A.D. 1688
AN IRISH-AMERICAN WITCH
It is often said that Irishmen succeed best out of Ireland; those
qualities they possess, which fail to ripen and come to maturity in the
lethargic atmosphere of the Green Isle, where nothing matters very much
provided public opinion is not run counter to, become factors of history
under the sunshine and storm of countries where more ample scope is given
for the full development of pugnacity, industry, or state-craft. At any
rate, from the days of Duns Scotus and St. Columbanus down to the present,
Irishmen have filled, and still fill, positions of the highest importance
in every part of the globe as friends of kings, leaders of armies, or
preachers of the Truth--of such every Irishman, be his creed or politics
what they may, is justly proud. To the lengthy and varied list of honours
and offices may be added (in one instance at least) the item of
witchcraft. Had the unhappy creature, whose tale is related below,
remained in her native land, she would most probably have ended her days
in happy oblivion as a poor old woman, in no way distinguishable from
hundreds of others in like position; as it was, she attained unenviable
notoriety as a powerful witch, and was almost certainly the means of
starting the outbreak at Salem. Incidentally the story is of interest as
showing that at this time there were some Irish-speaking people in Boston.
Shortly after the date of its colonisation the State of Massachusetts
became remarkable for its cases of witchcraft; several persons were tried,
and some were hanged, for this crime. But at the time about which we are
writing there was in Boston a distinguished family of puritanical
ministers named Mather. The father, Increase Mather, is to be identified
with the person of that name who was Commonwealth "minister of the Gospel"
at Magherafelt in Ireland in 1656; his more famous son, Cotton, was a
most firm believer in all the possibilities of witchcraft, and it is to
his pen that we owe the following. He first gave an account of it to the
world in his _Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft_, published at
Boston in 1689, the year after its occurrence; and subsequently reproduced
it, though in a more condensed form, in his better-known _Magnalia
Christi_ (London, 1702). It is from this latter source that we have taken
it, and the principal passages which are omitted in it, but occur in the
_Memorable Providences_, are here inserted either within square brackets
in the text, or as footnotes. We may now let the reverend gentleman tell
his tale in his own quaint and rotund phraseology.
"Four children of John Goodwin in Boston which had enjoyed a Religious
Education, and answer'd it with a towardly Ingenuity; Children indeed
of an exemplary Temper and Carriage, and an Example to all about them
for Piety, Honesty, and Industry. These were in the year 1688 arrested
by a stupendous Witchcraft. The Eldest of the children, a Daughter of
about Thirteen years old, saw fit to examine their Laundress, the
Daughter of a Scandalous Irish Woman in the Neighbourhood, whose name
was Glover [whose miserable husband before he died had sometimes
complained of her, that she was undoubtedly a witch, and that wherever
his head was laid, she would quickly arrive unto the punishments due
to such a one], about some Linnen that was missing, and the Woman
bestowing very bad language on the Child, in the Daughter's Defence,
the Child was immediately taken with odd Fits, that carried in them
something Diabolical. It was not long before one of her Sisters, with
two of her Brothers, were horribly taken with the like Fits, which the
most Experienc'd Physicians [particularly our worthy and prudent
friend Dr. Thomas Oakes] pronounced Extraordinary and preternatural;
and one thing the more confirmed them in this Opinion was, that all
the Children were tormented still just the same part of their Bodies,
at the same time, though their Pains flew like swift lightning from
one part to another, and they were kept so far asunder that they
neither saw nor heard each other's Complaints. At nine or ten a-clock
at Night they still had a Release from their miseries, and slept all
Night pretty comfortably. But when the Day came they were most
miserably handled. Sometimes they were Deaf, sometimes Dumb, and
sometimes Blind, and often all this at once. Their tongues would be
drawn down their throats, and then pull'd out upon their Chins, to a
prodigious Length. Their Mouths were forc'd open to such a Wideness,
that their Jaws were out of Joint; and anon clap together again, with
a Force like a Spring-lock: and the like would happen to their
Shoulder-blades, their Elbows and Hand-wrists, and several of their
Joints.... Their Necks would be broken, so that their Neck-bone would
seem dissolv'd unto them that felt after it, and yet on the sudden it
would become again so stiff, that there was no stirring of their
Heads; yea, their Heads would be twisted almost round. And if the main
Force of their Friends at any time obstructed a dangerous Motion
which they seemed upon, they would roar exceedingly.
"But the Magistrates being awakened by the Noise of these Grievous and
Horrid Occurrences, examin'd the Person who was under the suspicion of
having employ'd these Troublesome Dæmons, and she gave such a Wretched
Account of herself that she was committed unto the Gaoler's Custody.
[Goodwin had no proof that could have done her any hurt; but the hag
had not power to deny her interest in the enchantment of the children;
and when she was asked, Whether she believed there was a God? her
answer was too blasphemous and horrible for any pen of mine to
mention. Upon the commitment of this extraordinary woman all the
children had some present ease, until one related to her, accidentally
meeting one or two of them, entertain'd them with her blessing, that
is railing, upon which three of them fell ill again.]
"It was not long before this Woman was brought upon her Trial; but
then [thro' the efficacy of a charm, I suppose, used upon her by one
or some of her crue] the Court could have no Answers from her but in
the Irish, which was her Native Language, although she understood
English very well, and had accustom'd her whole Family to none but
English in her former Conversation. [It was long before she could with
any direct answers plead unto her Indictment, and when she did plead]
it was with owning and bragging rather than denial of her Guilt. And
the Interpreters, by whom the Communication between the Bench and the
Barr was managed, were made sensible that a Spell had been laid by
another Witch on this, to prevent her telling Tales, by confining her
to a language which 'twas hoped nobody would understand. The Woman's
House being searched, several Images, or Poppets, or Babies, made of
Raggs and stuffed with Goat's Hair, were found; when these were
produced the vile Woman confess'd, that her way to torment the Objects
of her Malice was by wetting of her Finger with her Spittle, and
stroaking of these little Images. The abus'd Children were then
produced in Court, and the Woman still kept stooping and shrinking, as
one that was almost prest to death with a mighty Weight upon her. But
one of the Images being brought to her, she odly and swiftly started
up, and snatch'd it into her Hand. But she had no sooner snatch'd it
than one of the Children fell into sad Fits before the whole Assembly.
The Judges had their just Apprehensions at this, and carefully causing
a repetition of the Experiment, they still found the same Event of it,
tho' the Children saw not when the Hand of the Witch was laid upon the
Images. They ask'd her, _Whether she had any to stand by her?_ She
reply'd, _She had_; and looking very fixtly into the air, she added,
_No, he's gone!_ and then acknowledged she had One, who was her
Prince, with whom she mention'd I know not what Communion. For which
cause the Night after she was heard expostulating with a Devil for his
thus deserting her, telling him, that because he had served her so
basely and falsely she had confessed all.
"However to make all clear the Court appointed five or six Physicians
to examine her very strictly, whether she were no way craz'd in her
Intellectuals. Divers Hours did they spend with her, and in all that
while no Discourse came from her but what was agreeable; particularly
when they ask'd her what she thought would become of her Soul, she
reply'd, _You ask me a very solemn Question, and I cannot tell what to
say to it_. She profest herself a Roman Catholick, and could recite
her Paternoster in Latin very readily, but there was one Clause or two
always too hard for her, whereof she said, _She could not repeat it,
if she might have all the world_.[50] In the Upshot the Doctors
returned her Compos Mentis, and Sentence of Death was past upon her.
"Divers Days past between her being arraign'd and condemn'd; and in
this time one Hughes testify'd, that her Neighbour (called Howen), who
was cruelly bewitch'd unto Death about six years before, laid her
Death to the charge of this Woman [she had seen Glover sometimes come
down her chimney], and bid her, the said Hughes, to remember this;
for within six years there would be occasion to mention it. [This
Hughes now preparing her testimony, immediately one of her children, a
fine boy well grown towards youth] was presently taken ill in the same
woful manner that Goodwin's were; and particularly the Boy in the
Night cry'd out, that a Black Person with a Blue Cap in the Room
tortur'd him, and that they try'd with their Hand in the Bed for to
pull out his Bowels. The Mother of the Boy went unto Glover on the day
following, and asked her, _Why she tortured her poor Lad at such a
rate?_ Glover answered, _Because of the Wrong she had receiv'd from
her_; and boasted _That she had come at him as a Black Person with a
Blue Cap, and with her Hand in the Bed would have pulled his Bowels
out, but could not_. Hughes denied that she had wronged her; and
Glover then desiring to see the Boy, wished him well; upon which he
had no more of his Indisposition.
"After the Condemnation of the Woman, I did my self give divers Visits
to her, wherein she told me, that she did use to be at Meetings, where
her Prince with Four more were present. She told me who the Four
were, and plainly said, _That her Prince was the Devil_. [She
entertained me with nothing but Irish, which language I had not
learning enough to understand without an interpreter.] When I told her
that, and how her Prince had deserted her, she reply'd [I think in
English, and with passion too], _If it be so, I am sorry for that_.
And when she declined answering some things that I ask'd her, she told
me, _She could give me a full answer, but her Spirits would not give
her leave: nor could she consent_, she said, _without this leave that
I should pray for her_. [However against her will I pray'd with her,
which if it were a fault it was in excess of pity. When I had done she
thanked me with many good words, but I was no sooner out of her sight
than she took a stone, a long and slender stone, and with her finger
and spittle fell to tormenting it; though whom or what she meant I had
the mercy never to understand.] At her Execution she said the
afflicted Children should not be relieved by her Death, for others
besides she had a hand in their Affliction."
Mrs. Glover was hanged, but in accordance with her dying words the young
Goodwins experienced no relief from their torments, or, as Cotton Mather
characteristically puts it, "the Three Children continued in their
Furnace, as before; and it grew rather seven times hotter than before,"
and as this was brought about by our Irish witch it may not be out of
place to give some extracts relative to the extraordinary adventures that
befel them. "In their Fits they cried out of _They_ and _Them_ as the
Authors of all their Miseries; but who that _They_ and _Them_ were, they
were not able to declare. Yet at last one of the Children was able to
discern their Shapes, and utter their names. A Blow at the Place where
they saw the Spectre was always felt by the Boy himself in that part of
his Body that answer'd what might be stricken at. And this tho' his Back
were turned, and the thing so done, that there could be no Collusion in
it. But a Blow at the Spectre always helped him too, for he would have a
respite from his Ails a considerable while, and the Spectre would be gone.
Yea, 'twas very credibly affirmed, that a dangerous Woman or two in the
Town received Wounds by the Blows thus given to their spectres....
Sometimes they would be very mad, and then they would climb over high
Fences, yea, they would fly like Geese, and be carry'd with an incredible
Swiftness through the Air, having but just their Toes now and then upon
the Ground (sometimes not once in Twenty Foot), and their Arms wav'd like
the Wings of a Bird.... If they were bidden to do a _needless_ thing (as
to rub a _clean_ Table) they were able to do it unmolested; but if to do
any _useful_ thing (as to rub a _dirty_ Table), they would presently, with
many Torments, be made incapable."
Finally Cotton Mather took the eldest of the three children, a girl, to
his own house, partly out of compassion for her parents, but chiefly, as
he tells us, "that I might be a critical Eye-witness of things that would
enable me to confute the Sadducism of this Debauched Age"--and certainly
her antics should have provided him with a quiverful of arguments against
the "Sadducees." "In her Fits she would cough up a Ball as big as a small
Egg into the side of her Windpipe that would near choak her, till by
Stroaking and by Drinking it was again carry'd down. When I pray'd in the
Room her Hands were with a _strong_, though not _even_, Force clapt upon
her Ears. And when her Hands were by our Force pull'd away, she cry'd out,
_They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word_. She complained that
Glover's chain was upon her Leg; and assaying to go, her Gate was exactly
such as the chain'd Witch had before she dy'd. [Sometimes she imagined she
was mounted on horseback], and setting herself in a riding Posture, she
would in her Chair be agitated, as one sometimes Ambling, sometimes
Trotting, and sometimes Galloping very furiously. In these Motions we
could not perceive that she was mov'd by the Stress of her Feet upon the
Ground, for often she touched it not. When she had rode a Minute or two,
she would seem to be at a Rendezvous with Them that were her Company, and
there she would maintain a Discourse with them, asking them many Questions
concerning her self. At length she pretended that her Horse could ride up
the Stairs; and unto admiration she rode (that is, was toss'd as one that
rode) up the Stair."
Subsequently, when the clergy of Boston and Charleston had kept a day of
prayer with fasting, the children improved until they became perfectly
well. But in an unlucky moment Mr. Mather determined to entertain his
congregation with a sermon on these _Memorable Providences_, and the study
of this again affected the girl. Formerly, in the worst of her attacks,
she had been most dutiful and respectful to Cotton Mather, "but now her
whole Carriage to me was with a Sauciness which I am not us'd anywhere to
be treated withal. She would knock at my Study door, affirming _that some
one below would be glad to see me_, tho' there was none that ask'd for me.
And when I chid her for telling what was false, her Answer was _that Mrs.
Mather is always glad to see you_! Once when lying in a fit, as he that
was praying was alluding to the Words of the Canaanitess, and saying,
_Lord, have mercy on a Daughter vext with a Devil_, there came a big, but
low, voice from her, in which the Spectators did not see her Mouth to
move, _There's two or three of us_."
Finally after three days of fasting and prayer the children were
completely cured, but the storm thus raised was not easily allayed. The
old woman seems, like many another of her years and sex, to have been of a
choleric and crotchety disposition, while it is also quite within the
bounds of possibility that she had become so infected with the popular
superstition (and who could blame her!) that she actually believed herself
to be capable of harming people by merely stroking dolls or stones with
her finger. That not uncommon form of mental torture employed, namely, the
making her repeat the Lord's Prayer, all the time watching carefully for
_lapsus linguæ_, and thence drawing deductions as to her being in league
with the Devil, was particularly absurd in the case of such a person as
Mrs. Glover, whose memory was confused by age. At any rate there are
probably very few of us at the present day who would care to be forced to
say in public either that Prayer or the Apostles' Creed if we knew that
our lives depended on absolute verbal accuracy, and that the slightest
slip might mean death. It is possible, too, that some of the fits of
Goodwin's children were due to conscious imposture; and certain it is,
from a study of the whole case, that the deep-rooted belief of the
self-opinionated Cotton Mather in the truth of such things, as well as the
flattering his vanity received, contributed very largely to the success of
the whole incident. Cotton Mather's account of the case was very highly
praised by Mr. Baxter in his _Certainty of the World of Spirits_, and this
so delighted Mr. Mather that he distributed the latter work throughout New
England as being one that should convince the most obdurate "Sadducee."
The result of this was speedily seen. Three years after the Boston
incident a similar outbreak occurred amongst some young persons in the
house of the Rev. Samuel Parris at Salem, then a small village about
nineteen miles north-east of Boston. The contagion spread with appalling
rapidity; numerous persons were brought to trial, of whom, in the space of
sixteen months, nineteen (_twenty-five_ according to Ashton)[51] were
hanged, one of them being a clergyman, the Rev. George Burroughs, about
one hundred and fifty were put in prison, and more than two hundred
accused of witchcraft. Finally the Government put a stop to the trials,
and released the accused in April 1693; Mr. Parris, in whose house the
affair commenced, was dismissed from his cure, as being the "Beginner and
Procurer of the sorest Afflictions," but, directly and indirectly, Mrs.
Glover may be considered the first cause, for if the case of Goodwin's
children had not occurred at Boston it is more than probable the village
of Salem would never have been plagued as it was.