Tag Archives: Sarah Cloyce

by

June 19: The meaning of time

Today in Salem: It’s the Sabbath, and Rev Parris is raising his hands skyward and thundering on about the Father of all mercies, comforting us in our despair so that we can, in turn, comfort others.

hourglass

Next to the pulpit, a large hourglass trickles sand, marking time until the meeting ends. The sand is mesmerizing, and one man in particular can’t look away. He is far from feeling comforted. His wife, the nervous Sarah Cloyce, has been in jail for two and a half months. Both of her sisters are there as well, the pious Mary Esty and the beloved Rebecca Nurse.

It’s hot in the meeting house, and the man waves a fly away as he thinks about the sand. Nine days ago, the unruly Bridget Bishop was hanged. And nine days from now, the Trials will resume, this time for his sister-in-law, the beloved Rebecca Nurse. Today is a midpoint, as dangerously empty as the time between the last breath of this day and the first breath of the next. What will fill the space? Is time moving too slowly? Or too quickly?

The meeting house rustles as people stand for prayer, and the man joins them, grateful to close his eyes and break the spell of the hourglass. Thy will be done, he thinks. But what if that means his wife and her sisters must die? Is it wrong of him to pray for their lives?

Tomorrow in Salem: ATTACKED: the rapist Timothy Swan

by

Apr 14: The constable’s baby sickens

Today in Salem: The constable is stumbling through the day, so tired and distracted that he hardly understands what’s said to him. His two-month-old baby girl was violently ill last night, and he and his wife have hardly slept. In the middle of the night, desperate, he’d asked his mother to come. She’d brought a doctor with her, but there was nothing they could do. They agreed there was an evil hand upon the child.

How did this happen? What did he do to deserve this? He can only think of one thing: the nervous Sarah Cloyce’s examination was three days ago, and she was sent to jail to join her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse. After the examination the constable had said he wasn’t surprised they were witches, since their mother was one, too.

It seemed like such an easy comment. He could have said much worse. But still: Were Sarah Cloyce and her sister Rebecca Nurse angry? Were they sending their specters to hurt the baby in revenge?

Tomorrow in Salem: A father’s grief

by

Apr 11: INDICTED: Sarah Cloyce & Elizabeth Proctor. ARRESTED: John Proctor.

Today in Salem: The slave John Indian is literally hanging on by his teeth, riding on the back of a horse and biting the man in front of him to keep from falling off. John’s hands are tied together, though no one knows who did it or why. And now, with the horse nearly trotting, John’s balance is precarious.

hands tied with rope

His bite is sudden, though, and hard, and when the horse’s rider shouts and elbows him, another horse pulls up. It’s the schoolmaster, who bellows and hits John Indian over and over with a stick until John, a slave, rights himself and promises it won’t happen again.

The horses and men are part of a larger group that has just left the meeting house, where the nervous Sarah Cloyce and the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor have been examined. In fact, John Indian had testified extensively against both women. His testimony, in addition to the afflicted girls’ usual fits and accusations, had sent both women to jail. And when Elizabeth’s husband John Proctor muttered that he’d beat the Devil out of John Indian if he could, Proctor was immediately arrested, too.

The schoolmaster is a friend of the Proctors, and between John Indian’s testimony, the arrests, and now the biting and thrashing, he’s none too patient. He’d beat the Devil out of the girls, too, if he could.

Tomorrow in Salem: SENT TO JAIL: John Proctor

by

Apr 8: ARRESTED: the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor & the nervous Sarah Cloyce

sad women hugging

Today in Salem: Elizabeth Proctor is a large woman, and the small pillion saddle is hardly comfortable. But she is a suspected witch after all, and her comfort isn’t of great importance to the Marshall, who has arrested her and is now transporting her to jail.

He’s already arrested and delivered Sarah Cloyce, who cried when she saw her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse. They’re now sharing a cell with the officious gospel woman Martha Corey, and will soon be joined by Elizabeth.

The men’s cell is empty, but not for long. For the last two nights a 23-year-old farmer has been tormented by the specters of the harsh John Proctor and his wife, along with the cantankerous Giles Corey and his wife. Neither man has heard about it yet, but their specters have hurt the farmer’s foot so badly that he can’t even put his shoe on.

Tomorrow in Salem: INDICTED: Sarah Cloyce & Elizabeth Proctor. ARRESTED: John Proctor.

by

Apr 4: ACCUSED: Sarah Cloyce & Elizabeth Proctor

paper scrolls

Today in Salem: The cruel magistrate Hathorne raises his quill and drops it on the table in frustration. He and the other magistrate have just finished writing two arrest warrants: one for the quarrelsome Elizabeth Proctor, and one for the angry Sarah Cloyce, who’d slammed the church door last week. He’s writing subpoenas for witnesses when it’s suddenly clear that the witchcraft problem is larger than the Village can manage locally.

Five women and one child are already in jail in Salem, at least one woman has been accused in another town, and the afflictions have spread from three young girls to several young women, three married women, and at least one man. And now two more women are to be arrested. It’s too much.

The magistrates set the papers aside and decide to consult with officials in Boston before proceeding. The arrests will have to wait.

Tomorrow in Salem: This WEEK in Salem

by

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

by

Mar 27: A door slams, and eyes open

Today in Salem: It’s Easter Sunday, but not for the Puritans. While the Anglicans in Boston are celebrating the resurrection, Rev Parris is preaching about “dreadful witchcraft broke out here a few weeks past.”

Sitting in the women’s side of the Meeting House, the nervous Sarah Cloyce is clasping a piece of cloth to stop her hands from shaking. She is angrier than she’s ever been. Her sister, the beloved Rebecca Nurse, is in jail, sharing a cell with the gospel woman Martha Corey. Both are full members of the church, and both have been accused of witchcraft. So when Rev Parris says there are two “vehemently suspected” witches, Sarah knows exactly who he’s talking about, as does everyone else.

But then Parris starts talking about the traitor Judas Iscariot, and reads Christ’s words from the Bible. “Have I not chosen you twelve,“ Parris reads, “and one of you is a Devil?”

Sarah doesn’t remember unclasping her hands, or standing up in the middle of the sermon, or running past her husband and out of the Meeting House. All she remembers is the thundering slam of the door as she pulls it shut behind her.

closed door

WHO was Sarah Cloyce?

Age 50-55, née Towne. With Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty, Sarah was one of three sisters to be arrested for witchcraft. Her dramatic exit from church – complete with a slammed door – can be thought of as the first public protest against the trials.

Popular myth says that Sarah’s husband helped her escape from prison; that they spent the winter living in a cave while they built a house. This myth probably grew out of people misinterpreting the phrase “escaped execution.”

The truth is that Sarah stayed in jail and was released after the trials ended, thereby escaping execution. Once released, she and her husband moved first to Boston and then to Framingham, where they built a house on Salem End Road. Case files: Sarah Cloyce

LEARN MORE: Why didn’t Puritans celebrate Easter? Did they celebrate other holidays?

The Puritans believed that the Church of England was too much like the Catholic Church. They wanted to purify the church (hence the name “Puritan”), and remove everything that even smelled of Catholicism, especially practices that didn’t come directly from the Bible. Therefore, since “Easter” isn’t mentioned in the Bible, they believed it was a Catholic invention, and therefore it was a sin to celebrate it. They also banned Christmas, and anyone who celebrated it paid a fine of five shillings.

So what holidays did the Puritans celebrate? Only four:

Election Day – When colonists elected their local leaders. Some people had to travel quite far, and might stay overnight. It was a festive day, and celebrations sometimes included rum, gingerbread, and fruitcake. The Puritan ministers didn’t entirely approve; in fact one prominent minister wrote that Election Day had become a time “to meet, to smoke, carouse and swagger and dishonor God with the greater bravery.”

Commencement Day – The day when ministerial students graduated from Harvard. It was a day of pride, and dinner, wine, and commencement cake were served. This holiday was typically celebrated in Cambridge by other ministers and notables.

Thanksgiving – As most Americans know, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth by the Pilgrims. But it didn’t become an official U.S. holiday until Abraham Lincoln was president, 240 years later. Before that, Puritans could declare a Thanksgiving any time there was something to be thankful for. During the year of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, the governor declared a day of Thanksgiving in July for his own safe arrival from England.

Training Day – The militia’s public display of firing guns, shooting cannons, and other military exercises. Prayers were offered before and after, followed by a festive dinner.

Tomorrow in Salem: The Nurse family demands answers