The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697)
by John M. Taylor · English · Gutenberg #12288 · 294,013 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697)
Author: John M. Taylor
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION IN COLONIAL CONNECTICUT (1647-1697) ***
[Illustration: A Grand Jury Presentment for Witchcraft Reproduced from the
original in the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford
May it please yr Honble Court, we the Grand inquest now setting for the
County of Fairefeild, being made sensable, not only by Common fame (but
by testamonies duly billed to us) that the widow Mary Staple, Mary
Harvey ye wife of Josiah Harvey & Hannah Harvey the daughter of the
saide Josiah, all of Fairefeild, remain under the susspition of useing
witchecraft, which is abomanable both in ye sight of God & man and ought
to be witnessed against. we doe therefore (in complyance to our duty,
the discharge of our oathes and that trust reposed in us) presente the
above mentioned pssons to the Honble Court of Assistants now setting in
Fairefeild, that they may be taken in to Custody & proceeded against
according to their demerits.
Fairefeild, Fby, 1692
in behalfe of the Grnd Jury
JOSEPH BASTARD, foreman]
THE WITCHCRAFT
DELUSION IN COLONIAL
CONNECTICUT
1647-1697
BY JOHN M. TAYLOR
Author of "Maximilian and Carlotta, a Story of Imperialism," and
"Roger Ludlow, the Colonial Lawmaker"
1908
"Connecticut can well afford to
let her records go to the world."
_Blue Laws: True and False_ (p. 47).
J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL.
FOREWORD
The true story of witchcraft in old Connecticut has never been told. It
has been hidden in the ancient records and in manuscripts in private
collections, and those most conversant with the facts have not made them
known, for one reason or another. It is herein written from
authoritative sources, and should prove of interest and value as a
present-day interpretation of that strange delusion, which for a half
century darkened the lives of the forefathers and foremothers of the
colonial days.
J.M.T.
Hartford, Connecticut.
TWO INDICTMENTS FOR WITCHCRAFT
"John Carrington thou art indited by the name of John Carrington of
Wethersfield--carpenter--, that not hauing the feare of God before thine
eyes thou hast interteined ffamilliarity with Sattan the great enemye of
God and mankinde and by his helpe hast done workes aboue the course of
nature for wch both according to the lawe of God and the established
lawe of this Commonwealth thou deseruest to dye."
Record Particular Court, 2: 17, 1650-51.
"Hugh Crotia, Thou Standest here presented by the name of Hugh Crotia of
Stratford in the Colony of Connecticut in New England; for that not
haueing the fear of God before thine Eyes, through the Instigation of
the Devill, thou hast forsaken thy God & covenanted with the Devill, and
by his help hast in a preternaturall way afflicted the bodys of Sundry
of his Majesties good Subjects, for which according to the Law of God,
and the Law of this Colony, thou deseruest to dye."
Record Court of Assistants, 2: 16, 1693.
A WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF A WITCH[A] AND THE SHERIFF'S RETURN
THEREON
To George Corwin Gentlm high Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting
Whereas Bridgett Bishop als Olliver the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem
in the County of Essex Sawyer at a special Court of Oyer and
Terminer ---- (held at?)[B] Salem this second Day of this instant month of
June for the Countyes of Essex Middlesex and Suffolk before William
Stoughton Esqe. and his Associates Justices of the said Court was
Indicted and arraigned upon five several Indictments for useing
practising & exercising on the ----[B] last past and divers others
days ----[B] witchcraft in and upon the bodyes of Abigail Williams Ann
puttnam Jr Mercy Lewis Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem
Village single women; whereby their bodyes were hurt afflicted pined
consumed wasted & tormented contrary to the forme of the statute in that
case made and provided To which Indictmts the said Bridgett Bishop
pleaded not guilty and for Tryall thereof put herselfe upon God and her
Country ----[B] she was found guilty of the ffelonyes and Witchcrafts
whereof she stood Indicted and sentence of death accordingly passed agt
her as the Law directs execution whereof yet remaines to be done These
are therefore in the name of their Majties William & Mary now King &
Queen over England & to will and command you that upon Fryday next being
the fourth day of this instant month of June between the hours of Eight
and twelve in the aforenoon of the same day you safely conduct the sd
Bridgett Bishop als Olliver from their Majties Goale in Salem aforesd to
the place of execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck
until she be dead and of your doings herein make returne to the Clerk of
the sd Court and precept And hereof you are not to faile at your peril
And this shall be sufficient warrant Given under my hand & seal at Boston
the Eighth of June in the ffourth year of the reigne of our Sovereigne
Lords William & Mary now King & Queen over England Annoque Dm 1692
Wm. Stoughton
[Footnote A: Original in office of Clerk of the Courts at Salem,
Massachusetts. Said to be the only one extant in American archives.]
[Footnote B: Some of the words in the warrant are illegible.]
June 16 1692
According to the within written precept I have taken the Bodye of the
within named Bridgett Bishop out of their Majties Goale in Salem &
Safely Conueighd her to the place provided for her Execution & Caused ye
sd Bridgett to be hanged by the neck till Shee was dead all which was
according to the time within Required & So I make returne by me
George Corwin
Sheriff
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Perkins' definition--Burr's "Servants of Satan"--The monkish idea--The
ancientness of witchcraft--Its universality--Its regulation--What it
was--Its oldest record--The Babylonian Stele--Its discovery--King
Hammurabi's Code, 2250 B.C.--Its character and importance--Hebraic
resemblances--Its witchcraft law--The test of guilt--The water test.
CHAPTER II
Opinions of Blackstone and Lecky--Witchcraft nomenclature--Its earlier
and later phases--Common superstitions--Monna Sidonia's invocation--
Leland's Sea Song--Witchcraft's diverse literature--Its untold history--
The modern Satanic idea--Exploitation by the Inquisitors--The chief
authorities--The witch belief--Its recognition in drama and romance--The
Weird Sisters--Other characters.
CHAPTER III
Fundamentals--The scriptural citations--Old and New
Testament--Josephus--Ancient and modern witchcraft--The distinction--The
arch enemy Satan--Action of the Church--The later definition--The New
England indictments--Satan's recognition--Persecutions in Italy, Germany
and France--Slow spread to England--Statute of Henry VIII--Cranmer's
injunction--Jewell's sermon--Statute James I--His Demonologie--Executions
in Eastern England--Witch finder Hopkins--Howell's statement--John
Lowes--Witchcraft in Scotland--Commissions--Instruments of torture--Forbes'
definition--Colonial beliefs
CHAPTER IV
Fiske's view--The forefathers' belief--Massachusetts, Connecticut and
New Haven laws--Sporadic cases--The Salem tragedy--Statements of
Hawthorne, Fiske, Lowell, Latimer--The victims--Upham's picture--The
trial court--Sewall's confession--Cotton Mather--Calef and
Upham--Poole--Mather's rules--Ministerial counsel--Longfellow's
opinion--Mather's responsibility--His own evidence--Conspectus
CHAPTER V
The Epidemic in Connecticut--Palfrey--Trumbulls--Winthrop's
Journal--Treatment of witchcraft--Silence and evasion--The true
story--How told--Witnesses--Testimony--All classes affected--The
courts--Judges and jurors--The best evidence--The record--Grounds for
examination of a witch--Jones' summary--Witch marks--What they were--How
discovered--Dalton's Country Justice--The searchers--Searchers' report
in Disborough and Clawson cases
CHAPTER VI
Hamersley's and Morgan's comment--John Allyn's letter--The
accusation--Its origin--Its victims--Many witnesses--Record
evidence--The witnesses themselves--Memorials of their delusion--Notable
depositions--Selected testimonies, and cases--Katherine Harrison--The
court--The judge--The indictment--Grand jury's oath--Credulity of the
court--Testimony--Its unique character--Bracy--Dickinson--Montague--
Graves--Francis--Johnson--Hale--Smith--Verdict and sentence--Court's
appeal to the ministers--Their answer--A remarkable document--Katherine's
petition--"A Complaint of severall grieuances"--Katherine's reprieve--
Dismissal from imprisonment--Removal
CHAPTER VII
Mercy Disborough--Cases at Fairfield, 1692--The special court--The
indictment--Testimonies--Jesop--Barlow--Dunning--Halliberch--Benit--
Grey--Godfree--Search for witch marks--Ordeal by water--Cateran Branch's
accusation--Jury disagree--Later verdict of guilty--The governor's
sentence--Reference to General Court--Afterthought--John Hale's
conclusion--Courts call on the ministers--Their answer--General
advice--Reasons for reprieve--Notable papers--Eliot and
Woodbridge--Willis--Pitkin--Stanly--The pardon
CHAPTER VIII
Hawthorne--Latimer--Additional cases--Curious and vulgar testimony--All
illustrative of opinion--Make it understandable--Elizabeth
Seager--Witnesses--What they swore to--Garretts--Sterne--Hart--Willard--
Pratt--Migat--"Staggerings" of the jury--Contradictions--Verdict--
Elizabeth Godman--Governor Goodyear's dilemma--Strange doings--Ball's
information--Imprisonment--Discharge--Nathaniel and Rebecca Greensmith--
Character, Accusation--Rebecca's confession--Conviction--Double execution
at Hartford
CHAPTER IX
Elizabeth Clawson--The indictment--Witnesses--"Kateran" Branch--Garney--
Kecham--Abigail and Nathaniel Cross--Bates--Sargent Wescot and Abigail--
Finch--Bishop--Holly--Penoir--Slawson--Kateran's Antics--Acquittal.
Hugh Crotia--The court--Grand jury--Indictment--Testimony--Confession--
Acquittal--Gaol delivery--Elizabeth Garlick--A sick woman's fancies--"A
black thing at the bed's featte"--Burning herbs--The sick child--The ox'
broken leg--The dead ram and sow--The Tale burning
CHAPTER X
Goodwife Knapp--Her character--A notable case--Imprisonment--Harsh
treatment--The inquisitors--Their urgency--Knapp's appeal--The postmortem
desecration--Prominent people involved--Davenport and Ludlow--Staplies vs.
Ludlow--The court--Confidential gossip--Cause of the suit--Testimony--
Davenport--Sherwood--Tomson--Gould--Ward--Pell--Brewster--Lockwood--Hull--
Brundish--Whitlock--Barlow--Lyon--Mistress Staplies--Her doings aforetime--
Tashs' night ride--"A light woman"--Her character--Reparation suit--Her
later indictment--Power of the delusion--Pertinent inquiry
CHAPTER XI
Present opinions--J. Hammond Trumbull--Annie Eliot
Trumbull--Review--Authenticity--Record evidence--Controversialists--Actual
cases--Suspicions--Accusations--Acquittals--Flights--Executions--First
complete roll--Changes in belief--Contrast--Edwards--Carter--"The
Rogerenes"--Conclusion--Hathorne--Mather
THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION
IN COLONIAL CONNECTICUT
CHAPTER I
"First, because Witchcraft is a rife and common sinne in these our
daies, and very many are intangled with it, beeing either practitioners
thereof in their owne persons, or at the least, yielding to seeke for
helpe and counsell of such as practise it." _A Discovrse of the Damned
Art of Witchcraft_, PERKINS, 1610.
"And just as God has his human servants, his church on earth, so also
the Devil has his--men and women sworn to his service and true to his
bidding. To win such followers he can appear to men in any form he
pleases, can deceive them, enter into compact with them, initiate them
into his worship, make them his allies for the ruin of their fellows.
Now it is these human allies and servants of Satan, thus postulated into
existence by the brain of a monkish logician, whom history knows as
witches." _The Literature of Witchcraft_, BURR.
Witchcraft in its generic sense is as old as human history. It has
written its name in the oldest of human records. In all ages and among
all peoples it has taken firm hold on the fears, convictions and
consciences of men. Anchored in credulity and superstition, in the dread
and love of mystery, in the hard and fast theologic doctrines and
teachings of diabolism, and under the ban of the law from its beginning,
it has borne a baleful fruitage in the lives of the learned and the
unlearned, the wise and the simple.
King and prophet, prelate and priest, jurist and lawmaker, prince and
peasant, scholars and men of affairs have felt and dreaded its subtle
power, and sought relief in code and commandment, bull and anathema,
decree and statute--entailing even the penalty of death--and all in vain
until in the march of the races to a higher civilization, the centuries
enthroned faith in the place of fear, wisdom in the place of ignorance,
and sanity in the seat of delusion.
In its earlier historic conception witchcraft and its demonstrations
centered in the claim of power to produce certain effects, "things
beyond the course of nature," from supernatural causes, and under this
general term all its occult manifestations were classified with magic
and sorcery, until the time came when the Devil was identified and
acknowledged both in church and state as the originator and sponsor of
the mystery, sin and crime--the sole father of the Satanic compacts with
men and women, and the law both canonical and civil took cognizance of
his malevolent activities.
In the Acropolis mound at Susa in ancient Elam, in the winter of 1901-2,
there was brought to light by the French expedition in charge of the
eminent savant, M. de Morgan, one of the most remarkable memorials of
early civilization ever recovered from the buried cities of the Orient.
It is a monolith--a stele of black diorite--bearing in bas-relief a
likeness of Hammurabi (the Amrephel of the Old Testament; Genesis xiv, 1),
and the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, who reigned
about 2250 B.C.; and there is also carved upon it, in archaic script in
black letter cuneiform--used long after the cursive writing was
invented--the longest Babylonian record discovered to this day,--the
oldest body of laws in existence and the basis of historical
jurisprudence.
It is a remarkable code, quickly made available through translation and
transliteration by the Assyrian scholars, and justly named, from its
royal compiler, Hammurabi's code. He was an imperialist in purpose and
action, and in the last of his reign of fifty-five years he annexed or
assimilated the suzerainty of Elam, or Southern Persia, with Assyria to
the north, and also Syria and Palestine, to the Mediterranean Sea.
This record in stone originally contained nineteen columns of
inscriptions of four thousand three hundred and fourteen lines, arranged
in two hundred and eighty sections, covering about two hundred separate
decisions or edicts. There is substantial evidence that many of the laws
were of greater antiquity than the code itself, which is a thousand
years older than the Mosaic code, and there are many striking
resemblances and parallels between its provisions, and the law of the
covenant, and the deuteronomy laws of the Hebrews.
The code was based on personal responsibility. It protects the sanctity
of an oath before God, provides among many other things for written
evidence in legal matters, and is wonderfully comprehensive and rich in
rules for the conduct of commercial, civic, financial, social, economic,
and domestic affairs.
These sections are notably illustrative:
"If a man, in a case (pending judgment), utters threats against the
witnesses (or), does not establish the testimony that he has given, if
that case be a case involving life, that man shall be put to death.
"If a judge pronounces a judgment, renders a decision, delivers a
verdict duly signed and sealed and afterwards alters his judgment, they
shall call that judge to account for the alteration of the judgment
which he had pronounced, and he shall pay twelvefold the penalty which
was in the said judgment, and, in the assembly, they shall expel him
from his seat of judgment, and he shall not return, and with the judges
in a case he shall not take his seat.
"If a man practices brigandage and is captured, that man shall be put to
death.
"If a woman hates her husband, and says: 'thou shalt not have me,' they
shall inquire into her antecedents for her defects; and if she has been
a careful mistress and is without reproach and her husband has been
going about and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame. She
shall receive her presents and shall go to her father's house.
"If she has not been a careful mistress, has gadded about, has neglected
her house and has belittled her husband, they shall throw that woman
into the water.
"If a physician operates on a man for a severe wound with a bronze
lancet and causes the man's death, or opens an abscess (in the eye) of a
man with a bronze lancet and destroys the man's eye, they shall cut off
his fingers.
"If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its
construction firm and the house, which he has built, collapses and
causes the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to
death."
It is, however, with only one of King Hammurabi's wise laws that this
inquiry has to do, and it is this:
"If a man has placed an enchantment upon a man, and has not justified
himself, he upon whom the enchantment is placed to the Holy River
(Euphrates) shall go; into the Holy River he shall plunge. If the Holy
River holds (drowns) him he who enchanted him shall take his house. If
on the contrary, the man is safe and thus is innocent, the wizard loses
his life, and his house."
Or, as another translation has it:
"If a man ban a man and cast a spell on him--if he cannot justify it he
who has banned shall be killed."
"If a man has cast a spell on a man and has not justified it, he on whom
the spell has been thrown shall go to the River God, and plunge into the
river. If the River God takes him he who has banned him shall be saved.
If the River God show him to be innocent, and he be saved, he who banned
him shall be killed, and he who plunged into the river shall take the
house of him who banned him."
There can be no more convincing evidence of the presence and power of
the great witchcraft superstition among the primitive races than this
earliest law; and it is to be especially noted that it prescribes one of
the very tests of guilt--the proof by water--which was used in another
form centuries later, on the continent, in England and New England, at
Wurzburg and Bonn, at Rouen, in Suffolk, Essex and Devon, and at Salem
and Hartford and Fairfield, when "the Devil starteth himself up in the
pulpit, like a meikle black man, and calling the row (roll) everyone
answered, Here!"
CHAPTER II
"To deny the possibility, nay actual evidence of witchcraft and sorcery,
is at once to flatly contradict the revealed word of God in various
passages both of the Old and New Testaments." _Blackstone's
Commentaries_ (Vol. 4, ch. 4, p. 60).
"It was simply the natural result of Puritanical teaching acting on the
mind, predisposing men to see Satanic influence in life, and
consequently eliciting the phenomena of witchcraft." LECKY's
_Rationalism in Europe_ (Vol. I, p. 123).
Witchcraft's reign in many lands and among many peoples is also attested
in its remarkable nomenclature. Consider its range in ancient, medieval
and modern thought as shown in some of its definitions: Magic, sorcery,
soothsaying, necromancy, astrology, wizardry, mysticism, occultism, and
conjuring, of the early and middle ages; compacts with Satan, consorting
with evil spirits, and familiarity with the Devil, of later times; all
at last ripening into an epidemic demonopathy with its countless victims
of fanaticism and error, malevolence and terror, of persecution and
ruthless sacrifices.
It is still most potent in its evil, grotesque, and barbaric forms, in
Fetichism, Voodooism, Bundooism, Obeahism, and Kahunaism, in the devil
and animal ghost worship of the black races, completely exemplified in
the arts of the Fetich wizard on the Congo; in the "Uchawi" of the
Wasequhha mentioned by Stanley; in the marriage customs of the Soudan
devil worshipers; in the practices of the Obeah men and women in the
Caribbees--notably their power in matters of love and business, religion
and war--in Jamaica; in the incantations of the kahuna in Hawaii; and in
the devices of the voodoo or conjure doctor in the southern states; in
the fiendish rites and ceremonies of the red men,--the Hoch-e-ayum of
the Plains Indians, the medicine dances of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes,
the fire dance of the Navajos, the snake dance of the Moquis, the sun
dance of the Sioux, in the myths and tales of the Cherokees; and it
rings in many tribal chants and songs of the East and West.
It lives as well, and thrives luxuriantly, ripe for the full vintage, in
the minds of many people to whom this or that trivial incident or
accident of life is an omen of good or evil fortune with a mysterious
parentage. Its roots strike deep in that strange element in human nature
which dreads whatsoever is weird and uncanny in common experiences, and
sees strange portents and dire chimeras in all that is unexplainable to
the senses. It is made most virile in the desire for knowledge of the
invisible and intangible, that must ever elude the keenest inquiry, a
phase of thought always to be reckoned with when imagination runs riot,
and potent in its effect, though evanescent as a vision the brain
sometimes retains of a dream, and as senseless in the cold light of
reason as Monna Sidonia's invocation at the Witches' Sabbath: (_Romance
of Leonardo da Vinci_, p. 97, MEREJKOWSKI.)
"Emen Hetan, Emen Hetan, Palu, Baalberi,
Astaroth help us Agora, Agora, Patrisa,
Come and help us."
"Garr-r: Garr-r, up: Don't knock
Your head: We fly: We fly:"
And who may count himself altogether free from the subtle power of the
old mystery with its fantastic imageries, when the spirit of unrest is
abroad? Who is not moved by it in the awesome stillness of night on the
plains, or in the silence of the mountains or of the somber forest
aisles; in wild winter nights when old tales are told; in fireside
visions as tender memories come and go? And who, when listening to the
echoes of the chambers of the restless sea when deep calleth unto deep,
does not hear amid them some weird and haunting refrain like Leland's
sea song?
"I saw three witches as the wind blew cold
In a red light to the lee;
Bold they were and overbold
As they sailed over the sea;
Calling for One Two Three;
Calling for One Two Three;
And I think I can hear
It a ringing in my ear,
A-calling for the One, Two, Three."
Above all, in its literature does witchcraft exhibit the conclusive
proof of its age, its hydra-headed forms, and its influence in the
intellectual and spiritual development of the races of men.
What of this literature? Count in it all the works that treat of the
subject in its many phases, and its correlatives, and it is limitless, a
literature of all times and all lands.
Christian and pagan gave it place in their religions, dogmas, and
articles of faith and discipline, and in their codes of law; and for
four hundred years, from the appeal of Pope John XXII, in 1320, to
extirpate the Devil-worshipers, to the repeal of the statute of James I
in 1715, the delusion gave point and force to treatises, sermons,
romances, and folk-lore, and invited, nay, compelled, recognition at the
hands of the scientist and legist, the historian, the poet and the
dramatist, the theologian and philosopher.
But the monographic literature of witchcraft, as it is here considered,
is limited, in the opinion of a scholar versed in its lore, to fifteen
hundred titles. There is a mass of unpublished materials in libraries
and archives at home and abroad, and of information as to witchcraft and
the witch trials, accessible in court records, depositions, and current
accounts in public and private collections, all awaiting the coming of
some master hand to transform them into an exhaustive history of the
most grievous of human superstitions.
To this day, there has been no thorough investigation or complete
analysis of the history of the witch persecutions. The true story has
been distorted by partisanship and ignorance, and left to exploitation
by the romancer, the empiric, and the sciolist.
"Of the origin and nature of the delusion we know perhaps enough; but of
the causes and paths of its spread, of the extent of its ravages, of its
exact bearing upon the intellectual and religious freedom of its times,
of the soul-stirring details of the costly struggle by which it was
overborne we are lamentably ill informed." (_The Literature of
Witchcraft_, p. 66, BURR.)
It must serve in this brief narrative to merely note, within the
centuries which marked the climax of the mania, some of the most
authoritative and influential works in giving strength to its evil
purpose and the modes of accusation, trial, and punishment.
Modern scholarship holds that witchcraft, with the Devil as the arch
enemy of mankind for its cornerstone, was first exploited by the
Dominicans of the Inquisition. They blazed the tortuous way for the
scholastic theology which in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
gave new recognition to Satan and his satellites as the sworn enemies of
God and his church, and the Holy Inquisition with its massive enginery,
open and secret, turned its attention to the exposure and extirpation of
the heretics and sinners who were enlisted in the Devil's service.
Take for adequate illustration these standard authorities in the early
periods of the widespread and virulent epidemic:
Those of the Inquisitor General, Eymeric, in 1359, entitled _Tractatus
contra dæmonum_; the Formicarius or Ant Hill of the German Dominican
Nider, 1337; the _De calcatione dæmonum_, 1452; the _Flagellum
hæreticorum fascinariorum_ of the French Inquisitor Jaquier in 1458; and
the _Fortalitium fidei_ of the Spanish Franciscan Alonso de Spina, in
1459; the famous and infamous manual of arguments and rules of procedure
for the detection and punishment of witches, compiled by the German
Inquisitors Krämer and Sprenger (Institor) in 1489, buttressed on the
bull of Pope Innocent VIII; (this was the celebrated _Witch Hammer_,
bearing on its title page the significant legend, "_Not to believe in
witchcraft is the greatest of heresies_"); the Canon Episcopi; the bulls
of Popes John XXII, 1330, Innocent VIII, 1484, Alexander VI, 1494, Leo
X, 1521, and Adrian VI, 1522; the Decretals of the canon law; the
exorcisms of the Roman and Greek churches, all hinged on scriptural
precedents; the Roman law, the Twelve Tables, and the Justinian Code,
the last three imposing upon the crimes of conjuring, exorcising,
magical arts, offering sacrifices to the injury of one's neighbors,
sorcery, and witchcraft, the penalties of death by torture, fire, or
crucifixion.
Add to these classics some of the later authorities: the _Dæmonologie_
of the royal inquisitor James I of England and Scotland, 1597; Mores'
_Antidote to Atheism_; Fuller's _Holy and Profane State_; Granvil's
_Sadducismus Triumphatus_, 1681; _Tryal of Witches at the Assizes for
the County of Suffolk before Sir Matthew Hale, March, 1664_ (London,
1682); Baxter's _Certainty of the World of Spirits_, 1691; Cotton
Mather's _A Discourse on Witchcraft_, 1689, his _Late Memorable
Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions_, 1684, and his
_Wonders of the Invisible World_, 1692; and enough references have been
made to this literature of delusion, to the precedents that seared the
consciences of courts and juries in their sentences of men, women, and
children to death by the rack, the wheel, the stake, and the gallows.
Where in history are the horrors of the curse more graphically told than
in the words of Canon Linden, an eye witness of the demonic deeds at
Trier (Treves) in 1589?
"And so, from court to court throughout the towns and villages of all
the diocese, scurried special accusers, inquisitors, notaries, jurors,
judges, constables, dragging to trial and torture human beings of both
sexes and burning them in great numbers. Scarcely any of those who were
accused escaped punishment. Nor were there spared even the leading men
in the city of Trier. For the Judge, with two Burgomasters, several
Councilors and Associate Judges, canons of sundry collegiate churches,
parish-priests, rural deans, were swept away in this ruin. So far, at
length, did the madness of the furious populace and of the courts go in
this thirst for blood and booty that there was scarcely anybody who was
not smirched by some suspicion of this crime.
"Meanwhile notaries, copyists, and innkeepers grew rich. The executioner
rode a blooded horse, like a noble of the court, and went clad in gold
and silver; his wife vied with noble dames in the richness of her array.
The children of those convicted and punished were sent into exile; their
goods were confiscated; plowman and vintner failed." (_The Witch
Persecutions_, pp. 13-14, BURR.)
Fanaticism did not rule and ruin without hindrance and remonstrance. Men
of great learning and exalted position struck mighty blows at the root
of the evil. They could not turn the tide but they stemmed it, and their
attacks upon the whole theory of Satanic power and the methods of
persecution were potent in the reaction to humanity and a reign of
reason.
Always to be remembered among these men of power are Johann Wier,
Friedrich Spee, and notably Reginald Scot, who in his _Discovery of
Witchcraft_, in 1584, undertook to prove that "the contracts and
compacts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits and familiars,
are but erroneous novelties and erroneous conceptions."
"After all it is setting a high value on our conjectures to roast a man
alive on account of them." (MONTAIGNE.)
Who may measure in romance and the drama the presence, the cogent and
undeniable power of those same abiding elements of mysticism and
mystery, which underlie all human experience, and repeated in myriad
forms find their classic expression in the queries of the "Weird
Sisters," "_those elemental avengers without sex or kin_"?
"When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
When the hurly burly's done,
When the battle's lost and won."
Are not the mummeries of the witches about the cauldron in Macbeth, and
Talbot's threat pour la Pucelle,
"Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,"
uttered so long ago, echoed in the wailing cry of La Meffraye in the
forests of Machecoul, in the maledictions of Grio, and of the Saga of
the Burning Fields?
Their vitality is also clearly shown in their constant use and
exemplification by the romance and novel writers who appeal with
certainty and success to the popular taste in the tales of spectral
terrors. Witness: Farjeon's _The Turn of the Screw_; Bierce's _The
Damned Thing_; Bulwer's _A Strange Story_; Cranford's _Witch of Prague_;
Howells' _The Shadow of a Dream_; Winthrop's _Cecil Dreeme_; Grusot's
_Night Side of Nature_; Crockett's Black Douglas; and _The Red Axe_,
Francis' _Lychgate Hall_; Caine's _The Shadow of a Crime_; and countless
other stories, traditions, tales, and legends, written and unwritten,
that invite and receive a gracious hospitality on every hand.
CHAPTER III
"A belief in witchcraft had always existed; it was entertained by Coke,
Bacon, Hale and even Blackstone. It was a misdemeanor at English common
law and made a felony without benefit of clergy by 33 Henry VIII, c. 8,
and 5 Eliz., c. 16, and the more severe statute of I Jas. 1, ch. 12."
_Connecticut--Origin of her Courts and Laws_ (N.E. States, Vol I,
p. 487-488), HAMERSLEY.
"Selden took up a somewhat peculiar and characteristic position. He
maintained that the law condemning women to death for witchcraft was
perfectly just, but that it was quite unnecessary to ascertain whether
witchcraft was a possibility. A woman might not be able to destroy the
life of her neighbor by her incantations; but if she intended to do so,
it was right that she should be hung." _Rationalism in Europe_ (Vol. 1,
p. 123) LECKY.
The fundamental authority for legislation, for the decrees of courts and
councils as to witchcraft, from the days of the Witch of Endor to those
of Mercy Disborough of Fairfield, and Giles Corey of Salem Farms, was
the code of the Hebrews and its recognition in the Gospel dispensations.
Thereon rest most of the historic precedents, legislative,
ecclesiastical, and judicial.
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Exodus xxii, 18.
What law embalmed in ancientry and honored as of divine origin has been
more fruitful of sacrifice and suffering? Through the Scriptures,
gathering potency as it goes, runs the same grim decree, with widening
definitions.
"And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and
after wizards ... I will even set my face against that soul and will cut
him off from among his people." Deuteronomy xviii, 10-11.
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." Deuteronomy xviii, 10-11.
"Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards out
of the land." Samuel i, 3.
"Now Saul the king of the Hebrews, had cast out of the country the
fortune tellers, and the necromancers, and all such as exercised the
like arts, excepting the prophets.... Yet did he bid his servants to
inquire out for him some woman that was a necromancer, and called up the
souls of the dead, that so he might know whether his affairs would
succeed to his mind; for this sort of necromantic women that bring up
the souls of the dead, do by them foretell future events." Josephus,
Book 6, ch. 14.
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Samuel i, 15-23.
"And I will cut off witchcraft out of the land." Micah v. 12.
"Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together
and burned them." Acts xix, 19.
"But there was a certain man called Simon which beforetime in the same
city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria." Acts viii, 9.
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is
withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned."[C] John xv, 6.
[Footnote C: In the opinion of the eminent Italian jurist Bartolo,
witches were burned alive in early times on this authority.]
These citations make clear the scriptural recognition of witchcraft as a
heinous sin and crime. It is, however, necessary to draw a broad line of
demarcation between the ancient forms and manifestations which have been
brought into view for an illustrative purpose, and that delusion or
mania which centered in the theologic belief and teaching that Satan was
the arch enemy of mankind, and clothed with such power over the souls of
men as to make compacts with them, and to hold supremacy over them in
the warfare between good and evil.
The church from its earliest history looked upon witchcraft as a deadly
sin, and disbelief in it as a heresy, and set its machinery in motion
for its extirpation. Its authority was the word of God and the civil
law, and it claimed jurisdiction through the ecclesiastical courts, the
secular courts, however, acting as the executive of their decrees and
sentences.
Such was the cardinal principle which governed in the merciless attempts
to suppress the epidemic in spreading from the continent to England and
Scotland, and at last to the Puritan colonies in America, where the last
chapter of its history was written.
There can be no better, no more comprehensive modern definition of the
crime once a heresy, or of the popular conception of it, than the one
set forth in the New England indictments, to wit: "interteining
familiarity with Satan the enemy of mankind, and by his help doing
works above the course of nature."
In few words Henry Charles Lea, in his _History of the Inquisition in
the Middle Ages_, analyzes the development of the Satanic doctrine from
a superstition into its acceptance as a dogma of Christian belief.
"As Satan's principal object in his warfare with God was to seduce human
souls from their divine allegiance, he was ever ready with whatever
temptation seemed most likely to effect his purpose. Some were to be won
by physical indulgence; others by conferring on them powers enabling
them apparently to forecast the future, to discover hidden things, to
gratify enmity, and to acquire wealth, whether through forbidden arts or
by the services of a familiar demon subject to their orders. As the
neophyte in receiving baptism renounced the devil, his pomps and his
angels, it was necessary for the Christian who desired the aid of Satan
to renounce God. Moreover, as Satan when he tempted Christ offered him
the kingdoms of the earth in return for adoration--'If thou therefore
wilt worship me all shall be thine' (Luke iv, 7)--there naturally arose
the idea that to obtain this aid it was necessary to render allegiance
to the prince of hell. Thence came the idea, so fruitful in the
development of sorcery, of compacts with Satan by which sorcerers became
his slaves, binding themselves to do all the evil they could to follow
their example. Thus the sorcerer or witch was an enemy of all the human
race as well as of God, the most efficient agent of hell in its
sempiternal conflict with heaven. His destruction, by any method, was
therefore the plainest duty of man.
"This was the perfected theory of sorcery and witchcraft by which the
gentle superstitions inherited and adopted from all sides were fitted
into the Christian dispensation and formed part of its accepted creed."
(_History of Inquisition in the Middle Ages_, 3, 385, LEA.)
Once the widespread superstition became adapted to the forms of
religious faith and discipline, and "the prince of the power of the air"
was clothed with new energies, the Devil was taken broader account of by
Christianity itself; the sorcery of the ancients was embodied in the
Christian conception of witchcraft; and the church undertook to deal
with it as a heresy; the door was opened wide to the sweep of the
epidemic in some of the continental lands.
In Bamburg and Wurzburg, Geneva and Como, Toulouse and Lorraine, and in
many other places in Italy, Germany, and France, thousands were
sacrificed in the names of religion, justice, and law, with bigotry for
their advocate, ignorance for their judge, and fanaticism for their
executioner. The storm of demonism raged through three centuries, and
was stayed only by the mighty barriers of protest, of inquiry, of
remonstrance, and the forces that crystallize and mold public opinion,
which guides the destinies of men in their march to a higher
civilization.
The flames burning so long and so fiercely on the continent at first
spread slowly in England and Scotland. Sorcery in some of its guises had
obtained therein ever since the Conquest, and victims had been burned
under the king's writ after sentence in the ecclesiastical courts; but
witchcraft as a compact with Satan was not made a felony until 1541, by
a statute of Henry VIII. Cranmer, in his _Articles of Visitation_ in
1549, enjoined the clergy to inquire as to any craft invented by the
Devil; and Bishop Jewell, preaching before the queen in 1558, said:
"It may please your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers
within these last few years are marvelously increased within your
Grace's realm, Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death,
their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed,
their senses are bereft."
The act of 1541 was amended in Queen Elizabeth's reign, in 1562, but at
the accession of James I--himself a fanatic and bigot in religious
matters, and the author of the famous _Dæmonologie_--a new law was
enacted with exact definition of the crime, which remained in force more
than a hundred years. Its chief provision was this:
"If any person or persons use, practice or exercise any invocation or
conjuration of any evil and wicked spirit, or shall consult, covenant
with, entertain, employ, feed or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or
for any intent or purpose, or take up any dead man, woman, or child out
of his, her or their grave, or any other place where the dead body
resteth or the skin, bone, or any part of any dead person, to be
employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or
enchantment, or shall use, practise, or exercise any witchcraft,
enchantment, charm, or sorcery, whereby any person shall be killed,
destroyed, wasted, consumed, pined or lamed in his or her body or any
part thereof: every such offender is a felon without benefit of clergy."
Under this law, and the methods of its administration, witchcraft so
called increased; persecutions multiplied, especially under the
Commonwealth, and notably in the eastern counties of England, whence so
many of all estates, all sorts and conditions of men, had fled over seas
to set up the standard of independence in the Puritan colonies.
Many executions occurred in Lancashire, in Suffolk, Essex, and
Huntingdonshire, where the infamous scoundrel "Witch-finder-General"
Matthew Hopkins, under the sanction of the courts, was "pricking,"
"waking," "watching," and "testing" persons suspected or accused of
witchcraft, with fiendish ingenuity of indignity and torture. Says James
Howell in his _Familiar Letters_, in 1646:
"We have multitudes of witches among us; for in Essex and Suffolk there
were above two hundred indicted within these two years, and above the
half of them executed."
"Within the compass of two years (1645-7), near upon three hundred
witches were arraigned, and the major part of them executed in Essex and
Suffolk only. Scotland swarms with them more and more, and persons of
good quality are executed daily."
Scotland set its seal on witchcraft as a crime by an act of its
parliament so early as 1563, amended in 1649. The ministers were the
inquisitors and persecutors. They heard the confessions, and inflicted
the tortures, and their cruelties were commensurate with the hard and
fast theology that froze the blood of mercy in their veins.
The trials were often held by special commissions issued by the privy
council, on the petition of a presbytery or general assembly. It was
here that those terrible instruments of torture, the caschielawis, the
lang irnis, the boot and the pilliewinkis, were used to wring
confessions from the wretched victims. It is all a strange and gruesome
story of horrors told in detail in the state trial records, and
elsewhere, from the execution of Janet Douglas--Lady Glammis--to that of
the poor old woman at Dornoch who warmed herself at the fire set for her
burning. So firmly seated in the Scotch mind was the belief in
witchcraft as a sin and crime, that when the laws against it were
repealed in 1736, Scotchmen in the highest stations of church and state
remonstrated against the repeal as contrary to the law of God; and
William Forbes, in his "Institutes of the Law of Scotland," calls
witchcraft "that black art whereby strange and wonderful things are
wrought by a power derived from the devil."
This glance at what transpired on the continent and in England and
Scotland is of value, in the light it throws on the beliefs and
convictions of both Pilgrim and Puritan--Englishmen all--in their new
domain, their implicit reliance on established precedents, their
credulity in witchcraft matters, and their absolute trust in scriptural
and secular authority for their judicial procedure, and the execution of
the grim sentences of the courts, until the revolting work of the
accuser and the searcher, and the delusion of the ministers and
magistrates aflame with mistaken zeal vanished in the sober
afterthought, the reaction of the public mind and conscience, which at
last crushed the machinations of the Devil and his votaries in high
places.
CHAPTER IV
"Hence among all the superstitions that have 'stood over' from primeval
ages, the belief in witchcraft has been the most deeply rooted and the
most tenacious of life. In all times and places until quite lately,
among the most advanced communities, the reality of witchcraft has been
accepted without question, and scarcely any human belief is supported by
so vast a quantity of recorded testimony."
"Considering the fact that the exodus of Puritans to New England
occurred during the reign of Charles I, while the persecutions for
witchcraft were increasing toward a maximum in the mother country, it is
rather strange that so few cases occurred in the New World." _New France
and New England_ (pp. 136-144), FISKE.
The forefathers believed in witchcraft--entering into compacts with the
Devil--and in all its diabolical subtleties. They had cogent reasons for
their belief in example and experience. They set it down in their codes
as a capital offense. They found, as has been shown abundant authority
in the Bible and in the English precedents. They anchored their criminal
codes as they did their theology in the wide and deep haven of the Old
Testament decrees and prophecies and maledictions, and doubted not that
"the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and
government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and
men."
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven, early in their history
enacted these capital laws:
In Massachusetts (1641):
"Witchcraft which is fellowship by covenant with a familiar spirit to
be punished with death."
"Consulters with witches not to be tolerated, but either to be cut off
by death or banishment or other suitable punishment." (_Abstract New
England Laws_, 1655.)
In Connecticut (1642):
"If any man or woman be a witch--that is, hath or consulteth with a
familiar spirit--they shall be put to death." Exodus xxii, 18; Leviticus
xx, 27; Deuteronomy xviii, 10, 11. (_Colonial Records of Connecticut_,
Vol. I, p. 77).
In New Haven (1655):
"If any person be a witch, he or she shall be put to death according to"
Exodus xxii, 18; Leviticus xx, 27; Deuteronomy xviii, 10, 11. (_New
Haven Colonial Records_, Vol. II, p. 576, Cod. 1655).
These laws were authoritative until the epidemic had ceased.
Witches were tried, condemned, and executed with no question as to due
legal power, in the minds of juries, counsel, and courts, until the hour
of reaction came, hastened by doubts and criticisms of the sources and
character of evidence, and the magistrates and clergy halted in their
prosecutions and denunciations of an alleged crime born of delusion, and
nurtured by a theology run rampant.
"They had not been taught to question the wisdom or the humanity of
English criminal law." (_Blue Laws--True and False_, p. 15, TRUMBULL.)
Here and there in New England, following the great immigration from Old
England, from 1630-40, during the Commonwealth, and to the Restoration,
several cases of witchcraft occurred, but the mania did not set its
seal on the minds of men, and inspire them to run amuck in their frenzy,
until the days of the swift onset in Massachusetts and Connecticut in
1692, when the zenith of Satan's reign was reached in the Puritan
colonies.
A few words about the tragedy at Salem are relevant and essential. They
are written because it was the last outbreak of epidemic demonopathy
among the civilized peoples; it has been exploited by writers abroad,
who have left the dreadful record of the treatment of the delusion in
their own countries in the background; it was accompanied in some degree
by like manifestations and methods of suppression in sister colonies; it
was fanned into flames by men in high station who reveled in its
merciless extirpation as a religious duty, and eased their consciences
afterwards by contrition, confession and remorse, for their valiant
service in the army of the theological devil; and especially for the
contrasts it presents to the more cautious and saner methods of
procedure that obtained in the governments of Connecticut and New Haven
at the apogee of the delusion.
What say the historians and scholars, some of whose ancestors witnessed
or participated in the tragedies, and whose acquaintance with the facts
defies all challenge?
"It is on the whole the most gruesome episode in American history, and
it sheds back a lurid light upon the long tale of witchcraft in the
past." (_Fiske's New France and New England_, 195.)
"The sainted minister in the church; the woman of the scarlet letter in
the market place! What imagination would have been irreverent enough to
surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both." (_Scarlet
Letter_, HAWTHORNE.)
"We are made partners in parish and village feuds. We share in the
chimney corner gossip, and learn for the first time how many mean and
merely human motives, whether consciously or unconsciously, gave impulse
and intensity to the passions of the actors in that memorable tragedy
which dealt the death blow in this country to the belief in Satanic
compacts." (_Among my Books--Witchcraft_, p. 142, LOWELL.)
"The tragedy was at an end. It lasted about six months, from the first
accusations in March until the last executions in September.... It was
an epidemic of mad superstitious fear, bitterly to be regretted, and a
stain upon the high civilization of the Bay Colony." (_Historic Towns of
New England, Salem_, p. 148, LATIMER.)
What was done at Salem, when the tempest of unreason broke loose? Who
were the chief actors in it? This was done. From the first accusation in
March, 1692, to the last execution in September, 1692, nineteen persons
were hanged and one man was pressed to death[D] (_no witch was ever
burned in New England_), hundreds of innocent men and women were
imprisoned, or fled into exile or hiding places, their homes were broken
up, their estates were ruined, and their families and friends were left
in sorrow, anxiety, and desolation; and all this terrorism was wrought
at the instance of the chief men in the communities, the magistrates,
and the ministers.
[Footnote D: Fifty-five persons suffered torture, and twenty were
executed before the delusion ended. _Ency. Americana_ (Vol. 16,
"Witchcraft").]
Upham in his _Salem Witchcraft_ (Vol. II. pp. 249-250) thus pictures
the situation.
"The prisons in Salem, Ipswich, Boston, and Cambridge, were crowded. All
the securities of society were dissolved. Every man's life was at the
mercy of every man. Fear sat on every countenance, terror and distress
were in all hearts, silence pervaded the streets; all who could, quit
the country; business was at a stand; a conviction sunk into the minds
of men, that a dark and infernal confederacy had got foot-hold in the
land, threatening to overthrow and extirpate religion and morality, and
establish the kingdom of the Prince of darkness in a country which had
been dedicated, by the prayers and tears and sufferings of its pious
fathers, to the Church of Christ and the service and worship of the true
God. The feeling, dismal and horrible indeed, became general, that the
providence of God was removed from them; that Satan was let loose, and
he and his confederates had free and unrestrained power to go to and
fro, torturing and destroying whomever he willed."
The trials were held by a Special Court, consisting of William
Stoughton, Peter Sergeant, Nath. Saltonstall, Wait Winthrop, Bartho'
Gedney, John Richards, Saml. Sewall, John Hathorne, Tho. Newton, and
Jonathan Corwin,--not one of them a lawyer.
Whatever his associates may have thought of their ways of doing God's
service, after the tragedy was over, Sewall, one of the most zealous of
the justices, made a public confession of his errors before the
congregation of the Old South Church, January 14, 1697. Were the
agonizing groans of poor old Giles Corey, pressed to death under planks
weighted with stones, or the prayers of the saintly Burroughs ringing in
his ears?
"The conduct of Judge Sewall claims our particular admiration. He
observed annually in private a day of humiliation and prayer, during the
remainder of his life, to keep fresh in his mind a sense of repentance
and sorrow for the part he bore in the trials. On the day of the general
fast, he arose in the place where he was accustomed to worship, the old
South, in Boston, and in the presence of the great assembly, handed up
to the pulpit a written confession, acknowledging the error into which
he had been led, praying for the forgiveness of God and his people, and
concluding with a request, to all the congregation to unite with him in
devout supplication, that it might not bring down the displeasure of the
Most High upon his country, his family, or himself. He remained standing
during the public reading of the paper. This was an act of true
manliness and dignity of soul." (_Upham's Salem Witchcraft_, Vol. II, p.
441).
Grim, stern, narrow as he was, this man in his self-judgment commands
the respect of all true men.
The ministers stood with the magistrates in their delusion and
intemperate zeal. Two hundred and sixteen years after the last witch was
hung in Massachusetts a clearer light falls on one of the striking
personalities of the time--Cotton Mather--who to a recent date has been
credited with the chief responsibility for the Salem prosecutions.
Did he deserve it?
Robert Calef, in his _More Wonders of the Invisible World_, Bancroft in
his _History of the United States_, and Charles W. Upham in his _Salem
Witchcraft_, are the chief writers who have placed Mather in the
foreground of those dreadful scenes, as the leading minister of the
time, an active personal participant in the trials and executions, and a
zealot in the maintenance of the ministerial dignity and domination.
On the other hand, the learned scholar, the late William Frederick
Poole, first in the _North American Review_, in 1869, and again in his
paper _Witchcraft in Boston_, in 1882, in the _Memorial History of
Boston_, calls Calef an immature youth, and says that his obvious
intent, and that of the several unknown contributors who aided him, was
to malign the Boston ministers and to make a sensation.
And the late John Fiske, in his _New France and New England_ (p. 155),
holds that:
"Mather's rules (of evidence) would not have allowed a verdict of guilty
simply upon the drivelling testimony of the afflicted persons, and if
this wholesome caution had been observed, not a witch would ever have
been hung in Salem."
What were those rules of evidence and of procedure attributed to Mather?
Through the Special Court appointed to hold the witch trials, and early
in its sittings, the opinions of twelve ministers of Boston and vicinity
were asked as to witchcraft. Cotton Mather wrote and his associates
signed an answer June 15, 1692, entitled, _The Return of Several
Ministers Consulted by his Excellency and the Honorable Council upon the
Present Witchcrafts in Salem Village_. This was the opinion of the
ministers, and it is most important to note what is said in it of
spectral evidence,[E] as it was upon such evidence that many convictions
were had:
"1. The afflicted state of our poor neighbors that are now suffering by
molestations from the Invisible World we apprehend so deplorable, that
we think their condition calls for the utmost help of all persons in
their several capacities.
"2. We cannot but with all thankfulness acknowledge the success which
the merciful God has given unto the sedulous and assiduous endeavors of
our honorable rulers to detect the abominable witchcrafts which have
been committed in the country; humbly praying that the discovery of
these mysterious and mischievous wickednesses may be perfected.
"3. We judge that, in the prosecution of these and all such witchcrafts
there is need of a very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too much
credulity for things received only upon the devil's authority, there be
a door opened for a long train of miserable consequences, and Satan get
an advantage over us; for we should not be ignorant of his devices.
"4. As in complaints upon witchcraft there may be matters of inquiry
which do not amount unto matters of presumption, and there may be
matters of presumption which yet may not be matters of conviction, so it
is necessary that all proceedings thereabout be managed with an
exceeding tenderness toward those that may be complained of, especially
if they have been persons formerly of an unblemished reputation.
"5. When the first inquiry is made into the circumstances of such as
may lie under the just suspicion of witchcrafts, we could wish that
there may be admitted as little as possible of such noise, company and
openness as may too hastily expose them that are examined, and that
there may be nothing used as a test for the trial of the suspected, the
lawfulness whereof may be doubted by the people of God, but that the
directions given by such judicious writers as Perkins and Barnard may be
observed.
"6. Presumptions whereupon persons may be committed, and much more,
convictions whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty of witchcrafts,
ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the accused persons
being represented by a spectre unto the afflicted, inasmuch as it is an
undoubted and notorious thing that a demon may by God's permission
appear even to ill purposes, in the shape of an innocent, yea, and a
virtuous man. Nor can we esteem alterations made in the sufferers, by a
look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible evidence of guilt, but
frequently liable to be abused by the devil's legerdemains.
"7. We know not whether some remarkable affronts given the devils, by
our disbelieving these testimonies whose whole force and strength is
from them alone, may not put a period unto the progress of the dreadful
calamity begun upon us, in the accusation of so many persons whereof
some, we hope, are yet clear from the great transgression laid to their
charge.
"8. Nevertheless, we cannot but humbly recommend unto the government,
the speedy and vigorous prosecutions of such as have rendered themselves
obnoxious, according to the directions given in the laws of God and the
wholesome statutes of the English nation for the detection of
witchcrafts."
[Footnote E: An illustration: The child Ann Putnam, in her testimony
against the Rev. Mr. Burroughs, said that one evening the apparition of
a minister came to her and asked her to write her name in the devil's
book. Then came the forms of two women in winding sheets, and looked
angrily upon the minister and scolded him until he was fain to vanish
away. Then the women told Ann that they were the ghosts of Mr.
Burroughs' first and second wives whom he had murdered.]
Did Longfellow, after a critical study of the original evidence and
records, truly interpret Mather's views, in his dialogue with Hathorne?
MATHER:
"Remember this, That as a sparrow falls not to the ground
Without the will of God, so not a Devil
Can come down from the air without his leave.
We must inquire."
HATHORNE:
"Dear sir, we have inquired;
Sifted the matter thoroughly through and through,
And then resifted it."
MATHER:
"If God permits
These evil spirits from the unseen regions
To visit us with surprising informations,
We must inquire what cause there is for this,
But not receive the testimony borne
By spectres as conclusive proof of guilt
In the accused."
HATHORNE:
"Upon such evidence
We do not rest our case. The ways are many
In which the guilty do betray themselves."
MATHER:
"Be careful, carry the knife with such exactness
That on one side no innocent blood be shed
By too excessive zeal, and on the other
No shelter given to any work of darkness."
_New England Tragedies_ (4, 725), LONGFELLOW.
Whatever Mather's caution to the court may have been, or his leadership
in learning, or his ambition and his clerical zeal, there is thus far no
evidence, in all his personal participation in the tragedies, that he
lifted his hand to stay the storm of terrorism once begun, or cried halt
to the magistrates in their relentless work. On the contrary, after six
victims had been executed, August 4, 1692, in _A Discourse on the
Wonders of the Invisible World_, Mather wrote this in deliberate, cool
afterthought:
"They--the judges--have used as judges have heretofore done, the
spectral evidences, to introduce their farther inquiries into the lives
of the persons accused; and they have thereupon, by the wonderful
Providence of God, been so strengthened with other evidences that some
of the witch-gang have been fairly executed."
And a year later, in the light of all his personal experience and
investigation, Mather solemnly declared:
"If in the midst of the many dissatisfactions among us, the publication
of these trials may promote such a pious thankfulness unto God for
justice being so far executed among us, I shall rejoice that God is
glorified."
Wherever the responsibility at Salem may have rested, the truth is that
in the general fear and panic there was potent in the minds, both of the
clergy and the laity, the spirit of fanaticism and malevolence in some
instances, such as misled the pastor of the First Church to point to the
corpses of Giles Corey's devoted and saintly wife and others swinging to
and fro, and say "What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell
hanging there."
This conspectus of witchcraft, old and new, of its development from the
sorcery and magic of the ancients into the mediæval theological dogma
of the power of Satan, of its gradual ripening into an epidemic
demonopathy, of its slow growth in the American colonies, of its
volcanic outburst in the close of the seventeenth century, is relevant
and appropriate to this account of the delusion in Connecticut, its rise
and suppression, its firm hold on the minds and consciences of the
colonial leaders for threescore years after the settlement of the towns,
a chapter in Connecticut history written in the presence of the actual
facts now made known and available, and with a purpose of historic
accuracy.
CHAPTER V
"It was not to be expected of the colonists of New England that they
should be the first to see through a delusion which befooled the whole
civilized world, and the gravest and most knowing persons in it. The
colonists in Connecticut and New Haven, as well as in Massachusetts,
like all other Christian people at that time--at least with extremely
rare individual exceptions--believed in the reality of a hideous crime
called witchcraft." PALFREY'S _New England_ (Vol. IV, pp. 96-127).
"The truth is that it [witchcraft] pervaded the whole Christian Church.
The law makers and the ministers of New England were under its
influences as--and no more than--were the law makers and ministers of
Old England." _Blue Laws--True and False_ (p. 23), TRUMBULL.
"One ---- of Windsor Arraigned and Executed at Hartford for a Witch."
WINTHROP'S _Journal_ (2: 374, Savage Ed., 1853).
Here beginneth the first chapter of the story of the delusion in
Connecticut. It is an entry made by John Winthrop, Governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, in his famous journal, without specific date,
but probably in the spring of 1647.
It is of little consequence save as much has been made of it by some
writers as fixing the relative date of the earliest execution for
witchcraft in New England, and locating it in one of the three original
Connecticut towns.
What matters it at this day whether Mary Johnson as tradition runs, or
Alse Youngs as truth has it, was put to death for witchcraft in Windsor,
Connecticut, in 1647, or Martha Jones of Charlestown, Massachusetts, was
hung for the same crime at Boston in 1648, as also set down in
Winthrop's Journal?
"It may possibly be thought a great neglect, or matter of partiality,
that no account is given of witchcraft in Connecticut. The only reason
is, that after the most careful researches, no indictment of any person
for that crime, nor any process relative to that affair can be found."
(_History of Connecticut_, 1799, Preface, BENJAMIN TRUMBULL, D.D.)
"A few words should be said regarding the author's mention of the
subject of witchcraft in Connecticut.... It is, I believe, strictly
true, as he says 'that no indictment of any person for that crime nor
any process relative to that affair can be found.'
"It must be confessed, however, that a careful study of the official
colonial records of Connecticut and New Haven leaves no doubt that
Goodwife Bassett was convicted and hung at Stratford for witchcraft in
1651, and Goodwife Knapp at Fairfield in 1653. It is also recorded in
Winthrop's _Journal_ that 'One ---- of Windsor was arraigned and executed
at Hartford for a witch' in March, 1646-47, which if it actually
occurred, forms the first instance of an execution for witchcraft in New
England. The quotation here given is the only known authority for the
statement, and opens the question whether something probably recorded as
hearsay in a journal, may be taken as authoritative evidence of an
occurrence.... The fact however remains, that the official records are
as our author says, silent regarding the actual proceedings, and it is
only by inference that it may be found from these records that the
executions took place." (Introduction to Reprint of _Trumbull's History
of Connecticut_, 1898, JONATHAN TRUMBULL.)
The searcher for inerrant information about witchcraft in Connecticut
may easily be led into a maze of contradictions, and the statement last
above quoted is an apt illustration, with record evidence to the
contrary on every hand. Tradition, hearsay, rumor, misstatements,
errors, all colored by ignorance or half knowledge, or a local jealousy
or pride, have been woven into a woof of precedent and acceptance, and
called history.
As has been already stated, the general writers from Trumbull to
Johnston have nothing of value to say on the subject; the open official
records and the latest history--_Connecticut as a Colony and a
State_--cover only certain cases, and nowhere from the beginning to this
day has the story of witchcraft been fully told.
Connecticut can lose nothing in name or fame or honor, if, more than two
centuries after the last witch was executed within her borders, the
facts as to her share in the strange superstition be certified from the
current records of the events.
How may this story best be told? Clearly, so far as may be, in the very
words of the actors in those tragic scenes, in the words of the minister
and magistrate, the justice and the juryman, the accuser and the
accused, and the searcher. Into this court of inquiry come all these
personalities to witness the sorrowful march of the victims to the
scaffold or to exile, or to acquittal and deliverance with the after
life of suspicion and social ostracism.
The spectres of terror did not sit alone at the firesides of the poor
and lowly: they stalked in high places, and were known of men and women
of the first rank in education and the social virtues, and of greatest
influence in church and state.
Of this fact there is complete demonstration in a glance at the
dignitaries who presided at one of the earliest witchcraft trials--men
of notable ancestry, of learning, of achievements, leaders in colonial
affairs, whose memories are honored to this day.
These were the magistrates at a session entitled "A particular courte in
Hartford upon the tryall of John Carrington and his wife 20th Feb., 1662"
(See _Rec. P.C._, 2: 17): Edw. Hopkins Esqr., Gournor John Haynes Esqr.
Deputy, Mr. Wells, Mr. Woolcott, Mr. Webster, Mr. Cullick, Mr. Clarke.
This court had jurisdiction over misdemeanors, and was "aided by a
jury," as a close student of colonial history, the late Sherman W.
Adams, quaintly says in one of his historical papers. These were the
jurymen:
Mr. Phelps John White John More
Mr. Tailecoat Will Leawis Edw. Griswold
Mr. Hollister Sam. Smith Steph. Harte
Daniel Milton John Pratt Theo. Judd
Before this tribunal--representative of the others doing like service
later--made up of the foremost citizens, and of men in the ordinary
walks of life, endowed with hard common sense and presumably inspired
with a spirit of justice and fair play, came John Carrington and his
wife Joan of Wethersfield, against whom the jury brought in a verdict of
guilty.
It must be clearly borne in mind that all these men, in this as in all
the other witchcraft trials in Connecticut, illustrious or
commonplace--as are many of their descendants whose names are written on
the rolls of the patriotic societies in these days of ancestral
discovery and exploitation--were absolute believers in the powers of
Satan and his machinations through witchcraft and the evidence then
adduced to prove them, and trained to such credulity by their education
and experience, by their theological doctrines, and by the law of the
land in Old England, but still clothed upon with that righteousness
which as it proved in the end made them skeptical as to certain alleged
evidences of guilt, and swift to respond to the calls of reason and of
mercy when the appeals were made to their calm judgment and second
thought as to the sins of their fellowmen.
In no way can the truth be so clearly set forth, the real character of
the evidence be so justly appreciated upon which the convictions were
had, as from the depositions and the oral testimony of the witnesses
themselves. They are lasting memorials to the credulity and
superstition, and the religious insanity which clouded the senses of the
wisest men for a time, and to the malevolence and satanic ingenuity of
the people who, possessed of the devil accused their friends and
neighbors of a crime punishable by death.
Nor is this dark chapter in colonial history without its flashes of
humor and ridiculousness, as one follows the absurd and unbridled
testimonies which have been chosen as completely illustrative of the
whole series in the years of the witchcraft nightmare. They are in part
cited here, for the sake of authenticity and exactness, as written out
in the various court records and depositions, published and unpublished,
in the ancient style of spelling, and are worthy the closest study for
many reasons.
It will, however, clear the way to a better understanding of the unique
testimonies of the witch witnesses, if there be first presented the
authoritative reasons for the examination of a witch, coupled with a
summary of the lawful tests of innocence or guilt. They are in the
handwriting of William Jones, a Deputy Governor of Connecticut and a
member of the court at some of the trials.
GROUNDS FOR EXAMINATION OF A WITCH
"1. Notorious defamacon by ye common report of the people a ground of
suspicion.
"2. Second ground for strict examinacon is if a fellow witch gave
testimony on his examinacon or death yt such a pson is a witch, but this
is not sufficient for conviccon or condemnacon.
"3. If after cursing, there follow death or at least mischiefe to ye
party.
"4. If after quarrelling or threatening a prsent mischiefe doth follow
for ptye's devilishly disposed after cursing doe use threatnings, & yt
alsoe is a grt prsumcon agt y.
"5. If ye pty suspected be ye son or daughter, the serv't or familiar
friend, neer neighbors or old companion of a knowne or convicted witch
this alsoe is a prsumcon, for witchcraft is an art yt may be larned &
covayd from man to man & oft it falleth out yt a witch dying leaveth som
of ye aforesd heires of her witchcraft.
"6. If ye pty suspected have ye devills mark for t'is thought wn ye
devill maketh his covent with y he alwayess leaves his mark behind him
to know y for his owne yt is, if noe evident reason in can be given
for such mark.
"7. Lastly if ye pty examined be unconstant & contrary to himselfe in
his answers.
"Thus much for examinacon wch usually is by Q. & some tymes by torture
upon strong & grt presumcon.
"For conviccon it must be grounded on just and sufficient proofes. The
proofes for conviccon of 2 sorts, 1, Some be less sufficient, some more
sufficient.
"Less sufficient used in formr ages by red hot iron and scalding water.
ye pty to put in his hand in one or take up ye othr, if not hurt ye pty
cleered, if hurt convicted for a witch, but this was utterly condemned.
In som countryes anothr proofe justified by some of ye learned by
casting ye pty bound into water, if she sanck counted inocent, if she
sunk not yn guilty, but all those tryalls the author counts supstitious
and unwarrantable and worse. Although casting into ye water is by some
justified for ye witch having made a ct wth ye devill she hath renounced
her baptm & hence ye antipathy between her & water, but this he makes
nothing off. Anothr insufficient testimoy of a witch is ye testimony of
a wizard, who prtends to show ye face of ye witch to ye party afflicted
in a glass, but this he counts diabolicall & dangerous, ye devill may
reprsent a pson inocent. Nay if after curses & threats mischiefe follow
or if a sick pson like to dy take it on his death such a one has
bewitched him, there are strong grounds of suspicon for strict examinacon
but not sufficient for conviccon.
"But ye truer proofes sufficient for conviccon are ye voluntary
confession of ye pty suspected adjudged sufficient proofe by both
divines & lawyers. Or 2 the testimony of 2 witnesses of good and honest
report avouching things in theire knowledge before ye magistrat 1 wither
yt ye party accused hath made a league wth ye devill or 2d or hath ben
some knowne practices of witchcraft. Argumts to prove either must be as 1
if they can pve ye pty hath invocated ye devill for his help this pt
of yt ye devill binds withes to.
"Or 2 if ye pty hath entertained a familiar spt in any forme mouse cat
or othr visible creature.
"Or 3 if they affirm upon oath ye pty hath done any accon or work wch
inferreth a ct wth ye devill, as to shew ye face of a man in a glass, or
used inchantmts or such feates, divineing of things to come, raising
tempests, or causing ye forme of a dead man to appeare or ye like it
sufficiently pves a witch.
"But altho those are difficult things to prove yet yr are wayes to come
to ye knowledg of y, for tis usuall wth Satan to pmise anything till ye
league be ratified, & then he nothing ye discovery of y, for wtever
witches intend the devill intends nothing but theire utter confusion,
therefore in ye just judgmt of God it soe oft falls out yt some witches
shall by confession discour ys, or by true testimonies be convicted.
"And ye reasons why ye devill would discover y is 1 his malice towards
all men 2 his insatiable desire to have ye witches not sure enough of y
till yn.
"And ye authors warne jurors, &c not to condemne suspected psons on bare
prsumtions wthout good & sufficient proofes.
"But if convicted of yt horrid crime to be put to death, for God hath
said thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
The accuser and the prosecutor were aided in their work in a peculiar
way. It was the theory and belief that every witch was marked--very
privately marked--by the Devil, and the marks could only be discovered
by a personal examination. And thus there came into the service of the
courts a servant known as a "searcher," usually a woman, as most of the
unfortunates who were accused were women.
The location and identification of the witch marks involved revolting
details, some of the reports being unprintable. It is, however,
indispensable to a right understanding of the delusion and the popular
opinions which made it possible, that these incidents, abhorrent and
nauseating as they are, be given within proper limitations to meet
inquiry--not curiosity--and because they may be noted in various
records.
A standard authority in legal procedure in England, recognized in
witchcraft prosecutions in the New England colonies, was _Dalton's
Country Justice_, first published in 1619 in England, and in its last
edition in 1746.
In its chapter on Witchcraft are these directions as to the witch marks:
"These witches have ordinarily a familiar, or spirit which appeareth to
them, sometimes in one shape and sometimes in another; as in the shape
of a man, woman, boy, dog, cat, foal, hare, rat, toad, etc. And to these
their spirits, they give names, and they meet together to christen them
(as they speak).... And besides their sucking the Devil leaveth other
marks upon their body, sometimes like a blue or red spot, like a
flea-biting, sometimes the flesh sunk in and hollow. And these Devil's
marks be insensible, and being pricked will not bleed, and be often in
their secretest parts, and therefore require diligent and careful
search. These first two are main points to discover and convict those
witches."
These methods were adopted in the proceedings against witches in
Connecticut, and it will suffice to cite one of the reports of a
committee--Sarah Burr, Abigail Burr, Abigail Howard, Sarah Wakeman, and
Hannah Wilson,--"apointed (by the court) to make sarch upon ye bodis of
Marcy Disbrough and Goodwif Clauson," at Fairfield, in September and
October 1692, sworn to before Jonathan Bell, Commissioner, and John
Allyn, Secretary.
"Wee Sarah bur and abigall bur and Abigail howard and Sarah wakman all
of fayrfeild with hanna wilson being by order of authority apointed to
make sarch upon ye bodis of marcy disbrough and goodwif Clauson to see
what they Could find on ye bodies of ether & both of them; and wee retor
as followeth and doe testify as to goodwif Clauson forementioned wee
found on her secret parts Just within ye lips of ye same growing within
sid sumewhat as broad and reach without ye lips of ye same about on Inch
and half long lik in shape to a dogs eare which wee apprehend to be
vnvsuall to women.
"and as to marcy wee find on marcy foresayd on her secret parts growing
within ye lep of ye same a los pees of skin and when puld it is near an
Inch long somewhat in form of ye fingar of a glove flatted
"that lose skin wee Judge more than common to women."
"Octob. 29 1692 The above sworn by the above-named as attests
"JOHN ALLYN Secry"
CHAPTER VI
"Remembering all this, it is not surprising that witches were tried,
convicted and put to death in New England; and the manner in which the
waning superstition was dealt with by Connecticut lawyers and ministers
is the more significant of that robust common sense, rejection of
superstition, political and religious, and fearless acceptance of the
ethical mandates of the great Law-giver, which influenced the growth of
their jurisprudence and stamped it with an unmistakable individuality."
_Connecticut; Origin of her Courts and Laws_ (N.E. States, 1: 487-488),
HAMERSLEY.
"They made witch-hunting a branch of their social police, and desire for
social solidarity. That this was wrong and mischievous is granted; but
it is ordinary human conduct now as then. It was a most illogical,
capricious, and dangerous form of enforcing punishment, abating
nuisances, and shutting out disagreeable truths; fertile in injustice,
oppression, the shedding of innocent blood, and the extinguishing of
light. No one can justify it, or plead beneficial results from it which
could not have been secured with far less evil in other ways. But it was
natural that, believing the crime to exist, they should use the belief
to strike down offenders or annoyances out of reach of any other _legal_
means. They did not invent the crime for the purpose, nor did they
invent the death penalty for this crime." _Connecticut as a Colony_
(1: 206), MORGAN.
"As to what you mention, concerning that poor creature in your town that
is afflicted and mentioned my name to yourself and son, I return you
hearty thanks for your intimation about it, and for your charity therein
mentioned; and I have great cause to bless God, who, of his mercy
hitherto, hath not left me to fall into such an horrid evil." Extract of
a Letter from Sec. Allyn to Increase Mather, Hartford, Mar. 18, 1692-93.
An accusation of witchcraft was a serious matter, one of life or death,
and often it was safer to become an accuser than one of the accused.
Made in terror, malice, mischief, revenge, or religious dementia, or of
some other ingredients in the Devil's brew, it passed through the
stages of suspicion, espionage, watchings, and searchings, to the formal
complaints and indictments which followed the testimony of the
witnesses, in their madness and delusion hot-foot to tell the story of
their undoing, their grotesque imaginings, their spectral visions, their
sufferings at the hands of Satan and his tools, and all aimed at people,
their neighbors and acquaintances, often wholly innocent, but having
marked personal peculiarities, or of irregular lives by the Puritan
standard, or unpopular in their communities, who were made the victim of
one base passion or another and brought to trial for a capital offense
against person and property.
Taking into account the actual number of accusations, trials, and
convictions or acquittals, the number of witnesses called and
depositions given was very great. And the later generations owe their
opportunity to judge aright in the matter, to the foresight of the men
of chief note in the communities who saw the vital necessity of record
evidence, and so early as 1666, in the General Court of Connecticut, it
was ordered that
"Whatever testimonies are improved in any court of justice in this
corporation in any action or case to be tried, shall be presented in
writing, and so kept by the secretary or clerk of the said court on
file."
This preliminary analysis brings the searcher for the truth face to face
with the very witnesses who have left behind them, in the attested
records, the ludicrous or solemn, the pitiable or laughable memorials of
their own folly, delusion, or deviltry, which marked them then and now
as Satan's chosen servitors.
Among the many witnesses and their statements on oath now made
available, the chief difficulty is one of selection and elimination; and
there will be presented here with the context some of the chief
depositions[F] and statements in the most notable witchcraft trials in
some of the Connecticut towns, that are typical of all of them, and show
upon what travesties of evidence the juries found their verdicts and the
courts imposed their sentences.
[Footnote F: The selected testimonies herein given are from the
Connecticut and New Haven colonial records; from the original
depositions in some of the witchcraft cases, in manuscript, a part of
the _Wyllys Papers_, so called, now in the Connecticut State Library;
and from the notes and papers on witchcraft of the late Charles J.
Hoadley, LL.D., compiler of the colonial and state records, and for
nearly a half century the state librarian.]
KATHERINE (KATERAN) HARRISON
At a Court of Assistants held at Hartford May 11, 1669, presided over by
Maj. John Mason--the conqueror of the Pequots--then Deputy Governor,
Katherine Harrison, after an examination by the court on a charge of
suspicion of witchcraft, was committed to the common jail, to be kept in
durance until she came to trial and deliverance by the law.
At an adjourned session of the court at Hartford, May 25, 1669, presided
over by John Winthrop, Governor, with William Leete, Deputy Governor,
Major Mason and others as assistants, an indictment was found against
the prisoner in these words:
"Kateran Harrison thou standest here indicted by ye name of Kateran
Harrison (of Wethersfield) as being guilty of witchcraft for that thou
not haueing the fear of God before thine eyes hast had familiaritie with
Sathan the grand enemie of god and mankind and by his help hast acted
things beyond and beside the ordinary course of nature and hast thereby
hurt the bodyes of divers of the subjects of or souraigne Lord the King
of which by the law of god and of this corporation thou oughtest to
dye."
Katherine plead not guilty and "refered herself to a tryall by the jury
present," to whom this solemn oath was administered:
"You doe sware by the great and dreadful name of the everliuing god that
you will well and truely try just verdict give and true deliverance make
between or Souraigne Lord the King and such prisoner or prisoners at the
barr as shall be given you in charge according to the Evidence given in
Court and the lawes so help you god in or lord Jesus."
A partial trial was had at the May session of the court, but the jury
could not agree upon a verdict, and adjournment was had until the
October session, when a verdict was to be given in, and the prisoner was
remanded to remain in prison in the meantime.
It seems incredible that men like Winthrop and Mason, Treat and Leete,
and others of the foremost rank in those days, could have served as
judges in such trials, and in all earnestness and sincerity listened to
and given credence to the drivel, the travesties of common sense, the
mockeries of truth, which fell from the lips of the witnesses in their
testimonies. Some of the absurd charges against Katherine Harrison
invite particular attention and need no comment. They speak for
themselves.
THOMAS BRACY (probably Tracy)--_Misfit jacket and breeches--Vision of
the red calf's head--Murderous counsel--"Afflictinge"_
"Thomas Bracy aged about 31 years testifieth as follows that formerly
James Wakeley would haue borrowed a saddle of the saide Thomas Bracy,
which Thomas Bracy denyed to lend to him, he threatened Thomas and
saide, it had bene better he had lent it to him. Allsoe Thomas Bracy
beinge at worke the same day making a jacket & a paire of breeches, he
labored to his best understanding to set on the sleeues aright on the
jacket and seauen tymes he placed the sleues wronge, setting the elbow
on the wronge side and was faine to rip them of and new set them on
againe, and allsoe the breeches goeing to cut out the breeches, haueing
two peices of cloth of different collors, he was soe bemoydered in the
matter, that he cut the breeches one of one collor the other off another
collor, in such a manner he was bemoydered in his understandinge or
actinge yet neuertheless the same daie and tyme he was well in his
understandinge and health in other matters and soe was forced to leaue
workinge that daie.
"The said Thomas beinge at Sargant Hugh Wells his house ouer against
John Harrison's house, in Weathersfield, he saw a cart cominge towards
John Harrisons house loaden wth hay, on the top of the hay he saw
perfectly a red calfes head, the eares standing peart up, and keeping
his sight on the cart tell the cart came to the barne, the calfe
vanised, and Harrison stoode on the carte wch appared not to Thomas
before, nor could Thomas find or see any calfe theire at all though he
sought to see the calfe.
"After this Thomas Bracy giuing out some words, that he suspected
Katherin Gooddy Harrison of witchcraft, Katherin Harrison mett Thomas
Bracy and threatned Thomas telling him that shee would be euen with him.
After that Thomas Bracy aforesaide, being well in his sences & health
and perfectly awake, his brothers in bed with him, Thomas aforesaid saw
the saide James Wakely and the saide Katherin Harrison stand by his bed
side, consultinge to kill him the said Thomas, James Wakely said he
would cut his throate, but Katherin counselled to strangle him,
presently the said Katherin seised on Thomas striuinge to strangle him,
and pulled or pinched him so as if his flesh had been pulled from his
bones, theirefore Thomas groaned. At length his father Marten heard and
spake, then Thomas left groninge and lay quiet a little, and then
Katherin fell againe to afflictinge and pinching, Thomas againe groninge
Mr. Marten heard and arose and came to Thomas whoe could not speake till
Mr. Marten laid his hands on Thomas, then James and Katherin aforesaid
went to the beds feete, his father Marten and his mother stayed
watchinge by Thomas all that night after, and the next day Mr. Marten
and his wife saw the mark of the saide afflictinge and pinchinge."
"Dated 13th of August one thousand six hundred sixtie and eight.
"Hadley. Taken upon oath before us.
"HENRY CLARKE.
"SAMUELL SMITH."
JOSEPH DICKINSON--_Voice calling Hoccanum! Hoccanum! Hoccanum!--A far
cry--Cows running "taile on end"_
"The deposition of Joseph Dickenson of Northampton, aged about 32 years,
testifieth that he and Philip Smith of Hadley went down early in the
morninge to the greate dry swampe, and theire we heard a voice call
Hoccanum, Hoccanum, Come Hoccanum, and coming further into the swampe
wee see that it was Katherin Harrison that caled as before. We saw
Katherin goe from thence homewards. The said Philip parted from Joseph,
and a small tyme after Joseph met Philip againe, and then the said
Philip affirmed that he had seene Katherin's cows neare a mile from the
place where Katherin called them. The saide Joseph went homewards, and
goeing homeward met Samuell Bellden ridinge into or downe the meadow.
Samuel Belden asked Joseph wheather he had seene the saide Katherin
Harrison & the saide Samuel told Joseph aforesaide that he saw her neare
the meadow gate, going homeward, and allso more told him that he saw
Katherin Harrison her cows runninge with greate violence, taile on end,
homewards, and said he thought the cattell would be at home soe soon as
Katherin aforesaid if they could get out at the meadow gate, and further
this deponent saieth not" Northampton, 13, 6, 1668, taken upon oth
before us, William Clarke David Wilton. Exhibited in court Oct. 29,
1668. Attests John Allyn, Secry.
RICHARD MOUNTAGUE--_Over the great river to Nabuck--The mystery of the
swarming bees_
"Richard Mountague, aged 52 years, testifieth as followeth, that meeting
with Goodwife Harrison in Weathersfield the saide Katherin Harrison
saide that a swarm of her beese flew away over her neighbour Boreman's
lott and into the great meadow, and thence over the greate river to
Nabuck side, but the said Katherin saide that shee had fetched them
againe; this seemed very strange to the saide Richard, because this was
acted in a little tyme and he did believe the said Katherin neither went
nor used any lawful meanes to fetch the said beese as aforesaid." Dated
the 13 of August, 1668. Hadley, taken upon oath before us, Henry Clarke,
Samuel Smith. Exhibited in Court, October 29: 68, as attests John Allyn
Secretry.
JOHN GRAVES--_Bucolic reflections--The trespass on his neighbor's
"rowing"--The cartrope adventure--The runaway oxen_
"John Graves aged about 39 years testifieth that formerly going to reap
in the meadow at Wethersfield, his land he was to work on lay near to
John Harrison's land. It came into the thoughts of the said John Graves
that the said John Harrison and Katherine his wife being rumored to be
suspicious of witchcraft, therefore he would graze his cattle on the
rowing of the land of goodman Harrison, thinking that if the said
Harrisons were witches then something would disturb the quiet feeding of
the cattle. He thereupon adventured and tied his oxen to his cart rope,
one to one end and the other to the other end, making the oxen surely
fast as he could, tieing 3 or 4 fast knots at each end, and tying his
yoke to the cartrope about the middle of the rope between the oxen; and
himself went about 10 or 12 pole distant, to see if the cattle would
quietly feed as in other places. The cattle stood staring and fed not,
and looking stedfastly on them he saw the cartrope of its own accord
untie and fall to the ground; thereupon he went and tied the rope more
fast and more knots in it and stood apart as before to see the issue.
In a little time the oxen as affrighted fell to running, and ran with
such violence that he judgeth that the force and speed of their running
made the yoke so tied fly above six foot high to his best discerning.
The cattle were used ordinarily before to be so tied and fed--in other
places, & presently after being so tied on other men's ground they
fed--peaceably as at other times." Dated August, 1668. Hadley; taken
upon oath before us Henry Clarke, Samuel Smith. Exhibited in court Oct.
29th, 1668, attests John Allyn, Sec.
JOANE FRANCIS--_The sick child--The spectre_
Joane Francis her testimony. "About 4 years ago, about the beginning of
November, in the night just before my child was struck ill, goodwife
Harrison or her shape appeared, and I said, the Lord bless me and my
child, here is goody Harrison. And the child lying on the outside I took
it and laid it between me and my husband. The child continued strangely
ill about three weeks, wanting a day, and then died, had fits. We felt a
thing run along the sides or side like a whetstone. Robert Francis saith
he remembers his wife said that night the child was taken ill, the Lord
bless me and my child, here is goody Harrison."
JACOB JOHNSON'S WIFE--_The box on the head--Diet, drink, and
plasters--Epistaxis_
"The relation of the wife of Jacob Johnson. She saith that her former
husband was employed by goodman Harrison to go to Windsor with a canoe
for meal, and he told me as he lay in his bed at Windsor in the night he
had a great box on the head, and after when he came home he was ill,
and goodwife Harrison did help him with diet drink and plasters, but
after a while we sent to Capt. Atwood to help my husband in his
distress, but the same day that he came at night I came in at the door,
& to the best of my apprehension I saw the likeness of goodwife Harrison
with her face towards my husband, and I turned about to lock the door &
she vanist away. Then my husband's nose fell a bleeding in an
extraordinary manner, & so continued (if it were meddled with) to his
dying day. Sworn in court Oct. 29, 1668, attests John Allyn, Secy."
MARY HALE--Noises and blows--The canine apparition--The voice in the
night--The Devil a liar
"That about the latter end of November, being the 29th day, 1668, the
said Mary Hale lying in her bed, a good fire giving such light that one
might see all over that room where the said Mary then was, the said Mary
heard a noise, & presently something fell on her legs with such violence
that she feared it would have broken her legs, and then it came upon her
stomach and oppressed her so as if it would have pressed the breath out
of her body. Then appeared an ugly shaped thing like a dog, having a
head such that I clearly and distinctly knew to be the head of Katherine
Harrison, who was lately imprisoned upon suspicion of witchcraft. Mary
saw it walk to & fro in the chamber and went to her father's bedside
then came back and disappeared. That day seven night next after, lying
in her bed something came upon her in like manner as is formerly
related, first on her legs & feet & then on her stomach, crushing &
oppressing her very sore. She put forth her hand to feel (because there
was no light in the room so as clearly to discern). Mary aforesaid felt
a face, which she judged to be a woman's face, presently then she had a
great blow on her fingers which pained her 2 days after, which she
complained of to her father & mother, & made her fingers black and blue.
During the former passages Mary called to her father & mother but could
not wake them till it was gone. After this, the day of December in the
night, (the night being very windy) something came again and spoke thus
to her, saying to Mary aforesaid, You said that I would not come again,
but are you not afraid of me. Mary said, No. The voice replied I will
make you afraid before I have done with you; and then presently Mary was
crushed & oppressed very much. Then Mary called often to her father and
mother, they lying very near. Then the voice said, Though you do call
they shall not hear till I am gone. Then the voice said, You said that I
preserved my cart to carry me to the gallows, but I will make it a dear
cart to you (which said words Mary remembered she had only spoke in
private to her sister a little before & to no other.) Mary replied she
feared her not, because God had kept her & would keep her still. The
voice said she had a commission to kill her. Mary asked, Who gave you
the commission? The voice replied God gave me the commission. Mary
replied, The Devil is a liar from the beginning for God will not give
commission to murder, therefore it must be from the devil. Then Mary was
again pressed very much. Then the voice said, You will make known these
things abroad when I am gone, but if you will promise me to keep these
aforesaid matters secret I will come no more to afflict you. Mary
replied I will tell it abroad. Whereas the said Mary mentions divers
times in this former writing that she heard a voice, this said Mary
affirmeth that she did & doth know that it was the voice of Katherine
Harrison aforesaid; and Mary aforesaid affirmeth that the substance of
the whole relation is truth." Sworn in Court May 25, 1669. Attest John
Allyn, Sec'y.
Elizabeth Smith--_Neighborly criticism--Fortune telling--Spinning yarn_
"Elizabeth the wife of Simon Smith of Thirty Mile Island testified that
Catherine was noted by her and the rest of the family to be a great or
notorious liar, a sabbath breaker, and one that told fortunes, and told
the said Elizabeth her fortune, that her husband's name should be Simon;
& also told the said Elizabeth some other matters that did come to pass;
and also would oft speak and boast of her great familiarity with Mr.
Lilley, one that told fortunes and foretold many matters that in furture
times were to be accomplished. And also the said Katherine did often
spin so great a quantity of fine linen yarn as the said Elizabeth did
never know nor hear of any other woman that could spin so much. And
further, the said Elizabeth said that Capt. Cullick observing the evil
conversation in word and deed of the said Katherine turned her out of
his service, one reason was because the said Katherine told fortunes."
Taken upon oath Sept. 23, 1668 before John Allyn, Assistant.
On such evidence, October 12, 1669, the jury being called to give in
their verdict upon the indictment of Katherine Harrison, returned that
they find the prisoner guilty of the indictment.
But meanwhile important things in the history of the case had come to
pass. Serious doubts arose in the minds of the magistrates as to
accepting the verdict, and in their dilemma they took counsel not only
of the law but of the gospel, and presented a series of questions to
certain ministers--the same expedient adopted by the court at Salem
twenty-three years later.
The answer of the ministers is in the handwriting of Rev. Gershom
Bulkeley of Wethersfield, the author of the unique treatise _Will and
Doom_. It was a remarkable paper as to preternatural apparitions, the
character of evidence for conviction, and its cautions as to its
acceptance. It was this:
"The answer of some ministers to the questions pr-pounded to them by
the Honored Magistrates, Octobr 20, 1669. To ye 1st Quest whether a
plurality of witnesses be necessary, legally to evidence one and ye same
individual fact? Wee answer."
"That if the proofe of the fact do depend wholly upon testimony, there
is then a necessity of a plurality of witnesses, to testify to one & ye
same individual fact; & without such a plurality, there can be no legall
evidence of it. Jno 8, 17. The testimony of two men is true; that is
legally true, or the truth of order. & this Cht alledges to vindicate ye
sufficiency of the testimony given to prove that individual facte, that
he himselfe was ye Messias or Light of the World. Mat. 26, 59, 60."
"To the 2nd quest. Whether the preternatural apparitions of a person
legally proved, be a demonstration of familiarity with ye devill? Wee
anser, that it is not the pleasure of ye Most High, to suffer the wicked
one to make an undistinguishable representation of any innocent person
in a way of doing mischiefe, before a plurality of witnesses. The reason
is because, this would utterly evacuate all human testimony; no man
could testify, that he saw this pson do this or that thing, for it might
be said, that it was ye devill in his shape."
"To the 3d & 4th quests together: Whether a vitious pson foretelling
some future event, or revealing of a secret, be a demonstration of
familiarity with the devill? Wee say thus much."
"That those things, whither past, present or to come, which are indeed
secret, that is, cannot be knowne by human skill in arts, or strength of
reason arguing from ye corse of nature, nor are made knowne by divine
revelation either mediate or immediate, nor by information from man,
must needes be knowne (if at all) by information from ye devill: & hence
the comunication of such things, in way of divination (the pson
prtending the certaine knowledge of them) seemes to us, to argue
familiarity with ye devill, in as much as such a pson doth thereby
declare his receiving the devills testimony, & yeeld up himselfe as ye
devills instrument to comunicate the same to others."
And meanwhile Katherine herself had not been idle even in durance. With
a dignity becoming such a communication, and in a desperate hope that
justice and mercy might be meted out to her, she addressed a petition to
the court setting forth with unconscious pathos some of the wrongs and
sufferings she had endured in person and estate; and one may well
understand why under such great provocation she told Michael Griswold
that he would hang her though he damned a thousand souls, and as for his
own soul it was damned long ago. Vigorous and emphatic words, for which
perhaps Katherine was punished enough, as she was adjudged to pay
Michael in two actions for slander, £25 and costs in one and £15 and
costs in the other.
This was Katherine's appeal:
Filed: Wid. Harrisons greuances presented to the court 6th of Octobr
1669.
"A complaint of severall greiuances of the widow Harrisons which she
desires the honored court to take cognizance of and as far as maybe to
give her reliefe in."
"May it please this honored court, to have patience with mee a little:
having none to complain to but the Fathers of the Commonweale; and yet
meetting with many injurys, which necessitate mee to look out for some
releeife. I am told to present you with these few lines, as a relation
of the wrongs that I suffer, humbly crauing your serious consideration
of my state a widdow; of my wrongs, (wch I conceive are great) and that
as far as the rules of justice and equitie will allow, I may have right
and a due recompence."
"That that I would present to you in the first place is we had a yoke of
oxen one of wch spoyled at our stile before our doore, with blows upon
the backe and side, so bruised that he was altogether unserviceable;
about a fortnight or three weeks after the former, we had a cow spoyled,
her back broke and two of her ribs, nextly I had a heifer in my barne
yard, my ear mark of wch was cutt out and other ear marks set on;
nextly I had a sow that had young pigs ear marked (in the stie) after
the same manner; nextly I had a cow at the side of my yard, her jaw bone
broke and one of her hoofs and a hole bored in her side, nextly I had a
three yeare old heifer in the meadow stuck with knife or some weapon and
wounded to death; nextly I had a cow in the street wounded in the bag as
she stood before my door, in the street, nextly I had a sow went out
into the woods, came home with ears luged and one of her hind legs cutt
offe, lastly my corne in Mile Meadow much damnified with horses, they
being staked upon it; it was wheat; All wch injurys, as they do sauor of
enemy so I hope they will be looked upon by this honored court according
to their natuer and judged according to there demerit, that so your poor
suppliant may find some redrese; who is bold to subscribe."
"Your servant and supplyant,
"KATHERINE HARRISON.
"Postscript. I had my horse wounded in the night, as he was in my
pasture no creature save thre calves with him: More I had one two yeare
old steer the back of it broke, in the barne yard, more I had a matter
of 30 poles of hops cutt and spoyled; all wch things have hapened since
my husband death, wch was last August was two yeare. There is wittnes to
the oxen Jonathan & Josiah Gillert; to the cows being spoyled, Enoch
Buck, Josiah Gilbert; to the cow that had her jaw bone broke, Dan, Rose,
John, Bronson: to the heifer, one of widdow Stodder sons, and Willia
Taylor; to the corne John Beckly; to the wound of the horse Anthony
Wright, Goodman Higby; to the hops cutting, Goodwife Standish and Mary
Wright; wch things being added, and left to your serious consideration,
I make bold again to subscribe.
"Yours,
"KATHERINE HARRISON."
At a special court of assistants held May 20, 1670, to which the General
Assembly had referred the matter with power, the court having considered
the verdict of the jury could not concur with them so as to sentence her
to death, but dismissed her from her imprisonment, she paying her just
fees; willing her to mind the fulfilment of removing from Wethersfield,
"which is that will tend most to her own safety & the contentment of the
people who are her neighbors."
In the same year, having paid the expenses of her trials and
imprisonment, she removed to Westchester, New York. Being under
suspicion of witchcraft, her presence was unwelcome to the inhabitants
there and complaint was made to Governor Lovelace. She gave security for
her civil carriage and good behavior, and at the General Court of
Assizes held in New York in October, 1670, in the case of Katherine
Harrison, widow, who was bound to the good behavior upon complaint of
some of the inhabitants of Westchester, it was ordered, "that in regard
there is nothing appears against her deserving the continuance of that
obligation she is to be released from it, & hath liberty to remain in
the town of Westchester where she now resides, or anywhere else in the
government during her pleasure."
CHAPTER VII
"Although our fathers cannot be charged with having regarded the Devil
in his respectful and deferential light, it must be acknowledged, that
they gave him a conspicuous and distinguished--we might almost say a
dignified--agency in the affairs of life and the government of the
world: they were prone to confess, if not to revere, his presence, in
all scenes and at all times. He occupied a wide space, not merely in
their theology and philosophy, but in their daily and familiar
thoughts." UPHAM'S _Salem Witchcraft_.
"There are in every community those who for one cause or another
unfortunately incur the dislike and suspicion of the neighbors, and when
belief in witchcraft prevailed such persons were easily believed to have
familiarity with the evil one." _A Case of Witchcraft in Hartford_
(Connecticut Magazine, November, 1899), HOADLEY.
Witchcraft in the Connecticut towns reached its climax in 1692--the
fateful year at Salem, Massachusetts--and the chief center of its
activity was in the border settlements at Fairfield. There, several
women early in the year were accused of the crime, and among them Mercy
Disborough. The testimonies against her were unique, and yet so typical
that they are given in part as the second illustration.
MERCY (DISBRO) DISBOROUGH
A special court, presided over by Robert Treat, Governor, was held at
Fairfield by order of the General Court, to try the witch cases, and
September 14, 1692, a true bill was exhibited against Mercy Disborough,
wife of Thomas Disborough of Compo in Fairfield, in these words:
"Mercy Disborough is complayned of & accused as guilty of witchcraft for
that on the 25t of Aprill 1692 & in the 4th year of their Maties reigne
& at sundry other times she hath by the instigation & help of the diuill
in a preternaturall way afflicted & don harme to the bodyes & estates of
sundry of their Maties subjects or to some of them contrary to the law
of God, the peace of our soueraigne lord & lady the King & Queen their
crowne & dignity."
"BILLA VERA."
Others were indicted and tried, at this session of the court and its
adjournments, notably Elizabeth Clawson. Many depositions were taken in
Fairfield and elsewhere, some of the defendants were discharged and
others convicted, but Mercy Disborough's case was the most noted one in
the tests applied, and in the conclusions to which it led. The whole
case with its singular incidents is worthy of careful study. Some of the
testimony is given here.
EDWARD JESOP--_The roast pig--"The place of Scripture"--The bewitched
"cannoe"--The old cart horse--Optical illusions_
"Edward Jesop aged about 29 years testifieth that being at The:
Disburrows house at Compoh sometime in ye beginning of last winter in ye
evening he asked me to tarry & sup with him, & their I saw a pigg
roasting that looked verry well, but when it came to ye table (where we
had a very good lite) it seemed to me to have no skin upon it & looked
very strangly, but when ye sd Disburrow began to cut it ye skin (to my
apprehension) came againe upon it, & it seemed to be as it was when upon
ye spit, at which strange alteration of ye pig I was much concerned
however fearing to displease his wife by refusing to eat, I did eat some
of ye pig, & at ye same time Isaac Sherwood being there & Disburrows
wife & hee discoursing concerning a certain place of scripture, & I
being of ye same mind that Sherwood was concerning yt place of scripture
& Sherwood telling her where ye place was she brought a bible (that was
of very large print) to me to read ye particular scripture, but tho I
had a good light & looked ernestly upon ye book I could not see one
letter but looking upon it againe when in her hand after she had turned
over a few leaves I could see to read it above a yard of. Ye same night
going home & coming to Compoh it seemed to be high water whereupon I
went to a cannoe that was about ten rods of (which lay upon such a bank
as ordinarily I could have shoved it into ye creek with ease) & though I
lifted with all my might & lifted one end very high from ye ground I
could by no means push it into ye creek & then ye water seemed to be so
loe yt I might ride over, whereupon I went againe to ye water side but
then it appeared as at first very high & then going to ye cannoe againe
& finding that I could not get it into ye creek I thought to ride round
where I had often been & knew ye way as well as before my own dore & had
my old cart hors yet I could not keep him in ye road do what I could but
he often turned aside into ye bushes and then went backwards so that tho
I keep upon my hors & did my best indeauour to get home I was ye
greatest part of ye night wandering before I got home altho I was not
much more than two miles."
"Fairfield Septembr 15th 1692.
"Sworn in Court Septr 15 1692. Attests John Allyn, Secry."
JOHN BARLOW--_Mesmeric influence--Light and darkness--The falling out_
"John Barlow eaged 24 years or thairabout saieth and sd testifieth that
soumtime this last year that as I was in bedd in the hous that Mead
Jesuop then liuied in that Marsey Desbory came to me and layed hold on
my fett and pinshed them (and) looked wishley in my feass and I strouff
to rise and cold not and too speek and cold not. All the time that she
was with me it was light as day as it semed to me--but when shee uanicht
it was darck and I arose and hade a paine in my feet and leags some time
after an our or too it remained. Sometime before this aforesd Marcey and
I had a falling out and shee sayed that if shee had but strength shee
would teer me in peses."
"Sworn in court Septr 19, 92. Attests John Allyn."
BENJAMIN DUNING--_"Cast into ye watter"--Vindication of innocence--Mercy
not to be hanged alone_
"A Speciall Cort held in Fairfield this 2d of June 1692.
"Marcy Disbrow ye wife of Thomas Disbrow of Fairfield was sometimes
lately accused by Catren Branch servant to Daniell Wescoat off
tormenting her whereupon sd Mercy being sent for to Stanford and ther
examined upon suspecion of witchcraft before athaurity and fro thnce
conueyed to ye county jaile and sd Mercy ernestly desireing to be tryed
by being cast into ye watter yesterday wch was done this day being
examind what speciall reason she had to be so desiring of such a triall
her answer was yt it was to vindicate her innocency allso she sd Mercy
being asked if she did not say since she was duckt yt if she was hanged
shee would not be hanged alone her answer was yt she did say to Benje
Duning do you think yt I would be such a fooll as to be hanged allone.
Sd Benj. Duning aged aboue sixteen years testifies yt he heard sd Mercy
say yesterday that if she was hanged she would not be hanged allone wch
was sd upon her being urged to bring out others that wear suspected for
wiches."
"Sept 15 1692 Sworn in Court by Benj. Duning attest John Allyn Secy
"Joseph Stirg aged about 38 declares that he wth Benj. Duning being at
prison discoursing with the prisoner now at the bar he heard her say if
she were hanged she would not be hanged alone. He tould her she
implicitly owned herself a witch."
"Sworn in Court Sept. 15, atests John Allyn, Secry."
THOMAS HALLIBERCH--_A poor creature "damd"--Torment--A lost
soul--Divination_
"Thomas Halliberch ye jayle keeper aged 41 testifieth and saith yt this
morning ye date aboue Samull Smith junr. came to his house and sad
somthing to his wife somthing concerning Mercy and his wifes answer was
Oh poor creature upon yt Mercy mad answer & sd poor creature indeed & sd
shee had been tormented all night. Sd Halliberch answered her yt it was
ye devill her answer was she did beleue it was and allso yt she sed to
it in ye name of ye Father Son and Holy Gost also sd Halliberch saith
yt sd Mercy sd that her soul was damd for yesterdays worke. Mercy owned
before this court yt she did say to sd Halliberch that it was reuealled
to her yt shee wisht she had not damd her soule for yesterdays work and
also sad before this cort she belieued that there was a deuination in
all her trouble."
"Owned by the prisoner in court Sept. 15, 1692. attest John Allyn, Secy"
THOMAS BENIT, ELIZABETH BENIT--"_A birds taile"--A family
difference--"Ye Scripture words"--The lost "calues and lams_"
"Thos. Benit aged aboute 50 yrs testifieth yt Mercy Disbrow tould him yt
shee would make him as bare as a birds taile, which he saith was about
two or three yrs sine wch was before he lost any of his creatures."
"Elizabeth Benit aged about 20 yrs testifieth yt Mercy Disbrow did say
that it should be prest heeped and running ouer to her sd Elizabth; wch
was somtime last winter after som difference yt was aboute a sow of
Benje. Rumseyes."
"Mercy Disbrow owns yt she did say those words to sd Elizabeth & yt she
did tell her yt it was ye scripture words & named ye place of scripture
which was about a day after."
"The abousd Thos. Benit saith yt after ye sd Mercy had expressed herself
as above, he lost a couple of two yr old calues in a creek running by
Halls Islande, which catle he followed by ye track & founde them one
against a coue of ice & ye other about high water marke, & yt they went
into ye creek som distance from ye road where ye other catle went not, &
also yt he lost 30 lams wthin about a fortnights time after ye sd two
catle died som of sd lams about a week old & som a fortnight & in good
liueing case & allso saith yt som time after ye sd lams died he lost two
calues yt he fectht up ouer night & seemed to be well & wear dead before
ye next morning one of them about a fortnight old ye one a sucker & ye
other not."
HENRY GREY--_The roaring calfe--The mired cow--The heifer and cart
whip--Hard words--"Creeses in ye cetle"_
"The said Henry saith yt aboute a year agou or somthing more yt he had a
calfe very strangly taken and acted things yt are very unwonted, it
roared very strangly for ye space of near six or seven howers & allso
scowered extraordinarily all which after an unwonted maner; & also saith
he had a lame after a very strange maner it being well and ded in about
an houre and when it was skined it lookt as if it had been bruised or
pinched on ye shoulders and allso saith yt about two or three months
agou he and Thos Disbrow & sd Disbroughs wife was makeing a bargaine
about a cetle yt sd Henry was to haue & had of sd Disbrough so in time
they not agreeing sd Henry carried ye cetle to them againe & then sd
Dibroughs wife was very angry and many hard words pased & yt som time
since about two months he lost a cow which was mired in a swampe and was
hanged by one leg in mire op to ye gambrill and her nose in the water
and sd cow was in good case & saith he had as he judged about 8 pound of
tallow out of sd cow & allso yt he had a thre yr old heifer came home
about three weeks since & seemed to ale somthing she lay downe & would
haue cast herself but he pruented her & he cut a piece of her eare &
still shee seemed to be allmost dead & then he sent for his cart whip &
gave ye cow a stroak wth it & she arose suddenly and ran from him & he
followed her & struck her sundry times and yt wthin about one hour he
judges she was well & chewed her cud allso sd Henry saith yt ye ketle he
had of sd Disbrow loockt like a new ketle the hamer stroakes and creeses
was plaine to be seen in ye cetle, from ye time he had it untill a short
time before he carried it home & then in about a quarter of an hour, the
cetle changed its looks & seemed to be an old cetle yt had been used
about 20 years and yt sundry nailes appeared which he could not see
before and allso saith yt somtime lately he being at his brother Jacob
Grays house & Mercy Disbrough being there she begane to descorse about
ye kitle yt because he would not haue ye cetle shee had said that it
should cost him two cows which he tould her he could prove she had sed &
her answer was Aye: & then was silent, & he went home & when he com home
he heard Thomas Benit say he had a cow strangly taken yt day & he sent
for his cart whip & whipye cow & shee was soon well againe & as near as
he could com at it was about ye same time yt he tould Mercy he could
prove what shee sad about ye two cows and allso saith yt as soon as he
came home ye same time his wife tould him yt while Thos Benit had ye
cart whip one of sd Henrys calues was taken strangly & yt she sent for
ye whip & before ye whip came ye calf was well."
JOHN GRUMMON--_A sick child--Its unbewitching--Benit's
threats--Mercy's tenderness_
"John Grummon senr saith yt about six year agou he being at Compo with
his wife & child & ye child being very well as to ye outward vew and it
being suddenly taken very ill & so remained a little while upon wch he
being much troubled went out & heard young Thomas Benit threaten Mercy
Disbrow & bad her unbewitch his uncles child whereupon she came ouer to
ye child & ye child was well.
"Thomas Benit junr aged 27 years testifieth yt at ye same time of ye
above sd childs illness he came into ye house wher it was & he spoke to
sd John Gruman to go & scould at Mercy & tould him if he sd Gruman would
not he would wherupon he sd Benit went out and called to Mercy & bad her
come and unbewitch his unkle Grumans child or else he would beat her
hart out then sd mercy imediatly came ouer and stroaked ye child & sd
God forbad she should hurt ye child and imediately after ye child was
well."
ANN GODFREE--_The frisky oxen--Neighborly interest--The "beer out of
ye barrill"--Mixed theology--The onbewitched sow_
"Ann Godfree aged 27 years testifieth yt she came to Thos Disbrows house
ye next morning after it was sd yt Henry Grey whipt his cow and sd
Disbrows wife lay on ye bed & stretcht out her arme & sd to her oh! Ann
I am allmost kild; & further saith yt about a year & eleven months agou
she went to sd Disbrows house wth young Thos Benits wife & told Mercy
Disbrow yt Henry Greys wife sed she had bewitcht his her husbands oxen
& made y jump ouer ye fence & made ye beer jump out of ye barrill &
Mercy answered yt there was a woman came to her & reuiled her & asked
what shee was doing she told her she was praying to her God, then she
asked her who was her god allso tould her yt her god was ye deuill; &
Mercy said she bad ye woman go home & pray to her god & she went home
but shee knew not whether she did pray or not; but she sed God had met
wth her for she had died a hard death for reuileing on her & yt when ye
sd Thos Benits wife & she came away sd Benits wife tould her yt woman yt
was spoaken of was her sister and allso sed yt shee had heard those
words which Mercy had related to her pas between Mercy and her sister.
Upon yt sd An saith she would haue gon back & haue talked againe to
Mercy & Thomas Benit senr bad her she should not for she would do her
som mischief and yt night following shee sd Ann saith she could not
sleep & shee heard a noyse about ye house & allso heard a noyse like as
tho a beast wear knoct with an axe & in ye morning their was a heifer of
theirs lay ded near ye door. Allso sd An saith yt last summer she had a
sow very sick and sd Mercy cam bye & she called to her & bad her
on-bewitch her sow & tould her yt folks talked of ducking her but if she
would not onbewitch her sow she should need no ducking & soon after yt
her sow was well and eat her meat." That both what is on this side & the
other is sworne in court.
"Sept 15, 92. Attests, John Allyn Secy"
"It has been heretofore noted that during her trial--from the records of
which the foregoing testimony has been taken--the prisoner Mercy
Disborough was subjected to a search for witch marks by a committee of
women, faithfully sworn narrowly and truly to inspect and search. This
indignity was repeated, and the women agreed "that there is found on her
boddy as before they found, and nothing else." But the accused in order
to her further detection was subjected to another test of English
parentage, recommended by the authorities and embodied in the criminal
codes. It was the notorious water test, or ordeal by water. September
15, 1692, this test was made, chiefly on the testimony of a young girl
subject to epileptic fits and hysterics, who was carried into the
meetinghouse where the examination was being held. Thus runs the record:
_Daniel Westcott's "gerle"--Scenes in the meeting house--"Ye
girl"--Mercy's voice--Usual paroxisme_
"The afflicted person being carried into ye meeting house & Mercy
Disbrow being under examination by ye honable court & whilst she was
speaking ye girl came to her sences, & sd she heard Mercy Disbrow saying
withall where is she, endeavoring to raise herself, with her masters
help got almost up, in ye open view of present, & Mercy Disbrow looking
about on her, she immediately fel down into a fit again. A 2d time she
came to herself whilst in ye meeting house, & askd whers Mercy, I hear
her voice, & with that turned about her head (she lying with her face
from her) & lookd on her, then laying herself down in like posture as
before sd tis she, Ime sure tis she, & presently fell into a like
paroxisme or fit as she usually is troubled with."
Mercy Disborough, and another woman on trial at the same time
(Elizabeth Clauson), were put to the test together, and two eyewitnesses
of the sorry exhibition of cruelty and delusion made oath that they saw
Mercy and Elizabeth bound hand and foot and put into the water, and that
they swam upon the water like a cork, and when one labored to press them
into the water they buoyed up like cork.[G]
[Footnote G: Depositions of Abram Adams and Jonathan Squire, September
15, 1692.]
At the close of the trial the jury disagreed and the prisoner was
committed "to the common goale there to be kept in safe custody till a
return may be made to the General Court for further direction what shall
be don in this matter;" and the gentlemen of the jury were also to be
ready, when further called by direction of the General Court, to perfect
their verdict. The General Court ordered the Special Court to meet again
"to put an issue to those former matters."
October 28, 1692, this entry appears of record:
"The jury being called to make a return of their indictment that had
been committed to them concerning Mercy Disborough, they return that
they find the prisoner guilty according to the indictment of familiarity
with Satan. The jury being sent forth upon a second consideration of
their verdict returned that they saw no reason to alter their verdict,
but to find her guilty as before. The court approved of their verdict
and the Governor passed sentence of death upon her."
The hesitation of the jury to agree upon a verdict, the reference to the
General Court for more specific authority to act, all point to serious
question of the evidence, the motives of witnesses, the value of the
traditional and lawful tests of the guilt of the accused.
In the search for facts which the old records certify to at this late
day, one is deeply impressed by the wisdom and potency of the sober
afterthought and conclusions of some of the clergy, lawyers, and men of
affairs, who sat as judges and jurors in the witch trials, which led
them to weigh and analyze the evidence, spectral and otherwise, and so
call a halt in the prosecutions and convictions.
What some of the Massachusetts men did and said in the contemporaneous
outbreak at Salem has been shown, but nowhere is the reaction there more
clearly illustrated than in the statement of Reverend John
Hale--great-grandsire of Nathan Hale, the revolutionary hero--the long
time pastor at Beverly Farms, who from personal experience became
convinced of the grave errors at the Salem trials, and in his _Modest
Inquiry_ in 1697 said:
"Such was the darkness of that day, the tortures and lamentations of the
afflicted, and the power of former precedents, that we walked in the
clouds and could not see our way.... observing the events of that sad
catastrophe,--Anno 1692,--I was brought to a more strict scanning of the
principles I had imbibed, and by scanning to question, and by
questioning at length to reject many of them." _Nathan Hale_ (p. 10),
Johnston.
But no utterance takes higher rank, or deserves more consideration in
its appeal to sanity, justice, and humanity, than the declaration of
certain ministers and laymen of Connecticut, in giving their advice and
"reasons" for a cessation of the prosecutions for witchcraft in the
colonial courts, and for reprieving Mercy Disborough under sentence of
death. This is the remarkable document:
"Filed: The ministers aduice about the witches in Fayrfield, 1692.
"As to ye evidences left to our consideration respecting ye two women
suspected of witchcraft at Fairfield we offer
"1. That we cannot but give our concurrance with ye generallity of
divines that ye endeavour of conviction of witchcraft by swimming is
unlawful and sinfull & therefore it cannot afford any evidence.
"2. That ye unusuall excresencies found upon their bodies ought not to
be allowed as evidence against them without ye approbation of some able
physitians.
"3. Respecting ye evidence of ye afflicted maid we find some things
testifyed carrying a suspition of her counterfeiting; Others that
plainly intimate her trouble from ye mother which improved by craft may
produce ye most of those strange & unusuall effects affirmed of her; &
of those things that by some may be thought to be diabolical or effects
of witchcraft. We apprehend her applying of them to these persons merely
from ye appearance of their spectres to her to be very uncertain and
failable from ye easy deception of her senses & subtile devices of ye
devill, wherefore cannot think her a sufficient witnesse; yet we think
that her affliction being something strange it well deserves a farther
inquiry.
"4. As to ye other strange accidents as ye dying of cattle &c., we
apprehend ye applying of them to these women as matters of witchcraft
to be upon very slender & uncertain grounds.
"Hartford JOSEPH ELIOT
"Octobr 1692 TIMOTHY WOODBRIDGE."
"The rest of ye ministers gave their approbation to ye sum of what
is ... above written tho this could not be drawen up before their
departure."
(Above in handwriting of Rev. Timothy Woodbridge.)
"Filed: Reasons of Repreuing Mercy Desbrough.
"To the Honrd Gen: Assembly of Connecticut Colony sitting in Hartford.
Reasons of repreuing Mercy Disbrough from being put to death until this
Court had cognizance of her case.
"First, because wee that repreued her had power by the law so to do.
Secondly, because we had and haue sattisfying reasons that the sentence
of death passed against her ought not to be executed which reasons we
give to this Court to be judge of
"1st. The jury that brought her in guilty (which uerdict was the ground
of her condemnation) was not the same jury who were first charged with
this prisoners deliuerance and who had it in charg many weeks. Mr.
Knowles was on the jury first sworn to try this woman and he was at or
about York when the Court sate the second time and when the uerdict was
given, the jury was altered and another man sworn.
"It is so inuiolable a practice in law that the indiudual jurors and
jury that is charged with the deliuerance of a prisoner in a capital
case and on whom the prisoner puts himself or herself to be tryed must
try it and they only that al the presidents in Old England and New
confirm it and not euer heard of til this time to be inouated. And yet
not only president but the nature of the thing inforces it for to these
juors the law gaue this power vested it in them they had it in right of
law and it is incompatible and impossible that it should be uested in
these and in others too for then two juries may haue the same power in
the same case one man altered the jury is altered.
"Tis the birthright of the Kings' subjects so and no otherwise to be
tryed and they must not be despoyled of it.
"Due form of law is that alone wherein the ualidity of verdicts and
judgments in such cases stands and if a real and apparent murtherer be
condemned and executed out of due form of law it is inditable against
them that do it for in such case the law is superseded by arbitrary
doings.
"What the Court accepts and the prisoner accepts differing from the law
is nothing what the law admitts is al in the case.
"If one jury may be changed two, ten, the whole may be so, and solemn
oathe made uain.
"Wee durst not but dissent from and declare against such alterations by
our repreueing therefore the said prisoner when ye were informed of this
business about her jury, and we pray this honored Court to take heed
what they do in it now it is roled to their doore and that at least they
be well sattisfied from able lawyers that such a chang is in law
alowable ere this prisoner be executed least they bring themselues into
inextricable troubles and the whole country. Blood is a great thing and
we cannot but open our mouths for the dumb in the cause of one appointed
to die by such a uerdict.
"2dly. We had a good accompt of the euidences giuen against her that
none of them amounted to what Mr. Perkins, Mr. Bernard and Mr. Mather
with others state as sufficiently conuictiue of witchcraft, namely 1st
Confession (this there was none of) 2dly two good wittnesses proueing
som act or acts done by the person which could not be but by help of the
deuill, this is the summe of what they center in as thair books show as
for the common things of spectral euidence il euents after quarels or
threates, teates, water tryalls and the like with suspitious words they
are al discarded and som of them abominated by the most judicious as to
be conuictiue of witchcraft and the miserable toyl they are in the Bay
for adhereing to these last mentioned litigious things is warning enof,
those that will make witchcraft of such things will make hanging work
apace and we are informed of no other but such as these brought against
this woman.
"These in brief are our reasons for repreueing this prisoner.
May 12th, 1693.
SAMUELL WILLIS.
WM PITKIN
NATH STANLY.
"The Court may please to consider also how farr these
proceedings do put a difficulty on any further tryal of
this woman."
All honor to Joseph Elliot, Timothy Woodbridge and their ministerial
associates; to Samuel Willis, Pitkin and Nath. Stanly, level-headed men
of affairs, all friends of the court called upon for advice and
counsel--who gave it in full scriptural measure.[H]
[Footnote H: Mercy Disborough was pardoned, as the records show that she
was living in 1707.]
CHAPTER VIII
"Old Matthew Maule was executed for the crime of witchcraft. He was one
of the martyrs to that terrible delusion, which should teach us, among
its other morals, that the influential classes, and those who take upon
themselves to be leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the
passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob."
"Clergymen, judges, statesmen--the wisest, calmest, holiest persons of
their day--stood in the inner circle round about the gallows, loudest to
applaud the work of blood, latest to confess themselves miserably
deceived."
"This old reprobate was one of the sufferers when Cotton Mather, and his
brother ministers, and the learned judges, and other wise men, and Sir
William Phipps, the sagacious governor, made such laudable efforts to
weaken the great enemy of souls by sending a multitude of his adherents
up the rocky pathway of Gallows Hill." _The House of the Seven Gables_
(20: 225), HAWTHORNE.
"Then, too, the belief in witchcraft was general. Striking coincidences,
personal eccentricities, unusual events and mysterious diseases seemed
to find an easy explanation in an unholy compact with the devil. A
witticism attributed to Judge Sewall, one of the judges in these trials,
may help us to understand the common panic: 'We know who's who but not
which is witch.' That was the difficulty. At a time when every one
believed in witchcraft it was easy to suspect one's neighbor. It was a
characteristic superstition of the century and should be classed with
the barbarous punishments and religious intolerance of the age." _N.E.
Hist. Towns_.--LATIMER'S--_Salem_ (150).
Multiplication of these witchcraft testimonies, quaint and curious,
vulgar and commonplace, evil and pathetic, voices all of a strange
superstition, understandable only as through them alone can one gain a
clear perspective of the spirit of the time and place, would prove
wearisome. They may well remain in the ancient records until they find
publicity in detail in some accurate and complete history of the
beginnings of the commonwealth--including this strange chapter in its
unique history.
It will, however, serve a present necessary purpose, and lead to a more
exact conception of the reign of unreason, if glimpses be taken here and
there of a few of the statements made on oath in some of the other
cases.
ELIZABETH SEAGER
Daniell Gabbett and Margaret Garrett--_The mess of parsnips--Hains' "hodg
podg"--Satan's interference_
"The testimony of Daniell Garrett senior and the testimony of Margarett
Garrett. Goodwife Gaarrett saith that goodwife Seager said there was a
day kept at Mr. Willis in reference to An Coale; and she further said
she was in great trouble euen in agony of spirit, the ground as follows
that she sent her owne daughtr Eliza Seager to goodwife Hosmer to carry
her a mess a parsnips. Goodwife Hosmer was not home. She was at Mr.
Willis at the fast. Goodm Hosmer and his son was at home. Goodm Hosmer
bid the child carry the parsnips home againe he would not receiue them
and if her mother desired a reason, bid her send her father and he would
tell him the reason. Goodwife Seager upon the return of the parsnips
was much troubled and sent for her husband and sent him up to Goodm
Hosmer to know the reason why he would not reciue the parsnips, and he
told goodman Seager it was because An Coale at the fast at Mr. Willis
cryed out against his wife as being a witch and he would not receiue
the parsnips least he should be brought in hereaftr as a testimony
against his wife. Then goodwif Seager sd that Mr. Hains had writt a
great deal of hodg podg that An Coale had sd that she was under
suspicion for a witch, and then she went to prayer, and did adventure to
bid Satan go and tell them she was no witch. This deponent after she had
a little paused said, who did you say, then goodw Seger sd againe she
had sent Satan to tell them she was no witch. This deponent asked her
why she made use of Satan to tell them, why she did not besech God to
tell them she was no witch. She answered because Satan knew she was no
witch. Goodman Garrett testifies that before him and his wife, Goodwife
Seager said that she sent Satan to tell them she was no witch."
ROBERT STERNE, STEPHEN HART, JOSIAH WILLARD AND DANIEL PRATT--_Four
women--Two black creatures--A kettle and a dance--"That place in the
Acts about the 7 sons"_
"Robert Sterne testifieth as followeth.
"I saw this woman goodwife Seager in ye woods wth three more women and
with them I saw two black creaures like two Indians but taller. I saw
likewise a kettle there over a fire. I saw the women dance round these
black creatures and whiles I looked upon them one of the women G:
Greensmith said looke who is yonder and then they ran away up the hill.
I stood still and ye black things came towards mee and then I turned to
come away. He further saith I knew the psons by their habits or clothes
haueing observed such clothes on them not long before."
"Wee underwritten do testifie, that goodwife Seager said, (upon the
relateing of goodwife Garrett testimony, in reference to Seager sending
Satan,) that the reason why she sent Satan, was because he knew she was
no witch, we say Seager said Dame you can remember part of what I said,
but you do not speak of the whole you say nothing of what I brought to
prove that Satan knew that I was no witch. I brought that place in the
Acts, about the 7 sons that spake to the euill spirits in the name of
Jesus whom Paul preacheth I have forgot there names.
"STEPHEN HART
"JOSIAH WlLLARD
"DANIEL PRATT."
MRS. MIGAT--_A warm greeting, "how doe yow"--"god was naught"--"Hell
need not be feared, for she should not burn in ye fire"--The ghost
"stracke"_
"Mrs. Migat sayth she went out to give her calues meat, about fiue
weekes since, & goodwif Segr came to her and shaked her by ye arme, & sd
she how doe yow, how doe yow, Mrs. Migatt.
"2d Mrs. Migatt alsoe saith: a second time goodwife Segr came her
towerds ye little riuer, a litle below ye house wch she now dweleth in,
and told her, that god was naught, god was naught, it was uery good to
be a witch and desired her to be one, she should not ned fare going to
hell, for she should not burne in ye fire Mrs. Migat said to her at this
time that she did not loue her; she was very naught, and goodwif Segr
shaked her by ye hands and bid her farwell, and desired her, not to tell
any body what shee had said unto her.
"3d Time. Mrs. Migat affirmeth yt goodwife Segr came to her at ye hedge
corner belonging to their house lot, and their spake to her but what she
could not tell, wch caused Mrs. Migatt (as she sayth) to (turn) away wth
great feare.
"Mrs. Migat sayth a little before ye floud this spring, goodwife Segr
came into thaire house, on a mone shining night, and took her by ye hand
and stracke her on ye face as she was in beed wth her husband, whome she
could wake, and then goodwife Segr went away, and Mrs. Migat went to ye
dore but darst not looke out after her.
"These pticulers Mrs. Migat charged goodwife Segr wth being face to
face, at Mr. Migats now dwelling house."
"John Talcott."
_Staggerings of the jury--"Shuffing"--"Grinding teeth"--Seager's
denials--Contradictions--Acquittal_
"Janur 16 1662
"The causes why half the jury ore more did in their vote cast gooddy
Seger (and the rest of the jury were deeply suspitious, and were at a
great loss and staggeringe whereby they were sometimes likely to com up
in their judgments to the rest, whereby she was allmost gone and cast as
the foreman expressed to her at giuing in of the verdict) are these
"First it did apeare by legall euidence that she had intimat
familliarity with such as had been wiches, viz goody Sanford and goody
Ayrs. 2ly this she did in open court stoutly denie saing the witnesses
were preiudiced persons, and that she had now more intimacy then they
themselves, and when the witneses questioned with her about frequent
being there she said she went to lerne to knitt; this also she stoutly
denied, and said of the witneses they belie me, then when Mr. John Allen
sd did she not teach you to knitt, she answered sturdily and sayd, I do
not know that I am bound to tell you & at another time being pressed to
answ she sayd, nay I will hould what I have if I must die, yet after
this she confessed that she had so much intimacy with one of ym as that
they did change woorke one with another. 3ly she having sd that she did
hate goody Aiers it did appear that she bore her great yea more than
ordinarily good will as apeared by releeuing her in her truble, and was
couert way, and was trubled that is was discouered; likewise when goody
Aiers said in court, this will take away my liffe, goody Seger shuffed
her with her hand & sd hould your tongue wt grinding teeth Mr. John
Allen being one wittnes hearto when he had spoken, she sd they seek my
innocent blood; the magistrats replied, who she sd euery body. 4ly being
spoken to about triall by swiming, she sagd the diuill that caused me to
com heare can keep me up.
"About the buisnes of fliing the most part thought it was not legally
proued.
"Lastly the woman and Robert Stern being boath upon oath their wittnes
was judged legall testimony ore evidence only som in the jury because
Sternes first words upon his oath were, I saw these women and as I take
it goody Seger was there though after that he sayd, I saw her there, I
knew her well I know God will require her blood at my hands if I should
testifie falsly. Allso bec he sd he saw her kittle, there being at so
great a distance, they doubted that these things did not only weaken &
blemish his testimony, but also in a great measure disable it for
standing to take away liffe."
"WALT. FYLER."
Elizabeth Seager was acquitted.
ELIZABETH GODMAN
Of all the women who set the communities ablaze with their witcheries,
none in fertility of invention and performance surpassed Elizabeth
Godman of New Haven--a member of the household of Stephen Goodyear, the
Deputy Governor. Reverend John Davenport said, in a sermon of the time,
"that a froward discontented frame of spirit was a subject fitt for ye
Devill," and Elizabeth was accused by Goodwife Larremore and others of
being in "such a frame of spirit," and of practicing the black arts.
She promptly haled her accusers before a court of magistrates, August 4,
1653, with Governor Theophilus Eaton and Deputy Governor Stephen
Goodyear present; and when asked what she charged them with, she desired
that "a wrighting might be read--wch was taken in way of examination
before ye magistrate," in May, 1653. The "wrighting" did not prove
helpful to Elizabeth's case. The statements of witnesses and of the
accused are in some respects unique, and of a decided personal quality.
_"Hobbamocke"--The "swonding fitt"--Lying--Evil communications--The
Indian's statement--"Ye boyes sickness"--"Verey strang fitts"--"Figgs"--
"Pease porridge"--"A sweate"--Mrs. Goodyeare's opinion--Absorption--
Contradictions--Goodwife Thorp's chickens--"Water and wormes"_
"Mris. Godman was told she hath warned to the court diuers psons, vizd:
Mr. Goodyeare, Mris. Goodyeare, Mr. Hooke, Mris. Hooke, Mris. Atwater,
Hanah & Elizabeth Lamberton, goodwife Larremore, goodwife Thorpe, &c.,
and was asked what she had to charge them wth, she said they had given
out speeches that made folkes thinke she was a witch, and first she
charged Mris. Atwater to be ye cause of all, and to cleere things
desired a wrighting might be read wch was taken in way of examination
before ye magistrate, (and in here after entred,) wherein sundrie things
concerning Mris. Atwater is specifyed wch we now more fully spoken to,
and she further said that Mris. Atwater had said that she thought she
was a witch and that Hobbamocke was her husband, but could proue
nothing, though she was told that she was beforehand warned to prepare
her witnesses ready, wch she hath not done, if she haue any. After
sundrie of the passages in ye wrighting were read, she was asked if
these things did not giue just ground of suspition to all that heard
them that she was a witch. She confessed they did, but said if she spake
such things as is in Mr. Hookes relation she was not herselfe.... Beside
what is in the papr, Mris. Godman was remembred of a passage spoken of
at the gouernors aboute Mr. Goodyeare's falling into a swonding fitt
after hee had spoken something one night in the exposition of a chapter,
wch she (being present) liked not but said it was against her, and as
soone as Mr. Goodyeare had done duties she flung out of the roome in a
discontented way and cast a fierce looke vpon Mr. Goodyeare as she went
out, and imediately Mr. Goodyeare (though well before) fell into a
swond, and beside her notorious lying in this buisnes, for being asked
how she came to know this, she said she was present, yet Mr. Goodyeare,
Mris. Goodyeare, Hanah and Elizabeth Lamberton all affirme she was not
in ye roome but gone vp into the chamber."
THE "WRIGHTING"
"The examination of Elizabeth Godman, May 12th, 1653.
"Elizabeth Godman made complainte of Mr. Goodyeare, Mris. Goodyeare, Mr.
Hooke, Mris. Hooke, Mris. Bishop, Mris. Atwater, Hanah & Elizabeth
Lamberton, and Mary Miles, Mris. Atwaters maide, that they haue
suspected her for a witch; she was now asked what she had against Mr.
Hooke and Mris. Hooke; she said she heard they had something against her
aboute their soone. Mr. Hooke said hee was not wthout feares, and hee
had reasons for it; first he said it wrought suspition in his minde
because shee was shut out at Mr. Atwaters vpon suspition, and hee was
troubled in his sleepe aboute witches when his boye, was sicke, wch was
in a verey strang manner, and hee looked vpon her as a mallitious one,
and prepared to that mischiefe, and she would be often speaking aboute
witches and rather justifye them then condemne them; she said why doe
they provoake them, why doe they not let them come into the church.
Another time she was speaking of witches wthout any occasion giuen her,
and said if they accused her for a witch she would haue them to the
gouernor, she would trounce them. Another time she was saying she had
some thoughts, what if the Devill should come to sucke her, and she
resolued he should not sucke her.... Time, Mr. Hookes Indian, said in
church meeting time she would goe out and come in againe and tell them
what was done at meeting. Time asking her who told, she answered plainly
she would not tell, then Time said did not ye Devill tell you.... Time
said she heard her one time talking to herselfe, and she said to her,
who talke you too, she said, to you; Time said you talke to ye Devill,
but she made nothing of it. Mr. Hooke further said, that he hath heard
that they that are adicted that way would hardly be kept away from ye
houses where they doe mischiefe, and so it was wth her when his boy was
sicke, she would not be kept away from him, nor gott away when she was
there, and one time Mris. Hooke bid her goe away, and thrust her from ye
boye, but she turned againe and said she would looke on him. Mris.
Goodyeare said that one time she questioned wth Elizabeth Godmand aboute
ye boyes sickness, and said what thinke you of him, is he not strangly
handled, she replyed, what, doe you thinke hee is bewitched; Mris.
Goodyeare said nay I will keepe my thoughts to myselfe, but in time God
will discouer ...
"Mr. Hooke further said, that when Mr. Bishop was married, Mris. Godman
came to his house much troubled, so as he thought it might be from some
affection to him, and he asked her, she said yes; now it is suspitious
that so soone as they were contracted Mris. Byshop fell into verey
strang fitts wch hath continewed at times euer since, and much suspition
there is that she hath bine the cause of the loss of Mris. Byshops
chilldren, for she could tell when Mris. Bishop was to be brought to
bedd, and hath giuen out that she kills her chilldren wth longing,
because she longs for every thing she sees, wch Mris. Bishop denies....
Another thing suspitious is, that she could tell Mris. Atwater had figgs
in her pocket when she saw none of them; to that she answered she smelt
them, and could smell figgs if she came in the roome, nere them that had
them; yet at this time Mris. Atwater had figgs in her pocket and came
neere her, yet she smelt them not; also Mris. Atwater said that Mris.
Godman could tell that they one time had pease porridge, when they could
none of them tell how she came to know, and beeing asked she saith she
see ym on the table, and another time she saith she was there in ye
morning when the maide set them on. Further Mris. Atwater saith, that
that night the figgs was spoken of they had strangers to supper, and
Mris. Godman was at their house, she cutt a sopp and put in pann; Betty
Brewster called the maide to tell her & said she was aboute her workes
of darkness, and was suspitious of Mris. Godman, and spake to her of it,
and that night Betty Brewster was in a most misserable case, heareing a
most dreadfull noise wch put her in great feare and trembling, wch put
her into such a sweate as she was all on a water when Mary Miles came to
goe to bed, who had fallen into a sleepe by the fire wch vsed not to
doe, and in ye morning she looked as one yt had bine allmost dead....
"Mris. Godman accused Mr. Goodyeare for calling her downe when Mris.
Bishop was in a sore fitt, to looke vpon her, and said he doubted all
was not well wth her, and that hee feared she was a witch, but Mr.
Goodyeare denyed that; vpon this Mris. Godman was exceeding angrie and
would haue the servants called to witnes, and bid George the Scochman
goe aske his master who bewitched her for she was not well, and vpon
this presently Hanah Lamberton (being in ye roome) fell into a verey
sore fitt in a verey strang maner....
"Another time Mris. Goodyeare said to her, Mris. Elzebeth what thinke
you of my daughters case; she replyed what, doe you thinke I haue
bewitched her; Mris. Goodyeare said if you be the ptie looke to it, for
they intend to haue such as is suspected before the magistrate.
"Mris. Godman charged Hanah Lamberton that she said she lay for somewhat
to sucke her, when she came in hott one day and put of some cloathes and
lay vpon the bed in her chamber. Hanah said she and her sister Elizabeth
went vp into the garet aboue her roome, and looked downe & said, looke
how she lies, she lyes as if som bodey was sucking her, & vpon that she
arose and said, yes, yes, so there is; after said Hanah, she hath
something there, for so there seemed as if something was vnder the
cloathes; Elizabeth said what haue you there, she said nothing but the
cloathes, and both Hanah & Eliza. say that Mris. Godman threatened
Hanah, and said let her looke to it for God will bring it vpon her owne
head, and about two dayes after, Hanahs fitts began, and one night
especially had a dreadfull fitt, and was pinched, and heard a hedious
noise, and was in a strang manner sweating and burning, and some time
cold and full of paine yt she shriked out.
"Elizabeth Lamberton saith that one time ye chilldren came downe & said
Mris. Godman was talking to herselfe and they were afraide, then she
went vp softly and heard her talke, what, will you fetch me some beare,
will you goe, will you goe, and ye like, and one morning aboute breake
of day Henry Boutele said he heard her talke to herselfe, as if some
body had laine wth her....
"Mris. Goodyeare said when Mr. Atwaters kinswoman was married Mris.
Bishop was there, and the roome being hott she was something fainte,
vpon that Mris. Godman said she would haue many of these fainting fitts
after she was married, but she saith she remembers it not....
"Goodwife Thorp complained that Mris. Godman came to her house and asked
to buy some chickens, she said she had none to sell, Mris. Godman said
will you giue them all, so she went away, and she thought then that if
this woman was naught as folkes suspect, may be she will smite my
chickens, and quickly after one chicken dyed, and she remembred she had
heard if they were bewitched they would consume wthin, and she opened it
and it was consumed in ye gisard to water & wormes, and divers others of
them droped, and now they are missing and it is likely dead, and she
neuer saw either hen or chicken that was so consumed wthin wth wormes.
Mris. Godman said goodwife Tichenor had a whole brood so, and Mris.
Hooke had some so, but for Mris. Hookes it was contradicted presently.
This goodwife Thorp thought good to declare that it may be considered
wth other things."
The court decided that Elizabeth's carriage and confession rendered her
"suspitious" of witchcraft, and admonished her that "if further proofe
come these passages will not be forgotten."
The further proof came forth promptly, since in August, 1655, Elizabeth
was again called before the court for witchcraft, and the witnesses
certified to "the doing of strange things."
_The Governor's quandary--Elizabeth's "spirituall armour"--"The
jumbling at the chamber dore"--The lost grapes--The tethered
calfe--"Hott beare"_
"At a court held at Newhaven the 7th of August 1655.
"Elizabeth Godman was again called before the Court, and told that she
lies under suspition for witchcraft, as she knowes, the grounds of which
were examined in a former court, and by herselfe confessed to be just
grounds of suspition, wch passages were now read, and to these some more
are since added, wch are now to be declared.
"Mr. Goodyeare said that the last winter, upon occasion of Gods
afflicting hand upon the plantation by sickness, the private meeting
whereof he is had appointed to set a day apart to seeke God: Elizabeth
Godman desired she might be there; he told her she was under suspition,
and it would be offensive; she said she had great need of it, for she
was exercised wth many temptations, and saw strange appearitions, and
lights aboute her bed, and strange sights wch affrighted her; some of
his family said if she was affraide they would worke wth her in the day
and lye with her in the night, but she refused and was angry and said
she would haue none to be wth her for she had her spirituall armour
aboute her. She was asked the reason of this; she answered, she said so
to Mr. Goodyeare, but it was her fancy troubled her, and she would haue
none lye wth her because her bed was weake; she was told that might haue
been mended; then she said she was not willing to haue any of them wth
her, for if any thing had fallen ill wth them they would haue said that
she had bine the cause."
Mr. Goodyeare further declared that aboute three weekes agoe he had a
verey great disturbance in his family in the night (Eliza: Godman hauing
bine the day before much discontented because Mr. Goodyeare warned her
to provide another place to live in) his daughter Sellevant, Hanah
Goodyeare, and Desire Lamberton lying together in the chamber under
Eliza: Godman; after they were in bed they heard her walke up and downe
and talk aloude; but could not tell what she said; then they heard her
go downe the staires and come up againe; they fell asleep, but were
after awakened wth a great jumbling at the chamber dore, and something
came into the chamber wch jumbled at the other end of the roome and
aboute the trunke and amonge the shooes and at the beds head; it came
nearer the bed and Hanah was affraid and called father, but he heard
not, wch made her more affraide; then cloathes were pulled of their bed
by something, two or three times; they held and something pulled, wch
frighted them so that Hanah Goodyeare called her father so loude as was
thought might be heard to the meetinghouse, but the noise was heard to
Mr. Samuell Eatons by them that watched wth her; so after a while Mr.
Goodyeare came and found them in a great fright; they lighted a candell
and he went to Eliza: Godmans chamber and asked her why she disturbed
the family; she said no, she was scared also and thought the house had
bine on fire, yet the next day she said in the family that she knew
nothing till Mr. Goodyeare came up, wch she said is true she heard the
noise but knew not the cause till Mr. Goodyeare came; and being asked
why she went downe staires after she was gon up to bed, she said to
light a candell to looke for two grapes she had lost in the flore and
feared the mice would play wth them in the night and disturbe ye family,
wch reason in the Courts apprehension renders her more suspitious.
Allen Ball informed the Court. Another time she came into his yard; his
wife asked what she came for; she said to see her calfe; now they had a
sucking calfe, wch they tyed in the lott to a great post that lay on ye
ground, and the calfe ran away wth that post as if it had bine a fether
and ran amonge Indian corne and pulled up two hills and stood still;
after he tyed the calfe to a long heauy raile, as much as he could well
lift, and one time she came into ye yard and looked on ye calfe and it
set a running and drew the raile after it till it came to a fence and
gaue a great cry in a lowing way and stood still; and in ye winter the
calfe dyed, doe what he could, yet eate its meale well enough.
Some other passages were spoken of aboute Mris. Yale, that one time
there being some words betwixt them, wth wch Eliza: Godman was
unsatisfyed, the night following Mris. Yales things were throwne aboute
the house in a strange manner; and one time being at Goodman Thorpes,
aboute weauing some cloth, in wch something discontented her, and that
night they had a great noise in the house, wch much affrighted them, but
they know not what it was.
These things being declared the Court told Elizabeth Godman that they
haue considered them, wth her former miscarriages, and see cause to
order that she be comitted to prison, ther to abide the Courts pleasure,
but because the matter is of weight, and the crime whereof she is
suspected capitall, therefore she is to answer it at the Court of
Magistrates in October next."
In October, 1655, Elizabeth "was again called before the court and told
that upon grounds formerly declared wch stand upon record, she by her
owne confession remains under suspition for witchcraft, and one more is
now added, and that is, that one time this last summer, comeing to Mr.
Hookes to beg some beare, was at first denyed, but after, she was
offered some by his daughter which stood ready drawne, wch she had, yet
went away in a muttering discontented manner, and after this, that
night, though the beare was good and fresh, yet the next morning was
hott, soure and ill tasted, yea so hott as the barrell was warme wthout
side, and when they opened the bung it steemed forth; they brewed againe
and it was so also, and so continewed foure or fiue times, one after
another.
"She brought diuers psons to the court that they might say something to
cleere her, and much time was spent in hearing ym, but to little
purpose, the grounds of suspition remaining full as strong as before and
she found full of lying, wherfore the court declared vnto her that
though the euidenc is not sufficient as yet to take away her life, yet
the suspitions are cleere and many, wch she cannot by all the meanes she
hath vsed, free herselfe from, therfore she must forbeare from goeing
from house to house to give offenc, and cary it orderly in the family
where she is, wch if she doe not, she will cause the court to comitt her
to prison againe, & that she doe now presently vpon her freedom giue
securitie for her good behauiour; and she did now before the court
ingage fifty pound of her estate that is in Mr. Goodyeers hand, for her
good behauior, wch is further to be cleered next court, when Mr.
Goodyeare is at home."
"She was suffered to dwell in the family of Thomas Johnson, where she
continued till her death, October 9th, 1660." (_New Haven Town Records_,
Vol. ii, pp. 174,179.)
NATHANIEL AND REBECCA GREENSMITH
Nathaniel Greensmith lived in Hartford, south of the little river, in
1661-62, on a lot of about twenty acres, with a house and barn. He also
had other holdings "neer Podunk," and "on ye highway leading to
Farmington."
He was thrifty by divergent and economical methods, since he is credited
in the records of the time with stealing a bushel and a half of wheat,
of stealing a hoe, and of lying to the court, and of battery.
In one way or another he accumulated quite a property for those days,
since the inventory of it filed in the Hartford Probate Office, January
25, 1662, after his execution, carried an appraisal of £137. l4s.
1_d_.--including "2 bibles," "a sword," "a resthead," and a "drachm
cup"--all indicating that Nathaniel judiciously mingled his theology and
patriotism, his recreation and refreshment, with his everyday practical
affairs and opportunities.
But he made one adventure that was most unprofitable. In an evil hour he
took to wife Rebecca, relict of Abraham Elson, and also relict of Jarvis
Mudge, and of whom so good a man as the Rev. John Whiting, minister of
the First Church in Hartford--afterward first pastor of the Second
Church--said that she was "a lewd, ignorant and considerably aged
woman."
This triple combination of personal qualities soon elicited the
criticism and animosity of the community, and Nathaniel and Rebecca fell
under the most fatal of all suspicions of that day, that of being
possessed by the evil one.
Gossip and rumor about these unpopular neighbors culminated in a formal
complaint, and December 30, 1662, at a court held at Hartford, both the
Greensmiths were separately indicted in the same formal charge.
"Nathaniel Greensmith thou art here indicted by the name of Nathaniel
Greensmith for not having the fear of God before thine eyes, thou hast
entertained familiarity with Satan, the grand enemy of God and
mankind--and by his help hast acted things in a preternatural way beyond
human abilities in a natural course for which according to the law of
God and the established law of this commonwealth thou deservest to die."
While Rebecca was in prison under suspicion, she was interviewed by two
ministers, Revs. Haynes and Whiting, as to the charges of Ann Cole--a
next door neighbor--which were written down by them, all of which, and
more, she confessed to be true before the court.
(Note. Increase Mather regarded this confession as convictive a proof of
real witchcraft as most single cases he had known.)
THE MINISTERS' ACCOUNT--_Promise to Satan--A merry Christmas
meeting--Stone's lecture--Haynes' plea--The dear Devil--The corvine
guest--Sexual delusions_
"She forthwith and freely confessed those things to be true, that she
(and other persons named in the discourse) had familiarity with the
devil. Being asked whether she had made an express covenant with him,
she answered she had not, only as she promised to go with him when he
called (which she had accordingly done several times). But that the
devil told her that at Christmas they would have a merry meeting, and
then the covenant should be drawn and subscribed. Thereupon the
fore-mentioned Mr. Stone (being then in court) with much weight and
earnestness laid forth the exceeding heinousness and hazard of that
dreadful sin; and therewith solemnly took notice (upon the occasion
given) of the devil's loving Christmas.
"A person at the same time present being desired the next day more
particularly to enquire of her about her guilt, it was accordingly done,
to whom she acknowledged that though when Mr. Haynes began to read she
could have torn him in pieces, and was so much resolved as might be to
deny her guilt (as she had done before) yet after he had read awhile,
she was as if her flesh had been pulled from her bones, (such was her
expression,) and so could not deny any longer. She also declared that
the devil first appeared to her in the form of a deer or fawn, skipping
about her, wherewith she was not much affrighted but by degrees he
contrived talk with her; and that their meetings were frequently at such
a place, (near her own house;) that some of the company came in one
shape and some in another, and one in particular in the shape of a crow
came flying to them. Amongst other things she owned that the devil had
frequent use of her body."
Had Rebecca been content with purging her own conscience, she alone
would have met the fate she had invoked, and probably deserved; but out
of "love to her husband's soul" she made an accusation against him,
which of itself secured his conviction of the same offense, with the
same dire penalty.
THE ACCUSATION--_Nathaniel's plea--"Travaile and labour"--"A red
creature"--- Prenuptial doubts--The weighty logs--Wifely tenderness and
anxiety--Under the greenwood tree--A cat call--Terpsichore and Bacchus_
"Rebecca Greenswith testifieth in Court Janry 8. 62.
"1. That my husband on Friday night last when I came to prison told me
that now thou hast confest against thyself let me alone and say nothing
of me and I wilbe good unto thy children.
"I doe now testifie that formerly when my husband hathe told me of his
great travaile and labour I wondered at it how he did it this he did
before I was married and when I was married I asked him how he did it
and he answered me he had help yt I knew not of.
"3. About three years agoe as I think it; my husband and I were in ye
wood several miles from home and were looking for a sow yt we lost and I
saw a creature a red creature following my husband and when I came to
him I asked him what it was that was with him and he told me it was a
fox.
"4. Another time when he and I drove or hogs into ye woods beyond ye
pound yt was to keep yong cattle severall miles of I went before ye hogs
to call them and looking back I saw two creatures like dogs one a little
blacker then ye other, they came after my husband pretty close to him
and one did seem to me to touch him I asked him wt they were he told me
he thought foxes I was stil afraid when I saw anything because I heard
soe much of him before I married him.
"5. I have seen logs that my husband hath brought home in his cart that
I wondered at it that he could get them into ye cart being a man of
little body and weake to my apprhension and ye logs were such that I
thought two men such as he could not have done it.
"I speak all this out of love to my husbands soule and it is much
against my will that I am now necessitate to speake agaynst my husband,
I desire that ye Lord would open his heart to owne and speak ye trueth.
"I also testify that I being in ye wood at a meeting there was wth me
Goody Seager Goodwife Sanford & Goodwife Ayres; and at another time
there was a meeting under a tree in ye green by or house & there was
there James Walkely, Peter Grants wife Goodwife Aires & Henry Palmers
wife of Wethersfield, & Goody Seager, & there we danced, & had a bottle
of sack: it was in ye night & something like a catt cald me out to ye
meeting & I was in Mr. Varlets orcherd wth Mrs. Judeth Varlett & shee
tould me that shee was much troubled wth ye Marshall Jonath: Gilbert &
cried, & she sayd if it lay in her power she would doe him a mischief,
or what hurt shee could."
The Greensmiths were convicted and sentenced to suffer death. In
January, 1662, they were hung on "Gallows Hill," on the bluff a little
north of where Trinity College now stands--"a logical location" one most
learned in the traditions and history of Hartford calls it--as it
afforded an excellent view of the execution to a large crowd on the
meadows to the west, a hanging being then a popular spectacle and
entertainment.
CHAPTER IX
"They shall no more be considered guilty than this woman, whom I now
pronounce to be innocent, and command that she be set at liberty." LORD
CHIEF JUSTICE MANSFIELD.
ELIZABETH (CLAUSON) CLAWSON
THE INDICTMENT
"Elizabeth Clawson wife of Stephen Clawson of Standford in the country
of Fayrefeild in the Colony of Connecticutt thou art here indicted by
the name of Elizabeth Clawson that not haueing the fear of God before
thine eyes thou hast had familiarity with Satan the grand enemie of God
& man & that by his instigation & help thou hast in a pretematurall way
afflicted & done harm to the bodyes & estates of sundry of his Maties
subjects or to some of them contrary to the peace of or Soueraigne Lord
the King & Queen their crowne & dignity & that on the 25t of Aprill in
the 4th yeare of theire Maties reigne & at sundry other times for which
by the law of God & the law of the Colony thou deseruest to dye."
THE TESTIMONIES
JOSEPH GARNEY--_The maid in fits--Joseph's subterfuge--""The black
catt"--"The white dogg"--Witches three_
"Joseph Garney saith yt being at Danil Wescots uppon occation sine he
went to Hartford while he was gone from home Nathanill Wiat being with
me his maid being at work in the yard in her right mind soon after fell
into a fit. I took her up and caried her in & laid her upon the bed it
was intimated by sum that she desembled. Nathanel Wiat said with leaue
he would make triall of that leaue was granted and as soon as she was
laid upon ye bed then Wiat asked me for a sharp knife wch I presently
took into my hand then she imediately came to herself and then went out
of ye room into ye other room & so out into ye hen house then I hard her
presently shreek out I ran presently to her and asked her what is ye
matter, she was in such pain she could not Hue & presently fell into a
fit stiff. We carried her in and laid her upon ye bed and then I got my
kniffe ready and fitting under pretence of doing sum great matter then
presently she came to herselfe & said to me Joseph what are you about to
doe I said I would cutt her & seemed to threten great matters, then she
laid her down upon the bed & said she would confess to us how it was
with her and then said I am possessed with ye deuill and he apeared to
me in ye hen house in ye shape of a black catt & was ernist with her to
be a witch & if she would not he would tear her in pieces, then she
again shreekt out now saith shee I see him & lookt wistly & said there
he is just at this time to my apearance there seemed to dart in at ye
west window a sudden light across ye room wch did startle and amase me
at yt present, then she tould me yt she see ye deuill in ye shape of a
white dogg, she tould me that ye deuill apeared in ye shape of these
three women namly goody Clawson, goody Miller, & ye woman at Compo.
[Disborough] I asked her how she knew yt it was ye deuill that appeared
in ye shape of these three women she answered he tould me so. I asked
her if she knew that these three women were witches or no she said she
could not tell they might be honest women for ought she knew or they
might be witches."
Sarah Kecham--_Cateron's seizures--Riding and singing--English and
French--The naked sword_
The testimony of Sarah Kecham. "She saith yt being at Danel Wescots
house Thomas Asten being there Cateron Branch being there in a fit as
they said I asked then how she was they sayth she hath had noe fits she
had bine a riding then I asked her to ride and then she got to riding. I
asked her if her hors had any name & she called out & said Jack; I then
asked her to sing & then she sunge; I asked her yt if she had sung wt
Inglish she could then sing French and then she sung that wch they
called French. Thomas Astin said he knew that she was bewitched I tould
him I did not beleue it, for I said I did not beleue there was any witch
in the town, he said he knew she was for said he I haue hard say that if
a person were bewitched take a naked sword and hould ouer them & they
will laugh themselues to death & with yt he took a sword and held ouer
her and she laughed extremely. Then I spoke sumthing whereby I gaue them
to understand that she did so becase she knew of ye sword, whereupon
Danil made a sine to Thomas Austen to hould ye sword again yt she might
not know of it, wch he did & then she did not laugh at all nor chang her
countenance. Further in discourse I hard Daniel Wescot say yt when he
pleased he could take her out of her fits. John Bates junr being present
at ye same time witnesseth to all ye aboue written.
"Ye testers are redy to giue oath to ye aboue written testimony when
called therunto.
"Staford ye 7th Septembr 1692."
ABIGAIL CROSS AND NATHANIEL CROSS--_The "garles desembling"--Daniel
Wescot's wager--The trick that nobody else could do_
(Kateran Branch, the accuser of the Fairfield women, was a young servant
in Daniel Wescot's household.)
"The testimony of Abigail Cross as followith that upon sum discourse
with Danil Wescot about his garles desembling sd Daniel sd that he would
venture both his cows against a calfe yt she should doe a trick tomorrow
morning that no body else could doe. sd Abigail sd to morrow morning,
can you make her do it when you will; & he said yess when I will I can
make her do it.
"Nathaneel Cross being present at ye same time testifieth ye same with
his wife.
"The above testers say they are redy to giue oath to ye aboue written
testimony when called to it."
SARAH BATES--_An effective remedy for fits--Burnt feathers--Blood
letting--The result_
"The testimony of Mrs. Sarah Bates she saith yt when first ye garl was
taken with strang fits she was sent for to Danil Wescots house & she
found ye garle lieing upon ye bed. She then did apprehend yt the garls
illness might be from sum naturall cause; she therefore aduised them to
burn feathers under her nose & other menes yt had dun good in fainting
fits and then she seemed to be better with it; and so she left her that
night in hops to here she wold be better ye next morning; but in ye
morning Danil Wescot came for her againe and when she came she found ye
garl in bed seemingly senceless & spechless; her eyes half shet but her
pulse seemed to beat after ye ordinary maner her mistres desired she
might be let blud on ye foot in hops it might do her good. Then I said I
thought it could not be dun in ye capassity she was in but she desired a
triall to be made and when euerything was redy & we were agoing to let
her blud ye garl cried; the reson was asked her why she cried; her
answer was she would not be bluded; we asked her why; she said again
because it would hurt her it was said ye hurt would be but small like a
prick of a pin then she put her foot ouer ye bed and was redy to help
about it; this cariag of her seemed to me strang who before seemed to ly
like a dead creature; after she was bluded and had laid a short time she
clapt her hand upon ye couerlid & cried out; and on of ye garls yt stood
by said mother she cried out; and her mistres was so afected with it yt
she cried and said she is bewitched. Upon this ye garl turned her head
from ye folk as if she wold hide it in ye pillar & laughed." The above
written Sarah Bates appeared before me in Stamford this 13th Septembr
1692 & made oath to the above written testimony. Before me Jonat, Bell
Comissr."
Daniel Wescot--_Exchanging yarn--"A quarrill"--The child's nightmare_
"The testimony of Daniel Wescote saith that some years since my wife &
Goodwife Clauson agreed to change their spinning, & instead of half a
pound Goodwife Clawson sent three quarters of a pound I haueing waide
it, carried it to her house & cnvinced her of it yt it was so, & thence
forward she till now took occation upon any frivolous matter to be angry
& pick a quarrill with booth myself & wife, & some short time after this
earning ye flex, my eldest daughter Johannah was taken suddenly in ye
night shrecking& crying out, There is a thing will catch me, uppon which
I got up & lit a candle, & tould her there was nothing, she answerd,
yees there was, there tis, pointing with her finger sometimes to one
place & sometimes to another, & then sd tis run under the pillow. I askd
her wr it was, she sd a sow, & in a like manner continued disturbd a
nights abought ye space of three weeks, insomuch yt we ware forcd to
carry her abroad sometimes into my yard or lot, but for ye most part to
my next neighbours house, to undress her & get her to sleep, &
continually wn she was disturbd shed cry out theres my thing come for
me, whereuppon some neighbours advisd to a removal of her, & having
removd her to Fairfeild it left her, & since yt hath not been disturbd
in like manner."
"The aboue testimony of Daniell Wesocott now read to the wife of sayd
Daniell Shee testifys to the whole verbatum & hath now giuen oath to the
same before us in Standford, Septembr 12th 1692.
"JONATN SELLECK Comissr
"JONOTHAN BELL Commissionr.
"Sworn in Court Septr 15 1692
"As attests John Allyn Secry."
ABIGAIL WESCOT--_Throwing stones--Railing--Twitting of "fine cloths"_
"Abigal Wescot further saith that as she was going along the street
Goody Clauson came out to her and they had some words together and Goody
Clauson took up stone and threw at her; and at another time as she went
along the street before said Clausons dore Goody Clauson caled to me and
asked me what I did in my chamber last Sabbath day night, and I doe
affirme that I was not their that night; and at another time as I was in
her sone Stephens house being neer her one house shee followed me in and
contended with me becase I did not com into her house caling of me proud
slut what ear you proud on your fine cloths and you look to be mistres
but you never shal by me and seuerall other prouoking speeches at that
time and at another time as I was by her house she contended and
quareled with me; and we had many words together and shee twited me of
my fine cloths and of my mufe and also contended with me several other
times.
"Taken upon oath before us Standford Septemr 12th
"JONATN SELLECK Comissionr
"JONOTHAN BELL Comissr."
ABRAHAM FINCH--_The strange light--"Two pry eies"--Cause of the "pricking"_
"Abraham Finch jun aged about 26 years.
"The deponant saith that hee being a waching at with ye French girle at
Daniell Wescoat house in the night I being laid on the bed the girle
fell into a fite and fell crose my feet and then I looking up I sawe a
light abut the bignes of my too hands glance along the sommer of the
house to the harth ward, and afterwards I sawe it noe mor; and when
Dauid Selleck brought a light into the room a littell space after the
French garle cam to hirselfe againe. Wee ascked hir whie shee skreemed
out when shee fell into her fit. Shee answered goodie Clawson cam in
with two firy eies.
"Furdermore the deponant saith that Dauid Selleck was that same night
with him and being laid downe on the bed me nie the garle and I laye by
the bed sid on the chest and Dauid Selleck starte up suddenly and I
asked wt was ye matter with him and hee answered shee pricked mee and
the French garle answered noe shee did not it was goodie Crump and then
shee put her hand ouer the bed sid and said give mee that thing that you
pricked Mr. Selleck with and I cached hold of her hand and found a pin
in it and I took it away from her. The deponant saith that when the garl
put her hand ouer the bed it was open and he looked very well in her
hand and cold see nothing and before shee puled in her hand again shee
had goten yt pin yt hee took from her.
"This aboue written testor is redy when called to giue oath to the aboue
written testimony."
EBENEZER BISHOP--_Kateran calls for somersaults--Fits and spots_
"Ebenezer Bishop aged about 26 years saith on night being at Danill
Wescots house Catern Branch being in on of her fits I sate doen by ye
bed side next to her she then calling ernestly upon goody Clason goody
Clason seueral times now goody Clason turn heels ouer head after this
she had a violent fit and calling again said now they are agoing to kill
me & crieing out very loud that they pincht her on ye neck and calling
out yt they pincht her again I setting by her I took ye light and look
upon her neck & I see a spot look red seeming to me as big as a pece of
eight afterwards it turned blue & blacker then any other part of her
skin and after ye second time of her calling I took ye light & looked
again and she pointed with her hand lower upon her shoulder and I se
another place upon her shoulder look red & blue as I saw upon the other
place before and then after yt she had another fit.
"Stamford 29th August 1692 this aboue written testor is redy when called
to giue oath to ye aboue written testimony.
"Hannah Knapp testifieth the same to the above written and further adeth
that shee saw scraches upon her; and is redy to give oth to it if called
to it.
"Both the above sworn in Court Septr 15 1692. Attests John Allyn,
Secry."
SAMUEL HOLLY--_Singular physiological transformations_
"The testimony of Samuel Holly senour aged aboute fifty years saith that
hee being at ye house of Danell Wescot in ye euning I did see his maid
Cattern Branch in her fit that shee did swell in her brests (as shee lay
on her bed) and they rise as lik bladers and suddenly pased in to her
bely, and in a short time returned to her brest and in a short time her
breasts fell and a great ratling in her throat as if shee would haue
been choked; All this I judge beyond nature.
"Danil Wescot testifieth to ye same aboue written and further addith yt
when she was in those fits ratling in her throat she would put out her
tong to a great extent I consieue beyond nature & I put her tong into
her mouth again & then I looked in her mouth & could se no tong but as
if it were a lump of flesh down her throat and this ofen times.
"The testors, as concerned are ready to giue oath to the above written
testimony if called thereunto.
"Staford 29 April 1692
"Sworn in Court Septr 15 1692.
"Attests JOHN ALLYN, Seer."
"The testimony of Daniell Westcot aged about forty nine years saith that
som time this spring since his maid Catton Branch had fits and with many
other strange actions in her, I see her as shee lay on the bed at her
length in her fit, and at once sprang up to the chamber flore withouts
the helpe of her hands or feete; thats neere six feet and I judge it
beyond nator for any person so to doe.
"Sworn in Court Sept 15 1692.
"Attests JOHN ALLYN Secry."
_Inquiry and search--Visions of the young accuser--The talking cat--The
spread table--The strange woman--"Silk hood and blew apron"--"2
firebrands in her forehead"--"A turn at heels ouer head"_
"Stamford May ye 27th, 1692.
"Uppon ye information & sorrowfull complainte of Sergeant Daniel Wescot
in regard of his maide servant Katherine Branch whome he suspects to be
afflicted of witchcraft, under wch sore affliction she hath now labourd
upwards of five weeks, & in that lamentable state yeat remains. In order
to inquiry & search into (the) matter were then psent Major Nathan
Golde, Capt. John Burr, Capt. Jonothan Selleck, Lieutenant Jonothan
Bell.
"The manner of her being taken & handled.
"Being in ye feilds gathering of herbs, she was seizd with a pinching &
pricking at her breast; she being come home fell a crying, was askd ye
reason, gave no answer but wept & immediately fell down on ye flooer wth
her hands claspt, & with like actions continued wth some respite at
times ye space of two days, then sd she saw a cat, was asked what ye cat
sd she answerd ye cat askd her to [go] with her, with a promise of fine
things & yt if she should goe where there ware fine folks; & still was
followed wth like fits, seeming to be much tormented, being askd again
what she saw sd cats, & yt they toulde her they woulde kill her, & wth
this menaceing disquieted her severall dayes; after yt she saw in ye
roome where she lay a table spread wth variety of meats, & they askd her
to eat & at ye table she saw tenn eating, this she positively affirmd
when in her right minde, after this was exceeding much tormentted, her
master askd her what was ye matter, because she as she sd in her fit run
to sundry places to abscoude herselfe, she toulde him twas because she
saw a cat coming to her wth a rat, to fling in her face, after yt she sd
they toulde her they woulde kill her because she tould of it. These sort
of actions continued about 13 days, & then was extremely afflicted with
fits in ye night, to ye number of about 40ty crying out a witch, a
witch, her master runing to her askd her what was ye matter she sd she
felt a hand. Ye next week she saw as she sd a woman stand in ye house
having on a silk hood & a blew apron, after that in ye evening being
well composd going out of dooers run in again & caught her master
abought ye middle, he askd her ye reason, she sd yt she meet an olde
woman at ye dooer, with 2 firebrands in her forehead, he askd her what
kinde of clooths she had on, answered she had two homespun coats, one
tuct up rounde her ye other down. The next day she namd a person calling
her goody Clauson, & sd there she is sitting on a reel, & again sd she
saw her sit on ye pommel of a chair, saying Ime sure you are a witch,
elce you coulde not sit so & sd she saw this person before namd at times
for a week together. One time she sd she saw her and describd her whole
attire, her [master]? went immediately & saw ye woman namd exactly atird
as she was describd of ye person afflicted. Again she sd in her fits
Goody Clauson lets haue a turn at heels ouer head, withall saying shall
you goe first, or shall I. Weel sd she if I do first you shall after, &
wth yt she turnd ouer two or three times heels ouer head, & so lay down,
saying come if you will not Ile beat your head & ye wall together &
haueing ended these words she goot up looking aboute ye house, & sd look
shes gone, & so fell into a fit."
LIDIA PENOIR--_"A lying gairl"_
"The testimony of Lidia Penoir. Shee saith that shee heard her ant
Abigal Wescot say that her seruant gairl Catern Branch was such a lying
gairl that not any boddy could belieue one word what shee said and saith
that shee heard her ant Abigail Wescot say that shee did not belieue
that Mearcy nor goody Miller nor Hannah nor any of these women whome
shee had apeacht was any more witches then shee was and that her husband
would belieue Catern before he would belieue Mr. Bishop or Leiftenat
Bell or herself.
"The testor is ready to giue oath to sd testimony. Standford, Augt 24th
1692."
ELEZER SLAWSON--"_A woman for pease"--A good word_
"The testimony of Elezer Slawson aged 51 year.
"He saith yt he liued neare neighbour, to goodwife Clawson many years &
did allways observe her to be a woman for pease and to counsell for
pease & when she hath had prouacations from her neighbours would answer
& say we must liue in pease for we are naibours & would neuer to my
obseruation giue threatning words nor did I look at her as one giuen to
malice; & further saith not
"ELEAZAR SLASON.
"CLEMENT BUXSTUM.
"The above written subscribers declared the aboue written & signed it
with their own hands before me
"JONOTHAN BELL Comissionr."
In closing the citations of testimony in the Clawson case, other
performances of Catherine Branch, the maid servant of Daniel and Abigail
Wescot, are given to emphasize the absurdities which found credence in
the community and brought several women to the bar of justice, to answer
to the charge of a capital offense.
_An epileptic fit--Muscular contortions--"Talkeing to the
appearances"--"Hell fyre to all eternity"--A creature "with a great head
& wings & noe boddy & all black"--Songs and tunes--Secular and
scriptural recitations--" The lock of hayer"_
"June 28th 1692.
"Sergt Daniell Wescott brought his Mayd Katheren Branch to my house to
be examined, which was dune as is within mentioned, & the sd Katheren
Branch being dismised was gott about 40 or 50 rodd from my house, my
Indian girl runeing back sayinge sd Kate was falen downe & looked black
in the face soe my sonn John Selleck & cousen Dauid Selleck went out &
fecht her in, shee being in a stife fitt--& comeing out of that fitt
fell a schrickeing, crying out you kill me, Goody Clawson you kill me,
two or three times shee spoke it & her head was bent downe backwards
allmost to her back; & sometimes her arme would be twisted round the sd
Kate cryeing out you break my arme & with many such fitts following,
that two men could hardly prevent by all their strenth the breaking of
her neck & arme, as was thought by all the standers by; & in this maner
sd Kate continued all the night, & neuer came to her sences but had som
litell respitt betweene those terible fitts & then sd Kate would be
talkeing to the appearances & would answer them & ask questions of them
to manny to be here inserted or remembered. They askt her to be as they
were & then shee should be well & we herd sd Kate saye I will not yeald
to you for you are wiches & yor portion is hell fyre to all eternity &
many such like expressions shee had; telling them that Mr. Bishop had
often tould her that shee must not yield to them, & that that daye
Norwalk minister tould her the same therefore she sayd I hope God will
keep me from yielding to you; sd Kate sayd Goody Clawson why doe you
torment me soe; I neuer did you any harme neather in word nor acction;
sayeing why are you all come now to afflict me. Katherine tould their
names, saying Goody Clawson, Mercy Disbrow, Goody Miller, & a woman & a
gail, five of you. Then she sd Kate spoke to the gail whom she caled
Sarah, & sayd is Sarah Staples your right name; I am aferd you tell me a
lye; tell me your rite name; & soe uged it much; & then stoped & sayd,
tell; yeas I must tell my master & Capt. Selleck if they aske me but Ile
tell noe body els. Soe at last sd Kate sayd, Hanah Haruy once or twice
out is that your name why then did you tell me a lye before; Well then
sayd Kate what is the womans name that comes with you; & soe stoped &
then sayd tell yeas I must tell my master & Capt. Selleok if he askes
me, but Ile tell noeboddy els, & sayd you will not tell me then I will
ask Goody Crumpe;& she sd Gody Crump what is the woemans name yt comes
with Hanah Haruy; & so urged severall times, a then sd Marry Mary what,
& then Mary Haruy; well sayd Kate is Mary Haruy ye mother of Hanah
Haruy; & then sayd now I know it seeming to reioyce, & saying Hanah why
did you not tell me before, sayeing their was more catts come at first &
I shall know all your names; & Kate sayd what creature is that with a
great head & wings & noe boddy & all black, sayeing Hanah is that your
father; I believe it is for you are a wich; & sd Kate sayd Hanah what is
yor fathers name; & have you noe grandfather & grandmother; how come you
to be a witch & then stoped, & sd again a grandmother what is her name &
then stoped, & sd Goody Staples what is her maiden name & then again
fell into terrible fits which much affrighted the standers by, which
were many pesons to behould & here what was sd & dune by Kate. Shee fell
into a fitt singeing songes & then tunes as Kate sd giges for them to
daunce by each takeing their turns; then sd Kate rehersed a great many
verses, which are in some primers, & allsoe ye dialoge between Christ
ye yoong man & the dieull, the Lords prayer, all the comand-ments &
catechism, the creede & severall such good things, & then sayd, Hanah I
will say noe more; let me here you, & sayd why doe I say these things;
you doe not loue them & a great deale more she sayd which I cannot well
remember but what is aboue & on ye other syde was herd and seene by
myselfe & others as I've attest to it.
"Jonahn Selleck Commissioner."
"To add one thing more to my relation as is within of what I saw & herd,
is that som persons atempted to cutt of a lock of the sd Kates hayer,
when shee was in her fitts but could not doe it, for allthough she knew
not what was sayd & dune by them, & let them come neuer soe priuately
behynd her to doe it yeat shee would at once turne about and preuent it;
At last Dauid Waterbery tooks her in his armes to hould her by force;
that a lock of hayer might be cutt; but though at other times a weake &
light gail yeat shee was then soe stronge & soe extreame heauy that he
could not deale with her, not her hayer could not be cutt; & Kate
cryeing out biterly, as if shee had bin beaten all ye time. When sd Kate
come to herself, was askt if she was wileing her hayer should be cutt;
shee answered yeas--we might cutt all of it we would."
Elizabeth Clawson was found not guilty.
HUGH (CROSIA, CROSHER) CROHSAW
A court of Assistants holden at Hartford, May 8th, 1693.
Present.
Robert Treat, Esq. Governor
William Joanes, Esq. Dept. Govr.
Samuel Willis, Esq. \
William Pitkin, Esq. |
Col. John Allyn |
} Assistants
Nath. Stanly, Esq. |
Caleb Stanly, Esq. |
Moses Mansfield, Esq. /
Gent. of the Jury are:
Joseph Bull, Nathaneal Loomis, Joseph Wadsworth, Nathanael Bowman,
Jonathan Ashley, Stephen Chester, Daniel Heyden, Samuell Newell, Abraham
Phelps, Joseph North, John Stoughton, Thomas Ward.
And the names of the Grand Jury are:
Bartholomew Barnard, Joseph Mygatt, William Williams, John Marsh, John
Pantry, Joseph Langton, William Gibbons, Stephen Kelsey, Cornelious
Gillett, Samuel Collins, James Steele, Jonathan Loomis.
* * * * *
THE INDICTMENT
"Hugh Crotia, Thou Standest here presented by the Name of Hugh Crotia of
Stratford in the Colony of Connecticutt, in New England; for that not
haveing the fear of God before thine Eyes, through the Instigation of
the Devill, thou hast forsaken thy God, & covenanted with the Devill,
and by his help hast in a preternaturall way afflicted the bodys of
Sundry of his Majestie's good subjects, for which according to the Law
of God, and the Law of this Colony, thou deservest to dye."
_The arrest--Satan the accessory--An alibi--The confession--A contract
to serve the devil_
"Fayrfield this 15 Novembor 1692 acording as is Informed that hugh
Crosia is complained of by a gerll at Stratford for aflicting her and
hee being met on ye road going westward from fayrfeild hee being met by
Joseph Stirg and danill bets of norwak and being brought back by them to
athority in fayrfeild and on thare report to sd authority of sum
confesion sd Croshaw mad of such things as rendar him undar suspecion of
familiarity with satan sd Crosha being asked whethar he
sayd he sent ye deuell to hold downe Eben Booths gerll ye gerll above
intended hee answared hee did say so but hee was not thar himself hee
answereth he lyed when he sayd he sent ye deuell as above.
"Sd hugh beeing asked whethar hee did not say hee had made a Contract
with ye deuell five years senc with his heart and signed to ye deuells
book and then seald it with his bloud which Contract was to serve ye
deuell and the deuell to serve him he saith he did say so and sayd he
ded so and wret his name and sealed ye Contract with his bloud and that
he had ever since been practising Eivel against every man: hee also sayd
ye deuell opned ye dore of eben booths hous made it fly open and ye gate
fly open being asked how he could tell he sayd he deuell apeered to him
like a boye and told him hee ded make them fly open and then ye boye
went out of his sight.
"This examination taken and Confessed before authority in fairefeild
before Us Testis the date above
"Jon. Bur, Assist
"Nathan Gold, Asist."
"The Grand Jury upon consideration of this Case re-turnd, Ignoramus....
"This Court do grant to the said Hugh Crotia A Gaol Delivery, he paying
the Master of the Gaol his just fees and dues upon his release and also
all the Charge laid out on him at Fairfield, & in bringing him to
prison.
ELIZABETH GARLICK
In 1657, when Easthampton, Long Island, was within the jurisdiction of
New York, becoming a few months later a part of Connecticut, two persons
came over from Gardiner's Island and settled in the colony, Joshua
Garlick and Elizabeth his wife--whilom servants of the famous engineer
and colonist Lion Gardiner.
Stories of Elizabeth's practice of witchcraft and other black arts
followed her, and despite her attendance at church she fell under
suspicion, and was arrested, and held by the magistrates for trial after
hearing various witnesses. Credulity offers no better illustrations than
those which fell from the lips of some of the witnesses in this case.
_Tuning a psalm--A black thing--A double tongued woman--A doleful
noise--Burning the herbs--The sick child--Gardiner's ox--The dead
ram--Burning "the sow's tale"_
Goodwife Howell, during her illness which hastened Elizabeth's arrest,
"tuned a psalm and screked out several times together very grievously,"
and cried "a witch! a witch! now are you come to torter me because I
spoke two or three words against you," and also said, she saw a black
thing at the beds featte, that Garlick was double-tongued, pinched her
with pins, and stood by the bed ready to tear her in pieces. And William
Russell, in a fit of insomnia or indigestion, before daybreak, "heard a
very doleful noyse on ye backside of ye fire, like ye noyse of a great
stone thrown down among a heap of stones."
Goody Birdsall "declared y't she was in the house of Goody Simons when
Goody Bishop came into the house with ye dockweed and between Goody
Davis and Goody Simons they burned the herbs. Farther, she said y't
formerly dressing flax at Goody Davis's house, Goody Davis saith y't she
had dressed her children in clean linen at the island, and Goody Garlick
came in and said, 'How pretty the child doth look,' and so soon as she
had spoken Goody Garlick said, 'the child is not well, for it groaneth,'
and Goody Davis said her heart did rise, and Goody Davis said, when she
took the child from Goody Garlick, she said she saw death in the face of
it, & her child sickened presently upon it, and lay five daies and 5
nights and never opened the eyes nor dried till it died. Also she saith
as she dothe remember Goody Davis told her upon some difference between
Mr. Gardiner or some of his family, Goodman Garlick gave out some
threateningse speeches, & suddenly after Mr. Gardiner had an ox legge
broke upon Ram Island. Moreover Goody Davis said that Goody Garlick was
a naughtie woman."
Goody Edwards testified: "Y't as Goody Garlick owned, she sent to her
daughter for a little best milk and she had some and presently after,
her daughters milk went away as she thought and as she remembers the
child sickened about y't time." Goody Hand deposed that "she had heard
Goody Davis say that she hoped Goody Garlick would not come to
Eastharapton, because, she said, Goody Garlick was naughty, and there
had many sad things befallen y'm at the Island, as about ye child, and
ye ox, as Goody Birdsall have declared, as also the negro child she said
was taken away, as I understood by her words, in
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