8th of May, at evening, I saw the apparition of Mr. George Burroughs,
who grievously tortured me, and urged me to write in his book, which I
refused. He then told me that his two first wives would appear to me
presently, and tell me a great many lies, but I should not believe
them. Then immediately appeared to me the forms of two women in
winding-sheets, and napkins about[ii.155] their heads, at which I was
greatly affrighted; and they turned their faces towards Mr. Burroughs,
and looked very red and angry, and told him that he had been a cruel
man to them, and that their blood did cry for vengeance against him;
and also told him that they should be clothed with white robes in
heaven, when he should be cast into hell: and immediately he vanished
away. And, as soon as he was gone, the two women turned their faces
towards me, and looked as pale as a white wall; and told me that they
were Mr. Burroughs's two first wives, and that he had murdered them.
And one of them told me that she was his first wife, and he stabbed her
under the left arm, and put a piece of sealing-wax on the wound. And
she pulled aside the winding-sheet, and showed me the place; and also
told me, that she was in the house where Mr. Parris now lives, when it
was done. And the other told me, that Mr. Burroughs and that wife which
he hath now, killed her in the vessel, as she was coming to see her
friends, because they would have one another. And they both charged me
that I should tell these things to the magistrates before Mr.
Burroughs' face; and, if he did not own them, they did not know but
they should appear there. This morning, also, Mrs. Lawson and her
daughter Ann appeared to me, whom I knew, and told me Mr. Burroughs
murdered them. This morning also appeared to me another woman in a
winding-sheet, and told me that she was Goodman Fuller's first wife,
and Mr. Burroughs killed her because there was some difference between
her husband and him."
This was indeed most extraordinary language and imagery to have been
used by a child of twelve years of age. It is not strange, that, upon a
community,[ii.156] whose fancies and fears had been so long wrought
upon, holding their views, the effect was awfully great. The very fact
that it was a child that spoke made her declarations seem supernatural.
Then, again, they were accompanied with such ocular demonstration, in
her terrible bodily sufferings, that none remained in doubt of the
truthfulness and reality of what they listened to and beheld. It did
not enter their imaginations, for a moment, that there was any
deception or imposture, or even delusion, on her part. Her case is
truly a problem not easily solved even now. While we are filled with
horror and indignation at the thought that she figures as a capital and
fatal witness in all the trials, it is impossible not to feel that a
wisdom greater than ours is necessary to fathom the dark mystery of the
phenomena presented by her and her mother and other accusers, in this
monstrous and terrible affair.
These occurrences, happening just before Mr. Burroughs was brought to
the village as a prisoner, were bruited from house to house, from mouth
to mouth, and worked the people to a state of horrified exasperation
against him; and he was met with execration, when, on the 4th of May,
Field-marshal Partridge appeared with him at Salem, and delivered him
to the jailer there. When we consider the distance and the
circumstances of travel at that time, it is evident that the officers
charged with the service acted with the greatest promptitude, celerity,
and energy. The tradition is, that they found Mr. Burroughs in his
humble[ii.157] home, partaking of his frugal meal; that he was snatched
from the table without a moment's opportunity to provide for his
family, or prepare himself for the journey, and hurried on his way
roughly, and without the least explanation of what it all meant. As
soon as it was known that he was in jail in Salem, arrangements were
commenced for his examination. The public mind was highly excited; and
it was determined to make the occasion as impressive, effective, and
awe-striking as possible. Another "field-day" was to be had. On the 9th
of May, a special session of the Magistracy was held,—William Stoughton
coming from Dorchester, and Samuel Sewall from Boston, to sit with
Hathorne and Corwin, and give greater solemnity and severity to the
proceedings. Stoughton presided. The first step in the proceedings was
to have a private hearing, in the presence of the magistrates and
ministers only; and the report of what passed there gives proof of what
is indicated more or less clearly in several passages in the accounts
that have come down to us in reference to Mr. Burroughs,—that he was
regarded as not wholly sound in doctrine on points not connected with
witchcraft, was treated with special severity on that account, and made
the victim of bigoted prejudice among his brethren and in the churches.
In this secret inquisition, he was called to account for not attending
the communion service on one or two occasions; he being a member of the
church at Roxbury. It was also brought against him, that none of his
children but the eldest had been[ii.158] baptized. What the facts, in
these respects, were, it is impossible to say; as we know of them only
through the charges of his enemies. After this, he was carried to the
place of public meeting; and, as he entered the room, "many, if not
all, the bewitched were grievously tortured." After the confusion had
subsided, Susanna Sheldon testified that Burroughs' two wives had
appeared to her "in their winding-sheets," and said, "That man killed
them." He was ordered to look on the witness; and, as he turned to do
so, he "knocked down," as the reporter affirms, "all (or most) of the
afflicted that stood behind him." Ann Putnam, and the several other
"afflicted children," bore their testimony in a similar strain against
him, interspersing at intervals, all their various convulsions,
outcries, and tumblings. Mercy Lewis had "a dreadful and tedious fit."
Walcot, Hubbard, and Sheldon were cast into torments simultaneously. At
length, they were "so tortured" that "authority ordered them" to be
removed. Their sufferings were greater than the magistrates and people
could longer endure to look upon. The question was put to Burroughs,
"what he thought of these things." He answered, "it was an amazing and
humbling providence, but he understood nothing of it." Throwing aside
all the foolish and ridiculous gossip and all the monstrous fables that
belong to the accusations against him, and looking at the only known
facts in his history, it appears that Mr. Burroughs was a man of
ingenuous nature, free from guile, unsuspicious of guile in[ii.159]
others; a disinterested, humble, patient, and generous person. He had
suffered much wrong, and endured great hardships in life; but they had
not impaired his readiness to labor and suffer for others. There was no
combativeness or vindictiveness in his disposition. Even in the midst
of the unspeakable outrages he was experiencing on this occasion, he
does not appear to be incensed or irritated, but simply "amazed." To
have such horrid crimes laid to him, instead of rousing a violent
spirit within him, impressed him with a humbling sense of an
inscrutable Providence. There is a remarkable similarity in the manner
in which Rebecca Nurse and George Burroughs received the dreadful
accusations brought against them. "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?" His words are, "It is an humbling providence of
God." The more we reflect upon this language, and go to the depths of
the spirit that suggested it, the more we realize, that, in each case,
it arose from a sanctified Christian heart, and is an attestation in
vindication and in honor of the sufferers from whose lips it fell, that
outweighs all passions and prejudices, reverses all verdicts, and
commands the conviction of all fair and honest minds.
After the "afflicted" had been sent out of the room, there was
testimony to show that Mr. Burroughs had given proof of physical
strength, which, in a man of his small stature, was sure evidence that
he was in league with the Devil. Many marvellous statements[ii.160]
were made to this effect, some of the most extravagant of which he
denied. He undoubtedly was a person of great strength. He had
cultivated muscular exercise and development while an undergraduate at
Cambridge, and was early celebrated as a gymnast. After a while, the
accusers and afflicted were again brought in. Abigail Hobbs testified
that she was present at a "witch meeting, in the field near Mr.
Parris's house," in which Mr. Burroughs acted a conspicuous part. Mary
Warren swore that "Mr. Burroughs had a trumpet which he blew to summon
the witches to their feasts" and other meetings "near Mr. Parris's
house." This trumpet had a sound that reached over the country far and
wide, sending its blasts to Andover, and wakening its echoes along the
Merrimack, to Cape Ann, and the uttermost settlements everywhere; so
that the witches, hearing it, would mount their brooms, and alight, in
a moment, in Mr. Parris's orchard, just to the north and west of the
parsonage; but its sound was not heard by any other ears than those of
confederates with Satan. While the girls were giving their testimony,
every once in a while they would be dreadfully choked, appearing to be
in the last stages of suffocation and strangulation; and, coming to, at
intervals, would charge it upon Burroughs or other witches, calling
them by name; generally, however, confining their selection to persons
already apprehended, and not bringing in others until measures were
matured. Mr. Burroughs was committed for trial.[ii.161]
The examination of Mr. Burroughs presented a spectacle, all things
considered, of rare interest and curiosity,—the grave dignity of the
magistrates; the plain, dark figure of the prisoner; the half-crazed,
half-demoniac aspect of the girls; the wild, excited crowd; the horror,
rage, and pallid exasperation of Lawson, Goodman Fuller and others,
also of the relatives and friends of Burroughs's two former wives, as
the deep damnation of their taking off and the secrets of their bloody
graves were being brought to light; and the child on the stand telling
her awful tale of ghosts in winding-sheets, with napkins round their
heads, pointing to their death-wounds, and saying that "their blood did
cry for vengeance" upon their murderer. The prisoner stands alone: all
were raving around him, while he is amazed; astounded at such folly and
wrong in others, and humbly sensible of his own unworthiness; bowed
down under the mysterious Providence, that permitted such things for a
season, yet strong and steadfast in conscious innocence and
uprightness.
To complete the proceedings against Burroughs at this time, and raise
to the highest point the public abhorrence of him, effective use was
made of Deliverance Hobbs, the wife of William Hobbs, of whom I have
spoken before. She was first examined April 22. During the earlier part
of the proceedings, she maintained her integrity and protested her
innocence in a manner which shows that her self-possession held good.
But the examination was protracted; her[ii.162] strength was exhausted;
the declarations of the accusers, their dreadful sufferings, the
prejudgment of the case against her by the magistrates, and the
combined influences of all the circumstances around her, broke her
down. Her firmness, courage, and truth fled; and she began to confess
all that was laid to her charge. The record is interesting as showing
how gradually she was overwhelmed and overcome. But while mentioning
the names of others whom she pretended to have been associated with as
witches, she did not speak of Burroughs. She referred to those who had
been brought out before that date, but not to him. The intended
movement against him had not then been divulged. On the 3d of May, the
day before he arrived, after it was known that officers had been sent
to arrest him, she was examined again. On this occasion, she charged
Burroughs with having been present, and taken a leading part in
witch-meetings, which she had described in detail, at her first
examination, without mentioning him at all. This proves that the
confessing prisoners were apprised of what it was desired they should
say, and that their testimony was prepared for them by the managers of
the affair. The following is one of the confessions made by this woman,
subsequent to her public examination. I give it partly to show what a
flood of falsehood was poured upon Burroughs, and partly because it
will serve as a specimen of the stuff of which the confessions were
composed:[ii.163]—
"_The First Examination of Deliverance Hobbs in Prison._—She continued
in the free acknowledging herself to be a covenant witch: and further
confesseth she was warned to a meeting yesterday morning, and that
there was present Procter and his wife, Goody Nurse, Giles Corey and
his wife, Goody Bishop alias Oliver; and Mr. Burroughs was their
preacher, and pressed them to bewitch all in the village, telling them
they should do it gradually, and not all at once, assuring them they
should prevail. He administered the sacrament unto them at the same
time, with red bread and red wine like blood. She affirms she saw
Osburn, Sarah Good, Goody Wilds, Goody Nurse: and Goody Wilds
distributed the bread and wine; and a man in a long-crowned white hat
sat next the minister, and they sat seemingly at a table, and they
filled out the wine in tankards. The notice of this meeting was given
her by Goody Wilds. She, herself affirms, did not nor would not eat nor
drink, but all the rest did, who were there present; therefore they
threatened to torment her. The meeting was in the pasture by Mr.
Parris's house, and she saw when Abigail Williams ran out to speak with
them; but, by that time Abigail was come a little distance from the
house, this examinant was struck blind, so that she saw not with whom
Abigail spake. She further saith, that Goody Wilds, to prevail with her
to sign, told her, that, if she would put her hand to the book, she
would give her some clothes, and would not afflict her any more. Her
daughter, Abigail Hobbs, being brought in at the same time, while her
mother was present, was immediately taken with a dreadful fit; and her
mother, being asked who it was that hurt her daughter, answered it was
Goodman Corey, and she saw him and the gentlewoman of Boston striving
to break her daughter's neck." [ii.164]
On the next day, warrants were procured against George Jacobs, Sr., and
his grand-daughter, Margaret Jacobs. They were forthwith seized and
brought in by Constable Joseph Neal, of Salem, whose return is as
follows: "May 10, 1692. Then I apprehended the bodies of George Jacobs,
Sr., and Margaret, daughter of George Jacobs, Jr., according to the
tenor of the above warrant." The examinations, on this occasion, were
held at the house of Thomas Beadle, in the town of Salem. All the
preliminary examinations, so far as existing documents show, were
either in the meeting-house at the village or that of the town; or at
the house of Nathaniel Ingersoll at the village, or Thomas Beadle in
the town,—both being inns, or places of public entertainment. Beadle's
house was on the south side of Essex Street, on land now occupied by
Nos. 63 and 65. The eastern boundary of the lot was forty-nine feet
from Ingersoll's Lane, now Daniels Street. Its front on Essex Street
was about sixty feet, and its depth about one hundred and forty-five
feet. What is now No. 65 is on the very spot where Beadle's tavern
stood; and with the exception of six feet built, as an addition, on the
eastern side, subsequently to 1733, is probably the identical house.
The ground now occupied by No. 63 was then an open space. It appears by
bills of expenses brought "against the country," that the inn of Samuel
Beadle, a brother of Thomas, was also sometimes used for purposes
connected with the prosecutions. Thomas Beadle's bill amounted to £58.
11_s._ 5_d._; that of Samuel to £21. The latter, being[ii.165] near the
jail, was probably used for the entertainment of constables and the
keeping of their horses, as well as other incidental purposes connected
with the transportation of prisoners.
A tradition has long prevailed, that the house, still standing, of
Judge Jonathan Corwin, at the western corner of North and Essex
Streets, was used at these examinations. One form in which this
tradition has come down is probably correct. The grand jury was often
in session while the jury for trials was hearing cases in the
Court-house. There may not have been suitable accommodations for both
in that building. The confused sounds and commotions incident to the
trials would have been annoying to the grand jury. The tradition is,
that a place was provided and used temporarily by that body, in the
Corwin house, supposed to have been the spacious room at the
southeastern corner. As the investigations of the grand jury were not
open to the public, its occasional sittings would not be seriously
incompatible with the convenience of a family, or detrimental to the
grounds or apartments of a handsome private residence. Indeed, it would
hardly have been allowable or practicable to have had the examinations
before the magistrates in any other than a public house. They were
always frequented by a promiscuous crowd, and generally scenes of
tumultuary disorder.
George Jacobs, Sr., was an aged man. He is represented in the evidence
as "very gray-headed;" and he must have been quite infirm, for he
walked with two[ii.166] staffs. His hair was in long, thin, white
locks; and, as he was uncommonly tall of stature, he must have had a
venerable aspect. Perhaps he was the "man in a long-crowned white hat,"
referred to by Deliverance Hobbs. The examination shows that his
faculties were vigorous, his bearing fearless, and his utterances
strong and decided. The magistrates began: "Here are them that accuse
you of acts of witchcraft."—"Well, let us hear who are they and what
are they." When Abigail Williams testified against him, going through
undoubtedly her usual operations, he could not refrain from expressing
his contempt for the whole thing by a laugh; explaining it by saying,
"Because I am falsely accused—your worships all of you, do you think
this is true?" They answered, "Nay: what do you think?" "I never did
it."—"Who did it?"—"Don't ask me." The magistrates always took it for
granted that the pretensions and sufferings of the girls were real, and
threw upon the accused the responsibility of explaining them. They
continued: "Why should we not ask you? Sarah Churchill accuseth you.
There she is." Jacobs was of opinion that it was not for him to explain
the actions of the girls, but for the prosecuting party to prove his
guilt. "If you can prove that I am guilty, I will lie under it." Then
Sarah Churchill, who was a servant in his family, said, "Last night, I
was afflicted at Deacon Ingersoll's; and Mary Walcot said it was a man
with two staves: it was my master." It seems, that, after the
proceedings against Burroughs were over, a meeting of "the circle" took
place in the[ii.167] evening, at Deacon Ingersoll's, at which there was
a repetition of the actings of the girls; and that Mary Walcot
suggested to Churchill to accuse her master. This shows the way in
which the delusion was kept up. Probably, such meetings were held at
one house or another in the village, and fresh accusations brought
forward, continually. Jacobs appealed to the magistrates, trying to
recall them to a sense of fairness. "Pray, do not accuse me: I am as
clear as your worships. You must do right judgment." Sarah Churchill
charged him with having hurt her; and the magistrates, pushing her on
to make further charges, said to her, "Did he not appear on the other
side of the river, and hurt you? Did not you see him?" She answered,
"Yes, he did." Then, turning to him, the magistrates said, "There, she
accuseth you to your face: she chargeth you that you hurt her
twice."—"It is not true. What would you have me say? I never wronged no
man in word nor deed."—"Is it no harm to afflict these?"—"I never did
it."—"But how comes it to be in your appearance?"—"The Devil can take
any likeness."—"Not without their consent." Jacobs rejected the
imputation. "You tax me for a wizard: you may as well tax me for a
buzzard. I have done no harm." Churchill said, "I know you lived a
wicked life." Jacobs, turning to the magistrates, said, "Let her make
it out." The magistrates asked her, "Doth he ever pray in his family?"
She replied, "Not unless by himself." The magistrates, addressing him:
"Why do you not pray in your family?"—"I cannot[ii.168] read."—"Well,
but you may pray for all that. Can you say the Lord's Prayer? Let us
hear you." The reporter, Mr. Parris, says, "He missed in several parts
of it, and could not repeat it right after many trials." The
magistrates, addressing her, said, "Were you not frighted, Sarah
Churchill, when the representation of your master came to you?"—"Yes."
Jacobs exclaimed, "Well, burn me or hang me, I will stand in the truth
of Christ: I know nothing of it." In answer to an inquiry from the
magistrates, he denied having done any thing to get his son George or
grand-daughter Margaret to "sign the book."
The appearance of the old man, his intrepid bearing, and the stamp of
conscious innocence on all he said, probably produced some impression
on the magistrates, as they did not come to any decision, but adjourned
the examination to the next day. The girls then came down from the
village in full force, determined to put him through. When he was
brought in, they accordingly, all at once, "fell into the most grievous
fits and screechings." When they sufficiently came to, the magistrates
turned to the girls: "Is this the man that hurts you?" They severally
answered,—Abigail Williams: "This is the man," and fell into a violent
fit. Ann Putnam: "This is the man. He hurts me, and brings the book to
me, and would have me write in the book, and said, if I would write in
it, I should be as well as his grand-daughter." Mercy Lewis, after much
interruptions by fits: "This is the man: he almost kills me." Elizabeth
Hubbard: "He[ii.169] never hurt me till to-day, when he came upon the
table." Mary Walcot, after much interruption by fits: "This is the man:
he used to come with two staves, and beat me with one of them." After
all this, the magistrates, thinking he could deny it no longer, turn to
him, "What do you say? Are you not a witch?" "No: I know it not, if I
were to die presently." Mercy Lewis advanced towards him, but, as soon
as she got near, "fell into great fits."—"What do you say to this?"
cried the magistrates. "Why, it is false. I know not of it any more
than the child that was born to-night." The reporter says, "Ann Putnam
and Abigail Williams had each of them a pin stuck in their hands, and
they said it was this old Jacobs." He was committed to prison.
The following piece of evidence is among the loose papers on file in
the clerk's office:—
"The Deposition of Sarah Ingersoll, aged about thirty years.—Saith,
that, seeing Sarah Churchill after her examination, she came to me
crying and wringing her hands, seemingly to be much troubled in spirit.
I asked her what she ailed. She answered, she had undone herself. I
asked her in what. She said, in belying herself and others in saying
she had set her hand to the Devil's book, whereas, she said, she never
did. I told her I believed she had set her hand to the book. She
answered, crying, and said, 'No, no, no: I never, I never did.' I asked
her then what made her say she did. She answered, because they
threatened her, and told her they would put her into the dungeon, and
put her along with Mr. Burroughs; and thus[ii.170] several times she
followed me up and down, telling me that she had undone herself, in
belying herself and others. I asked her why she did not deny she wrote
it. She told me, because she had stood out so long in it, that now she
durst not. She said also, that, if she told Mr. Noyes but once she had
set her hand to the book, he would believe her; but, if she told the
truth, and said she had not set her hand to the book a hundred times,
he would not believe her.
"Sarah Ingersoll."
This paper has also the signature of "Ann Andrews."