[44] “An Account of the Life and Character of Rev. Samuel Parris, of
Salem village, and of his connection with the Witchcraft Delusion
of 1692. By Samuel P. Fowler [of Danvers]” (Salem, 1857, 20 pp.
8vo.), is the fullest and most impartial estimate of Mr. Parris’s
character which has appeared in print. Deacon Fowler is an officer of
the original church of Salem village, now Danvers; he has the best
collection of witch books in New-England, and is one of the most
experienced antiquaries of the Essex Institute. He dispels much of the
misapprehension which has existed respecting this noted clergyman.
Mr. Parris remained with his people for five years after these events,
and in the midst of local disputes outside of the witchcraft tragedy.
Mr. Fowler says (p. 19), “It seems there was always a majority of the
parish in favor of Mr. Parris remaining with them; and there appears
to have been a very general mistake with regard to his dismission
from his people, they supposing that he was hastily driven away from
the village; whereas he continued and maintained himself through a
ministerial quarrel of five years, until he saw fit to discontinue it,
when he informed his church of his intentions.”
Mr. Fowler’s entire paper is reprinted in Mr. Drake’s _Witchcraft
Delusion in New-England_, vol. iii. pp. 198-221. The anonymous Ballad
of 1692, _Giles Corey and Goodwyfe Corey_, which Mr. Drake reprints
in the same volume (pp. 173-177), and supposes Mr. J. G. Whittier to
have been the author—“as but one person could have written it”—was
contributed to a Salem newspaper, more than thirty years ago, by Mr.
Fitch Poole, of Danvers, now librarian of the Peabody Institute in
Peabody.