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Title: The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697)

Author: John M. Taylor

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Most recently updated: October 28, 2024

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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"

Copyright, 1908

BY THE GRAFTON PRESS
REPRINTED 1974

BY

CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS

ISBN 0-87923-053-0

"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 ---- 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 ---- 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

[A] Original in office of Clerk of the Courts at Salem, Massachusetts.
Said to be the only one extant in American archives.

[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. . . . 1-5

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. . . . 6-14

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. . . . 15-22

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. . . . 23-34

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. . . . 35-44

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. . . . 45-61

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. . . . 62-78

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. . . . 79-100

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. . . . 101-
121

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. . . . 122-141

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. . . . 142-160

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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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]

[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 9it 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]

[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. 1d.—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 D>avis 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 a strange manner, and also of a ram y't
was dead, and this fell out quickly one after another, and also of a
sow y't was fat and lustie and died. She said they did burn some of
the sow's tale and presently Goody Garlick did come in.">

The settlers held a town meeting, and wisely questioning whether
they had legal authority to hold a trial in a capital case, they
appointed a committee to go "unto Keniticut to carry up Goodwife
Garlick yt she may be delivered up unto the authoritie there for the
trial of the cause of witchcraft which she is suspected for." The
General Court of Connecticut took jurisdiction of the case, a trial of
Goody Garlick was held, resulting in her acquittal, and she was sent

back to Easthampton, to what end is not told in the records of the
day.

CHAPTER X
"This case is one of the most painful in the entire Connecticut list, for she impresses one as
the best woman; how the just and high minded old lady had excited hate or suspicion, we
cannot know." Connecticut as a Colony (1: 212), MORGAN.

"Mr. Dauenport gaue in as followeth—That Mr. Ludlow sitting with him and his wife alone,
and discoursing of the passages concerning Knapps wife, the Witch and her execution, said
that she came downe from the ladder (as he understood it), and desired to speak with him
alone, and told him who was the witch spoken of." New Haven Colonial Record (2: 78).

"Shortly after this, a poor simple minded woman living in Fairfield, by the name of Knap,
was suspected of witchcraft. She was tried, condemned and sentenced to be hanged."
SCHENCK'S History of Fairfield (1: 71).

"GOODWIFE KNAP"

This was one of the most notable of the witchcraft cases. It stands
among the early instances of the infliction of the death penalty in
Connecticut; the victim was presumably a woman of good repute,
and not a common scold, an outcast, or a harridan; it is singularly
illustrative of witchcraft's activities and their grasp on the lives of the
best men and women, of the beliefs that ruled the community, and of
the crude and revolting practices resorted to in the punishments of
the condemned, and especially since in its later developments it
involved in controversy and litigation two of the great characters in
colonial history, Rev. John Davenport, one of the founders of New
Haven, and Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor of Massachusetts and
Connecticut.[I] Goodwife Knapp of Fairfield was "suspicioned." That
was enough to set the villagers agog with talk and gossip and
scandal about the unfortunate woman, which poisoned the wells of
sober thought and charitable purpose, and swiftly ripened into a
formal accusation and indictment.

[I] Connecticut, through its Commission of Sculpture, in recognition
of his services to the Colony, is to erect a memorial statue to Ludlow
to occupy the western niche on the northern facade of the Capitol
building at Hartford.

Pending her trial the prisoner was committed to the house of
correction or common jail for the safe keeping of "refractory persons"
and criminals.

What terrors of mind and spirit must have waited on this "simple
minded" woman, in the cold, gloomy, and comfortless prison,
probably built of rough logs, with a single barred window and
massive iron studded door, a ghost haunted torture chamber, in
charge of some harsh wardsmen.

Knapp was duly and truly tried, and sentenced to death by hanging,
the usual mode of execution. No witch was ever burned in New
England.

From the day sentence was pronounced until the hanging took
place, out in Try's field beyond the Indian field, in view of the
villagers, whose curiosity or thirst for horrors or whose duty led them
there, this prisoner of delusion was made the object of rudest
treatment, espionage, and of inhuman attempts to wring from her lips
a confession of her own guilt or an accusation against some other
person as a witch.

The very day of her condemnation, a self-constituted committee of
women, with one man on it,—Mistress Thomas Sherwood, Goodwife
Odell, Mistress Pell, and her two daughters, Goody Lockwood, and
Goodwife Purdy,—visited the prison, and pressed her to name any
other witch in town, and so receive such consolation from the
minister as would be for her soul's welfare.

Mistress Pell seems to have been the chief spokeswoman, and each
member of the committee served in some degree as an inquisitor, or

exhorter, not to repentance, but to disclosures. Baited and badgered,
warned and threatened, the hapless prisoner protested she was
innocent, denied the charges made against her, told one of the
committee to "take heed the devile have not you," and also said, "I
must not render evil for evil.... I have sins enough allready, and I will
not add this [accusing another] to my condemnation." And at last in
agony of soul she made that pathetic appeal to one of her relentless
tormentors, "neuer, neuer poore creature was tempted as I am
tempted, pray, pray for me."

But even after death on the scaffold, the witch-hunters of the day did
not refrain from their ghoulish work, but desecrated the remains of
Goodwife Knapp at the grave side in their search for witch marks.

All the facts during the imprisonment, execution and burial are set
forth in some of the testimonies herewith given, in a chapter of
related history (the evidence at the trial not being disclosed in any
present record), and all of them marked by a total unconsciousness
of their sinister and revolting character.

No case in the history of the delusion in New England is more
replete in incidents and apt illustrations, due to their fortunate
preservation in the records of a lawsuit involving some of the
prominent characters in that drama of religious insanity.

At a magistrate's court held at New Haven the 29th of May, 1654.

Present.
Theophilus Eaton Esqr,
Gouernor.
Mr. Stephen Goodyeare, Dept,
Gouernor.
Francis Newman
Mr. William Fowler } Magistrats
Mr. William Leete

a suit was heard entitled—

Thomas Staplies of Fairfield, plant'.

Mr Rogger Ludlow late of Fairfield, defendt.

It was brought by an aggrieved husband to recover damages for
defamation of the character of his wife. It centered in one of the
dramatic incidents at Knapp's execution. In the last extremity, and in
the presence of immediate death, the prisoner came down from the
ladder, and asking to speak with Ludlow alone, told him that
Goodwife Staplies was a witch.

Some time afterward Ludlow, at New Haven, told the Rev. John
Davenport and his wife the story, in confidence, and under the
promise of secrecy, but it spread abroad with inevitable accretions,
and when it reached Fairfield Thomas Staplies went to law, to
vindicate his wife's character in pounds, shillings, and pence. These
are some of the statements and remarkable testimonies:

Attorney Banke's declaration—Ensigne Bryan's answer—
Davenport's view of an oath, Hebrews vi,16—His account and
conscientious scruples—Mistress Davenport's forgetfulness—"A
tract of lying"—"Indian gods"—Luce Pell and Hester Ward's visit to
the prison—The "search" of Knapp—"Witches teates"—Feminine
resemblances—Matronly opinions—Post-mortem evidence—
Contradictions—Knapp's ordeal—"Fished wthall in private"—Her
denials— Talk on the road to the "gallowes"

"John Bankes, atturny for Thomas Staplies, declared, that Mr.
Ludlow had defamed Thomas Staplies wife, in reporting to Mr.
Dauenport and Mris. Dauenport that she had laid herselfe vnder a
new suspition of being a witch, that she had caused Knapps wife to
be new searched after she was hanged, and when she saw the
teates, said if they were the markes of a witch, then she was one, or
she had such markes; secondly, Mr. Ludlow said Knapps wife told
him that goodwife Staplies was a witch; thirdly, that Mr. Ludlow hath
slandered goodwife Staplies in saying that she made a trade of lying,
or went on in a tract of lying, &c.

"Ensigne Bryan, atturny for Mr. Ludlow, desired the charge might bee
proued, wch accordingly the plant' did, and first an attestation vnder
Master Dauenports hand, conteyning the testimony of Master and
Mistris Dauenport, was presented and read; but the defendant
desired what was testified and accepted for proofe might be vpon
oath, vpon wch Mr. Dauenport gaue in as followeth, That he hoped
the former attestation hee wrott and sent to the court, being
compared wth Mr. Ludlowes letter, and Mr. Dauenports answer,
would haue satisfyed concerning the truth of the pticulars wthout his
oath, but seeing Mr. Ludlowes atturny will not be so satisfyed, and
therefore the court requires his oath, and yt he lookes at an oath, in
a case of necessitie, for confirmation of truth, to end strife among
men, as an ordinance of God, according to Heb: 6,16, hee therevpon
declares as followeth,

"That Mr. Ludlow, sitting wth him & his wife alone, and discoursing of
the passages concerning Knapps wife the witch, and her execution,
said that she came downe from the ladder, (as he vnderstood it,) and
desired to speake wth him alone, and told him who was the witch
spoken of; and so fair as he remembers, he or his wife asked him
who it was; he said she named goodwife Stapleies; Mr. Dauenport
replyed that hee beleeued it was vtterly vntrue and spoken out of
malice, or to that purpose; Mr. Ludlow answered that he hoped better
of her, but said she was a foolish woman, and then told them a
further storey, how she tumbled the corpes of the witch vp & downe
after her death, before sundrie women, and spake to this effect, if
these be the markes of a witch I am one, or I haue such markes. Mr.
Dauenport vtterly disliked the speech, not haueing heard anything
from others in that pticular, either for her or against her, and
supposing Mr. Ludlow spake it vpon such intelligenc as satisfyed
him; and whereas Mr. Ludlow saith he required and they promised
secrecy, he doth not remember that either he required or they
pmised it, and he doth rather beleeue the contrary, both because he
told them that some did ouerheare what the witch said to him, and
either had or would spread it abroad, and because he is carefull not
to make vnlawfull promises, and when he hath made a lawfull
promise he is, through the help of Christ, carefull to keepe it.

"Mris. Dauenport saith, that Mr. Ludlow being at their house, and
speakeing aboute the execution of Knapps wife, (he being free in his
speech,) was telling seuerall passages of her, and to the best of her
remembrance said that Knapps wife came downe from the ladder to
speake wth him, and told him that goodwife Staplyes was a witch,
and that Mr. Daueport replyed something on behalfe of goodwife
Staplies, but the words she remembers not; and something Mr.
Ludlow spake, as some did or might ouer-heare what she said to
him, or words to that effect, and that she tumbled the dead body of
Knapps wife vp & downe and spake words to this purpose, that if
these be the markes of a witch she was one, or had such markes;
and concerning any promise of secrecy she remembers not."

"Mr. Dauenport and Mris. Dauenport affirmed ypon oath, that the
testimonies before written, as they properly belong to each, is the
truth, according to their best knowledg & memory.

"Mr. Dauenport desired that in takeing his oath to be thus
vnderstood, that as he takes his oath to giue satisfaction to the court
and Mr. Ludlowes atturny, in the matters attested betwixt M' Ludlow
& Thomas Staplies, so he lymits his oath onely to that pt and not to
ye preface or conclusion, they being no pt of the attestation and so
his oath not required in them.

"To the latter pt of the declaration, the plant' pduced ye proofe
following,

"Goodwif Sherwood of Fairfeild affirmeth vpon oath, that vpon some
debate betwixt Mr. Ludlow and goodwife Staplies, she heard M'
Ludlow charge goodwif Staplies wth a tract of lying, and that in
discourse she had heard him so charge her seuerall times.

"John Tompson of Fairfeild testifyeth vpon oath, that in discourse he
hath heard Mr. Ludlow express himselfe more then once that
goodwife Staplies went on in a tract of lying, and when goodwife
Staplyes hath desired Mr. Ludlow to convince her of telling one lye,
he said she need not say so, for she went on in a tract of lying.

"Goodwife Gould of Fairefeild testifyeth vpon oath, that in a debate in
ye church wth Mr. Ludlow, goodwife Staplyes desired him to show
her wherein she had told one lye, but Mr. Ludlow said she need not
mention ptculars, for she had gon on in a tract of lying.

"Ensigne Bryan was told, he sees how the plantife hath proued his
charge, to wch he might now answer; wherevpon he presented
seuerall testimonies in wrighting vpon oath, taken before Mr. Wells
and Mr. Ludlow.

"May the thirteenth, 1654.

"Hester Ward, wife of Andrew Ward, being sworne deposeth, that
aboute a day after that goodwife Knapp was condemned for a witch,
she goeing to ye prison house where the said Knapp was kept, she,
ye said Knapp, voluntarily, wthout any occasion giuen her, said that
goodwife Staplyes told her, the said Knapp, that an Indian brought
vnto her, the said Staplyes, two litle things brighter then the light of
the day, and told the said goodwife Staplyes they were Indian gods,
as the Indian called ym; and the Indian wthall told her, the said
Staplyes, if she would keepe them, she would be so big rich, all one
god, and that the said Staplyes told the said Knapp, she gaue them
again to the said Indian, but she could not tell whether she did so or
no.

"Luce Pell, the wife of Thomas Pell, being sworne deposeth as
followeth, that aboute a day after goodwife Knapp was condemned
for a witch, Mris. Jones earnestly intreated her to goe to ye said
Knapp, who had sent for her, and then this deponent called the said
Hester Ward, and they went together; then the said Knapp
voluntarily, of her owne accord, spake as the said Hester Ward hath
testifyed, word by word; and the said Mris. Pell further saith, that she
being one of ye women that was required by the court to search the
said Knapp before she was condemned, & then Mris. Jones presed
her, the said Knapp, to confess whether ther were any other that
were witches, because goodwife goodwife Basset, when she was
condemned, said there was another witch in Fairefeild that held her
head full high, and then the said goodwife Knapp stepped a litle

aside, and told her, this deponent, goodwife Basset ment not her;
she asked her whom she ment, and she named goodwife Staplyes,
and then vttered the same speeches as formerly conerning ye Indian
gods, and that goodwife Staplyes her sister Martha told the said
goodwife Knapp, that her sister Staplyes stood by her, by the fire in
there house, and she called to her, sister, sister, and she would not
answer, but she, the said Martha, strucke at her and then she went
away, and ye next day she asked her sister, and she said she was
not there; and Mris. Ward doth also testify wth Mris. Pell, that the
said Knapp said the same to her; and the said Mris. Pell saith, that
aboute two dayes after the search afforesaid, she went to ye said
Knapp in prison house, and the said Knapp said to her, I told you a
thing the other day, and goodman Staplies had bine wth her and
threatened her, that she had told some thing of his wife that would
bring his wiues name in question, and this deponent she told no
body of it but her husband, & she was much moued at it.

"Elizabeth Brewster being sworne, deposeth and saith, that after
goodwife Knap was executed, as soone as she was cut downe, she,
the said Knapp, being caried to the graue side, goodwife Staplyes
wth some other women went to search the said Knapp, concerning
findeing out teats, and goodwife Staplyes handled her verey much,
and called to goodwife Lockwood, and said, these were no witches
teates, but such as she herselfe had, and other women might haue
the same, wringing her hands and takeing ye Lords name in her
mouth, and said, will you say these were witches teates, they were
not, and called vpon goodwife Lockwood to come & see them; then
this deponent desired goodwife Odell to come & see, for she had
bine vpon her oath when she found the teates, and she, this depont,
desired the said Odill to come and clere it to goodwife Staplies;
goodwife Odill would not come; then the said Staplies still called
vpon goodwife Lockwood to come, will you say these are witches
teates, I, sayes the said Staplies, haue such myselfe, and so haue
you if you search yorselfe; goodwife Lockwood replyed, if I had such,
she would be hanged; would you, sayes Staplies, yes, saith
Lockwood, and deserve it; and the said Staplies handeled the said
teates very much, and pulled them wth her fingers, and then

goodwife Odill came neere, and she, the said Staplies, still
questioning, the said Odill told her no honest woman had such, and
then all the women rebuking her and said they were witches teates,
and the said Staplies yeilded it.

"Mary Brewster being sworn & deposed, saith as followeth, that she
was present after the execution of ye said Knapp, and she being
brought to the graue side, she saw goodwife Staplyes pull the teates
that were found aboute goodwife Knapp, and was verey earnest to
know whether those were witches teates wch were found aboute her,
the said Knapp, wn the women searched her, and the said Staplyes
pulled them as though she would haue pulled them of, and prsently
she, ths depont, went away, as hauing no desire to looke vpon them.

"Susan Lockwood, wife of Robert Lockwood, being sworne &
examined saith as foll, that she was at the execution of goodwife
Knapp that was hanged for a witch, and after the said Knapp was cut
downe and brought to the graue, goodwife Staplyes, wth other
women, looked after the teates that the women spake of appointed
by the magistrats, and the said goodwife Staplies was handling of
her where the teates were, and the said Staplies stood vp and called
three or foure times and bid me come looke of them, & asked her
whether she would say they were teates, and she made this answer,
no matter whether there were teates or no, she had teates and
confessed she was a witch, that was sufficient; if these be teates,
here are no more teates then I myselfe haue, or any other women, or
you either if you would search yor body; this depont saith she said, I
know not what you haue, but for herselfe, if any finde any such
things aboute me, I deserved to be hanged as she was, and yet
afterward she, the said Staplyes, stooped downe againe and
handled her, ye said Knapp, verey much, about ye place where the
teates were, and seuerall of ye women cryed her downe, and said
they were teates, and then she, the said Staplyes, yeilded, & said
verey like they might be teates.

"Thomas Sheruington & Christopher Combstocke & goodwife
Baldwine were all together at the prison house where goodwife

Knapp was, and ye said goodwife Baldwin asked her whether she,
the said Knapp, knew of any other, and she said there were some, or
one, that had receiued Indian gods that were very bright; the said
Baldwin asked her how she could tell, if she were not a witch
herselfe, and she said the party told her so, and her husband was
witnes to it; and to this they were all sworne & doe depose.

"Rebecka Hull, wife of Cornelius Hull, being sworne & examined,
deposeth & saith as followeth, that when goodwife Knapp was
goeing to execution, Mr. Ludlow, and her father Mr. Jones, pressing
the said Knapp to confess that she was a witch, vpon wch goodwife
Staplies said, why should she, the said Knapp, confess that wch she
was not, and after she, the said goodwife Staplyes, had said so, on
that stood by, why should she say so, she the said Staplyes replyed,
she made no doubt if she the said Knapp were one, she would
confess it.

"Deborah Lockwood, of the age of 17 or thereaboute, sworne &
examined, saith as followeth, that she being present when goodwife
Knapp was goeing to execution, betweene Tryes & the mill, she
heard goodwife Staplyes say to goodwife Gould, she was pswaded
goodwife Knapp was no witch; goodwife Gould said, sister Staplyes,
she is a witch, & hath confessed had had familiarity wth the Deuill.
Staplies replyed, I was wth her yesterday, or last night, and she said
no such thing as she heard.

"Aprill 26th, 1654.

"Bethia Brundish, of the age of sixteene or thereaboutes, maketh
oath, as they were goeing to execution of goodwife Knapp, who was
condemned for a witch by the court & jury at Fairfeild, there being
present herselfe & Deborah Lockwood and Sarah Cable, she heard
goodwife Staplyes say, that she thought the said goodwife Knapp
was no witch, and goodwife Gould presently reproued her for it."
"Witnes

"Andrew Warde,

"Jurat' die & anno prdicto,

"Coram me, Ro Ludlowe.

"The plant' replyed that he had seuerall other witnesses wch he
thought would cleere the matters in question, if the court please to
heare them, wch being granted, he first presented a testimony of
goodwife Whitlocke of Fairfeild, vpon oath taken before Mr. Fowler at
Millford, the 27th of May, 1654, wherein she saith, that concerning
goodwife Staplyes speeches at the execution of goodwife Knapp,
she being present & next to goody Staplyes when they were goeing
to put the dead corpes of goodwife Knapp into the graue, seuerall
women were looking for the markes of a witch vpon the dead body,
and seuerall of the women said they could finde none, & this depont
said, nor I; and she heard goodwife Staplyes say, nor I; then came
one that had searched the said witch, & shewed them the markes
that were vpon her, and said what are these; and then this depont
heard goodwife Staplyes say she never saw such in all her life, and
that she was pswaded that no honest woman had such things as
those were; and the dead corps being then prsently put into the
graue, goodwife Staplyes & myselfe came imediately away together
vnto the towne, from the place of execution.

"Goodwife Barlow of Fairfeild before the court did now testify vpon
oath, that when Knapps wife was hanged and ready to be buried,
she desired to see the markes of a witch and spake to one of her
neighbours to goe wth her, and they looked but found them not; then
goodwife Staplyes came to them, and one or two more, goodwife
Stapyleyes kneeled downe by them, and they all looked but found
ym not, & said they saw nothing but what is comon to other women,
but after they found them they all wondered, and goodwife Staplyes
in pticular, and said they neuer saw such things in their life before, so
they went away.

"The wife of John Tompson of Fairefeild testifyeth vpon oath, that
goodwife Whitlock, goodwife Staplyes and herselfe, were at the

graue and desired to see ye markes of the witch that was hanged,
they looked but found them not at first, then the midwife came &
shewed them, goodwife Staplyes said she neuer saw such, and she
beleeved no honest woman had such.

"Goodwife Sherwood of Fairefeild testifyeth vpon oath, that that day
Knapps wife was condemned for a witch, she was there to see her,
all being gone forth but goodwife Odill and her selfe, then their came
in Mris. Pell and her two daughters, Elizabeth & Mary, goody
Lockwood and goodwife Purdy; Mris. Pell told Knapps wife she was
sent to speake to her, to haue her confess that for wch she was
condemned, and if she knew any other to be a witch to discover
them, and told her, before she was condemned she might thinke it
would be a meanes to take away her life, but now she must dye, and
therefore she should discouer all, for though she and her family by
the providence of God had brought in nothing against her, yet ther
was many witnesses came in against her, and she was cast by the
jury & godly magistrats hauing found her guilty, and that the last
evidence cast the cause. So the next day she went in againe to see
the witch wth other neighbours, there was Mr. Jones, Mris. Pell & her
two daughters, Mris. Ward and goodwife Lockwood, where she
heard Mris. Pell desire Knapps wife to lay open herselfe, and make
way for the minister to doe her good; her daughter Elizabeth bid her
doe as the witch at the other towne did, that is, discouer all she knew
to be witches. Goodwife Knapp said she must not say anything wch
is not true, she must not wrong any body, and what had bine said to
her in private, before she went out of the world, when she was vpon
the ladder, she would reveale to Mr. Ludlow or ye minister. Elizabeth
Bruster said, if you keepe it a litle longer till you come to the ladder,
the diuill will haue you quick, if you reveale it not till then. Good:
Knapp replyed, take heed the devile haue not you, for she could not
tell how soone she might be her companyon, and added, the truth is
you would haue me say that goodwife Staplyes is a witch, but I haue
sinns enough to answer for allready, and I hope I shall not add to my
condemnation; I know nothing by goodwife Staplyes, and I hope she
is an honest woman. Then goodwife Lockwood said, goodwife
Knapp what ayle you; goodman Lyon, I pray speake, did you heare

vs name goodwif Staplyes name since we came here; Lyon wished
her to haue a care what she said and not breed difference betwixt
neighbours after she was gone; Knapp replyed, goodman Lyon hold
yor tongue, you know not what I know, I haue ground for what I say, I
haue bine fished wthall in private more then you are aware of; I
apprehend goodwife Staples hath done me some wrong in her
testimony, but I must not render euill for euill. Then this depont spake
to goody Knapp, wishing her to speake wth the jury, for she
apprehended goodwife Staplyes witnessed nothing contrary to other
witnesses, and she supposed they would informe her that the last
evidence did not cast ye cause; she replyed that she had bine told
so wthin this halfe houre, & desired Mr. Jones and herselfe to stay
and the rest to depart, that she might speake wth vs in private, and
desired me to declare to Mr. Jones what they said against goodwife
Staplyes the day before, but she told her she heard not goodwife
Staplyes named, but she knew nothing of that nature; she desired
her to declare her minde fully to M' Jones, so she went away.

"Further this depont saith, that comeing into the house where the
witch was kept, she found onely the wardsman and goodwife
Baldwine, there goodwife Baldwin whispered her in the eare and
said to her that goodwife Knapp told her that a woman in ye towne
was a witch and would be hanged wthin a twelue moneth, and would
confess herselfe a witch and cleere her that she was none, and that
she asked her how she knew she was a witch, and she told her she
had reeived Indian gods of an Indian, wch are shining things, wch
shine lighter then the day. Then this depont asked goodwife Knapp if
she had said so, and she denyed it; goodwife Baldwin affirmed she
did, but Knapps wife againe denyed it and said she knowes no
woman in the towne that is a witch, nor any woman that hath
received Indian gods, but she said there was an Indian at a womans
house and offerred her a coople of shining things, but she woman
neuer told her she tooke them, but was afraide and ran away, and
she knowes not that the woman euer tooke them. Goodwife desired
this depont to goe out and speake wth the wardsmen; Thomas
Shervington, who was one of them, said hee remembred not that
Knapps wife said a woman in the towne was a witch and would be

hanged, but spake something of shining things, but Kester, Mr. Pells
man, being by said, but I remember; and as they were goeing to the
graue, goodwife Staplyes said, it was long before she could beleeve
this poore woman was a witch, or that their were any witches, till the
word of God convinced her, wch saith, thou shalt not suffer a witch to
liue.

"Thomas Lyon of Fairfeild testifyeth vpon oath, taken before Mr.
Fowler, the 27th May, 1654, that he being set by authority to watch
wth Knapps wife, there came in Mris. Pell, Mrs. Ward, goodwife
Lockwood, and Mris. Pells two daughters; the fell into some
discourse, that goodwife Knapp should say to them in private wch
goodwife Knapp would not owne, but did seeme to be much troubled
at them and said, the truth is you would haue me to say that
goodwife Staplyes is a witch; I haue sinnes enough allready, I will not
add this to my condemnation, I know no such thing by her, I hope
she is an honest woman; then goodwife Lockwood caled to mee and
asked whether they had named goodwife Staplyes, so I spake to
goodwife Knapp to haue a care what she said, that she did not make
differrence amongst her neighbours when she was gon, and I told
her that I hoped they were her frends and desired her soules good,
and not to accuse any out of envy, or to that effect; Knapps wife said,
goodman Lyon hold yor tongue, you know not so much as I doe, you
know not what hath bine said to me in private; and after they was
gon, of her owne accord, betweene she & I, goody Knapp said she
knew nothing against goodwife Staplyes of being a witch.

"Goodwife Gould of Fairfeild testifyeth vpon oath, that goodwife
Sherwood & herselfe came in to see the witch, there was one before
had bine speaking aboute some suspicious words of one in the
towne, this depont wished her if she knew anything vpon good
ground she would declare it, if not, that she would take heede that
the deuill pswaded her not to sow malicious seed to doe hurt when
she was dead, yet wished her to speake the truth if she knew
anything by any pson; she said she knew nothing but vpon suspicion
by the rumours she heares; this depont told her she was now to dye,
and therefore she should deale truly; she burst forth ito weeping and

desired me to pray for her, and said I knew not how she was
tempted; neuer, neuer poore creature was tempted as I am tempted,
pray, pray for me. Further this depont saith, as they were goeing to
ye graue, Mr. Buckly, goodwife Sherwood, goodwife Staplye and
myselfe, goodwife Staplyes was next me, she said it was a good
while before she could beleeue this woman was a witch, and that
she could not beleue a good while that there were any witches, till
she went to ye word of God, and then she was convinced, and as
she remembers, goodwife Stapleyes went along wth her all the way
till they came at ye gallowes. Further this deponent saith, that Mr.
Jones some time since that Knapps wife was condemned, did tell
her, and that wth a very cherefull countenance & blessing God for it,
that Knapps wife had cleered one in ye towne, & said you know who
I meane sister Staplyes, blessed be God for it."

Staplies' wife was a character. She was "a light woman" from the
night of her memorable ride with Tom Tash, to Jemeaco, Long Island,
to the suspicion of herself as a witch, and the "repairing" of her name
by Thomas' lawsuit, and her own indictment for familiarity with Satan
some years later. That she had many of the traditional witch
qualities, and was something of a gymnast and hypnotist, is written
in the vivid recollections of Tash's experience with her. This was his
account of it on oath thirty years after:

"John Tash aged about sixty four or thareabouts saith he being at
Master Laueridges at Newtown on Long Island aboutt thirty year
since Goodman Owen and Goody Owin desired me to goe with
Thomas Stapels wiffe of Fairfield to Jemeaco on Long Island to the
hous of George Woolsy and as we war going along we cam to a
durty slow and thar the hors blundred in the slow and I mistrusted
that she the said Goody Stapels was off the hors and I was troubiled
in my mind very much soe as I cam back I thought I would tak better
noatis how it was and when I cam to the slow abovesaid I put on the
hors prity sharp and then I put my hand behind me and felt for her
and she was not upon the hors and as soon as we war out of the
slow she was on the hors behind me boath going and coming and
when I cam home I told thes words to Master Leveredg that she was

a light woman as I judged and I am redy to give oath to this when
leagaly caled tharunto as witnes my hand.

his "John+Tash mark

"Grenwich July 12, 1692.

"John Tash hath given oath to his testimony abovesaid

"Before me John Renels Comessener."

And Mistress Staplies had other qualities, always potent in small
communities to invite criticism and dislike. She was a shrewd and
shrewish woman, impatient of some of the Puritan social standards
and of the laws of everyday life. She openly condemned certain
common moralities, was reckless in criticism of her neighbors, and
quarreled with Ludlow about some church matters.

It is evident from the testimonies that Staplies was on both sides as
to the guilt of goodwife Knapp, and when rumor and suspicion began
to point to herself as a mischief-maker and busybody in witchcraft
matters, to divert attention from his wife and set a backfire to the
sweep of public opinion, Thomas sued Ludlow, and despite his
strong and clear defense as shown on the record evidence, the court
in his absence awarded damages against him for defamation and for
charging Staplies' wife with going on "in a tract of lying," "in
reparation of his wife's name" as the judgment reads. Mistress
Staplies did not grow in grace, or in the graces of her neighbors,
since some years later she was indicted for witchcraft, tried, and
acquitted with others, at Fairfield, in 1692.[J]

[J] See Historical Note, p. 161.

CHAPTER XI
"The planters of New England were Englishmen, not exempt from
English prejudices in favor of English institutions, laws and usages ...
They had not been taught to question the wisdom or the humanity of
English criminal law. They were as unconscious of its barbarism, as
were the parliaments which had enacted or the courts which
dispensed it." Blue Laws, True and False (p. 15), J. HAMMOND
TRUMBULL.

"It would seem a marvellous panic, this that shook the rugged
reasoners in its iron grasp, and led to such insanity as this displayed
toward Alse Young, did we not know that it was but the result of a
normal inhuman law confirmed by a belief in the divine, the direct
legacy of England, the unquestionable utterance of Church and
State." One Blank of Windsor, ANNIE ELIOT TRUMBULL.

This brief review of witchcraft in some of its historical aspects, of its
spread to the New England colonies, of its rise and suppression in
the Connecticut towns, with the citations from the original records
which admit no challenge of the facts, may be aptly closed by what is
believed to be a complete list of the Connecticut witchcraft cases,
authenticated by conclusive evidence of time, place, incident, and
circumstance.

Some minor questions may be put, or kept in controversy, as one
writer or another, who regards history as a matter of opinion, not of
fact, and relying on tradition or hearsay evidence or on superficial
investigation, gives a place to guesswork instead of truth, to
historical conceits instead of historical verities.

A RECORD OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CAME UNDER
SUSPICION OR ACCUSATION OF WITCHCRAFT IN
CONNECTICUT, AND WHAT BEFELL THEM.

Herein are written the names of all persons in anywise involved in
the witchcraft delusion in Connecticut, with the consequences to
them in indictments, trials, convictions, executions, or in banishment,
exile, warnings, reprieves, or acquittals, so far as made known in any
tradition, document, public or private record, to this time.

MARY JOHNSON. Windsor, 1647.

There is no documentary or other evidence to show that Mary
Johnson was executed for witchcraft in Windsor in 1647. The charge
rests on an entry in Governor Winthrop's Journal, "One ---- of
Windsor arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch."
WINTHROP'S History of New England (Savage, 2: 374).

No importance would have attached to this statement, which bears
no date and does not give the name or sex of the condemned, had
not Dr. Savage in his annotations of the Journal (2: 374) asserted
that it was "the first instance of the delusion in New England," and
without warrant added, "Perhaps there was sense enough early in
the colony to destroy the record."

In all discussions of this matter, it has been assumed or conceded (in
the absence of any positive proof), by such eminent critics and
scholars as Drake, Fiske, Poole, Hoadley, Stiles, and others, that
Winthrop's note was based on rumor or hearsay, or that it related to
the later conviction and execution of a woman of the same name,
next noted, and the errors as to person, time, and place might easily
have been made.

MARY JOHNSON. Wethersfield, 1648.

This Mary Johnson left a definite record. It is written in broad lines in
the dry-as-dust chronicles of the time. Cotton Mather embalmed the
tragedy in his Magnalia.

"There was one Mary Johnson tryd at Hartford in this countrey, upon
an indictment of 'familiarity with the devil,' and was found guilty
thereof, chiefly upon her own confession."

"And she dyd in a frame extreamly to the satisfaction of them that
were spectators of it." Magnalia Christi Americana (6: 7).

At a session of the Particular Court held in Hartford, August 21,
1646, Mary Johnson for thievery was sentenced to be presently
whipped, and to be brought forth a month hence at Wethersfield, and
there whipped. The whipping post, even in those days, did not prove
a means to repentance and reformation, since at a session of the
same court, December 7, 1648, the jury found a bill of indictment
against Mary Johnson, that by her own confession she was guilty of
familiarity with the devil.

That she was condemned and executed seems certain (it being
assumed that Mary and Elizabeth Johnson were one and the same
person, both Christian names appearing in the record), since at a
session of the General Court, May 21, 1650, the prison-keeper's
charges for her imprisonment were allowed and ordered paid "out of
her estate."

A pathetic incident attaches to this case. A child to this poor woman
was "borne in the prison," who was bound out until he became
twenty-one years of age, to Nathaniel Rescew, to whom £15 were
paid according to the mother's promise to him, he having engaged
himself "to meinteine and well educate her sonne." Colonial Records
of Connecticut (I,143: 171: 209-22-26-32).

THE FIRST EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND

A secret long kept made known—Winthrop's journal entry probably
correct—Tradition and surmise make place for historical certainty—
The evidence of an eyewitness—A notable service.

ALSE YOUNG. Windsor, 1647.

"May 26. 47 Alse Young was hanged." MATTHEW GRANT'S Diary.

"The first entry (the executions of Carrington and his wife being next
mentioned) supplies the name of the 'One (blank) of Windsor
arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch'—the first known
execution for witchcraft in New England. I have found no mention
elsewhere of this Alse Young." J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL'S
Observation on Grant's Entry.

"Who then was the 'witch' with whose execution Connecticut stepped
into the dark shadow of persecution? She has been called Mary
Johnson, but no Mary Johnson has been identified as this earliest
victim. Whose is that pathetic figure shrinking in the twilight of that
early record? We could think of her with no less kindly compassion
could we give a name to the unhappy victim of the misread Word of
God, who was led forth to a death stripped of dignity as of
consolation: who to an ignorance and credulity, brought from an old
world and not yet sifted out by the enlightenment and experience of
a new, yielded up her perhaps miserable but unforfeited life. Here is
the note which in all probability establishes the identity of the One of
Windsor arraigned and executed as a witch—'May 26, 47 Alse
Young was hanged.'" "One Blank" of Windsor (Courant Literary
Section, 12, 3, 1904), ANNIE ELIOT TRUMBULL.

Matthew Grant came over with the Dorchester men from the Bay
Colony in 1635, and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, where he lived
until his death there in 1683.

He was a land surveyor, and the town clerk, a close observer of men
and their public and private affairs, and kept a careful record of
current events in a "crabbed, eccentric but by no means entirely
illegible hand" during the long years of his sojourn in the "Lord's
Waste."

It has been surmised for several years—but without confirmation—
and credited by the highest authorities in Connecticut colonial
history, and known only to one of them, that Grant's manuscript diary
contained the significant historical note as to the fate of Alse Young.

It waited two centuries and more for its true interpreter, as did
Wolcott's cipher notes of Hooker's famous sermon, and there it is,
"not made on the decorous pages which memorize the saints,"
Brookes, Hooker, Warham, Reyner, Hanford, and Huit, "but scrawled
on the inside of the cover, where it might be the sinner might escape
detection."

In the publication of Grant's note Miss Trumbull has rendered a great
service in the settlement of a disputed question, in the correction of
errors, in fixing the priority of the outbreak between Massachusetts
and Connecticut; and in the new light shining through this revelation
stands Alse, glorified with the qualities of youth, of gentleness, of
innocence; and the story of her going to the unholy sacrifice on that
fateful May morning more than two and a half centuries ago is told
with exquisite tenderness and pathos.

Confirmation of the truth of Grant's entry is given by the scholarly
historian of Windsor, Dr. Stiles, who says in his history of that ancient
town:

"We know that a John Youngs, [?] bought land in Windsor of William
Hubbard in 1641—which he sold in 1649—and thereafter disappears
from record. He may have been the husband or father of 'Achsah'[?]
the witch; if so, it would be most natural that he and his family should
leave Windsor." STILES' History of Windsor (pp. 444-450).

JOHN and JOAN CARRINGTON. Wethersfield, 1651.

They were indicted at a court held February 20, 1651, Governor
John Haynes and Edward Hopkins being present, with other
magistrates; and they were found guilty on March 6, 1651. Both were
executed. Records Particular Court (2: 17). [Dr. Hoadley's note in
this case: "Mr. Trumbull (Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull) told me he had a
record of execution in these cases. I suppose he referred to the diary
of Matthew Grant."] The entry of the execution appears in Grant's

Diary, after the note as to Alse Young. One Blank of Windsor,
TRUMBULL.

LYDIA GILBERT. Windsor, 1654.

October 3, 1651, Henry Stiles of Windsor was killed by the
accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Thomas Allyn, also of
Windsor. An inquest was held, and Thomas was indicted in the
following December. He plead guilty, and at the trial the jury found
the fact to be "homicide by misadventure." Thomas was fined £20 for
his "sinful neglect and careless carriage," and put under a bond of
£10, for good behavior for a year. Records Particular Court (2: 29-
57).

But witchcraft was abroad, and its tools and emissaries more than
two years afterwards fastened suspicion of this death by clear
accident, on Lydia Gilbert, it being charged that "thou hast of late
years, or still dost give entertainment to Sathan ... and by his helpe
hast killed the body of Henry Styles, besides other witchcrafts."

She was indicted and tried in September or November, 1654, and
"Ye party above mentioned is found guilty of witchcraft by ye jury."
Her fate is not written in any known record, but the late Honorable
S.O. Griswold, a recognized authority on early colonial history in
Windsor, says that as the result of a close examination of the record,
"I think the reasonable probability is that she was hanged." Records
Particular Court (2: 51); STILE'S History of Windsor (pp. 169, 444-
450).

GOODY BASSETT. Stratford, 1651. Executed.

"The Gouernor, Mr. Cullick, and Mr. Clarke are desired to goe downe
to Stratford to keepe courte uppon the tryall of Goody Bassett for her
life"—May, 1651. "Because goodwife Bassett when she was
condemned" (probably on her own confession, as in the Greensmith

case). Colonial Records of Connecticut (1: 220); New Haven
Colonial Records (2: 77-88).

GOODWIFE KNAPP. Fairfield, 1653. Executed.

"After goodwife Knapp was executed, as soon as she was cut
downe." New Haven Colonial Records (1: 81).

Full account in previous chapter.

ELIZABETH GODMAN. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Elizabeth was released from prison September 4, 1655, with a
reprimand and warning by the court. New Haven Town Records (2:
174, 179); New Haven Colonial Records (2: 29, 151).

Account in previous chapter.

NICHOLAS BAYLEY and WIFE. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Nicholas and his wife, after several appearances in court on account
of a suspicion of witchcraft, and for various other offenses—among
them, lying and filthy speeches by the wife—were advised to remove
from the colony. They took the advice.

WILLIAM MEAKER. New Haven, 1657. Accused acquitted.

Thomas Mullener was always in trouble. He was a chronic litigant.
His many contentions are noted at length in the court records.
Among other things he made up his mind that his pigs were
bewitched, so "he did cut of the tayle and eare of one and threw into

the fire," "said it was a meanes used in England by some people to
finde out witches," and in the light of this porcine sacrifice he
charged his neighbor William Meaker with the bewitching. Meaker
promptly brought an action of defamation, but Mullener became
involved in other controversies and "miscarriages," to the degree that
he was advised to remove out of the place, and put under bonds for
good behavior; and Meaker, probably feeling himself vindicated,
dropped his suit. New Haven Colonial Records (2: 224).

ELIZABETH GARLICK. Easthampton, 1658. Acquitted.

Records Particular Court (2 :113); Colonial Records of Connecticut
(1: 573); STILES' History of Windsor (p. 735).

Account in previous chapter.

NICHOLAS and MARGARET JENNINGS. Saybrook, 1661.

Jury disagreed.

The major part of the jury found Nicholas guilty, but the rest only
strongly suspected him, and as to Margaret, some found her guilty,
and the others suspected her to be guilty. It is probable that the
Jennings were under inquiry when, at a session of the General Court
at Hartford, June 15, 1659, it was recorded that "Mr. Willis is
requested to goe downe to Sea Brook, to assist ye Maior in
examininge the suspitions about witchery, and to act therin as may
be requisite." Records Particular Court (2: 160-3); Colonial Records
of Connecticut (1: 338).

1662-63 was a notable year in the history of witchcraft in
Connecticut. It marked the last execution for the crime within the
commonwealth, and thirty years before the outbreak at Salem.

NATHANIEL GREENSMITH and REBECCA his WIFE. Hartford,
1662. Both executed.

Account in previous chapter. Records Particular Court (2: 182);
Memorial History Hartford County (1: 274); Connecticut Magazine
(November 1899, pp. 557-561).

MARY SANFORD. Hartford, 1662. Convicted June 13, 1662.
Executed.

Records Particular Court (2: 174-175); HOADLEY'S Record
Witchcraft Trials.

ANDREW SANFORD. Hartford, 1662. No indictment.

Records Particular Court (2: 174-175); HOADLEY'S Record
Witchcraft Trials.

JUDITH VARLETT (VARLETH). Hartford, 1662. Arrested; released.

It will be recalled that Rebecca Greensmith in her confession, among
other things, said that Mrs. Judith Varlett told her that she (Varlett)
"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."

Judith must have indulged in other indiscretions of association or of
speech, since she soon fell under suspicion of witchcraft, and was
put under arrest and imprisoned. But she had a powerful friend at
court (who, despite his many contentions and intrigues, commanded
the attention of the Connecticut authorities), in the person of her
brother-in-law Peter Stuyvesant, then bearing the title and office of
"Captain General and Commander-in-Chief of Amsterdam In New

Netherland, now called New York, and the Dutch West India Islands."
It was doubtless due to his intercession in a letter of October 13,
1662, that she was released.

The letter:

"To the Honorable Deputy Governour & Court of
"Magistracy att Harafort. (Oct. 1662)

"Honoured and Worthy Srs.—

"By this occasion of me Brother in Lawe (beinge necessitated to
make a Second Voyage for ayde his distressed sister Judith Varleth
jmprisoned as we are jmformed, uppon pretend accusation of
wicherye we Realy Beleeve and out her wel known education Life
Conversation & profession of faith, wee dear assure that shee is
jnnocent of Such a horrible Crimen, & wherefor j doubt not hee will
now, as formerly finde jour dhonnours favour and ayde for the
jnnocent). Ye Ld Stephesons Letter (C.B. 2: doc. 1).

MARY BARNES. Farmington, 1662. Convicted January 6. Probably
executed. Records Particular Court (2: 184).

WILLIAM AYRES and GOODY AYRES his Wife. Hartford, 1662.
Arrested. Fled from the colony.

ELIZABETH SEAGER. Hartford, 1662. Convicted; discharged.

Goody Seager probably deserved all that came to her in trials and
punishment. She was one of the typical characters in the early
communities upon whom distrust and dislike and suspicion inevitably
fell. Exercising witch powers was one of her more reputable
qualities. She was indicted for blasphemy, adultery, and witchcraft at
various times, was convicted of adultery, and found guilty of
witchcraft in June, 1665. She owed her escape from hanging to a
finding of the Court of Assistants that the jury's verdict did not legally
answer to the indictment, and she was set "free from further suffering

or imprisonment." Records County Court (3: 5: 52); Colonial Records
of Connecticut (2: 531); Rhode Island Colonial Records (2: 388).

JAMES WALKLEY. Hartford, 1662. Arrested. Fled to Rhode Island.

KATHERINE HARRISON. Wethersfield, 1669. Convicted;
discharged.

See account in previous chapter. Records Court of, Assistants (I, 1-
7); Colonial Records of Connecticut (2: 118, 132); Doc. History New
York (4th ed., 4: 87).

NICHOLAS DESBOROUGH. Hartford, 1683. Suspicioned.

Desborough was a landowner in Hartford, having received a grant of
fifty acres for his services in the Pequot war. He owes his enrollment
in the hall of fame to Cotton Mather, who was so self-satisfied with
his efforts in "Relating the wonders of the invisible world in
preternatural occurrences" that in his pedantic exuberance he put in
a learned sub-title: "Miranda cano, sed sunt credenda" (The themes I
sing are marvelous, yet true).

Fourteen examples were chosen for the "Thaumatographia
Pneumatica," as "remarkable histories" of molestations from evil
spirits, and Mather said of them, "that no reasonable man in this
whole country ever did question them."

Desborough stands in place as the "fourth example." No case more
clearly illustrates the credulity that neutralized common sense in
strong men. It was a case of abstraction, or theft, or mistaken thrift. A
"chest of cloaths" was missing. The owner, instead of going to law,
found his remedy "in things beyond the course of nature," and he
and his friends with "nimble hands" pelted Desborough's house, and
himself when abroad, with stones, turves, and corncobs, and finally

some of his property was burned by a fire "in an unknown way
kindled." Is it not enough to note that Mather closes this wondrous
tale of the spiritual molestations with the very human explanation
that "upon the restoring of the cloaths, the trouble ceased"?

ELIZABETH CLAWSON. Fairfield, 1692. Acquitted. Account in
previous chapter.

MARY and HANNAH HARVEY. Fairfield, 1692. Jury found no bill.

GOODY MILLER. Fairfield, 1692. Acquitted.

MARY STAPLIES. Fairfield, 1692. Jury found no bill. Account in
previous chapter.

MERCY DISBOROUGH. Fairfield, 1692. Convicted; reprieved.
Account in previous chapter.

HUGH CROTIA. Stratford, 1693. Jury found no bill. Account in
previous chapter. C. & D. (Vol. I,185).

WINIFRED BENHAM SENIOR and JUNIOR. Wallingford, 1697.
Acquitted.

They were mother and daughter (twelve or thirteen years old), tried
at Hartford and acquitted in August, 1697; indicted on new

complaints in October, 1697, but the jury returned on the bill,
"Ignoramus." Records Court of Assistants (1: 74, 77).

SARAH SPENCER. Colchester, 1724. Accused. Damages 1s.

Even a certificate of the minister as to her religion and virtue, could
not free Sarah from a reputation as a witch. And when Elizabeth (and
how many Connecticut witches bore that name) Ackley accused her
of "riding and pinching," and James Ackley, her husband, made
threats, Sarah sued them for a fortune in those days, £500 damages,
and got judgment for £5, with costs. The Ackleys appealed, and at
the trial the jury awarded Sarah damages of ls., and also stated that
they found the Ackleys not insane—a clear demonstration that the
mental condition of witchcraft accusers was taken account of in the
later and saner times.

NORTON. Bristol, 1768. Suspicioned. No record.

"On the mountain," probably Fall mountain in Bristol, the antics of a
young woman named Norton, who accused her aunt of putting a
bridle on her and driving her through the air to witch meetings in
Albany, caused a commotion among the virtuous people. Deacon
Dutton's ox was torn apart by an invisible agent, and unseen hands
brought new ailments to the residents there, pinched them and stuck
red hot pins into them. Elder Wildman set out to exorcise the evil
spirit, but became so terrorized that he called for help, and one of his
posse of assistants was scared into convulsions. This case may be
counted among the last, perhaps the last traditions of the strange
delusion which aforetime filled the hills and valleys of Quohnectacut
with its baleful light. Memorial History Hartford County (2: 51).

ROLL OF NAMES

ALSE YOUNG 1647
MARY JOHNSON 1648
JOHN CARRINGTON 1650-51
JOAN CARRINGTON 1650-71
GOODY BASSETT 1651
GOODWIFE KNAPP 1653
LYDIA GILBERT 1654
ELIZABETH GODMAN 1655
NICHOLAS BAYLY 1655
GOODWIFE BAYLY 1655
WILLIAM MEAKER 1657
ELIZABETH GARLICK 1658
NICHOLAS JENNINGS 1661
MARGARET JENNINGS 1661
NATHANIEL GREENSMITH 1662
REBECCA GREENSMITH 1662
MARY SANFORD 1662
ANDREW SANFORD 1662
GOODY AYRES 1662
KATHERINE PALMER 1662
JUDITH VARLETT 1662
JAMES WALKLEY 1662
MARY BARNES 1662-63
ELIZABETH SEAGER 1666
KATHERINE HARRISON 1669
NICHOLAS DISBOROUGH 1683
MARY STAPLIES 1692
MERCY DISBOROUGH 1692
ELIZABETH CLAWSON 1692
MARY HARVEY 1692
HANNAH HARVEY 1692
GOODY MILLER 1692
HUGH CROTIA 1693
WINIFRED BENHAM, SENR. 1697
WINIFRED BENHAM, JUNR. 1697

SARAH SPENCER 1724
---- NORTON 1768

What of those men and women to whom justice in their time was
meted out, in this age of reason, of religious enlightenment, liberty,
and catholicity, when witchcraft has lost its mystery and power, when
intelligence reigns, and the Devil works his will in other devious ways
and in a more attractive guise?

They were the victims of delusion, not of dishonor, of a perverted
theology fed by moral aberrations, of a fanaticism which never
stopped to reason, and halted at no sacrifice to do God's service;
and they were all done to death, or harried into exile, disgrace, or
social ostracism, through a mistaken sense of religious duty: but they
stand innocent of deep offense and only guilty in the eye of the law
written in the Word of God, as interpreted and enforced by the
forefathers who wrought their condemnation, and whose religion
made witchcraft a heinous sin, and whose law made it a heinous
crime.

Is the contrast in human experience, between the servitude to
credulity and superstition in 1647-97 and the deliverance from it of
this day, any wider than between the ironclad theology of that and of
later times, and the challenge to it, and its diabolical logic, of
yesterday, which marks a new era in denominational creeds, in
religious beliefs, and their expression?

Jonathan Edwards, in his famous sermon at Enfield in 1741, on
"Sinners in the hands of an Angry God," was inspired to say to the
impenitent: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one
holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you
and is dreadfully provoked; His wrath toward you burns like fire; He
looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire;
He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you are
10,000 times so abominable in His eyes as the most hateful and
venomous serpent is in ours.... Instead of one how many is it likely
will remember this discourse in hell! And it would be a wonder if

some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time
—before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons,
that now sit here in some seats of this meeting-house, in health and
quiet, and secure, should be there before to-morrow morning." One
hundred and sixty-three years later, Rev. Dr. Samuel T. Carter, a
godly minister of the same faith, "a heretic who is no heretic," stood
before the presbytery of Nassau, was invited to remain in the
Presbyterian communion, and yet said this of the doctrine of
Edwards, as written in the Westminster Confession: "In God's name
and Christ's name it is not true. There is no such God as the God of
the confession. There is no such world as the world of the
confession. There is no such eternity as the eternity of the
confession.... This world so full of flowers and sunshine and the
laughter of children is not a cursed lost world, and the 'endless
torment' of the confession is not God's, nor Christ's, nor the Bible's
idea of future punishment."

What should constitute the true faith of a Christian, and set him apart
from his fellowmen in duties and observances, was one of the crucial
questions in the everyday life of the early New England colonists,
and the hanging and discipline of witches was one of its necessary
incidents.

It was the same spirit of intolerance and of religious animosity that
was written in the treatment of the Quakers and Baptists at Boston;
in the experience of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson; and of
"The Rogerenes" in Connecticut, for "profanation of the Sabbath,"
told in a chapter of forgotten history.

In the sunlight of the later revelation, is not the present judgment of
the men and women of those far off times, "when the wheel of prayer
was in perpetual motion," when fear and superstition and the wrath
of an angry God ruled the strongest minds, truly interpreted in the
solemn afterthoughts which the poet ascribes to the magistrate and
minister at the grave of Giles Corey?

HATHORNE
"This is the Potter's Field. Behold the fate

Of those who deal in witchcrafts, and when questioned,
Refuse to plead their guilt or innocence,
And stubbornly drag death upon themselves.
MATHER
"Those who lie buried in the Potter's Field
Will rise again as surely as ourselves
That sleep in honored graves with epitaphs;
And this poor man whom we have made a victim,
Hereafter will be counted as a martyr."
The New England Tragedies.

HISTORICAL NOTE
ROGER LUDLOW

The Connecticut historians to a very recent date, in ignorance of the
facts, and despite his notable services of twenty-four years to the
colonies, left Ludlow to die in obscurity in Virginia or elsewhere, and
some of the traditions, based on no record or other evidence, have
been recently repeated. It is therefore proper to state here in few
words who Ludlow was, what he did both in Massachusetts and
Connecticut, and after his "return into England" in 1654.

Ludlow came of an ancient English family, which gave to history in
his own time and generation such illustrious kinsmen as Sir Henry
Ludlow, a member of the Long Parliament and one of the Puritan
leaders, and Sir Edmund Ludlow, member of Parliament, Lieutenant-
General under Cromwell, member of the court at King Charles' trial,
and whom Macaulay named "the most illustrious saviour of a mighty
race of men, the judges of a king, the founders of a republic."

In May, 1630, Ludlow came to Massachusetts, as one of the
Assistants under the charter of "The Governor and company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England."

His services in the Bay Colony from 1630-35 ranged from the duties
of a magistrate in the Great Charter Court to those of the high office
of Deputy Governor. The quality of that service is written in a bare
statement of his various offices—surveyor, negotiator of the Pequot
treaty, colonel ex officio, auditor of Governor Winthrop's accounts,
superintendent of fortifications, military commissioner, member of the
General Court, Deputy Governor when Thomas Dudley was
Governor; and he was always one of the foremost men in civil,

political, and social affairs, to the day of his departure to "the valley
of the long river,"—a day of good fortune for Connecticut.

When Massachusetts established church membership as the
condition of suffrage,—and radical differences of opinion on other
matters arose,—it marked the culmination of a set purpose of some
of her ablest men to remove from her jurisdiction, among whom
Hooker, Ludlow, and Haynes were the most notable. The General
Court created a commission to govern Connecticut for a year, and
made Ludlow its chief. He came to the new land of promise with the
Dorchester men, and settled in Windsor in 1635-36.

What he did in the nineteen years of his residence at Windsor and
Fairfield is epitomized in a brief summary of the duties and honors to
which he was called by his fellowmen:

Chief of the Massachusetts commission and the first Governor, de
facto; organizer and chief magistrate of the first court; writer of the
earliest laws; president of the court which declared war against the
Pequots; framer of the Fundamental Orders—the Constitution of
1639—which embodied the great principles of government by the
people propounded and elucidated by the illustrious Thomas Hooker,
in his letter to Governor Winthrop, and in his famous sermon;
compiler, at the request of the General Court, of the Body of Lawes,
the Code of 1650; commissioner on important state matters;
commissioner for the United Colonies; founder and defender of
Fairfield; patriot, jurist, statesman.

Ludlow left Connecticut in 1654, not to die in obscurity as the earlier
writers imagined, but to serve abroad for several years in positions of
honor and distinction.

Cromwell invited him to return, as he did many of the leading
Puritans in New England, and appointed him a commissioner for the
administration of justice in Dublin; also to serve with the chief justice
of the upper bench and other distinguished lawyers, to determine all
the claims to the forfeited Irish lands, and at last as a Master in
Chancery.

Ten years Ludlow served in these important stations; and at his
death, probably in 1664, he was buried in St. Michael's churchyard in
Dublin, with his wife—a sister of Governor John Endicott—and other
members of his family.[K]

[K] Roger Ludlow—The Colonial Lawmaker—TAYLOR.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Some of the authorities and records in witchcraft literature consulted
in the writing of this essay are here cited for reference and
information:

Connecticut Archives: Wyllys Papers, Original Witchcraft
Depositions; Records: General Court, Particular Court, Court of
Assistants, County Court, Colonial Boundaries, Crimes and
Misdemeanors, Connecticut Colonial, New Haven Colonial, Hartford
Probate, New Haven Town; Magnolia Christi Americana (MATHER);
MATTHEW GRANT'S Diary (TRUMBULL'S Observations) Courant
Literary Section, 12-3-1904; HOADLEY'S Witchcraft Trials and Notes
(Manuscript); WINTHROP'S History of New England; STILES'
History of Windsor; Blue Laws, True and False (TRUMBULL);
PERKINS' Discourse; The Literature of Witchcraft (BURR);
Hammurabi's Code; Cent. Mag., June, 1903; BLACKSTONE'S
Commentaries; A Tale of the Witches (STONE); LECKY'S
Rationalism in Europe; The Witch Persecutions (BURR); Encyc.
Articles ("Witchcraft"): Britannica, Americana, International,
Chambers', Johnson's; Connecticut: Origin of her Courts and Laws
(HAMERSLEY); BARBER'S Connecticut Historical Collections;
SCHENCK'S Fairfield; Connecticut as a Colony and State
(MORGAN et al.); The House of the Seven Gables (HAWTHORNE);
LATIMER'S Salem; JOHNSTON'S Nathan Hale; Connecticut History
(TRUMBULL); UPHAM'S Salem Witchcraft; Conn. Mag., Nov., 1899;
Dalton's Justice; Mem. Hist, of Boston; Mem. Hist, of Hartford
County; Palfrey's New England; Historic Towns of New England
(Latimer); Giles Corey of the Salem Farms (Longfellow); New France
and New England (Fiske); Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft;
Lowell's "Witchcraft" (Among My Books); Whitmore's Colonial Laws;
Drake's Witchcraft Delusion in New England; Fowler's Salem
Witchcraft; Hutchinson's Hist, of Massachusetts Bay; Larned's Hist,

of Ready Reference (Mass.); Howe's Puritan Republic; Goodwin's
Pilgrim Republic; Merejkowski's Romance of Leonardo da Vinci;
Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii; Weyman's The Long Night;
Crockett's The Black Douglas; Lea's Hist, of the Inquisition; Scarlet
Letter (Hawthorne); A Case of Witchcraft in Connecticut (Hoadley);
Witches in Connecticut (Bliss); Historical Discourses (Bacon);
History of Wethersfield (Stiles); History of Long Island (Thompson),
Witchcraft in Boston (Poole); Literature of Witchcraft in New England
(Winsor); Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Scottish Highlands
(Campbell); Witch-hunter in the Bookshops (Burr); Epidemic
Delusions (Carpenter); History of New England (Neal); History of
Colonization of U.S. (Bancroft); Salem Witchcraft (Fowler); Bouvier's
Law Dic.; Witchcraft in Connecticut (Livermore); Witchcraft in Salem
Village, 1692 (Nevins); History of Stratford and Bridgeport (Orcutt);
Bench and Bar (Adams); Conway's Demonology and Devil-lore;
Domestic and Social Life in Colonial Times (Warner); Nat. Mag. Nov.
15, 1891.

Index

A

44, 51-56, 65-67, 71, 84, 106, 109,
Allyn, John
117
Allyn, Thomas
148
Ashley, Jonathan
117
Austen, Thomas
103
Ayres, Goody
152, 157
Ayres, William
152

B

Baldwin, Goodwife 133, 137
Ball, Allen 94
Bankes, John 126
Barlow, Goodwife 135
Barlow, John 65
Barnard, Bartholomew 117
Barnes, Mary 152, 157
Bassett, Goody 130, 148, 156
Bates, Sarah 104
Bayley, Goodwife 149, 156
Bayley, Nicholas 149, 156
Belden, Samuel 51
Bell, Jonathan 44, 105-107, 110, 113
Benham, Winifred, Jr. and 155, 157
Sr. 67, 70
Benit, Elizabeth 67, 71
Benit, Thomas 70
Benit, Thomas, Jr. 120

Birdsall, Goody ix
Bishop, Bridgett 108
Bishop, Ebenezer ix
Bishop, Edward 117
Bowman, Nathanael 49
Bracy, Thomas 65, 103-104, 108-116
Branch, Catherine 131
Brewster, Elizabeth 132
Brewster, Mary 134
Brundish, Bethia 126, 129
Bryan, Ensign 57
Bulkeley, Rev. Gershom 117
Bull, Joseph 43
Burr, Abigail 110, 119
Burr, John 43
Burr, Sarah 113
Buxstum, Clement

C

Carrington, Joan 38, 145, 147, 156
Carrington, John viii, 38, 145, 147, 156
Carter, Dr. Samuel T. 159
Chester, Stephen 117
Clarke, Mr. 38, 148
Clarke, Henry 50, 52, 53
Clarke, William 51
Clawson, Elizabeth 44, 63, 101-116, 154, 157
Clawson, Stephen 101
Cole, Ann 97
Collins, Samuel 117
Comstock, Christopher 133
Corey, Giles 15, 27
Corwin, George ix
Corwin, Jonathan 27
Cross, Abigail 104

Cross, Nathanael 104
Crotia, Hugh viii, 117-119, 155, 157
Cullick, Mr. 38, 56, 148

D

Davenport, Rev. John 85, 122, 125-128
Davis, Goody 120
Desborough, Nicholas 153, 157
Dickinson, Joseph 50
Disborough, Mercy 15, 44, 62-78, 154, 157
Disborough, Thomas 63, 65
Duning, Benjamin 65

E

Eaton, Theophilus 85, 125
Edwards, Goody 120
Edwards, Jonathan 158
Eliot, Joseph 76, 78

F

Finch, Abraham 107
Fowler, William 125, 138
Francis, Joane 53
Fyler, Walt. 85

G

Gardiner, Lion 119
Garlick, Elizabeth 119-121, 150, 156
Garlick, Joshua 119

Garney, Joseph 101
Garrett, Daniel 80
Garrett, Margaret 80
Gedney, Bartholomew 27
Gibbons, William 117
Gilbert, Lydia 148, 156
Gillett, Cornelius 117
Godfree, Ann 70
Godman, Elizabeth 85-96, 149, 156
Gold, Nathan 110, 119
Goodyear, Stephen 85-89, 92, 93
Gould, Goodwife 139
Grant, Matthew 146-147
Graves, John 52
Greensmith, Nathaniel 96-100, 151, 156
Greensmith, Rebecca 96-100, 151, 156
Grey, Henry 68, 69, 70
Griswold, Edward 38
Griswold, Michael 59
Grummon, John 70

H

Hale, Mary 54
Halliberch, Thomas 66
Hand, Goody 121
Harrison, Katherine 47-61, 153, 157
Hart, Stephen 38, 81
Harvey, Hannah 115, 154, 157
Harvey, Mary 154, 157
Hathorne, John 27
Haynes, John 38, 97, 98, 147
Heyden, Daniel 117
Hollister, Mr. 38
Holly, Samuel 109
Hooker, Thomas 162

Hopkins, Edward 38, 147
Hopkins, Matthew 21
Howard, Abigail 43
Howell, Goodwife 119
Hubbard, Elizabeth ix
Hull, Rebecca 133
Hull, Cornelius 133

J

Jennings, Margaret 150, 156
Jennings, Nicholas 150, 156
Jesop, Edward 63
Joanes, William 117
Johnson, Jacob 53
Johnson, Mary 35, 143, 144, 156
Jones, Martha 35
Jones, William 40
Judd, Theo. 38

K

Kecham, Sarah 103
Kelsey, Stephen 117
Knapp, Goodwife 109, 122-141, 156, 176

L

Lamberton, Desire 93
Lamberton, Elizabeth 86, 90
Lamberton, Hannah 86, 90
Langton, Joseph 117
Leawis, Will. 38
Leete, William 47, 125

Lewis, Mercy ix
Lockwood, Deborah 133
Lockwood, Robert 132
Lockwood, Susan 124, 131, 132, 136, 138
Loomis, Jonathan 117
Loomis, Nathanael 117
Ludlow, Roger 123, 125-129, 161-163
Lyon, Thomas 136, 138

M

Mansfield, Moses 117
Marsh, John 117
Mason, John 47
Mather, Cotton 28-34, 153
Meaker, William 149, 156
Migat, Mrs. 82
Miller, Goody 154, 157
Milton, Daniel 38
More, John 38
Montague, Richard 51
Mullener, Thomas 149
Mygatt, Joseph 117

N

Newell, Samuel 117
Newton, Thomas 27
North, Joseph 117
Norton 155, 157

O

Odell, Goodwife 124, 131, 135

P

Palmer, Katherine 157
Pantry, John 117
Pell, Luce 124, 130, 135, 138
Penoir, Lydia 112
Phelps, Abraham 117
Phelps, Mr. 38
Pitkin, William 78, 117
Pratt, Daniel 81
Pratt, John 38
Purdy, Goodwife 124, 135
Putnam, Ann ix, 30

R

Renels, John 141
Richards, John 27
Russel, William 120

S

Saltonstall, Nathl. 27
Sanford, Andrew 151, 157
Sanford, Mary 151, 156
Seager, Elizabeth 80-85, 152, 157
Selleck, David 108, 114
Selleck, Jonathan 106, 107, 110, 116
Sergeant, Peter 27
Sewall, Samuel 27
Shervington, Thomas 133, 138

Sherwood, Isaac 64
Sherwood, Mistress Thomas 124, 128, 135, 139
Slawson, Elezer 113
Smith, Elizabeth 56
Smith, Philip 51
Smith, Samuel 38, 50, 52, 53, 66
Spencer, Sarah 155, 157
Stanly, Caleb 117
Stanly, Nath. 78, 117
Staplies, Mary 125-141, 154, 157
Staplies, Thomas 125, 126
Steele, James 117
Sterne, Robert 81, 84
Stiles, Henry 148
Stirg, Joseph 66
Stoughton, John 117
Stoughton, William 27, ix

T

Tailecote, Mr. 38
Tash, John 140, 141
Tompson, J. 129, 135
Treat, Robert 48, 62, 117
Trumbull, J. Hammond v

V

Varlett, Judith 151, 157

W

Wadsworth, Joseph 117
Wakely, James 50

Wakeman, Sarah 43
Walcott, Mary ix
Walkley, James 153, 157
Ward, Andrew 134
Ward, Hester 129, 136
Ward, Thomas 117
Webster, Mr. 38
Wells, Mr. 38, 129
Wells, Hugh 49
Wescot, Abigail 106, 112
Wescot, Daniel 101-116
White, John 38
Whiting, Rev. John 96, 97
Whitlock, Goodwife 134
Wiat, Nath. 102
Willard, Josiah 81
Williams, Abigail ix
Williams, William 117
Willis, Samuel 78, 117
Wilson, Hannah 43
Wilton, David 51
Winthrop, John 35, 47, 143
Winthrop, Wait 27
Woodbridge, Rev. Timothy 76, 78
Woolcott, Mr. 38

Y

Young, Alse 35, 145-147, 156

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
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