Excavated foundation of the Samuel Parris parsonage in what is now Danvers, MA. This is where all the trouble started! Photo taken from the website -historyofmassachusetts.org.
The trouble began in February, 1692 when several local girls including Betty Parris (daughter of Rev. Parris), Abigail Williams (niece of Rev. Parris), and Ann Putnam, Jr. (a friend) gathered at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris to listen to the tales of Tituba, Parris’ Indian servant. She filled their impressionable minds with accounts of voodoo and the supernatural from her native Barbados as well as possibly teaching them the fortune telling technique called “venus glass”. ( I say “possibly” because some sources indicate that Tituba taught this to the girls however there is no mention in court records or evidence she was involved.) Venus glass, also called oomancy, is performed by dropping an egg white into a glass of water and then waiting for a shape or symbol to appear. The girls used this technique in an attempt to learn about their future husbands and social standing. During one of these sessions, Ann reported seeing an apparition or “specter” of a coffin. Spectral evidence, a form of evidence based on visions and dreams became focal months later as it was admitted into court during the trials by the chief justice, William Stoughton.
Shortly after, “Betty began behaving strangely in January of 1692, when she hid under furniture, complained of fever, barked like a dog, screamed and cried out in pain”.(1) It didn’t take long for Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam, Jr. to follow with their own set of strange symptoms as well as Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Booth. The doctor was called; the girls examined and unable to find anything physically wrong, Dr. William Griggs suggested they may be “bewitched”.
On March 1, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba would be the first arrested after being accused as witches by Betty and Abigail. Tituba quickly confessed that all three were approached by the devil to do his work as witches, which believe it or not, saved her life as the common belief was she could then repent her sins. In the townspeople’s minds, Tituba’s confession proved undeniably that the devil had slithered into Salem bringing about mass hysteria and the hunt for more witches. During the same month, four more women were accused including Rebecca Nurse, the sister of Sarah Towne.
Many historians believe that a long-standing feud between the Towne and both Putnam and Gould families and the need for revenge prompted some of the girl’s parents, mainly Thomas Putnam, Ann’s father and Reverend Samuel Parris, Bettys father and Abigail’s guardian to encourage their children to make the accusations. In 1670, 22 years before the hysteria, the Goulds who were close friends of the Putnams accused Joanna Towne mother of Rebecca, Mary and Sarah, of witchcraft presumably after she defended Topsfield minister, Rev. Thomas Gilbert in court (In order to avoid getting too sidetracked you can read more about this here.) Then in 1686, Mary Estey’s (Sarah’s other sister) husband Isaac and other Towne family members testified against Captain John Putnman for harvesting trees according the The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society periodical:
“The Putnams were strong-willed men, of high temper and seemingly eager for controversy and even personal conflict. In a suit brought in 1686, Isaac Easty sen., Isaac Easty jr., John Towne, and Joseph Towne jr. testified that they were in the woods within Topsfield bounds on the south side of the river and ‘saw Capt. John Putnam of Salem Farms or Village & his sons & some of his cousins cutting down timber within Topsfield bounds & on Topsfield men’s properties & several of Topsfield men forewarned Capt. John Putnam from cutting timber on their land; the said Capt. Putnam replied, I have faled the timber yet is here cut down on my orders & I will keep cutting & carrying away from this land till next March, & ye said Putnam being asked, what by violence, his answer, ay by violence & further said you may sue me you know where I dwell & then did his company fall on.’ The court again decided in favor of the Topsfield men which of course only served to make the Putnams more bitter.”
Although Joanna was never tried in court for witchcraft, the local town gossip during the 1692 trials in Salem suggested that witchcraft was passed down to family members, ie her daughters Rebecca, Mary and Sarah. As far as the girl’s symptoms, modern theories are epilepsy, boredom, child abuse, mental illness, hysterical contagion or disease from eating rye infected with ergot fungus. Symptoms of early ergot poisioning are nausea, vomiting, muscle pain and weakness, numbness, itching and progressing to vision problems, confusion, spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness and deaths
An illustration of Rebecca Nurse on trial.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RebeccaNurse-inChains.jpg
While their sister Rebecca sat in jail, Sarah Towne Cloyce and Mary Estey were accused of witchcraft with Sarah arrested on April 8 and Mary on April 21.
Rebecca Nurse was tried on June 30, 1692, found guilty, granted a brief reprieve by the governor after pleas by her family and friends who vouched for her good character but ultimately hanged on July 19, 1692 along with Sarah Good and three others. Rebecca Nurse was not only a pious woman but was loved and respected by her community. Prior to hanging many of the other accused of witchcraft had been social outcasts. The accusations and trials were now completely out of control.
Mary was tried released from prison on May 18, but one of her accusers, Mercy Lewis, continued her claim and she was arrested again 48 hours later. Court records indicate that the complaint against Mary was by, interestingly, John Putnam, Jr. and another man on behalf of the original accusers. During trial, the testimony against her was mostly stories from the stricken girls about being inflicted with Mary’s spirit and other testimony from the girls’ parents and relatives including Edward Putnam and John Putnam, Jr. Mary was tried on September 9 and during the course of her trial submitted two petitions; one with her sister Sarah before her conviction asking that “spectral evidence” not be allowed and the other by herself after her convictionThe:
“The humble petition of Mary Easty unto his excellencies Sir William Phipps to the honoured Judge and Bench now sitting In Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth that whereas your poor and humble petitioner being condemned to die do humbly beg of you to take it into your judicious and pious considerations that your poor and humble petitioner knowing my own innocency blessed be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtility of my accusers by myself can not but judge charitably of others that are going the same way of myself if the Lord steps not mightily in I was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for and then cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honours know and in two days time I was cried out upon by them and have been confined and now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my innocency then and likewise does now as at the great day will be known to men and angels — I petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is set but the Lord he knows it is that if it be possible no more innocent blood may be shed which undoubtedly cannot be avoid in the way and course you go in I question not but your honours does to the utmost of your powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be guilty of innocent blood for the world but by my own innocency I know you are in the wrong way the Lord in his infinite mercy direct you in this great work if it be his blessed will that no more innocent blood be shed I would humbly beg of you that your honors would be pleased to examine this afflicted persons strictly and keep them apart some time and like-wise to try some of these confessing witches. I being confident there is several of them has belied themselves and others as will appear if not in this world I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I question not but you’ll see an alteration of these things they say myself and others having made a league with the devil we cannot confess I know and the Lord knows as will shortly appear they belie me and so I question not but they do others the Lord above who is the searcher of all hearts knows that as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat that I know not the least thing of witchcraft therefore I cannot I dare not belie my own soul I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dying innocent person and I question not but the Lord will give a blessing to your endeavors
To his Excellency Sir William Phipps: Governor and to the honoured Judge and Magistrates now setting in Judicature in Salem.
Mary Easty Petition”
The petition was too late, Mary Estey was hanged on September 22 with 7 other people.
Indictment #1 of Sarah Cloyce for Afflicting Abigail Williams.
While Sarah waited in jail her sisters Rebecca and Mary were executed. Fortunately Sarah’s fate was different than her sisters. Historians suggest that Mary’s plea in her petition for the court to be reasonable and think twice about what they were doing is what possibly ended the hysteria. The beginning of the end was in September when “spectral evidence” was declared inadmissable in the court. The last hangings in Salem were on September 22 and by 1693 the Salem Witch Trials had ended. The indictments against Sarah were dropped in 1692 and the charges dismissed on January 3, 1693 and her husband Peter Cloyce paid all her fees and she was released from jail. The Cloyce’s, understandably, relocated to West Salem End now called West Framingham.
Next Month: Life After the Salem Witch Trials
““I will say it, if it was my last time. I am clear of this sin” - Mary Eastey.
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Towne sister statue at Salem Wax Museum.
Sources:
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/
Footnotes:
Brooks, Rebecca B. Elizabeth Parris: First Afflicted Girl of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. June 10, 2013. historyofmassachusetts.org.