for?—Nobody.
"How did you know?—I did think so.
"But you said you knew so.
"(Children: There is a man whispering 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 mercy 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 must not believe
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[ii.46] what was
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. Hathorne 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 confirmed 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 all are against me, what can I
help it?
"Now tell me the truth, will you? 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.)[ii.47]
"Why do you not now 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 you strike her with an iron rod.—I had no hand
in it.
"Who had? Do you believe these children are bewitched?—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.[ii.48]
"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 witnesses, 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 that she bit her lip, saith she,
What harm is there in it?)
"(Mr. Noyes: 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 persons were 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?
Where 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.)[ii.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 Almighty?—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.]
"Do not you see these children and women are rational and sober as
their neighbors, when your hands are fastened?
"(Immediately they were seized with fits: and the standers-by said she
was squeezing her fingers, her hands being eased by them that held 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 Reverend Mr. Samuel Parris,
being desired to take, in writing, the examination of Martha Corey,
hath returned it, as aforesaid.
"Upon hearing the aforesaid, and seeing what we did then see, together
with the charges of the persons then pres[ii.50]ent, we committed
Martha Corey, the wife of Giles Corey, of Salem Farms, unto the gaol in
Salem, as _per mittimus_ then given out."
signatures
The foregoing is a full copy of the original document. 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
immediate 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[ii.51] roused, and he, too, put in a stroke. It will be noticed,
that she avoided a contradiction 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 particularly 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
express herself in devotional exercises, it might produce a deep
impression upon the whole assembly. To refuse such a request had a hard
look; but, as the magistrates saw, it never would have done to have
permitted it. It would have reversed the position of all concerned. The
latter part of the examination has the appearance that she was
suspected to be unsound on a particular article of the prevalent creed.
It is much to be regretted that the abrasion of the paper at the[ii.52]
folding has obliterated her last answer to this part of 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 characteristic imprudence of speech, he had probably expressed
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 repudiation of the whole doctrine of
witchcraft. Although he had become, in his old age, a professor and a
fervently religious 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 might 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 being be[ii.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,
in the evening, sitting 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 presently. My wife bid me knock her
in the head, but I did not; and since, she is well.
"Another time, going to duties, I was interrupted for a space; but
afterward I was helped according to my poor measure. 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." [ii.54]
The foregoing document does not express the idea that he thought his
wife was a witch. He states what he 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 he does
not, in terms, charge it upon her. It gives an interesting insight of
the innermost domestic life of the period, in a farmhouse, and exhibits
striking touches of the character and ways of these two old people. It
illustrates the state of the imagination 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 devotional 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 regular 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 persons authorized to act in such cases;
was never offered in court or anywhere. It is a disconnected paper
found among the remnants of the miscellaneous collection in the clerk's
office, and is evidently an unfinished document; the words in Italics,
at the close, being erased by a line running through them.[ii.55]
It is probable that the parties who tried to get the old man 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 evidence
would be favorable to her, and gave up the attempt to use him on the
occasion. The fact that he 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 improbable, as Corey was a member of his
congregation and church. Noyes was deeply implicated in the
prosecutions, and violent in driving them on. The handwriting 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 prosecutor. 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 he could, and was
always ready to indorse 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[ii.56] have seen, brought
out. The fourth was the venerable head of a large and prominent family,
and a member of the mother-church in Salem. She had never transferred
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, occupying 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 eminence in
years and respectability.
It has always been considered strange and unaccountable, that a person
of such acknowledged worth as Rebecca Nurse, of infirm health and
advanced years, should have been selected among the early victims 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 hardened, 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[ii.57]men, were the leaders
of the Topsfield men. It is a significant circumstance, in this
connection, that to one of the most vehement resolutions passed at
meetings of the inhabitants of the village, against the claims of
Topsfield, Samuel Nurse, 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 the 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 beginning in the parish composed
originally of the friends of Bayley. To crown the whole, when the
excitement occasioned by the extraordinary doings in Mr. Parris's
family began to display itself, and the "afflicted children" were
brought into notice, the members of this family, with the exception,
for a time, of Thomas Preston, discountenanced the whole thing. They
absented themselves from meeting, on account of the disturb[ii.58]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 whatever 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 carelessly 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 Scripture 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,[ii.59] we told her
we heard that she was 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 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?' and, according to our best observation, we could not
discern that she knew what we came for before we told her.
Israel Porter,
Elizabeth Porter.
"To the substance of what is above, we, if called thereto, are ready to
testify on oath.
Daniel Andrew,
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
truthful. It cannot but excite the most affecting sensibilities in
every breast. This venerable lady, whose conversation and bearing were
so truly saint-like, was an invalid of extremely delicate condition and
appearance, the mother of a large family, embracing sons, daughters,
grandchildren, and one or more great-grandchildren. 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[ii.60]posed that
the sufferings 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 circulating suspicions against her, and maturing their plans
for her destruction.
Rebecca Nurse was a daughter of William 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, Aug. 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.