Now Mr. Parris' time had arrived, and he broadly accused her of murder,
employing for the purpose a fitting instrument--Mrs. Ann Putnam, the
mother of one of the afflicted children, and herself of highly nervous
temperament, undisciplined mind, and absolute devotedness to her pastor.
Her deposition, preceded by a short one of Mr. Parris, will show the
quality of the evidence on which judicial murder was inflicted:
"Mr. Parris gave in a deposition against her; from which it appears,
that, a certain person being sick, Mercy Lewis was sent for. She was
struck dumb on entering the chamber. She was asked to hold up her hand
if she saw any of the witches afflicting the patient. Presently she
held up her hand, then fell into a trance; and after a while, coming to
herself, said that she saw the spectre of Goody Nurse and Goody Carrier
having hold of the head of the sick man. Mr. Parris swore to this
statement with the utmost confidence in Mercy's declarations." (Vol. ii.
p. 275.)
"The deposition of Ann Putnam, the wife of Thomas Putnam, aged about
thirty years, who testifieth and saith, that on March 18, 1692, I being
wearied out in helping to tend my poor afflicted child and maid, about
the middle of the afternoon I lay me down on the bed to take a little
rest; and immediately I was almost pressed and choked to death, that had
it not been for the mercy of a gracious God and the help of those that
were with me, I could not have lived many moments; and presently I
saw the apparition of Martha Corey, who did torture me so as I can not
express, ready to tear me all to pieces, and then departed from me a
little while; but, before I could recover strength or well take breath,
the apparition of Martha Corey fell upon me again with dreadful
tortures, and hellish temptation to go along with her. And she also
brought to me a little red book in her hand, and a black pen, urging
me vehemently to write in her book; and several times that day she did
most grievously torture me, almost ready to kill me. And on the 19th of
March, Martha Corey again appeared to me; and also Rebecca Nurse, the
wife of Francis Nurse, Sr.; and they both did torture me a great many
times this day, with such tortures as no tongue can express, because
I would not yield to their hellish temptations, that, had I not been
upheld by an Almighty arm, I could not have lived while night. The 20th
of March, being Sabbath-day, I had a great deal of respite between my
fits. 21st of March being the day of the examination of Martha Corey,
I had not many fits, though I was very weak; my strength being, as I
thought, almost gone; but, on 22d of March, 1692, the apparition of
Rebecca Nurse did again set upon me in a most dreadful manner, very
early in the morning, as soon as it was well light. And now she appeared
to me only in her shift, and brought a little red book in her hand,
urging me vehemently to write in her book; and, because I would not
yield to her hellish temptations, she threatened to tear my soul out of
my body, blasphemously denying the blessed God, and the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul; and denying several places of
Scripture, which I told her of, to repel her hellish temptations. And
for near two hours together, at this time, the apparition of Rebecca
Nurse did tempt and torture me, and also the greater part of this day,
with but very little respite. 23d of March, am again afflicted by the
apparitions of Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey, but chiefly by Rebecca
Nurse. 24th of March, being the day of the examination of Rebecca Nurse,
I was several times afflicted in the morning by the apparition of
Rebecca Nurse, but most dreadfully tortured by her in the time of her
examination, insomuch that the honored magistrates gave my husband leave
to carry me out of the meeting-house; and, as soon as I was carried out
of the meeting-house doors, it pleased Almighty God, for his free grace
and mercy's sake, to deliver me out of the paws of those roaring lions,
and jaws of those tearing bears, that, ever since that time, they have
not had power so to afflict me until this May 31, 1692. At the same
moment that I was hearing my evidence read by the honored magistrates,
to take my oath, I was again re-assaulted and tortured by my
before-mentioned tormentor, Rebecca Nurse." "The testimony of Ann
Putnam, Jr., witnesseth and saith, that, being in the room where her
mother was afflicted, she saw Martha Corey, Sarah Cloyse, and Rebecca
Nurse, or their apparitions, upon her mother."
"Mrs. Ann Putnam made another deposition under oath at the same trial,
which shows that she was determined to overwhelm the prisoner by the
multitude of her charges. She says that Rebecca Nurse's apparition
declared to her that 'she had killed Benjamin Houlton, John Fuller,
and Rebecca Shepherd;' and that she and her sister Cloyse, and Edward
Bishop's wife, had killed young John Putnam's child; and she further
deposed as followeth: 'Immediately there did appear to me six children
in winding-sheets, which called me aunt, which did most grievously
affright me; and they told me that they were my sister Baker's children
of Boston; and that Goody Nurse, and Mistress Corey of Charlestown, and
an old deaf woman at Boston, had murdered them, and charged me to go
and tell these things to the magistrates, or else they would tear me to
pieces, for their blood did cry for vengeance. Also there appeared to me
my own sister Bayley and three of her children in winding-sheets, and
told me that Goody Nurse had murdered them.'" (Vol. ii. p. 278.)
All the efforts made to procure testimony against the venerable
gentlewoman's character issued in a charge that she had so "railed at" a
neighbor for allowing his pigs to get into her field that, some short
time after, early in the morning, he had a sort of fit in his own entry,
and languished in health from that day, and died in a fit at the end of
the summer. "He departed this life by a cruel death," murdered by Goody
Nurse. The jury did not consider this ground enough for hanging the old
lady, who had been the ornament of their church and the glory of their
village and its society. Their verdict was "Not Guilty." Not for a
moment, however, could the prisoner and her family hope that their
trial was over. The outside crowd clamored; the "afflicted" howled and
struggled; one judge declared himself dissatisfied; another promised to
have her indicted anew; and the Chief Justice pointed out a phrase of
the prisoner's which might be made to signify that she was one of the
accused gang in guilt, as well as in jeopardy. It might really seem
as if the authorities were all driveling together, when we see the
ingenuity and persistence with which they discussed those three words,
"of our company." Her remonstrance ought to have moved them:
"I intended no otherwise than as they were prisoners with us, and
therefore did then, and yet do, judge them not legal evidence against
their fellow-prisoners. And I being something hard of hearing and full
of grief, none informing me how the Court took up my words, therefore
had no opportunity to declare what I intended when I said they were of
our company." (Vol. ii. p. 285.)
The foreman of the jury would have taken the favorable view of this
matter, and have allowed full consideration, while other jurymen were
eager to recall the mistake of their verdict; but the prisoner's
silence, from failing to hear when she was expected to explain, turned
the foreman against her, and caused him to declare, "whereupon these
words were to me a principal evidence against her." Still, it seemed too
monstrous to hang her. After her condemnation, the Governor reprieved
her; probably on the ground of the illegality of setting aside the first
verdict of the jury, in the absence of any new evidence. But the outcry
against mercy was so fierce that the Governor withdrew his reprieve.