An Essay on Demonology 17

An Essay on Demonology 17

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.'

 

 

TRIAL OF ELIZABETH HOW, JUNE 30, 1692.

 

'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.'

 

 

TRIAL OF MARTHA CARRYER, AUGUST 2, 1692.

 

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.