Tag Archives: George Jacobs Sr

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Aug 20: A guilty granddaughter mourns

Today in Salem: It’s one thing to watch your grandfather die. It’s another to watch him die and know it’s your fault. It’s yet another to learn that he’s left all of his money to you, with none for his own children.

The gesture hollows her out. Her grandfather, George Jacobs Sr., was hanged yesterday, in no small part due to her false accusation. It doesn’t matter that she accused him to save herself, or that she’d sobbed in misery and recanted it right after she’d said it. It makes no difference that she’s in jail herself, or that she prayed with Rev George Burroughs the night before the hanging.

She thinks about her father, who’d escaped three months ago when he himself was accused. He almost certainly doesn’t know that his own father is dead, or that she herself is in prison. So she writes him a letter. She can only hope that it reaches him, though. No one has seen him since he ran away.

From the Dungeon in Salem-Prison, August 20, 92

Honoured Father, After my Humble Duty Remmbered to you, hoping in the Lord of your good Health, as Blessed be God I enjoy, tho in abundance of Affliction, being close Confined here in a loathsome Dungeon, the Lord look down in mercy upon me, not knowing how soon I shall be put to Death, by means of the Afflicted Persons; my Grand-Father having Suffered already, and all his Estate Seized for the King.

The reason of my Confinement is this, I having, through the Magistrates Threatnings, and my own Vile and Wretched Heart, confessed several things contrary to my Conscience and Knowledg, tho to the Wounding of my own Soul … I was forced to confess the truth of all before the Magistrates, who would not believe me, but tis their pleasure to put me in here, and God knows how soon I shall be put to death.

Dear Father, let me beg your Prayers to the Lord on my behalf, and send us a Joyful and Happy meeting in Heaven. My Mother poor Woman is very Crazey, and remembers her kind Love to you, and to Uncle, viz. D. A.

So leaving you to the protection of the Lord, I rest your Dutiful Daughter, Margaret Jacibs

Tomorrow in Salem: ESCAPE and FORFEIT

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Aug 19: *** Sensitive Content: Death by Hanging ***

Today in Salem: The pregnant Elizabeth Proctor wills herself to keep looking, not to blink, to keep her eyes wide, and to watch every movement of her husband as he climbs into the sheriff’s cart and prepares for his final journey. She memorizes John’s face, the set of his shoulders, the way he holds out a calloused hand to help the only woman who will be hanged today. He is innocent, and it confounds her, why God would allow this.

The cart sags under the weight of the condemned: three farmers, a minister, and another minister’s niece, and although the farmers might prefer to walk, it would be difficult with the throng of people surrounding them. An even larger crowd is waiting at Gallows Hill, though, twice as large as those at previous hangings. For as much as the hanging itself is sensational, it’s the minister George Burroughs that the crowd has come to see. Is it true? Is a minister — a minister — in league with the Devil? Worse, is it not true? Are they about to hang an innocent man?

A wooden ladder is leaning against the branch of the hanging tree, where several ministers wait to pray for the condemned if they ask. The prisoners stand up in the cart, and the former deputy John Willard steps to the front. He’d quit his position last spring when he began to think he was arresting innocent people. But now he knows it. “Please pray with us,” he says to the ministers. “We are innocent. Please pray that ours will be the last innocent blood that is shed.”

At that, John Proctor steps forward. “We are innocent, and yet we ask that God will forgive us all our sins.” He looks at the crowd. “We also pray that he will forgive the sins of our accusers.” The crowd starts to shuffle and bow their heads as the Reverend Cotton Mather begins to pray.

It’s now, when people are looking away or closing their eyes, that the Sheriff decides the order of execution, for when the crowd looks up, the outcast Martha Carrier already has the noose around her neck. If any of them are guilty it’s she, with a trail of death and smallpox behind her. Rev Cotton Mather has barely said Amen when the crowd begins to boo and jeer.

It’s easy to see her husband, standing a full foot taller than the men around him. But Martha is looking up at the sky. Does she not hear him begging her to confess? Or are his entreaties drowned out by the noise of the cheering crowd? Just like that, before she can look down, the Sheriff knocks the ladder away and she hangs, swaying in the swirling dust.

The elderly George Jacobs Sr. stands on a lower rung, having climbed with difficulty, not having the use of his canes. Jacobs has always been ornery, even vulgar, and now is no different. He has no last words except a string of his own accusations, of the girls lying, the judges ignorant, the Sheriff stealing. At that, the Sheriff kicks the ladder away and Jacobs hangs, as quickly as an 80-year-old man would.

The hangings continue, one after the other. The ladder creaks under the weight of the bold John Proctor. With his pregnant wife Elizabeth in jail, his oldest son is running the 700-acre Proctor farm and caring for the younger children. Still, he’s found a way to be there, and mirrors John’s stance, with his shoulders back and an angry look in his eyes.

The crowd is quieter now as the former deputy John Willard climbs the ladder easily. He stares hard at the Sheriff, who used to direct him in his arrests. Then he locks eyes with his wife, who holds their three year-old daughter on her hip, swaying the way mothers do. Willard isn’t a large man like Proctor, but he stands tall and doesn’t flinch or resist when the Sheriff kicks the ladder.

Finally it’s the minister George Burroughs who climbs the ladder and turns toward the crowd. “What say ye?” asks Cotton Mather. The ladder wobbles as the sheriff ties Burroughs’ hands and legs. “Our Father, Who art in heaven,” Burroughs says. “Hallowed be Thy Name.” He calmly finishes the Lord’s Prayer, flawlessly, with nary a stutter.

An uncomfortable buzz begins at the front of the crowd and moves to the back, and several women begin to cry. Everyone knows that witches and wizards cannot recite Scripture, most especially and in particular the Lord’s Prayer. And yet here he is, the minister they’ve accused, doing exactly what he should not be able to do.

“Stop!” someone yells. “Stop!” The cry spreads through the crowd, growing louder and louder, until it seems like half of the people are raising their hands and shouting. Something has changed. The Sheriff hesitates, and looks at Rev Cotton Mather.

“It’s the Devil’s work!” cries one of the afflicted girls, and points at Burroughs. “The Devil is telling him what to say!”

Mather blinks and gives a nod; the tiniest, almost imperceptible nod. At that, the Sheriff turns away and kicks the ladder, hard, until the Reverend George Burroughs hangs.

The deputies bury the bodies quickly, this time in one large grave, so quickly that George Burroughs’ hand protrudes from the dirt, resting awkwardly on someone else’s foot. Tonight several men will float down the dark river, just as some have before them. They will take the bodies of John Proctor and George Jacobs, and bury them at home with dignity. The others will be left behind.

Tomorrow in Salem: A guilty granddaughter mourns

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Aug 12: The doomed George Jacobs Sr. dictates a new will

Today in Salem: The jail keeper spits on the already filthy floor, then sits in the only chair at the table, pulling the paper, quill, and ink closer. George Jacobs Sr. looms over his shoulder, watching the jail keeper write the first words.

“Why are you doing this?” the jail keeper says, and dips the quill into the black ink. “There’s nothing left. You know that,” he says. But Jacobs just stares at him.

“Write it,” Jacobs says, and thumps his walking stick. One week from today he will meet the hangman, and there’s much to do.

The candles on the walls are nearly burnt to stubs, and the smell of hot wax underlies the stink of the jail. Now the jail keeper leans closer to the pahe per and writes in the flickering light as Jacobs dictates.

As with the harsh John Proctor before him, the sheriff has confiscated everything Jacobs owns except his property. Jacobs leaves it to his wife, whose wedding ring is now sinking into the Sheriff’s pocket, and adds a £10 legacy to his 16-year-old granddaughter. Who knows where that £10 will come from? Still, it’s far from a hollow gesture. Three months ago this granddaughter had accused him, then testified against him. Within days, though, she’d broken down, sobbing, and recanted. It had made no difference to the court. But it meant something to Jacobs.

“Nothing for your children?” the jail keeper asks. But Jacobs just shakes his head, once, and takes the pen, leaning in to make his mark.

Tomorrow in Salem: Rev Cotton Mather says what he thinks… again

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Aug 6: GUILTY: the incredulous farmer and the flawed former deputy

Today in Salem: The tall and abusive George Jacobs Sr. is leaning forward on both of his canes, incredulous. This is his trial. His trial. He will live or die by this. But the judges have asked almost no challenging questions of his accusers, and they’re giving Jacobs almost no time to defend himself.

His lazy servant says he’s beaten her with his canes. (Never.) A neighbor says ghosts have told him that Jacobs had murdered them. (Ridiculous.) A confessed witch says she’s seen him at witches’ meetings. (Heresy.) The judges finally turn toward him and press him to confess, but Jacobs will not plead guilty, he will not belie himself, no matter how threatening the judges are.

But the judges are impatient. Another trial is waiting, and they have no time for prolonged lies from someone who’s obviously guilty. The jury retires but comes back so quickly it’s hard to believe they spoke a single word to one another. Guilty, they say. Jacobs will hang for his sins.

John Willard: A violent and principled man

Now the former deputy John Willard is standing in court, gritting his teeth and trying to unclench his fists. Yes, he tells the judges, when they ask about his occupation. Everyone knows he was a deputy, until two months ago. What’s wrong with that?

More problematic: Yes, he’d quit his job in protest. People were accused of witchcraft, but he knew, he knew they were innocent. He couldn’t bring himself to arrest them, so he’d defied the judges, ministers, and law men and walked away from his job.

None of this is new. But now the shrieking accusers have turned on him, and the judges only nod in assent. Willard himself must be in league with the Devil. Why else would he want people who were obviously guilty to go free?

And now his in-laws are testifying about his greatest flaw. He brings evil into his home, they say. Only the Devil could make someone so cruel to his wife. He’s beaten her more than once, and they, her parents, have helped her many times. Once he’d beaten her so violently that she’d hidden in a stairwell all night before escaping by horseback to her parents’ home.

He has no answer for that, but then his abused wife stands up and pleads his case. She’s been visiting him regularly in both prisons, in Salem of course but even in Boston, a full day of riding out and back. She takes care to bring him food and clean clothing. And she needs his help to raise enough food for their children. Doesn’t that count for something?

Maybe it does, but it’s not enough. John Willard is declared guilty, and sentenced to hang.

Tomorrow in Salem: A letter from prison

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July 25: the harsh John Proctor waits

Today in Salem: The abusive George Jacobs paces in the common area of the jail, where prisoners mingle during the day. Jacobs is elderly and extremely tall, so much so that he needs two canes to walk. His violent temper has always seemed to propel him forward, though.

The harsh John Proctor walks slowly next to him. Proctor’s letter to the governor has gone unanswered, and if there’s no reply by tomorrow night then he and the others are as good as dead. Even without a trial, it’s become clear that an accusation alone is enough to condemn them.

In Boston the governor hasn’t even unfolded the letter from Proctor. He has other pressing issues. Fresh recruits are heading north to fight the Indians. How will the colony pay them? How will it cover their expenses? He spends the day organizing a committee to deal with it.

Tomorrow in Salem: The harsh John Proctor receives the bad news

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June 15: A most humiliating search

Today in Salem: While his panicked wife has abandoned his children and sold everything he owns, the minister George Burroughs stands naked before seven men, holding his head high and stretching his arms out as if he is a cross. He wills himself to breathe evenly as the men prod his armpits, pull at his ears, and examine his private parts. After what seems like forever, the men announce that they’ve found nothing, and Burroughs says a silent prayer of thanks.

The abusive George Jacobs Sr. isn’t as fortunate. The men have found three suspicious marks: a rough spot inside his right cheek, a wart on his right hip, and a growth on his right shoulder.

Do the marks have any feeling, as a natural part of his body? Or are they numb, not part of him, placed by an evil source? Jacobs gags and flinches when one of the men shoves a dirty thumb into his mouth, squeezing Jacobs’ cheek between thumb and fingers. The men agree: it’s obvious Jacobs felt pain. The rough spot is a wound of his own making.

The other two marks are different, though. “Look away,” orders the man who’d examined Jacobs’ mouth. One of the other men pushes a pin into the wart on Jacobs’ hip, but … nothing. Jacobs doesn’t even wince. The men look at each other silently, then stand up to peer at Jacobs’ shoulder. Is the small growth they’ve found a blister? a boil? a cyst? Or is it a witch’s mark? One of the men lances the growth, but no fluid oozes out. More important, Jacobs doesn’t react, even though it’s a lance. He feels nothing.

LEARN MORE: Why didn’t witch marks hurt?

It was common knowledge that the Devil placed marks on witches so their familiars could suckle. But those marks weren’t part of the witch’s body. They were foreign; attached to the skin, not growing out of it. Therefore, they wouldn’t hurt or bleed if they were pierced.

Piercing, known as “pricking,” was used throughout Europe and the colonies as one of several tests to identify a witch. There’s no record of deception in Salem, but not all examiners in Europe were honest. For example, some pricking tools had hollow wooden handles and retractable points. Push it “into” a person’s skin – even up to the hilt of the tool – and it would look like the suspected witch had been stabbed without bleeding or pain. Other tools included needles that were sharp on one end and dull on the other. A deceitful examiner could use the sharp end to cause pain and draw blood, or the dull end, to cause … nothing.

Three bodkins used for “witch pricking.” The one in the center had a retractable needle.

Tomorrow in Salem: The coroner rules and the Governor dithers

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May 12: CLOSING RANKS: the afflicted girls snare the shrew Alice Parker and the healer Ann Pudeator

red and white flowers

Today in Salem: 12yo Ann Putnam and 11yo Abigail Williams are rubbing the palms of their hands where yesterday pins had stabbed them and drawn blood. It was day two of George Jacobs Sr.’s examination, but it didn’t last long. The afflicted girls were convulsing as always, but when Ann and Abigail suddenly screamed and found bloody pins stuck in their hands, the judges quickly ended it and sent Jacobs to jail.

They’d spent the rest of yesterday questioning George Jacobs Sr.’s granddaughter, Margaret. She’d been afflicted for a time, then was “cured.” Now the other girls have accused her of witchcraft – just as they had two other girls. Confess, the judges had said. Confess and save your life. Did they mean her spiritual life, as some would say later? It didn’t matter. Out of pure terror, Margaret confessed. She also agreed with everything else the judges said, accusing her grandfather Jacobs and several others.

That was yesterday. Now, this morning, Ann and Abigail’s hands still itch and sting from the pins. But two more sudden arrests and examinations take up the day.

The shrew Alice Parker is known to scold her husband publicly, and to faint without warning. Now the judges hear testimony from the Proctor’s servant Mary Warren and George Jacobs’ granddaughter Margaret Jacobs. Alice denies the accusations, and says she wishes the earth would open up and swallow her if one word of it is true. The judges send her to jail instead.

The elderly healer Ann Pudeator is a well-to-do widow who’s suspiciously good at her trade. Now the servant Mary Warren accuses Ann’s specter of killing her two husbands, throwing a man from a cherry tree just by looking at him, and trying to bewitch the magistrates’ horses to prevent their reaching court in Salem Village. Ann is also sent immediately to jail.

Meanwhile, the constable can’t find former deputy John Willard anywhere. He’s been carrying Willard’s arrest warrant with him for two days now.

WHY is this important?

Right now there are two broad groups of people: those who are protesting against the witchcraft hysteria (citizens and family members), and those who are pushing back (judges and accusers). The harder one group pushes, the harder the other pushes back.

Everyone knew that George Jacobs Sr. had disrupted a town meeting and shouted that the girls were lying. Now, with him in court, the girls have pushed back. They’re not just fainting and wailing. They’re also being injured by mysteriously appearing objects like pins. Are the girls intentionally upping their game? Maybe not consciously. The girls who were stuck with pins were only 11 and 12.

The afflicted girls have also now closed ranks. Three of them have tried to leave, and each one has had the same experience:

1. She’s afflicted like the other girls.
2. She leaves the circle when she’s cured. Sometimes she says the other girls are lying.
3. Her former friends accuse her of witchcraft.
4. She confesses to witchcraft, then returns to the circle and is afflicted again.

All three girls are occupying a precarious middle ground, confessing to witchcraft and yet being afflicted at the same time. They are the Proctor’s servant Mary Warren, George Jacobs Sr.’s servant Sarah Churchill, and his granddaughter Margaret Jacobs.

Note that two of these girls were the main accusers in today’s examinations. Were they panicking?

WHO was Alice Parker?

Alice was about 60, forthright and even aggressive in her speech. She had no children of her own, though her husband had children from an earlier marriage.

Alice may have suffered from catalepsy, an ailment that causes sudden unconsciousness and rigid posture. One month before the first girls began suffering from unknown torments, Alice was found by neighbors, lying in the snow, seemingly dead. A group of men were there, but they were nervous about picking her up. One of the women assured them that Alice had lost consciousness several times before, but it still took a few minutes before one of them was brave enough to pick her up and hoist her over his shoulder. But she didn’t regain consciousness, not even when the man lost his hold and dropped her. At last they got her home and to bed, but while the men were taking off her shoes she suddenly sat up and laughed. Case files: Alice Parker

WHO was Ann Pudeator?

Ann was in her early seventies, a nurse and midwife, as well as a widow with property and means. But her neighbors were suspicious of exactly how she’d attained them. Years before the Trials, she was hired by a prosperous man to look after his wife in her last days. The wife was a drunkard, described as delirious and out-of-control. She died suddenly under what was thought to be mysterious circumstances, and both her husband and Ann were there. Could they have “helped” her die? The case went to court, but nothing came of it.

If that wasn’t enough, Ann then married the widowed husband, who was twenty years younger than she was. He died soon after they were married, and left everything to her — and it was quite a lot. Did she have something to do with his death as well? Case files: Ann Pudeator

Tomorrow in Salem: Summary: Act II Begins: the first death, pins and needles, mounting pressure

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May 10: ***Sensitive Content*** DEAD: the sickly Sarah Osborne; ARRESTED: the abusive George Jacobs Sr. DISTRAUGHT: the servant Sarah Churchill

Today in Salem: The Boston jail keeper is wrestling with Sarah Osborne’s shackles and irons, trying to remove them from her motionless legs. She’s been chained for 9 weeks, and has spent most of that time lying in a pile of dirty straw, coughing day and night. This morning, though, they’d found her dead, probably of jail fever, and the only sound is the clanking of the chains as she’s finally released.

The beggar Sarah Good is also chained, and now she clutches her baby and turns away as much as she can. The baby is thin, and when she cries she sounds more like a little cat than an infant. Now she mewls when Sarah presses into her and hides her away. There are some things even a baby shouldn’t see.

“Length of Confinement: 9 weeks, 2 days,” the jail keeper later writes in his log. “Unpaid Fees: 1 pound, 3 shillings.” It’s unclear who will pay it.

Meanwhile, the extremely tall and abusive George Jacobs Sr. has stumped into the courtroom in Salem with his two walking sticks. He was arrested just this morning, and now he’s standing in front of a judge with hardly a chance to gather his wits.

The afflicted girls are there, of course, greeting him with their usual wails and torments. He’s seen through them since the start, even shouting in a crowd once that the afflicted girls were lying. And now here they are, with Sarah Churchill – his own servant – standing at the front.

Jacobs guffaws at the judges’ first words.

“Your worships, all of you, do you think this is true?” he asks. They bounce the question back to him. What does he think? “I am as innocent as the child born tonight,” he says, leaning on his sticks.

The magistrates bear down, quizzing the girls, batting away Jacobs’ protests, and asking him to answer to their accusations. Over and over Jacobs says it’s not him, that the Devil is using Jacobs’ specter as a disguise.

“The Devil can take any likeness!” he says. But the magistrates are firm in their response: While that may be true, Jacobs must give his permission for the Devil to impersonate him.

When Jacobs is unable to say the Lord’s Prayer without a mistake – and he makes plenty of them – the judges decide there’s much more to explore. They’ve run out of time, though, so they send him to jail to wait for more questioning tomorrow.

Outside the courtroom, two women find Jacobs’ servant Sarah Churchill sobbing.

“I’ve undone myself,” she cries, and looks at the floor. Just yesterday she’d confessed to witchcraft, but had found a delicate middle ground by blaming Jacobs for forcing her to. But it was a lie, she says now. She’s never signed the Devil’s book, and Jacobs has never asked her to.

The women are shocked. “Why did you confess then? Why would you condemn yourself?”

Sarah paces back and forth, crying and wringing her hands. She was afraid not to confess. And now she’ll never be able to take it back. If she told the authorities only once that she’d signed the Devil’s book, they would believe her. If she told the truth a hundred times now, they would not.

WHY is this important?

First, when most people hear about the Salem Witchcraft Trials, they think of hangings (and rightfully so). But several other people died as well, albeit less dramatically. Sarah Osborne’s death is the first one associated with the Trials, and kicks off the next tragic chapter.

Second, George Jacobs Sr.’s testimony planted a powerful question that shaped the Trials until the end. Can the Devil use someone’s specter to disguise himself? If so, then “spectral evidence,” which was used to execute 20 people, was useless. If it’s not your specter – it’s actually the Devil – you cannot be held accountable for it.

The judges’ response — The Devil needs permission to use a person’s specter — kept spectral evidence in play, and gave the judges more power. The only way to give the Devil that permission is if you are already partnering with him. Therefore you agree to the evil he’s going to inflict. You can be held accountable for that.

Finally, Sarah Churchill’s affliction, followed by her confession, shows a growing realization among the people who were accused:

  • If they confessed, their lives would be saved (or at least prolonged). The judges were trying to identify witches. Who better to recognize them than other witches? So it was useful to the judges to keep the confessors alive.
  • If they said they were innocent, they would probably be executed. The judges assumed from the start that anyone who was accused was guilty. Unless they could prove their innocence – which no one could, since it was their supposed specters committing evil – they would die.

Sarah lied because she wanted to live. To Puritans, though, dying (and therefore meeting God) with a lie in your heart was akin to eternal damnation. Sarah realized she’d condemned herself and George Jacobs Sr. at the same time, and there was no way out.

Tomorrow in Salem: CLOSING RANKS: the afflicted girls snare the shrew Alice Parker and the healer Ann Pudeator

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Mar 31: Lies and accusations

Today in Salem: George Jacobs Sr. already stands a menacing head and shoulders above the other men, and he’s known for his violent temper. So when he bellows and holds his walking stick in the air, the men next to him hunch down and move away.

“They’re lying!” he shouts. “The lot of them!”

It’s Lecture Day, a combination of town meeting and mid-week sermon that’s held every Thursday. Jacobs’ servant Sarah Churchill is in the balcony with the other servants, squeezing Mercy Lewis’s hand. Sarah is 20, and – like Mercy – is a refugee of the wars in Maine. They share the trauma of a brutal past, and Sarah’s abusive master makes her vibrate with fear. While Mercy is fortunate to work for a stern but tolerant household; Sarah is not.

Back in the parsonage, the Rev Parris’s 11-year-old niece Abigail Williams is describing a diabolical scene of 40 witches, right there in the house, mocking the Lord’s Supper with their own Devil’s Supper. Two of the Devil’s deacons are serving: the beggar Sarah Good, and a new specter: the angry Sarah Cloyce, the woman who ran out of church and slammed the door.

WHO was George Jacobs Sr.?

Age 80. Toothless, with long white hair, and so tall that he walked with 2 canes (or “sticks”). He was opinionated and abusive, and known for his violent temper. The gossip among the servants was that he used his walking stick to beat his servant, Sarah Churchill (who became one of his accusers). Soon the other servant girls claimed that Jacobs’ specter was beating them, too, sometimes with his sticks. During his trial, others reported that his specter had committed evil. Case files: George Jacobs Sr. 

WHO was Sarah Churchill?

Age 20-25. Sarah and her family were refugees from the Indian wars in Maine, and had ultimately settled in Salem Village. There she’d hired herself out to the prosperous farmer George Jacobs Sr. When she began feeling torments, it interfered with her work, and Jacobs lost his temper (even calling her a “bitch witch”).

Perhaps because of abuse from Jacobs, her symptoms went away. But then the other girls accused her of witchcraft (what else could explain her cure?). In a panic, Sarah confessed and accused others, but quickly realized she’d cornered herself with lies and false accusations. Throughout the Trials she saved herself with the delicate balance of a confessed witch who was also afflicted.

15 years after the Trials, Sarah married a weaver in Maine, after being fined for premarital fornication. She lived at least until age 59. Case files: Sarah Churchill

Tomorrow in Salem: the Darkness of Light