hands is the stain of the innocent blood that was 
 shed. It is not probable, and is scarcely possible, that any consid- 
 erable number could be at once doubters and prosecutors. On this 
 
454 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 point. Brattle must be understood to moan, not tliat judges, or 
 others aetlvely engaged in the prosecutions, warded oil* proceed- 
 ings against particular friends or relatives from a principle of 
 deliberate f^voritism, but that third parties, actuated by a syco- 
 phantic spirit, endeavorud to hush up or intercept complaints, 
 when directed too near to the high oflicials, or thought to gain 
 their favor by aiding the escape of persons in whom they were 
 interested. 
 
 Brattle uses the same weapon which afterwards the opponents 
 of J\Ir. Parris, in his church at Salem Village, wielded with such 
 decisive effect against him and all who abetted him. It is much 
 to be lamented, that, instead of hiding it under a confidential letter, 
 he did not at the time openly bring it to bear in tlie most public 
 and defiant manner. One bx'ave, strong voice, uttered in the face 
 of the court and in the congregations of the people, echoed from 
 the corners of the streets, and reaching the ears of the governor 
 and magistrates, denouncing the entire proceedings as the dam- 
 nable crime of familiarity with evil spirits, and sorcery of the 
 blackest dye, might perhaps have recalled the judges, the people, 
 and the rulers to their senses. If the spirit of the ancient prophets 
 of God, of the Quakers of the preceding age, or of true reform- 
 ers of any age, had existed in any breast, the experinient would 
 have been tried. Brattle says, — 
 
 " I cannot but admire that any should go with their distempered 
 friends and relations to the afflicted children, to know what their dis- 
 tempered friends ail, whetiier they are not bewitched, who it is that 
 afflicts them, and the like. It is true, I know no reason why these 
 afflicted may not be consulted as well as any other, if so be that it was 
 only their natural and ordinary knowledge that was had recourse to : 
 but it is not on this notion that these afflicted children are sought unto, 
 but as they have a supernatural knowledge ; a knowledge which they 
 obtain by their holding correspondence with spectres or evil sj)irits, as 
 they themselves grant. This consulting of these afflicted cliildren, 
 as abovesaid, seems to me to be a very gross evil, a real abomination, 
 not fit to be known in New England ; and yet is a thing practised, not 
 only by Tom and John, — I mean the rude and more ignorant sortj — 
 but by many who profess high, and pass among us for some of the 
 better sort. This is that whicli aggravates the evib and makes it 
 heinous and tremendous ; and yet this is not the worst of it, - — for, as 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 455 
 
 sure as I now write to you, even some of our civil leaders and spiritual 
 teachers, who, I tliink, should punish and preach down such sorcery 
 and wickedness, do yet allow of, encourage, yea, and practise, this 
 very abomination. I know there are several worthy gentlemen in 
 Salem who account this practice as an abomination, Iiave trembled to 
 see the methods of this nature which others have used, and have de- 
 clared themselves to think the practice to be very evil and corrupt- 
 But all avails little with the abettors of the said practice." 
 
 If Mr. Brattle and the " several worthy gentlemen" to whom 
 he alludes, instead of sitting in "trembling'' silence, or whisper- 
 ing in private their disapprobation, or writing letters under the in- 
 junction of secrecy, had come boldly out, and denounced the whole 
 thing, in a spirit of true courage, meeting and defying the risk, 
 and carrying the war home, and promptly, upon the ministers, 
 magistrates, and judges, the}' might have succeeded, and exploded 
 the delusion before it Lad reached its fatal results. 
 
 He mentions, in the coui'se of his letter, among those persons 
 known by him to disapprove of the proceedings, — 
 
 ''The Hon. Simon Bradstreet, Esq. (our late governor), the Hon. 
 Thomas Danforth, Esq. (our late deputy-governor), the Rev. Mr. 
 Increase Mather, and the Eev. Mr. Samuel Willard. Major N. Sal- 
 tonstall, Esq., who was one of the judges, has left the court, and is 
 very much dissatisfied with the proceedings of it. Excepting Mr. 
 Hale, Mr. Noyes, and Mr. Parris, the reverend elders, almost through- 
 out the whole country, are very much dissatisfied. Several of the 
 late justices — viz., Thomas Graves, Esq.; N. Byfield, Esq.; Francis 
 Foxcroft, Esq. — are much dissatisfied; also several of the present 
 justices, and, in particular, some of the Boston justices, were resolved 
 rather to throw up their commissions than be active in disturbing the 
 liberty of Their Majesties' subjects merely on the accusations of these 
 afflicted, possessed cliildren." 
 
 It is to be observed, that the dissatisfaction was with some of 
 the methods adopted in the proceedings, and not with the prosecu- 
 tions themselves. Increase Mather and Samuel "Willard signed 
 the paper indorsing Deodat Lawson's famous sermon, which surely 
 drove on the prosecutions ; and the former expressed, in print, 
 his approbation of his son Cotton''s ** Wonders of the Invisible 
 World," in which he labors to defend the witchcraft prosecutions, 
 and to make it out that those who suffered were "malefactors." 
 
456 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Dr. Increase Mather is understood to have countenanced the 
 burning of CalePs book, some few years aftcnvards, in the square 
 of the public grounds of Harvard College, of which institution lie 
 Tvas then president. It cannot be doubted, however, that both the 
 elder Mather and Mr. AVillard had expressed, more or less dis- 
 tinctly, their disapprobation of some of the details of the proceed- 
 ings. It is honorable to their memories, and shows that the former 
 ■was not -wholly blinded by parental weakness, but willing to ex- 
 press his dissent, in some particulars, from the course of his 
 distinguished son, and that the latter had an independence of 
 character -which enabled him to criticise and censure a court in 
 which three of his parishioners sat as judges. 
 
 Brattle relates a stor}^ which seems to indicate that Increase 
 Mather sometimes -was unguarded enough to express himself -with 
 severity against those who gave countenance to the proceedings. 
 "A person from Boston, of no small note, carried up his child 
 to Salem, near twenty miles, on purpose that he might consult the 
 afflicted about his child, which accordingly he did ; and the afflicted 
 told him that his child was afflicted by IMrs. Carey and Mrs. Obin- 
 son." The ** afflicted," in this and some other instances, had struck 
 too high. The magistrates in Boston were unwilling to issue a 
 warrant against Mrs. Obinson, and Mrs. Carey had fled. All 
 that the man got for his pains, in carrj'ing his child to Salem, was 
 a hearty scolding from Increase Mather, who asked him "whether 
 there was not a God in Boston, that he should go to the Devil, in 
 Salem, for advice." 
 
 Bradstreet^s great age prevented, it is to be supposed, his 
 public appearance in the affair; but his course in a case which 
 occurred twelve years before fully justifies confidence in the 
 statement of Brattle. The tradition has always prevailed, that 
 he looked with disapprobation upon the proceedings, from be- 
 ginning to end. The course of his sons, and the action taken 
 against them, is quite decisive to the point. 
 
 Facts have been stated, which show that Thomas Danforth, if 
 he disapproved of the proceedings at Salem, in October, must 
 have undergone a rapid change of sentiments. No irregularities, 
 improprieties, extravagances, or absurdities ever occurred in the 
 examinations or trials greater than he was full}^ responsible for in 
 April. Having, in the mean while, been superseded in office, he 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 457 
 
 tad leisure, in his retirement, to think over the ■\vliolc matter; 
 and it is satisfactory to find that he sa-\v the error of the ways in 
 which he had gone himself, and led others. 
 
 The result of the inquiry on this point is, that, while some, out- 
 side of the village, began early to doubt the propriet}' of the 
 proceedings in certain particuhars, they failed, with the single ex- 
 ception of Robert Pike, to make manly and seasonable resistance. 
 He remonstrated in a writing signed with his own initials, and 
 while the executions were going on. He sent it to one of the 
 judges, and did not shrink from having his action known. No 
 other voice was raised, no one else breasted the storm, while it 
 lasted. The errors which led to the delusion were not attacked 
 from any quarter at any time during that generation, and have 
 remained lurking in many minds, in a greater or less degree, to 
 our day. 
 
 There were, however, three persons In Salem Village and its 
 immediate vicinity, who deserve to be for ever remembered in 
 this connection. They resisted the fanaticism at the beginning, 
 and defied its wrath. Joseph Putnam was a little more than 
 twenty-two years of age. He probabh- did not enter into the 
 question of the doctrines then maintained on such subjects, but 
 was led by his natural sagacity and independent spirit to the 
 course he took. In opposition to both his brothers and both his 
 uncles, and all the rest of his powerful and extensive family, he 
 denounced the proceedings through and through. At the very 
 moment when the excit-ement was at its most terrible stage, and' 
 Mr. Parris held the life of ever}- one in his hands, Joseph Putnam ■ 
 expressed his disapprobation of his conduct by carr^'ing his infant i 
 child to the church in Salem to be baptized. This was a public 
 and most significant act. For six months, he kept some one of 
 his horses under saddle night and day, without a moment^s in- 
 termission of the precaution ; and he and his family were constantly 
 armed. It was understood, that, if any one attempted to arrest 
 him, it would be at the peril of life. If the marshal should ap- 
 proach with overwhelming force, he would spring to his saddle, 
 and bid defiance to pursuit. Such a course as this, taken by one 
 standing alone against the whole community to which he belonged, 
 shows a degree of courage, spirit, and resolution, which cannot but 
 be held in honor. 
 
458 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Martlia Corey was an aged Clwlstian professor, of eminently 
 devout habits and principles. It is, indeed, a, strange fact, that, 
 in her humble home, surrounded, as it then was, by a wilderness, 
 this husbandman''s wife should have reached a lieight so above and 
 beyond her age. But it is proved conclusively by the depositions 
 adduced against her, that her mind was wlioll}' disenthralled from 
 the errors of that period. She utterly repudiated the doctrines of 
 witchcraft, and expressed herself freely and fearlessly against 
 tliem. The pra^-er which this woman made "upon the ladder,'' 
 and which produced such an impression on those wlio heard it, was 
 undoubtedly expressive of enlightened piety, worthy of being char- 
 acterized as " eminent'" in its sentiments, and in its demonstration 
 of an innocent lieart and life. 
 
 Tlie following paper, in the handwriting of Mr. Parris, is among 
 the court-files. It has not the ordinary form of a deposition, but 
 somehow was sworn to in Court : — 
 
 " The morning after the examination of Goody Nurse, Sam. Sibley 
 met John Procter about ilr. Phillips's, who called to said Sibley as he 
 was going to said Phillips's^ and asked how the folks did at the village. 
 He answered, he heard they were very bad last night, but he had heard 
 nothing this morning. Procter replied, he was going to fetch home his 
 jade ; he left her there last night, and had rather given forty shillings 
 than let her come up. Said Sibley asked why he talked so. Procter 
 replied, if they were let alone so, we should all be devils and witches 
 quickly ; they should rather be had to the whipping-post ; but he would 
 fetch his jade home, and thrash the Devil out of her, — and more to the 
 like purpose, crying, ' Hang them ! hang them ! * " 
 
 111 another document, it is stated that jS]"athaniel IngersoU and 
 others heard John Procter tell Joseph Pope, " that, if he had John 
 Indian in his custody, be would soon beat the Devil out of him." 
 
 The declarations thus ascribed to John Procter show that his 
 views of the subject were about right ; and it will probably be gene- 
 rally conceded, that the treatment he proposed for Maiy AVarren 
 and "John Indian," if dealt out to the " afflicted childx*en" gen- 
 erally at the outset, would have prevented all the mischief. A 
 sound thrashing all round, seasonably administered, would have 
 reached the root of the matter ; and the story which has now been 
 concluded of Salem witchcraft would never have been told. 
 
 When the witchcraft tornado burst upon Andover, it prostrated 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 459 
 
 every tiling before it. Accusers and accused were counted by 
 scores, and under tlie panic of the hour the accused generally 
 confessed. But Andover was the first to recover its senses. On 
 the 12th of October, 1692, seven of its citizens addressed a memo-^ 
 rial to the General Court in behalf of their wives and children, 
 praying that they might be released on bond, **to remain as 
 prisoners in their own houses, where they may be more tenderly 
 cared for.'' They speak of their ** distressed condition in prison, 
 — a company of poor disti-essed creatures as full of inward grief 
 and trouble as they are able to bear up in life withal." They 
 i*efer to the want of ** food convenient" for them, and to " the cold- 
 ness of the winter season that is coming which may despatch such 
 out of the way that have not been used to such hardships," and 
 represent the ruinous effects of their absence from their families, 
 who were at the same time required to maintain them in jail. Ou 
 the 18th of October, the two ministers of Andover, Francis Dane 
 and Thomas Barnard, with twenty-four other citizens of Andover, 
 addressed a similar memorial to the Governor and General Court, 
 in which we find the first public expression of condemnation of 
 the proceedings. They call the accusers *' distempered persons." 
 They express the opinion that their friends and neighbors have 
 been misrepresented. They bear the strongest testimony in favor 
 of the persons accused, that several of them are members of the 
 church in full communion, of blameless conversation, and "Avalk- 
 ing as becoraeth women professing godliness." They relate the 
 methods by which they had been deluded and terrified into con- 
 fession, and show the worthlessness of those confessions as evi- 
 dences against them. They use this bold and significant language : 
 ** Our troubles we foresee are likely to continue and increase, if 
 other methods be not taken than as yet have been ; and we know 
 not who can think himself safe, if the accusations of children and 
 others who are under a diabolical influence shall be received 
 against persons of good fame." On the 2d of January, 1693, 
 the Kev. Francis Dane addressed a letter to a brother clergyman, 
 which is among the files, and was probably designed to reach the 
 e3-es of the Court, in which be vindicates Andover against the 
 scandalous reports got up by the accusers, and says that a resi- 
 dence there of forty-four years, and intimacy "with the people, 
 enable him to declare that they are not justly chargeable with any 
 
460 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 such things as witchcraft, charms, or sorceries of any kiiul. He 
 expresses himself in strong language: "Had charity been put 
 on, the Devil would not have had such an advantage against us ; 
 and I believe many innocent persons have been accused and 
 imprisoned." He denounces *'the conceit of spectre evidence," 
 and warns against continuing in a. course of proceeding that will 
 procure ** the divine displeasure." A paper signed by Dudley 
 Bradstreet, Francis Dane, Thomas Barnard, and thirty-eight other 
 men and twelve women of Andover, was presented to the Court 
 at Salem to the same effect. 
 
 None of the persons named by Brattle can present so strong % 
 claim to the credit of having opposed the witchcraft fanaticism 
 before the close of the year 1692, as Francis Dane, his colleague 
 Barnard, and the citizens of Andover, who signed memorials to the 
 Legislature on the 18th of October, and to the Court of Trials about 
 the same time. There is, indeed, one conclusive proof that the 
 venerable senior pastor of the Andover Church made his disappro- 
 bation of the witchcraft proceedings known at an earlier period, 
 at least in his immediate neighborhood. The wrath of the ac- 
 cusei's was concentrated upon him to an unparalleled extent from 
 their entrance into Andover. They did not venture to attack him 
 directly. His venerable age and commanding position made it 
 inexpedient: but they struck as near him, and' at as many points, 
 as they dared. They accused, imprisoned, and caused to be con- 
 victed and sentenced to death, one of his daughters, Abigail 
 Faulkner. They accused, imprisoned, and brought to trial another, 
 Elizabeth Johnson. The}' imprisoned, and brought to the sentence 
 of death, his grand-daughter, Elizabeth Johnson, Jr. They cried 
 out against, and caused to be impwsoned, several others of his 
 grandchildren . They accused and imprisoned Deliverance the 
 wife, and also the *' man-servant,^' of his son Nathaniel, There 
 is reason for supposing, as has been stated, that Elizabeth How 
 was the wife of his nephew. Surely, no one was more signalized 
 by their malice and resentment than Francis Dane ; and he 
 deserves to be recognized as standing pre-eminent, and, for a 
 time, almost alone, in bold denunciation and courageous resist- 
 ance of the execrable proceedings of that dai-k day. 
 
 Francis Dane made the following statement, also designed to 
 reach the authorities, which cannot be read by any person of sen- 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 461 
 
 sibility without feeling its force, although it made no impressiou 
 upon the Court at the time : — 
 
 " Couceruing ray daughter Elizabeth Jolmson, I never liad ground 
 to suspect her, neither have I heard any other to accuse her, till \>y 
 spectre evidence she was brought forth ; but this I must say, she was 
 weak, and incapacious, fearful, and in that respect I fear she hath 
 falsely accused herself and others. Not long before she was sent for, 
 she spake as to her own particular, that she was sure she was no 
 witch. And for her daughter Elizabeth, she is but simplish at the 
 best; and I fear the common speech, tliat was frequently spread among 
 us, of their liberty if they would confess, and the like expression 
 used by some, have brought many into a snare. The Lord direct and 
 guide those that are in place, and give us all submissive wills ; and let 
 the Lord do with me and mine wliat seems good in liis own eyes ! " 
 
 There is nothing in the proceedings of the Special Court of 
 Oyer and Terminer more disgraceful than the fact, that the regu- 
 lar Court of Superior Judicature, the next year, after the public 
 mind had been rescued from the delusion, and the spectral evi- 
 dence repudiated, proceeded to try these and other persons, and, 
 in the face of such statements as the foregoing, actually con- 
 demned to death Elizabeth Johnson, Jr. 
 
 It is remarkable that Brattle does not mention Calef. The 
 understanding has been that they acted in concert, and that Brattle 
 had a hand in getting up some of CalePs arguments. The silence 
 of Brattle is not, upon the whole, at all inconsistent with their 
 mutual action and alliance. As Calef was more perfectly unem- 
 barrassed, without personal relations to the clergy and others in 
 high station, and not afraid to stand in the gap, it was thought 
 best to let him take the fire of Cotton Mather. His name had 
 not been connected with the matter in the public apprehension. 
 He was a merchant of Boston, and a son of Robert Calef of 
 Koxbur)'. His attention was called to the proceedings which origi- 
 nated in Salem Village ; and his strong faculties and moral courage 
 enabled liim to become the most efficient opponent, in his day, 
 of the system of false reasoning upon which the prosecutions 
 rested. He prepared several able papers in diflfcrent forms, in 
 which he discussed the subject with great ability, and treated 
 Cotton Mather and all others whom he regarded as instru- 
 mental in precipitating the community into the fatal tragedy. 
 
462 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 with the greatest severity of language and force of logic, Jiolding 
 up the whole procedure to merited condemnation. They were 
 first printed, at London, in 1700, in a small quarto volume, under 
 the title of '* ^Slore Wonders of the Livisible World."" This pub- 
 lication burst like a bomb-shell upon all who had been con- 
 cerned in promoting the witchcraft prosecutions. Cotton Mather 
 was exasperated to the highest pitch. He says in his diary : '* He 
 sent this vile volume to London to be published, and the book is 
 printed 5 and the impression is, this day week, arrived here. The 
 books that I have sent over into England, with a design to glorify 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, are not published, but strangely delayed ; 
 and the books that are sent over to vilify me, and render me in- 
 capable to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, — these are published.'" 
 Calef 's writings gave a shock to Mather's influence, from which it 
 never recovered. 
 
 Great difficulty has been experienced in drawing the story out 
 in its true chronological sequence. The effect produced upon the 
 public mind, when it became convinced that the proceedings had 
 been wrong, and innocent blood shed, was a universal disposition 
 to bury the recollection of the whole transaction in silence, and, if 
 possible, oblivion. This led to a suppression and destruction of 
 the ordinary materials of history. Papers were abstracted from 
 the files, documents in private hands were committed to the flames, 
 and a chasm left in the records of churches and public bodies. 
 The journal of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer is no- 
 where to be found. Hutchinson appears to have had access to it. 
 It cannot well be supposed to have been lost by fire or other acci- 
 dent, because the records of the regular Court, up to the very time 
 when the Special Court came into operation, and from the time 
 when it expired, are preserved in order. A portion of the papers 
 connected with the tx-ials have come down in a miscellaneous, 
 scattered, and dilapidated state, in the offices of the Clerk of the 
 Courts in the County of Essex, and of the Secretary of the Com- 
 monwealth. By far the larger part have been abstracted, of which 
 a few have been deposited, by parties into whose hands they had 
 happened to come, with the Massachusetts Historical Society in 
 Boston and the Essex Institute at Salem. The records of the par- 
 ish of Salem Village, although exceedingly well kept before and 
 after 1692 by Thomas Putnam, are in another hanli for that 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 463 
 
 year, very brief, and make no reference whatever to tbc Avitcli- 
 craft transactions. This general desire to obliterate the memory 
 of the calamity has nearly extinguished tradition. It is more 
 scanty and less reliable than on any other event at an equal dis- 
 tance in the past. A subject on which men avoided to speak soon 
 died out of knowledge. The localities of many very interesting 
 incidents cannot be identified. This is very observable, and pecu- 
 liarly remarkable as to places in the now City of Salem. The 
 reminiscences floating about are vague, contradictoiy, and few in 
 number. In a comraunitj- of uncommon intelligence, composed, to 
 a greater degree perhaps than almost anj- other, of families that have 
 been here from the first, very inquisitive for knowledge, and always 
 imbued with the histoi*ical spirit, it is ti-uty surprising how little 
 has been borne down, by speech and memory, in the form of an- 
 ecdote, personal traits, or local incidents, of this most extraor- 
 dinary and wonderful occurrence of such world-wide celebrity. 
 Almost all that we know is gleaned from the offices of the Regis- 
 try of Deeds and Wills.* 
 
 ^ As an illustration of the oblivion that had settled over the details of the 
 transactions and characters connected with the witchcraft prosecutioas, it may 
 be mentioned, that when, thirtj'-five years ago, I prepared the work entitled 
 ''Lectures on Witchcraft; comprising a History of the Delusion in, 1692," al- 
 though professional engagements prevented my making the elaborate explora- 
 tion that has now been given to the subject, I extended the investigation over 
 the ordinary fields of research, and took particular pains to obtain informa- 
 tion brought down by tradition, gleaned all that could be gathered from the 
 memories of old persons then living of what they had heard from their prede- 
 cessors, and sought for every thingtbat local antiquaries and genealogists could 
 contribute. I find, by the methods of inquiry' adopted in the preparation of 
 the present work, how inadequate and meagre was the knowledge then pos- 
 sessed. Most of the persons accused and executed, like Giles Corey, his wife 
 Mai*tha, and Bridget Bishop, were supposed to have been of humble, if not 
 mean condition, of vagrant habits, and more or less despicable repute. By 
 following the threads placed in mj' hands, in the files of the county-offices of 
 Registry of Deeds and Wills, and documents connected -with trials at law, and 
 by a collation of convej-^ances and the administration of estates, I find that 
 Corey, however eccentric or open to criticism in some features of character 
 and passages of his life, was a large landholder, and a man of singular force 
 and acuteness of intellect; while his wife had an intelligence in advance of 
 her times, and was a woman of eminent piety. The same is found to have been 
 the case with most of those who suffered. 
 
 The reader may judge of my surprise in now discovering, that, while 
 
46*1 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 It is remarkable, that the mar:^hal and sheriff, both quite young 
 men, so soon followed their victims to the other world. Jonathan 
 AYalcot, the father of Mary, and next neighbor to P'arris, removed 
 from the village, and died at Salem in 1699. 'Jliomas Putnam 
 and Ann his wife, the parents of the "afflicted child, ^' who 
 acted so extraordinary a part in the proceedings and of whom 
 further mention will be made, died in 1699, — the former on the 
 2J:th of May, the latter on tJie 8th of June, — at the respective 
 ages of forty-seven and thirty-eight.* There are indications that 
 they saw the errors into which they had been led. If their eyes 
 were at all opened to this view, how terrible nmst have been the 
 thought of the cruel wrongs and wide-spread ruin of which they 
 bad been the cause ! Of the circumstances of their deaths, or 
 their last words and sentiments, we have no knowledge. It is 
 not strange, that, in addition to all her woes, the death of her 
 husband was more than Mrs. Ann Putnam could bear, and that 
 
 writing the " Lectures on Witchcraft," I was owning and occupying a part of 
 the estate of Bridget Bishop, if not actually living in her house. The hard, 
 impenetrable, all but petrified oak frame seems to argue that it dates back 
 as far as when she rebuilt and renewed the original structure. Little, how- 
 ever, did I suspect, while delivering those lectures in the Lyceum Hall, that 
 we were assembled on the site of her orchard, the scene of the preternatural 
 and diabolical feats charged upon her by the testimony of Louder and 
 others. Her estate was one of the most eligible and valuable in the old 
 town, with a front, as has been mentioned, of a hundred feet on Washington 
 Street, and extending along Church Street more than half the distance to 
 St. Peter's Street. At the same time, her husband seems to have had a house 
 in the village, near the head of Bass River. It is truly remarkable, that the 
 locality of the property and residence of a person of her position, and who led 
 the way among the victims of such an awful tragedj--, should have become 
 wholly obliterated from memory and tradition, in a community of such intelli- 
 gence, consisting, in so large a degree, of old families, tracing themselves 
 back to the earliest generations, and among whom the innumerable descend- 
 ants of her seven great-grandchildren have continued to this day. It can only 
 be accounted for by the considerations mentioned in the text. Tradition was 
 stifled by horror and shame. What all desired to forget was forgotten- 
 The onlj' recourse was in oblivion; and all, sufl*erers and actors alike, found 
 shelter under it. 
 
 * The looseness and inaccuracy of persons in reference to their own ages, in 
 early times, is quite observable. In depositions, they speak of themselves as 
 "about" so many j^ears, or as of so many years "or thereabouts." A 
 variance on this point is often found in the statements of the same person 
 
mmfofmmssmmi 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 465 
 
 slie followed him so soon to the grave. Of the other acoiuers, 
 ■\ve have but little information. Elizabeth Booth was married to 
 Israel Shaw about the 3-ear 1700. ^larr AA'alcot ^vi\s man-ied, 
 somewhere between 1G9'2 and 1G07, to a person belonging to AVo- 
 burn, whose name is torn or worn off from !Mr. Parris's records. 
 Of the other ** afflicted children" nothing is known, bevond tlie 
 fact, that the Act of the Legislature of the Provhice, reversing 
 the judgments, and taking off the attainder from those who were 
 sentenced to death in 1692, has this paragraph; "Some of the 
 principal accusers and witnesses in those dark and severe prosecu- 
 tions have since discovered themselves to be persons of prolligate 
 and vicious conversation;" and Calef speaks of them as *• vile 
 varlets," and asserts that their reputations were not without spot 
 before, and that subsequently they became abandoned to open 
 and shameless vice. 
 
 A vez-y considerable number of the people left the place. John 
 Shepard and Samuel Sibley sold their lands, and went elsewhtre ; 
 as did Peter Cloyse, who never brought his family to the village 
 after his wife^s release from prison. Edward and Sarah Bishop 
 sold their estates, and took up their abode at Rehoboth. Some 
 of the Kaymond family removed to Middleborough. The Ha;\nies 
 family emigrated to New Jersey. No mention is afterwards found 
 of other families in the record-books. The descendants of Thomas 
 and Edward Putnam, in the next generation, were mostly dis- 
 
 at different times. Neither are records ahvays to be relied upon as to pre- 
 cision. In the record-book of the villag-e church, Mr. Parris enters the age 
 of Mrs. Ann Putnam, at the date of her admission, June 4, 1G91, as " Aim: 
 setat: 27." But an "Account of the Earl^"" Settlers of Salisbury," iu the 
 "New-England Historical and Genealogical Register,'' vol. vH. p. 314, gives 
 the date of her birth " 15, 4, 1661." Her age is stated above according to 
 this last authority; and, if correct, she was not so youug, at the time of her 
 marriage, as intimated (vol. i. p. 253), but seventeen years live months and 
 ten days. It is difficult, however, to conceive how Pan-is, who was careful 
 about such matters, and undoubtedly had his iufonnation from her own lips, 
 could have been so far out of the way. Her brother, 'William Carr, in lfi92, 
 deposed that he was then forty-one years of age or thereabouts; whereas, 
 the " Account of the Early Settlers of Salisbury," just referred to, gives the 
 date of his birth " 15, 1, 1648." It is indeed singular, that two member? of 
 a family of their standing should have been under an error as to their ovra 
 age; one to an extent of almost, the other of some months more than, 
 three years. 
 
 VOL. II. 30 
 
466 SALEJI WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 persed to otlior places ; but those of Joseph remained on his hands, 
 and have occupied his homestead to this day. It Js a singular 
 circumstance, that some of the spots where, particidarly, tlie 
 great mischief -was brewed, are, and long have been, dcserttMl. 
 Where the parsonage stood, with its barn and garden and v.tU 
 and pathways, is now o bare and rugged field, without a vestige 
 of its former occupancy, except a few broken bricks that mark the 
 site of the house. The same is the case of the homestead of Jona- 
 than Walcot. It was in these two families that the affair began 
 and was matured. The spots where several others, who figured 
 in the proceedings, lived, have ceased to be occupied; and the 
 onl}' signs of former habitation are hollows in the ground, frag- 
 ments of pottery, and heaps of stones denoting the location of 
 cellars and walls. Here and there, where houses and other struc- 
 tures once stood, the blight still rests. 
 
 Some circnmstanccs relating to the personal historj'^ of those 
 who experienced the greatest misery during the prevalence of the 
 dreadful fanaticism, and were left to mourn over its victims, have 
 happened to be preserved in records and documents on file. On 
 the oOth of November, 1699, Margaret Jacobs was married to 
 John Foster. She belonged to Mr. Noyes's parish ; but the recol- 
 lection of his agency in pushing on proceedings which carried in 
 their train the execution of her aged grandfather, the exile of her 
 father, the long imprisoument of her mother and herself, with the 
 prospect of a violent and shameful death hanging over them every 
 hour, and, above all, her own wretched abandonment of truth and 
 conscience for a while, probably under his persuasion, made it 
 impossible for her to think of being married by him. Mr. Greene 
 was known to sympathize with those who had suffered, and the 
 couple went to the village to be united. Some years afterwards, 
 when the church of the Middle Precinct, now South Danvers, was 
 organized, John and IMargaret Foster, among the first, took their 
 children there for baptism ; and their descendants are numerous, 
 in this neighborhood and elsewhere. Margaret, the widow of 
 John Willard, married William Towne. Elizabeth, the widow 
 of John Procter, married, subsequently to 1696, a person named 
 Richards. Edward Bishop, the husband of Bridget, a few years 
 afterwards was appointed guardian of Susannah Mason, the only 
 child of Christian, who was the only child of Bridget by her 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 467 
 
 former husband Thomas Oliver. Bishop seems to have invested 
 the moiR'}' of his ward in the lot at the extreme end of Forrester 
 Street, where it eounccts with Essex Street, bounded by For- 
 rester Street on the north and cast, and Essex Street on the 
 south. This was the property of Susannah when she married 
 John Becket, Jr. Bishop appears to have continued his busi- 
 ness of a sawyer to a very advanced age, and died in Salem, in 
 1705. 
 
 Sarah I^urse, about two 3'"ears after her niother^s deatli, married 
 Michael Bowden, of jMarblehead ; and they occupied her father^s 
 house, in the town of Salem, of which he had retained the pos- 
 session. His family having thus all been married off, Francis 
 Nurse gave up his homestead to his son Samuel, and divided his 
 remaining property among his four sons and four daughters. He 
 made no formal deed or will, but drew up a paper, dated Dec. 4, 
 1694:, describing the distribution of the estate, and what he ex- 
 pected of his children. He gave them immediate occupancy and 
 possession of their respective portions- The provision made by 
 the old man for his comfort, and the conditions required of his 
 children, are curious. They give an interesting insight of the life 
 of a rural patriarch. He reserved his " great chair and cushion ; " 
 a great chest ; his bed and bedding ; wardrobe, linen and woollen ; 
 a pewter pot; one mare, bridle, saddle, and sufficient fodder; the 
 whole of the crop of corn, both Indian and Engbsh, he had made 
 that year. The children were to discharge all the debts of his 
 estate, pay him fourteen pounds a year, and contribute equally, 
 as much more as might be necessary for his comfoi*table mainte- 
 nance, and also to his "decent burial." The labors of his life 
 had closed. He had borne the heaviest burden that can he laid 
 on the heart of a good man. He found rest, and sought solace 
 and support, in the society and love of his childi*en and their fami- 
 lies, as he rode from house to house on the road he had opened, 
 by which they all communicated with each other. The parish 
 records show that he continued his interest in its affairs. He 
 lived just long enough to behold sure evidence that justice would 
 be done to the memory of those who suffered, and the authors of 
 the mischief be consigned to the condemnation of mankind. The 
 tide, upon which Mr. Parris had ridden to the destruction of so 
 many, had turned ; and it was becoming apparent to all, that 
 
468 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 lie would soon be conipGllcd to disappear from his iiiinistry in 
 tlie village, before the awakening resentment of the people and the 
 ministers. Francis Nurse died on tlie 22d of November, 1G95, 
 sevent3'-seven years of age. His sons with their wives, and his 
 daughters with their husbands, went into the Probate Court with 
 the paper before described, and unanimously requested the judge 
 to have the estate divided according to its terms. Tliis is conclu- 
 sive proof that the father had been just and wise in his arrange- 
 ments, and that true fraternal love and harmony pervaded the 
 whole family. The descendants, under the names of Bowden, 
 TarbcU, and Russell, are dispersed in various parts of the coun- 
 tiy : those under the name of Preston, while some have gone 
 elsewhere, have been ever since, and still are, among the most 
 respectable and honored citizens of the village. Some of the 
 name of Nurse have also remained, and worthily represent and 
 pei-petuate it. 
 
 I have spoken of the tide^s beginning to turn in 1695. Sure 
 indications to that effect were then quite visible. It had begun 
 far down in the public mind before the prosecutions ceased; 
 but it was long before the change became apparent on the sur- 
 face. It was long before men found utterance for their feelings. 
 
 Persons living at a distance have been accustomed, and are to 
 this day, to treat the Salem-witchcraft transaction in the spirit of 
 lightsome ridicule, and to make it the subject of jeers and jokes. 
 Not so those who have lived on, or near, the fatal scene. They 
 have ever regarded it with solemn awe and profound sorrow, 
 and shunned the mention, and even the remembrance, of its de- 
 tails. This prevented an immediate expression of feeling, and 
 delayed movements in the way of attempting a reparation of the 
 wrongs that had been committed. The heart sickened, the lips 
 were dumb, at the very thought of those wrongs. Reparation 
 was impossible. The dead were be3'ond its reach- The sorrows 
 and anguish of survivors were also beyond its reach. The voice 
 of sympathy was felt to be unworthy to obtrude upon sensibilities 
 that had been so outraged. The only refuge left for the indi- 
 viduals who had been bereaved, and for the body of the people 
 who realized that innocent blood was on all their hands, was in 
 humble and soul-subdued silence, and in prayers for forgiveness 
 from God and from each other. 
 
SDPPLEMENT. 469 
 
 It "was long before the public mind recovered from its paraly- 
 sis. No one knew what ought to be said or done, the ti-agedy 
 had been so awful. The parties who had acted in it Avcrc so 
 numerous, and of such standing, including almost all the most 
 eminent and honored leaders of tJie commiinlty from the bench, 
 the bar, the magistracy, the pulpit, the medical faculty, and in 
 fact all classes and descriptions of persons ; the mysteries con- 
 nected with the accusers and confessors ; the uni^'ersal preva- 
 lence of the legal, theological, and philosophical theories that 
 bad led to the proceedings ; the utter impossibility of realizing 
 or measuring the extent of the calamity ; and the general sliame 
 and horror associated with the subject in all minds ; prevented 
 any open, movement. Then there was the dread of rekindling 
 animosities which time was silently subduing, and nothing but 
 time could fully extinguish. Slowly, however, the remembrance 
 of wrongs was becoming obscured. Neighborhood and business 
 relations were gradually reconciling the estranged. Offices of 
 civility, courtesy, and good-will were reviving ; social and family 
 intimacies and connections were taking effect and restoring the 
 community to a natural and satisfactory condition. Every day, 
 the sentiment was sinking deeper in the public mind, that some- 
 thing was required to be done to avert the displeasure of Heaven 
 from a guilty laud. But while some were ready to forgive, and 
 some had the grace to ask to be forgiven, any general move- 
 ment in this direction was obstructed by difficulties hard to be 
 surmounted. 
 
 The wrongs committed were so remediless, the outrages upon 
 right, character, and life, had been so shocking, that it was ex- 
 pecting too much from the ordinary standard of humanity to 
 demand a general oblivion. On the other hand, so many had 
 been responsible for them, and their promoters embraced such 
 a great majority of all the leading classes of society, that it was 
 impossible to call them to account. Dr. Bentley describes the 
 condition of the community, in some brief and pregnant sen- 
 tences, characteristic of liis peculiar style : "As soon as the judges 
 ceased to condemn, the people ceased to accuse. . . . Terror at 
 the violence and guilt of the proceedings succeeded instantly to 
 the conviction of blind zeal ; and wliat every man had encouraged 
 all professed to abhor. Few dared to blame other men, because 
 
470 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 few were innocent. The guilt and the shame became the portion 
 of the country, while Salem had the infamy of being the place of 
 the transactions. . . After the public mind became quiet, few 
 things were done to disturb it. I5ut a diminished population, 
 the injury done to religion, and the distress of the aggrieved, 
 were seen and felt with the greatest son-ow. . . . Every j)lace was 
 the subject of some direful tale. Fear haunted every street, 
 ^lelancholy dwelt in silence In every place, after the sua retired. 
 Business could not, for some time, recover its former channels ; 
 and the innocent suffered with the guilty.'' 
 
 While the subject was felt to be too dark and awful to be 
 spoken of, and most men desired to bury it in silence, occasionally 
 the slumbering fires would rekindle, and the flames of animosity 
 burst forth. The recollection of the part he had acted, and the 
 feelings of many towards him In consequence, rendered the 
 situation of the sheriff often quite impleasant ; and the resentment 
 of some broke out In a shameful demonstration at his death, which 
 occurred early in 1697. Mr. English, representing that class who 
 had suffered under his official hands in 1692, having a business 
 demand upon him, in the shape of a suit for debt, stood ready 
 to seize his body after it was prepared for inteiTuent, and pre- 
 vented the funeral at the time. The body was temporarily de- 
 posited on the sheriff's ovm premises. There were, it is probable, 
 from time to time, other less noticeable occurrences manifesting 
 the long-continued existence of the unhappy state of feeling engen- 
 dered in 1692. There were really two parties in the community, 
 general!}^ both quiescent, but sometimes coming into open col- 
 lision ; the one exasperated by the wrongs they and their friends 
 had suffered, the other determined not to allow those who had 
 acted in conducting the prosecutions to be called to account for 
 what they had done. After the lapse of tliirty years, and long 
 subsequent to the death of Mr. Noyes, Mr. English was prose- 
 cuted for having said that Mr. Noyes had murdered Kebecca 
 Kurse and John Procter. 
 
 It has been suggested, that the bearing of the executive officers 
 of the law towards the prisoners was often quite harsh. This re- 
 sulted from the general feeling, in which these officials would have 
 been likely to sympathize, of the peculiarly execrable nature of 
 the crime charged upou the accused, and from the danger that 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 471 
 
 might attend the manifestation of any appearance of kindly re- 
 gard for them. So far as tlie seizure of goods is considered, 
 or the exaction of fees, the conduct of the officials was in con- 
 formity with usage and instructions. The system of the admin- 
 istration of the law, compared with our times, was stern, severe, 
 and barbarous. The whole tone of society was more unfeeling. 
 Philanthropy had not then extended its operations, or directed 
 it^ notice, to the prison. Sheriff Corwin was quite a young man, 
 being but twenty-sL\; years of age at the time of his appointment. 
 He probably acted under the advice of his relatives and connec- 
 tions on the bench. I think there is no evidence of any particular 
 cruelty evinced by him. The arrests, examinations, and imprison- 
 ments had taken ^J^a-ce under his predecessor. Marshal Herrick, 
 who continued in the service as his deputy. 
 
 That individual, indeed, had justly incurred the resentment of 
 the sufferers and their friends, by eager zeal in urging on the 
 prosecutions, perpetual officiousness, and unwarrantable inter- 
 ference against the prisoners at the preliminary examinations. 
 The odium originally attached to the marshal seems to have been 
 transferred to his successor, and the whole was laid at the door 
 of the sheriff. Marshal Herrick does not appear to have been 
 connected with Joseph Herrick, who lived on what is now called 
 Cherry Hill, but was a man of an entirely different stamp. He was 
 thirty-four years of age, and had not been very long in the country. 
 John Dunton speaks of meeting him in Salem, in 1686, and de- 
 scribes him as a * ' rery tall, handsome man, very regular and devout 
 in his attendance at church, religious without bigotry, and having 
 every man^s good word." His impatient activity against the 
 victims of the witchcraft delusion wrought a great change in the 
 condition of this popular and ''handsome" man, as is seen in 
 a petition presented by him, Dec. 8, 1692, to "His Excel- 
 lency Sir William Phips, Knight, Captain-general and Governor 
 of Their Majesties'* Territories and Dominions of Massachusetts 
 Bay in New England ; and to the Honorable William Stoughton,. 
 Esq., Deputy-G-overnor ; and to the rest of the Honored Council." 
 It begins thus: " The petition of your poor servant, George Her- 
 rick, most humbly showeth." After recounting his great and 
 various services " for the term of nine months, as marshal or 
 deputy-sheriff in apprehending many prisoners, and conveying 
 
472 SALEM "WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 them "unto prison and from prison to prison,^' lie comj)lains lliat 
 his whole time had been taken up so tiiat he m-:is incapable of 
 getting any thing for the maintenance of Wis '* poor family : " he 
 further state? that he had become so impoverislied that necessity 
 had forced him to lay down his place ; and that he nmst certahdy 
 come to want, if not in some measure supplied. **Tlicrelbrc I 
 humbly beseech Your Honors to take my case and condition so 
 far into consideration, that I may have some supply this hard 
 winter, that I and my poor children may not be destitute of suste- 
 nance, and so inevitably perish ; for I have been bred a gentleman, 
 and not much used to work, and am become despicable in these 
 hai'd times. ^' He concludes by declaring, that he is not '* weary 
 of serving his king and country," nor very scrupulous as to the 
 kind of service; for he promises that "if his habitation" could 
 thereby be ** graced with plenty in the room of penury, there 
 shall be no services too dangerous and difficult, but your poor 
 petitioner will gladly accept, and to the best of m^' power accom- 
 plish. I shall wholly lay myself at Your Honorable feet for 
 relief." Marshal Herrick died in 1695. 
 
 But, while this feeling was spreading among the people, the 
 government were doing their best to check it. There was great 
 apprehension, that, if allowed to gather force, it would burst over 
 all barriers, that no limit would be put to its demands for the 
 restoration of property seized by the officers of the law, and that 
 it would wreak vengeance upon all who had been engaged in 
 the prosecutions. Under the influence of this fear, the follow- 
 ing attempt was made to shield the sheriif of the county from 
 prosecutions for damages by those whose relatives had suf- 
 fered : — 
 
 " At a Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Jail 
 Deliver]/, held at Ipswich, the fifteenth day of May, anno Domini 1694. — 
 Present, William Stoughton, Esq., Chief-justice ; Thomas Danforth, 
 Esq. ; Samuel Sewall, Esq. 
 
 " This Court, having adjusted the accounts of George Corwin, Esq., 
 high-sheriff for the county of Essex, do allow the same to be just and 
 true ; and that there remains a balance due to him, the said Corwin, 
 of £67. 6s. 4d., which is also allowed unto him ; and, pursuant to law, 
 this Court doth fully, clearly, and absolutely acquit and discharge him, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 473 
 
 the said George Corwin, his heirs, executors, anrl administrnlors, lands 
 and tenements, goods and chattels, of and from all manner of sum or 
 sums of money, goods or chattels levied, received, or seized, and of all 
 debts, duties, and demands -which are or may be charged in his, the 
 said Cor\vin*s, accounts, or which may be imposed by reason of the 
 sheriflTs office, or any thing by him done by virtue thereof, or in 
 the execution of the same, from the time he entered into the said 
 office, to this Court." 
 
 This extraordinary attempt of the Court to close the doors of 
 justice beforehand against suits for damages did not seem to 
 have any effect ; for Mr. English compelled the executors of the 
 sheriff to pay over to him £60. ds. 
 
 At length, the government had to meet the public feeling. A 
 proclamation was issued, "By the Honorable the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Council, and Assembly of His Majesty's province of the 
 ■ IMassachu setts Bay, in General Court assembled.'" It begins thus : 
 "Whereas the anger of God is not yet turned si\ya.y, but his hand 
 is still stretched out against his people in manifold judgments ;'' 
 and, after several specifications of the calamities under -which they 
 ■were suffering, and referring to the **many days of public and 
 solemn" addresses made to God, it proceeds : " Yet we cannot but 
 also fear that there is something still wanting to accompany our 
 supplications ; and doubtless there are some particular sins which 
 God is angry with our Israel for, that have not been duly seen and 
 resented by us, about which God expects to be sought, if ever he 
 again turn our captivity." Thursday, the fourteenth of the next 
 January, was accordingly appointed to be observed as a day of 
 prayer and fasting, — 
 
 " That so all God's people may offer up fervent supplications unto him, 
 that all iniquity may be put away, which hath stirred God's holy jeal- 
 ousy against this land; that he would show us what we know not, and 
 help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more ; and especially, 
 that, whatever mistakes on either hand have been fallen into, either by 
 the body of this people or any orders of men, referring to the late 
 tragedy, raised among us by Satan and his instruments, through the 
 awful judgment of God, he would humble us therefor, and pardon all 
 the errors of his servants and people that desire to love his name; 
 that he would remove the rod of the wicked from off the lot of the 
 
474 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 righteous ; that he would bring in the American heathen, and cause 
 them to hear and obej' liis voice. 
 
 " Given at Boston, Dec. 17, 1G96, in the eightii year of His Majes- 
 ty's reign. Isaac Addixgton, Secretary.*' 
 
 The jury had acted in conformity Avith their obligations and 
 honest convictions of duty in bringing in their verdicts. They had 
 sworn to decide according to the hiw and the evidence. Tiie laAV 
 under -which they were required to act -was laid down -with abso- 
 lute positiveness by the Court. Tliey -were bound to receive it, 
 and to take and weigh the evidence that was admitted ; and to their 
 minds it was clear, decisive, and overwhelming, offered by persons 
 of good character, and confirmed by a great number of confes- 
 sions. If it had been within their province, as it always is de- 
 clared not to be, to discuss the general principles, and sit in 
 judgment on the particular penalties of law, it would not have 
 altered the case ; for, at that time, not only the common people, 
 but the wisest philosophers, supported the interpretation of the 
 law that acknowledged the existence of witchcraft, and its sanction 
 that visited it "with death. 
 
 Notwithstanding all tliis, however, so tender and sensitive were 
 the consciences of the jurors, that they signed and circulated the 
 following humble and solemn declaration of regret for the part 
 they had borne in the trials. As the publication of this paper -was 
 highly honorable to those who signed it, and cannot but be con- 
 templated with satisfaction by all their descendants, I will repeat 
 their names : — 
 
 " "We whose names are underwritten, being in the j^ear 1692 called 
 to serve as jurors in court at Salem, on trial of many who were by 
 some suspected guilty of doing acts of witchcraft upon the bodies of 
 sundry persons, — we confess that we ourselves were not capable to 
 understand, nor able to withstand, the mysterious delusions of the 
 powers of darkness and Prince of the air, but were, for want of knowl- 
 edge in ourselves and better information from others, prevailed with to 
 take up with such evidence against the accused as, on further consid- 
 eration and better information, we justly fear was insufficient for the 
 touching the lives of any (Deut. xvii. 6), Avhereby we fear we have 
 been instrumental, with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to 
 bring upon ourselves and tliis people of the Lord the guilt of innocent 
 blood; which sin the Lord saith in Scripture he would not pardon 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 475 
 
 (2 Kings xxiv. 4), — ■that is, we suppose, in regard of his temporal 
 judgments. "We do therefore hereby signify to all in general, and to 
 the surviving sufferers in special, our deep sense of, and sorrow for, 
 our errors in acting on such evidence to the condemning of any per- 
 son ; and do hereby declare, that we justly fear that we were sadly 
 deluded and mistaken, — for which we are much disquieted and dis- 
 tressed in our minds, and do therefore humbly beg forgiveness, first, 
 of God, for Christ's sake, for this our error, and pray that God would 
 not impute the guilt of it to ourselves nor others : and we also pray 
 that we may be considered candidly and aright by the living sufferers, 
 as being then under the power of a strong and general delusion, utterly 
 unacquainted with, and not experienced in, matters of that nature. 
 
 " We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all, whom we have justly 
 offended ; and do declare, according to our present minds, we would 
 none of us do such things again, on such gi-ounds, for the whole 
 world, — praying you to accept of this in way of satisfaction for our 
 offence, and that you would bless the inheritance of tlie Lord, that he 
 may be entreated for the land. 
 
 " Thomas Tisk, Foreman. Thomas Pearly, Sr. 
 
 "William Pisk. Johh Peaeodt. 
 
 JoHX Bacheler. Thomas Perkins. 
 
 Thomas Fisk, Jr. Samuel Sater. 
 
 John Dane. Andrew Eliot. 
 
 Joseph Evelixh. Henrt Herrick, Sr." 
 
 In 1697, Rev. John Hale, of Beverly, published a work on the 
 subject of the witchcraft persecutions, m which he gives the reasons 
 which led him to the conclusion that there was error at the foun- 
 dation of the proceedings. The following extract shows that he 
 took a rational -view of the subject : — 
 
 " It may be queried then. How doth it appear that there was a 
 going too far in tliis affair ■? 
 
 "Answer I. — By the number of persons accused. It cannot be 
 Imagined, that, in a place of so much knowledge, so many, in so small 
 a compass of land, should so abominably leap into the Devil's lap, — 
 at once. 
 
 "Ans. II. — The quality of several of the accused was such as 
 did bespeak better things, aud things tliat accompany salvation. 
 Persons whose blameless and holy lives before did testify for them ; 
 persons that had taken great pains to bring up titeir children in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord, such as we had charity for as for our 
 
476 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 own souls, — and charity is n Christian duty, commondcd to us in 
 1 Cor. xiii., Col. iii. 14, and many otlicr places. 
 
 "Ans. III. — The number of the afflicted by Satan daily increased, 
 till about fifty persons were thus yexcd by the Devil. This gave just 
 ground to suspect some mistake. 
 
 *'Ans. IV. — It was considerable, that nineteen were executed, 
 and all denied the crinre to the death ; and some of them were knowing 
 persons, and had before this been accounted blameless livers. And it 
 is not to be imagined but tliat, if all had been guilty, some would have^ 
 had so much tenderness as to seek mercy for their souls in the way of 
 confession, and sorrow for such a sin. 
 
 "Ans. V. — When this prosecution ceased, the Lord so chained 
 up Satan, that the afflicted grew presently well : the accused are 
 generally quiet, and for five years since we have no such molestation 
 by them." 
 
 Such reasonings as these found their way into the minds of the 
 whole community ; and it became the melancholy conviction of all 
 candid and considerate persons that innocent blood bad been shed. 
 Standing where we do, with the lights that surround us, we look 
 back upon the whole scene as an awful perversion of justice, 
 reason, and truth. 
 
 On the 13th of June, 1700, Abigail Faulkner presented a well- 
 expressed memorial to the General Court, in which she says that 
 her pardon " so far had its effect, as tliat I am yet suffered to live, 
 but this only as a malefactor convict upon record of the most 
 heinous crimes that mankind can be supposed to be guilty of ^ " and 
 prays for "the defacing of the record" against her. She claims it 
 as no more than a simple act of justice ; stating that the evidence 
 against her was wholly confined to the " afflicted, who pretended to 
 see me by their spectral sight, and not with their bodily eyes.''^ 
 That " the jmy (upon only their testimony) brought me in * Guilty,' 
 and the sentence of death was passed upon me ; " and that it had 
 been decided that such testimony was of no value. The House of 
 Representatives felt the force of her appeal, and voted that " the 
 prayer of the petitioner be granted." The council declined to con- 
 cur, but addressed " His Excellency to grant the petitioner His 
 Majesty's gracious pardon; and His Excellency expressed His 
 readiness to grant the same.'^ Some adverse influence, it seemed, 
 prevailed to prevent it. 
 
 On the 18th of March, 1702, another petition was presented to 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 477 
 
 the General Court, by persons of Andovcr, Salem Village, and 
 Topsficld, who had suffered imprisonment and condemnation, 
 and b\' the relations of others who had been condenmcd and 
 executed on the testimony, as they say, of ** possessed persons,'' 
 to this effect : — 
 
 " Your petitioners being dissatisfied and grieved that (besides what 
 the condemned persons have suffered in their persons and estates) 
 their names are exposed to infamy and reproach, while their trial and 
 condemnation stands upon public record, we therefore humbly pray 
 this honored Court that something may be publicly done to take off 
 infamy from the names and memorj'' of those who have suffered as 
 aforesaid, that none of their surviving relations nor their posterity may 
 suffer reproach on that account." 
 
 [Signed by Praucis Faulkner, Isaac Easty, Thorndike Procter, and 
 eighteen others.] 
 
 On the 20th of July, in answer to the foregoing petitions, a 
 bill was ordered by the House of Representatives to be drawn up, 
 forbidding in future such procedures, as in the witchcraft trials 
 of 1692; declaring that "no spectre evidence may hereafter be 
 accounted valid or sufficient to take away the life or good name 
 of any person or persons witliin this province, and that the infamy 
 and reproach cast on the names and posterity of said accused and 
 condemned pei-sons may in some measure be rolled away." The 
 council concurred with an additional clause, to acquit all con- 
 demned persons **of the penalties to which thc}"^ are liable upon 
 the convictions and judgments in the courts, and estate them in 
 their just credit and reputation, as if no such judgment had been 
 had." 
 
 This petition was re-enforced by an "address" to the General 
 Court, dated July 8, 1703, by several ministers of the county 
 of Essex. They speak of the accusers in the witchcraft ti-ials as 
 " young persons under diabolical molestations," and express this 
 sentiment: *' There is great reason to fear that innocent persons 
 then suffered, and that God may have a controversy with the land 
 upon tliat account." They earnestly beg that the prayer of the 
 petitioners, lately presented, may be granted. This petition was 
 signed by Thomas Barnard, of Andover; Joseph Green, of Salem 
 Village ; William Hubbard, John Wise, John Kogers, and Jabez 
 
478 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Fitch, of Ipswich; Benjamin Rolfe, of Haverhill; Samuel Chcevt'i-, 
 of Marblchead ; Joseph Gerrish, of AVenham ; Jo.scph Capon, of 
 Topsficld; Zechariah Symmcs, of Bradford ; and Thomas Synnncs, 
 of Boxford. Francis Dane, of Andovcr, had died six years before. 
 John Hale, of Beverly, had died three years before. Tlie great 
 age of John Higginson, of Salem, — eighty-seven years, — prob- 
 ablj- prevented the papers being handed to him. It is observable, 
 that Nicholas Noyes, his colleague, is not among the signers. 
 
 What prevented action, we do not know; but nothing was 
 done. Six vears afterwards, on the 25th of May, 1709, an '* hum- 
 ble address '^ was presented to the General Court by certain 
 inhabitants of the province, some of whom "had their near re- 
 lations, either parents or others, who suffered death in the dark 
 and doleful times that passed over this province in 1G92;^' and 
 others "who themselves, or some of their relations, were impris- 
 oned, impaired and blasted in their reputations and estates by rea- 
 son of the same." They pray for the passage of a ** suitable act" 
 to restore the reputations of the sufferers, and to make some re- 
 muneration ** as to what they have been damnified in their estat<5s 
 thereby." This paper was signed by Philip English and twenty- 
 one others. Philip English gave in an account in detail of what 
 articles were seized and carried away, at the time of his arrest, 
 from four of his warehouses, his wharf, and shop-house, besides 
 the expenses incurred in prison, and in escaping from it. It 
 appears by this statement, that he and his wife were nine weeks in 
 jail at Salem and Boston, Nothing was done at this session. 
 The next year, Sept. 12, 1710, Isaac Easty presented a strong 
 memorial to the General Court in reference to his case. He calls 
 for some remuneration. In speaking of the arrest and execution 
 of his *' beloved wife," he says ** my sorrow and trouble of heart in 
 being deprived of her in such a manner, which this world can 
 never make me any compensation for." At the same time, the 
 daughters of Elizabeth How, the son of Sarah Wildes, the heirs of 
 Mary Bradbury, Edward Bishop and his wife Sarah, sent in 
 severally similar petitions, — all in earnest and forcible language. 
 Charles, one of the sons of George Burroughs, presented the case 
 of his " dear and honored father; " declai-ing that his innocence of 
 the crime of which he was accused, and his excellence of character, 
 were shown in ** his careful catechising his children, and upholding 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 479 
 
 religion in liis family, and by his solemn and savory written in- 
 structions from prison/^ He describes in affecting details the 
 condition in which his father^s family of little children was left at 
 his death. One of Mr. Burroughs's daugliters, upon being re- 
 quired to sign a paper in reference to compensation, expresses her 
 distress of mind in these words : *' Every discourse on this melan- 
 choly subject doth but give a fresh wound to my bleeding heart. 
 I desire to sit down in silence." John Moulton, in behalf of the 
 family of Giles Corey, says that they " cannot sufficiently express 
 their gi-ief" for the death, in such a manner, of " their honored 
 father and mother." Samuel Nurse, in behalf of his brothers and 
 sisters, says that their "honored and dear mother had led a 
 blameless life from her youth up. . . . Her name and the name of 
 her posterity lies under reproach, the removing of which reproach 
 is the principal thing wherein we desire restitution. And, as we 
 know not how to express our loss of such a mother in such a way, 
 so we know not how to compute our charge, but leave it to the 
 judgment of others, and shall not be critical." He distinctly in- 
 timates, that they do not wish any money to be paid them, unless 
 *' the attainder is taken off." Many other petitions were presented 
 by the families of those who suifered, all in the same spirit ; and 
 several besides the isTurses insisted mainl}' upon the ** taking off 
 the attainder." 
 
 The General Court, on tlie 17th of October, 1710, passed an 
 act, that " the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, 
 and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void." In 
 simple justice, they ought to have extended the act to all who had 
 suffered; but they confined its effect to those in reference to 
 whom petitions had been presented. The families of some of 
 them had disappeared, or may not have had notice of what was 
 going on ; so that the sentence which the Government acknowledged 
 to have been unjust remains to this day unreversed against the 
 names and memory of Bridget Bishop, Susanna Martin, Alice 
 Parker, Ann Pudeator, AVilmot Read, and Margaret Scott, The 
 stain on the records of the Commonwealth has never been fully 
 effaced. What caused this dilatory and halting course on the part 
 of the Government, and who was responsible for it, cannot be 
 ascertained. Since the presentation of Abigail Faulkner''s petition 
 in 1700, the Legislature, in the popular branch at least, and the 
 
480 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Governor, appear to have been inelliied to act favorably hi the pre- 
 mises ; but some power blocked the way. There is some reason to 
 conjecture that it was the inlluence of the home government. Its 
 consent to have the prosecutions suspended, in 1G92, was not very 
 cordial, but, while it approved of " care and circumspection there- 
 in,*' expressed reluctance to alloAv any ''impediment to the ordi- 
 nary course of justice." 
 
 On the 17th of December, 1711, Governor Dudley issued his 
 warrant for the purpose of carrying out a vote of the " General 
 Assembly," •' by and with the advice and consent of Her Majes- 
 ty's Council," to pay " the sum of £678. 12a\" to " such persons 
 as are living, and to those that legall}'' rej^rcsent them that are 
 dead ; " which sum was divided as follows : — 
 
 John Procter and wife . . ... £150 
 
 George Jacobs 
 
 George Burroughs . 
 
 Sarali Good ... 
 
 Giles Corey and wife .... . . . . 
 
 Dorcas Hoar 
 
 Abigail Hobbs 
 
 Eebecca Eaiues 
 
 IMary Post . ... 
 
 Mary Lacy . 
 
 Ann Foster . 
 
 Samuel Wardwell and wife ... .... 
 
 Kebecca Nurse 
 
 Slary Easty 
 
 Mary Bradbury 20 
 
 Abigail Faulkner 
 
 John WiUard • 
 
 Sarah Wiides 
 
 Elizabeth How 
 
 Mary Parker_^ ... 
 
 Martha Carrier 
 
 The distribution, as above, according to the evidence as it has 
 come down to us, is as unjust and absurd as the smallness of the 
 
 , £150 
 
 
 
 79 
 
 
 
 . 50 
 
 
 
 . 30 
 
 
 
 . 21 
 
 
 
 21 17 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 8 14 
 
 
 
 8 10 
 
 
 
 6 10 
 
 
 
 36 15 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 7 6 
 
 
 
 £578 12 
 
 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 481 
 
 amount, and the long delay boforc it "n-ns onlered, are discredit- 
 able to the province. One of the larger i^ums ivas allowed to 
 AVilllani Good, while he clearly descrvt-d nothing, as he was an 
 adverse witness in the examination of his wife, and did what he 
 could to promote the prosecution against licr. He did not, it is 
 true, swear that he believed h^-r to be a witch ; but wdiat he said 
 tended to prejudice the maiiistrates and the public against her. 
 Benjamin FiUnani acted as his attorney, and received the money 
 for him. Good was a retainer and dependant of that branch of 
 the Putnam family: and its intluence ga^'C him so large a propor- 
 tionate amount, and not the reason or equit}" of the case. jMorc 
 was allowed to Abigail Hobbs, a very malignant witness against 
 the prisoners, than to the families of several who were executed. 
 Nearly twice as much was allowed for Abigail Faulkner, who M-as 
 pardoned, as for Elizabeth How, who was executed. The sums 
 allowed in the cases of Parker. Carrier, and Foster, were shamc- 
 fuU}-- small. The public mind evidently was not satisfied ; and the 
 Legislature were pressed for a half-century to make more ade- 
 quate compensation, and thereby vindicate the sentiment of jus- 
 tice, and redeem the honor of the province. 
 
 On the 8tli of December, 17oS, Major Samuel Sewall, a son of 
 the .Judge, introduced an order in the House of Representatives 
 for the appointment of a committee to get information relating to 
 " the circumstances of the persons and families who suffered in tlie 
 calamity of the times in and about the year 1692." Major Sewall 
 entered into the matter with gi'eat zeal. The House unanimously 
 passed the order. He was chairman of the committee ; and, on the 
 9th of December, wrote to his cousin Mitchel Sewall iu Salem, son 
 of Stephen, earnestly requesting him and John Higginson, Ksq., 
 to aid in accomplishing the object. The following is an extract 
 from a speech delivered by Governor Belcher to both Houses of 
 the Legislature, Nov. 22, 1740- It is honorable to his memory. 
 
 " The Legislature have often honored themselves in a kind and 
 generous remembrance of such families and of the posterity of such as 
 have been sufferers, either iu their persons or estates, for or by the^ 
 Government, of which tjie public records will give j^ou many instances. 
 I should therefore be gla^. there might be a committee appointed by 
 this Court to inquire into the sufierings of the people called Quakers, 
 in the early days of this country, as also into the descendants of such 
 VOL. II, 31 
 
482 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 families as were in a manner ruined in Uie mistaken niana^'cmcnt of 
 tlie terrible affair called witchcraft. I rually tliink there is something 
 incumbent on this Government to be done for relicvin^^ the estates and 
 reputations of the posterities of the uniiappy families that so sullcred ; 
 and the doing it, though so long afterwards, would douljtloss be accept- 
 able to Almight}^ God, and would reflect honor upon the present 
 Legislature." 
 
 On the olst of May, 174:9, the heirs of George Burrouglis ad- 
 dressed a petition to Governor Shirley and the General Court, sct- 
 tino; forth "the unparalleled persecutions and su{rcrini;s" of their 
 ancestor, and praying for "some recompense from this Court for 
 the losses thereby sustained by his family." It was referred to a 
 committee of both Houses. Tlie ne.xt year, the petitioners scut 
 a memorial to Governor Spencer Phips and the General Court, 
 stating, that "it hath fell out, that the Hon. ^Ir. Dauforth, 
 chairman of the said committee, had not, as yet, caUed them to- 
 gether so much as once to act tliereon, even to this day, as some of 
 the honorable committee themselves were pleased, with real con- 
 cern, to signify to your said petitioners." The House immediately 
 passed this order: "That the committee -within referred to be 
 directed to sit forthwith, consider the petition to them committed, 
 and report as soon as may be." 
 
 All that I have been able to find, as the result of these long- 
 delayed and long-protracted movements, is a statement of Dr. 
 Eentley, that the heirs of Philip English received two hundred 
 pounds. He does not say when the act to this eifect was passed. 
 Perhaps some general measure of the kind was adopted, the rec- 
 ord of which I have failed to meet. The engrossing interest of 
 the then pending French war, and of the vehement dissensions 
 that led to the Revolution, probably prevented any further atten- 
 tion to this subject, after the middle of the last century. 
 
 It is apparent from the foregoing statements and records, that 
 ■while many individuals, the people generally, and finally Governor 
 Belcher and the House of Representatives emphatically, did what 
 they could, there was an influence that prevailed to prevent for a 
 long time, if not for ever, any action of the province to satisfy the 
 demands made by justice and the honor o^he country in repair- 
 ing the great wi'ongs committed by the legislative, executive, and 
 judicial branches of the Government in 1692. The only bodies 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 483 
 
 of men who fully came up to their duty on the occasion were the 
 clergy of tlic county, and, as Avill appear, the church at Salem 
 Village. 
 
 What was done by the First Church in Salem is sJiown in the 
 following extract from its records : — 
 
 "March % 1712. — After tlie sacrament, a church-meeting was ap- 
 pointed to be at the teacher's house, at two of tlie clock in the after- 
 noon, on the sixth of the month, hehig Thursday: on which day tliey 
 accordingly met to consider of tlie several following particulars pro- 
 pounded to them by the teacher ; viz. : — 
 
 " 1. Whether the record of the excommunication of our Sister Nurse 
 (all things considered) may not be erased and blotted out. The result 
 of which consideration was, That whereas, on July 3d, 1G92, it was pro- 
 posed by the Elders, and consented to by an unanimous vote of the 
 church, that our Sister Nurse should be excommunicated, she being 
 convicted of witclicraft by the Court, and she was accordingly ex- 
 communicated, since winch the General Court Jiaving taken otF the 
 attainder, and the testimony on which she was convicted being not 
 now so satisfactory to ourselves and others as it was generally in that 
 hour of darkness and temptation; and we being solicited by her son, 
 Mr. Samuel Nurse, to erase and blot out of the church records the 
 sentence of her excommunication, — this church, having the matter 
 proposed to them by the teacher, and having seriously considered it, 
 doth consent that the record of our Sister Nurse's excommunication 
 be accordingly erased and blotted out, that it may no longer be a, 
 reproach to her memory, and an occasion of grief to her children. 
 Humbly requesting that the merciful God would pardon whatsoever 
 sin, error, or mistake was in the application of that censure and of 
 that whole affair, through our merciful High-priest, who knoweth how 
 to have compassion on the ignorant, and those that are out of the 
 way. 
 
 "2. It was proposed whether the sentence of excommunication 
 against our Brother Giles Corey {all things considered) may not be 
 erased and blotted out. The result was, That whereas, on Sept. 18, 
 1692, it was considered by the church, that our Brother Giles Corey 
 stood accused of and indicted for the sin of witchcraft, and that he 
 had obstinately refused to plead, and so threw himself on certain 
 death. It was agreed by the vote of the church, that he should be 
 excommunicated for it; and accordingly he was excommunicated. 
 Yet the church, having now testimony in his behalf, that, before his 
 death, he did bitterly repent of his obstinate refusal to plead in defence 
 
484 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 of his life, do consent that the sentence of his excommunication he 
 erased and hlotted out." 
 
 It -will be noticed tiiat these proceedings were not had at a 
 regular public meeting, but at a private meeting of the church, on 
 a -week-day afternoon, at the toaclier's house. The motives that 
 led to them were a disposition to comply with the act of tlie 
 General Court, and the solicitations of Mr. Samuel Nurse, rather 
 than a profound sense of wrong done to a venerable member of 
 their own body, who had claims upon their protection as sucli. 
 The language of the record does not frankly admit absolutely that 
 there was sin, error, or mistake, but requests forgiveness for 
 whatsoever there may have been. The character of Rebecca 
 Nurse, and the outrageous treatment she had received from that 
 church, in the method arranged for her excommunication, de- 
 manded something more than these hypothetical expressions, with 
 such a preamble. 
 
 The statement made in the vote about Corey is, on its face, a 
 misrepresentation. From the nature of the proceeding by wliich 
 he was destroyed, it was in his power, at any moment, if he 
 "repented of liis obstinate refusal to plead," by sa3'ing so, to be 
 instantly released from the pressure that was crushing him. The 
 only design of the torture was to make' him bring it to an end by 
 *' answering" guilty, or not guilty. Somebody fabricated the 
 slander that Corey^s resolution broke down under his agonies, and 
 that he bitterly repented ; and Mr. Noyes put the foolish scandal 
 upon the records of the church. 
 
 The date of this transaction is disreputable to the peojDle of 
 Salem. Twent}^ years had been suffered to elapse, and a gi'eat 
 outrage allowed to remain unacknowledged and unrepcnted. The 
 credit of doing what was done at last probably belongs to the Rev. 
 George Corwin. His call to the ministry, as colleague with Mr. 
 Noyes, had just been consummated. The introduction of a new 
 minister heralded a new policy, and the proceedings have the 
 appearance of growing out of the kindly and auspicious feelings 
 which generally attend and welcome such an era. 
 
 The Rev. George, son of Jonathan Corwin, was born May 
 21, 1683, and graduated at Harvard College in 1701. Mr. 
 Barnard, of Marblehead, describes his character: **The spirit of 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 485 
 
 early devotion, accompanied with a natural freedom of thought 
 and eas}' elocution, a quick invention, a solid judgment, and a 
 tenacious memorv, laid the foundation of a good preacher; to 
 which his acquired literature, his great reading, hard studies, deep 
 meditation, and close walk with God, rendered hini an able and 
 faithful minister of the New Testament." The records of the 
 First Church, in noticing his death, thus speak of him: " He. was 
 highly esteemed in his life, and very deservedly lamented at his 
 death ; having been very eminent for his earl)-- improvement in 
 learning and piety, his singular abilities and great labors, his 
 remarkable zeal and faithfulness. lie was a great benefactor to 
 our poor.^' Those bearing the name of Curwen among us are his 
 descendants. He died Nov. 23, 1717. 
 
 The Rev. JSTicholas Noyes died Dec. 13, 1717. He was a 
 person of superior talents and learning. He published, with the 
 sermon preached by Cotton Mather on the occasion, a poem on 
 the death of his venerable colleague, Mr. Higginson, in 1708 ; and 
 also a poem on the death of Rev. Joseph Green, in 1715. Al- 
 though an amiable and benevolent man in other respects, it can- 
 not be denied that he was misled by liis errors and his tempera- 
 ment into the most violent course in the witchcraft prosecutions ; 
 and it is to be feared that his feelings were never wholly rectified 
 in reference to that transaction. 
 
 Jonathan, the father of the Rev, George Corwin, and whose 
 part as a magistrate and judge in the examinations and trials 
 of 1692 has been seen, died on the 9th of July, 1718, seventy- 
 eight years of age. 
 
 It only remains to record the course of the village church and 
 people in reference to the events of 1G92. After six persons, in- 
 cluding Rebecca Nurse, had suffered death ; and while five others, 
 George Burroughs, John Procter, John Willard, George Jacobs, 
 and Martha Carrier, were awaiting their execution, which w^as to 
 take place on the coming Friday, Aug. 19, — the facts, related as 
 follows by Mr. Parris in his record-book, occurred : — 
 
 ^'Sabbath-day, 14th August, 1692. — The church was stayed after 
 the congregation was dismissed, and the pastor spake to the church 
 after tliis manner : — 
 
 " ' Brethren, yovL may all have taken notice, that, several sacrament 
 days past, our brother Peter Cloyse, and Samuel Nurse and his wife. 
 
486 SALEM WITCHCKAFT. 
 
 and John Tarbcll and his wife, have absented from communion with 
 us at the Lord's Table, yea, have very rarely, except our brother 
 Samuel !Nurse, been with us in common public worship : now, it is 
 needful that the church send some persons to them to know the 
 reason of their absence. Therefore, if you be so minded, express 
 yourselves.' 
 
 "None objected. But a general or universal vote, after some dis- 
 course, passed, that Brother Kathaniel Putnam and the two deacons 
 should join with the pastor to discourse with the said absenters 
 about it. 
 
 " 31st August. — Brother Tarbell proves sick, unmeet for discourse ; 
 Brother Cloyse hard to be found at home, beinj^ often with his wife in 
 prison at Ipswich for witchcraft; and Brother Nurse, and sometimes his 
 wife, attends our iDublic meeting, and he the sacrament 11th Septem- 
 ber, 1692 : upon all which we choose to wait further," 
 
 AVhcn it is remembered that the individuals aimed at all belonged 
 to the family of Rebecca Xursc, whose execution had taken place 
 three weeks before under circumstances with which Mr. Parris 
 had been so prominently and responsibly connected, this proceed- 
 ing must be felt by every person of ordinary human sensibilities 
 to have been cruel, barbarous, and unnatui'al. Parris made the 
 entry in bis book, as he often did, some time after the transaction, 
 as the inserted date of Sept. 11, shows. What his object was 
 in commencing disciplinaiy treatment of this distressed family is 
 not certain. It may be that be was preparing to get up such a 
 f -eling against them as would make it safe to have the ** afflicted^' 
 cry out upon some of them. Or it may be that he wished to get 
 them out of his church, to avoid the possibility of their proceeding 
 against him, by ecclesiastical methods, at some future day. He 
 could not, however, bring his church to continue the process. 
 This is the first indication that the brethren were no longer to be 
 relied on by him to go all lengths, and that some remnants of 
 good feeling and good sense were to be found among them. 
 
 But Mr. Parris was determined not to allow the public feeling 
 against persons charged with witchcraft to subside, if he could help 
 it ; and he made one more effort to renew the vehemence of the 
 prosecutions. He prepared and preached two sermons, on the 
 llth of September, from the text, Rev. xvli. 14 : ** These shall make 
 war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : lor he is 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 487 
 
 Lord of lords, and King of kings; and tliey that are witli him are 
 callL'd and chosen and fiiithfnl." They are entitled, '*The 
 Devil and his Instruments will be warring against Chri^t and his 
 followers."" This note is added, '* After the eondenniation of six 
 witches at a court at Salem, one of the witches, viz., Martha 
 Core}', in full communion with our church." The following is a 
 portion of '*the hnprovement" in the application of these dis- 
 courses : — 
 
 " It may serve to reprove such as seem to be so amazed at the war 
 the Devil has raised amongst us by wizards and witches, against the 
 Lamb and his followers, that they altogether deny it. If ever there 
 were witches, men and women in covenant with the Devil, here are 
 multitudes in New England. Nor is it so strange a thing that there 
 should be such; no, nor that some church-members should be such. 
 Pious Bisliop Hall saith, * The Devil's prevalency in this age is most 
 clear in the marvellous number of witches abounding in all ])laces. 
 Kow hundreds {snys he) are discovered in one shire; and, if fame 
 deceive us not, in a village of fourteen houses in the north are found 
 so many of this damned brood. Heretofore, only barbarous deserts 
 had them; but now the civilized and religious parts are frequently 
 pestered with them. Heretofore, some silly, ignorant old woman, &c. ; 
 but now we have known those of both sexes who professed much 
 knowledge, holiness, and devotion^ drawn into this damnable prac- 
 tice.^ " 
 
 The foregoing extract is important as sho^ving that some per- 
 sons at the village had begun to express their disbelief of the 
 witchcraft doctrine of Mr. Parris, "altogether denying it." The 
 title and drift of the sermons in connection with the date, and his 
 proceedings, the month before, against Samuel Nurse, Tarbell, 
 and Cloyse, members of his church, give color to the idea that he 
 was designing to have them ** cried out" against, and thus dis- 
 posed of. It is a noticeable fact, that, about this time, Cotton 
 ]\Iather was also la)'"ing his plans for a renewal, or rather continu- 
 ance, of witchcraft prosecutions. Nine days after these sermons 
 were preached by Parris, Mather -wrote the following letter to 
 
 Stephen Sewall of Salem : — 
 
 Boston, Sept. 20. 1692. 
 
 My dear and mt vert obliging Stepuen, — It is my hap to 
 
 be continually . . . with all sorts of objections, and objectors against 
 
 the . . . work now doing at Salem; and it is my further good hap to 
 
 do some little service for God and you in my encounters. 
 
 
488 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Cut tliat I mny be the more capable to assist in lifting up a stan- 
 dard against the infernal cneni}', I must renew ni3' most importunate 
 request, that you would please quickly to perform wliat you kindly 
 promised, of giving me a narrative of the evidences given in at the 
 trials of half a dozen, or if you please a dozen, of the principal witches 
 that have been condemned. I know 'twill cost you some time ; but, 
 when 3^ou are sensible of the benefit that will follow, I knou' 3^ou will 
 not think much of that cost; and my own wiUingness to expose myself 
 unto the utmost for the defence of my friends with 3'ou niiilces me 
 presume to plead something of merit to be considered. 
 
 I sliall be content, if you draw up the desired narrative b3- waj- 
 of letter to me ; or, at least, let it not come without a letter, wherein 
 you shall, if 3-ou can, intimate over again what you have sometimes 
 told me of the awe which is upon the hearts of your juries, with . . . 
 unto the validity of the spectral evidences. 
 
 Please also to . . . some of 3'our observations about the confessors 
 and the credibility of what they assert, or about things evidently 
 preternatural in the witchcrafts, and whatever else ^-^ou may account 
 an entertainment, for an inquisitive person, that entirely loves you 
 and Salem. Nay, though I will never lay aside the character which 
 I mentioned in my last words, j^et I am willing, that, -when you write, 
 you should imagine me as obstinate a Sadducee and witch-advocate 
 as any among us : address me as one that believed nothing reasonable ; 
 and when you have so knocked me down, in a spectre so unlike me, 
 you will enable me to box it about among my neighbors, till it come — 
 I know not where at last. 
 
 But assure yourself, as I shall not wittingly make what you write 
 prejudicial to any worthy- design which those two excellent persons, 
 Mr. Hale and ]Mr. No^'se, may have in hand; so you shall find that I 
 shall be, sir, 3'our grateful friend, C. Mather. 
 
 P. S. — That which very much strengthens the charms of the 
 request which this letter makes you is, that His Excellency the 
 Governor laid his positive commands upon me to desire this favor of 
 you; and the truth is, there are some of his circumstances with refer- 
 ence to this afiair, which I need not mention, that call for the expedit- 
 ing of your kindness, — kindness, I say, for such it will be esteemed as 
 well by him as by your servant, C. Matuer. 
 
 In order to understand the character and aim of this letter, it 
 will be necessary to consider its date. It was Avritten Sept. 20, 
 1092. On the 19th of August, but one month before. Dr. Mather 
 
miBBses^x:?sm 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 489 
 
 was acting a conspicuous part under tlic gallows at Witch-liill, at 
 the exccation of Mr. Burroughs and four others, increasiug the 
 power of the awful delusion, and inflaming the ])assIons of the peo- 
 ple. On the 9th of September, six more miserable creatures re- 
 ceived sentence of death. On the 17th of September, nine more 
 received sentence of death. On the 19th of September, Giles Cory 
 was crushed to death. And, on the 22d of September, eight were 
 executed. These were the last that suffered death. The letter, 
 therefore, was written while the horrors of the transaction were at 
 their height, and by a person who had himself been a witness of 
 them, and whose " good hap" it had been to " do some little ser- 
 vice" in promoting them. The object of the writer is declared to 
 be, that he might be " more capable to assist in lifting up a stand- 
 ard against the infernal enemy." The literal meaning of this 
 expression is, that he might be enabled to get up another witch- 
 craft delusion under his own special management and control. 
 Can any thing be imagined more artful and dishonest than the 
 plan he had contrived to keep himself out of sight In all the opera- 
 tions necessary to accomplish his purpose? ** J^ay, though I will 
 never lay aside the character which I mentioned in my last words, 
 yet I am willing, that, when you write, you should imagine me as 
 obstinate a Sadducee and witch-advocate as any among us : ad- 
 dress me as one that believed nothing reasonable 5 and when you 
 have so knocked me down, in a spectre so unlike me, you will 
 enable me to box it about among' my neighbors, till it come- — I 
 know not where at last." 
 
 Upon obtaining the document requisite to the fulfilment of his 
 design, he did " box it about" so effectually among his neighbors, 
 that he succeeded that next summer in getting up a wonderful 
 case of witchcraft, in the person of one Margaret Rule, a member 
 of his congregation in Boston. Dr. Mather published an account 
 of her long-continued fastmgs, even unto the ninth day, and of the 
 incredible sufferings she endured from the ** infernal enemy." 
 *' She was thrown," says he, *'into such exorbitant convulsions as 
 were astonishing to the spectators in general. They that could 
 behold the doleful condition of the poor family without sensible 
 compassions might have entrails, indeed, but I am sure they 
 could have no true bowels in them." So far was he successful in 
 spreading the delusion, that he prevailed upon six men to testify 
 
490 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 that they liad seen jMargaret Kule lifted bodily from her bed, and 
 raised by an invisible power "so as to touch the garret iloor-, " 
 that she T\as entirel}' removed from the bed or any oilier material 
 support; that she continued suspended for several mliuitcs ; and 
 that a strong man, assisted by several other persons, could not 
 effectually resist the mysterious force that lilted her up, and 
 poised her aloft in the air ! The people of Boston -were saved 
 from the horrors intended to be brought upon them by this dark 
 and deep-laid plot, by the activity, courage, and discernment of 
 Calef and others, who distrusted Dr. Mather, and, by watching 
 his movements, exposed the imposture, and overthrew the whole 
 design. 
 
 Mr. Parris does not appear to have produced much effect by 
 his sermons. The people had suffered enough from the " war 
 between the Devil and the Lamb," as he and Mather had con- 
 ducted it ; and it could not be renewed. 
 
 Immediately upon the termination of the witchcraft proceed- 
 ings, the controversy between i\Ir. Parris and the congi'cgation, 
 or the inhabitants, as they were called, of the village, was renewed, 
 with earnest resolution on their part to get rid of him. The parish 
 neglected and i-efused to raise the means for paying his salary ; 
 and a majority of the voters, in the meetings of the "inhabitants," 
 vigilantly resisted all attempts in his favor. The church was still 
 completely under bis influence ; and, as has been stated in the 
 First Part, he made use of that body to institute a suit against 
 the people. The court and magistrates were wholly in his favor, 
 and peremptorily ordered the appointment, by the people, of a 
 new committee. The inhabitants complied with the order by the 
 election of a new committee, but took care to have it composed 
 exclusively of men opposed to Mr, Parris ; and he found himself 
 no better off than before. He concluded not to employ his church 
 any longer as a principal agent in his lawsuit against the parish ; 
 but used it for another purpose. 
 
 After the explosion of the witchcraft delusion, the relations of 
 parties became entirely changed. The prosecutors at the trials 
 Avere put on the defensive, and felt themselves in peril. Parris 
 saw his danger, and, with characteristic courage and fertility of 
 resources, prepared to defend himself, and carry the war upon 
 any quarter from which an attack might be apprehended. He 
 
jsmmmmsBsmmm 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 491 
 
 continued, on Iiis own responsibility, to prosecute, in court, his 
 suit against the parisli, and in his usual trenchant style. As the 
 law then was, a minister, in a controversy with his parish, had a 
 secure advantage, and absolutely commanded the situation, if his 
 church were with hiui. From the time of his settlement, Tarris 
 had shaped his policy on this basis. He had sought to make his 
 church an impregnable fortress against his opponents. But, to be 
 impregnable," it Avas necessary that there should be no enemies 
 within it. A few disaffected brethren could at any time demand, 
 and have a claim to, a mutual council; and Mr. Parris knew, 
 that, before the investigations of such a council, bis actions in the 
 ■witchcraft prosecutions could not stand. This perhaps suggested 
 his movements, in August, 1G92, against Samuel Nurse, »John Tar- 
 bell, and Peter Cloyse. He did not at that time succeed in 
 getting rid of them ; and they remained in the church, and, with 
 the exception of Cloyse, in the village. They might at any time 
 take the steps that would lead to a mutual council ; and Mr. Parris 
 was determined, at all events, to prevent that. It was evident 
 that the members of that family would insist upon satisfaction 
 being given them, in and through the church, for the wrongs he 
 had done them. Although, in the absence of Cloyse, but two in 
 number, there was danger that sympathy for them might reach 
 others of the brethren. Thomas Wilkins, a member in good stand- 
 ing, son of old Bray Wilkins, and a connection of John Willard, 
 an intelligent and resolute man, had already joined them. Parris 
 felt that others might follow, and tliat whatever could be done to 
 counteract them must be done quickly. He accordingly initiated 
 proceedings in his churcli to rid himself of them, if not by excom- 
 munication, at least by getting them under discipline, so as to 
 prevent the possibility of their dealing with him. 
 
 This led to one of the most remarkable passages of the kind 
 in the annals of the JSTew-England churches. It is narrated in 
 detail by Mr. Parris, in his church record-book. It would not 
 be easy to find anywhere an example of greater skill, wariness, 
 or ability in a conflict of this sort. On the one side is Mr. Parris, 
 backed by his church and the magistrates, and aided, it is prob- 
 able, by Mr. Noyes ; on the other, three husbandmen. They had 
 no known backers or advisers; and, at frequent stages of the 
 fencing mat<;h, had to parry or strike, without time to consult any 
 
492 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 one, ]\[r. Parris was ingenious, qnlck, a great strategist, and not 
 ovei'-scnipulous as to the use of Ins Avcapons. Xurst.-, Tarbcll, 
 and "Wilkins Avere cautious, cool, steady, and per.^i^tt'^t. Of 
 course, they were -wlioUy iucxperlenced in such things, and liable 
 to make wrong moves, or to be driven or drawn to untenable 
 ground. But they will not be found, I think, to have taken a flilse 
 step from beginning to end. Their line of action was extremuly 
 narrow. It was necessary to avoid all personalities, and every 
 appcai-ance of passion or excitement ; to make no charge against 
 Mr. Parris that could touch the church, as such, or retie-ct upon the 
 courts, magistrates, or any others that had taken part in the prose- 
 cutions. It was necessary to avoid putting any thing into writing, 
 with their names attached, which could in any wa}' be tortured 
 into a libel. Parris lets fall expressions which show that he was 
 on the watch for something of the kind to seize upon, to transfer 
 the movement from the church to the courts. Entirely unaccus- 
 tomed to public speaking, these three farmers had to meet assem- 
 blages composed of their opponents, and much wrought up against 
 them ; to make statements, and respond to interrogatories and 
 propositions, the full and ultimate bearing of which M'as not always 
 apparent : any unguarded expression might be fatal to their cause. 
 Their safety depended upon using the right word at the right time 
 and in the right manner, and in withholding the statement of their 
 grievances, in adequate force of language, until they were under 
 the shelter of a council. If, during the long-protracted confe- 
 rences and communications, they had tripped at any point, allowed 
 a phrase or syllable to escape which might be made the ground of 
 discipline or censure, all would be lost ; for Parris could not be 
 reached but through a council, and a council could not even 
 be asked for except by brethren in full and clear standing. It 
 was often attempted to ensnare them into making charges against 
 the church ; but they kept their eye on Parris, and, as thej- told 
 him more than once in the presence of the whole body of the 
 people, on him alone. Limited as the ground was on which they 
 could stand, they held it steadfastly, and finally drove him from- 
 his stronghold. 
 
 On the first movement of Mr, Parris offensively upon them, 
 they commenced their movement upon him. The method by 
 which alone they could proceed, according to ecclesiastical law 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 493 
 
 and the platform of the chiu'clies, was precisely as it was under- 
 stood to be laid down in iNIatt. xvlil. lo-17. Following these 
 directions, Samuel Nurse first called alone upon Mr. Parris, and 
 privately made known his grievances. Parris gave him no satis- 
 faction. Then, after a due interval, Xurse, Tarbell, and Wilkins 
 called upon him together. He refused to sec them together, but 
 one at a time was allowed to go up into his study. Tarbell and 
 Nurse each spent an hour or more with him, leaving no time for 
 Wilkins. In these intervie-\vs, he not only failed to give satisfac- 
 tion, but, according to his own account, treated them in the cool- 
 est and most imfeeling manner, not allowing himself to utter a 
 soothing word, but actually reiterating his belief of the guilt of 
 their mother; telling them, as he says, *'that he had not seen 
 sufficient grounds to vary his opinion." Cloyse came soon after 
 to the village, and had an interview with him for the same purpose. 
 Parris saw them one onl}- at a time, in order to preclude their 
 taking the second step required by the gospel rule ; that is, to have 
 a brother of the church with them as a witness. He also took the 
 ground that they could not be witnesses for each other, but that 
 he should treat them all as only one person in the transaction. A 
 sense of the injustice of his conduct, or some other consideration, 
 led William Way, another of the brethren, to go with them as a 
 witness. Nurse, Tarbell, Wilkins, Cloyse, and Way went to his 
 house together. He said that the four first wel-e but one person 
 in the case ; but admitted that Way was a distinct person, a brother 
 of accredited standing, and a witness. He escaped, however, 
 under the subterfuge that the gospel rule required '* two or three 
 witnesses." In this way, the matter stood for some time; Parris 
 saying that they had not complied with the conditions in Matt, 
 xviii., and they maintaining that they had. 
 
 The course of Parris was fast diminisliing his hold upon the 
 public confidence. It was plain that the disaffected brethx-en had 
 done what they could, in an orderly way, to procure a council. 
 At length, the leading clerg)-men here and in Boston, whose minds 
 were open to reason, thought it their duty to interpose their advice. 
 They wrote to Parris, that he and his church ought to consent to a 
 council. They wrote a second time in stronger terms. Not daring 
 to quarrel with so large a portion of the clergy, Pan-is pretended 
 to comply with their advice, but demanded a majority of the coun- 
 
494 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 cil to be chosen by liiin and Ins cliurcK. The disaffected brctliron 
 insisted upon a. fair, mutual council ; each party to have three 
 ministers, with tlieir delegates, in it. To this, I'arris had finally 
 to agree. The dissatisfied brethren named, as one of tlieir three, 
 a church at Ipswich. Parris objected to the Ipswich church. 
 The dissenting brethren insisted that each side should be free to 
 select its respective three churches. Parris was not willing to have 
 Ipswich in the council. The other party insisted, and here the 
 matter hung suspended. The truth is, that the disaffected breth- 
 ren were resolved to have the Rev. John Wise in the council. 
 They knew Cotton Mather would be there, on the side of Parris • 
 and they knew that John Wise was the man to meet him. The 
 public opinion settled down in favor of the dissatisfied brethren, 
 on the ground that each party to a mutual council ought to — and, 
 to make it really mutual, must — have free and full power to nomi- 
 nate the churches to be called by it. Parris, being afraid to have 
 a mutual council, and particularly if IMr. Wise was in it, suddenly 
 took a new position. He and his church called an ex pm-^e council, 
 at which the following ministers, with their delegates, were pres- 
 ent : Samuel Checkley of the New South Church, James Allen of 
 the First Church, Samuel Willard of the Old South, Increase and 
 Cotton Mather of the North Church, — all of Boston; Samuel 
 Torrey of Weymouth ; Samuel Phillips of Rowley, and Edward 
 Payson, also of ifowley. Among the delegates were many of the 
 leading public men of the province. The Result was essentially 
 damaging to Mr. Parris. The tide was now stronglj'- set against 
 him. The Boston ministers advised him to withdraw from the 
 contest. They provided a settlement for him in Connecticut, and 
 urged him to quit the village, and go there. But he refused, 
 and prolonged the struggle. In the course of it, papers were 
 drawn up and signed, one by his friends, another by his oppo- 
 nents, together embracing nearly all the men and women of the 
 village. Those who did not sign either paper were understood to 
 sympathize with the disaffected brethren. Many who signed the 
 paper favorable to him acted undoubtedly from the motive stated 
 iu the heading; viz., that the removal of Mr. Parris could do no 
 good, " for we have had three ministers removed already, and by 
 every removal our differences have been rather aggravated." 
 Another removal, they thought, would utterly ruin them. They 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 495 
 
 do not express any particular interest in JMr. Parris, but merely 
 dread another change. They preferred to bear the Ills they had, 
 rather than fly to others that they knew not of. It is a very sig- 
 nificant fact, that neither Mrs. Ann Putnam nor the widow Sarah 
 Houlton signed either paper (tlie Sarah Iloulton whose name 
 appears was the wife of Joseph Houlton, Sr.). There is reason 
 to believe that they regretted the part they had taken, particularly 
 against Rebecca Nurse, and probably did not feel over favorably 
 to the person who had led them into their dreadful responsibility. 
 
 In the mean time, the controversy continued to wax warm among 
 the people. Mr. Parris was determined to hold his place, and, with 
 it, the parsonage and ministry lands. The opposition was active, 
 unappeasable, and effective. The following paper, handed about, 
 illustrates the methods by which they assailed him: — 
 
 "As to the contest between Sir. Parris and his hearers, &c., it may 
 be composed by a satisfactory answer to Lev. xx. 6 : ' And the soul 
 tliat turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go 
 a-whoring after them, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut 
 him off from among his people/ 1 Chron. x. 13, 14: 'So Saul died 
 for his transgression wliich he committed against the Lord, — even 
 against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, — and also for asking 
 counsel of one who had a familiar to inquire of it, and inquired not of 
 the Lord : therefore he slew him,' " &c. 
 
 Mr. Parris mirrored, or rather daguerrotyped, his inmost 
 thoughts upon the page of his church record-book. "Whatever 
 feeling happened to exercise his spirit, found expression there. 
 This gives it a truly rare and singular interest. Among a variety 
 of scraps variegating the record, and thrown in with other notices 
 of deaths, he has the following : — 
 
 "1694, Oct. 27. — Euth, daughter to Job Swinnerton (died), and 
 buried the 28th instant, being the Lord's Day ; and the coi-pse carried by 
 the meeting-house door in time of singing before meeting afternoon, 
 and more at the funeral than at the sermon.*' 
 
 This illustrates the state of things. The Swinnerton family 
 were all along opposed to Mr. Parris, and kept remarkably clear 
 from the witchcraft delusion. Originally, it was not customary to 
 Lave prayers at funerals. At any rate, all that Mr. Parris had 
 to do on the occasion was to witness and recox'd the fact, which he 
 
496 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 indites in tlie pithy niamicr in whiol! lie often relieves liis mind, that 
 more people "went to the distant burial-ground than came to hear 
 him preach. The procession was made up of his oppoiuMits ; the 
 congregation, of his friends. At last, Captain John Pntnam pro- 
 posed that each party should choose an equal number from them- 
 selves to decide the controversy ; and that jMajor Bartholomew 
 Gcdnc}', from the town, should be invited to act as moderator of 
 the joint meeting. Both sides agreed, and appointed their repre- 
 sentatives. INIajor Gedncy consented to preside. But this move- 
 ment came to nothing, probably owing to the refractoriness of jMr. 
 Parris ; for, from that moment, he had no supporters. The church 
 ceased to act : its mcn.Abers were merged in the meeting of the 
 inhabitants. There was no longer any division among them. The 
 part}^ that had acted as friends of ^Mr. Parris united thence foi- ward 
 with his opponents to defend the parish in the suit he had brought 
 against it in the courts. The controversy was cjuite protracted. 
 The Court Avas determined to uphold him, and expressed its preju- 
 dice against the parish, sometimes with considerable severity of 
 manner and action.* 
 
 * The followhig passage is from the parish records: — 
 
 " Ou the 3d of February, 1693, a warrant was issued for a meeting of tlie 
 inhabitants of the village, signed by Thomas Preston, Joseph Pope, Joseph 
 Houlton, and John Tarbell, of the standing annual committee, to be held 
 Feb. 14, *' to consider and agree and determine who are capable of voting 
 in our public transactions, by the power given us by the General-court order 
 at our first settlement; and to consider of and make void a vote in our book 
 of records, on the IStli of June, 1GS9, Avhere tliere is a salary of sixtj'-six 
 pounds stated to Mr. Parris, he not complying with it; also to consider of 
 and make void several votes in the book of records on the lOtli of October, 
 1692, where our ministry house and barn and two acres of land seem to be 
 conve3'"ed from us after a fraudulent manner." 
 
 At this meeting, it was voted, that " all men that are ratable, or hereafter 
 shall he living within that tract of land mentioned in our General-court 
 order, shall have liberty in nominating and appointing a committee, and 
 voting in any of our public concerns.^' 
 
 B}"" referring to the account, in the First Part, of the controversy between 
 the inhabitants of the village and Mr. Bayley, "the power" above alluded 
 to, "given us by the General Court," will be seen fully described. In its 
 earnestness to fasten jMr. Bayley upon '* the inhabitants," the Court elabor- 
 ately ordained the system by which they should be constrained to provide for 
 liim, and compelled to raise the means of pa^dng his salary. As no church 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 497 
 
 The parish heeded not the frowns of the Court, but persisted 
 inexorably in its purpose to get rid of ilr. Parrls. After an obsti- 
 nate contest, it prevailed. In the last stage of the controversy, 
 it appointed four men, as its agents or attorneys, whose names 
 indicate the spirit in which it acted, — John Tarbell, Sanniel Xurse. 
 Daniel Andrew, and Joseph Putnam. His dauntless son did not 
 follow the wolf through the deep and dark recesses of his den with 
 a more determined resolution than that witli which Joseph Put- 
 nam pursued Samuel Parns through tlie windings of the law, until 
 he ferreted him out, and rid the village of him for ever. 
 
 Finally, the inferior court of Common Pleas, before which Mr. 
 Parris had carried the case, ordered that the matters in contro- 
 versy between him and the inhabitants of Salem Village should be 
 referred to arbitrators for decision. The following statement was 
 laid before them by the persons representing the inhabitants : — 
 
 " To the Honorable Wait Winihrop, ElisJia Cook, and Samuel Seicall, 
 Esquires, Arbitrators, indifferently chosen, between Mr. Samuel PaiTis 
 and the Inhabitants of Salem Village. 
 " The Remonstrances of several Aggrieved Persons in the said Village, with 
 further Reasons ichy they conceive they ought not to hear Mr. Parris, nor 
 to own him as a Minister of the Gospel, nor to cojitribute any Support to 
 him as such for several years past, humbly offered as fit for consideration. 
 " We humbly conceive that, having, in April, 1693, given our rea- 
 sons why we could not join with Mr. Parris in praj-'er, preaching, or 
 sacrament, if these reasons are found sufficient for our withdrawing 
 (and we cannot yet find but they are), then we conceive ourselves vir- 
 tuall}' discharged, not only In conscience, but also in law, which re- 
 had then been organized, the General Court fastened the duty upon " house- 
 holders." The fact had not been forgotten, and the above vote showed that 
 the parish intended to hold on to the power then given them. This highly 
 incensed the Court of Sessions. It ordered the parish book of records to be 
 produced before it, and caused a condemnation of such a claim of right to 
 be written out, in open Court, on the face of the record, where it is now to be 
 seen. It is as follows: — 
 
 " At the General Sessions of the Peace holden at Ipswich, March the 
 2'8th, 1693. This Court having viewed and considered the above agreement 
 or vote contained in the last five lines, finding the same to be repugnant 
 to the laws of this province, do declare the same to be null and void, and 
 that this order be recorded with the records of this Court. 
 
 "Attest, Stephen Sewall, Clerk.''' 
 VOL. II. 32 
 
498 SALEK WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 quires maintenance to be given to such as are ortliodox and blameless ; 
 the said Mr. Parris liaviiig been teaching such dangerous errors, and 
 preached sucli scandalous immorahties, as ouglit to discliarge any 
 (though ever so gifted otherways} from the \york of the ministr3', par- 
 ticularly in his oath against the lives of several, wherein he swears that 
 the prisoners with their looks knock down those pretended sufferers. 
 "We humbl}' conceive that he that swears to more than he is certain of, 
 is equally guilty of perjury with him that swears to wliat is false. And 
 though they did fall at sucli a time, yet it could not be known that they 
 did it, much less could they be certain of it; yet did swear xJositively 
 against the lives of such as he could not have any knowledge but they 
 might be innocent. 
 
 " His believing the Devil's accusations, and readily departing from 
 all charity to persons, though of blameless and godly lives, upon such 
 suggestions ; his promoting such accusations ; as also his partiality 
 therein in stifling the accusations of some, and, at the same time, vigi- 
 lantly promoting others, — as we conceive, are just causes for our refu- 
 sal, &c. 
 
 " That Mr. Parris's going to Mary Walcot or Abigail Williams, and 
 directing otliers to thera, to know who afflicted the people in their ill- 
 nesses, — we understand this to be a dealing with them that have a. 
 familiar spirit, and an implicit denying the providence of God, who 
 ■alone, as we believe, can send afflictions, or cause devils to afflict any • 
 this we also conceive sufficient to justify such refusal. 
 
 " That Mr. Parris, by these practices and principles, has been the 
 beginner and procurer of tlie sorest afflictions, not to this village only, 
 but to this whole country, that did ever befall them. 
 
 " We, the subscribers, in behalf of ourselves, and of several others of 
 the same mind with us (touching these things), having some of us had 
 ■ OUT relations by these practices taken off by an untimely death ; others 
 have been imprisoned and suffered in our persons, reputations, and 
 •estates, — submit the whole to your honors' decision, to determine 
 whether we are or ought to be any ways obliged to honor, respect, and 
 -support such an instrument of our miseries ; praying God to guide 
 ■your honors to act herein as may be for his glory, and the future 
 settlement of our village in amity and unity. 
 
 "John Tarbell, 
 Samuel Nurse, 
 Joseph Putnam, 
 Daniel Andrew, 
 Attorneys for the people of the Village. 
 Boston, July 21, 1697." 
 
SUPPLEMEXT. 499 
 
 The arbitrators decided that the inliabitants sliould pay to Mr. 
 Parris a certain amount for an-earages, and also the sum of £79. 
 95. 6d. for all his right and interest in the ministry house and land, 
 and that he be forthwith dismissed; and his ministerial relation to 
 the church and societ}- in Salem Village dissolved. The parish 
 raised the money with great alacrity, l^athaniel Ingersol, who 
 had, as has been stated, made him a present at his settlement of 
 a valuable piece of land adjoining the parsonage grounds, bought 
 it back, pa3'ing him a, liberal price for it, fuU}^ equal to its value; 
 and he left the place, so far as appears, for ever. 
 
 On the I4th of July, 1696, in the midst of his controversy with 
 his people, his wife died. She was an excellent woman ; and was 
 respected and lamented by all. He caused a stone slab to be 
 placed at the head of her grave, with u. suitable inscription, still 
 plainly legible, concluding -with four lines, to which his initials are 
 appended, composed by him, of which this is one : *' Farewell, best 
 wife, choice mother, neighbor, friend." Her ashes rest in what is 
 called the Wadsworth burial gi-ound. 
 
 Mr. Parris removed to Xewton, then to Concord; and in 
 November, 1697, began to preach at Stow, on a salary of forty 
 pounds, half in money and half in provisions, &c. A grant from 
 the general court was relied upon from 3'ear to year to help to 
 make up the twenty pounds to be paid in money. Afterwards he 
 preached at Dunstable, partly supported by a grant from the 
 general court, and finally in Sudbury, Avhere he died, Feb. 27, 
 1720. His daughter Elizabeth, who belonged, it ^vi\\ be remem- 
 bered, to the circle of "afflicted children'^ in 1692, then nine 
 years of age, in 1710 maiTied Benjamin Barnes of Concord. 
 Two other daughters married in Sudbury. His son Noyes, who 
 graduated at Harvard College in 1721, became deranged, and was 
 supported by the town. His other son Samuel was long deacon 
 of the church at Sudbury, and died Nov. 22, 1792, aged ninety- 
 one years. 
 
 In the "Boston News Letter," No. 1433, July 15, 1731, is a 
 notice, as follows : — 
 
 " Any person or persons who knew Mr. Samuel Parris, formerly 
 of Barbadoes, afterwards of Boston in New England, merchant, and 
 after that minister of Salem Village, &c., deceased to be a son of 
 Thomas Parris of the island aforesaid, Esq. who deceased 1673, or 
 
500 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 sole heir by will to all his estate in said island, are desired to give or 
 send notice thereof to the printer of this paper ; and it sliall he for their 
 advantage." 
 
 Whether the identity of Mr. Parris, of Salem Village, with the 
 son of Thomas Parrls, of Barbadoes, was established, we have no 
 information. If it was, some relief may have come to his dcsOon- 
 dants. There is every reason to believe, that, after leaving the 
 village, he and his family suffered from extremely limited means, 
 if not from absolute poverty. The general ill-repute brought 
 upon him by his conduct in the witchcraft prosecutions followed 
 huu to the last. He had forfeited the sympathy of his clerical 
 brethren by his obstinate refusal to take their advice. They 
 earnestly, over and over again, expostulated against his prolong- 
 ing the controvers}' with the people of Salem Village, besought 
 him to relinquish it, and promised him, if he would, to provide an 
 eligible settlement elsewhere. They actually did provide one. 
 But be rejected their counsels and persuasions, in expressions of 
 ill-concealed bitterness. So that, when he was finally driven away, 
 they felt under no obligations to befriend him ; and with his emi- 
 nent abilities he eked out a precarious and inadequate maintenance 
 for himself and family, in feeble settlements in outskirt towns, 
 during the rest of his days. 
 
 It is difficult to describe the character of this unfortunate man. 
 Just as is the condemnation which facts compel history to pro- 
 nounce, I have a feeling of relief in the thought, that, before the 
 tribunal to which he so long ago passed, the mercy we all shall 
 need, which compi-ehends all motives and allows for all infirmi- 
 ties, has been extended to him, in its infinite wisdom and benignity. 
 
 He was a man of uncommon abilities, of extraordinary vivacity 
 and activity of intellect. He does not appear to have been -wilfully 
 malevolent ; although somewhat I'eckless in a contest, he was not 
 deliberately untruthful ; on the contrary, there is in his statements 
 a singular ingenuousness and fairness, seldom to be found in a 
 partisan, much more seldom in a principal. Although -we get 
 almost all we know of the examinations of accused parties in the 
 witchcraft proceedings, and of his long contentions with his parish, 
 from him, there is hardly any ground to regret that the parties on 
 the other side had no friends to tell their story. A transparency 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 501 
 
 of character, a sort of instinctive incontlncnoy of mind, which 
 made him let out ever}"" thing, or a sort of bhndncss which pre- 
 vented bis seeing the bearings of what was said and done, make 
 his reports the vehicles of the materials for the defence of the very 
 persons he M'as prosecuting. I know of no instance like it. His 
 st3de is lucid, graphic, lively, natural to the highest dcgxee ; and 
 whatever he describes, we see the whole, and, as it wci-c, from all 
 points of view. Language flowed from his pen with a facility, 
 simplicity, expressiveness, and accuracy, not surpassed or often 
 equalled. He wrote as men talk, using colloquial expressions 
 without reserve, but always to the point. AVhen we read, we 
 hear him ; abbre\'iatlng names, and clipping words, as in the 
 most familiar and unguarded conversation. He was not hampered 
 by fear of offending the rules which some think necessary to dig- 
 nify composition. In his off-hand, free and easy, gossiping entries 
 in the chui-ch-book, or in his carefull}' prepared productions, like 
 the ** Meditations for Peace," read before his church and the dis- 
 satisfied brethren, we have specimens of plain good English, in its 
 most translucent and effective forms. Considering that his aca- 
 demic education was early broken off, and many intermediate 
 years were spent in commercial pursuits, his learning and attain- 
 ments are quite remarkable. The various troubles and tragic 
 mischiefs of his life, the terrible wrongs he inflicted on others, and 
 the retributions he brought upon himself, are traceable to two or 
 three peculiarities in his mental and moral organization. 
 
 He had a passion for a scene, a ceremou}'-, an excitement. He 
 delighted in the exercise of power, and rejoiced in conflicts or 
 commotions, from the exhilaration they occasioned, and the oppor- 
 tunity the3' gave for the gratification of the activity of his nature. 
 He pursued the object of getting possession of the ministry house 
 and land with such desperate pertinacity, not, I think, from ava- 
 ricious motives, but for the sake of the power it would give him 
 as a considerable landholder. His love of form and public excite- 
 ment led him to operate as he did with his church. He kept it in 
 continual action during the few years of his ministry. He had at 
 least seventy-five special meetings of that body, without counting 
 those which probably occurred without number, but of which 
 there is no record, during the six months of the witchcraft period. 
 Twice, the brethren gave out, wholly exhausted; and the powers 
 
502 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 of the cliurch were, by vote, transferred to a special committee, to 
 act in its behalf, composed of persons who had time and strength 
 to spare. But Mr. Parris, never weary of excitement, Avould have 
 been delighted to preside over church-meetings, and to 1)C a par- 
 ticipator in vehement proceedings, every day of his life. The 
 more nois}' and heated the contention, the more he enjoyed it. 
 During all the transactions connected with the witchcraft prosecu- 
 tions, he was ever^'where present, always wide awake, full of 
 animation, if not cheerfulness, and ready to take any part to carry 
 them on. These propensities and dispositions were fraught with 
 danger, and prolific of evil in his case, in consequence of what 
 looks very much like a total want in himself of many of the natural 
 human sensibilities, and an inabilit}^ to apprehend them in others. 
 Through all the horrors of the witchcraft prosecutions, he never 
 evinced the slightest sensibility, and never seemed to be aware 
 that anybody else had an}-. It was not absolute cruelty, but the 
 absence of what may be regarded as a natural sense. It was not 
 a positive wickedness, but a negative defect. He seemed to be 
 surprised that other people had sentiments, and could not under- 
 stand why Tarbell and Nurse felt so badly about the execution of 
 their mother. He told them to their faces, without dreaming of 
 giving them offence, that, while they thought she was innocent, and 
 he thought she was guilty and had been justly put to death, it was a 
 mere difference of opinion, as about an indifferent matter. In his 
 *' Meditations for Peace,'' presented to these dissatisfied brethren, 
 for the purpose and with an earnest desire of appeasing them, he 
 tells them that the indulgence of such feelings at all is a yielding 
 to '* temptation," being under "the clouds of human weakness," 
 and *' a bewraying of remaining corruption." Indeed, the theology 
 of that day, it must be allowed, bore very hard upon even the best 
 and most sacred affections of our nature. The council, in their 
 Result, allude to the feelings of those whose parents, and other 
 most loved and honored relatives and connections, had been so 
 cruelly torn from them and put to death, as ** infirmities discov- 
 ered by them in such an heart-breaking day," and bespeak for 
 their grief and lamentations a charitable construction. They ask 
 the church, whose hands were red with the blood of their innocent 
 and dearest friends, not to pursue them with "more critical and 
 vigorous proceedings'' in consequence of their exhibiting these 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 503 
 
 natural sensibilities on tlie occasion, but "to treat tlicm with 
 bowels of mucli compassion.'' These views liad taken full effect 
 upon Mr. Parris, and obliterated from his breast all such *' infirmi- 
 ties. '^ This is the only explanation or apology that can be made 
 for him. 
 
 Of the history of Cotton blather, subsequeutly to the witchcraft 
 prosecutions, and more or less in consequence of bis agency in 
 them, it may be said that the residue of his life was doomed to dis- 
 appointment, and imbittered by reproach and defeat. The storm 
 of fanatical delusion, which he doubted not would carry him to the 
 heights of clerical and spiritual power, in America and ever3'where, 
 had left him a wreck. His political aspirations, always one of his 
 strongest passions, were wholly blasted ; and the gx-eat aim and 
 crown of his ambition, the Presidency of Harvard College, once 
 and again and for ever had eluded his grasp. I leave him to tell 
 his story, and reveal the state of his mind and heart in his own 
 most free and full expressions from his private diary for the year 
 1724. 
 
 "1. What has a gracious Lord helped me to do for the seafaring 
 tribe, in prayers for them, in sermons to them, in books bestowed upon 
 them, and in various projections and endeavors to render the sailors a 
 happy generation 1 And yet there is not a man in the world so re- 
 viled, so slandered, so cursed among sailors. 
 
 " 2. What has a gracious Lord helped me to do for the instruction 
 and salvation and comfort of the poor negroes ? And yet some, on 
 purpose to affront me, call their negroes by the name of COTTON 
 MATHER, that so they may, with some shadow of truth, assert 
 crimes as committed by one of that name, which tlie hearers take to 
 be Me. 
 
 " 3. What has a gracious Lord given rae to do for the profit and 
 honor of the female sex, especially in publishing the virtuous and 
 laudable characters of holy women"? And yet where is the man 
 whom the female sex have spit more of their venom at? I have 
 cause to question whether there are twice ten in the town but what 
 have, at some time or other, spoken basely of me. 
 
 *' 4. What has a gracious Lord given me to do, that I may be a 
 blessing to my relatives? I keep a catalogue of them, and not a week 
 passes me without some good devised for some or other of them, till I 
 have taken all of them under my cognizance. And yet where is the 
 man who has been so tormented with such monstrous relatives ? Job 
 said, ' I am a brother to dragons.' 
 
504 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 " 5. "What hns a gracious Lord givon me to do for the vhidication 
 and reputation of the Scottish nation? And yet no Englishman lias 
 been so vilified by the tongues and pens of Scots as I have been. 
 
 "G. What has a gracious Lord given me to do for the good of the 
 counti'y, in applications without number for it in all its interests, be- 
 sides publications of things useful to it and for it? And yet there is 
 no man whom the countr}' so loads with disrespect and calumnies and 
 manifold expressions of aversion. 
 
 "7. What has a gracious Lord given me to do for the upholding 
 of the government, and the strengthening of it, and tlie bespeaking of 
 regards unto it ? And yet the discountenance I have almost per- 
 petually received from the government ! Yea, the indecencies and 
 indignities which it has multiplied upon me are such as no other man 
 has been treated with. 
 
 " 8. What has a gracious Lord given me to do, that the College 
 may be owned for the bringing forth such as are somewhat known in 
 the world, and have read and wrote as much as many have done in other 
 places 1 And yet the College for ever puts all possible marks of dis- 
 esteem upon me. If I were the greatest blockhead that ever came 
 from it, or the greatest blemish that ever came to it, they could not 
 easily show me more contempt than they do. 
 
 " 9. What has a gracious Lord giA-en me to do for tlie study of 
 a profitable conversation ? Tor nearlj' fifty 3"ears togetlier, I have hardly 
 ever gone into any company, or had an}-" coming to me, without some 
 explicit contrivance to speak something or other that they might be 
 the wiser or the better for. And yet uiy coiupany is as little sought 
 for, and there is as little resort unto it, as any minister that I am 
 acquainted with. 
 
 " 10. AVhat has a gracious Lord given me to do in good offices, 
 wherever I could find opportunities for the doing of them ? I for ever 
 I entertain them with alacrit3^ I have offered pecuniary recompenses 
 to such as would advise me of them. And yet I see no man for whom 
 all are so loth to do good oflaces. Indeed I find some cordial friends, 
 but how few J Often have I said. What would I give if there were any 
 one man in the world to do for me what I am willing to do for every 
 man in the world ! 
 
 " 11. AVhat has a gracious Lord given me to do in the writing of 
 many books for the advancing of piety and the promoting of his king- 
 dom? There are, I suppose, more than three hundred of them. And 
 yet I have had more books written against me, more pamphlets to tra- 
 duce and reproach me and belie me, than any man I know in the world. 
 
 " 12. AVhat has a gracious Lord given me to do in a variety of 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 505 
 
 so'vices ? For many lustres of 3'ears, not a day lias passed me, -witliout 
 some devices, even written devices, to be serviceable. And 3'et my 
 sufferings ! They seem to be (as in reason they should be) more than 
 ray services. Eveiybody points at me, and speaks of me as by far 
 the most afflicted minister in all New England. And many look on 
 me as the greatest sinner, because the greatest sufferer ; and are pretty 
 arbitrarj'- in their conjectures upon my punished miscarriages.'' 
 
 ''Diary, May 7, 1724. — The sudden death of the unhappy man 
 who sustained the place of President in our College will open a door 
 for my doing singular services in the best of interests. I do not know 
 that the care of the College will now be cast upon nie, though I am 
 told that it is what is most generally wished for. If it should be, I 
 shall be in abundance of distress about it ; but, if it should not, yet 
 I may do many things for the good of the College more quietly and 
 more hopefully than formerly. 
 
 "June 5. — The College is in great hazard of dissipation and griev- 
 ous destruction and confusion, lly advice to some that have some 
 influence on the public may be seasonable, 
 
 " Jidy 1, 1724. — This day being our insipid, ill-contrived anniversary j 
 which we call the Commencement, I chose to spend it at home in suppli- 
 cations, partly on the behalf of the College that it ma}^ not be foolishly 
 thrown away, but that God may bestow such «. President upon it as 
 may prove a rich blessing unto it and unto all our churches." 
 
 On the 18th of November, 1724, the corporation of Harvard 
 College elected the Rev. Benjamin Colman, pastor of the Brattle- 
 street Church in Boston, to the vacant presidential chair. H^ 
 declined the appointment. The question hung in suspense an- 
 other six months. In June, 1725, the Kev. Benjamin Wadsworth, 
 pastor of the First Church in Boston, was elected, accepted the 
 office, and held it to his death, on the 16th of March, 1737. It 
 may easily be imagined how keenly these repeated slights were 
 felt by Cotton Mather. He died on the 13th of Febnaary, 
 1728. 
 
 From the early part of the spring of 1695, when the abortive 
 attempt to settle the difficulty between ]Mr. Parris and the people 
 of the village, by the umpirage of Major Gcdney, was made, it 
 evidently became the settled purpose of the leading men, on both 
 sides, to restore harmony to the place. On all committees, persons 
 who had been prominent in opposition to each other were joined 
 together, that, thus co-operating, they might become reconciled. 
 
506 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 This is strikingly Illastrated in the " seating of the niecting-house," 
 as it was called. In 1609, in a seat accomuiodiiting three persons, 
 John Putnam the son of Nathaniel, and John Tarhell, were two of 
 the three. Another seat for three was occupied by James and John 
 Putnam, sons of John, and by Thomas Wilkins. Thomas Putnam 
 and Samuel Xursc were placed in the same seat; and so were the 
 wives of Thomas Putnam and Samuel Nurse, and the widow 
 Sarah Houlton. The widow Preston, daughter of Rebecca Nurse, 
 was seated with the widow AValcot, mother of Mary, one of the 
 accusinir crirls. 
 
 AVe see in this the effect of the wise and decisive course adopted 
 by Mr. Parris's successor, the Pev. Joseph Green. Innnediately 
 upon his ordination, Nov. 10, 1698, he addressed himself in ear- 
 nest to the work of reconciliation in that distracted pai'ish. From 
 the date of its existence, nearly thirty }'cars before, it had been 
 torn by constant strife. It had just passed tln-ough scenes which 
 had brought all hearts into the most terrible alienation. A man 
 of less faith would not have believed it possible, that the horrors 
 and outrages of those scenes could ever be forgotten, forgiven, or 
 atoned for, by those who had suffei-ed or committed the wrongs. 
 But he knew the infinite power of the divine love, which, as a min- 
 ister of Christ, it was his office to inspire and diffuse. He knew 
 that, with the blessing of God, that people, who had from the first 
 been devouring each other, and upon whose garments the stain of 
 the blood of brethren and sisters was fresh, might be made ** kind 
 one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as 
 God for Chrises sake hath forgiven" them. In this heroic and 
 Christ-like faith, he entered upon and steadfastly adhered to his 
 divine work. He pursued it with patience, wisdom, and courageous 
 energy. No ministry in the whole history of the New-England 
 churches has had a more difficult task put upon it, and none has 
 more perfecth' succeeded in Its labors. I shall describe the admin- 
 istration of this good man, as a minister of reconciliation, in his 
 own words, transcribed from his church recoi'ds : — 
 
 "Nov. 25, 1698, being spent in holy exercises (in order to our pre- 
 paration for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper), at John Putnam, 
 Jr.'s, after the exercise, I desired the church to manifest, by the usual 
 sign, that they were so cordially satisfied with their brethren, Tliomas 
 Wilkins, John Tarbell, and Samuel Nurse, that tliey were heartily 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 507 
 
 desirous that they would join with us in all ordinances, that so we 
 might all live lovingly together. This they consented unto, and none 
 made aii}^ objection, but voted it by lifting up their hands. And fur- 
 ther, that whatever articles they had drawn up against those brethren 
 formerly, they now looked upon them as nothing, but let tliem fall to 
 the ground, being willing that they should be buried for ever. 
 
 "Feb. 5, 1C99. — This day, also our brother John Tarbell, and his 
 wife, and Thomas "Wilkins and his wife, and Samuel Nurse's wife, 
 joined with us in the Lord's Supper; which is a matter of thankful- 
 ness, seeing they have for a long time been so offended as that they 
 could not comfortably join with us. 
 
 "1702. — In December, the pastor spake to the chiirch, on the sab- 
 bath, as foUoweth: * Brethren, I find in j-our church-book a record of 
 Martha Corey's being excommunicated for witchcraft; and, the gene- 
 rality of the land being sensible of the errors that prevailed in tliat 
 day, some of her friends have moved me several times to propose to 
 the church whether it be not our duty to recall that sentence, that so 
 it may not stand against her to all generations ; and I myself being a 
 stranger to her, and being ignorant of what was alleged against her, I 
 shall now only leave it to your consideration, and shall determine the 
 matter by a vote the next convenient opportunity.' 
 
 "Feb. 14, 170|. — The major part of the brethren consented to the 
 following: * Whereas this church passed a vote, Sept. 11, 1692, for 
 the excommunication of Martha Corey, and that sentence was pro- 
 nounced against her Sept, 14, by Mr. Samuel Parris, formerly the 
 pastor of this church; she being, before her excommunication, con- 
 demned, and afterwards executed, for supposed witchcraft ; and there 
 being a record of this in our church-book, page 12, we being moved 
 hereunto, do freely consent and heartily desire that the same sentence 
 may be revoked, and that it may stand no longer against her ; for we 
 are, through God's mercy to us, convinced that we were at that dark 
 day under the power of those errors which then prevailed in the land ; 
 and we are sensible that we had not sufficient grounds to think her 
 guilty of that crime for which she was condemned and executed ; and 
 that her excommunication was not according to the mind of God, 
 and therefore we desire that this may be entered in our church-book, 
 to take off that odium that is cast on her name, and tliat so God may 
 forgive our sin, and may be atoned for the land ; and Ave humbly pray 
 that God will not leave us any more to such errors and sins, but will 
 teach and enable us always to do that which is right in liis sight.' 
 
 " There was a major part voted, and six or seven dissented. 
 
 "J. Gr., Pr." 
 
508 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 The First Church in Salem rescinded its votes of cxoommimi- 
 cation of Rebecca jSTursc and Giles Corey, in jVfarch, 1712. The 
 church at the village "was nearly ten years before it, in this act of 
 justice to itself and to the memory of the injured dead. Mr. 
 Gi*een did not wait until the public sentiment drove liim to it. 
 He regarded it as his duty to lead, and keep in front of that stj-nti- 
 ment, in the right direction. He did not wait until everybody 
 demanded it to be done, but instantly beiran to prepare liis people 
 for it. At the proper time, he gave notice that be was about to 
 bring the question before them; and he accordingly did so. He 
 bad no idea of allowing a few narrow-minded, obstinate in*Hviduals 
 to keep the blot any longer upon the records of his church. His 
 conduct is honorable to his name, and to the name of the village. 
 By wise, prudent, but persistent efforts, he gradually repaired 
 every breach, brought his parish out from under reproach, and set 
 them right with each other, with the obligations of justice, and 
 with the spirit of Christianity. It is aiTecting to read his ejacula- 
 tions of praise and gratitude to God for every sj'mptom of the 
 prevalence of harmony and love among the people of his charge. 
 
 The man who extinguished the fires of passion in a community 
 that had ever before been consumed by them deserves to be held 
 in lasting honor. The history of the witchcraft delusion in Salem 
 Village would, indeed, be imperfectly written, if it failed to present 
 the character of him who healed its wounds, obliterated the traces 
 of its malign influence on the hearts and lives of those who acted, 
 and repaired the wrongs done to the memory of those who suffered, 
 in it. Joseph Green had a manly and amiable nature. He was 
 a studious scholar and an able preacher. He was devoted to 
 his ministry and faithful to its obligations. He was a leader of his 
 people, and shared in their occupations and experiences. He was 
 active in the ordinary employments of life and daily concerns of 
 society. Possessed of independent property, he was frugal and 
 simple in his habits, and liberal in the use of his means. The par- 
 sonage, while he lived in it, was the abode of hospitality, and 
 frequented by the best society in the neighborhood. By mingled 
 firmness and kindliness, he met and removed difficulties. He had 
 a cheerful temperament, was not irritated by the course of events, 
 even when of an unpleasant character. While ]Mr. Noyes was 
 disturbed, even to resentment, by encroachments upon his parish. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 509 
 
 in the formation of new societies in the middle precinct of Salem, 
 now South Dauvers, and in the second precinct of Beverly, now 
 Upper Beverly, i\Ir. Green, although they drew away from him 
 as many as from jMr. Noyes, went to participate in the raising of 
 their meeting-houses. Of a genial disi^osition, he countenanced 
 innocent amusements. lie was fond of the sports of the iield. 
 The catamount was among the trophies of his sure aim, and he 
 came home with his huntsman^s bag filled with wild pigeons. lie 
 would take his little sons before and behind him on his horse, and 
 spend a day with them fishing and fowling on Wilkins's Bond ; 
 and, when Indians threatened the settlements, he would shoulder 
 his musket, join the brave }'oung men of his parish, and be the 
 first in the encounter, and the last to relinquish the pursuit of 
 the savage foe. 
 
 He was always, everywhere, a peacemaker; by his genial man- 
 ner, and his genume dignity and decision of character, be re- 
 moved dissensions from his church and neighborhood, and secured 
 the respect while he won the love of all. That such a person was 
 raised up and placed where he was at that time, was truly a 
 providence of God. 
 
 The part performed in the witchcraft tragedy by the extraor- 
 dinary child of twelve years of age, Ann Putnam, has been fully set 
 forth. As has been stated, both her parents (and no one can meas- 
 ure their share of responsibilit}'", nor that of others behind them, for 
 her conduct) died within a fortnight of each other, in 1699. She was 
 then nineteen years of age ; a large family of children, all younger 
 than herself, was left with her in the most melancholy orphanage. 
 How many there were, we do not exactly know : eight survived 
 her. Although their uncles, Edward and Joseph, were near, and 
 kind, and able to care for them, the burden thrown upon her must 
 have been great. With the terrible remembrance of the scenes 
 of 1692, it was greater than she could bear. Her health began to 
 decline, and she was long an invalid. Under the tender and faith- 
 ful guidance of Mr. Green, she did all that she could to seek the 
 forgiveness of God and man. After consultations with him, in 
 visits to his study, a confession was drawn up, which she desired 
 publicly to make. Upon conferring with Samuel Nurse, it was 
 found to be satisfactory to him, as the representative of those who 
 had suffered from her testimony. It was her desire to offer this 
 
510 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 confession and a profession of religion at the same time. The day 
 was fixed, and made known to the public. On the 2oth of August, 
 170G, a great concourse assembled in the meeting-house. Large 
 numbers came from other places, particularly from the town of 
 Salem. The foUoAving document, having been judged sufRcient 
 and suitable, was written out in the church-book the evening 
 before, and signed by her. It was read by the pastor before the 
 cono-regation, who were seated; she standing in her place while it 
 was read, and owning it as hers by a declaration to that effect at 
 its close, and also acknowledging the signature. 
 
 " The Confession of Anne Putnam, when she was received to Com- 
 munion, 1706, 
 
 ''I desire to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling 
 providence that hefell my father's family in the year about '92 ; that I, 
 then being in my childliood, should, by such a providence of God, be 
 made an instrument for the accusing of several persons of a grievous 
 crime, whereby their lives were taken away from them, whom now I 
 have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent per- 
 sons; and tliat it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in 
 that sad time, whereby I justly fear I have been instrumental, with 
 others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon myself and 
 this land the guilt of innocent blood ; though what was said or done 
 by me against any person I can truly and uprightly say, before God 
 and man, I did it not out of any anger, malice, or ill-will to any per- 
 son, for I had no such thing against one of them ; but wliat I did was 
 ignorantly, being deluded by Satan. And particularly, as I was a. 
 chief instrument of accusing of Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters, 
 I desire to lie m the dust, and to be humbled for it, in that I was a 
 t cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families ; for 
 which cause I desire to lie in the dust, and earnestly beg forgiveness 
 of God, and from all those unto whom I have given just cause of sor- 
 row and offence, whose relations were taken away or accused. 
 
 [Signed] a^ruW (f*-^^^^^^'"'^' 
 
 " This confession was read before the con^^regation, together with 
 her relation, Aug. 25, 1706 ; and she acknowledged it. 
 
 "J. Green, Pastor. 
 
 1 This paper shows the baleful influence of the doctrine of Satan 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 511 
 
 then received. It afforded a refuge and escape from tlie com- 
 punctions of conscience. The load of sin was easily thrown upon 
 the back of Satan, This young woman was undouljtedl}" sincere 
 in her penitence, and was forgiven, we trust and believe ; but she ■ 
 failed to see the depth of her iniquity, and of those who instigated j 
 and aided her, In her false accusations. The blame, and the deed, ■ 
 were wholly hers and theirs. Satan had no share in it. Human ' 
 responsibility cannot thus be avoided. 
 
 While, in a certain sense, she miputes the blame to Satan, this 
 declaration of Ann Putnam is conclusive evidence that she and her 
 confederate accusers did not believe in any communications having 
 been made to them by invisible spirits of any kind. Those per- 
 sons, in our day, who Imagine that they hold intercourse, by rap- 
 ping or otherwise, with spiritual beings, have sometimes found 
 arguments in favor of their belief In the phenomena of the witch- 
 craft trials. But.Ann Putnam's confession is decisive against this. 
 If she had really received from invisible beings, subordinate spirits, 
 or the spirits of deceased persons, the matters to which she testi- 
 fied, or ever believed that she had, she would have said so. On 
 the contrary, she declares that she had no foundation whatever, 
 from any source, for what she said, but was under the subtle and 
 mysterious influence of the Devil himself. 
 
 She died at about the age of thirty-sLx yeaxs. Her will is dated 
 May 20, 1715, and was presented in probate June 29, 1716. Its 
 preamble is as follows : — 
 
 "In the name of God, amen. I, Anne Putnam, of the town of 
 Salem, single woman, being oftentimes sick and weak in body, but 
 of a disposing mind and memory, blessed be God ! and calling to mind 
 the mortality of ray body, and that it is appointed for all men once to 
 die, do make this my last will and testament. First of all, I recom- 
 mend my spirit into the hands of God, through Jesus Christ my 
 Redeemer, with whom I hope to live for ever ; and, as for my body, I 
 commit it to the earth, to be buried in a Christian and decent manner, 
 at the discretion of my executor, hereafter named, nothing doubting 
 but, by the mighty power of God, to receive the same again at the 
 resurrection." 
 
 She divided her land to her four brothers, and her personal 
 estate to her four sisters. 
 
 It seems that she was frequently the subject of sickness, and 
 
512 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 lier bodily powers much weakened. The probability is, that tlic 
 long-continued strain kept upon her muscular and nervous organi- 
 zation, during the witchcraft scenes, had destroyed her constitution. 
 Such uninterrupted and vehement exercise, to their utmost tension, 
 of the imairinative, intellectual, and physical powers, in crowded 
 and heated rooms, before the public gaze, and under the feverish 
 and consuming inllueuce of bewildering and all but dchrious ex- 
 citement, could hardly fail to sap the foundations of liealth in so 
 young a child. The tradition is, that she had a slow and fluctuating 
 decline. The language of her will intimates, that, at intervals, 
 there were apparent checks to her disease, and rallies of strength, 
 - — ** oftentimes sick and weak in body.'' She inherited from her 
 mother a sensitive and fragile constitution ; but her father, although 
 brought to the grave, probablj^ by the teiTible responsibilities and 
 trials in which he had been involved, at a comparatively early age, 
 belonged to a long-lived race and neighborhood. The ojjposite 
 elements of her composition struggled in a protracted contest, — on 
 the one side, a, nature morbidly subject to neiTOus excitability 
 sinking under the exhaustion of an overworked, overburdened, 
 and shattered system 5 on the other, tenacity of life. The conflict 
 continued with alternating success for years ; but the latter gave 
 way at last. Her story, in all its aspects, is worthy of the study 
 of the psychologist. Her confession, profession, and death point 
 the moral. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Green died ]S""ov. 26, 1715. The following 
 tribute to his memor}'" is inscribed on the records of the church. 
 It is in the handwriting, and style of thought and language, of 
 Deacon Edward Putnam. 
 
 " Then was the choicest flower and greenest olive-tree in the garden 
 of our God here cut down in its prime aud flourishing estate at the age 
 of forty years and two days, who had been a faithful ambassador from 
 God to us eighteen years. Tlien did that bright star set, and never 
 more to appear here among us ; then did our sun go down ; and now 
 what darkness is come upon us ! Put away and pardon our iniquities, 
 O Lord ! which have been the cause of thy sore displeasure, and 
 return to us again in mercy, and provide yet again for this thy flock a 
 pastor after thy own heart, as thou hath promised to thy people in thy 
 word ; on which promise we have hope, for we are caUed by thy name ; 
 and, oh, leave us not ! " 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 513 
 
 The Rev. Peter Clark -n^as ordained June 5, 1717. The ter- 
 mination of the connection between the ISalem Village church 
 and the witchcraft delusion, and all similar kinds of absurdity and 
 wickedness, is marked by the following record, which fully and for 
 ever redeems its character. If Samuel Parris had been as wise 
 and brave as Peter Clark, he would, in the same decisive manner, 
 have nipped the thing in the bud. 
 
 " Salem Village Church Records. 
 
 "Sept. 5, 1746. — At a church meeting appointed on the lecture, 
 the day before, on the occasion of several persons in this parish being 
 reported to have resorted to a woman of a very ill reputation, pretend- 
 ing to the art of divination and fortune-telling, &.C., to make inquiry into 
 that matter, and to take such resolutions as may be thought proper on 
 the occasion, the brethren of the church then present came into the 
 following votes; viz., That for Christians, especially church-members, 
 to seek to and consult reputed witches or fortune-tellers, this church is 
 clearly of opinion, and firmly believes on the testimony of the Word 
 of God, is highly impious and scandalous, being a violation of the 
 Christian covenant sealed in baptism, rendering the persons guilty of 
 it subject to the just censure of the church. 
 
 "No proof appearing against any of tlie members of this cliurch 
 {some of whom had been strongly suspected of this crime), so as to 
 convict them of their being guilty, it was further voted. That the 
 pastor, in the name of the church, should publicly testify their disap- 
 probation and abhorrence of this infamous and ungodly practice of 
 consulting witches or fortune-tellers, or any that are reputed such ; 
 exhorting all under their watch, who may have been guilty of it, to 
 an hearty repentance and returning to God, earnestly seeking forgive- 
 ness in the blood of Christ, and warning all against the like practice 
 for the time to come. 
 
 " Sept. 7. — This testimony, exhortation, and warning, voted by tiie 
 church, was publicly given by the pastor, before the dismission of 
 the congregation." 
 
 The Salem Village Parish, when its present pastor,, the Rev. 
 Charles B. Rice, was settled, Sept. 2, 1S63, had been iu existence 
 a hundred and ninety-one years. During its first twenty-five 
 years, it h^d four ministers, whose aggregate period of service 
 was eighteen years. During the succeeding hundred and sixty- 
 six years, it bad four ministers, whose aggregate period of service 
 
 TOL. II. 33 
 
514 SALKM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 was one hundred and fifty-eight years. They Iiad all been Tvell 
 educated, severalwcre men of uneomnion endowinenls, and with- 
 out exception they possessed qualities suitable for success and 
 usefulnebS in their calling. 
 
 The first period was filled with an uninterrupted series of 
 troubles, quarrels, and animosities, cubninating in the most terrific 
 and horrible disaster that ever fell upon a people. The second 
 period was an uninterrupted reign of peace, harmony, and unity; 
 no religious society ever enjoying more comfort in its privileges, 
 or exhibiting a better example of all that ought to characterize a 
 Christian congregation. 
 
 The contrast between the lives of its ministers, in the two 
 periods respectively, is as gi'eat as between their pastorates. 
 The first four sufFex'ed from inadequate means of support, and, 
 owing to the feuds in the congregation, rates not being collected, 
 were hardly supplied with the necessaries of life. Tlicre is no 
 symptom in the records of the second period of there having ever 
 been any difficulty on this score. The prompt fulfilment of their 
 contracts by the people, and the favor of Providence, placed the 
 ministers above the reach or approach of inconvenience or annoy- 
 ance from that quarter. 
 
 The history of the ^ew-England churches presents no epoch 
 more melancholy, distressful, and stormy than the first, and none 
 more united, prosperous, or commendable than the second period 
 in the annals of" the Salem Village church. 
 
 The contrast between the fortunes and fates of the ministers 
 of these two periods is worthy of being stated in detail. 
 
 James Bayley began to preach at the Village at the formation 
 of the society, when he was quite a young man, within three years 
 from receiving his degree at Harvard College. After about seven 
 years, during which he buried his wife and three children, and 
 encountered a, bitter and turbulent opposition, — so far as we can 
 see, most causeless and unreasonable, — he relinquished the minis- 
 try altogether, and spent the residue of his life in another profession 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The ministry of George Burroughs, at the Village, lasted about 
 two years. The violence of both parties to the controversy by 
 which the parish had been rent was concentrated upon his inno- 
 cent and unsheltered head. He was, at a public assembly of his 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 615 
 
 people, in lus ot-vti meeting-house, arrested, and taken out in the 
 custod}' of the marshal of the county, a prisoner for a debt in- 
 curred to meet the expenses of his wlfe^s recent funeral, of an 
 amount less than tlie salary then due him, and which, in point of 
 fact, he had paid at the time by an order upon the parish treasurer. 
 From such outrageous ill-treatment, he escaped by resigning his 
 ministry. lie was followed to his retreat in a remote settlement, 
 and while engaged there, a laborious, self-sacrilicing, and devoted 
 minister, was. by the malignity of his enemies at the Village, sud- 
 denly seized, all unconscious of having wronged a human creature, 
 snatched from the table where he was taking his frugal meal in 
 his humble home, torn from his helpless family, hurried up to the 
 Village ; overwhelmed in a storm of falsehood, rage, and folly ; 
 loaded with irons, immured in a dungeon, carried to the place of 
 execution, consigned to the death of a felon ; and his uncoffined 
 remains thrown among the clefts of the rocks of Witch Hill, and 
 left but half buried, — for a crime of which he was as innocent as 
 the unborn child. 
 
 Deodat Lawson, a, great scholar and great preacher, after a 
 two years^ trial, and having buried his wife and daughter at the 
 Village, abandoned the attempt to quell the storm of passion there. 
 He found another settlement on the other side of Massachusetts 
 Bay, which he left without taking leave, and was never heard of 
 more by his people. Eight years afterwards, he re-appeared in the 
 reprint, at London, of his famous Salem Village sermon, and then 
 vanished for ever from sight. A cloud of impenetrable darkness 
 envelopes his name at that point. Of his fate nothing is known, 
 except that it was an " unhappy " one. 
 
 Samuel Parris, after a ministr}^ of seven years, crowded from 
 the very beginning with contention and animosity, and closed in 
 desolation, ruin, and woes unutterable, havoc scattered among his 
 people and the whole country round, was driven from the parish, 
 the blood of the innocent charged upon his head, and, for the rest 
 of his days, consigned to obscurity and penury. The place of his 
 abode has upon it no habitation or structure of man ; and the only 
 vestiges left of him are his records of the long quarrel with his 
 congregation, and his inscription on the headstone, erected by 
 him, as he left the Village for ever, over the fresh grave of his 
 ■wife. 
 
516 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Surely, the annals of no church present a more dismal, shocking, 
 or shameful history than this. 
 
 Joseph Gx"een, on the 26th of November, 1715, terminated 
 with his life a ministiy of eighteen 3'ears, as useful, beneficent, 
 and honorable as it had been throughout harmonious and happy. 
 Peter Clark died in office, June 10, 17GS, after a service of 
 fifty-one years. He was recognized throughout the country as an 
 able minister and a learned divine. Peace and prosperity reigned, 
 without a moment's intermission, among the people of his charge. 
 Benjamin AYadsworth, D.D., also died in office, Jan. 18, 1826, 
 after a service of fifty-four years. Through life he was universally 
 esteemed and loved in all the churches. Milton P. Braman, D.D., 
 on the 1st of April, 1861, terminated by resignation a ministry of 
 thirty-five years. He always enjoyed universal respect and affec- 
 tion, and the parish under his care, uninterrupted union and pros- 
 perity. He did not leave his people, but remains among them, 
 participating in the enjoyment of their privileges, and upholding 
 the hands of his successor. His eminent talents are occasionally ■ 
 exercised in neighboring pulpits, and in other services of public 
 usefulness- He lives in honored retirement on land originally 
 belonging to Nathaniel Putnam, distant only a few rods, ji little to 
 the north of east, from the spot owned and occupied by his first 
 predecessor, James Bayley. 
 
 It can be said with assurance, of this epoch in the history of 
 the Salem Village church and society, that it can hardly be par- 
 alleled in all that indicates the well-being of man or the bless- 
 ings of Heaven. No such contrast, as these two periods in the 
 annals of this parish present, can elsewhere be found. 
 
 Prosecutions for witchcraft continued in the older countries 
 after they had been abandoned here ; -although it soon began to 
 be difficult, everywhere, to procure the conviction of a person 
 accused of witchcraft. In 1716, a Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, 
 the latter aged nine years, were hanged in Huntingdon, in Eng- 
 land, for witchcraft. In the year 1720, an attempt, already 
 alluded to, was made to renew the Salem excitement in Littleton, 
 Mass., but it failed : the people had learned wisdom at a price too 
 dear to allow them so soon to forget it. In a letter to Cotton 
 Mather, written Feb. 19, 1720, the excellent Dr. AVatts, after 
 having expressed his doubts respecting the sufficiency of the spec- 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 517 
 
 tral evidence for condemnation, says, in reference to the Salem 
 ■witehcraft, **I am much persuaded that there was much innne- 
 diate agency of the Devil in these affairs, and perhaps there were 
 some real witches too.*" Not far from this time, we find what was 
 probably the opinion of the most liberal-minded and cultivated 
 people in England expressed in the following language of Addi- 
 son: "To speak my thoughts freely, I believe, in general, that 
 there is and has been such a thing as witchcraft, but, at the same 
 time, can give no credit to any particular instance of it." 
 
 There was an execution for witchcraft in Scotland in 1722. As 
 late as the middle of the last century, an annual discourse, com- 
 memorative of executions that took place in Huntingdon during 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, continued to be delivered in that 
 place. An act of a Presbyterian synod in Scotland, published in 
 1743, and reprinted at Glasgow in 1766, denounced as a national 
 sin the repeal of the penal laws against witchcraft. 
 
 Blackstone, the great oracle of British law, and who flourished 
 in the latter half of the last century, declared his belief in witch- 
 craft in the following strong terms: *' To deny the possibilit}^ 
 nay, the actual existence, of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once 
 flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God, in various passages 
 both of the Old and New Testament ; and the thing itself is a 
 truth to which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne 
 testimony, either by examples seemingly well attested, or by pro- 
 hibitory laws, which at least suppose the possibility of commerce 
 with evil spirits." 
 
 It is related, in White's "Natural History of Selborne," that, 
 in the year 1751, the people of Tring, a market town of Hertford- 
 shire, and scarcely more than thirty miles from London, *' seized 
 on two superannuated wretches, crazed with age and overwhelmed 
 with infirmities, on a suspicion of witchcraft." They were carried 
 to the edge of a horse-pond, and there subjected to the water 
 ordeal. The trial resulted in the acquittal of the prisoners ; but 
 they were both drowned in the process. 
 
 A systematic effort seems to have been made during the eigh- 
 teenth century to strengthen and renew the power of superstition. 
 Alarmed by the progress of infidehty, many eminent and excellent 
 men availed themselves of the facilities which their position at 
 the head of the prevailing literature afforded them, to push the 
 
518 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 faith of the people as far as possible towards the opposite extreme 
 of credulity. It was a most unwise, and, in its cileets, deplorable 
 policy. It was a betrayal of the cause of true religion. It was 
 an acknowledgment that it could not be vindicated before the 
 tribunal of severe reason. Besides all the misery produced by 
 filling the imagination with unreal objects of terror, the restoration 
 to influence, during the last century, of the fables and delusions of 
 an ignorant age, has done incalcuhiblc injury, by preventing the 
 progress of Christian truth and sound philosophy; thus promoting 
 the cause of the very infidelity it was intended to check. The 
 idea of putting down one error by setting up another cannot have 
 suggested itself to any mind that had ever been led to appreciate 
 the value or the force of truth. But this was the policy of Chris- 
 tian writers from the time of Addison to that of Johnson. The 
 latter expressly confesses, that it was necessary to maintain the 
 credit of the belief of the existence and agency of ghosts, and 
 other supernatural beings, in order to help on the argument for a 
 future state as founded upon the Bible. 
 
 Dr. Hibbeit, in his excellent book on the "Philosophy of 
 Apparitions,'' illustrates some remarks similar to those just made, 
 by the following quotation from Mr. Wesley : — 
 
 "It is true, that the English in general, and indeed most of the 
 men in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions 
 as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it; and\[ willingly take this 
 opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent com- 
 pliment, which so manj" that beUeve the Bible pay to those who do not 
 believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge, these are 
 at the bottom of tlie outcry which has been raised, and with such 
 insolence spread tliroughout the nation, in direct opposition, not only 
 to the Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best men in all ages 
 and nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not), 
 that the giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible. And 
 they know, on the other hand, that, if but one account of the inter- 
 course of men with separate spirits be admitted, their whole castle in 
 the air (Deism, Atheism, Materialism) falls to the ground. I know no 
 reason, therefore, why we should suffer even tins weapon to be wrested 
 out of our hands. Indeed, there are numerous arguments besides, 
 which abundantly confute their vain imaginations. But we need not 
 be hooted out of one : neither reason nor religion requires this." 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 519 
 
 The belief in witclicraft continued to hold a conspicuous place 
 among populax- superstitions during the whole of the last century. 
 Many now living can remember the time when it prevailed very 
 generally. Each town or village had its peculiar traditionary 
 tales, which were gravely related by the old, and deeply impressed 
 upon the young. 
 
 The legend of the *' Screeching Woman^' of Marblehead is 
 worthy of being generally known. The story runs thus : A j)irati- 
 cal cruiser, having captured a Spanish vessel during the seventeenth 
 century, brought her into Marblehead harbor, which was then the 
 site of a few humble dwellings. The male inhabitants were all 
 absent on their fishing voyages. The pirates brought their pris- 
 oners ashore, carried them at the dead of the night into a retired 
 glen, and there murdered them. Among the captives was an Eng- 
 lish female passenger. The women who belonged to the place 
 heard her dying outcries, as they rose through the midnight air, 
 and reverberated far and wide along the silent shores. She was 
 heard to exclaim, " O mercy, mercy ! Lord Jesus Christ, save me ! 
 Lord Jesus Chi-ist, save me ! " Her body was buried by the pirates 
 on the spot. The same piercing voice is believed to be heard at 
 intervals, more or less often, almost every year^ in the stillness of 
 a calm starlight or clear moonlight night. There is something, it 
 is said, so wild, mysterious, and evidently superhuman in the 
 sound, as to strike a chill of dread into. the hearts of all who 
 listen to it. The writer of an article on this subject, in the 
 ** Marblehead Register" of April 3, 1830, declares, that "there 
 are not wanting, at the present day, persons of unimpeachable 
 veracity and known respectability, who still continue firmly to 
 believe the tradition, and to assert that they themselves have been 
 auditors of the sounds described, which they declare were of such 
 an unearthly nature as to preclude the idea of imposition or 
 deception." 
 
 When "the silver moon unclouded holds her way," or when 
 the stars are glistening in the clear, cold sky, and the dark forms 
 of the moored vessels are at rest upon the sleeping bosom of the 
 harbor ; when no natural sound comes forth from the animate or 
 inanunate creation but the dull and melancholy rote of the sea 
 along the rocky and winding coast, — how often is the watcher 
 startled from the reveries of an excited imagination by the pite- 
 
520 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 ous, dismal, and terrific screams of the unlaid f^Uost of the Dvjr- 
 dered lady ! 
 
 A negro died, fifty years ago, in tliat part of Danvcrs called 
 originally Salem Village, at a very advanced age. lie was snp- 
 posed to have reached his hundredth year. He never could be 
 prevailed upon to aduiit that there was any delusion or mistake in 
 the proceedings of 1692. To him, the whole affair was easy of 
 explanation. He believed that the witchcraft was occasioned by 
 the circumstance of the DeviPs having purloined the churcli-book, 
 and that it subsided so soon as the book was recovered from his 
 grasp. Perhaps the particular hypothesis of the venerable African 
 was peculiar to himself; but those persons must iiavc a slight 
 acquaintance with the history of opinions in this and ever^^ other 
 country, who arc not aware that the superstition on which it was 
 founded has been extensively entertained by men of every color, 
 almost, if not quite, up to the present day. If the doctrines of 
 demonology have been completely overthrown and exterminated 
 in our villages and cities, it is a very recent achievement ; nay, I 
 fear that in many places the auspicious event remains to take 
 place. 
 
 In the year 1808, the inhabitants of Great Paxton, a village of 
 Huntingdonshire, in England, within sixty miles of London, rose 
 in a body, attacked the house of an humble, and, so far as appears, 
 inoffensive and estimable woman, named Ann Izard, suspected of 
 bewitching three young females, — Alice Brown, Fanny Amey, 
 and Mary Fox, — dragged her out of her bed into the fields, 
 pierced her arms and body with pins, and tore her flesh with their 
 nails, until she was covered with blood. They committed the 
 same barbarous outrage upon her again, a short time afterwards \ 
 and would have subjected her to the water ordeal, had she not 
 found means to fly from that part of the country. 
 
 The writer of the article "Witchcraft," in Rees's "Cyclo- 
 paedia,^' gravely maintains the doctrine of ** ocular fascination.''' 
 
 Prosecutions for witchcraft are stated to have occurred, in the 
 first half of the present century, in some of the interior districts of 
 our Southern States. The civilized world is even yet full of nec- 
 romancers and thaumaturgists of every kind. The science of 
 " palmistry" is still practised by many a muttering vagi-ant; and 
 perhaps some in this neighborhood remember when, in the days 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 521 
 
 of their youthful faucy, they lield out their hands, that their future 
 fortunes might be read in the lines of their palms, and their wild 
 and giddy curiosity and anxious aifections be gratified by informa- 
 tion respecting wedding-day or absent lover. 
 
 The most celebrated foi-tune-teller, perhaps, that ever lived, 
 resided in an adjoining town. The character of "Moll Pitche-r" 
 is familiarly known in all parts of the commercial world. She died 
 in 1813. Her place of abode was beneath the projecting and 
 elevated summit of High Kock, in Lynn, and commanded a view 
 of the wild and indented coast of Marblehead, of the extended 
 and resounding beaches of Lj-nn and Chelsea, of Nahant Rocks, 
 of the vessels and islands of Boston's beautiful bay, and of its 
 remote southern shore. She derived her mysterious gifts by 
 inheritance, her grandfather having practised them before in Mar- 
 blehead. Sailors, merchants, and adventurers of every kind, 
 visited her residence, and placed confidence in her predictions. 
 People came from great distances to learn the fate of missing 
 friends, or recover the possession of lost goods ; while the young 
 of both sexes, impatient of the tardy pace of time, and burning 
 with curiosity to discern the secrets of futurity, availed themselves 
 of every opportunity to visit her lowly dwelling, and hear from 
 her prophetic lips the revelation of the most tender incidents and 
 important events of their coming lives. She read the iiiture, and 
 traced what to mere mortal eyes were the mysteries of the present 
 or the past, in the arrangement and aspect of the grounds or 
 settlings of a cup of tea or coflFee. Her name has everywhere 
 become the generic title of fortune-tellers, and occupies a con- 
 spicuous place in the legends and ballads of popular superstition. 
 Her renown has gone abroad to the farthest regions, and her 
 memory will be perpetuated in the annals of credulity and impos- 
 ture. An air of romance is breathed around the scenes where she 
 practised her mystic art, the interest and charm of which wiU 
 increase as the lapse of time removes her history back towards 
 the dimness of the distant past. 
 
 The elements of the witchcraft delusion of 1692 are slumbering 
 still in the bosom of society. We hear occasionally of haunted 
 houses, cases of second-sight, and communications from the spir- 
 itual world. It always will be so. The human mind feels instinc- 
 tively its connection with a higher sphere. Some will ever be 
 
522 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 impatient of the restraints of our present mode of being, and 
 prone to break away from them ; eager to pry into the secrets of 
 the invisible worhl, willing to venture beyond tlie l^ounds of ascer- 
 tainable knowledge, and, ia the pursuit of truth, to as^iire where 
 the laws of evidence cannot follow them. A love of the marvellous 
 is inherent to the sense of limitation while in these terrestrial 
 bodies ; and many will alwaj^s be found not content to wait until 
 this tabernacle is dissolved and we shall be clothed upon with a 
 body which is from Heaven. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 L Lawsox's Prefatory Address. 
 
 n. Lawson's Brief Account. 
 
 III. Letter to Jonathan Corwin. 
 
 IV. Extracts from Mr. Parris's Church Records. 
 
A P P E N D I X. 
 
 I. 
 
 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 
 
 [From the edition of Deodat Lawson's Sermon printed in London, 1704-] 
 
 To alt my Christian Fiiends arid Acquaintance^ the Inhabitants of Salem Village. 
 
 Chkistian Friends, — The sermon here presented unto you was de- 
 livered in your audience by that unworthy instrument who did formerly 
 spend some years among you in the work of the rainiitry, though attended 
 with manifold sinful failings and infirmities, for which I do implore the par- 
 doning mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and entreat from you the covering of 
 love. As this was prepared for that particular occasion ^vhen it was delivered 
 amongst you, so the publication of it is to be particularly recommended to 
 your service. 
 
 My hearths desire and continual praj-^er to God for you all is, that you 
 may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ; and, accordingly, that all 
 means he is using with you, by mercies and afflictions, ordinances and provi- 
 dences, may be sanctified to the building you up in grace and holiness, and 
 preparing you for the kingdom of glory. We are told by the apostle (Acts 
 xiv. 22), that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of 
 God. Now, since (besides your share in the common calamities, under the 
 burden whereof this poor people are groaning at this time) the righteous and 
 holy God hath been pleased to permit a sore and grievous affliction to befall 
 you, such as can hardly be said to be common to men ; viz., by giving libertj"" 
 to Satan to range and rage amongst you, to the torturing the bodies and 
 distracting the minds of some of the visible sheep and lambs of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. And (which is yet more astonishing) he who is the accuser 
 of the brethren endeavors to introduce as criminal some of the visible sub- 
 jects of Christ's kingdom, by whose sober and godly conversation in times 
 
526 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 past we could draw no other conclusions than that they were real members 
 of his mystical bod}', representing them as the instruments of his malice 
 against their friends and neighbors. 
 
 I thought meet thus to give you the best assistance I could, to help you 
 out of your distresses. And since the ways of the Lord, in his permissive as 
 well as effective providence, are unsearchable, and his doings past finding 
 out, and pious souls are at a loss what will be the issue of these things, I 
 therefore bow my knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that he would cause all grace to abound to you andjn 3'ou, that your poor 
 place may be delivered from those breaking and ruining calamities which are 
 threatened as the pernicious consequences of Satan's malicious operations; 
 and that you ma}' not be left to bite and devour one another in your sacred 
 or civil society, in your relations or families, to tlie destro3'ing much good and 
 promoting much evil among you, so as in any kind to weaken the hands or 
 discourage the heart of 3^our reverend and pious pastor, whose family also 
 being so much under the influence of these troubles, spiritual sympathy can- 
 not but stir you up to assist him as at all times, so especially at such a time as 
 this; he, as well as his neighbors, being under such awful circumstances. As 
 to this discourse, my humble desire and endeavor is, that it may appear to be 
 according to tlie form of sound words, and in expressions every way intelli- 
 gible to the meanest capacities. It pleased God, of his free grace, to give it 
 some acceptation with those that heard it, and some that heard of it desired 
 me to transcribe it, and afterwards to give way to the printing of it. I pre- 
 sent it therefore to your acceptance, and commend it to the divine benedic- 
 tion; and that it may please the Almight}' God to manifest his power in 
 putting an end to your sorrows of this nature, by bruising Satan under your 
 feet shortly, causing these and all other your and our troubles to work 
 together for our good now, and salvation in the day of the Lord, is the 
 unfeigned desire, and shall be [the; uncessant prayer, of — 
 
 Less than the least, of all those that serve, 
 
 In the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, 
 
 DEODAT LAWSON. 
 
APPENDIX. 527 
 
 II. 
 
 DEODAT LAWSON'S NAERATIVE. 
 
 [Appended to his Sermon, London edition, 1704.] 
 
 At the request of several worthy ministers and Christian friends, I do here 
 annex, by way of appendix to the preceding sermon, some brief account of 
 those amazing things which occasioned that discourse to be delivered. Let 
 the reader please therefore to take it in the brief remarks following, and judge 
 as God shall incline him. 
 
 It pleased God, in the year of our Lord 1692, to visit the people at a place 
 called Salem Village, in "New England, with a very sore and grievous afflic- 
 tion, in which they had reason to believe that the sovereign and holy God 
 was pleased to permit Satan and his instruments to affright and afflict those 
 poor mortals in such an astonishing and unusual manner. 
 
 Now, I having for some time before attended the work of the ministry in 
 .that village, the report of those great afflictions came quickly to my notice, 
 and the more readily because the first person afflicted waiis in the minister's 
 family who succeeded me after I was removed from them. Ln pif^', therefore, 
 to my Christian friends and former acquaintance there, I was much con- 
 cerned about them, frequently consulted with them, and fervently, by divine 
 assistance, prayed for them ; but especially my concern was augmented when 
 it was reported, at an examination of a person suspected for witchcraft, that 
 my wife and daughter, who died three years before, were sent out of the 
 world under the malicious operations of the infernal powers, as is more fully 
 represented in the following remarks. I did then desire, and was also de- 
 sired by some concerned in the Court, to be there present, that 1 might hear 
 what was alleged in that respect; observing, therefore, when I was amongst 
 them, that the case of the afflicted was very amazing and deplorable, and the 
 charges brought against the accused such as were ground of suspicions, yet 
 very intricate, and difficult to draw up right conclusions about them; I 
 thought good, for the satisfaction of myself and such of my friends as might 
 be curious to inquire into those mysteries of God's providence and Satan's 
 malice, to draw up and keep by me a brief account of the most remarkable 
 things that came to my knowledge in those affairs, which remarks were after- 
 wards (at my request) revised and corrected by some who sat judges on the 
 bench in those matters, and were now transcribed from the same paper on 
 which they were then written. After this, I being by the providence of God 
 
528 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 called over into England in the year 1696, I then brought that paper of re- 
 marks on the witchcraft with mc; upon the sight thereof some worthy ministers 
 and Christian friends here desired me to reprint the sermon, and subjoin the 
 remarks thereunto in way of appendix; but lor some particular reasons I did 
 tben decline it. But now, forasmuch as I myself had been an eye and ear wit- 
 ness of most of tliose amazing things, so far as they came within the notice 
 of human senses, and the requests of m^'^ friends were renewed since I came 
 to dwell in London, I have given way to the publishing of them, that I may 
 satisfy such as arc not resolved to the contrary, that there may be (and are) 
 such operations of the powers of darkness on the bodies and minds of man- 
 kind by divine pennission, and that those who sat judges on those cases may^ 
 by the serious consideration of the fonnidablc aspect and perplexed circum- 
 stances of that atHictive providence, be in some measure excused, or at least 
 be less censured, for passing sentence on several persons as being the instru- 
 ments of Satan in those diabolical operations, "when they were involved in 
 such a dark and dismal scene of providence, in which Satan did seem to spin 
 a finer thread of spiritual wickedness than iu the ordinary' methods of witch- 
 crafl: bence the judges, desiring to bear due testimony' against such diabolical 
 practices, were inclined to admit tlie validitj' of such a sort of evidence as was 
 not so clearly and directly demonstrable to human senses as in other cases is 
 required, or else they could not discover the mysteries of witchcraft. I pre- 
 sume not to impose upon my Christian or learned reader any opinion of 
 mine how far Satan was an instrument in God's hand in these amazing 
 afflictions which were on many persons there about that time; but I am 
 certainly convinced, that the great God was pleased to lengthen his chain to 
 a very great degree for the hurting of some and reproaching of others, as far 
 as he was permitted so to do. Now, that I may not grieve any whose rela- 
 tions were either accused or afflicted in those times of trouble and distress, 
 I choose to lay down eveiy particular at large, without mentioning any 
 names or persons concerned (they being wholly unknown here); resohing to 
 confine mj'self to such a proportion of paper as is assigned to these remarks 
 in this impression of the book, yet, that I may be distinct, shall speak briefly 
 to the matter under three heads; viz. : — 
 
 1. Relating to the afflicted. 
 
 2. Relating to tlie accused. And, 
 
 3. Relating to the confessing witches. 
 To begin with the afflicted, — 
 
 1. One or two of the first that were afflicted complaining of ^unusual ill- 
 ness, their relations used physic for their cure; but it was altogether in 
 vain. 
 
 2. They were oftentimes very stupid in their fits, and could neither hear 
 nor understand, in the apprehension of the standers-by; so that, when prayer 
 hath been made with some of them in such a manner as might be audible in 
 a great congregation, yet, when their fit was off, they declared they did not 
 hear so much as one word thereof. 
 
APPENDIX. 529 
 
 3. It was several times observed, tlxat, "wlieu fhcy were discoursed "vrith 
 about'God or Christ, or the things of salvation, they were presently afflicted 
 at a dreadful rate ; and hence were oftentimes outrageous, if they were per- 
 mitted to be in the congregation in the time of the public worship. 
 
 4. They sometimes told at a considerable distance, yea, several miles off, 
 that such and such persons were afflicted, which hath been found to be done 
 according to the time and manner they related it^ and they said the spectres 
 of the suspected persons told them of it. 
 
 5. They affirmed that they saw the ghosts of several departed persons, 
 who, at their appearing, did instigate them to discover such as (they said) 
 w^ere instruments to hasten their deaths, threatening sorely to afflict them if 
 they did not make it known to the magistrates- They did affirm at the 
 examination, and agaiu at the trial of an accused person, that they saw the 
 ghosts of his two wives (to whom he had carried very ill in their lives, as was 
 proved by several testimonies), and also that they saw the ghosts of my wife 
 and daughter (who died above three years before); and they did affirm, that, 
 when the very ghosts looked on the prisoner at the bar, they looked red, as 
 if the blood would fly out of their faces with indignation at him. The man- 
 ner of it was thus : several afflicted being before the prisoner at the bar, on a 
 sudden they fixed all their e^-es together on a certain place of the floor before 
 the prisoner, neither moving their eyes nor bodies for some few minutes, nor 
 answering to any question which was asked them: so soon as that trance 
 was over, some being removed out of sight and hearing, they were all, one 
 after another, asked what they saw; and they did all agree that they saw 
 those ghosts above mentioned. I was present, and heard and saw the whole 
 of what passed upon that account, during the trial of that person who was 
 accused to be the instrument of Satan's malice therein. 
 
 6. In. this (worse than Gallick) persecution by the dragoons of hell, the 
 persons afflicted were harassed at such a dreadful rate to write their names 
 in a Devil-book presented by a spectre unto them: and one, in my hearing, 
 said. "I will not, I will not write! It is none of God's book, it is none of 
 God's book: it is the Devil's book, for aught I know;" and, when they 
 steadfastly reftised to sign, they were told, if they would but touch, or take 
 hold of, the book, it should do; and, lastly, the diabolical propositions were 
 so low and easy, that, if they would but let their clothes, or any thing about 
 them, touch the book, they should be at ease from their torments, Jt being 
 their consent that is aimed at by tlie Devil in those representations and 
 operations. 
 
 7. One who had been long afflicted at a stupendous rate by two or three 
 spectres, when they were (to speak after the manner of men) tired out with 
 tormenting of her to force or fright her to sign a covenant with the Prince of 
 Darkness, they said to her, as in u diabolical and accursed passion, "Go 
 your ways, and the Devil go with you; for we will be no more pestered and 
 plagued about you." And, ever after that, she was well, and no more af- 
 flicted, that ever I heard of. 
 
 VOL. II. 34 
 
530 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 8. Sundry pins have been taken out of the wrists and arms of the 
 afflicted; and one, in time of examination of a suspected person, had a pin 
 run through both her uppjr and her lower lip when she was called to speak, 
 yet no apparent festering followed thereupon, atter it was taken out. 
 
 9. Some of the aliiicted, as they were striving in their tits in open court, 
 have (by invisible means) had their wrists bound fast together -with a real 
 cord, so as it could hardly be taken ott" without cutting. Some atHicted have 
 been found with their arni> tied, and hanged upon an liook, from whence 
 others have been Ibrccd to take them down, that the}"^ miglit not expire in 
 that posture. 
 
 10. Some aillicted have been drawn under tables and beds hy undis- 
 cerncd force, so as they could hardly be pulled out; and one was drawn 
 h:df-way over the side of a well, and was, with much diflicultj', recovered 
 buck again. 
 
 11. When they were most grievously afflicted, if they were brought to 
 the accused, and the suspected person's hand but laid upon them, they were 
 immediately relieved out of their tortures; but, if the accused did but look 
 on. them, they were instantly struck down again, ^^'"llereibre they used to 
 cover the face of the accused, while they laid their hands on the afflicted, 
 and then it obtained the desired issue: for it hath been experienced (both m 
 examinations and trials), that, so soon as the afflicted came in sight of the 
 accused, they were immediately cast into their fits; yea, though the accused 
 were among the crowd of people unknown to the sutFerers, yet, on the first 
 view, were they struck down, which was observed in a child of four or five 
 years of age, when it was apprehended, that so many as she could look 
 upon, either directly or by turning her head, were immediately struck into 
 their fits. 
 
 12. An iron spindle of a woollen wheel, being taken very strangely out 
 of an house at Salem Village, was used by a spectre as an instrument of 
 torture to a sufferer, not being discernible to the standers-b3', until it was, by 
 the said sufferer, snatched out of the spectre's hand, and then it did immedi- 
 ately appear to the persons present to be really the same iron spindle. 
 
 13. Sometimes, in their fits, they have had their tongues drawn out of 
 their mouths to a fearful length, their heads turned ver}- much over their 
 shoulders; and while they have been so strained in their fits, and had their 
 arms and legs, &c., wrested as if thej' were quite dislocated, the blood hath 
 gushed plentifully out of their mouths for a considerable time together, 
 which some, that they might be satisfied that it was real blood, took upon 
 their finger, and rubbed on their other hand. I saw several together thus 
 violently strained and bleedirtg in their fits, to my very groat astonisliment 
 that my fellow-mortals should be so grievously distressed by the invisible 
 powers of darkness. For certainly all considerate persons who beheld these 
 things must needs be convinced, that their motions in their fits were preter- 
 natural and involuntary, both as to the manner, which was so strange as a 
 well person could not (at least without great pain) screw their bodies into, 
 
APPENDIX. 5C1 
 
 and as to the violence also, they were preternatural motions, being miicli 
 bej'ond the ordinary force of the same persous when they were in their right 
 minds; so that, being sach grievous sufferers, it would seem very hard and 
 unjust to censure them of consenting to, or holding any voluntary converse 
 or familiarity with, tlie Devil. 
 
 14. Their eyes were, fur the most part, fast closed in their trance-fits, and 
 when they were asked a question they could give no answer; and I do 
 verily believe, they did not hear at that time; yet did they discourse with 
 the spectres as with real persons, asserting things and receiving answers 
 affirmative or negative, as the matter was. For instance, one, in my hearing, 
 thus argued with^ and railed at, a spectre: " Goodw — , begone, begone, be- 
 gone ! Are you not ashamed, a woman of your profession, to afflict a. poov 
 creature so? What hurt did I ever do you in my life? You have but two 
 years to live, and then the Devil will torment your soul for this- Your name 
 is blotted out of God's book, and it shall never be put into God's book 
 again. Begone ! For shame ! Are 3'^ou not afraid of what is coming upon 
 you? I know, I know what will make you afraid, — the wrath of an angry 
 God: I am sure that will make you afraid. Begone! Do not torment me. 
 I know what you would have " {-we judged she meant her soul): " but it is 
 out of your reach; it is clothed with the white robes of Christ's righteous- 
 ness." This sufferer I was well acquainted with, and knew her to be a very 
 sober and pious woman, so far as I could judge; and it appears that she had 
 not, in that fit, voluntary converse with the Devil, for then she might have 
 been helped to a better guess about that woman abovesaid, as to her living 
 but two years, for she lived not many months after that time. Further, this 
 woman, in the same fit, seemed to dispute "with a spectre about a text of 
 Scripture: the apparition seemed to deny it; she said she was sure there was 
 such a text, and she would tell it; and then said she to the apparition, "I am 
 sure you will be gone, for 3'ou cannot stand before that text." Then was she 
 sorely afflicted, — her mouth drawn on one side, and her body strained 
 violently for about a minute; and then said, "It is, it is, it is," three or four 
 times, and then was afflicted to hinder her from telling; at last, she broke 
 forth, and said, " It is the third chapter of the Revelations." I did manifest 
 some scruple about reading it, lest Satan should draw any thereby supersti- 
 tiously to improve the word of the eternal God; yet judging I might do it 
 once, for an experiment, I began to read; and, before I had read through the 
 first verse, she opened her eyes, and was well. Her husband and the specta- , 
 tors told me she had often been relieved hy reading texts pertinent to her 
 case, — as Isa. 40, 1, ch. 49, 1, ch. 50, 1, and several others. These things I 
 saw and heard from her. 
 
 15. They were vehemently afflicted, to hinder any persons praying with 
 them, or holding them in any religious discourse. The woman mentioned in 
 the former section was told by the spectre I should not go to prayer; but she 
 said I should, and, after I had done, reasoned with the apparition, '' Did not 
 I say he should go to prayer? " I went also to visit a person afflicted in 
 
532 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 Boston; and, after I was gone into the house to which she belonged, she 
 being abroad, and pretty- well, when she was told I was there, she said, **I 
 am loath to go in ; lor I know he Avill fall into some good discour-e, and then 
 I am sure I shall go into a tit." Accordingly, when she came in, i advised 
 her to improve all the respite she had to make her peace with God, and sue 
 out her pardon through Jesus Christ, and beg supplies of faitli and every 
 grace to deliver her from the powers of darkness; and, before I had uttered 
 all this, she fell into a fearful fit of diabolical torture. 
 
 16. Some of them were asked how it came to pass that they were not 
 atfrighted when they saw the hlack-man : thay said the}'" were at first, but not 
 so much afterwards. 
 
 17. Some of them affinned they saw the hlack-man sit on the gallows, and 
 that he whispered in the ears of some of the condemned persons when they 
 were just ready to be turned off, even while they were making their last 
 speech. 
 
 18. The}"" declared several things to be done by witchcraft, which hap- 
 pened before some of them were bom, — as strange deaths of persons, casting 
 awa^' of ships, &:c. ; and they said the spectres told them of it. 
 
 19. Some of them have sundry times seen a white-man appearing amongst 
 the spectres, and, as soon as he appeared, the black-witches vanished : they said 
 this white-man had often foretold them what respite they should have from 
 their fits, as sometimes a day or two or more, which fell out accordingly. 
 One of the afflicted said she saw him, in her fit, and was with hira in a glo- 
 rious place which had no candle nor sun, yet was full of light and brightness, 
 where there was a multitude in white, glittering robes, and they sang the 
 song in Rev. 5, 9; Psal. 110, 149. She -was loath to leave that place, and 
 said, "//ow long shall I stay here? Let me be along yithyouy She was 
 grieved she could stay no longer in that place and company. 
 
 20. A young woman that was afflicted at a fearful rate had a spectre 
 appeared to her with a white sheet wrapped about it, not visible to the stand- 
 ers-by until this sufferer (\-iolently striving in her fit) snatched at, took hold, 
 and tore off a comer of that sheet. Her father, being by her, endeavored to 
 lay hold upon it with her, that she might retain what she had gotten ; but, at 
 the passing-away of the spectre, he had such a violent t^vitch of his band as 
 if it would have been torn off: immediately thereupon appeared in the suffer- 
 er's hand the corner of a sheet, — a real cloth, risible to the spectators, wliich 
 (as it is said) remains still to be seen. 
 
 EE5tAEKABLE THINGS RELATUSG TO THE ACCUSED. 
 
 1. A woman, being brought upon public examination, desired to go to 
 prayer. The magistrates told her they came not tliere to hear her pray, but 
 to examine her in what was alleged against her relating to suspicions of 
 witchcraft. 
 
 2. It was observed, both in times of examination and trial, that the 
 
APPENDIX. 533 
 
 accused seemed little affected with what the sufferers underwent, or what was 
 charged against them as being the instruments of Satan therein, so that the 
 spectators were grieved at their unconcernedness. 
 
 3. They were sometimes their own tmage^ and not always practising upon 
 poppets made of clouts, wax, or other materials, (according to the old meth- 
 ods of witchcraft); for natural actions in them seemed to produce preternatu- 
 ral impressions on the afflicted, as biting their lips in time of examination 
 and trial caused the sufferers to be bitten so as they produced the marks 
 before the magistrates and spectators: the accused pinching their hands 
 together seemed to cause the sufferers to be jjincked; those again stamping 
 with their feet, these were tormented in their legs and feet, so as they stamped 
 fearfuUy. After all this, if the accused did but lean agaiust the bar at 
 which they stood, some very sober women of the afflicted complained of their 
 breasts, as if their bowels were torn out; thus, some have since confessed, 
 they were wont to afflict such as were the objects of their malice. 
 
 4. Several were accused of having familiarity with the bhck-man in time 
 of examination and trial ; and that he whispered in their ears, and therefore 
 thej- could not hear the magistrates; and that one woman accused rid (in 
 her shape and spectre) by the place of judicature, behind the black man, in 
 the very time when she was upon examination. 
 
 5. When the suspected were standing at the bar, the afflicted have affirmed 
 that they saw their shapes in other places suckling a yellow bird; some- 
 times in one place and posture, and sometimes in another. They also fore- 
 told that the spectre of the prisoner was going to afflict such or such a sufferer 
 which presently fell out accordingly. 
 
 6. They were accused by the sufferers to keep days of hellish fasts and 
 thanksgivings; and, upon one of their fast-days, thej' told a sufferer she must 
 not eat, it was fast-day. She said she would: the}'" told her they would 
 choke her then, which, when she did eat, was endeavored. 
 
 7. They were also accused to hold and administer diabolical sacraments; 
 viz., a mock-baptism and a Devil-supper, at which cursed imitations of tlie 
 sacred institutions of our blessed Lord they used forms of words to be trem- 
 bled at in the very rehearsing: concerning baptism I shall speak elsewhere. 
 At their cursed supper, they were said to have red bread and red drink ; and, 
 when they pressed an afflicted person to eat and drink thereof, she turned 
 away her head, and spit at it, and said, " I will not eat, I will not drink : it 
 is blood. That is not the bread of life, that is not the water of life; and I will 
 have none of yours." Thus horribly doth Satan endeavor to have his king- 
 dom and administrations to resemble those of our I^rd Jesus Christ. 
 
 8. Some of the most sober afflicted persons, when they were well, did 
 affirm tlie spectres of such and such as they did complain of in their tits did 
 appear to them, and could relate what passed betwixt them and the appa- 
 ritions, after their fits were over, and give account after what manner they 
 were hurt by them. 
 
 9. Several of the accused would neither in time of examination nor trial 
 
534 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 confess any thing of what was laid to their charge: some would not admit of 
 anv minister to pray with them, others refused to pray for themselves. It 
 was said bv some of the confessing witchcf, that such as have received the 
 Devil-sacrament can never confess: only one woman condemned, after 
 the death-warrant was signed, fi-cely confessed, which occasioned her re- 
 prieval for some time; and it was observable this woman had one lock of 
 hair of a ver^- great length, viz., four foot and seven inches long by measure. 
 This lock was of a different color from all the rest, which was short and 
 gray. It grew on the hinder part of her head, and was matted together like 
 an elf-lock. Tlie Court ordered it to be cut off, to which she was very un- 
 willing, and said she was told if it were cut off she should die or be sick; 
 yet the Court ordered it so to be. 
 
 10. A person who had been frequently transported to and fro by the devils 
 for the space of near two years, was struck dumb for about nine months of 
 that time; yet he, after that, had his speech restored to hioi, and did de- 
 pose upon oath, that, in the time while he was dumb, he was many times 
 bodily transported to places where the witches were gathered together, and 
 that he there saw feasting and dancing; and, being struck on the back or 
 shoulder, was therebj- made fast to the place, and could only see and hear at 
 a. distance- He did take his oath that he did, with his bodily eyes, see some 
 of the accused at those witch-meetings several times. I was present in court 
 when he gave his testimony. He also proved by sundrj'- persons, that, at those 
 times of transport, he was bodily absent from his abode, and could nowhere 
 be found, but being met with by some on the road, at a distance from his 
 home, was suddenly conveyed away from them. 
 
 11. The afflicted persons related that the spectres of several eminent per- 
 sons had been brought in amongst the rest; but, as the sufferers said the 
 Devil could not hurt them in their shapes, but two witches seemed to take 
 them by each hand, and lead them or force them to come in. 
 
 12. Whiles a godh' man was at prayer with a woman afflicted, the 
 daughter of that woman (being a sufferer in the like kind) affinned that she 
 saw two of the persons accused at prayer to the Devil. 
 
 13. It was proTed by substantial evidences against one person accused, 
 that he had such an unusual strength (though a very little man), that he 
 could hold out a gun with one hand behind the lock, which was near seven 
 foot in the barrel, being as much as a lusty man could command with both 
 hands after the usual manner of shooting. It was also proved, that he lifted 
 barrels of meat and barrels of molasses out of a canoe alone, and that putting 
 his fingers into a barrel of molasses (full within a finger's length according to 
 custom) he carried it several paces; and that he put his finger into the 
 muzzle of a gun which was more than five foot in the barrel, and lifted up 
 the butt-end thereof, lock, stock, and all, without any visible help to raise it. 
 tt was also testified, that, being abroad with his wife and his wife's brother^ 
 he occasionally staid behind, letting his wife and her brother walk fon\'ard; 
 but, suddenly coming up with them, he was angry with his wife for what 
 
APPENDIX. 535 
 
 discourse had pfipsed betwixt her and her brother: they wondering how he 
 should know it, he said, " I know your thoughts; " at which expression, they, 
 being amazed, asked hiin how he could do that; he said, "My God, whom I 
 serve, makes known your thoughts to me." 
 
 I wa- present -when these things were testified against him, and observed 
 tlvat he could not make any plea for himself (in these things) that liad any 
 weight: he Iiad the liberty of challenging his jurors before empanelling, ac- 
 cording to the statute in that case, and used his libcrt}' in challenging many; 
 yet the jury that were sworn brought him in guilty. 
 
 14- The magistrates privately examined a child of four or five years of 
 age, mentioned in tlie remarks of the afflicted, sect. 11: [p. 530] and the 
 child told them it had a little snake -which used to suck on the lowest joint 
 of its fort-finger; and, ■when they (inquiring -where) pointed to other places, 
 it told themnot the?-e but here^ pointing on the lowest joint of the forefinger, 
 -where they observed a deep red spot about the bigness of a flea-bite. They 
 asked it who gave it that snake, ■whether the black man gave it : the child 
 said no. its mother gave it, I heard this child examined by the magistrates. 
 15. It was proved by sundry testimonies against some of the accused, tliat, 
 upon their malicious imprecations, wishes, or threatenings, many obsen'able 
 deaths and diseases, -with many other odd inconveniences, have happened to 
 cattle and other estate of such as were so threatened by them, and some 
 to the persons of men and women. 
 
 EEMARKABLE THIXGS CONFESSED BY SOME SUSPECTED OF BEING 
 GUILTY OF WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 1. It pleased God, for the clearer discovery of those mysteries of the 
 kingdom of darkness, so to dispose, that several persons, men, "women, and 
 children, did confess their hellish deeds, as followeth : — 
 
 2. They confessed against themselves that they ■\vere -witches, told how 
 long they had been so, and how it came about that the Devil appeared to 
 them; viz., sometimes upon discontent at their mean condition in the world, 
 sometimes about fine clothes, sometimes for the gratifying other carnal and 
 sensual lusts. Satan then, upon his appearing to them, made them fair 
 (though false) promises, that, if they would yield to him, and sign his book, 
 their desires should be answered to the uttermost, whereupon they signed it; 
 and thus the accursed confederacy was confirmed betwixt tliem and the 
 Prince of Darkness. 
 
 3. Some did afKrm that there were some hundreds of the society of 
 witches, considerable companies of whom were affirmed to muster in arms by 
 beat of drum. In time of examinations and trials, they declared that such a 
 man was wont to call them together from all quarters to witch-meetings with 
 the sound of a diabolical trumpet. 
 
 4. Being brought to see the prisoners at the bar upon their trials, they 
 did affirm in open court {I was then present), that they had oftentimes seen 
 
536 SALEM WITCIICKAFT. 
 
 them at "witch-meetinti^s, where ^\^as feasting', dancinp,", and jollity, as a]?o at 
 
 Pevil-sacranients: and partieiilarlv that they saw such a ninn anlong^t 
 
 the rest of the cursed crew, and afhrnied that lie did administer the sacra- 
 ment of Satan to them, encouraging them to go on in their way, and they 
 
 shoukl certainly prevail. They said also that such a woman was a 
 
 deacon, and served in distributing the diabolical elements: tliey afiirmed that 
 there were great numbers of the witches. 
 
 5. They affirmed that many of those wretched souls had been baptized at 
 Newbury Falls, and at several other rivers and ponds; and, as to the manner 
 of administration, the great Olricer of Hell took them up by the body, and, 
 putting their heads into the water, said over them, "Thou art mine, I have 
 full power over thee : and thereupon they engaged and covenanted to renounce 
 God, Christ, their sacred baptism, and the whole way of Gospel siilvation, 
 and to use their utmost endeavors to oppose the kingdom of Christ, and to 
 set up and advance the kingdom of Satan. 
 
 6. Some, after they had confessed, were very penitent, and did wring their 
 hands, and manifest a distressing sense of what they had done, and were by 
 the mercies of God recovered out of those snares of the kingdom of dark- 
 ness. 
 
 7. Several have confessed against their own mothers, that they were in- 
 struments to bring them into the Devil's covenant, to the undoing of them, 
 body and soul; and some girls of eight or nine years of age did declare, that, 
 after they were so betrayed by their mothers to the power of Satan, they saw 
 the Devil go in their own shapes to afflict others. 
 
 8. Some of those that confessed were immediately afflicted at a dreadful 
 rate, after the same manner with the other sufferers. 
 
 9. Some of them confessed, that they did afflict the sufferers according to 
 the time and manner they were accused thereof ; and, being asked what they 
 did to afflict them, some said that they pricked pins into poppets made with 
 rags, wax, and other materials : one that confessed after the signing the death- 
 wan-ant said she used to afflict them b)'^ clutching and pinching her hands 
 together, and wishing in wdiat part and after what manner she would have 
 them afflicted, and it was done. 
 
 10. They confessed the design was laid by this witchcraft to root out the 
 interest of Christ in New Kngland, and that they began at the Village in 
 order to setthng the kingdom of darkness and the powers thereof ; declaring 
 
 that such a man was to be head conjurer, and for his activity in that 
 
 affair was to be crowned king of hell, and that such a woman was to be 
 
 queen of hell. 
 
 Thus I have given my reader a brief and true account of those fearful 
 and amazing operations and intrigues of the Prince of Darkness: and I must 
 call them so; for, let some persons be as incredulous as they please about the 
 powerful and malicious influence of evil angels upon the minds and bodies of 
 mankind, sure I am none that observed those things above mentioned could 
 refer them to any other head than the sovereign permission of the holy God, 
 
APPENDIX. 537 
 
 and the malicious operations of his and onr implacable cncmj'-. I have here 
 related nothing more than what was acknowledged to be true by the judges 
 that sat on the bench, and other credible pereons there, which I have without 
 prejudice or partiality represented. 
 
 I therefore close all with my uncessant prayers, that the great and ever- 
 lasting Jehovah would, for the sake of his blessed Son, our most glorious 
 intercessor, rebuke Satan, and so vanquish him, from time to time, that his 
 power may be more and more every day suppressed, his kingdom destroyed; 
 and that all his malicious and accursed instruments in those spiritual wicked- 
 nesses may gnash their teetli, melt away, and be ashamed in their secret 
 places, till they come to be judged and condemned unto the place of ever- 
 lasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his angels, that they ma}- there 
 be tormented with him for ever and ever. 
 
538 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 III. 
 
 LETTER FROM R. P. TO JONATHAN CORWIN. 
 
 Salisbuky, Aug. 9, 1692. 
 
 Ho^'ouED SiH, — According as in my former to 3'ou I hinted that I held 
 nwself obliged to give you some farther account of my rude though solemn 
 tlioughts of that great case now before you, the happ}' management ■whereof 
 do so much conduce to the glory of God, the safety and tranquillity of the 
 country, besides what I have said in my former and the enclosed, I further 
 humbly present to consideration the doubtfulness and unsafety of admitting 
 spectre testimony against the life of any that are of blameless conversation, 
 and plead innocent, from the uncertainty of them and the incredulit}'' of them; 
 for as for diabolical visions, apparitions, or representations, they are more 
 commonly false and delusive than real, and cannot be known when they are 
 real and when feigned, but hy the Devirs report; and then not to he 
 believed, because lie is the father of lies. 
 
 1. Either the organ of the eye is abused and the senses deluded, so as to 
 think they do see or hear some thing or person, when indeed they do not, and 
 this is frequent "^ith common jugglers. 
 
 2. The Devil himself appears in the shape and likeness of a person or 
 thing, when it is not the person or thing itself; so he did in the shape of 
 Samuel. 
 
 3. And sometimes persons or things themselves do really appear, but 
 how it is possible for any one to give a true testimonj'^, which possiblj-^ did see 
 neither shape nor person, but were deluded; and if they did see any thing, 
 they know not whether it was the person or but his shape. All tliat can be 
 rationally or tnily said in such a. case is this, — that I did see the shape or 
 likeness of such a person, if my senses or eyesight were not deluded: and 
 they can honestly say no more, because they know no more (except the Devil 
 tells them more); and if he do, they can but say he told them so. But the 
 matter is still incredible: first, because it is but their saying the Devil told 
 them so; if he did so tell them, yet the A'erity of the thing remains still un- 
 proved, because the Devil was n liar and a murtherer (John viii. 44), and 
 may tell these lies to murder an innocent person. 
 
 But this case seems to be solved b}' an assertion of some, that affirm that 
 the Devil do not or cannot appear in tlie shape of a godly person, to do hurt: 
 others affirm the contrary, and say that he can and often have so done, of 
 
APPENDIX. 639 
 
 which they give many instances for proof of what thoysay; which if granted, 
 the case reuiaius yet unsolved, and yet the very hinge upon which that 
 weighty case depends. To which I humbly pay;' First, That I do lament 
 that such a point should be so needful to be determined, which seems not 
 probable, if possible, to be determined to infallible satisfaction for want of 
 clear Scripture to decide it b}'^, though verv rational to be believed according 
 to rules; as, for instance, if divers examples are alleged of the shape of per- 
 sons that have been seen, of whom there is ample testimony tliat they lived 
 and died in the faith, yet, saith the objeeter, 'tis possible they may be hypo- 
 crites, therefore the proof not infallible: and as it may admit of such an 
 objection against the reasons given on the afhrmative, much more may the 
 same objection be made against the negative, for which they can or do give 
 no reason at all, nor can a negative be proved (therefore difficult to be deter- 
 mined to satisfy infallibly) ; but, seeing it must be discussed, I humbly ofler 
 tliese few words: First, I humbly conceive that the saints on earth are not 
 more privileged in that case than the saints in heaven; but the Devil may 
 appear in the shape of a saint in heaven, namely, in the shape of Samuel 
 (1 Sam, xxviii. 13, 14); therefore he can or may represent the shape of a 
 saint that is upon the earth. Besides, there may be innocent persons that 
 are not saints, and their innocency ought to be their security, as well as godly 
 men's; and I hear nobody question but the Devil may take their shape. 
 
 Secondly, It doth not hurt any man or woman to present the shape or like- 
 ness of an innocent person, more than for a limner or carver to draw his 
 picture, and show it, if he do not in that form do some evil (nor then neither) : 
 if the laws of man do not oblige him to suffer for what the Devil doth in his 
 shape, the laws of God do not. 
 
 Thirdly, The Devil had power, by God's permission, to take the very person 
 of ouTv Lord Jesus Christ, in the day or time of his humiliation, and carry 
 him from place to place, and tempted him with temptations of horrid blas- 
 phemy, and yet left him innocent. AVhy may we not suppose the like may be 
 done to a good man ? And why not much more appear in his shape (or 
 make folk think it is his shape, when indeed it is not), and yet the person be 
 innocent, being far enough off, and not knowing of it, nor would consent if 
 he had known it, his profession and conversation being otherwise? 
 
 Fourthly, I suppose 'tis granted by all, that the person of one that is dead 
 cannot appear, because the soul and body are separated, and so the person- is 
 dissolved, and so ceaseth to be: and it is as certain that tlie person of the 
 living cannot be in two places at one time, but he that is at Boston cannot be 
 at Salem or Cambridge at the same time; but as the malice and envj' in the 
 Devil makes it his business to seek whom he may devour, so no question but 
 he doth infuse the same quality into those that leave Jesus Christ to embrace 
 him, that they do envy those that are innocent, and upon that account be as 
 ready to say and swear that they did see them as the Devil is to present their 
 shape to them. Add but this also, that, when they are once under his power, 
 he puts them on headlong (they must needs go whom the Devil drives, saith 
 
540 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 the proverb), and the reason is clear, — beeause they are taken captive by him, 
 to do his will. And we see, by woful and undeniable experience, both in tlie 
 afflicted persuns and the confessors, some of tliem, that he torments them at 
 his pleasure, to force them to accuse others. Some arc apt to doubt they do 
 but counterfeit; but, poor souls! I am utterh' of another mind, and I lament 
 them with all my heart; but, take which you please, the case is the same as 
 to tiie main issue. For, if they counterfeit, the M'ickedncss is the greater in 
 them, and the less in the Dtvil: but if they be compelled to it by the Devil, 
 against their wills, then the sin is the DeviPs, and the sufferings theirs; but 
 if their testimonies be allowed of, to make persons guilty by, the lives of 
 innocent persons are alike in danger bj' them, which is the solemn considera- 
 tion that do disquiet the country. 
 
 Now, that the only wise God ma}' so direct j'ou in all, that he may 
 have glorj', the country peace and safety, and your bands strengthened in 
 that great work, is the desire and constant prayer of your humble servant, 
 K. P.J who shall no further trouble you at present. 
 
 Position. — That to put a witch to death is the command of God, and 
 therefore the indispensable duty of man, — namely, the magistrate (Ex. xxii. 
 18); which, granted, resolves two questions that I have heard made by 
 some : — 
 
 First, Whether there are any such creatures as witches in the world. 
 Secondly, If there be, whether tliey can be known to be such by men: both 
 which must be detenniued on the affirmative, or else that commandment were 
 in vain. 
 
 Position Second. — That it must be witches that are put to death, and not 
 innocent persons; " Thou shalt not condemn the innocent nor the righteous " 
 (Ex. xxiii. 7). 
 
 Query. — Which premised, it brings to this quer)', — namely, how a witch 
 maj' be known to be a witch. 
 
 Answer. — First, By the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deut. xix. 15 ; 
 Matt, xviii. 16 ; Deut. xvii. 6). Secondly, They maj'- be known by their own 
 confession, being compos mentis, and not under horrid temptation to self- 
 murther (2 Sam. xvi. ; Josh. vii. 16). 
 
 Query Second. — What is it that those two or three witnesses must swear? 
 Must they swear that such a person is a witch? Will that do the thing, as is 
 vulgarly supposed ? 
 
 Answer. — I think that is too unsafe to go by, as well as hard to be done 
 by the advised: First, because it would expose the lives of all alike to the 
 pleasure or passion of those that are minded to take them awaj'; secondly, 
 because that, in such a testimony, the witnesses are not only informers in 
 matter of fact, but sole j udges of the crime, — which is the proper work of the 
 judges, and not of witnesses. 
 
 Query Third. — What is it that the witnesses must testify in the case, to 
 prove one to be a witch ? 
 
APPENDIX. 541 
 
 Aiiswer. — They inust witness the person did put forth soine act which, if 
 true, was an act of witchcraft, or familiarity with tiie Devil, the witness 
 attest tlie fact to be upon his certain knowledge, and the judges to judge 
 that fact to be such a crime. 
 
 Query Fourth. — What acts are they which must be proved to be com- 
 mitted by a person, that shall be counted legal proof of witchcraft, or famili- 
 arity with the Devil ? 
 
 Answer. — This I do profess to besohardaqucstion, for want of light from 
 the "Word of God and laws of men, that I do not know what to say to it; and 
 therefore humbly conceive, Uiat, in such a difficulty, it may be more safe, for 
 the present, to let a guilty person live till further discovery, than to put an 
 innocent person to death. 
 
 First, Because a guilty person may afterward be discovered, and so put 
 to death; but an innocent person to be put to death cannot be brought again 
 to life when once dead. 
 
 Secondly, Because secret things belong to God only, hut revealed things 
 to us and to our children. And though it be so difficult sometimes, yet 
 witches there are, and may be known by some acts or other put forth by 
 them, that may render them such ; for Scripture examples, I can remember 
 but few in the Old Testament, besides Balaam (Num. xxii. 6, xxxi. 16). 
 
 First, The sorcerers of Egypt could not tell the interpretation of Pharaoh's 
 dream, though he told them his dream (Gen. xli. 6); his successors after- 
 wards had sorcerers, that by enchantments did, first, turn their rods into 
 serpents (Exod. vii. 11, 12) ; second, turned water into blood; thirdly, brought 
 frogs upon the land of Egypt (Exod. viii. 7). 
 
 Thirdly, Nebuchadnezzar's ma^cians said that they would tell him the 
 interpretation, if he would tell them his dream (Dan. iv. 7); but the king 
 did not believe them (ver. 8, 9). 
 
 Fourthly, The Witch of Endor raised the Devil, in the likeness of Samuel, 
 to tell Saul his fortune; and Saul made use of him accordingly (1 Sam. 
 xxviii. 8, 11-15); and, as for New Testament, I see very little of that 
 nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ did cast out many devils, and so did his 
 disciples, both while he was upon earth and afterward, of which some were 
 dreadfully circumstanced (Mark ix. 18; Mark v. 2-5); but of witches, 
 we only read of four mentioned in the apostles' time: first, Simon Magus 
 (Acts viii. 9, 11); secondly, Elymas the sorcerer (Acts xiii. 6, S); thirdly, 
 the seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, that were vagabond Jews, — exorcists (Acts 
 xix. 13-16); fourthly, the girl which, by a spuit of divination, brought 
 her master much gain (Acts xvi. 16), whether it were by telling fortunes or 
 finding out lost things, as our cunning men do, is not said; but something it 
 was that was done by that spirit which was in her, which, being cast out, she 
 could not do- Now, whatever was done by any of these, by the help of 
 the Devil, or by virtue of familiarity with him, or that the Devil did do by 
 their consent or instigation, it is that which, the like being now proved to be 
 done by others, is legal conviction of witchcraft, or familiarity with the 
 Devil. 
 
542 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 As I remember, Mr. Perkins apprehends vUchcraft may be sometimes 
 committed b}"" virtue of an implicit covenant with the Devil, thoufjh thire be 
 not explicit covenant visibly between them; iinmely, by using snch words 
 and gestures whereby they do intimate to the Devil what they would have 
 him do, and he doth it. 
 
 3. To tell events contingent, or to bring any thing to pass by supernatu- 
 ral means, or b}"" no means. * 
 
 I have heard of some that make a circle, and mumble over some uncouth 
 ■words; and some that have been spiteful and suspicious persons, that have 
 sent for a handful of thatch from the house or barn of him that they have 
 owed a spite to, and the house have been burnt as they had burnt the thatch 
 that tliey fetched. 
 
 "Wlien Captain Smith was oast away in the ship built by Mr. Stevens at 
 Gloucester, many years ago, it "was said that the woman that was accused for 
 doing it did put a dish in a pail of water, and sent her girl several times to 
 see the motion of the dish, till at last it was turned over, and then the 
 woman said, " Now Smith is gone," w " is oast away." 
 
 A neighbor of mine, who was a Hampshire man, told mc that a suspected 
 woman desired something of some of the family, which being denied, she 
 either muttered or threatened, and some evil suddenly followed, and they 
 put her into a cart to carry her to Winchester; and, when they had gone a 
 little way, the team could not move the cart, though in plain ground. The 
 master commanded to carry a knitch of straw, and burn her in the cart; 
 ■which to avoid, she said the}' should go along, and they did. This they did 
 several times before they came to Winchester, of -which passages the men 
 that -went with her gave their oaths, and she was executed. 
 
 Some have been transformed into dogs, cats, hares, hogs, and other 
 creatures; and in those shapes have sometimes received wounds which have 
 made them undeniabh' guilty, and so confessed. Sometimes having their 
 imps sucking them, or infallible tokens that they are sucked, in the search 
 of which great caution to be given, because of some superfluities of nature, 
 and diseases that people are incident unto, as the piles, &c., of which the 
 judges are, upon the testimony of the witnesses, to determine what of crime 
 is proved by any of these circumstances, with many other, in which God is 
 pleased many times, by some overt acts, to bring to light that secret wicked- 
 ness to apparent conviction, sometimes by their own necessitated confession, 
 whereby those that he hath commanded to be put to death may be known to 
 be such, which, when known, then it is a duty to put them to death, and not 
 before, though they were as guilty before as tlien. 
 
 There are two queries more with respect to what is proper to us in this 
 juncture of time, of which we have no account of the like being common at 
 other times, or in other places; namely, these, — 
 
 Query Fifth. — The fifth querj"- is, what wc are to think of those persons 
 at Salem, or the Village, before whom people are brought for detection, or 
 otherwise to be concerned with them, in order to their being apprehended or 
 acquitted. 
 
APPENDIX. 543 
 
 Answer. — That I am, of all men, the least able to give any conjecture 
 about it, because I do not know it, having myself never seen it, nor know 
 nothing of it but by report, in which there must be supposed a possibility of 
 some mistake, in part or in whole; but that which I have liere heard is this : 
 First, That they do tell who are witclies, of which some they kno^\% and 
 some they do not. Secondly, They tell who did tormeut such and such a 
 person, tliough they know not the person. Thirdly, They are tormented 
 themselves by the looks of persons that are present, and recovered again by 
 the touching of them. Fourthly, That, if they look to them, tbey fall down 
 tormented; but, if the persons accused look from them, they recover, or do 
 not fall into that torment. Fifthly, They can tell when a person is coming 
 before they see them, and what clothes they have, and some what they have 
 done for several years past, which nobody else ever accused them with, nor 
 do not yet think them guilty of. Sixthly, That the dead out of their graves 
 do appear unto them, and tell them that they have been murdered, and 
 require them to see them to be revenged on the murthei'crs, which they 
 name to them; some of which persons are well known to die their naturul 
 deaths, and publicly buried in the sight of all men. Now, if these things be 
 
 60, 1 thus atiirm, — 
 
 First, That whatsoever is done by them that is supernatural, is either 
 
 divine or diabolical. 
 
 Secondly, That nothing Is, or can be, divine, but what have God's stamp 
 
 upon it, to which he refers for trial (Isa. viii. 19, 20): "If they speak not 
 
 according to these, there is no light in them." 
 
 Thirdly, And by that rule none of these actions of theirs have any war- 
 rant in God's word, but condemned wholly. 
 
 First, It is utterly unlawful to inquire of the dead, or to be informed by 
 
 them (Isa. viii. 19). It was an act of the Witch of Endor to raise the dead, 
 
 and of a reprobate Saul to inquire of him (1 Sara, xxviii. 8, 11-14; Deut. 
 
 xviii. 11). 
 
 Secondly, It is a like evil to seek to them that have familiar spirits (Lev. 
 
 xix. 31). It was the sin of Saul in the forementioned place (1 Sam. xxviii. 
 
 8); and of wicked Manasses (2 Kings, xxi. 6). 
 
 Thirdly, No more is it likely that their racking and tormenting should be 
 
 done" by God or good angels, but by the Devil, whose manner have ever 
 
 been to be so employed. Witness his dealing with the poor child (Mark ix. 
 
 17, 19, 20-22); and with the man that was possessed by him (Mark v. 2-5); 
 
 besides what he did to Job (Job ii. 7) ; and all the lies that he told against 
 
 him to the very face of God. 
 
 Fourthly, The same may be rationally said of all the rest Who should 
 
 tell them things that they do not see, but the Devil; especiallj' when some 
 
 things that they tell are false and mistaken ? 
 
 Query SuUh. — These things premised, it now comes to the last and 
 
 greatest question or query; namely. How shall it be known when the Devil 
 
 do any of these acts of his own proper motion, without human concurrence, 
 
544 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 consent, or instigation, and ^vheu he doth it by the suggestion or eonseiit ot 
 any person? This question, wcil resolved, would do our business. 
 
 First, That the Ucvil can do acts supernatural without the furtherance of 
 him by human consent or concurrence; but men or women cannot do them 
 without the help of the Devil (must be granted). That granted, it follows, 
 that the Devil is always the doer, but whether abetted iii it by anybody is 
 uncertain. 
 
 Secondly, Will it be sufficient for the Devil himself to say such a man or 
 woman set him a work to torment such a person by looking upon him ? Is 
 the Devil a competent witness in such a case ? 
 
 Thirdl}'", Or are those that are tonuented bj' him legal witnesses to say 
 that the Devil doth it by the procurement of such a person, whenas they 
 know notliing about it but what comes to them from the Devil (that tor- 
 ments them)? 
 
 Fourthly, jMa}' we believe the witches that do accuse any one because 
 they sa}' so (can the fruit be better than the tree)? If the root of all their 
 knowledge be the Devil, what must their testimonj' be? 
 
 Fifthly, Their testimony ma}'^ be legal against themselves, because they 
 know what themselves do, but cannot know what another doth but by infor- 
 mation from the Devil : I mea.n in such cases when the person accused do 
 deny it, and his conversation is blameless (Prov. xviii. 5; Frov- xix. 5). 
 
 First, It is directly contrary to the use of reason, the laAV of nature, and 
 principles of humanity, to deny it, and plead innocent, when accused of 
 witchcraft, and j^et, at the same time, to be acting witchcraft in the sight 
 of all men, when, they know their lives lie at stake by doing it. Selt-interest 
 teaches ever}' one better. 
 
 Secondly, It is contrary to tlie Devil's nature, or common practice, to 
 accuse witches. They are a considerable part of his kingdom, which would 
 fall, if divided against itself (Matt xii. 26); except we think he that spake 
 the words understood not what he said (which were blasphemy to think); or 
 that those common principles or maxims are now changed; or that the 
 Devil have changed his nature, and is now become a reformer to purge out 
 witches out of the world, out of the country, and out of the churches; and is 
 to be believed, though a liar and a murtherer from the beginning, and also 
 though his business is going about continually, seeking whom he may 
 destroy (1 Pet. v. 8);. and his peculiar subject of his accusation are the 
 brethren : called the accuser of the brethren. 
 
 Objection. — God do sometimes bring things to light by his providence in 
 a way extraordinary. 
 
 Ajiswer. — It is granted God have so done, and brought hidden things to 
 light, which, upon examination, have been proved or confessed, and so the 
 way is clear for their execution; but what is that to this case, where the 
 Devil is accuser and witness ? 
 
APPENDIX. 545 
 
 IV. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM MR. PARRIS'S CHURCH 
 RECORDS. 
 
 [The following passages are taken frnm the records of the Salem Village Church, 
 as specimens of Mr. Parris"s style of narrative in tliat interesting document, and as 
 shedding some light upon the subject of these volumes: — ] 
 
 Sab: 4 Nov. [1694]. — After sennou in the afternoon, it v^'as propounded 
 to the brethren, whether tlie church ought not to inquire again of our dis- 
 senting brethren after the reason of their dissent. Nothing appearing from 
 any against it, it was put to rote, and carried in the affirmative (by all, as 
 far as I know, except one brother. Josh: Rea), that Brother Jno. Tarbell 
 should, the next Lord's Day, appear and give in his reasons in public; the 
 contrary being propounded, if any had aught to object against it. But no 
 dissent was manifested; and so Brother Nathaniel Putnam and Deacon 
 IngersoU were desired to give this message from the church to the said 
 Brother Tarbell. 
 
 Sab : 11 Nov. — Before the evening blessing was pronounced, Brother Tar- 
 bell was openly' called again and again; but, he not appearing, application 
 was made to the abovesaid church's messengers for his answer: whereupon 
 said Brother Putnam reported that the said Brother Tarbell told him he did 
 not know how to come to us on a Lord's Day, but desired rather that he 
 might make his appearance some week-day. Whereupon the congregation 
 was dismissed with the blessing: and the church stayed, and, by a full vote, 
 renewed their call of said Brother Tarbell to appear the next Lord's Day for 
 the ends abovesaid; and Deacon Putnam and Brother Jonathan Putnam 
 were desired to be its messengers to the said dissenting brother. 
 
 Sab: 18 Nov. — The said brother came in the afternoon; and, after ser- 
 mon, he was asked the reasons for his withdrawing: whereupon he produced 
 a paper, which he was urged to deliver to the pastor to communicate to the 
 church; but lie refused it, asking who was the church's mouth. To which, 
 when he was answered, "The pastor," he replied, Not in this case, because 
 his offence was with him. The pastor demanded whether he had offence 
 against any of the church besides the pastor- He answered, "No." So at 
 length we suffered a non-member, JNIr. Jos : Hutchinson, to read it. After 
 VOL. II. 35 
 
546 SALExM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 ■which the pastor read openly before the ivhole conj^rogation his overtures for 
 peace and reconciliation. After which said Tarbcll, seemingly' (at least) 
 much affected, said, that, if half so much had been said fornicrlv, it had 
 never come to this. But he added that others also -were dissatisfied hesidi's 
 himself: and therefore he desired opportunitj' that they might come also, 
 ■which was immediatel^'^ granted; viz., the 2G instant, at two o'clock. 
 
 26 Nov. — At tlie' public meeting above appointed at the meeting-house, 
 after the pastor had first sought the grace of God with us in prayer, he then 
 summed up to the church and congregation (among ■which were several 
 strangers) tlie occasion of our present assembling, as is hinted the Ia--t meet- 
 ing. Then seeing, together ■with Brother Tarbcll, two moi*e of our dis- 
 senting brethren, viz., Sam: Nurse, and Thomas Wilkins (who had, to suit 
 their designs, placed themselves in a seat conveniently together), the church 
 immediately, to save further sending for them, voted that said Brotlicr 
 Wilkins find Brother Nurse should now, together with Brother Tarbell, give 
 in their reasons of withdrawing from the church- Then the pastor applied 
 himself to all these three dissenters, pressing the church's desire upon them. 
 So they produced a paper, which they much opposed the coming into the 
 pastor's hands, and his reading of it; but at length they jdelded to it. 
 Whilst the paper was reading, Brother Nurse looked upon another (which 
 he said was the original): and, after it was read throughout, he said it was 
 the same with what he had. Their paper was as followeth: — 
 
 " The reasons why we withdraw from communion with the church of 
 Salem "Village, both as to hearing the word preached, and from partaking 
 with them at the Lord's Table, are as followeth: — 
 
 " 1, Why we attend not on public prayer and preaching the word, these 
 are, (1.) The distracting and disturbing tumults and noises made by the 
 persons under diabolical power and delusions, preventing sometimes our 
 hearing and understanding and profiting of the word preached; we having, 
 after many trials and experiences, found no redress in this case, accounted 
 ourselves under a necessity to go where we might hear the word in quiet. 
 (2.) The apprehensions of danger of ourselves being accused as tlie Devil's 
 instruments to molest and afilict the persons complaining, we seeing those 
 whom we had reason to esteem better than ourselves thus accused, blem- 
 ished, and of their lives bereaved, foreseeing this evil, thought it our pru- 
 dence to withdraw. (3.) We found so frequent and positive preaching up 
 some principles and practices by Mr. Farris, referring to the dark and 
 dismal mysteries of iniquity working amongst us, as was not profitable, but 
 oflfensive. (4.) Neither could we, in conscience, join with Mr. Parris in 
 many of the requests which he made in prayer, referring to the trouble then 
 among us and upon us; therefore thought it our most safe and peaceable 
 way to withdraw. 
 
 *' 2. The reasons why we hold not communion with them at the Lord's 
 
APPENDIX. 547 
 
 Table are, first, we esteem ourselves justly aggrieved and offended vith 
 tiie oHicur wlio dntli administer, for the reasons following;: (1.) From liis 
 declared and published principles, referring to our molestation from the 
 invisible world, diffenug from the opinion of the generality of tlic Orthodox 
 ininistcrs of the whole country. (2.) His easy and strong laith and belief of 
 the aifirmations and accusations made by those the}'' call the alllicted. (3.) 
 His laying aside that grace which, above all, we are required to put on; 
 namely, charity toward his neighbors, and especially towards those of his 
 church, when there is no apparent reason for the contrary. (4.) llis approv- 
 ing and practi-ing unwarrantable and ungrounded methods for discovering 
 what l\e was desirous to know referring to the bewitched or possessed per- 
 sons, as in bringing some to others, and by and from them pretending to 
 inform himself and others who were the Devil's instruments to afl'ict the 
 sick and pained. (5.) His luisafe and unaccountable oath, given by him 
 against sundry- of the accused. (6.) His not rendering to the world so fair, 
 if true, an account of what he wrote on examination of the afflicted. (7.) 
 Sundry unsafe, if sound, points of doctrine delivered in his preaching, which 
 we esteem not warrantable, if Christian. (8.) His persisting in these princi- 
 ples, and justifying his practices, not rendering any satisfiiction to us when 
 regularly desired, but rather fuilher offending and dissatisfving ourselves. 
 
 "John Takbell. 
 
 Tho: Wilkins. 
 
 Sam: Nurse."" 
 
 ^Yhen the pastor had read these charges, he asked the dissenters above 
 mentioned whether they were offended with none in the church besides 
 himself. They replied, that they articled against none else. Then the 
 officer asked them if they withdrew fi-om communion upon account of none 
 in the church besides himself. They answered, that they withdrew only 
 upon my account. Then I read them my "Meditations for Peace," men- 
 tioned 18 instant; viz.: — 
 
 " Forasmuch as it is the undoubted duty of all Christians to pursue peace 
 (Ps. xxxiv. 14), even unto a reaching of it, if it be possible (Rom. xii. 18, 
 19); and whereas, through the righteous, sovereign, and awful Providence 
 of God, the Grand Enemy to all Christian peace has, of late, been most 
 tremendously let loose in divers places hereabouts, and more especially 
 amongst our sinful selves, not only to interrupt that partial peace which we 
 did sometimes enjoy, but also, through his wiles and temptations and our 
 weaknesses and corruptions, to make wider breaches, and raise more bitter 
 animosities between too many of us, in which dark and difficult dispensation 
 we have been all, or most of us, of one mind for a time, and afterwards of 
 differing apprehensions, and, at last, are but in the dark, — upon serious 
 thoughts of all, and after many prayers, I have been moved to present to 
 you (my beloved flock) the following particulars, in way of contribution 
 
548 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 towards a regaining of Christian concord {if so be vra are not altogotlier 
 unappealable, irreconcilable, and so destitute of the gnod spirit wliicli is first 
 pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, .buncs iii. 17); viz., 
 (1.) In that the Lord ordered the late horrid calamity (wliich afterwards, 
 plague-like, spread In many other ]ilaces) to break out Jirst in my family, I 
 cannot but look upon as a very sore rebuke, and humbling providence, bnth 
 to myself and mine, and desire so ive may improve it. (2.) In that also in 
 my family -were some of both parties, viz., accusers and accused, I Iwik also 
 upon as an aggra\'.itiou of the rebuke, as an addition uf wormwdod to the 
 gall, (3.) In that means were used in my family (though totally unknown 
 to me or mine, except servants, till afterwards) to i-aise spirits and create 
 apparitions in no better than a diabolical way, I do look upon :i-< a I'urther 
 rebuke of Divine rrovidence. And by all, I do humbly own this da}-, 
 before the Lord and his people, that God has been righteously spitting in my 
 face (Num. xii. 14). And I desire to lie low under all this reproach, and 
 to lay my hand upon my mouth. (4.) As to the management of those 
 mysteries, as tar as concerns myself, I am very desirous (upon farther light) 
 to own any errors I have therein fallen into, and can come to a discerning of. 
 In the mean while, I do acknowledge, upon after-considerations, that, were 
 the same troubles again, (which the Lord, of his rich mercy, for ever prevent), 
 I should not agree with my former apprehensions in all points; as, for 
 instance, (1.) I question not but God sometimes sufters the Devil (as of late) 
 to alHict in the shape of not onl}' innocent but pious persons, or so delude 
 the senses of the afflicted that they strongly conceit their hurt is from such 
 persons, when, indeed, it is not. (2.) The improving of one afflicted to 
 inquire by, who afflicts the othei*s, I fear may be, and has been, unlawfully 
 used, to Satau's great advantage. (3.) As to my writing, it was put upon 
 me by authority ; and therein I have been very careful to avoid the wronging 
 of any(ra). (4). As to my oath, I never meant it, nor do I know how it can 
 be otherwise construed, than as vulgarly and every one understood ; yea, and 
 upon inquiry, it ma}' be found so worded also. (5-) As to any passage in 
 preaching or prayer, in that sore hour of distress and darkness, I always 
 intended but due justice on each hand, and that not aceonling to man, but 
 God (who knows all things most perfectly), however, through weakness or 
 sore exercise, I might sometimes, yea, and possibly sundry times, unadvis- 
 edly expressed ra^-self. (6.) As to several that have confessed against them- 
 selves, they being wholly strangers to me, but yet of good account with 
 better men than myself, to whom also they are well known, I do not pass so 
 much as a secret condenuiation upon them; but rather, seeing God has so 
 amazingly lengthened out Satan's chain in this most formidable outrage, I 
 much more incline to side with the opinion of those that have grounds to 
 hope better of tliem. (7.) As to all that have unduly suflfei'ed in these mat- 
 ters (either in their persons or relations), through the clouds of human weak- 
 ness, and Satan's wiles and sophistry, I do truly sympathize with them; 
 taking it for granted that sucli as drew themselves clear of this great trans- 
 
APPENDIX. 549 
 
 grossion, or that have sufficient grouiuls so to look upon their dear frJoiuls, 
 have hereby been under those sore trial-; antl temptations, that not an ordi- 
 nary measure of true grace "would be suflicient to prevent a bewraying of 
 remaining corruption. (8.) I am very much in the mind, and abnndantly 
 persuaded, that God (for holy ends, tliough tor what in particular is best 
 known tu himself) has suffered the evil angels to delude us on both hands, 
 but Iiow far on the one side or the other is much above me to sa^'. And, if 
 we cannot reconcile tdl we come to a full discerning of these tilings, I fear 
 ■we shall never come to agreement, or, at soonest, not in tliis world. There- 
 fore (9), in tine, The matter being so dark and perplexed as that llicre is no 
 present ap^warance that all God's servants should be altogether of one mind, 
 in all circumstances touching the same, I do most heartily, fervently, and 
 humbly beseech pardon of the merciful God, through the blood of Christ, of 
 all my mistakes and trespasses in so weighty a matter; and also all 3'our 
 forgiveness of every offence in this and other aftairs, wherein you see or con- 
 ceive I have eiTed and offended; professing, in the presence of the Almighty 
 God, that what I have done has been, as for substance, as I apprehended was 
 duty, — however through weakness, ignorance, &:c., I rany have been mis- 
 taken; I also, through grace, promising each of yon the like of me- And 
 so again, I beg, entreat, and beseech you, that Satan, the devii, the roaring 
 lion, the old dragon, the enemy of all righteousness, may no longer be seized 
 by us, by our env^- and strifes, where even- evil work prevails whilst these 
 bear sway (Isa. iii. I-I-IG); but that all, from this day forward, may be 
 covered with the mantle of love, and we may on all hands forgive each 
 other heartily, sincerely, and thoroughly, as we do hope and pray tliat God, 
 for Christ's sake, would forgive each of ourselves (Matt, xviii. 21 ad jinem; 
 Col. iii. 12, 13). Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, 
 bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, 
 forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quar- 
 rel agaiust any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye (Eph. iv. 31, 32). 
 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil-speaking be put 
 away froni you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender- 
 hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven 
 you. Amen, amen. Sam: Parris. 
 
 " 26 Nov., 1694." 
 
 [lu the record, off agaiust (a) as above, the foUowiDg is Id Mr. Parris's writing: ] 
 
 (n) Added, b3'- the desire of the council, tins following paragraph; viz., 
 Nevertheless, I fear, that, in and through the throng of the many things 
 written by me, in the late confusions, there has not been a due exactness 
 always used; and, as I now see tlie inconveniency of mj-- writing so much on 
 those difficult occasions, so I would lament every error of such writings. — 
 Apr. 3, 1695. Idem. S. P. 
 
 [The above passage (a) is inserted in a marginal spa^c left for it on a page con- 
 taining the record of a meeting, Nov. 26, 1694, while it is dated April 3, 1695, and 
 
550 SALK:^r witciictiaft. 
 
 pm-ports to bo ai.lik'd -'b}- tlie lUv-h-o of tlio council, '^ wlik-h met at tho Ia<!t-naiiiGd 
 dito. 'L'hore nve othev imiii'atious, tliat the i-oconi of Mr. I'jirris's fOTitroviTsy with 
 tlio dissiLtLsficl bretlu'liii. coii-^eqiu'iit upon t\w proofedin^s in li\iV2. \v:l-^ iiukU' orij^i- 
 n lU.r on separate sheets of ii.qier. and then i-onipiled, and inscribud in tiie churt-h- 
 book, as it there appe;if?. Tliei\' are .■^evei'al other entries, \\-bieh refer to data's ahc:id. 
 He probably made out his record near the clo?e of the strugi^le whieh resulted in his 
 dismission, and left U, on the jvaires of the hook, a.s his history of the case. After giv- 
 ing his '' Meditations for Peace."' the rei-ord ^oes oti: — ] 
 
 Artci- 1 lial read tlie?c ovorturo.'^ above-Jnidi t desired the brethren to de- 
 clare tliemsel\e~ Avhether they reniaiiiod still di-.-ali^lied. Brother Tarhell 
 aiit^wered, that tliey derived to coiL-^ider of it. and to have'a eojty of what I 
 had read. I replied, that Then they must suhsenhe their rea-^ons (above 
 mentioned), tor as yet they were anonymous: so at leiii^th, with no little dif- 
 ficulty, I pureliased the subscription of their eliargcs by my above.said over- 
 tures, wliieh I gave, subscribed witli mv name, to them, to consider of; and 
 so this meeting broke up. Xote that, during this agitatum with our dissent- 
 ing brethren, they entertained frequent whisperings with comers and goers 
 to tliem and from them; partieuhirly Dan: Andrews, and Tho: I'reston from 
 Mr. Israel Porter, and Jos: Hutchinson, .S:c. 
 
 Nov. 30. 1G94. — Brother Xurse and Brother Tavbell (bringing with tliera 
 Joseph Putnam and Tho; Preston) towards night came to my house, where 
 they found the two deacons and several other brethren; viz., Tho: Putnam, 
 Jno. Putnam, .Ir., Benj, Wilklns, and Ezek : Cheever, besides Lieutenant Juo. 
 Walcot. And Brother Tarbell said they came to answer my paper, which 
 they had now considered of, and their answer was this; viz., that they 
 remained dissatisfied, and desired that the church would call a council, ac- 
 cording to the advice we had lately from ministers. 
 
 [An account has been given, p. 493, of the attempts of the *' dissati.sfied brethren " 
 to procure a mutual council to decide the controversy between them and Sir. I'arris. 
 On the 14th of June, 1694, a letter was addressed to him, advising him to agree to tlie 
 call of such acouueil, signed b.v John Uigginsou, of the First Church in Salem ; James 
 Allen, of the First Church in Boston: John Hale, of the church in lieverly ; Samuel 
 Willard, of the Old South Church in Boston ; Samuel Cheever, of tlie church in Mar- 
 blehead; and Joseph Gerrish, of the church in Weuham. Nicholas Noyes joined in 
 the advice, *' with this proviso, that he be not chosen one of the council." Mr. Parris 
 contrived to avoid following the advice. On the 10th of September, Messrs. Higginson, 
 Allen, WiUard, Cheever, and Gerrish ag;un, in earnest and quite peremptory terms, 
 renewed their advice in another letter to Mr. I'arri.s. , No longer venturing to resist 
 their authority, be yielded, and consented to a mutual council, upon certiun terms, 
 one of which was, that neither of the churches whose ministers had thus forced him 
 to the measure should be of the council. The following pa^&iges give the conclusion 
 of the matter, as related by Mr. Parris in his record-book : — ] 
 
 Feb. 12 [1695]. — The church met again, as last agreed upon; and, after a 
 while, our dissenting brethren, Tho: Wilkins, Sam: Nurse, and Jno. TarbelU 
 came also. After our constant way of begging the presence of God with us. 
 
app!-:ndix. 551 
 
 we desired our disscntiiii^ brctlireii to acquaint us wliotlier tlicy would accept 
 of our last proposals, Avliich tUvy desired to this day to consider of. They 
 ausAVLM-L-d, that tlicy were willing to drop the six churches from whose elders 
 we had had the advice abovesaid, dated 14 June last; but they were luit free 
 to exclude Ipswich. This they stuck uuto long, and then desired that they 
 might withdraw =1 little to confer among themselves about it, which was 
 gi-anted. But they quickly returned, as rcsoK'cd for Ipswich as bclbre. 'W'e 
 desired them to iiomhiate the three churches they would have sent to: and, 
 after much ilebate, they did; viz., Kowley, Salisbury, and Iiisivich. Where- 
 upon we voted, by a full consent, liowley and Salisbury churches for a part 
 of the coimeil, and desired tiiem to nominate a third church. But still tliey 
 insisted on Ipswich, which we told them they were openly informed, the last 
 meeting, that we had excepted against. Then they were told that we would 
 immediately choose three other churches to join with the two before nomi- 
 nated and voted, if they saw not good to nominate any more ; or else we 
 would choose two other churches to join with the aforesaid two, if they 
 pleased. They answered, thc3'' would be willing to that, if Ipswich might be 
 one of them. Then it was asked them, if a dismission to some other Orthodox 
 church, where they might better please themselves, would content them. 
 Brotlier Tarbell answered, "Ay, if we could find a way to remove our livings 
 too." Then it was propounded, whether we could not unite amongst our- 
 selves. The particular answer hereunt'> I remember not; but (I think) such 
 hints were given by them as if it were impossible. Thus much time being 
 gone, it being well towards sunset, and we concluding that it was necessary 
 that we should do something ourselves, if thej' would not (as the elders had 
 heretofore desired) accept of our joining with them, we dismissed them; and, 
 by a general agreement amongst ourselves, read and voted letters to the 
 churches at North Boston, Weymouth, Maiden, and Kowley, for their help 
 in a council. 
 
 [Mr. Pan-is's plan of finding refuge in an ez-parte council was utterly frustrated. 
 On the 1st of March, the '• reverend elders ia the Bay accounted it advisable," as he 
 expresses it in his records, that the First Church and the Old South Church in Boston 
 should be added to the council. They wrote to him to that effect, and he had to com- 
 ply. This brought .lames Allen and Samuel Willard into the council, and detennined 
 the character of the result, which, coming from a tribunal called by him to adjudicate 
 the case, and hearing only such evidence as he laid before it, so far as it bore against 
 him, was decisive and fatal. It was as follows: — ] 
 
 The elders and messengers of the churches — met in council at Salem 
 Village, April 3, 1695, to consider and determine what is to be done for the 
 composure of the present unhappy differences in that, place, — after solemn 
 invocation of God in Christ for his direction, do unanimously declare and 
 advise as followeth: — 
 
 I. We judge that, albeit in the late and the dark time of the confusions, 
 wherein Satan had obtained a more than ordinary liberty' to be sifting of this 
 plantation, there were sundiy unwarrantable and uncomfortable steps taken 
 
552 SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 by Mr. Sarmiel Parris, tlic pa>tor of the church in Salem Village, then under 
 the hurrying distractions of amazing artiictions^ yet the saiil Jlr. I'arris, bv 
 the good hand of God brought unto a better sense of ^lli^g^i, luith >n fuUy 
 expressed it, that a Christian charity may and should receive satif-faction 
 therewith. 
 
 II. Inasmuch as divers Christian brethren in the church of S:dcm Village 
 have been offended at Mr. Parris fur his conduct in the time of the diiliculries 
 and calamities which have distressed them, we now advise them charitably 
 to accept the satisfaction wliich he hath tendered in his Christian acknowledg- 
 ments of the errors therein committed; yea, to endeavor, as far as "lis pos- 
 sible, the fullest reconciliation of their minds unto communion with him, in 
 the whole exercise of his ministry, and with the rest of the church (Matt. vi. 
 12-14; Luke xvii. 3; James v. 16). 
 
 IIL Considering the extreme trials and troubles ivhich the dissatisiied 
 brethren In the church of Salem Village have undergone in the day of sore 
 temptation which hath been upon them, we cannot but advise the churcli to 
 treat them with bowels of much compassion, instead of all more critical or 
 rigorous proceedings against them, for the inlinnities discovered by them in 
 such an heart-breaking day. And if, after a patient waiting for it, the said 
 brethren cannot so far overcome the uneasiness of their spirits, in the remem- 
 brance of the disasters that have happened, as to sit under his niini,-.try, we 
 advise the church, with all tenderness, to grant them a dismission unto any 
 other society of tlie faithful whereunto they may desire to be dismissed (Gal. 
 vL 1, 2; Ps. ciii. 13, 14; Job xix- 21). 
 
 IV. Mr. Parris having, as we understand, with much fidelity' and integrity 
 acquitted himself in the main course of his ministry since he hath been pas- 
 tor to the church in Salem Viliage, about his first call whereunto, we look 
 upon all contestations now to be both unreasonable and unseasonable; and 
 our Lord having made him a blessing nnto the souls of not a few, both old 
 and young, in this place, we advise that he be accordingly respected, honored, 
 and supported, with all the regards that are due to a painful minister of the 
 gospel (1 The^s. v. 12, 13; 1 Tim. v. 17). 
 
 V. Having observed that there is in Salem Village a spirit full of conten- 
 tions and animosities, too sadly verifying the blemish which hath heretofore 
 lain upon them, and that some complaints brought against Mr. Parris have 
 been either causeless and groundless, or unduly aggravated, we do, in the 
 name and fear of the Lord, solemnly warn them to consider, whether, if they 
 continue to devour one another, it will not be bitterness in the latter end; 
 and beware lest the Lord be provoked thereby utterly to deprive them of 
 those which they should account their precious and pleasant things, and 
 abandon them to all the desolations of a people that sin awa3' the mercies of 
 the gospel (James iii. 16; Gal. v. 15; 2 Sam ii. 26; Isa. v. 4, 5, 6; Matt. 
 xxi. 43). 
 
 VL If the distempers in Salem Village should be (which God forbid!) so 
 incurable, that Mr. Parris, after all, find that he cannot, with any comfort 
 
APPENDIX. 553 
 
 and service, continue in his present station, his removal from thence will not 
 
 expose him unto any hard character with us, nor, we hope, with the rest of 
 
 tlie people of God among whom we live (Matt. x. 14; Acts xxji. 18). 
 
 All which advice we follow Avith our prayers that tlie God of peace iv^ould 
 
 bruise Satan under our feet. Now, the Lord of peace himself give you peace 
 
 always by all means. 
 
 Increase Mathek, Zfoderator. 
 
 *"JosErit Bridgiiam. *EriiiiAiM Hu>;t. 
 
 *SA5tUEL ChECICLEY. *"NATirLL. WiLUAMS. 
 
 *^' William Toreey. Samuel Phillu-s. 
 
 * Joseph Boynton. James Allen. 
 
 * Richard Middlecot. Samuel Torkey. 
 *JoHN Walley. Sasiuel Willard. 
 *Jer: Dummer. Edward Payson. 
 *Xehemiah Jewet. Coii'ON Mather. 
 
 [Ttie names of the lay memlDers of the Council are marked thus, *. They were 
 persons of high standing in civil life. Samuel Checkley was not (as stated [Supple- 
 ment, p. 494], through an iuadvertence, of "which, I trust, not many such instances 
 can be found in these volumes) the Rev. Mr. Checkley, but his father, Col. Samuel 
 Checkley, a citizen of Boston, of much prominence at the time. 
 
 The foregoing document is skilfully drawn. While kindly in its tone towards Mr. 
 Parris, it is, in reality, a strong condemnation of his course, especially in Article I., 
 as also in the paragraph marked (a), (p. 549), "added by the desire of the Council " to 
 his "Meditations for Peace." Article III. discountenances the proceedings of his 
 church in its censure of " the dissatisfied brethren," and requires that they should 
 be recognized and treated as members in good standing. The fifth article administers 
 rebuke with an equal hand to both sides, while the sixth and last recommends the 
 removal of Mr. Parris, if the alienation of his opponents should prove "incurable." 
 
 As an authoritative condemnation of the proceedings related in this work, pro- 
 nounced at the time, it is a fitting final close of the presentation of this subject.] 
 
 THE END.