[4] The name of this woman was not Mary Oliver, but Mary Parsons. She
was tried in Boston, May 13, 1651, on the charge of witchcraft and for
murdering her own child. She was convicted on the latter charge on her
own confession, and sentenced to be hanged. She was reprieved till May
29 (Mass. Rec. iv. p. i. p. 47). In Judd’s _History of Hadley_ (p.
234), it appears that Mary Parsons was again tried for witchcraft in
1661, and discharged. This is doubtless an error in copying or printing
1661 for 1651, when the trial already named took place; for in both
instances she was charged with bewitching the children of Mr. Moxon the
minister. Mr. Moxon returned to England in 1652.
Hugh Parsons, her husband, had previously been tried and convicted
of witchcraft; and the most damaging charges against him had been
brought by his wife. Among these were the following:—1. Mrs. P. had
an intimate friend Mrs. Smith, to whom she freely expressed her mind.
Now Mrs. Smith was a person who went little abroad, and Mrs. P. was
sure she would not speak of the secrets committed to her trust; and
yet her husband knew all about their conversation. 2. He would be out
late nights; and half an hour before he came home, she would hear
strange noises about the house. 3. He would come home in a distempered
mind, put out the fire, pull off the bed clothes, and throw peas about
the house. 4. He would gabble in his sleep, have strange dreams, and
say he had been fighting the Devil. The jury found him guilty. The
magistrates set aside the verdict, and the case came before the General
Court at Boston, May 31, 1652, when he was acquitted (_Ibid._ p. 96).
The numerous and very curious depositions in the Springfield cases may
be seen in the Appendix of Drake’s _Annals of Witchcraft_, 1869, pp.
219-258. Hutchinson (in note, vol. i. p. 165) mentions the case of Hugh
Parsons, but not that of his wife. He mentions it again (vol. ii. p.
22), and does not seem to be aware that his Mary Oliver case was that
of Parsons’s wife. My references to Hutchinson are to the edition of
1795.