The Cruel Doings of the Special Court.
Meanwhile the Special Court of seven Judges--a majority of whom were
from Boston, with the Deputy Governor of the Colony, William Stoughten,
as Chief-Justice--was by no means indolent. Of the proceedings of this
court, which embodied apparently the best legal intellect of the colony,
no official record is in existence. Its shameful pages, smeared all over
with bigotry and blood, no doubt were purposely destroyed. So far as we
are acquainted with the evidence given before it, it was substantially
the same as had been given at the previous examinations before the
committing magistrates.
That nothing was too extravagant and absurd to be received as evidence
by this learned court, is proven by the statement of the Reverend Cotton
Mather, already alluded to, relative to a demon entering the
meeting-house and tearing down a part of it, in obedience to a look from
Mistress Bridget Bishop--of which diabolical outrage the Court was duly
informed. Besides, there could have been no other kind of evidence
forthcoming, that would apply to the crime of which all the accused
were charged, Witchcraft. Many of the prisoners indeed were accused of
murdering children and others, whose illness had been beyond the
physician's power to cure; but the murders were all committed, it was
alleged, by the use of "spectres," "familiars," "puppets," and other
supernatural means. Against such accusations it was impossible for men
and women of the highest character and reputation to make any effectual
defence, before a court and jury given over so completely to religious
fanaticism and superstitious fancies. To be accused was therefore to be
condemned.
Yes, this Special Court, having had all its misgivings, if it ever
really had any, quieted by the answer of the council of ministers, was
doing quick and fearful work.
Meeting again in the latter part of June, it speedily tried, convicted
and sentenced to death five persons:--Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes,
Elizabeth How, Susanna Martin and Rebecca Nurse.
Then, adjourning till August 5th, it tried and convicted George
Burroughs, John Procter, Elizabeth Procter, George Jacobs, John Willard
and Martha Carrier.
Then meeting on September 9th, it tried and condemned Martha Corey, Mary
Easty, Alice Parker and Ann Pudcator; and on September 17th, Margaret
Scott, Wilmot Reed, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker.
It will be noticed that of the above nineteen persons, only five were
men. As the greater number of the accusers were also of the female sex,
it was natural, I suppose, that this should be so. And thus we find that
the word witch is applied indifferently in the old records, to men and
women; the masculine term wizard being seldom used.
That the learned Judges were fully as superstitious as the people at
large, is conclusively proved by certain facts that have come down to
us. In the case of that lovely and venerable matron, Rebecca Nurse, the
jury at first brought in the verdict "Not guilty."
But immediately all the accusers in the Court, and all the "afflicted"
out of it, made a hideous outcry. Two of the Judges said they were not
satisfied. The Chief-Justice intimated that there was one admission of
the prisoner that the jury had not properly considered. These things
induced the jurors to go out again, and come back with a verdict of
"Guilty."
One of the charges against Rebecca Nurse, testified to by Edward Putnam,
was that, after the said Rebecca Nurse had been committed to jail, and
was thus several miles distant in the town of Salem, "she, the said
Nurse, struck Mistress Ann Putnam with her spectral chain, leaving a
mark, being a kind of round ring, and three streaks across the ring. She
had six blows with a chain in the space of half-an-hour; and she had one
remarkable one, with six streaks across her arm. Ann Putnam, Jr., also
was bitten by the spectre of the said Rebecca Nurse about two o'clock of
the day. I, Edward Putnam, saw the marks, both of bite and chains."
It was a great hardship in all these trials, that the prisoners were not
allowed any counsel; while on the other hand, the members of the Court
seemed to take it for granted from the first, that they were guilty. The
only favor allowed them was the right of objecting to a certain extent
to those jurors whose fairness they mistrusted.
One of the accused, a reputable and aged farmer named Giles Corey,
refused to plead. His wife, Martha Corey, was among the convicted. At
her examination, some time previous, he had allowed himself to testify
in certain respects against her; involved as he was for a time in the
prevailing delusion. But he was a man of strong mind and character; and
though not entirely able to throw off the chains which superstition had
woven around him, he repented very sorely the part he had taken against
his wife. This was enough to procure his own accusation. The "afflicted
girls" brought their usual complaints that his spectre tormented them.
They fell down and shrieked so wildly at his examination, that Squire
Hathorne asked him with great indignation, "Is it not enough that you
should afflict these girls at other times without doing it now in our
presence?"
The honest and sturdy man was visibly affected. He knew he was not
consciously doing anything; but what could it all mean? If he turned his
head, the girls said he was hurting them and turned their heads the same
way. The Court ordered his hands tied--and then the girls said they were
easier. But he drew in his cheeks, after a habit he had, and the cheeks
of the girls were sucked in also, giving them great pain. The old man
was fairly dumfounded. When however one of the girls testified that
Goodman Corey had told her that he saw the devil in the shape of a black
hog in the cow-house, and was very much frightened by it, the spirited
old man said that he never was frightened by man or devil in his life.
But he had a fair property, and two sons-in-law to whom he wished to
leave it. He knew well that if he were tried he would be convicted, and
that would carry with it the confiscation of his property. So, as other
noble-hearted men had done in that and the previous age, he refused when
brought before the Special Court, to plead either "guilty" or "not
guilty." In these later times the presiding Judge would simply order a
plea of "not guilty" to be entered, and the trial would proceed. But
then it was otherwise--the accused himself must plead, or the trial
could not go on. Therefore he must be made to plead--by placing heavy
weights upon his breast, and adding to them until the accused either
agreed to plead, or died under the torture. In which last case, the
prisoner lost his life as contumacious; but gained his point of
preserving his estate, and title of nobility if he had any, to his
family.
So, manly old Giles Corey, remorseful for the fate he had helped to
bring upon his wife, and determined that his children should inherit the
property he had acquired, maintained a determined silence when brought
before the Special Court. Being warned, again and again, he simply
smiled. He could bear all that they in their cruel mockery of justice
could inflict upon him.
Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond rode down to Salem that day--to the
orchard where the brave old man was led out of jail to meet his doom.
They saw him, tied hand and foot, and heavy flat stones and iron weights
laid one by one upon him.
"More! More!" pleaded the old man at last. "I shall never yield. But, if
ye be men, make the time short!"
"I cannot stand this," said Master Raymond.
"We are powerless to help him--let us go."
"To torture an old man of eighty years in this way! What a sight for
this new world!" exclaimed Master Putnam, as they turned their horses'
heads and rode off.
His executioners took Giles Corey at his word. They knew the old man
would never yield. So they mercifully heaped the heavy weights upon him
until they had crushed out his life.