Chapter 3 Settling the Northern Colonies



Chapter 3 Settling the Northern Colonies

|Calvinism |Separatists |Mayflower Compact |Massasoit |Massachusetts Bay Company|

|John Winthrop |Blue Laws |Heresy |Roger Williams |Pequot War |

|The New England |Sir Edmund Andros |Dutch West Company |William Penn | |

|Confederation | | | | |

Calvinism – A new denomination stemming from the Protestant Reformation. This religion was started by John Calvin in Geneva.

• John Calvin was born in France and trained as a priest and lawyer

• 1536 he published the Institutes of the Christian Religion – It set forth his religious beliefs

o Just life Luther he believed that salvation could only be reached through faith alone. The bible is the only source of religious truth.

o But he also included his own ideas – predestination (god had long ago determined who would gain salvation.

o World is divided into saints and sinners. Must live like saints.

• Geneva Switzerland

o Calvin set up a Theocracy

o Stressed hard work, discipline, thrift, honesty, and morality. Citizens faced fines or punishment for fighting, swearing, laughing in church, or dancing.

o Did believe in religious education for girls and boys

• The Spread late 1500s

o Arrived in England after Henry the VIII was breaking away from the Pope

o Many people liked Calvin’s teachings and felt that England’s church was too Catholic and moving at a extremely slow pace to change it. These people were known as Puritans.

Separatists – The most extreme form of Puritans. They believed The Church of England could not be saved, thus the must separate themselves from the church.

• King James I (leader form 1603-1625) felt the separatists were a threat to his power, so harassed many separatists out of the land.

• Most famous group left for Holland in 1608 (We will know them as Pilgrims) While in Holland they did not like how they had to change to the Dutch culture.

• Leave for the New World because the Virginia Company said they could settle under their jurisdiction. – But missed their destination and landed in New England 1620 with 102 people.

• Did not land at Plymouth Rock, but went numerous surveys of land to choose that site and became squatters.

Mayflower Compact – A simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority under the regulations agreed upon. Signed by 41 adult males. Leads to things like town meetings

First winter very harsh only 42 survived.

Massasoit – The natives were extremely weak, because of an epidemic that spread through the region. Thus the natives could not resist the English. Squanto, a Wampanoag learned English during captivity, was the translator between the natives and the pilgrims. Massasoit the Wampanoag Chieftain signed a treaty with the Plymouth Pilgrims in 1621 and helped celebrate the first Thanksgiving after the autumn harvests.

Massachusetts Bay Company – The little colony of Plymouth remained charterless, so merged with the Massachusetts bay colony.

• In 1629 a group of Non-Separatist Puritans, fearing for their faith and for England’s future, secured a royal charter for form the Massachusetts bay Company.

• Boston was to be the hub – 1630 11 ships and 1000 immigrants started the colony – later 70,000 left England. Not all were Puritans – more Puritans went to the Caribbean islands then to all of Massachusetts.

John Winthrop – was the leader of the great Puritan migration to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and the dominant influence in the early colony. His personality and political policies reflected the complex nature of New England Puritanism: intense, high-mined, sober, driven, intellectual, intolerant. A very well-off country gentleman and attorney, Winthrop began to experience career difficulties in England because of his strong Puritan leanings, He grew deeply pessimistic about the future, especially after the dismissal of Parliament in 1329, and joined as one of the 12 influential Puritans who organized the migration to the New World. Winthrop was elected governor before sailing on the Arbella in 1630 and reelected nearly every year until his death. Pious, humorless, and extremely stern toward dissenters, he skillfully managed the colony’s affairs, successfully negotiating with Puritans and others in England – While putting Massachusetts Bay on a sound economic and political footing.

Quote: “The lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as his own people and will command a blessing upon us all in our ways… And he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: the Lord make it like that of New England. For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill; the eyes of all people are upon us.” (Sermon aboard the Arbella, 1630)

Lee Schweninger, John Winthrop (1990)

On arrival the adult males could vote (must belong to the church). Must on property to discuss City politics. The provincial government was not democracy. Must be apart of the church to vote, thus the church leaders had enormous influence in the Massachusetts “Bible Commonwealth.” To get into the church you must go through an interview and interrogation.

Blue Laws – The Puritans believed in the Protestant Ethic involving serious commitment to work and to engage in worldly pursuits. They did enjoy drinking, singing, and made love monogamously. But laws were put in place to make sure things did not get out of hand.

What happens if you do not follow the beliefs of the church?

Heresy – living or speaking out against the church

Anne Hutchinson – she was a strong mined religious dissenter whose challenge to the Massachusetts Bay authorities from 1636 to 1638 shook the infant colony to its foundation and led to her banishment. The second of thirteen children of a Puritan minister, from whom she received a strong education in theology and Scripture, she married William Hutchinson, a merchant, and bore 14 children between 1613 and 1636, of whom 11 survived infancy. Hutchinson’s twice-weekly meetings in her home to discuss sermons and Scripture won her an enthusiastic following throughout Massachusetts Bay, and for a time it appeared that she and her clerical allies might take over the colony. But her enemies gained control of the General Court in 1637, and she was excommunicated form the church and banished form the colony, despite her clever defense. She first went to Rhode Island, but after her husband died in 1642, she moved with her children to Pelham, New Netherland, where she and all but one of her children were killed by Indians in 1643

Roger Williams – He was an extreme Separatist and minister in Salem. He challenged the legality of the Bay Colony’s charter. Did not like the idea of taking lands from natives without compensation and did not believe the government had the right regulate religious behavior. The colony authorities banished him in 1635

• Fled to Rhode Island in 1636 with the help of friendly Indians. Built a Baptist church, est. complete freedom of religion even for Jews and Catholics.

• The Puritan clergy back in Boston sneered at Rhode Island as “that sewer” in which the “lords debris” had collected and rotted

• Begun as a squatter colony in 1636 without legal standing, it finally established rights to the soil when it secured a charter from Parliament in 1644.

Slowly the New England Spreads out. Connecticut 1635, New Hampshire and Maine was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

As the English increased their land holdings they came into contact with the Natives.

Pequot War – Hostilities exploded in 1637 between the English settlers and the powerful Pequot Tribe. The English set fire to the Indian wigwams and shot the fleeing survivors. The war virtually annihilated the Pequot tribe and inaugurated four decades of uneasy peace between Puritans and Indians.

• Tried to convert remaining to Christianity

• In 1675 Metacom, Massasoit’s son forged an alliance and mounted a series of coordinated assaults on English villages throughout New England. – King Phillips War

The New England Confederation – 1643 four colonies banded together to for a union.

• England was involved in Civil War the colonies must look to their own resources

• Purpose was defense against enemies – Indians, Dutch and French and deal with inter-colonial problems

• Each member colony wielded two votes (no matter the size)

• Puritan Club, weak, but the first notable milestone on the long and rocky road toward colonial unity.

• After Civil War in England King disliked the confederation and the bay colony revokes their charter and creates the Dominion of New England.

Sir Edmund Andros – The head of the new Dominion. His head quarters were in Boston and the people their were outraged by his actions.

• He curbed town meetings, put restrictions on courts, press and the schools and taxed people without consent and enforced the Navigation Acts

• The Dominion collapsed once the new of the Glories Revolution Reached the colonists.

• Andros fled the attacking mob by dressing as a women, but man’s boots gave him away.

• Massachusetts made into a royal colony in 1691.

Dutch West Company – After winning their Independence from the Spanish the Netherlands became a colonial powerhouse, first with the Dutch East Company and later with the less powerful Dutch West Company in the Caribbean and New Netherland in Hudson River area.

• Bought Manhattan from the Natives and set up New Amsterdam

• No enthusiasm for religious tolerations, free speech or democratic practices

• Fairly aristocratic – vast feudal estates

The English regard the Dutch as intruders and in 1664 Charles II granted the area to his brother Duke of York. New Amsterdam forced to surrender and renamed New York. Even though the English new control territory from Maine to the Carolinas you can see Swedish and Danish cultural traits.

William Penn – English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania engaged in frequent quarrels with the colony’s settlers, his basic policies of liberality, tolerance, and free immigration had a lasting effect on Penn. And eventually on other American colonies, as well. In his youth, Penn developed nonconformist religious leanings that angered his father, the great Admiral Sir William Penn, and eventually landed the younger Penn in the Tower of London. Reconciled to his father on his deathbed, he obtained the charter for Penn. Because of debts owed to his father by King Charles II. Although Penn. was a great economic success, Will benefited little from it. His Friendship King James II caused him to lose political influence after the Glorious Revolution, and his son wasted much of his fortune, so that he ended up in debtor’s prison.

• Pennsylvania was by far the best advertised of all the colonies

• Bought land from the natives

• Freedom to worship, no restriction made on immigration, disliked slavery

Chapter 4 American Life in the Seventeenth Century.

|Chesapeake Region |“Headright” system |Nathaniel Bacon |Middle Passage |Slave Culture |

|Southern Planter Class |New England Population |Women’s Rights | |Jeremaids |

|Halfway Covenant |Salem Witch Trials |“Yankee Ingenuity” | | |

Chesapeake Region – Life was short for the earliest settlers taking ten years off of the life expectancy. Half the people born did not survive to see their 12th birthdays or 14th if they were women.

• Majority of the men were single six to one in 1650

• Slowly they became immune to the killer diseases

• Tobacco was King

• Needed labor, first used family, tired to use Natives, but they died to quickly when came into contact with Europeans. Slaves to expensive, so used indentured servants” voluntarily mortgaged their bodies for several years.

• 100,000 indentured servants were brought into the region by 1700

.

“Headright” System – Both Virginia and Maryland employed this to encourage workers. Under its terms, whoever paid the passage of a laborer received the right to acquire fifty acres of land. Masters—not the servants reaped the benefits.

Single men were frustrated by their broken hopes of acquiring land and their lack of finding a woman to marry. These men worried the Virginia’s governor William Berkeley. About a 1000 broke out of control in 1676 led by Bacon.

Nathaniel Bacon – Descended from a famous English family, immigrated to Virginia in 1674 after obtaining a gentlemanly education at Cambridge and the Inns of Court in London. After the initial phase of his rebellion, which consisted of leading unauthorized attacks on Indians, he was arrested by the Gov. But then pardoned and even appointed to the colonial council in attempt to appease him. But he and his supporters refused to be conciliated, and when Berkeley tired to suppress them, they went on a rampage that ended in the burning of Jamestown. Bacon seemed on the verge of seizing complete control of the colony when he suddenly died of illness.

• Didn’t like Berkeley’s Friendly policy towards the Natives. He refuse to retaliate for a series of attacks on frontiersmen – So Bacon and his follows attacked and then burned Jamestown

After the rebellion the rich plantation owners decided to look somewhere else other than the indentured servants for labor.

• 10 million slaves carried to the new world in three centuries 400,000 to North America and a majority arriving after 1700

• 1680s wages increase in England – so smaller pool of workers, fearful of rebellion

• Blacks accounted for nearly half the population of Virginia by 1750

• In South Carolina they outnumbered whites two to one

Middle Passage—Africans were captured and then put on ships like cattle and came to the Americas on a deathly terrible journey called the Middle passage. 20 percent of the Africans did not survive.

• Once sold into slavery they became the property of their master through the slave codes.

Slave Culture

• Slave life in the south was extremely severe. Slaves in the Chesapeake region had it somewhat easier.

• Native Born Africans-Americans contribute to the growth of a new culture

o New language Gullah

o Dance and music Jazz (banjo and bongos)

o Religion

Southern Planter Class

• Slavery widens the gap between the social classes

• The wealthy planters were at the top of the ladder – for the most part they were hardworking businessmen.

• Beneath the planter class was the small farmer. The probably had one or two slaves

• Beneath the small farmer was the landless whites and the under them were the indentured servants

• Few cities emerged and isolation was a common characteristic

New England Population

• People in this region lived longer (70 years on average) and they migrated as families not singles. Big families was the norm

• Children raised by not only parents, but also grandparents

• Less premarital pregnancy rates then Chesapeake

• The idea of Community was important – disliked slavery

o Communities and towns grew in an orderly fashion.

o Proprietors must receive a grant from the colonial legislature before creating a town.

o Towns must have a meeting place, village green, each family received land, bigger towns were required to provide education.

▪ 1636 Harvard College

▪ 1693 William and Mary

o Town meetings

Women’s Rights

• Fragility of southern families advanced the economic security of southern women, because men died young leaving widows with small children to support, the southern colonies generally allowed married women to retain separate title to their property and gave widows the right to inherit their husband’s estates.

• New England women usually gave up their property rights when they married. But did protect widows unlike that of old England.

• Women still could not vote, New England divorce was rare,

• Midwifery was a realm were they had some autonomy

As the distance between the farms and churches grow Ministers became worried about the lack of values, so a new sermon was heard.

Jeremaids – Ministers that took their cues from the doom-saying Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, earnest preachers scolded parishioners for their waning piety.

Halfway Covenant -- Ministers were worried about declining church membership came up with a new formula for membership

• This new arrangement modified the agreement between the church and its adherent, to admit to baptism, but not full communion to the unconverted children of existing members.

• Slowly this is weakened the distinction between the elect and others. More members, but less strictness

Salem Witch Trials

• A hysterical “Witch hunt” ensued leading to the legal lynching of 20 individuals in 1692

• Grew from unsettled social and religious conditions

• Causes for the Outbreak of Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem

1.  Strong belief--"The invisible world": disease, natural catastrophes, and bad fortune attributed to work of the devil

2.  A belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work for him. Prior witchcraft cases in New England (and Europe before)

3.  A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms.

----Cotton Mather's Memorable Providences

----Most symptoms can be feigned

4.  A time of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active.

----Smallpox

----Congregational strife in Salem Village

----Frontier wars with Indians

5.  Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba.

6.  Teenage boredom.

----No television, no CDs, and lots of Bible reading

----Strict and humorless Parris household

7.  Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations of witchcraft.

----See as way to shift blame for their own wartime failures

----Admission of spectral evidence

8.  Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges.

“Yankee Ingenuity” --- New England Way of Life

• Earth and climate shaped them rocky soil – tough, penny-pinching, less ethnically mixed turned to harbors and cities

• Encouraged a diversified agriculture

• The New Englanders also changed the land to fit their needs.

• Religion also drove their work ethic and high idealism

Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather, the minister of Boston's Old North church, was a true believer in witchcraft. In 1688, he had investigated the strange behavior of four children of a Boston mason named John Goodwin. The children had been complaining of sudden pains and crying out together in chorus. He concluded that witchcraft, specifically that practiced by an Irish washerwoman named Mary Glover, was responsible for the children's problems. He presented his findings and conclusions in one of the best known of his 382 works, "Memorable Providences." Mather's experience caused him to vow that to "never use but one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose upon me a Denial of Devils, or of Witches."

As it happened, three of the five judges appointed to the court of oyer and terminer that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his church.  Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials. In particular, Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as"it will bear," and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all.  As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confessed to being witches, Mather became firmly convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center."   On August 4, 1692, Mather delivered a sermon warning that the Last Judgment was near at hand, and portraying himself, Chief Justice Stroughton, and Governor Phips as leading the final charge against the Devil's legions. On August 19, Mather was in Salem to witness the execution of ex-minister George Burroughs for witchcraft. When, on Gallows Hill, Burroughs was able to recite the Lord's Prayer perfectly (something that witches were thought incapable of doing) and some in the crowd called for the execution to be stopped, Mather intervened, reminding those gathered that Burroughs had been duly convicted by a jury. Mather was given the official records of the Salem trials for use in preparation of a book that the judges hoped would favorably describe their role in the affair. The book, "Wonders of the Invisible World," provides facinating insights both into the trials and Mather's own mind.

When confessed witches began recanting their testimony, Mather may have begun to have doubts about at least some of the proceedings. He revised his own position on the use of spectral evidence and tried to minimize his own large role in its consideration in the Salem trials. Later in life, Mather turned away from the supernatural and may well have come to question whether it played the role it life he first suspected.       



Deliverance Hobbs

Deliverance Hobbs, about 50 years old at the time of the trials, was the wife of William Hobbs and the mother of Abigail Hobbs. All three members of the Hobbs family were accused of witchcraft. Abigail had a reputation for being a wild, irreverent and disrespectful young girl. She would brag that she was not afraid of anything. She was also known to mock the holy sacrament of baptism by sprinkling water on her mother's head and reciting the appropriate words. Abigail was one of the first arrested, and acted as a witness against both of her parents. She also enthusiastically contributed to efforts to accuse and convict other supposed witches.

A warrant was issued for Deliverance on April 21. She was arrested two days later and committed to prison. For a while Hobbs professed her innocence. After a time her resistance and her will were broken by the harshness of the proceedings. Hobbs was the fourth Salem resident to confess to practicing witchcraft, preceded only by her daughter, Abigail, and Mary Warren. She then readily confessed to anything the magistrates, afflicted girls, or the crowds would suggest. She even acted as a witness against her husband, who never swayed from his claims of innocence.

Despite the circle of accusations in the family, all three Hobbs managed to avoid the noose. Confession became seen as one option open to accused witches for avoiding the gallows, but of course confessions also had the effect of confirming suspicions of witchcraft and widening the circle of accusations.

Deliverance's breakdown and confessions was gradual, and can be followed through her confessions. Her first confession, given before George Burroughs had been brought back to Salem and accused, made no mention of Burroughs, although it was a lengthy and detailed confession. However, once it had become publicly known that Burroughs had been charged, she confessed again, this time freely implicating Burroughs in the circle of witchcraft in Salem, and claiming that he was the leader of the meetings.  Hobbs also claimed that her mother-in-law served the refreshments of red wine and red bread at the witch meetings.

Despite his wife's and daughter's confessions, William Hobbs steadfastly denied all accusations of witchcraft. He remained in prison until December 1692, then left town.



Tituba

Tituba was an Indian woman, not (as commonly believed) a Negro slave. She was originally from an Arawak village in South America, where she was captured as a child, taken to Barbados as a captive, and sold into slavery. It was in Barbados that her life first became entangled with that of Reverend Samuel Parris. She was likely between the age of 12 and 17 when she came into the Parris household. She was most likely purchased by Parris from one of his business associates, or given to settle a debt. Parris, at the time, was an unmarried merchant, leading to speculation that Tituba may have served as his concubine.

Tituba helped maintain the Parris household on a day-to-day basis. When Parris moved to Boston in 1680, Tituba and another Indian slave named John accompanied him. Tituba and John were married in 1689 about the time the Parris family moved to Salem. It is believed that Tituba had only one child, a daughter named Violet, who would remain in Parris's household until his death.

Tituba made herself a likely target for witchcraft accusations when shortly after Parris's daughter, Betty, began having strange fits and symptoms, she participated in the preparation of a "witchcake" (a mixture of rye and Betty's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, in the belief that the dog would then reveal the identity of Betty's afflictor). Parris was enraged when he found out about the cake, and shortly thereafter the afflicted girls named Tituba as a witch. Parris beat her until she confessed.

Tituba was the first witch to confess in Salem, and she likely did it to avoid further punishment. In her confession she apologized for hurting Betty, claimed she never wanted to hurt Betty, and professed her love for the child. She also wove a lively tale of an active community of witches in Salem. She named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne as witches. By confessing early on, Tituba avoided the ordeal of going to trial, joining with the afflicted girls in providing key evidence against accused witches. Her husband, John, would also fall into fits, and become afflicted.

When public sentiment towards the accusers and the trials began to change, Tituba recanted her confession. This further enraged Parris, who in retaliation, refused to pay the jailer's fee to get Tituba out a prison. As a result, she spent thirteen months in jail until an unknown person paid the seven pounds for her release and bought her. It is likely that the same person bought her husband, John, because Puritans were not inclined to split up married couples, even slaves. It is unknown what happened to her after she began her life with her new owner. --KS



Ann Putnam Jr.

Ann Putnam Jr. was the eldest child of Thomas and Ann Putnam. She was born in 1680. Ann was intelligent, well educated, and had a quick wit.  At the time of the outbreak of witchcraft accusations, Ann was 12 years old. She was a close friend of several of the other afflicted girls. Mercy Lewis, 17, was a servant in the Putnam house, and Mary Walcott, 17, who was also afflicted, was perhaps Ann's best friend. Ann, Mary, and Mercy were among the first villagers outside of the Parris household to be afflicted.

Ann and six other young girls had listened as Tituba, Parris's Indian servant woman, told tales of voodoo and other supernatural events in her native Barbados. The girls also engaged in fortune telling--concerning, for example, matters such as what trade their sweethearts might have. During one fortune telling episode, Ann reported seeing a specter in the likeness of a coffin. After this incident, Ann, Betty Parris, and Abigail Williams (the niece and home resident of Parris) began to display strange symptoms. They complained of pain, would speak in gibberish, became contorted into strange positions, and would crawl under chairs and tables.

After Betty Parris was sent away, Ann and Abigail became the most active--as well as the youngest--of the accusers. Ann claimed to have been afflicted by sixty-two people. She testified against several in court and offered many affidavits. Her father, Thomas Putnam, was the chief filer of complaints in the village, and maintained complete control over the actions of the two afflicted girls living in his house. Most of the afflicted and the accusers were in some way related to the Putnam family. Ann Putnam Sr., Ann's mother, would also become afflicted at times, and was in court almost as much as her daughter and servant. The mother and daughter Ann were a particularly formidable pair of actors. People from miles around trooped into the courtroom to watch their performances.

In 1706, Ann offered a public apology for her participation in the witch trials at Salem. She stood in church while her apology was read: "I desire to be humbled before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time. I did not do it out of anger, malice, or ill-will." Ann was the only one of the afflicted girls to make such an apology. There is some speculation that Ann was as much a victim as those she accused. She may have been manipulated by her parents and elders to achieve their ends.

In 1699, both of Ann's parents died within two weeks of each other. Ann, 19, was left to raise her nine orphaned brothers and sisters, ranging in age from 7 months to 18 years. Ann never married. She devoted her life to raising her siblings. She died in 1716 at the age of 37.



Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris was the son of Englishman Thomas Parris, who bought land in Barbados in the 1650s. Samuel was sent to Massachusetts to study at Harvard, where he was in 1673 when his father died. At the age of 20, Parris inherited his father's land in Barbados. After graduating, Parris moved back to the island to intending to settle the old estate. He leased out the family sugar plantation and settled in town's main population center of Bridgetown, where he established himself as a credit agent for other sugar planters. Parris was unmarried at the time, maintaining  two slaves, including a woman named Tituba.

In 1680, Parris left the island, taking with him his two slaves. He moved to Boston and during his first New England winter married Elizabeth Eldridge. Through his marriage Parris was connected to several distinguished families in Boston, including the Sewalls. A year after they were married, Parris had his first child, a son, Thomas. A year later a daughter Betty was born, and five years later Susahanna. Parris accumulated sufficient wealth in Barbados to support his business ventures in Boston.

Dissatisfied with the life of a merchant, Parris considered a change in vocation. In 1686, he began substituting for absent ministers and speaking at informal church gatherings. After the birth of their third child, Parris began formal negations with Salem Village to become the Village's new preacher. He and his family settled in the parsonage and Parris began his ministerial duties in July 1689. Dissatisfaction in the community with Parris as a minister began in 1691 and manifested itself in the sporadic payment of his salary. In October, a committee refused to impose a tax to support his salary and fire wood through the winter. In response, Parris's sermons began to focus on warnings against a conspiracy in the village against himself and the church, and he attributed the evil to the forces of Satan taking hold in Salem.

It was also in 1691 that Parris's daughter Betty and his niece, Abigail Williams (now also living in his household), most likely inspired by the tales of Tituba, began to dabble in fortune telling and other decidedly non-Puritan activities. Perhaps out of fear of the repercussions of participating in these forbidden games, Betty began to develop strange symptoms: pinching, prickling and choking sensations. Several physicians were unable to diagnose the problem, but Dr. William Griggs suggested that her malady must be the result of witchcraft. Parris organized prayer meetings and days of fasting in an attempt to alleviate Betty's symptoms. Parris did what he could to support Betty and other seemingly afflicted girls, including beating his servant, Tituba, into confessing, and fanning the flames of witchcraft suspicions from his pulpit. Once the witchcraft hysteria ran its course, dissatisfaction with Parris grew and intensified. Parris, however, was slow to recognize his mistakes. It was not until 1694 that he apologized to his congregation, but this was not enough. Opposition to Parris continued until 1697 when he left the village and was replaced by Joseph Green, who suceeded in smoothing over many of the divisions within the community and congregation. After leaving Salem,  Parris first moved to Stowe, and then on to other frontier towns. Parris died in 1720.



Bridget Bishop

Bridget Bishop, "a singular character, not easily described," was born sometime between 1632 and 1637. Bishop married three times.  Her third and final marriage, after the deaths of her first two husbands, was to Edward Bishop, who was employed as a "sawyer" (lumber worker).  She appears to have had no children in any of her marriages.

Although Bishop had been accused by more individuals of witchcraft than any other witchcraft defendant (many of the accusations were markedly vehement and vicious), it was not so much her "sundry acts of witchcraft" that caused her to be the first witch hanged in Salem, as it was her flamboyant life style and exotic manner of dress. Despite being a member of Mr. Hale's Church in Beverly (she remained a member in good standing until her death), Bishop often kept the gossip mill busy with stories of her publicly fighting with her various husbands, entertaining guests in home until late in the night, drinking and playing the forbidden game of shovel board, and being the mistress of two thriving taverns in town. Some even went so far as to say that Bishop's "dubious moral character" and shameful conduct caused, "discord [to] arise in other familes, and young people were in danger of corruption." Bishop's blatant disregard for the respected standards of puritan society made her a prime target for accusations of witchcraft.

In addition to her somewhat outrageous (by Puritan standards) lifestyle, the fact that Bishop "was in the habit of dressing more artistically than women of the village" also contributed in large part to her conviction and execution. She was described as wearing, "a black cap, and a black hat, and a red paragon bodice bordered and looped with different colors." This was a showy costume for the times. Aside from encouraging rumors and social disdain, this "showy costume" was used as evidence against her at her trial for witchcraft. In his deposition, Shattuck, the town dyer mentions, as corroborative proof of Bishop being a witch, that she used to bring to his dye house "sundry pieces of lace" of shapes and dimensions entirely outside his conceptions of what would be needed in the wardrobe of a plain and honest woman. Fashionable apparel was regarded by some as a "snare and sign of the devil."

On April 18, 1692, when a warrant was issued for Bishop's arrest for witchcraft, she was no stranger to the courthouse. In 1680 she had been charged (but cleared) of witchcraft, and on other occasions she had ended up in the courthouse for violent public quarreling with her husband. Bishop had never seen or met any of her accusers until her questioning. While several of the afflicted girls cried out and writhed in the supposed pain she was causing them, John Hathorn and Jonathan Corwin questioned her, although there was little doubt in either of their minds as to her guilt:

Q: Bishop, what do you say? You stand here charged with sundry acts of witchcraft by you done or committed upon the bodies of Mercy Lewis and Ann Putman and others.

A: I am innocent, I know nothing of it, I have done no witchcraft .... I am as innocent as the child unborn. ....

Q: Goody Bishop, what contact have you made with the Devil?

A: I have made no contact with the Devil. I have never seen him before in my life.

When asked by one of her jailers, Bishop claimed that she was not troubled to see the afflicted persons so tormented, and could not tell what to think of them and did not concern herself about them at all. But the afflicted girls were not Bishop's only accusers.  Her sister's husband claimed that "she sat up all night conversing with the Devil" and that "the Devil came bodily into her." With a whole town against her, Bishop was charged, tried, and executed within eight days. On June 10, as crowds gathered to watch, she was taken to Gallows Hill and executed by the sheriff, George Corwin. She displayed no remorse and professed her innocence at her execution.

Bishop's death did not go unnoticed in Salem. The court took a short recess, accusations slowed down for a time, more than a month passed before there were any more executions, and one of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned, having become dissatisfied with the court's methods. Even Governor Phips had doubts about the methods of the court and went to Boston to consult the ministers there as to what should be done with the rest of the accused. Unfortunately for the eighteen others who would be hanged as witches (in addition to the one pressed to death and the several who died in prison), the ministers decidedly and earnestly recommended that the proceedings should be "vigorously carried on," and so they were. Less than a year after her death, Bishop's husband married Elizabeth Cash, and several of those who had testified against her, in deathbed confessions claimed that their accusations were "deluted by the Devil."



George Burroughs

In the minds of many of the villagers of Salem, George Burroughs was "the ringleader of them all." Burroughs was born in Scituate, although there is some uncertainty surrounding his origins. He graduated from Harvard College in 1670. Burroughs was a non-ordained minister.

While preaching in Casco, Maine (now Portland) in 1676, the entire settlement was broken up by an Indian assault. Burroughs escaped to an island in the Bay. He was rescued by aid from the mainland. He moved to the Village of Salem in 1680, where a year later his wife died. Burroughs ministered in the Village of Salem for only two years. He left as a result of a bitter dispute over his salary.  He seems also to have had a more personal and heated dispute over money with John Putnam, the uncle of one of Burroughs' later accusers. As a result of these disputes, Burroughs left the Village abruptly. After leaving Salem, he returned to Casco, where he was again driven out by Indians in 1683, causing him to relocate to Wells, Maine. There he was given a grant of 150 acres of land, part of which he gave back to the city as population thickened.

Burroughs had been serving as a minister in Wells for nine years when he was arrested for witchcraft. He was seized, taken from the table while eating, and hauled back to Salem on May 4 to stand trial. The arrest and examination of Burroughs "constituted the most dramatic escalation of judicial action during the early phases of the trials." Burroughs was tried on August 5. There was no shortage of testimony that Burroughs was not just a witch, but their leader as well. One of his accusers testified that his specter told her that "he was above a witch, he was a conjurer." During his examination, the suffering of the afflicted girls was so extreme that the magistrates ordered them removed from the court house for their own safety. Abigail Hobbs confessed that magical dolls had been given to her by Burroughs. Nineteen-year-old Mercy Lewis claimed that Burroughs "carried me up to an exceeding high mountain and shewed me all the kingdoms of the earth and tould me that he would give them all to me if I would writ in his book," a temptation not unlike one used by his supposed master on occasion. Some of the most damaging testimony against Burroughs was by several confessed witches who identified him as Satan's personal representative at Salem Sabbaths. They claimed that meetings were personally organized and presided over by Sorcerer Burroughs. The effect of this testimony was to convince the magistrates that they had finally located one of the central figures in the current diabolical operations. Much of the testimony, however, in addition to focusing on his commissions of acts of witchcraft, focused on his general mistreatment of his wives, and his uncanny physical ability. Ann Putnam claimed to have been visited by two women in shrouds (the deceased wives of Burroughs) who proclaimed to her the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of their husband. Burroughs was a short man of small build, who supposedly possessed superhuman strength. Burroughs was accused on one occasion of having carried a whole barrel of molasses or cider a great distance. He responded that at the time an Indian had done the same, and his accusers immediately replied that his Indian companion had to have been the Devil. It was also said that Burroughs could run faster than a horse, and would often go from one location to the next in a shorter time than was possible for a mere mortal. Burroughs again responded that he had a companion on these travels, and it was again alleged that this companion was the Devil.

Despite the wealth of testimony against him, historical records have credited Burroughs with many character traits uncommon for a wizard (male witch). There is "evidence that he was self-denying, generous, and public spirited, laboring with humility and with zeal." By another account "he was an able, intelligent, true-minded man; ingenuous, sincere, humble in his spirit, faithful and devoted as a minister, and active, generous and disinterested as a citizen." These are hardly the characteristics one would expect to find in a close companion of Satan. Papers in the State house in Maine indicate that he was regarded with confidence by his neighbors and looked up to as a friend and counselor. As a result of his untarnished record, despite the danger to themselves, thirty-two of the most respectable citizens of the Village signed a petition on behalf on Burroughs' innocence, and even before his execution, one of his accusers recanted her accusation as groundless and made out of fear. It was no use. Burroughs was hanged on August 17 along with three other men and one woman, all supposed witches.

As he stood on the gallows awaiting the noose, Buroughs stunned the crowd by loudly proclaiming his innocence and then reciting the Lord's Prayer without hesitation or error, a feat thought impossible for a wizard. The spectators, deeply impressed, called for his pardon. However, more legal-minded officials overseeing the execution refused, and the convicted man was hanged before the protesting spectators could organize their opposition. A somewhat disputed account claims that after the hanging his body was cut down, dragged by the halter, thus becoming partially disrobed, thrown in a hole between the rocks, and left, partially buried with two others who had been hanged. It is interesting to note that many of the depositions against Burroughs were obtained after his trial and execution in order to help bolster the verdict. About twenty years later his children were given monetary compensation from the government for their father's wrongful execution. --KS



Giles Corey

Giles Corey was a prosperous farmer and full member of the church. He lived in the southwest corner of Salem village.  In April of 1692, he was accused by Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, and Abigail Williams of witchcraft. Ann Putnam claimed that on April 13 the specter of Giles Corey visited her and asked her to write in the Devil's book. Later, Putnam was to claim that a ghost appeared before her to announce that it had been murdered by Corey. Other girls were to describe Corey as "a dreadful wizard" and recount stories of assaults by his specter.

Why Corey was named as a witch (male witches were generally called "wizards" at the time) is a matter of speculation, but Corey and his wife Martha were closely associated with the Porter faction of the village church that had been opposing the Putnam faction. Corey, eighty years old, was also a hard, stubborn man who may have expressed criticism of the witchcraft proceedings.

Corey was examined by magistrates on April 18, then left to languish with his wife in prison for five months awaiting trial. When Corey's case finally went before the grand jury in September, nearly a dozen witnesses came forward with damning evidence such as testimony that Corey was seen serving bread and wine at a witches' sacrament. Corey knew he faced conviction and execution, so he chose to refuse to stand for trial. By avoiding conviction, it became more likely that his farm, which Corey recently deeded to his two sons-in-law, would not become property of the state upon his death.

The penalty for refusing to stand for trial was death by pressing under heavy stones. It was a punishment never before seen in the colony of Massachusetts.  On Monday, September 19, Corey was stripped naked, a board placed upon his chest, and then--while his neighbors watched--heavy stones and rocks were piled on the board. Corey pleaded to have more weight added, so that his death might come quickly.

Samuel Sewall reported Corey's death: "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute."  Robert Calef, in his report of the event, added a gruesome detail: Giles's "tongue being prest out of his mouth, the Sheriff with his cane forced it in again, when he was dying." Judge Jonathan Corwin ordered Corey buried in an unmarked grave on Gallows Hill.

Corey is often seen as a martyr who "gave back fortitude and courage rather than spite and bewilderment." His very public death may well have played in building public opposition to the witchcraft trials.



Mary Easty

Mary Easty was the daughter of William Towne, of Yarmouth, Norfolk County, New England, where she was baptized on August 24, 1634. Two of Easty's sisters, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Cloyse were also accused of Witchcraft during the Salem outbreak, although there is ample evidence that all three were innocent.

At the time of her questioning, Easty was about 58 years old and was married to Isaac Easty, with whom she had had seven children. Isaac owned and lived upon a large valuable farm. Her examination followed the pattern of most in Salem: the girls had fits, and were speechless at times, and the magistrate expostulated with her for not confessing her guilt, which he deemed proven beyond doubt by the sufferings of the afflicted.

"How far have you complied with Satan?" "Sir, I never complied with him but pray against him all my days. What would you have Easty do?" "Confess if you be guilty" "I will say it, if it was my last time, I am clear of this sin." During the exam, when Easty clasped her hands together, the hands of Mary Lewis, one of the afflicted were clenched and not released until Easty released her hands, and when she inclined her head, the afflicted girls cried out to have her straighten her neck, because as long as her head was inclined their necks were broken.

Easty was committed to prison after her examination. For a reason not disclosed in any of the remaining records, Easty, after spending two months in prison, was discharged on the 18th of May. She and her family believed she would now be safe from further accusations. They were wrong. The release seems to have been very distasteful to the afflicted girls, they became determined to not let the matter rest, and redoubled their energies to get her back into prison. On the 20th, Mary Lewis spent the entire day experiencing fits of unprecedented severity, during which time she said she was being strangled, and claimed "they will kill Easty out right." Several of the other afflicted girls claimed that they could see the apparition of Easty afflicting her, and people came from all around to see the fits. That evening a second warrant was issued for Easty's arrest. At midnight, after experiencing two days of liberty and being reunited with her family, Easty was rousted from her sleep by the marshall, torn from her husband and children, and taken back to prison where she was loaded with chains. Once Easty was back in prisons with chains, Lewis's fits stopped.

Easty was tried and condemned to death on September 9th. She was executed on September 22, despite an eloquent plea to the court to reconsider and not spill any more innocent blood. The court had long since ceased to pay any attention to anything that was said by the condemned. On the gallows she prayed for a end to the witch hunt.

Easty's parting communications with her husband and children were said by those who were present to have been "as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present."

In November, after Easty had been put to death, Mary Herrick gave testimony about Easty. Herrick testified that she was visited by Easty who told her she had been put to death wrongfully and was innocent of witchcraft, and that she had come to vindicate her cause. Easty's family was compensated with 20 pounds from the government in 1711 for her wrongful execution. --KS



Sarah Good

Sarah Good was the daughter of a prosperous Wenham innkeeper, John Solart. Solart took his own life in 1672 when Sarah was 17, leaving an estate of 500 pounds after debt. After testimony of an oral will, the estate was divided between his widow and her two eldest sons, with a portion to be paid to each of the seven daughters when they came of age. However, Mrs. Solart quickly remarried, her new husband came into possession of her share and the unpaid shares of the daughters, and as a result, most of the daughters never received a portion of the Solart estate.

Sarah married a former indentured servant, Daniel Poole. Poole died sometime after 1682, leaving Sarah only debts, which some sources credit her with creating for Poole. Regardless of the cause of the debt, Sarah and her second husband, William Good, were held responsible for paying it. A portion of their land was seized and sold to satisfy their creditors, and shortly thereafter they sold the rest of their land, apparently out of dire necessity. By the time of the trials, Sarah and her husband were homeless, destitute and she was reduced to begging for work, food, and shelter from her neighbors.

Good was one of the first three women to be brought in at Salem on the charge of witchcraft, after having been identified as a witch by Tituba. She fit the prevailing stereotype of the malefic witch quite well. Good's habit of scolding and cursing neighbors who were unresponsive to her requests for charity generated a wealth of testimony at her trials. At least seven people testified as to her angry muttering and general turbulence after the refusal of charity. Particularly damaging to her case, was her accusation by her daughter. Four- year-old Dorcas Good (Sarah's only child) was arrested on March 23, gave a confession, and in so doing implicated her mother as a witch. At the time of her trial, Good was described as "a forlorn, friendless, and forsaken creature, broken down by wretchedness of condition and ill-repute." She has been called "an object for compassion rather than punishment."

The proceedings against Good were described as "cruel, and shameful to the highest degree." This remark must have been due in part to the fact that some of the spectral evidence against Good was known to be false at the time of her examination. During the trial, one of the afflicted girls cried out that she was being stabbed with a knife by the apparition of Good. Upon examination, a broken knife was found on the girl. However, as soon as it was shown to the court, a young man came forward with the other part of the knife, stated that he had broken it yesterday and had discarded it in the presence of the afflicted girls. Although the girl was reprimanded and warned not to lie again, the known falsehood had no effect on Good's trial. She was presumed guilty from the start. It has been said that "there was no one in the country around against whom popular suspicion could have been more readily directed, or in whose favor and defense less interest could be awakened."

Good was executed on July 19. She failed to yield to judicial pressure to confess, and showed no remorse at her execution. In fact, in response to an attempt by Minister Nicholas Noyes to elicit a confession, Good called out from the scaffolding, "You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink." Her curse seems to have come true. Noyes died of internal hemorrhage, bleeding profusely at the mouth. Despite the seemingly effectiveness of her curse, it likely just further convinced the crowds of her guilt.

Although he clearly deserved nothing, since he was an adverse witness against his wife and did what he could to stir up the prosecution against her, William Good was given one of the larger sums of compensation from the government in 1711. He did not swear she was a witch, but what he did say tended to prejudice the magistrates and public against her. The reason for his large settlement was his connections with the Putnam family. Although Good's daughter was released from prison after the trials, William Good claimed she was permanently damaged from her stay in chains in the prison, and that she was never useful for anything. --KS



Rebecca Nurse

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"The Trial of Rebecca Nurse"

Rebecca Nurse was the daughter of William Towne, of Yarmouth, Norfolk County, New England where she was baptized Feb. 21, 1621. Her sister Mary (also accused and put to death for witchcraft) married Isaac Easty. Another sister, Sarah Cloyce, was also accused of witchcraft. Nurse's husband was described as a "traymaker." The making of these articles and similar articles of domestic use was important employment in the remote countryside. He seems to have been highly respected by his neighbors, and more often than anyone else was called in to settle disputes. Nurse had four sons and four daughters.

Nurse was one of the first "unlikely" witches to be accused. At the time of her trial she was 71 years old, and had "acquired a reputation for exemplary piety that was virtually unchallenged in the community." It was written of Nurse: "This venerable lady, whose conversation and bearing were so truly saint-like, was an invalid of extremely delicate condition and appearance, the mother of a large family, embracing sons, daughters, grandchildren, and one or more great-grand children. She was a woman of piety, and simplicity of heart."

That her reputation was virtually unblemished was evidenced by the fact that several of the most active accusers were more hesitant in their accusations of Nurse, and many who had kept silent during the proceedings against others, came forward and spoke out on behalf of Nurse, despite the dangers of doing so. Thirty-nine of the most prominent members of the community signed a petition on Nurse's behalf, and several others wrote individual petitions vouching for her innocence. One of the signers of the petition, Jonathan Putnam, had originally sworn out the complaint against Nurse, but apparently had later changed his mind on the matter of her guilt. (LINK TO DOCUMENTS RELATING TO NURSE TRIAL)

Unlike many of the other accused, during the questioning of Nurse, the magistrate showed signs of doubting her guilt, because of her age, character, appearance, and professions of innocence. However, each time he would begin to waiver on the issue, someone else in the crowd would either heatedly accuse her or one of the afflicted girls would break into fits and claim Nurse was tormenting her. Upon realizing that the magistrate and the audience had sided with the afflicted girls Nurse could only reply, " I have got nobody to look to but God." She then tried to raise her hands, but the afflicted girls fell into dreadful fits at the motion.

At Nurse's trial on June 30, the jury came back with a verdict of "Not Guilty." When this was announced there was a large and hideous outcry from both the afflicted girls and the spectators. The magistrates urged reconsideration. Chief Justice Stoughton asked the jury if they had considered the implications of something Nurse had said. When Hobbs had accused Nurse, Nurse had said "What do you bring her? She is one of us." Nurse had only meant that Hobbs was a fellow prisoner.  Nurse, however, was old, partially hard of hearing, and exhausted from the day in court. When Nurse was asked to explain her words "she is one of us," she did not hear the question.  The jury took her silence as an indication of guilt. The jury deliberated a second time and came back with a verdict of guilty. Shocking as it seems today, it was not uncommon in the seventeenth century for a magistrate to ask the jury to reconsider its verdict. Her family immediately did what they could to rectify the mistake that had caused her to be condemned, but it was no use. Nurse was granted a reprieve by Governor Phips, however no sooner had it been issued, than the accusers began having renewed fits. The community saw these fits as conclusive proof of Nurse's guilt.

On July 3, this pious, God fearing woman was excommunicated from her church in Salem Town, without a single dissenting vote, because of her conviction of witchcraft. Nurse was sentenced to death on June 30.  She was executed on July 19. Public outrage at her conviction and execution have been credited with generating the first vocal opposition to the trials. On the gallows Nurse was "a model of Christian behavior," which must have been a sharp contrast to Sarah Good, another convicted witch with whom Nurse was executed, who used the gallows as a platform from which to call down curses on those who would heckle her in her final hour. It was not until 1699 that members of the Nurse family were welcomed back to communion in the church, and it was fifteen years later before the excommunication of Nurse was revoked. In 1711, Nurse's family was compensated by the government for her wrongful death.--KS



John Proctor

Proctor was originally from Ipswich, where he and his father before him had a farm of considerable value. In 1666 he moved to Salem, where he worked on a farm, part of which he later bought. Proctor seems to have been an enormous man, very large framed, with great force and energy. Although an upright man, he seems to have been rash in speech, judgment, and action. It was his unguarded tongue that would eventually lead to his death. From the start of the outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Proctor had denounced the whole proceedings and the afflicted girls as a scam. When his wife was accused and questioned, he stood with her throughout the proceedings and staunchly defended her innocence. It was during her questioning that he, too, was named a witch. Proctor was the first male to be named as a witch in Salem. In addition, all of his children were accused. His wife Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's sister and sister-in-law, also were accused witches.  Although tried and condemned, Elizabeth avoided execution because she was pregnant.

Mary Warren, the twenty-year-old maid servant in the Proctor house--who herself would later be named as a witch--accused Proctor of practicing witchcraft. It is believed by some sources that when Mary first had fits Proctor, believing them to be fake, would beat her out of them. Even if it didn't actually beat her, he certainly threatened beatings and worse if she didn't stop the fits. It was this type of outspoken criticism of the afflicted that caused Proctor to be accused.

Proctor was tried on August 5 and hanged on the 19th. While in prison on July 23, Proctor wrote a letter to the clergy of Boston, who were known to be uneasy with the witchcraft proceedings. In his letter he asked them to intervene to either have the trials moved to Boston or have new judges appointed. After the trial and execution of Rebecca Nurse, the prospects of those still in prison waiting trial were grim. If a person with a reputation as untarnished as hers could be executed, there was little hope for any of the other accused, which is why Proctor made his request. With the present judges, who were already convinced of guilt, the trial would just be a formality. In response to Proctor's letter, in which he describes certain torture that was used to elicit confessions, eight ministers, including Increase Mather, met at Cambridge on August 1. Little is known about this meeting, except that when they had emerged, they had drastically changed their position on spectral evidence. The ministers decided in the meeting that the Devil could take on the form of innocent people. Unfortunately for Proctor, their decision would not have widespread impact until after his execution.

Proctor pleaded at his execution for a little respite of time. He claimed he was not fit to die. His plea was, of course, unsuccessful. In seventeenth-century society, it would not have been uncommon for a man so violently tempered as Proctor to feel that he had not yet made peace with his fellow man or his God. In addition, it is thought that he died inadequately reconciled to his wife, since he left her out of the will that he drew up in prison. Proctor's family was given 150 pounds in 1711 for his execution and his wife's imprisonment.

Philip & Mary English

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The home of Philip and Mary English, constructed in 1685.

Not even the wealthiest of Salem's residents were immune from accusations of witchcraft.  Yet, as it turned out for Philip and Mary English, money had its advantages.

Philip English (born Philippe L'Anglois) emigrated to Salem in 1670 from the Isle of Jersey at age 19.  Five years later, he married Mary Hollingsworth, the daughter of wealthy merchant William Hollingsworth and his wife, Eleanor.  The couple established residence in a grand home with a view of the harbor.  They raised two daughters in this beautifully proportioned home on Essex Street. Over the course of the next two decades, Philip English developed a highly profitable trading company and came to own a fleet of twenty-one ships, as well as fourteen lots and a wharf in Salem.  English earned his money by trading fish for produce from the tropics and manufactured goods from Europe.  Fishermen on ships owned by English sailed the North Atlantic coast from Maine to the Newfoundland Banks. English also took an active role in local affairs.  In April 1692, he was elected a Salem Town selectman.

Troubles began just before midnight on Saturday, April 18, Sheriff George Corwin and his deputies, acting on an unknown accusation, arrived at the English home on Essex Street.  Opening the curtains around Mary's bed, Corwin ordered her to accompany him.  Not easily intimidated, Mary told Corwin to go away and arrest her in the morning.  Corwin agreed to wait, ordering his deputies to guard the house during the night to prevent an escape.  On Sunday morning, after Mary had eaten breakfast, she consented to be taken to a second-floor room at the Cat and Wheel tavern near the meetinghouse.

Mary English appeared before a large crowd at the Salem meeting house on April 22, 1692 to answer a complaint of witchcraft.  The examination records for that day are lost, and so the precise reasons for the charge against her remain unknown.  She most likely became a target because her husband attracted attention because he was a native French speaker (and the French, because of their association with warring Indians were anything but popular), because he was an Episcopalian in an overwhelmingly Puritan community, and because had unsuccessfully pursued contentious lawsuits over disputed property.  It is also possible that general knowledge that Mary's dead mother had once been accused of witchcraft contributed to the accusation.  Susannah Sheldon, who later accused Philip of witchcraft, claimed to have seen Mary's apparition, accompanied by a black man wearing a tall hat.  Abigail Williams added to Mary's problems when she told authorities that George Jacob's specter told her that he had recruited Mary as a witch.  Mary remained housed in Salem for three weeks following her examination.  On May 12, she was transfered to a jail in Boston to await trial.

Philip's vocal criticism of his wife's arrest made himself an obvious target for a similar accusation.  It came when Susannah Sheldon reported that English, at church service on Sunday, April 24, "stepped over his pew and pinched her," thus afflicting her "in a very sad manner." Later, Sheldon would tell authorities that English "brought his [the Devil's] book" and told her that if she didn't sign it "he would cut my throat."  She added that a specter, telling her not to rest until she had told his tale, accused English of having "murdered him and drounded him in the sea."  English warned her not to report the murder, Sheldon said.  If she did so, he would "cut my legs off"and--for good measure--"kill the governor" and "ten folk in Boston" before six days passed.  Sheldon accusations probably encouraged another witness, William Beale, to step forward with his own charges against English.  Beale's dislike of English stemmed from being on the opposite side of a 1690 lawsuit over a claim to two tracts of land.  Beale claimed that English had offered him a bribe in return for his favorable testimony in the case.  Later, Beale said, when was discussing English's lawsuit with a friend, "my nose gushed out bleeding in a most extraordinary manner"--a nosebleed he attributed to English's witchcraft.  Beale also speculated that the sudden deaths of two of his sons soon afterward might have been the evil work of English, in retaliation for his testimony against him.

On April 30, 1692, a warrant issued for English's arrest.  Philip, however, knew in advance of the charge against him and, after first hiding in a secret room, fled to Boston, where he hoped his influence could be used to free Mary.  When it became apparent that his absence was hurting--rather than helping--his wife he returned to Salem to face charges of witchcraft.   Magistrates examined Philip on May 31, then ordered him sent to join his wife in a jail in Boston (a privilege granted through the help of English's friends).  The Boston jailer freed the couple each morning, on the promise that they would return at night to sleep in the jail.

According to stories handed down in the English family, a Boston minister named Joshua Mooley convinced Philip and Mary to flee Boston just before the scheduled start of their witchcraft trials.  Mooley based his Sunday sermon on Matthew 10:23, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another."  Just to make sure they got the message, Mooley later visited the couple in jail that evening, telling them that he had made arrangement for "their conveyance out of the Colony."  Somewhat reluctantly, Mary and Philip took the advice, leaving behind their two teenage daughters to stay with friends in Boston while they made way by carriage for New York, where they intended to wait out the madness in Salem.

In New York, the Englishs' received periodic reports of the continuing hysteria in Salem.  A combination of lost time in the fields and drought caused a food scarcity in Salem, and Philip arranged for a shipload of corn to be sent there to ease the suffering.

In 1693, with the hysteria finally ended, Philip and Mary returned to Salem to find that Sheriff Corwin had confiscated much of their property.  The next year, shortly after giving birth to a son, Mary died.  Philip returned to his shipping business.  He also pursued claims for reimbursement of his property, finally getting 532 pound sterlings in 1711.  He also is said (in some histories) to have found a more personal type of revenge: stealing Corwin's body from the home cellar in which it was buried following his death.  Philip English died in 1736.



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