Category Archives: September

09/1692

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Sep 15: In defense of the defenseless

Today In Salem: Seven days. Just seven days left. The pious Mary Esty had started counting down a week ago, when the judges had found her guilty and sentenced her to hang. She’s spent much of the time since then on her knees, praying and fasting every waking minute, trying to understand. Why did her friends decide at the last minute not to testify? How could the judges possibly believe the shrieking afflicted girls? Did a lifetime of sincere piety and good works count for nothing?

There are only two things she knows, deeply and without questioning.

She is innocent. She will hang.

If this is true of her, it must be true of others as well. Surely the judges don’t realize that innocent blood is being shed. So she writes them a letter, trying to move the quill neatly across the page, but the words come rushing out in one long sentence of crooked lines and misplaced words. If only the judges would question the afflicted girls separately, she writes. If only they would re-try the prisoners who’d pleaded guilty and confessed.

If only.

The humbl petition of mary Eastick unto his Excellencyes S’r W’m Phipps to the honour’d Judge and Bench now Sitting In Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth

That whereas your poor and humble Petitioner being condemned to die Doe humbly begg of you to take it into your Judicious and pious considerations that your Poor and humble petitioner knowing my own Innocencye Blised be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtility of my accusers by my Selfe can not but Judg charitably of others that are going the same way of my selfe if the Lord stepps not mightily in. … I now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my Innocencye … I Petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is sett but the Lord he knowes it is that if it be possible no more Innocentt blood may be shed which undoubtidly cannot be Avoydd In the way and course you goe in I question not but your honours does to the uttmost of your Powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be gulty of Innocent blood for the world but by my own Innocencye I know you are in the wrong way the Lord in his infinite mercye direct you in this great work if it be his blessed will that no more Innocent blood be shed I would humbly begg of you that your honors would be plesed to examine theis Aflicted Persons strictly and keepe them apart some time and Likewise to try some of these confesing wichis I being confident there is severall of them has belyed themselves and others as will appeare if not in this world I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I Question not but youle see an alteration of thes things they say my selfe and others having made a League with the Divel we cannot confesse I know and the Lord knowes as will shortly appeare they belye me and so I Question not but they doe others the Lord above who is the Searcher of all hearts knowes that as I shall answer it att the Tribunall seat that I know not the least thinge of witchcraft therfore I cannot I dare not belye my own soule I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dy ing Innocent person and I Question not but the Lord will give a blesing to yor endevers.

Tomorrow in Salem: The stubborn Giles Corey makes a dire choice

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Sep 14: The Gospel Woman is Excommunicated

Today in Salem: The gospel woman Martha Corey has turned her back on Rev Samuel Parris and the church elders he’s come with. I have nothing to say to you, she announces, and steps closer to the prison’s stone wall.

She is offended, morally offended, by their visit. Never mind that she has been convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to hang. She is a Gospel Woman, and an innocent one at that. Their entreaties and prayers are meaningless to her.

Her hand grows softer, though, and her shoulders slump when Rev Parris tells her she’s been excommunicated. It’s the first time she’s been quiet.

Tonight, Rev Parris opens the church record book and writes about Martha’s role in the church.

11 September. Lords day. Sister Martha Corey taken into the Church 27 April 1690. was after Examination upon suspicion of Witchcraft. 21 March 1691-2 committed to Prison for that Fact, & was condemned to the Gallows for the same yesterday: And was this day in Publick by a general consent voted to be excommunicated out of the Church; & Lt. Nathanael Putnam, & the 2 Deacons chosen to signify to her, with the Pastor the mind of the Church herein.

Accordingly this 14 Septr 1692 The 3. aforcsd Brethren went with the Pastor to her in Salem Prison, whom we found very obdurate justifying her self, & condemning all that had done any thing to her just discovery, or condemnation. Whereupon after a little discourse (for her imperiousness would not suffer much) & after Prayer, (which she was willing to decline) the dreadful sentence of Excommunication was pronounced against her.

In court, the ill-tempered Wilmott Redd is standing defiantly in front of the judges. She is well-known for wishing that bloody cleavers be found in the cradles of other people’s children, and for selling milk that quickly turns so moldy that it looks like blue wool. Her curses are also legendary: Five years ago she’d cursed a neighbor, saying she wouldn’t “mingere or carcare” (relieve herself or empty her bowels) ever again. Sure enough, the neighbor had suffered a “dry bellyache” for months. Combined with the usual swooning of the afflicted girls, no one is surprised when the judges find Wilmott guilty of witchcraft.

In the second trial of the day, the fortuneteller Samuel Wardwell defends his reputation of predicting the future. He’s spent years embracing and crowing about his talents; but now it works against him. Witness after witness describes his foretellings: falling from a horse, a gunshot wound, unrequited love, and the birth to one woman of five daughters followed by one son. He also has a knack for knowing the secrets of the past, and has bragged that he can call cattle to him. An afternoon in court can’t undo years and years of boasting about his abilities. The judges pronounce him guilty of witchcraft. He will hang.

Tomorrow in Salem: In defense of the defenseless

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Sep 10: An escape and a plea

Today in Salem: The jail keeper clenches his jaw and closes his eyes as the fire in the hearth gutters and flares. It’s nighttime, cool with an early autumn breeze, and while normally it would be a pleasant enough evening, the jail keeper is too distracted to notice.

Just yesterday, the 77-year-old Mary Bradbury was found guilty and condemned for witchcraft. But she is distinguished, and her husband’s family is connected to English royalty. Given her station, she was allowed to roam freely during the day, as long as she returned by night. Now it’s obvious she isn’t coming back. She’s escaped, disappeared, vanished like smoke from a fire.

Dorcas Hoar grasps at straws

In a basement cell, the fortuneteller and now shorn Dorcas Hoar cries and rubs her hand over her nearly shaved head. Lying is a terrible sin, and God will surely punish her for it. But confession is the only way she herself can escape the noose. So she asks to see the judges, and tells them that she does, indeed, practice witchcraft. What’s more, she can identify other witches. I can help you, she cries.

Her performance is less than convincing, though, and the judges leave her in her cell, condemned as before.

A list is finalized

In his rooms, Chief Justice Stoughton signs the death warrants for all six of the women tried this week: the gospel woman Martha Corey, the pious Mary Esty, the shrew Alice Parker, the nurse Ann Pudeator, the fortuneteller Dorcas Hoar, and the elderly and distinguished Mary Bradbury.

Tomorrow in Salem: The Gospel Woman is Excommunicated

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Sep 9: A nurse and a lady on trial

Today in Salem: Twenty jars of grease. Granted, they’re small jars. No one denies that. But it’s suspicious. What is the grease for? The nurse Ann Pudeator has already explained this once, back in July, during her hearing. It’s for soap, not ointments. Why is this coming up again?

It hardly matters. The court already has two other accusations of real-world evil. When her husband’s first wife died suddenly, Ann was suspected of killing her. Then he himself died, and left Ann with considerable property. Did she murder them both for money?

As for spectral evil, her neighbors testify that they’ve seen her specter, which has pinched someone until they’re black and blue.

Finally Mary Warren, a confessed witch, says that Ann had made a man fall out of a tree just by looking at him.

The judges find her guilty.

The distinguished Mary Bradbury’s trial

The distinguished Mary Bradbury stands tall before the court. She is 77 and frail, but no less regal in her bearing. Her husband is a leader in the colony. Not only that, but his great-uncle had been the Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth.

She and her husband are widely respected. In fact, the judges have several petitions in her favor, one of them signed by 115 people, including a minister and several magistrates. But they don’t outweigh testimony that her specter tormented a man who is loathed for his assaults on women. As much as people detest him, though, spectral torment is still evil.

Mary is also accused of selling butter that turned rancid, and causing the death of sheep, horses, and even men.

The judges have made up their minds, though. Even with her pedigree and wide support, the judges pronounce her guilty.

Later she will plead ”not guilty” in writing.

The Answer of Mary Bradbury in the charge of Witchcraft or familliarity with the Divell I doe plead not guilty.

I am wholly inocent of any such wickedness through the goodness of god that have kept mee hitherto) I am the servant of Jesus Christ & Have given my self up to him as my only lord & saviour: and to the dilligent attendance upon him in all his holy ordinances, in utter contempt & defiance of the divell, and all his works as horid & detestible; and accordingly have endevo’red to frame my life; & conversation according to the rules of his holy word, & in that faith & practise resolve by the help and assistance of god to contineu to my lifes end: for the truth of what I say as to matter of practiss I humbly refer my self to my brethren & neighbors that know mee and unto the searcher of all hearts for the truth & uprightness of my heart therein: (human frailties, & unavoydable infirmities excepted) of which i bitterly complayne every day:/ Mary Bradbury

The condemned

It’s close to nightfall as the court scribe puts his notes together. Five women have now been sentenced: the fortuneteller and now shorn Dorcas Hoar, the shrew Alice Parker, the pious Mary Esty, the nurse Ann Pudeator, and the distinguished Mary Bradbury.

Tomorrow in Salem: An escape and a plea

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Sep 08: Dangerous Stares

Today in Salem: A team of horses paws impatiently in the dust, waiting for another team to pass them and ride out of sight. Five accused witches are astride the waiting horses, escorted by guards and a constable who’s been ordered to arrest them.

They’re on their way to court, and so are the afflicted girls behind them. But one of the accused women had glanced at the girls, and they’d immediately begun to convulse. It torments them to be behind the witches. They must pass.

“Ho!” the constable had commanded, and steered his horse off the road. The guards and accused women have also moved aside, and now they turn away until the afflicted girls can pass them and ride out of sight.

Tomorrow in Salem: A nurse and a lady on trial

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Sep 7: GUILTY: the shrew Alice Parker and the pious Mary Esty

Today in Salem: Trials have resumed for the accused witches, who stand with their lives in the balance as they face the judges. Despite the high stakes, the judges are proceeding through the trials more and more quickly. The defendants are beginning to blur together, with similar complaints from neighbors, the same accusations from the afflicted girls, and recognition from the handful of confessed witches.

One, two, three: real-world evil, spectral evil, and a confessed witch’s identification. Once those three types of evidence are presented, the judges are done.

Today’s docket includes two women who are so obviously guilty that the court needs only a morning and an afternoon to prove it.

On Trial: The Shrew Alice Parker

The judges begin with the shrew Alice Parker, who’s been nothing but trouble since the day eight months ago when she fainted dead away in the snow, only to sit up laughing at the men who rescued her. What kind of person is dead, then suddenly is alive and laughing at her rescuers? Then, when witnesses testify that Alice has predicted several deaths, the judges are satisfied that the first of the three types of evidence – real-world evil – is proven.

As for the second kind of evidence, spectral powers, it’s already been declared by the afflicted girls, who for months have never wavered in their accusations. The judges skip right to the third and final kind of evidence, identification by a confessed witch, in this case Mary Warren, who says she’s seen Alice Parker at the Devil’s Sacrament.

Alice’s guilt is without question. It isn’t even lunch time when the judges sentence her to death.

On Trial: The Pious Mary Esty

The pious Mary Esty appears before the judges in the afternoon. She is the sister of the beloved Rebecca Nurse, who was hanged two months ago. Like Rebecca, Mary’s piety doesn’t weigh much in her favor. Still, the judges are surprised when six witnesses don’t show up for the trial. One woman does appear, though. Three years ago she’d confided in Mary about an illness, and immediately felt much worse. That shows the judges that Mary has committed real-world evil, the first kind of evidence.

Next: spectral evil. The same woman claims that Mary’s specter had offered her rotten meat just this summer, while Mary was still in jail. Finally, several confessed witches have already identified her before the trial.

The judges pause for a moment to review two depositions in Mary’s favor, one from each jail keeper in two different prisons. Both say that, even being in chains for four months, Mary has been a well-behaved prisoner.

It’s not enough for the judges, though. She’s found guilty and will be hanged.

Tomorrow in Salem: Dangerous Stares

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Sep 6: Dorcas Hoar’s “Witch’s Locks”

Today in Salem: Chairs are crashing to the floor as the fortuneteller Dorcas Hoar stumbles, struggling to break free of one bailiff while another pulls her back by her hair.

Her neighbors, and even her former minister, have just testified that she can predict illness and death by looking at the lines in a person’s face. Children, teenagers, adults, even her own husband had died after she’d foretold it, just by looking at them. No one is inclined to testify in defense. She’s been robbing people for years. Money, food, sheep, clothing – nothing has been secure from her pilfering. She’s even stolen a pearl necklace from her minister, one pearl at a time.

Her hair is the final piece of evidence, the thing that sets her apart from the other accused witches. She hasn’t cut or even combed it in nearly ten years, and keeps it hidden under a large cap. But the bailiff has pulled the cap away, and now a black mat of tangles, four and a half feet long, has fallen like ropes onto her back.

bowing woman

Everyone knows what they are. “Witch’s locks” they’re called, snarls of hair that evil imps and demons can hide in. The locks are protected by the Devil, and impossible to cut. Now the judges have ordered that test, and while one bailiff holds her back, the other grasps a hank of hair in one hand and shears in the other. He cuts through the hair and drops it to the floor before grabbing another fistful and cutting it off as well. Despite her keening, it’s not long before Dorcas Hoar’s head is closely shorn, as closely as a man’s.

This is not what the judges expected, and it suggests that she is not a witch after all. It was hard to to cut, though, suspiciously matted, and long enough to touch the back of her legs. That plus her face-reading prophesies are enough to convince the judges. Dorcas Hoar is guilty and sentenced to death.

Tomorrow in Salem: GUILTY: the shrew Alice Parker and the pious Mary Esty

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Sep 5: the fortuneteller Samuel Wardwell backpedals

Today in Salem: The judges are grilling three women. The afflicted girls suffer their usual fits, and resentful neighbors make the typical complaints. But this time a small group of confessed witches is here, including the fortuneteller Samuel Wardwell.

Samuel has been in jail since Thursday and will be on trial for his life soon. But everyone knows that confessed witches who can see other witches are usually spared execution, at least for the time being. So he tries to make himself useful.

The accusations against Samuel include a burning house; the one that contained the body of his brother-in-law. Now he pounces. “You had an argument,” he asks the first woman. “Didn’t he fire you as a wet nurse? Were you angry enough to murder him?” he asks sharply. He turns to the magistrates. “Maybe it was she who burned the house. To cover up a murder.”

The woman protests her innocence, but soon confesses to signing a birch bark that the Devil had brought to her. Nothing else though! But Samuel won’t let it go, and brings it up when the second woman is in front of the judges. Once again he describes the blaze, the stolen wine, the gleeful shouting.But like the previous woman she denies it.

The women aren’t quite convincing, but neither is Samuel. The judges send all of them to jail to wait for trial.

Tomorrow in Salem: Dorcas Hoar’s “Witch’s Locks”

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Sep 4: The runaway witch

Today in Salem: It’s the Sabbath. It’s forbidden to work on Sundays, but it doesn’t stop the constable from chasing an accused 16-year-old girl who’s been hiding and escaping for four months now. Today he finds her at her grandmother’s house, dark and empty since the grandmother herself was arrested last spring.

The constable orders a local man and his dog to go with him to the house. Just as they enter, the runaway girl flings open the back door and bolts toward a neighbor’s field. The man and his dog chase her as fast as they can run, but they can’t catch her, even when she trips in her heavy petticoats.

The girl jumps up and runs behind a stone wall lined with bushes, with the man close behind. But when he finally reaches the wall, there’s no one there. He runs toward a nearby fence, but no one is there either except for a large cat. A witch! he thinks, and sics the dog on it, but the dog races in the opposite direction. In a panic, the man strikes at the cat with a stick, but the cat just squeezes under the fence and runs away. That’s it then. The man stands up to catch his breath. All of them are gone: the girl, the dog, and the cat. Even the constable is nowhere in sight, having stayed behind at the house. She must be a witch. That’s the only way to explain it.

Tomorrow in Salem: the fortuneteller Samuel Wardwell backpedals

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Sep 3: Contagion

Today in Salem: The wheels of accusations, arrests, and hearings continue to turn. The witchcraft fervor has by now spread from Salem into an arc of neighboring towns as far as 15 miles and a full day’s ride away: Andover to the northwest, Ipswich to the north, and Gloucester, a northeast seaside harbor.

In Gloucester today, two very sick women want the afflicted girls to look into the Invisible World to see who is tormenting them. It’s a day’s ride, but one of the local men rides to Salem as quickly as he can to fetch the girls, including the doctor’s niece Elizabeth Hubbard.

The girls are certain they see the evil specters of two other local women. But it’s one thing to accuse them while there in the sickroom. Accusing them in court is another matter. So on the ride back to Salem the afflicted Elizabeth Hubbard declares that she can’t. One of the specters says so, and Elizabeth isn’t powerful enough to defy them.

That doesn’t stop the driver from filing a complaint, though. His mother is one of the sick women. Once in Salem he finds the judges, who issue arrest warrants for the tormenters.

Tomorrow in Salem: The runaway witch