Dr Mather, in his work entitled ‘Wonders of the Invisible World,’ produced an abridgment of the trials of the two women condemned by Lord Hale, 1664, and also an abridgment of the rules and signs by which witches are to be discovered, of which he says there are above thirty. His production received the approbation of two of the judges of the court, one of whom was the chief justice and lieutenant governor. The author’s father, Dr Increase Mather, also expressed his coincidence in the same sentiments. The work is, nevertheless, a singular and curious production; it evinces, most clearly, that the reverend author, in the fervency of zeal, suffered his mind to be deeply imbued with bigotry and depressing superstition. Dr Mather was eminent for extensive knowledge and Christian piety; but foibles and infirmities were his lot, and while his mind was enriched with knowledge, his heart must have sickened for lack of wisdom. He published 382 books and tracts on various subjects. In these he displays wit and fancy, and advocates with zeal the cause of religion; and although his style is singular and verbose, his works contain rich and important matter for the historian and antiquary. It would be unjust not to acknowledge the debt of gratitude due to Dr Mather for the immeasurable benefits which our country and the world have enjoyed from his efforts to introduce smallpox inoculation, in 1721. But the work now in question affords a striking example of the imbecility of mind in the absence of its glorious attributes. Sobriety of judgment is seduced by folly, and moral dignity is degraded by the intrusion of fictions of imagination, and the man becomes a dupe to his own credulity. He adopted, in the fullest extent, the doctrine of demons, and of supernatural compacts between Satan and witches, and was fatally blinded against the most palpable impositions practised on himself. But this distinguished divine was not singular in his proneness to bigoted and dogmatical principles and doctrines; they were in perfect coincidence with the habits of thinking in the times in which he lived. His cotemporaries, who administered the affairs of government, and those who were called to decide in their judicial proceedings, had evidently imbibed the same gross absurdities; and there is in our nature an unaccountable reluctance to discard errors, however preposterous. His publication teems with romantic and ludicrous stories, which he unwisely adduces for substantial facts. A shrewd reply was made to it by R. Calef, a merchant of Boston, which led to a controversy between the two authors, on the subject of their inquiry.
The following is an abridged narrative of the trials of B. Bishop, S. Martin, E. How, and M. Carryer, from Dr Mather’s ‘Wonders of the Invisible World.’
‘The court appeared to rely for evidence chiefly on the testimony of the accusers, and the incidents exhibited by the experiment with the parties in their presence on the trials. In all instances the presence of the accused would produce wonderful effects on the persons of the accusers. At a look, or cast of the eye, the accusers would instantly fall down as if in a fit or swoon, and would throw themselves into unnatural and painful postures, and by the application of the witches’ hand they were immediately restored.[D] Some complained that the shape or spectre of B. Bishop, the prisoner on trial, pinched, choked, and bit them. One testified, that the shape of the prisoner, one day, took her from her wheel and carried her to the river side, threatening to drown her if she would not sign the devil’s book, and said she had been the death of several persons whom she named. Another testified, that there were apparitions or ghosts seen with the spectre of the prisoner, crying out “You murdered us.” There was testimony, likewise, that a man striking once at a place where a bewitched person said the shape of this Bishop stood, the bewitched cried out that he had torn her gown, and the woman’s gown was found afterwards to be torn in the very place mentioned.
[D] Why not bewitch the magistrates as well as others, and save the victims from death? If the witches, assisted by Satan, have power over the laws of nature and the actions of men, how is it that their enemies escape with impunity? If they possess the power of raising storms and sinking ships at sea, why not overwhelm both judge and jury in the ruins of falling houses and make a mock of the chains and ropes employed for their executions? Back
‘One D. Hobbs having confessed herself to be a witch was now tormented by the spectres for her confession, and this Bishop tempted her to sign the book again, and to deny what she had confessed, and it was the shape of this prisoner which whipped her with iron rods to compel her thereto. To render it further unquestionable, that the prisoner at the bar was the person truly charged in this witchcraft, there were produced many evidences of other witchcrafts by her perpetrated. J. Cook testified that, about five or six years ago, he was in his chamber assaulted by the shape of this prisoner, which looked on him, grinned at him, and very much hurt him with a blow on the side of his head; and on the same day about noon, the same shape walked into his room, and an apple strangely flew out of his hand into the lap of his mother, six or eight feet from him. S. Gray testified, that about fourteen years ago, he waked on a night and saw the room where he lay full of light, and saw plainly a woman between the cradle and the bed, which looked upon him. He rose, and it vanished, though the doors were all fast. He went to bed, and the same woman again assaulted him. The child in the cradle gave a great screech, and the woman disappeared. It was long before the child could be quieted; though it were a very likely, thriving child, yet from this time it pined away, and after divers months died in a sad condition. He was satisfied that it was the apparition of this Bishop which had thus troubled him. B. Coman testified, that eight years ago, as he lay awake in his bed with a light burning, he was annoyed with the apparition of this Bishop, and of two more, who came and oppressed him, that he could neither stir himself nor wake any one else; the said Bishop took him by the throat and pulled him almost out of bed. The next night his kinsman lodged with him, and as they were discoursing together, they were visited by the same guests, and the kinsman was struck speechless and unable to move hand or foot. He had laid his sword by him, which the spectres did strive much to wrest from him, but he held it too fast for them. S. Shattuck testified, that in the year 1680, this Bishop often came to his house on frivolous and foolish errands. Presently, whereupon, his eldest child began to droop exceedingly, and the oftener she came to his house the worse grew the child. He would be thrown and bruised against the stones by an invisible hand, and his face knocked against the sides of the house in a miserable manner, and the child’s money, purse and all, would be unaccountably conveyed out of a locked box, and never seen more. The child was taken with terrible fits, and did nothing but cry and sleep for several months together, and at length his understanding was utterly taken away. Among other symptoms of enchantment upon him, one was, that there was a board in the garden whereon he would walk, and all the invitations in the world could never fetch him off. About seventeen or eighteen years after, there came a stranger to Shattuck’s house, who, seeing the child, said this poor child is bewitched, and you have a neighbor who is a witch. J. Louder testified, that having some little controversy with Bishop about her fowls, he awaked in the night by moonlight, and clearly saw the likeness of this woman grievously oppressing him; she held him, unable to help himself, till near day. He told her of this, but she utterly denied it, and threatened him very much. Soon after this, being at home on a Lord’s day, with the doors shut, he saw a black pig approach him, but it soon vanished away. Soon after he saw a black creature jump in at the window, and it came and stood before him. The body was like that of a monkey, the feet like a fowl’s, but the face much like a man’s. He was so extremely affrighted, that he could not speak; he endeavored to clap his hand upon it, but could feel no substance, and it jumped out of the window again. He struck at it, but missed his blow, and broke his stick; and the arm with which he struck was soon disabled. This same creature appeared again, and was going to fly at him, whereat he cried out, and it sprang back and flew over the apple tree, shaking many apples off the tree in flying over. At its leap it flung dirt with its feet against the stomach of the man, whereon he was then struck dumb, and so continued for three days. William Stacy testified, that having received some money of this Bishop for work done by him, he had gone but about three rods from her, when looking for his money it was unaccountably gone from him; and being about six rods from her, with a small load in his cart, suddenly the off wheel sunk down into a hole upon plain ground, so that he was forced to get help for the recovery of the wheel; but in searching for the hole in the ground, which might give him this disaster, there was none at all to be found. Soon after this, as he was in a dark night going to his barn, he was very suddenly lifted up from the ground and thrown against a stone wall; and after that he was again hoisted up and thrown down a bank. At another time this deponent passing by the said Bishop, his horse with a small load, striving to draw, all his gears flew to pieces, and the cart fell down, and the deponent going then to lift a bag of corn of about two bushels, could not lift it with all his might. Many other pranks of the prisoner this deponent was ready to testify. He verily believed that the said Bishop was the instrument of his daughter Priscilla’s death. To crown all, says the Dr, J. Bly, and W. Bly, testified, that being employed by said Bishop to take down the cellar wall of the old house, wherein she formerly lived, they did, in holes of the said wall, find several puppets made up of rags and hogs’ bristles, with headless pins in them, the points being outwards. Whereof she could now give no account unto the court, that was reasonable or tolerable. There might have been many more strange things brought against this woman, but there was no need of them. But there was one very strange thing more with which the court was entertained. As this woman was under guard, passing by the great and spacious meeting-house of Salem, she gave a look towards the house, and immediately a demon, invisibly entering the meeting-house, tore down a part of it; so that though there was no person to be seen there, yet the people at the noise, running in, found a board which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another quarter of the house.’
It will doubtless be conceded, that if Bridget Bishop was actually guilty of all the disasters above detailed, she was a proper subject for the gallows.
Magistrate. ‘Pray what ails these people?’
Martin. ‘I don’t know.’
Magistrate. ‘But what do you think ails them?’
Martin. ‘I do not desire to spend my judgment upon it.’
Magistrate. ‘Don’t you think they are bewitched?’
Martin. ‘No, I do not think they are.’
Magistrate. ‘Tell me your thoughts about them, then?’
Martin. ‘No: my thoughts are my own, when they are in, but when they are out, then another’s their master.’
Magistrate. ‘Their master! who do you think is their master?’
Martin. ‘If they be dealing in the black art you may know as well as I.’
Magistrate. ‘Well, what have you done towards this?’
Martin. ‘Nothing at all.’
Magistrate. ‘Why, it is you or your appearance.’
Magistrate. ‘Is it not your master? How comes your appearance to hurt these?’
Martin. ‘How do I know? He that appeared in the shape of Samuel, a glorified saint, may appear in any one’s shape.’
It was then also noted, that if the afflicted went to approach her, they were flung down to the ground. The court counted themselves alarmed by these things, to inquire farther into the conversation of the prisoner, and see what might occur to render these accusations further credible. John Allen testified, that he refused, because of the weakness of his oxen, to cart some stones, at the request of this Martin. She was displeased, and said it had been as good that he had, for his oxen should never do him any more service. Whereupon, as he was going home, one of his oxen tired, so that he was forced to unyoke him that he might get him home. He put his oxen, with many others, on Salisbury beach; they all ran into Merrimack river, and the next day were found on Plum Island. They next ran, with a violence that seemed wholly diabolical, right into the sea, swimming as far as they could be seen; and out of fourteen good oxen all were drowned, save one. John Atkinson testified, that he exchanged a cow with the son of said Martin, whereat she muttered and was unwilling he should have it. Going to receive his cow, though he hamstringed her, and haltered her, she, of a tame creature, grew so mad they could scarce get her along. She broke all the ropes that were fastened unto her, and, though she was tied fast to a tree, yet she made her escape, and gave them such further trouble, as they could ascribe it to no cause but witchcraft. J. Kemball testified, that the said Martin, upon a causeless disgust, threatened him that a certain cow should never do him any more service, and it came to pass accordingly, for soon after the cow was found stark dead on the ground, without any distemper to be discerned upon her; and this was followed with the death of several more of his cattle. ‘But,’ says the reverend author, ‘the said J. Kemball had a further testimony against the prisoner, which was truly admirable. He applied himself to buy a dog of this Martin; but she, not letting him have his choice, he said he would supply himself at one Blazdel’s, and marked a puppy there which he liked. G. Martin, the husband of the prisoner, asked him if he would not have one of his wife’s puppies, and he answered, no. Whereupon the prisoner replied, “As I live I will give him puppies enough.” Within a few days after, Kemball coming out of the woods, there arose a little black cloud in the N. W. and Kemball immediately felt a force upon him, which made him not able to avoid running upon the stumps of trees, although he had a broad, plain, cart way before him; but though he had his axe on his shoulder to endanger him in his falling, he could not forbear going out of his way to tumble over them. When he came below the meeting-house, there appeared to him a little creature like a puppy, of a darkish color, and it shot backwards and forwards between his legs. He had the courage to use all possible endeavors to cut it with his axe, but he could not hit it, the puppy gave a jump from him, and went, as to him it seemed, into the ground. On going a little further, there appeared unto him a black puppy, bigger than the first, but as black as a Coal. Its motions were quicker than those of his axe. It flew at him and at his throat over his shoulders one way, and then over his shoulders another way; his heart now began to fail him, and he thought the dog would have tore his throat out. But he recovered himself and called on God in his distress, and it vanished away at once.’—‘This S. Martin once walked from Amesbury to Newbury in an extraordinary season, when it was not fit for any one to travel. She bragged and showed how dry she was; it could not be perceived that so much as the soles of her shoes were wet. Being told that another person would have been wet up to the knees, she replied, “she scorned to be drabbed.” It was noted that this testimony upon her trial, cast her into a very singular confusion. John Pressy testified, that being one evening bewildered near the field of Martin, as under enchantment, he saw a marvellous light, about the bigness of a half bushel, near two rods out of the way. He struck at it with a stick and laid it on with all his might. He gave it near forty blows and felt it a palpable substance. But going from it, his heels were struck up, and he was laid with his back on the ground, sliding, as he thought, into a pit, from whence he recovered by taking hold on the bush, although afterwards he could find no pit in the place. Having gone five or six rods he saw S. Martin standing on his left hand, as the light had done before, but they changed no words with one another. At length he got home extremely affrighted. The next day it was upon inquiry understood, that Martin was in a miserable condition by pains and hurts that were upon her.’ (Forty stout blows would have killed any one but a witch.) ‘The deponent further testified, that having affronted the prisoner, many years ago, she said he should never prosper; more particularly, that he should never have more than two cows; that though he were ever so likely to have more than two cows, yet he should never have them. From that very day to this, namely, for twenty years together, he could never exceed that number, but some strange thing or other still prevented his having more.’
‘The most remarkable things ascribed to E. How, were, that the sufferers complained of her as the cause of their distresses, and they would fall down when she looked on them and were raised again on the touch of her hand. There was testimony, also, that the shape of her gave trouble to people nine or ten years ago. There were apparitions or ghosts testified by some of the present sufferers, which ghosts affirmed that this How had murdered them. J. How, brother to the husband of the prisoner, testified, that having refused to accompany her to her examination, as she desired, immediately some of his cattle were bewitched to death, leaping three or four feet high, squeaking, falling, and dying at once; and going to cut off an ear, the hand wherein the knife was held, was taken very numb and painful, and so remained for several days, and he suspected the prisoner as the cause of it. N. Abbot testified, that unusual and mischievous accidents would befall his cattle whenever he had any difference with her. Once in particular, she wished his ox choked, and within a little while that ox was choked with a turnip in his throat. A woman, on some difference with How, was bewitched, and she died charging her of having a hand in her death. Many people had their barrels of beer unaccountably mischiefed, spoiled, and spilt, upon displeasing her. One testified, that they once and again lost great quantities of drink out of their vessels, in such a manner as they could ascribe it to nothing but witchcraft. And also that How once gave her some apples, and when she had eaten them, she was taken with a very strange kind of maze, so that she knew not what she said or did. There was likewise a cluster of depositions that one J. Cummings refused to lend his mare to the husband of the said How; the mare was within a day or two taken in a strange condition. She seemed abused and bruised as if she had been running over the rocks, and was marked where the bridle went, as if burnt with a red hot bridle. On using a pipe of tobacco for the cure of the beast, a blue flame issued out of her which took hold of her hair and not only spread and burnt on her, but it also flew upwards towards the roof of the barn and like to have set the barn on fire, and the mare died very suddenly. F. Lane being hired by the husband of How to get him a parcel of posts and rails, Lane hired J. Pearly to assist him. The prisoner told Lane that the posts and rails would not do because Pearly helped him, but if he had gotten them alone they might have done well enough. When How came to receive his posts and rails, on taking them up by the ends, they, though good and sound, yet unaccountably broke off, so that Lane had to get twenty or thirty more. And this prisoner being informed of it, said she told him so before, because Pearly helped about them.’
A considerable number of bewitched persons deposed that it was Martha Carryer or her shape, that grievously tormented them by biting, pricking, pinching, and choking them; the poor people were so tortured, that every one expected their death upon the very spot, but that on the binding of the prisoner they were eased. Moreover, the looks of Carryer then laid the afflicted people for dead; and her touch, if her eyes at the same time were off them, raised them again. It was testified, that on the mention of some having their necks twisted almost round by the shape of this Carryer, she replied, it’s no matter though their necks had been twisted quite off. B. Abbot testified, that the prisoner was very angry with him upon laying out some land near her husband’s. She was heard to say she would hold Abbot’s nose as close to the grindstone as ever it was held since his name was Abbot. Presently after this, he was taken with a swelling in his foot, and then with a pain in his side, and exceedingly tormented. It bred a sore which was lanced by Dr Prescott. For six weeks it continued very bad, and then another sore bred, and finally a third, all which put him to very great misery. He was brought to death’s door, and so remained till Carryer was taken and carried away by the constable. From which very day he began to mend and so grew better every day. Abbot was not only afflicted in his body but suffered greatly in the loss of his cattle in a strange and unaccountable manner. One A. Toothaker testified, that Richard, the son of M. Carryer, having some difference with him, pulled him down by the hair of his head; when he rose again he was going to strike at Richard, but fell down flat on his back to the ground, and had not power to stir hand or foot until he told Carryer he yielded, and then he saw the shape of his mother, the prisoner, go off his breast. One Foster, who had confessed herself a witch, testified, that she had seen the prisoner at some of their witch meetings, and that the devil carried them on a pole, but the pole broke and she hanging about Carryer’s neck, they both fell down and she received a hurt by the fall. Many other evidences of her mischievous conduct were produced, which I omit; the last was this. In the time of the prisoner’s trial, one S. Sheldon, in open court, had her hands unaccountably tied together with a wheel band, so fast, that without cutting, it could not be loosened. It was done, says Dr Mather, by a spectre, and the sufferer affirmed it was the prisoner’s.
There is something in the foregoing proceedings during the memorable events at Salem, that seems to surpass all our conceptions of impartial justice, christian charity, or humanity. It is humiliating to our nature to reflect, that a class of the most profligate wretches were brought together on the stage, and their base intrigues tolerated and encouraged, fanciful experiments witnessed, and little else than fictitious evidence of accusation received to condemnation; while all pleadings for mercy, on the score of innocence, were of no avail. Not a solitary instance is found on record of the voice of pity and compassion being raised in behalf of the friendless, ignorant victims of suspicion. They were subjected to barbarous tricks and senseless experiments, calculated to encourage fraud and imposition, and then consigned to the gallows for the consequences. Better that ten guilty persons escape, than one innocent should suffer. Unfortunately, no lawyers were at that time employed in criminal cases. Had our present court and our state prison been then in existence, the good people of Salem would not long have been molested by witches and bewitched girls, with their invisible ropes and chains.
But while we contemplate the melancholy errors of judgment in our predecessors, we ought in charity to cherish the belief that had not their minds been clouded in superstitious darkness, their posterity would not have been called to mourn over imbecilities so lamentably exemplified. But we would attribute to our venerated fathers no moral corruption, no perverseness of temper, no desire to swerve from the dictates of stern justice. Their task was most arduous, their path of duty obscured by novel occurrences, and their decisions unavoidably swayed by popular clamor and vulgar prejudice. If, unhappily, their intellects were tinctured with superstition, it was the effect of early education, fostered and confirmed by concurrent sentiment and opinion, propagated in books of the heathen and papist.
Much importance was attached by the magistrates to the effects of the witches’ eyes upon the sufferers; but no explanation is given why the same eyes could produce no mischievous effects on any other person. Great stress was laid on the circumstance, that in the trials the sufferers were revived from their fits by the touch of the hand of the reputed witch, but not by the hand of any other person; but instances of the contrary can be adduced; the experiment was ordered to be made in a court in England; the afflicted girl’s eyes being blindfolded, and she being touched by the hand of another woman, recovered as speedily as if touched by the accused witch.
The Rev. Dr Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College, may be considered as among the best authorities for the prevalent doctrines on the subject of witchcraft. On the 19th of October, 1692, he went to Salem and conferred with eight of the confessing witches, all of whom freely and relentingly recanted their former confessions, declaring that in making them they had violated the truth, being compelled to it by pressing threats and urgings, by which they were so affrighted as to agree to anything that would rescue them from their awful situation. But they confessed with anguish of soul that they had committed a great wickedness for which they implored forgiveness. In his ‘Cases of Conscience,’ published in 1693, Dr Mather has particular reference to the trials at Salem. In this work he observes, that ‘the gift of healing the sick and possessed, was a special grace and favor of God for the confirmation of the truth of the gospel, but that such a gift should be annexed to the touch of wicked witches, as an infallible sign of their guilt is not easy to be believed.’ If it be as supposed, by virtue of some compact with the devil, that witches have power to do such things, those who encourage them in the practice, whether courts or individuals, must be guilty of sacrilege. The accusers pretended to suffer much by bites, and the prints on the skin would compare precisely with the set of teeth of the accused, but those who had not such bewitched eyes, have seen the accusers bite themselves and then complain of the accused. It was true, also, that some who complained of being pricked by pins sticking in their flesh, were their own tormentors, for the purpose of effecting their wicked designs. The pins thus employed are still preserved at Salem. Dr Mather, in the work just quoted, judiciously affirms, that the evidence in the crime of witchcraft ought to be as clear as in any other crimes of a capital nature. He is decidedly opposed to the employment of spectral evidence as being alone sufficient to justify conviction. But he considers a free and voluntary confession as a sufficient ground of conviction; yet the reverend author himself cites one remarkable instance of false confession for the avowed purpose of effecting her own death in consequence of the cruel persecution which she suffered from suspicion only, and she was burnt at the stake. In most of the instances at Salem, the confessions proved false and deceptive, those who made them being totally ignorant of the nature of witchcraft. Our learned author further observes, that if two credible persons shall affirm on oath that they have seen the person accused, doing things which none but such as have familiarity with the devil ever did or can do, that is a sufficient ground of conviction. It was on this ground that he justified the condemnation and execution of George Burroughs, the minister; it being testified before the court, that he had been seen to lift a barrel of molasses or cider, and to extend with one hand a heavy musket at arms’ length. Nothing could be more sophistical than evidence of this description, for there are persons who can lift a solid body of six or seven hundred pounds, and can extend a king’s arm at arms’ length, when held at the smallest end with one hand, and no jury in our day would condemn such to the gallows as wizards.
It is among the most unaccountable facts, that those who, to save their lives, belied their consciences, and confessed themselves guilty of having formed a league with the devil, and of committing horrid crimes, should be spared and suffered to live in society, while others, relying on their innocence, honestly despised those tempting conditions, should be consigned to the gallows. In fact, false confessions, fraud, and counterfeit, were so palpable, that the halter might with more justice have been applied to the accusers than to those who actually suffered.
But such, at that time, was the state of the public mind, that the more extravagant the tale, the more implicitly was it regarded. The hostility to witchcraft was so prevalent as to give a general bias unfriendly to the fair development of truth, or to the impartial examination of facts and circumstances. The unhappy victims were without defence, and their total ignorance subjected them to the most cruel treatment and sufferings. In one instance on record, there appears to us to be a profanation of the Lord’s Prayer. The woman being required to repeat it before the court, instead of ‘deliver us from evil,’ expressed it ‘deliver us from all evil;’ this was considered as referring to her own condition, and she was ordered to repeat it again. On the second trial, instead of ‘hallowed be thy name,’ she expressed ‘hollowed be thy name.’ Thus by her using the o, in place of a, it was concluded that she could not say the Lord’s Prayer, and she was committed to jail as a witch.
In Dr Mather’s ‘Magnalia,’ we have the following instance of witchcraft.
In the year 1679, the house of William Morse, at Newbury, was infested with demons. ‘Bricks, and sticks, and stones, were often by some invisible hand, thrown at the house, and so were many pieces of wood; a cat was thrown at the woman of the house, and a long staff was danced up and down in the chimney, and afterwards the same long staff was hanged by a line, and swung to and fro, and when two persons laid it on the fire to burn, it was as much as they were able to do with their joint strength to hold it there. An iron crook was violently, by an invisible hand, hurled about, and a chair flew about the room until at last it lit upon the table, where the food stood ready to be eaten, and would have spoiled all, if the people had not with much ado saved a little. A chest, was by an invisible hand, carried from one place to another, and the doors barricaded; and the keys of the family taken some of them from the bunch where they were tied, and the rest flying about with a loud noise. For a while the people of the house could not sup quietly; ashes would be thrown into their suppers and on their heads. The man’s shoes being left below, one of them would be filled with ashes and coals and thrown up after him. When in bed a stone, weighing about three pounds, was divers times thrown upon them. A box and a board were likewise thrown upon them, and a bag of hops being taken out of a chest, they were by the invisible hand, beaten therewith, till some of the hops were scattered on the floor, where the bag was then laid and left. The man was often struck by that hand, with several instruments, and the same hand cast their good things into the fire; yea, while the man was at prayer, a broom gave him a blow on his head behind and fell down before his face. While the man was writing, his ink-stand was by the invisible hand snatched from him, and being able nowhere to find it, he saw it at length drop out of the air down by the fire. A shoe was laid on his shoulder, and when he would have catched it, it was snatched from him and was then clapped on his head, and there held so fast, that the unseen fury pulled him with it backward on the floor. He had his cap torn off his head, and in the night he was pulled by the hair and pinched, and scratched; and the invisible hand pricked him with some of his awls, and with needles, and bodkins, and blows that fetched blood were sometimes given him. His wife going down into the cellar, the trap door was immediately by an invisible hand shut upon her, and a table brought and laid upon the door. When he was writing another time, a dish went and leaped into a pail and cast water upon the man and spoiled what he was about. His cap jumped off his head and on again, and the pot lid went off the pot into the kettle, then over the fire together. A little boy belonging to the family was a principal sufferer, for he was flung about at such a rate, that it was feared his brains would be beaten out. His bed-clothes would be pulled from him, his bed shaken, leaping forward and backward. The man took him to hold in a chair, but the chair fell a dancing, and both of them were very near being thrown into the fire. These, and a thousand such vexations, befalling the boy at home, they carried him to live at a doctor’s. There he was quiet, but returning home he suddenly cried out he was pricked on the back, where was found strangely sticking a three tined fork belonging to the doctor, and had been seen at his house after the boy’s departure. Afterwards his troublers found him out at the doctor’s also, when crying out again he was pinched on the back, they found an iron spindle stuck into him; and on the like outcry again, they found pins in a paper stuck into him, and a long iron, a bowl of a spoon stuck upon him. He was taken out of his bed and thrown under it, and all the knives in the house were one after another stuck into his back; which the spectators pulled out, only one of them seemed to the spectators to come out of his mouth. The spectre would make all his meat, when he was going to eat, fly out of his mouth, and instead thereof make him fall to eating ashes, sticks, and yarn.’
The foregoing has all the air of an exaggerated narrative, and it is probable that Dr Mather, in his love for the marvellous and wonderful, recorded the circumstances without due examination, but merely from the uncertain rumor among the credulous neighbors. The same story is found on the records of the court at Salem, but with the following explanatory circumstances as I have received them. It so happened, that one Caleb Powell, an intelligent seaman, suspected that a boy, the grandson of Morse, who lived in the family, was the cause of all the mischief, and watched for an opportunity of detecting him. Going one morning to Morse’s house, he saw through the window, the said boy throw a shoe slyly at the old man’s head. Upon this, Powell told Morse that if he would let his boy come and live with him a short time, he guessed that with a little astrology and a little astronomy, he could unravel the mystery. Morse reluctantly consented, and his house was not molested during the boy’s absence. This, Morse acknowledged, but yet, unwilling to suspect the boy, he and his neighbors concluded that Powell had studied the black art, and had by that means been the cause of all the mischief about Morse’s house. Powell was accordingly apprehended and tried at Salem. The testimony against him was singular. One testified, that he had heard him say that by a little astrology and a little astronomy, he guessed he could find out the cause of Morse’s trouble. Another testified, that he heard it said that Powell had studied the black art with one Norwood, a famous magician beyond sea. The result of the trial was, that although they could find no positive evidence of his guilt, yet he had given so much ground for suspicion, that he deserved to bear his own shame and the costs of court. Morse’s wife was at another time tried for witchcraft, and condemned to be hung, but was afterwards reprieved, and died a pious woman.
The following is an amusing story, well told, but it is from newspaper authority, the Galaxy. About the year 1760, the fury of the inhabitants of New England had declined towards suspected old women, but their believing fear was not altogether quelled. At this time, a case of witchcraft occurred in Billerica, under the ministry of the Rev. Dr Cummings, who related the story with much satisfaction, as the last which came within his precincts.
An old woman, of very peaceable character, lived pretty much alone in a shell of a house near the meeting-house and the clergyman’s dwelling. She was suspected of witchcraft by a family who lived at two miles’ distance, in the west part of the town, and they brought accusation immediately to the parson; who in those early times, exercised not only the spiritual, but the temporal power of the parish; he was often counsel for both parties, and was judge and jury, without subjection to appeal. He was, moreover, a peace-maker. Mr C. accused Mrs D. of witchcraft. ‘How do you know she is a witch?’ ‘Because she has bewitched my mare.’ ‘How do you know that your mare is bewitched?’ ‘Because she won’t stand still to be saddled, and the minute I get on, she kicks up and throws me off.’ ‘But what makes you think that Mrs D. has bewitched her?’ No answer. ‘Have you had a quarrel with her?’ ‘Oh no! I have had no quarrel.’ ‘But what is the matter? surely she would not bewitch her for nothing.’ ‘Why I carried her some corn on the mare about a week ago, and I didn’t know but I might have made a mistake in the measure so that it fell short, and so’—‘And because your corn fell short, you suspect that she found it out, and is so angry as to bewitch your mare.’ ‘Yes, that’s it, and I want you to go and lay the devil.’ ‘Why, if you have raised the devil by cheating in the corn, you had better lay him yourself.’ ‘Yes, but I don’t know how.’ ‘Go then, directly, and carry the balance of the corn, and take good care never to commit such an act again: the devil is always busy with people who do not perform all their duties honestly.’ The man slunk away home at this unexpected rebuke, and failed not to carry corn enough to make full measure; which, however, he feared to carry into the house to the old woman, but emptied it down upon the door-stone. But the mare ceased to kick as usual; whereupon Mr C. came to the minister, told him what he had done, and begged for holy assistance. ‘Go home,’ said the parson, with all that energy for which he was so remarkable, ‘go home,—you need not trouble yourself about witches; I’ll not allow them to do any mischief, I assure you—do your duty, so as to escape a guilty conscience, and if your mare is refractory, whip her, as I do mine—go, and let me hear no more about witches.’ Mr C. obeyed, but he was far from convinced that Mrs D. was not a witch, and he determined to put it to the proof. For this purpose he boiled a large potato, which he put directly from the boiling water, under the bewitched mare’s saddle. The caperings and kickings of the poor beast were excusable this time, at least, for when after some hours the saddle was got off, it was found that a severe mark was left behind it. The proof of the matter was to be this; if the old woman had bewitched the mare, she would have the same mark of a burn on her back. Two old women were prevailed on to be of the examining committee. Dr Cummings was requested to be of the party, with his Bible at hand, to prevent any fatal explosion from Satan’s nostrils. This office he prudently declined. His place was supplied by another old woman, and Saturday night was appointed for this examination. This time was chosen, because the good people thought that Satan would not visit in holy hours. In the meantime, the good woman got an inkling of what was going on; and as they entered a long dark entry, they were saluted with a stupendous flash of powder and tow, and a glorious clatter of tin pans. The committee was scattered of course—and before church the next day, everybody in the town knew, that the devil came, all covered with blue brimstone, to save his disciple, the wicked Mrs D. This would have made a new era in witchcraft in the town, but for the pertinent remarks of the parson touching the matter; for he was enabled to dispense a word in season.
It is but a few years since, a farmer at Kennebunk, observing his cattle to be affected with some fatal disease, conceived the idea that they were bewitched, and fixed his suspicion on a poor widow who had become insane in consequence of the death of her husband at sea. He was so confident of her guilt, that he went to her lonely cottage, and with his ox goad, beat and abused her in a cruel manner. It is not under our salutary laws that a crime so atrocious can pass with impunity. The culprit was prosecuted and received the merited punishment.
The family of M’Farlain, of Pembroke, were remarkable for peculiarity of character and manners. About the year 1789, Seth M’Farlain attracted the notice of the neighborhood by being supposed to be under the influence of witchcraft. He became an object of wonder and commiseration to some, and of curiosity and ridicule to others. Hundreds of people thronged round his house from time to time, gazing with astonishment at his supposed personal sufferings; inflicted, as he pretended, by a certain old hag in the neighborhood. He was desired to visit the woman at her house, but before he could reach the door, his limbs would fail him, and he would fall to the ground. His body was occasionally distorted and convulsed, he would utter the bitterest complaints of pain and distress, which he ascribed to the presence of the hag, although she was invisible to all but himself. He consulted Judge T—r, to know whether he would be culpable in law if he should kill a witch. The Judge observing Seth on the bed with a club, swinging his arms to and fro, to keep off the witch, was willing to humor the whim, and procured a gun, and loading it with some pieces of silver, enjoined on Seth to take a sure aim when the witch again made her appearance. Accordingly, Seth pointed the gun to the door where she usually entered, and hung up her bonnet, and at the proper time he discharged his piece. The discharge shattered the door in pieces, but the cunning witch dodged her head at the moment he pulled the trigger!