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On the other hand he was defeated in his main demands. First on one question of frontier defence, the General Court
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THE PROVINCE CHARTER
refused to pay for the fort at Pemaquid, nor would it contri- bute to the cost of the fort at Portsmouth. Again it refused to "fix" the salaries of the Governor and judges; instead it made Dudley an annual grant of £500, a smaller allowance than that granted to Lord Bellomont. The Governor was forced to approve the votes and take the money without serious remonstrance. He gave up the idea of obstructing the House in the choice of a speaker, and ceased to reject councillors nominated by the House.
In the last years of his reign, he distinctly lost ground. At the death of Queen Mary, the House refused to join the Coun- cil in recommending an address to the King for a renewal of his commission. The King appointed a new Governor, April 21, 1715, and Dudley retired. His weakness consisted, first, in his self-aggrandizement, and second, in his own determination to protect the prerogative of the Crown. Thomas Hutchinson later said of Dudley that "he had as many virtues as can consist with so great a thirst for honor and power."
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADAMS, JAMES TRUSLOW .- The Founding of New England (Boston, Atlan- tic Monthly Press, 1921) .- See especially chapter XVII.
Andros Tracts : Being a Collection of Pamphlets and Official Papers during the Period between the Overthrow of the Andros Government and the Establishment of the Second Charter of Massachusetts (3 vols., Boston, Prince Society, 1868-1874)-Edited by W. H. Whitmore. Vol. II con- tains reprints of a number of Increase Mather's pamphlets.
CHANNING, EDWARD .- History of the United States (6 vols., N. Y., Mac- millan, 1919-1925)-See especially Vol. II, chaps. VII-VIII and X.
DOYLE, JOHN A .- The English Colonies in America (5 vols., N. Y., Holt, 1882-1907) .- See especially Vol. III, chaps., V-VIII.
DUDLEY, JOSEPH .- [Correspondence of Increase Mather,, Cotton Mather, and Governor Dudley concerning Harvard College] (Mass. Historical Society, Collections, First Series, Vol. III, pp. 126-137, Boston, 1810). ELLIS, GEORGE E .- "The Royal Governors" (Justin Winsor, editor, Memorial History of Boston, 4 vols., Boston, Osgood, 1880-1881)-See Vol. II, chap. II.
GREAT BRITAIN : BOARD OF TRADE .- Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations from April, 1704, to December, 1722 (4 vols., London, 1920-1925).
GREAT BRITAIN : PRIVY COUNCIL .- Acts of the Privy Council of England, Colonial Series. (5) vols., Hereford, 1908-1912)-Edited by W. L. Grant and James Munro.
GREAT BRITAIN : PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE .- Calendar of the State Papers, Colonial Series (27 vols., London, 1860-1926)-Vols. X-XXVII con- tain papers for America and the West Indies, 1677-1714.
HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH .- "French and Indian Wars" (JUSTIN WINSOR, editor, Memorial History of Boston, 4 vols., Boston, Osgood, 1880-1881-See Vol. II, chap. II.
KIMBALL, EVERETT .- The Public Life of Joseph Dudley; A Study of the Colonial Policy of the Stuarts in New England, 1660-1715 (N. Y., Longmans, Green, 1911).
MASSACHUSETTS (Commonwealth) .- Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay (21 vols., Boston, 1869-1922). MASSACHUSETTS (Commonwealth) .- "Charter of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1691"; and "Explanatory Charter, 1725" (Colonial Society of Mass., Publications, Vol. II, pp. 7-33, Boston, 1913)-This volume also includes royal commissions of governors and other officials, 1685-1728.
MASSACHUSETTS (Commonwealth) : GENERAL COURT .- A Collection of the Proceedings of the Great, General Court or Assembly Of His Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England; Containing several Instructions from the Crown, to the Council and Assembly of that Province, for fixing a Salary on the Governour, and their Determina- tions thereon (Boston, T. Fleet, 1729).
MURDOCK, KENNETH B .- Increase Mather; the Foremost American Puri- tan (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1925).
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
OSGOOD, HERBERT L .- The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., N. Y., Macmillan, 1904-1907)-See especially Vol. III, chap. XIV.
OSGOOD, HERBERT L .- The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century (4 vols., N. Y., Columbia Univ. Press, 1924)-See especially Vol. I, chaps. VIII and Ix; also Vol. II, chap. xx.
PALFREY, JOHN GRAHAM .- History of New England (5 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1858-1890)-A detailed account of the Massachusetts charter and of the history of New England in this period is given in Vol. IV, chaps. II-III, V-VI, VIII-IX.
QUINCY, JOSIAH .- The History of Harvard University (2 vols., Cambridge, Owen, 1840).
RANDOLPH, EDWARD .- Edward Randolph; including his Letters and Official Papers from the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies in America, with other Developments Relating chiefly to the Vacating of the Royal Charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. 1676-1703 (7 vols., Boston, Prince Society, 1898-1902)-With historical illustra- tions and a memoir by R. N. Toppan.
SEWALL, SAMUEL .- Diary (Mass. Historical Society, Collections, Fifth Series, Vols. V-VII, Boston, 1878-1882)-See especially Vol. II for items relating to Governor Dudley.
WHITMORE, WILLIAM H .- "The Inter-charter Period" (JUSTIN WINSOR, editor, Memorial History of Boston, 4 vols., Boston, Osgood, 1880- 1881)-See Vol. II, chap. I.
WINSOR, JUSTIN .- "New England, 1689-1763" (JUSTIN WINSOR, editor, Narrative and Critical History of America, 8 vols., Houghton Mifflin, 1889)-See Vol. V, chap. II.
WINTHROP, FITZ-JOHN .- Winthrop Papers : Part V (Mass. Historical Soci- ety, Collections, Sixth Series, Vol. III, Boston, 1889)-Correspondence of Fitz-John Winthrop, affording many references to Governor Dudley, also letters by him.
WINTHROP, WAIT .- Winthrop Papers : Part VI (Mass. Historical Society, Collections, Sixth Series, Vol. V, Boston, 1892)-This volume con- tains correspondence of Wait Winthrop and of John Winthrop, F.R.S., with many references to Governor Dudley.
WISE, JOHN .- "Narrative" (Mass. Historical Society, Proceedings, Second Series, Vol. XV, pp. 283-363, Boston, 1902)-In this narrative and the anonymous account on pp. 304-308 are recounted experiences in the expedition against Quebec led by Phips.
CHAPTER II
THE WITCHCRAFT EPISODE (1692-1694)
BY E. W. TAYLOR Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND (to 1640)
An understanding of witchcraft as it appeared in America and particularly in New England, with its most spectacular outbreak in Massachusetts, demands consideration of the state of mind and of the law on this subject in England. In general the situation in the seventeenth century was not un- like that on the continent of Europe. However closely as- sociated with the persecutions for heresy, it is clear that the fundamental basis of witchcraft lay deeper than the tenets of any one religious system; and that its appeal was (and still remains in modified form) to the inherent credulity of the human mind under various conditions of culture and civiliza- tion. It is not strange, therefore, that it should have flour- ished in protestant England and been accepted by the leaders of the Reformation. Anglican bishop and Puritan parson were at least united in their belief in the existence of malig- nant evil agencies in the world, capable of affecting directly the lives of men. Ignorance of natural law, backed by bibli- cal authority was quite sufficient to keep alive the traditional belief.
The first enactment against sorcery in England was in 1541. Previous to that year occasional executions had occur- red, but the recorded instances are insignificant in number. Joan of Arc was executed as a witch in 1431 through English influence ; and less conspicuous persons in England met a similar fate, estimated conservatively by Francis Hutchinson as about 140. As time went on, through the influence of
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THE WITCHCRAFT EPISODE
Cranmer, the passing of stringent laws against witchcraft dur- ing Elizabeth's reign, and the initiative of James First, more active measures were taken against the witches ; and many were executed, but under somewhat less stress of torture than was habitual on the continent and in Scotland. Puritanism reached its greatest influence at the period when the persecu- tions for witchcraft were most active. A few executions are chronicled earlier during the reign of Henry VIII ; but burning at the stake and extreme torture to elicit confessions was not at that time practiced. Reginald Scot in 1584 published his Discovery of Witchcraft, a bold and vigorous protest against prevailing error, but such was the fanaticism of the time that it had little influence.
The accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603 marks the beginning of systematic persecution. He was vigorously opposed to the Puritan movement, and heartily disliked the Puritans and their doctrine; but in common with them he took upon himself the task of extermi- nating witchcraft throughout his domain. He had written a dialogue on the subject, and his convictions were confirmed by his tempestuous passage from Norway to Scotland after his marriage to Anne of Denmark. In 1597 his Demonology was published in Edinburgh, a book which had wide circulation owing to its royal authorship rather than to the wisdom of its contents. Reginald Scot's work was burned by the King's order and a new law was enacted, upon which were based the witchcraft proceedings of the following one hundred and fifty years. It was this law which stood in the eyes of the colonists as a justification for the proceedings in Salem in 1692.
WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND (1640-1681)
During the Commonwealth in England although witch trials may have languished somewhat, there was extraordinary activity in hunting down the Devil's supposed confederates ; it is impossible to say whether the ascendancy of Puritanism or other forces were responsible for the severity. Matthew Hopkins, the so-called witch-finder-general, was an outstand- ing figure of this period; no doubt the reaction from his methods, which led finally to his own death, may have been
31
WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND
an element in the decadence of the persecutions in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century.
An episode which had a most important bearing on the later happenings in New England was the trial of the two witches Amy Duny and Rose Cullender in Bury St. Edmunds before Sir Matthew Hale, chief Baron of the Exchequer, in 1664. Universally recognized as a man of unimpeachable character and as the leading lawyer of his time, Hale's pro- nouncement in this case became a precedent and undoubtedly exerted a profound influence on subsequent trials. Sir Thomas Browne, author of Religio Medici, a man of wide learning and of the highest station in the scientific world of his day con- firmed the somewhat wavering mind of the judge on this occasion, when he gave as his expert opinion that "the devil in such cases did work upon the bodies of men and women upon a Natural Foundation."
The final judgment of the court which led to the execution of the two women was expressed in the following words- "That there were such Creatures as Witches he made no doubt at all; For First, the Scriptures had affirmed so much. Secondly, the wisdom of all Nations had provided Laws against such Persons, which is an Argument of their confi- dence of such a crime. And such hath been the judgment of this Kingdom, as appears by that Act of Parliament which hath provided Punishments proportionable to the quality of the Offence. And desired them (the jury), strictly to observe their Evidence; and desired the great God of Heaven to direct their Hearts in this weighty thing they had in hand: For to Condemn the Innocent, and to let the Guilty go free, were both an Abomination to the Lord." From this judgment there was no appeal and the stage was set for the pseudo-judicial proceedings which culminated in America in the Salem out- break.
In 1681 Joseph Glanvil published his treatise entitled Saducismus Triumphatus or a Full and Plain Evidence con- cerning Witches and Apparitions, which passed through many editions and was generally accepted as authoritative. Other staunch believers in sorcery and demonology were Henry More, a Cambridge scholar and a friend of Glanvil; Cud- worth; Casaubon, prebend of Canterbury; and the scientist,
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THE WITCHCRAFT EPISODE
Robert Boyle. The clergy was a unit in its insistence on the reality of witchcraft. The Rev. Richard Baxter commended Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World as a convincing expression of the true faith.
Against the mass of argument put forth in favor of the practically universal belief, a few feeble protests were raised. John Webster in a book entitled Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft entered the lists against the superstition of the time, but even he was strongly tinged with an underlying belief in apparitions and the like. Wagstaffe at Oxford also entered a protest. Lecky is no doubt right in assuming that the real influence at work, as represented by such men as Hobbes and Bacon, was the growth of a rationalistic attitude which took small account of popular doctrine, however supported by tra- dition. The entire structure of demonology was being under- mined in England toward the close of the seventeenth century in spite of its supporting literature. The Puritans of New England were, however, unable to see the light until the final outbreak in Salem rudely opened their eyes. Their vision for the moment, extended no further than the laws promulgated by James I, and the precedent established by Sir Matthew Hale, with the background of a hopelessly intolerant and bigoted religious belief in the most violent and unmerciful precepts of the Old Testament. 1
WITCHCRAFT IN THE COLONIES (1636-1660)
It was inevitable that the state of feeling in England, re- garding demonology should find ready acceptance among the American colonists and especially in Massachusetts and its neighboring provinces where Puritanism was rampant. The suprising fact is that for many years it attracted so little attention and that comparatively few persecutions took place, and still fewer executions, up to the fateful year 1692. It should not, however, be assumed that the outbreak at Salem Village, spectacular as it was, constitutes the only chapter in the witchcraft persecutions in America. During the seven- teenth century, as for several centuries before in Europe, com- pacts with evil spirits were accepted as was conspiracy to murder, as a crime of the most heinous character, and laws for
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COLONIAL WITCHCRAFT
its repression placed it along with other capital offences. As early as 1636 the Colony of Plymouth was disturbed by fear of witches, since among the laws against crime was one relat- ing to witchcraft. In 1641 Massachusetts, and the next year Connecticut, adopted the biblical injunction : "If any man or woman be a witch, that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death." This enactment was in force up to 1692. Proceedings in cases of witchcraft were carried on according to the English statutes, and what were conceived to be the laws of God, as expressed in the Bible. Rhode Island, in the Acts of May 1647, forbade the "use" of witchcraft and imposed the death penalty for its practice. At the outbreak of the Salem episode, this rather vague method of procedure was modified and elaborated by the ap- pointment of the special court to which allusion will later be made in the consideration of the Salem trials.
There is some dispute as to whether the first witch was executed in Connecticut or Massachusetts. John M. Taylor in his Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut is author- ity for the statement that one Alse Young was the first New England victim, hanged in Hartford, May 26, 1647; whereas Drake, in his Annals of Witchcraft, states definitely that Mar- garet Jones of Charlestown, Mass., was the first, June 15, 1648. This latter person was reputed a "physician," had a "malignant touch," and was versed in the use of harmless medicines, which in her hands were said to have "extraordi- narily violent effects." She was tried and as a result of the vehemence of her denial of guilt, was condemned by the court as "lying notoriously." She was hanged in due course, an event which John Winthrop saw reason to believe was merited from the fact that "the same day and hour she was executed a very great tempest at Connecticut blew down many trees."
This execution led to renewed activity in the discovery of witches and encouraged the adoption of methods similar to those of the witch prosecutor Matthew Hopkins in England, though to the merit of the colonies, no such systematic method of persecution was ever generally employed. The records at this early period are inaccurate and somewhat contradictory.
In 1651, a Mr. Hugh Parsons and his wife, Mary Louis, came under suspicion in Springfield. After much litigation he
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THE WITCHCRAFT EPISODE
was acquitted and disappeared from the records but his wife was executed on the final charge not of witchcraft but of hav- ing murdered her baby.
Many persons were under suspicion of witchcraft in the colonies and doubtless some were executed, of whom no records remain. It is certain that the enforcement of the law was lax, in contrast to the severity shown later at Salem. According to Hutchinson, the second person executed in America (June 17, 1656), was Mrs. Anne Hibbins, wife of William Hibbins, at one time the colony's diplomatic agent in England, a woman of high character and exemplary conduct. Not all the reputed witches were convicted. Eunice Cole of Hampton, New Hampshire, was universally regarded as a witch of most dangerous character but was ultimately "suf- fered to live." Jane Welford of Portsmouth fared even better since although suspicion against her was strong, the court ordered that she be paid five pounds, and the cost of her per- secution be remitted. There were other instances of such dis- crimination. That the persecuted Quakers were regarded as witches is probable, but although tried by similar methods, they escaped the final penalty.
MASSACHUSETTS WITCHCRAFT (1660-1690)
Scattered cases continued to occur throughout the country, Massachusetts not having an undue number as compared with others. The Greensmiths, husband and wife, were executed in Hartford in 1662. Their story is of rather unusual interest on account of the obviously hysterical state which the wife is supposed to have induced in one of her victims, who in her fits expressed "things which she knew nothing of," and spoke in Dutch of which in her normal state she was wholly ignor- ant. Tormented by the accusations made against her she con- fessed her carnal knowledge of the Devil and this with other evidence was sufficient for conviction.
During the decade 1670-80 many cases occurred, among them one Elizabeth Knap at Groton, and William Morse at Newbury. In the early part of the following decade also there was much agitation over witchcraft in widely scattered places; Desborough in Connecticut who was at odds with a neighbor
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MASSACHUSETTS WITCHCRAFT
was much molested by flying missiles; George Walton, a Quaker of Portsmouth suffered in like manner. There was trouble at Salmon Falls, New Hampshire. Philip Smith, a justice of the court at Hawley, on the Connecticut River was supposedly "bewitched to death." It would be a great mis- take to look upon the witchcraft delusion as confined to New England. Pennsylvania was still in its infancy and Philadel- phia was only about three years old, when an accusation was made in Delaware County in 1684, against a woman named Marston. The trial was before William Penn, and although she candidly confessed that she "had ridden through the air on a broomstick," the judge ordered her discharge on the ground that he knew no law against such a means of locomo- tion. It is probable that this early verdict may have been a factor in saving Pennsylvania from the elaborate persecu- tions practiced elsewhere. 447380
A case which occurred in Boston in 1688 deserves somewhat detailed mention, since it was the direct forerunner of the Salem outbreak, and also because Cotton Mather's connection with it throws light upon his attitude toward later events. A reputable man, John Goodwin, living in the north end of Boston was the father of four children, of whom the oldest was a girl of thirteen. Owing to some trifling altercation, a Mrs. Glover, a woman of high temper, "gave the child harsh language," whereupon the girl began to have fits of supposed diabolical character, in which she was soon joined by her sister and two brothers. Together they set up a case later developed in even higher degree by the so-called "afflicted children" in Salem Village. It is narrated that Cotton Mather, alarmed by this manifestation of diabolism and desirous of exorcising the evil spirits possessing the children, took the oldest, Martha, into his house for investigation. The experiment was of doubtful utility, since the fantastic acts of the precocious and adroit child were apparently increased rather than diminished, to the consternation of the good minister.
The description of this case by Mather himself, in the Mag- nalia, gives one a vivid conception of his extraordinary in- fatuation and credulity, which continued in evidence to the end of his life. Mrs. Glover was taken into custody, puppets were found in her house and the evidence in general was sufficiently
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THE WITCHCRAFT EPISODE
definite to bring about her execution. She was Irish and a Catholic, which added to Mather's confusion in his attempt to reason with her in matters of religion. For example, she was unwilling that he should pray with her "without the con- sent of some good Catholic spirit," which Mather naturally interpreted as the consent of the Devil. It was Mather's description of this case which called forth Baxter's much quoted remark :- "This great instance comes with such con- vincing evidence, that he must be a very obdurate Sadducee, that will not believe it."
From the foregoing necessarily brief resumé of the situa- tion in the colonies prior to 1692, it appears that suspicions of witchcraft were numerous; that many were apprehended and tried; and that relatively few were convicted and executed. The charges varying widely in detail, were similar in general character, but were on the whole judged with less severity than under the influences which prevailed later in Salem and Boston.
MINISTER PARRIS (1692)
The opprobrious epithet of witch-city which has tenaciously clung to Salem since 1692 is due to the fact that the trials and executions took place in that town. The source of the excite- ment which resulted in the death for alleged witchcraft of twenty persons within a year, lay in the neighboring settlement of Salem Village, now the town of Danvers. Difficulties and acrimonious disputes over church affairs had long prevailed in this community, which reached a climax when the Rev. Samuel Parris was finally chosen, in 1689, to take charge of the parish affairs. Parris appears to have entered the ministry somewhat late in life and had spent considerable time in the West Indies in business pursuits. He brought with him to Salem Village two native servants, or slaves of West Indian and African blood, known as Indian John and Tituba his wife,-the immediate instigators of the events which were soon to follow.
Parris' difficulties began at once. He was at odds with his parishioners over salary, his parsonage, church rates, and in fact, over all matters pertaining to the conduct of his office. This led to a degree of bitterness in the community unusual
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FIRST SALEM EPISODE
even in those times of agitated public feeling. Apart from church affairs, there were also many disputes as to land rights, and personal animosities were widespread and rancorous. The setting was complete for an emotional outbreak.
THE ACCUSING GIRLS AND THEIR VICTIMS (1692)
It happened that there gathered at Parris' house a number of young girls, the youngest nine and the oldest twenty, who fell under the influence of Tituba. She was skilled in necro- mancy and various magic arts-perhaps African in origin, perhaps practiced by Indians-and found apt pupils in the children, who soon acquired proficiency in their use. Doubt- less at the outset all this was innocent enough, until it attracted the attention of the elders who were at first mystified and then alarmed. The local physician, Dr. Griggs, finally decided, as was usual when the diagnosis was in doubt, that the actions of the girls in their fits and contortions could only be explained on the basis of witchcraft, an opinion in which the ministers and citizens readily concurred. It is not to be supposed that these "afflicted children" as they came to be called, were extra- ordinary persons, or that the "manifestations" might not occur at the present day among a promiscuous group of child- ren under similar social conditions. No adequate evidence exists that they were of particularly low-grade intelligence. The most important of this group of girls was Ann Putnam, twelve years old, a daughter of the parish clerk, Sergeant Thomas Putnam. Several older women, notably Ann's mother, were closely associated with the "afflicted children" in their activities.
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