The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft. William Godwin
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gaol. Mrs. Osburn died in gaol on May 16. Sarah Good was hanged, and Tituba lay in prison for thirteen months, and was then sold to pay her gaol fees.
Evidently the taste for notoriety in the ‘afflicted children’ was developing. One of them, Ann Putnam, denounced one Martha Corey for pricking and tormenting her. Mrs. Corey seems to have been a harmless church-member, and denied all the imputations of witchcraft cast on her; but even her husband bore testimony against her anent an ox which he thought had been bewitched. She was hanged. Her husband was afterward arrested on a similar charge, and his was a most singular case. By law, if found guilty, his goods, etc., were forfeited. He had the singular courage to defeat the law by the law itself. He caused a deed to be drawn up, duly witnessed, etc., by which he left his property to two out of his four sons-in-law, who befriended his wife (the other two gave witness against her). He then refused to plead either guilty or not guilty. He was had up the legal three times before the judge, but as he continued dumb he was sentenced to the Peine forte et dure, that of ‘pressing’ until he pleaded or died. If he died under the punishment his goods were not forfeited.
The punishment was that he was stretched out upon his back, his arms and legs drawn out by cords and fastened to the four corners of his dungeon. A board, or plate of iron, was laid upon his stomach, and upon this was placed a certain weight. Next day he was given, at three different times, three little morsels of barley bread, and nothing to drink. The next day, three little glasses of water, and nothing to eat, and if he continued obstinate and dumb, he was left uncared for till he died. Corey begged them to add weights until they killed him, and they mercifully did so. Verily, he expiated his testimony against his wife.
It would be impossible to give, within the limits of this volume, an account of all the trials of the Salem witches. Suffice it to say that the little clique who met at the house of the Rev. S. Parris continued to accuse their neighbours all round. The following is a list taken from the ‘Records of Salem Witchcraft, copied from the original Documents. Privately printed for W. Elliot Woodward, Roxbury;’ Massachusetts, 1864. Those in italics were hanged; the fate of the others except in two or three instances I know not:
Sarah Good,* Sarah Osburn (died in gaol), Tituba, Indian (sold), Martha Corey,* John Procter,* Dorcas Good, Rebecca Nurse,* Elizabeth Procter,* (pleaded she was enceinte), Mary Warren, Bridget Bishop, Abigail Hobbs,* Sarah Wilds,* Philip English, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Hart, Dorcas Hoar,* George Jacobs,* John Willard,* Ann Pudeater, Rebecca Jacobs, Roger Toothaker, Mary Eastey,* Sarah Procter, Susannah Roots, Benjamin Procter, Martha Carrier,* Elizabeth How,* William Procter, Wilmott Reed, Elizabeth Fosdick, Elizabeth Paine, Mary Ireson, George Burroughs,* Abigail Faulkner,* Ann Foster,* Mary Lacey,* Rebecca Eames,* Samuel Wardwell,* Mary Parker,* Mary Bradbury,* Giles Corey,* (pressed to death), Alice Parker, Margaret Scot.
Who can say, after reading the above list, that, if the Devil were in anyone at Salem, he was not in that precious lot of ‘afflicted children’? In fact, people began to fight shy of them; they even accused a member of Increase Mather’s family, and made charges against Mrs. Hale, wife of the Minister of the First Church in Beverley, so that their testimony at last received no credence. After the Sessions of September 22, no one was hanged, even if convicted; and in April, 1693, the Governor-General, by proclamation, gave freedom to all suspects that were in confinement, and in 1711 a reversal of attainder was granted in those cases marked with an asterisk, and compensation made to their representatives to the amount of £578 12s.
Footnotes:
1. The old writers and the old maps probably meant mosquitoes when they said ‘Here be Divells.’
2. ‘A Discourse of the Subtill Practises of Deuilles by Witches and Sorcerers,’ etc. By G. Gyfford. Lond., 1587.
3. Chap. iv.
4. ‘The Discouerie of Witchcraft, etc., by Reginald Scot, Esqre,’ 1584, p. 377.
5. ‘The Just Devil of Woodstock; or, a True Narrative of the Several Apparitions, the Frights and Punishments, inflicted upon the Rumpish Commissioners Sent thither, to Survey the Mannors and Houses belonging to His Majestie.’ London; printed in the year 1660.
6. ‘The Woodstock Scuffle; or Most Dreadfull Apparitions that were lately seene in the Mannor-House of Woodstock, neere Oxford, to the great Terror and Wonderful Amazement of all there, that did Behold them.’ 1649.
7. ‘Palpable Evidence of Spirits and Witchcraft, in an Account of the Fam’d Disturbance by the Drummer, in the House of M. Mompesson, etc.’ London, 1668.
8. The writer was the Rev. Joseph Glanville, M.A., F.R.S., Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles II., Rector of the Abbey Church, Bath, and a Prebendary of Worcester.
9. ‘The Dæmon of Burton; or, A True Relation of Strange Witchcrafts, or Incantations, lately practised at Burton, in the Parish of Weobley, in Herefordshire. Certified in a Letter from a Person of Credit in Hereford.’ London, 1671.
10. Herefordshire.
11. Ewell.
12. ‘Strange and Wonderful News from Yowel in Surry, giving a True and Just Account of One Elizabeth Burgiss, who was most strangely Bewitched,’ etc. London, 1681.
13. ‘Discours des Sorciers,’ by Henry Boguet (Lyon, 1608), p. 417.
14. Whooping.
15. Shriek.
16. A sheaf or bundle.
17. Table.
18. Hiccoughing.
19. Or bannocks, oat cakes.
20. A hump.
21. A hedgehog.
22. Sleight, cunning.
23. These extracts are from an English translation of Olaus Magnus, 1658.
24. A Finn is even now reckoned to be a very uncanny person on board ship, and to be able to control the weather.