Transcriber Notes
● There are many inconsistencies in this text. The headings in the
table of contents do not all match the actual headings in the text,
and not all headings in the text are in the table of contents.
There are variations in spelling, hyphenation and capitalization,
missing punctuation, and possible repeated words, particularly in
the transcriptions from the 1692 court proceedings. In the older
text, the letters u/v and I/J are sometimes used differently than
is done today. Aside from a small number of punctuation typos in
the more modern part of the text, and the page and item number
fixes noted below, all inconsistencies and variations have been
left as in the original.
● The page numbers in the Bibliography content list changed to reflect
their actual page numbers in the book. A duplicate (3) in the
Perley’s Chronological Chart section was changed to (2).
● Italics are represented by underscores surrounding the _italic text_.
● Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS.
● Descriptions of illustrations without captions added.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: TYPICAL OF THE WITCHCRAFT TRIALS]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A SHORT HISTORY
OF THE
Salem Village Witchcraft Trials
ILLUSTRATED BY A
Verbatim Report of the Trial of
MRS. ELIZABETH HOWE
A MEMORIAL OF HER
[Illustration: Witch-eclipse of the Moon]
To dance with
Lapland witches, while the lab’ring moon eclipses at their
charms.
—Paradise Lost, ii. 662
MAP AND HALF TONE ILLUSTRATIONS
SALEM, MASS.:
M. V. B. PERLEY, PUBLISHER
1911
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT, 1911
BY M. V. B. PERLEY
SALEM, MASS.
BOSTON
The Tudor Press
1911
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE
Greater Salem, the province of Governors Conant and Endicott, is visited
by thousands of sojourners yearly. They come to study the Quakers and
the witches, to picture the manses of the latter and the stately
mansions of Salem’s commercial kings, and breathe the salubrious air of
“old gray ocean.”
The witchcraft “delusion” is generally the first topic of inquiry, and
the earnest desire of those people with notebook in hand to aid the
memory in chronicling answers, suggested this monograph and urged its
publication. There is another cogent reason: the popular knowledge is
circumscribed and even that needs correcting.
This short history meets that earnest desire; it gives the origin,
growth, and death of the hideous monster; it gives dates, courts, and
names of places, jurors, witnesses, and those hanged; it names and
explains certain “men and things” that are concomitant to the trials,
with which the reader may not be conversant and which are necessary to
the proper setting of the trials in one’s mind; it compasses the salient
features of witchcraft history, so that the story of the 1692 “delusion”
may be garnered and entertainingly rehearsed.
The trials were all spread upon the records, word for word. Rev. Samuel
Parris, stenographer to the court, says they were “taken down in my
characters written at the time,” barring, of course, the evidence by
affidavits, which were written, signed, and attested, and filed in the
Clerk of Court’s office, where they may now be seen.
Great research has hitherto been made, keen, sagacious acumen employed,
and much written; but the true criterion of judgment, a trial,—a word
for word trial,—has not before this been published. Here, then, is the
first opportunity of readers to judge for themselves.
The trials were unique. The court was without authority; none of the
judges, it is said, was bred to the law; evidence was arbitrarily
admitted or excluded; the accused were not allowed counsel in law or the
consolation of the clergy in religion.
The careful reader may discover, between the lines, in questions, in
answers, and in the strange exhibitions, the real state of mind
pervading all, which has been mildly characterized as a “delusion”; also
he may be able to compare the Mosaic, the 1692, and the modern spirit
manifestations, and advantageously determine for himself what is worth
while in modern spiritualism, mind-reading, clairvoyance, mesmerism, and
the rest.
Though men of education, religion, titled dignity, and official station,
of the professions and the élite, were responsible for the horrible
catastrophy, and in one instance or more forced the yeoman jurors to
convict (who at the end signed recantations and expressed their
grief),—religion and education must not be undervalued; a religious
education will yield the highest type of manhood.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
PAGE
Notice 3
The Introduction 9
The Witch, Her Antiquity, Legal Status 9
The Modern Witch; Her Persecution 10
Learned Men’s Views, Dissenters, Crone Lore 11
Ingersoll; The Four Ministers 13
The Witch School; “Who’s Who” 18
Unwarrantable Usurpation 21
Names of the Court and Jury 23
Names of Those Hanged 24
Rev. John Hale Converted 27
Lofty Character of the Condemned 28
Place of Execution; The Crevice 29
Mrs. Howe’s Case: 31
The Sunday Warrant; Her Examination 31
Indicted, Remanded to Salem Jail 35
Case Called June 29th. The Witnesses:
Andrews, Thomas 57
Chapman, Simon and Mary 41
Cummings, Isaac, Sr. and Jr. 43-46
Cummings, Mary, Sr. 47-49
Foster, Jacob 53
Hadley, Deborah 40
Howe, James, Sr. (ninety-four years old) 46
Howe, John (brother-in-law) 52
Knowlton, Joseph and Mary 45
Lane, Francis 50
Payson, Rev. Edward 40
Perley, Samuel[1] and Ruth 37
Perley, Timothy[1] and Deborah 36
Phillips, Rev. Samuel 38
Safford, Joseph 54
Warner, Daniel, John, Sarah 41
Imprisoned at Boston. Her Execution 24
Petition for Reimbursement and Removal of 58
Attainder
Mrs. Howe’s Home Located 60
Judge Joseph Story’s Tribute 28
Who Were the Howes?
James Branch of the Ipswich Howes 65
Coats of Arms 66
James Howe, Sr. 67
James Howe, Jr., and His Wife Elizabeth 68
Bibliography 70
Footnote 1:
See Perley Family History and Genealogy, pages 15, 19.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATIONS
Typical of the Witchcraft Trials Frontispiece
Painting by Mattison, about 1854.
The only conception of the
witchcraft trials ever spread on
canvas.—Courtesy of _The Essex
Institute_.
PAGE
Witch-eclipse of the Moon 1
Salem Village (now Danvers 14
Highlands)
The New England Witch 15
The 1692 Meetinghouse 17
The Present Church and Parsonage opp. 18
Governor Simon Bradstreet 21
The Mathers, Increase and Cotton opp. 22
The Witch Plat, or Place of 29
Executions
The Witch Plat, showing “The opp. 29
Crevice”
Warrant for Mrs. Howe’s Arrest opp. 31
Ipswich Farms 51
Location of Mrs. Howe’s Home 60
The Aaron Howe House 62
Descendants of James Howe, Sr. 64
The Howe Arms 66
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
The proceedings in witchcraft in 1692 to us who are two hundred and
twenty years removed from the scene, seem, at first, impossible, then
mortifying, and persuasive of disowning our fathers and forgetting the
period of their folly. At best, the occurrence furnishes the wildest and
saddest chapter in our New England history.
ANTIQUITY OF THE WITCH
AND HER LEGAL STATUS
The doctrine of familiar spirits was current in most ancient times. It
is possible that immediately after the fall in Adam the imprisoned
spirit of man began to assert its former freedom and ability. The old
Scriptures depicted the witch’s character, gave warning of her blighting
influence, and enacted heavy penalties against employing her agency. In
Exodus, xxii. 18: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” In Leviticus,
xx. 27: “A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a
wizard, shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
In Deuteronomy, xviii. 9-12: “When thou art come into the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the
abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any
one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or
that useth divination, or any observer of times, or any enchanter, or a
witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard,
or a necromancer; for all that do these things are an abomination unto
the Lord.”
THE COLONIAL LAWS AND
THEIR BIBLICAL ORIGIN
The colonial laws to which New England witches were amenable, codified
by Rev. Samuel Ward, of Ipswich, who had had extensive legal training
and practice before entering the ministry, were published in 1641. Mr.
Ward[2] followed Moses, the great Hebrew lawgiver, in great measure, but
he distanced England in mildness and was far ahead of his time in scope.
With him, however, the witch found no favor. Death was the punishment
for witchcraft, first and last, and the Puritan, whose sure palladium of
civil and religious freedom was the Bible, obeyed the precept to the
letter, his highest knowledge and authority.
Footnote 2:
See M. V. B. Perley’s Ipswich History in J. W. Lewis’s History of
Essex County, Mass., Vol. I, page 626.
THE MODERN WITCH AND
HER TERRIBLE PERSECUTION
The modern witch, it is said, had her birth near the beginning of the
Christian era. Her persecution began about two hundred years later. From
that time hundreds of thousands of victims were immolated to appease the
inconsiderate and insatiate demands of her persecutors.
In the earliest years witches were generally burned, and in the first
one hundred and fifty years it is estimated thirty thousand thus
perished. Later, in France, in one century, an almost incredible number
suffered—one thousand in a single diocese. In the century, 1600 to 1700,
two hundred were hanged in England, one thousand were burned in
Scotland, and a much greater number on the Continent.
THE AMERICAN WITCH AND
VIEWS OF THE EDUCATED
In America there were witch trials—in Connecticut, New York, and
Pennsylvania,[3]—some years before 1692. In Boston, 1648, Margaret
Jones, of malignant touch, was hanged, and Mrs. Ann (Wm.) Hebbins, in
1655. In Springfield, 1651, Mrs. Mary (Hugh) Parsons was hanged. In
Ipswich quarter court, 1652, a man was sentenced to pay a fine of twenty
shillings, or to be whipped for “having familiarity with the Devil.”
The doctrine of witches was embraced not only by the common people, but
also by the learned; Tycho Brahe, the prince of astronomers, and Kepler,
his student, Martin Luther, the bold theologian, and Melancthon, the
gentle; the silver-tongued Dr. Watts and the pious Baxter, who styled a
disbeliever in witchcraft “an obdurate Sadducee,” and others whom time
fails me to mention.
Footnote 3:
In 1908 or 1909 a Dutch woman in Pennsylvania was charged in court
with the misdemeanor of casting a spell on a cow, so that the cow gave
no milk. The woman was fined $5 and ten days in jail.
OLD CRONE LORE AND
THREE NOTABLE DISSENTERS
Witch stories were a social entertainment, to the mingled fear and
merriment of guests and the positive foreboding of children. Who even
now among the older people has forgotten the crone lore of our
grandmothers—how witches would seize a red-hot iron, glide into a heated
oven, ride through the air on enchanted broomsticks, and how stalwart
men would stalk through keyholes, supported and directed by Satanic
power! It was believed that witches made an actual, deliberate, and
formal compact with Satan.
There were, however, two or three persons of learning and influence in
the Province who (to their great credit, be it said) dared to oppose the
doctrine of witches—the celebrated Rev. Samuel Willard, of the Old South
Church, Boston,—Maj. Nathaniel Saltonstall, who declined a seat upon the
bench rather than participate in the witch trials,—and Rev. John
Higginson (son of Rev. Francis, the first minister of Salem), who was
cautious and held himself aloof; for his conscience whispered he had
gone too far against the Quakers.
PEN PICTURE OF A WITCH
HOME OF THE “DELUSION”
The New England witch was supposed to be an old woman of attenuated
form, somewhat bent; clothed in lively colors and ample skirts; having a
darting and piercing eye, a head sporting disheveled hair and crowned
with a sugar-loaf hat, a carlin’s cheek, a falcated chin bent to meet an
aquiline nose, by both of which was formed a Neapolitan bay, her mouth
in the background resembling Vesuvius in eruption; and riding an
enchanted broomstick with a black cat as guide.
Salem Village, the location of the hideous catastrophe, was the northern
precinct of Salem; and when it was incorporated Danvers, its name became
Danvers Center. Quite recently (1910) the trolley car company changed
the name to Danvers Highlands, but in the steam car nomenclature it is
Collins Street. From Town House Square in Salem to the Highlands a
trolley ride costs a nickel; the distance is five miles, and every mile
a pleasure.
INGERSOLL AND HIS TAVERN
REVS. BAILEY, BURROUGHS, LAWSON
Nathaniel Ingersoll occupied the central location in the village; a man
of industry and thrift; a licensed innkeeper, who sold liquor by the
quart on Sunday; a kind of chief of police; managed the defenses against
the Indians; a benevolent man, and was chosen deacon. His name does not
figure in the witch trials, and the witches have left no records of the
influence of his tavern in the results. The open plat of ground in front
of his tavern was called Ingersoll’s Common. Farther up the street, at
No. 5, is a plat of ground he gave for “a training field forever.” Capt.
Dea. Jonathan Walcott was a neighbor, as was also Sergt. Thomas Putnam,
parish clerk.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
DANVERS HIGHLANDS
DANVERS CENTER
_Old Salem Village_
1. Locates the church there at present.
2. Locates the church of 1692.
3. Locates the Ingersoll Tavern and the present parsonage.
4. Locates the Parris house where the mischief began.
5. Locates the entrance to the Ingersoll Training Field.
The narrow lane leading to No. 4 is a right of way for all.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: THE NEW ENGLAND WITCH]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev. James Bailey, near his majority, a recent graduate of Harvard,
began to preach (not as pastor) there in 1671, and created a division.
Rev. George Burroughs succeeded him in 1680, but matters grew worse. In
1683 Rev. Deodat Lawson began and gave no better results.
Mr. Burroughs was a short, stout man, very muscular and of very dark
complexion. He was a Harvard graduate of 1670. Most of the witches knew
him; and his complexion and extraordinary strength argued his connection
with the black art and the muscular devil.
Rev. Deodat Lawson (Deo-dat-um), a “God-given” cataplasm for the tumor
of unrest, social discords, and animosities that had their rise in
Bailey’s ministry! With Lawson, the suppuration began; for the deviltry
had gone from _seance_ to families and the church, where the unwhipped
girls cried out from time to time, “enough of that”; “see the yellow
bird on the minister’s hat”; “now name your text”; “look how she sits”;
to all which Mr. Lawson’s simplicity testifies: these things “did
something interrupt me in my first prayer, being so unusual.”
REV. SAMUEL PARRIS, STUDENT
WEST INDIAN TRADER, FIRST PASTOR
The wound was treated and cleansed during the ministry of Rev. Samuel
Parris. He was born in London, about 1653, had been a merchant in Boston
and the Spanish Main, and had studied at Harvard. He succeeded Mr.
Lawson and was ordained and installed their first pastor, Tuesday, Nov.
19, 1689. He left in 1696. The unanimity of the church since he left has
been as marked as the schism was before he left.
[Illustration: THE PARRIS MEETING HOUSE, 1692]
Mr. Parris’s home was at No. 4 on the map. His house probably did not
survive the year 1717. His meetinghouse stood a little to the east of
the Ingersoll Tavern, probably the flat spot now marked by rose bushes
and weeds, and maybe by a large, flat stone in the wall, which stone may
have served as a doorstep. A beautiful modern church edifice now graces
the corner opposite Ingersoll’s old corner, while the parsonage occupies
the Ingersoll site.
JOHN AND HIS TITUBA
REV. S. PARRIS’S SLAVES
Mr. Parris brought with him from the Spanish Main, as his slaves, a
couple called John Indian and his wife, Tituba. The ignorance of the
Spanish population found its summit of pleasure in dancing, singing,
sleight of hand, palmistry, fortune-telling, magic, and necromancy (or
spirit communication with the dead); and John and his Tituba in all
those things were fully up to date.
PARRIS’S WITCH SCHOOL, APT
PUPILS, THEIR PERSONNEL
To the pastor’s house (as he wrote, “When these calamities first began,
which was at my house”) the village maidens, by surreption, went under
the tuition of Tituba. Those of us who have some remembrance of the rise
of spiritualism, the phenomenon of table-tipping, and the slightly more
refined practice of the élite with scribbling planchet, can picture in
some degree Tituba’s pupils and how they got there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
FIRST CHURCH EDIFICE AND PARSONAGE
DANVERS HIGHLANDS
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of those pupils (“children,” as the court called them) two were of the
pastor’s family—Ann Williams, aged eleven, and his daughter, whom he
quickly sent away; Ann Putnam, daughter of Ann and Sergeant Thomas, a
precocious miss of only twelve, who easily became a leader; Mary Warren,
domestic in John Proctor’s family, aged twenty; Susannah Sheldon and
Elizabeth Booth, neighbors and eighteen; Sarah Churchill, helper to
George Jacobs, senior; Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis, former domestic
for Mrs. Burroughs, and Mary Walcott, daughter of Deacon Jonathan, each
of them eighteen.
Had those “children,” the pioneers of the awfully fatal mischief, been
scourged at the whipping post,
“Or had been beaten till they’d know
What wood the cudgel’s of by the blow,”
if needful, and John and his Tituba been returned to their native soil,
no doubt the horrible tragedy would have been averted. The Shafflin girl
in Peabody was cured “when a timely whipping brought her to her senses.”
So was Dinah Sylvester, of Mansfield, when given her choice of a
whipping or owning and abandoning her error.
CASTING OUT DEVILS
“STILL THE WONDER GREW”
But, instead, Mr. Parris, in fashion of the vaunted prowess of Cotton
Mather and other pedantic, astute, aspiring ministers, to show their
efficiency in “casting out devils,” called in the clergy, the deacons,
and the elders, and held, February 11th, a day of fasting and prayer.
“And still the wonder grew.”
A PORTENTOUS LEAP DAY
“THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH”
It was high time, and some leading citizens took the initiative. A
complaint was lodged against Tituba Feb. 25, 1692. The first warrants
were issued the 29th, the leap day of the year, and Sarah Good, Sarah
Osbun, and Tituba Indian were apprehended. They were examined March 1st
and ordered to jail in Boston, to await the action of the higher court.
The examinations were to be held in Ingersoll’s Tavern, but the crowd
was so great on Ingersoll’s Common, that the court adjourned to the
meeting house. The magistrates were John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin,
assistants. They went over from Salem, attended by the marshal,
constables, and their aids, and all of them arrayed in the garb of court
authority and the attractive insignia of official station. Their advent
into the village was marked by an ostentation of whatever grandeur and
splendor they had at command. To the gaping multitude it was “the
greatest show on earth,” while the trials proved a “Wild West.”
Sarah Good, a broken-down outcast, deserted by her husband, begging food
from house to house, was first examined; the last examined was Tituba,
the chief offender.
[Illustration: GOV. SIMON BRADSTREET, 1603-1697]
UNWARRANTABLE USURPATION
NAMES OF THE COURT AND JURY
The Province took formal charge _in re_ April 11, 1692. Simon Bradstreet
was governor. He had been honored with thirteen annual elections by the
people to that office. He was then eighty-six years of age, the “Grand
Old Man” of his time. He struck the keynote at first in an opinion that
the witch evidence was insufficient. With honor crowned he passed into
history as “The Old Charter Governor.”
The high action of Deputy-Governor Danforth and his Counsel, who were
the court, gave éclat to the proceedings and consternation filled the
county. In October, 1691, a new charter was signed, and Sir Wm. Phipps
was appointed governor. He arrived in Boston with the new charter,
Saturday, May 14, 1692. William Stoughton was made deputy-governor, in
place of Thomas Danforth.
In this change from popular government Increase Mather, an early
president of Harvard College, was a “power behind the throne.” The new
charter had his approval and Sir Wm. Phipps, its first governor, was his
nominee. Phipps was “a well-meaning man, inclined to superstition,” and
Mather admired his “incompetency.” Stoughton was a man “of cold
affections, proud, self willed, and covetous of distinction, and
universally hated by the people.” He was appointed deputy-governor to
please Cotton Mather, son of Increase. Cotton in his race for glory ran
amuck. He was a man of “overweening vanity,” panting for fame, and the
strenuous mover in the trials. He harangued the populace and sermonized
on witchcraft; he wrote a book: “The Trials of Witches,” and even on
horseback, at the hanging of Rev. George Burroughs, he harangued the
people gathered there, lest they interfere and rob the gallows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
INCREASE MATHER COTTON MATHER
FATHER SON
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the new charter courts of justice were to be established by the
General Court. The witch trials were, therefore, stranded and must
remain _in statu quo_, apparently, for several months, while awaiting
the action of the General Court. The Governor, however, by “an
unwarrantable usurpation of authority,” organized a court of final
hearing, called _Oyer and Terminer_, to act in the pending cases.
Deputy-Governor Stoughton was appointed chief justice, and Nathaniel
Saltonstall, of Haverhill, who declined to serve, and was succeeded by
Jonathan Corwin, of Salem; Major John Richards, of Boston; Major
Bartholomew Gedney, of Salem; Mr. Wait Winthrop, Mr. Peter Sargent, and
Capt. Samuel Sewell, of Boston, Associate Justices.
The panel of the Jury of Inquest was Thomas Fisk, foreman; William Fisk,
John Bachelor, Thomas Fisk, Jr., John Dane, Joseph Eveleth, Thomas
Perley, Sr., John Peabody, Thomas Perkins, Samuel Sayer, Andrew Eliot,
and Henry Herrick, Sr.
The commissions of the court were dated Friday, May 27th; the court
convened Thursday, June 2d; Bridget Bishop, of Salem, was convicted
Wednesday, the 8th, and hanged Friday, the 10th. The court, by
adjournment, next sat Wednesday, the 29th of June; then by several
adjournments, it was to sit the 1st of November.
The day on which Bridget Bishop was hanged, June 10th, the General Court
enacted a law of the old charter for capital cases, and under it
presumably the subsequent witch trials were held, while the personnel of
the court remained the same.
TRIALS ARRESTED, COURT SUSPENDED
LIST OF THOSE HANGED
The General Court in October established the Superior Court of
Judicature and gave it jurisdiction in witch cases. Governor Phipps
immediately arrested the witch trials, and suspended the court. _Oyer
and Terminer_ was dissolved. These were hanged:
FRIDAY, JUNE 10TH
1. Bishop, Bridget, wife of Edward, of Salem.
TUESDAY, JULY 19TH
1. Good, Sarah, of the village.
2. Wildes, Sarah, daughter of Wm., of Topsfield.
3. Howe, Elizabeth, wife of James, Jr., of Ipswich Farms.
4. Nourse, Rebecca, wife of Francis, of the village.
5. Martin, Susannah, of Amesbury.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19TH
1. Burroughs, Rev. George, of Casco. See above.
2. Proctor, John, of Peabody.
3. Jacobs, George, of the Village, eighty years old.
4. Willard, John, apprehended at Groton.
5. Carryer, Martha, wife of Thomas, of Andover.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22D
1. Cory, Martha, wife of Giles, of Peabody.
2. Æstey, Mary, wife of Isaac, of Topsfield.
3. Parker, Alice, wife of John, of Salem.
4. Pudeator, Ann, widow of Jacob.
5. Scott, Margaret, widow of Benj., of Rowley.
6. Read, Wilmot, wife of Samuel, of Marblehead.
7. Wardwell, Samuel, of Andover.
8. Parker, Mary, of Salem.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH
Giles Cory would not plead to the indictment, and was pressed to death.
In modern law one thus mute is understood to plead _not guilty_, but at
that period one must plead before he could be put on trial, and might be
tortured till he pleaded or died. Mr. Cory would not countenance any
phase or feature of witchcraft.
TUESDAY, MAY 10TH
Died in prison Sarah Osbun, condemned, wife of Alexander.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3D
Died in prison, Ann Foster, widow of Andrew, of Andover, who died, 1685,
aged 106.
Elizabeth Proctor, widow of John (above), was reprieved on account of
her condition, then pardoned.
Mrs. Thomas Bradbury, of Salisbury, daughter of John Perkins, of
Ipswich, eighty years old, condemned, then acquitted.
Rebecca Eames, wife of Robert, of Boxford, condemned, reprieved.
Elizabeth Morse, of Newbury, reprieved.
Abigail Falkner and Elizabeth Johnson, both of Andover, daughters of
Rev. Francis Dane, were respectively thirteen and five months in jail.
Mary Lacey, wife of Lawrence, daughter of Andrew and Ann Foster (above),
confessed, accused her mother of bewitching her, and escaped punishment.
As above there were twenty-eight convictions, nineteen persons were
hanged, and one was pressed to death, “fifty-five were pardoned, one
hundred and fifty more were imprisoned, and two hundred others or more
were accused.” Several dogs were accused, and one of Danvers and another
of Andover were executed.
Let it now be noted and remembered, that no witch or wizard was ever
burned to death in Salem town or Essex county.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
REV. JOHN HALE’S CHANGE OF HEART
Early in October, 1692, the wild and extravagant methods of the court
had penetrated every community, and by relation or friendship, almost
every family, and too, accusations rested upon families of the wealthy
and the learned, of clergymen and laymen, and even it was whispered upon
one of the judges of the court and the wife of the governor; and it was
only when the ruthless authority of the law invaded those homes that the
fury of the storm abated. When Rev. John Hale, of Beverly, who had been
conspicuously active in the convictions, found his wife in the
diabolical toils, he experienced a sudden change of heart, and prayed
for peace. The time was ripe; Mr. Hale’s sentiments echoed from every
home. The establishment of the new court (Wm. Stoughton, Chief Justice,
Thomas Danforth, Wait Winthrop, John Richards, and Samuel Sewell,
Associate Justices) and the abolition of the old court, helped the
cause.
In the January next following fifty persons were indicted. All who were
tried were acquitted except three, who were pardoned. All who were not
tried were discharged on the payment of thirty shillings each. In the
following May, when a jail delivery had been decreed, one hundred and
fifty went forth.
LOFTY CHARACTER OF THE CONDEMNED
JUDGE JOSEPH STORY’S TRIBUTE
Those who suffered were a remarkable company of men and women. They came
from the humble walks in life, but most of them were old in experience
and solidified in character and sentiments. Though they were posted as
criminals, taunted with aspersions, forbidden counsel in law and
religion, and had every word of defense twisted into a semblance of
condemnation, yet they exhibited the true nobility of life in truth and
righteousness; they counted their lives not dear to them, could they
only reach the goal of their hope in God their Saviour.
But after all we must not judge the actors in this frenzied delusion
harshly or rashly. Hon. Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court, writes: “Surely our ancestors had no special
reason for shame in a belief which had the universal sanction of their
own and all former ages, which counted in its train philosophers as well
as enthusiasts, which was graced by the learning of prelates as well as
by the countenance of kings, which the law supported by its mandates,
and the purest judges felt no compulsions in enforcing.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: THE WITCH PLAT AND THE CREVICE]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PLACE OF EXECUTION
THE CREVICE FOR THE CORPSES
[Illustration: THE WITCH PLAT]
Or the place where “The Witches” were hanged is on Proctor Street,
Salem, marked off on this map by the dotted lines. The cross locates
“The Crevice,” where the corpses were thrown. To touch a witch corpse
was malignant; yet some bodies were taken away for burial at home.
Giles Cory was pressed to death in the field corner of St. Peters and
Brown Streets, opposite the jail then on Church Street, corner of St.
Peters Street, Salem.
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[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WARRANT FOR MRS. HOWE’S ARREST]
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MRS. HOWE’S CASE
Sunday, May 29, 1692, Ephraim Wildes, constable of Topsfield, with a
capias signed by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, Assistants, went to
the home of James Howe, Jr., in Ipswich Farms, and took into custody the
wife and mother as a witch.
She was charged with sundry acts of witchcraft upon the bodies of Mary
Walcott and Abigail Williams, and others of Salem Village. She was
examined the next Wednesday at the house of Nathaniel Ingersoll of that
place. She pleaded _not guilty_, denied all knowledge of the matter and
testified that she had never heard of the girls, Mary and Abigail, till
their names were read in the warrant. But in court they fell down, they
cried out, they were pinched and pricked, and they accused Mrs. Howe.
She was remanded to prison to await the action of the Jury of Inquest.
Her case was called Wednesday and Thursday, June 29 and 30, 1692.
THE SUNDAY WARRANT
AND ITS SUNDAY SERVICE
To the Constable of Topsfield:
You are in theyr Magestyes Names hereby Requested to Apprehend & bring
before us Elizabeth How ye wife of James How of Topsfield Husbandman on
tuesday next being the thirty-first day of May about ten of ye Clock in
ye forenoon. at ye house of Leut Nathaniel Ingersolls of Salem Village
Whoe Stand Charged with Sundry Acts of Witchcraft done or committed on
ye bodyes of Mary Wolcott Abigail Williams & others of Salem Village, to
theyr great hurt, in order to her examination Relating to ye abovesd
premises & hereof you are nott to fayle.
Dat’ Salem May 28th, 1692.
p us
JOHN HATHORNE }
JONATHAN CORWIN } Assists.
In obedience to this warrant I have apprehended Elizabeth How the wife
of Jems how on the 29th of May 1692 and have brought har unto the house
of leftnant nathaniell englosons according too ye warrant as atested by
me Ephraim Willdes constabell for the town of Topsfield.
Dated may 31st 1692.
THE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
SHE NEVER HEARD OF HER ACCUSERS BEFORE
Mercy Lewis & Mary Walcott fell in a fit quickly after the examinant
came in. Mary Walcott said that this woman the examinant had pincht her
& Choakt this month. Ann Putnam said she had hurt her three times
_Question._ What say you to this charge? Here are them that charge
you with witchcraft
_Answer._ If it was the last moment I was to live God knows I am
innocent of anything of this nature
_Q._ Did not you take notice that now when you lookt upon Mercy Lewis
she was struck down?
_A._ I cannot help it.
_Q._ You are charged here what doe you say?
_A._ I am innocent of anything of this nature
_Q._ Is this the first time that ever you were accused
_A._ Yes Sr
_Q._ Do not you know that one at Ipswich hath accused you?
_A._ This is the first time that ever I heard of it.
_Q._ You say that you never heard of these folks before.
Mercy Lewis at length spake & charged this woman with hurting & pinching
her. And then Abigail Williams cryed she hath hurt me a great many
times, a great while and she hath brought me the book. Ann Putnam had a
pin stuck in her hand.
_Q._ What do you say to this?
_A._ I cannot help it.
_Q._ What consent have you given?
Abig Williams cryed out that she was pincht & great prints were seen in
her arm. Mary Warren cryed out she was prickt
_Q._ Have you not seen some apparition?
_A._ No never in all my life.
_Q._ Those that have confessed they tell us they used images and pins
now tell us what have you used
_A._ You would not have me confess that which I know not
She looked upon Mary Warren & said Warren violently fell down. Look upon
this maid, viz.: Mary Walcott her back being towards the examinant. Mary
Warren & Ann Putnam said they saw this woman upon her. Susan Sheldon
saith this was the woman that carryd her yesterday to the Pond. Sus.
Sheldon carried to the examinant in a fit & was well upon grasping her
arm.
_Q._ You said you never heard before of these people.
_A._ Not before the warrant was served me last Sabbath day.
John Indian cryed out Oh she bites & fell into a grevious fit & so
carried to her in his fit & was well upon her grasping him.
_Q._ What do you say to these things—they cannot come to you.
_A._ Sr I am unable to give account of it.
_Q._ Cannot you tell what keeps them off from your body?
_A._ I cannot tell I know not what it is.
This a true account of the examination of Eliz: How taken from my
characters written at the time thereof.
Witness my hand
[Signed] SAM PARRIS.
THE INDICTMENT. THE CASE
HEARD JUNE 29TH AND 30TH AND JULY 1ST
The jurors of our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen represent
That Elizabeth How wife of James of Ips. the 31st day of May the fourth
year of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady Wm. and Mary by the Grace of God of
England Scotland ffrance and Ireland King and Queen defenders of the
ffaith &c. and Divers other days and times as well before as after
Certaine Detestable Acts called Witchcraft and sorceries wickedly and
ffelloniously hath used Practiced and Exercised at and within the
Township of Salem in the county of Essex aforesaid in upon and against
one Mary Walcott of Salem Village singlewoman by which said wicked arts
the said Mary Walcott the 31th day of May in the 4th year aforesaid and
Divers other Days and times as well before as after was and is Tortured,
Afflicted Pined Consumed wasted and Tormented and also for sundry other
Acts of witchcraft by said Elizabeth How Committed and Done before and
since that time agt the Peace of our Soverigne Lord and Lady the King
and Queen and against the form of the statute in that case made and
Provided.
THE WITNESSES
TIMOTHY AND DEBORAH PERLEY
the first of iune 1692 the deposition of timothi Perley and deborah
Perley his wife timoth Perley aged about 39 and his wife about 33 there
being som diference between goode how that is now seized namely
Elizabeth How wife of James How Junr and timothi Perli abovesaid about
som bords the night following our cous lay out and finding of them the
next morning we went to milk them and one of them did not give but two
or thre spoone fuls of milk and one of the other cous did not give above
halfe a Pinte and the other gave aboute a quart and these cous used to
give three or four quarts at a meale two of these cous continued to give
litle or nothing four or five meals and yet thes went to a good inglish
pasture and within four dais the cous gave ther full Proportion that
thir used to give.
furder deborah Perley testifieth and as conserning hanah Perley Samuel
Perleys daughter that was so sore afflicted her mother and she coming to
our house hanah Perley being suddinli scared & so thers that woman she
goes into the oven and out againe and then fell into a dredful fit and
when I have asked her when she said that woman what woman she ment she
tould me ieams hows wife sometimes hanah Perley went along with me to
ieams hows an sone fell into a fitt goode how was ueri louing to her and
when the garl and I came away i asked whi she talked so of goode how
being she was so louing to her she tould me that if i were aflicted as
she was that I would talk as bad of her as she did at anothr tim i saw
goode how and hanah Perley together and thai were ueri louing together
and after goode How was gone i asked whi she was so louing to good how
when thai were together she tould me that she was afraide to doe
otherwise for then goode how would kil her.
DEBORAH PERLEY
Testified to June 30th before the Jury of Inquest
SAMUEL AND RUTH PERLEY
the first of iune 1692 the deposition of Samuel Perley and his wife aged
about 52 and his wife 46 years of age we hauing a dafter about ten years
of age being in a sorrowful condition this being sone after a faling out
thai had bene betwen ieams how and his wife and miself our daughter told
us that it was ieams hows wife that afflicted her both night and day
sometimes complaining of being Pricked with Pins and sometimes faling
down into dredful fits and often sai i could neuer aflict a dog as goode
how aflicts me mi wife and i did often chide her for naming goode how
being loth her name shold be defamed but our daughter would tel us that
though we would not beleue her now yet you wil know it one day we went
to several docters and thai tould us that she was under an evil hand our
daughter tould us that when she came nere the fire or water this witch
Puls me in and was often soreli burnt and she would tel us what cloaths
she wore and would sai there she goes and there she goes and now she is
gone into the oven and at these sights faling down into dredful fits and
thus our daughter continuing about two or three years constantli
afirming to the last that this goode how that is now seised was the
cause of her sorrows and pined awai to Skin and bone and ended her
sorrowful life and this we can atest upon oath ruth Perley’s mark.
Sam’l Pearly & his wife declare ye above written to be the truth upon
oath. After this the aboue said goode how had a mind to ioin ipswich
church thai being unsatisfied sent to us to bring in what we had against
her and when we had declared to them what we knew thei see cause to Put
a stop to her coming into the Church within a few dais after I had a cow
wel in the morning as far as we knew this cow was taken straingli
running about like a mad thing a litle while and then run into a great
Pon and drowned herself and as sone as she was dead mi sons and miself
towed her to the shore and she stunk so that we had much a doe to flea
her.
As for the time daughters being taken ill it was in the yere of our Lord
1682.
Testified to before the Jury of Inquest
June 30 ’92
REV. SAMUEL PHILLIPS
The testimony of Samuel Phillips aged about 67 minister of the word of
God in Rowley who sayth that mr payson (minister of Gods word alsoe in
Rowley) and myself went, being desired to Sameul pearly of ipswich to se
thiere young daughter who was viseted with strang fitts and in her fitts
(as her father and mother affermed) did mention good wife How the wife
of James How Junior of Ipswich as if she was in the house and afflict
her; when we were in the house the child had one of her fitts but made
no mention of good wife how; & and when the fitt was over and she came
to herself, goodwife how went to the child and took her by the hand &
askt her whether she had ever done her any hurt And she answered noe
never and if I did complain of you in my fitts I knew not that I did
soe: I further can affirm upon oath that young Samuel Pearly, Brother to
the afflicted girle looking out of a chamber (I and the afflicted child
being with outdores together) and sayd to his sister Say goodwife How is
a witch say she is a witch & the child spake not a word that way, but I
lookt up to the window where the youth stood & rebuked him for his
boldness to stir up his sister to accuse the said goodw: How when as she
had cleared her from doing any hurt to his sister in both our hearing &
I added no wonder that the child in her fitts did mention Goodwife How
when her nearest relatives were soe frequent in expressing theire
suspicions in the childs hearing when she was out of her fitts that she
sayed Goodwife How was an Instrument of mischeif to the child
SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
Rowley 3 June 1692
REV. EDWARD PAYSON
I Edward Paison of ye Town abouesd Thoh present at ye place & time
aforesd yet cannot evidence in all the particulars mentioned: Thus much
is yet in my remembrance viz: being in ye abouesd Pearley’s house some
considerable time before ye sd Goodw: How came in: their afflicted
Daughter upon something that her mother spake to her with tartness
presently fell into on of her usual strange fitts, during which she made
no mention (as I observed) of ye above sd How her name or any thing
relating to her, sometime after the sd How came in when sd Girl had
recovered her capacity, her fitt being over sd How took sd Girl by ye
hand, asked her whether she had ever done her any hurt: ye child
answered no never; with several expressions to yt purpose which I am not
able particularly to recount &c.
EDWARD PAISON
Rowley June 3 1692.
DEBORAH HADLEY
The Deposition of Debory Hadley aged about 70 years; this Deponant
testifieth & sth that I have lived near to Elizabeth How (ye wife of
James How Junior of Ipswich) 24 year & have found a neighborly woman
Consciencious in her dealings faithful to her pmises & Christianlike in
her Conversation so far as I have observed & further saith nt.
DEBORAH HADLEY.
June 24 1692
DANIEL, JOHN, SARAH WARREN
from Ipswich Ju ye 25 1692 this may sertify houe it may conserne we
being desired to wright some thing in ye behalfe of Ye Wife of Jeams how
Junior of Ipswich hoe is aprehended upon suspition of being gilty of ye
Sin of witchcraft & now in Salem prisson upon ye same acount for ouer
oun partes we haue bin well aquainted wt hur for aboue twenty yeers we
neuer see but yt she cared it very wel & yt both hur wordes & actions
wer always such as well become a good Cristian: we ofte spake to hur of
somethings yt wer reported of hur yt gaue some suspition of yt she is
now charged wt & she always profesing hur Inosency yr in offen desiring
our prayers to god for hur yt god would keep hur in his fear & yt god
would support hur under hur burdin we haue offen herd hur Speaking of
those persons yt raised thos reports of hur and we neuer heered hur
Speake badly of y for ye same but in ouer hering hath offen said yt she
desired god that he would santify yt afflicttion as well as others for
hur spiritual good.
DANIEL WARNER senr
JOHN WARNER senr
SARAH WARNER
SIMON AND MARY CHAPMAN
Ipswich June the 25th 1692 The testimony of Simon Chapman About 48 years
testifieth and sayth that he hath ben Aquainted with the wiufe of James
how iunr as a naybar for this 9 or 10 yers and he neuer saw any harm by
hur but that That hath bin good for I found hur Joust In hur delling
fayth fooll too hur promicises I haue had acation to be in the compiny
of goodwief howe by the fortnight togather at Thayer hous: and at other
tims and I found at all Tims by hur discors shee was a woman of
afliktion and mourning for sin in her selues and others and when she met
with eny Afliktion she semid to iostifi god and say that Itt was all
better than she dessufid that it was By falls aqusations from men and
she yust to bles god that she got good by afliktions for it med hur
examin hur oun hart I neuer herd hur refil any person that hath akusid
hur with witchcraft but pittied them and sayid i pray god forgiue then
for thay harm them selues more then me. Thof i am a gret sinar yit i am
cler of that sayed she and such kind of afliktions doth but set me a
exsamining my oun hart and I find god wondarfolly seportining me and
comfarting me by his word and promisis she semid to be a woman thron in
that grat work of conuiktion an conuertion which I pray god mak us all
SIMON CHAPMAN
My wief Mary Chapman cane Testifi to the most of this abou retan as
witness my hand
MARY CHAPMAN.
ISAAC CUMMINGS, SR.
June 27 1692 disposition of Isaac commins syner aget about sixty years
or thare abouts who testyfyeth and saith that about aight yers agou
James how iunr of ipswich came to my hous to borow a hors I not being at
home my son isaac told him as my son told me whan I cam home i hade no
hoes to ride on but my son isaac did tell the said how that he hade no
hors to ride on but he hade a mare the whiah he though his father would
not be wiling to lend this being upon a thursday the next day being
fryday I took the mare and myself and my wife did ride on this maer
abute half a mile to an naighbours hous and home again and when we came
home I turned the maer out the maer being as well to my thinking as ever
she was next morning it being Saturday about sun rising this said maer
stood neer my doore and the said maer as i did aperehend did show as if
she had bin much abused by riding and here flesh as I thovg mvch wasted
and her movth mvch semenly to my aperehantion mvch abused and hurt with
ye bridel bits I seing ye maer in svch a sad condition I toke up the
said maer and put her into my barn and she wold eate no maner of thing
as for provender or any thing we i give her then I sent for my brother
Thomas Andros which was living in boxford the said anderos came to my
hous I not being at home when I came home a litle afore night my brother
anderos told me he head giving the said mear southing for the bots but
as he could perseve it did do her no good but said he I cannot tell but
she may have the baly ach and said he I wel try one thing more my
brother anderos said he would take pipe of tobaco and lite it and put
itt into the fondement of the mare I told him that I thought it was not
lawfull he said it was lawfull for man or beast then I toke a clen pipe
and filled it with tobaco and did lite it and went with the pipe lite to
the barn then the said anderos used the pipe as he said before he wold
and the pipe of tobaco did blaze and burn blew then I said to my brother
Anderos you shall try no more it is not lawful he said I will try again
once mor which he did and thar arose a blaze from the pipe of tobaco
which seemed to me to cover the butocks of the said mear the blaze went
upward towards the roof of the barn and in roof of the barn thar was a
grate crackling as if the barn wovld haue falen or bin burnt which semed
so to us which ware within and some that ware without and we hade no
other fier in the barn bvt only a candil and a pipe of tobaco and then I
said I thought my barn or my mear must goe the next being Lord’s day I
spoke to my brother anderos at noone to come to see the said mear and
said anderos came and what h did I say not the same Lords day at night
my naighbours John Haukins came to my hovs and he and I went into my
barn to see this mear said houkins said and if I ware as you i wolvd of
a pece of this mear and burn it I said no not to-day but if she lived
til to morrow morning he might cut of a pece off of her and burn if he
wovld presentely as we hade spoken these words we stept out of the barn
and imedeiately this said mear fell down dade and never stvred as we
covld purseve after she fell down but lay dead
Isac Comings Senr declared to ye Jury of Inquest that ye aboue written
evidence is the truth upon oath June 30 1692
JOSEPH AND MARY KNOWLTON