USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Peabody > History Of Peabody Massachusetts > Part 2
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The design of the plan, as Mr. Upham remarks, was not merely that expressed in the vote of the town, but also to prevent any disorderly conduct on the Lord's day, and to give prompt alarm in case of fire or Indian attack. The men appointed to this service were all leading characters, and we find among them six, at least, of the early settlers of Brooksby.
CHAPTER LXVI.
PEABODY (Continued).
Development of Settlement before 1700- Witchcraft in the Middle Precinct.
THE history of this locality during the seventeenth century is written with that of Salem, Its inhabi- tants were simply outlying citizens of the town of Salem, and they belonged to the First Church, except some who were included in the village parish when
it was set off in 1672, for the line of the middle pre- cinct does not exactly coincide with that of the town of Peabody, the latter including a small part of the territory of Salem Village. The dividing line be- tween the village and the middle precinct was origi- nally a line running almost due west from Endicott or Cow-house River to the Lynn line; but when the division was made between North and South Dan- vers, in 1856, the line was carried from the Endicott River northwesterly, to the sharp bend cf the Ips- wich River, a mile or more north of the old boun- dary at that point.
The military organizations engaged in the various early wars with the Indians were recruited indiffer- ently from the various parts of the town, and some of the most famous officers lived at the Farms.
Captain William Trask and his company were prom- inent in the Pequot War in 1636 and 1637. The three commissioned officers of the company required to be raised in Salem for the Block Island Expedition, in 1636, lived in the middle precinct, or were land- holders there,-Trask, Davenport and Read. Some of the men of Brooksby were with Captain Lothrop at Bloody Brook, in 1675, and among the names of those who fell on that disastrous day are those of Edward Trask, Joseph King and Robert Wilson. The Salem Company, under the lead of Captain Na- thaniel Davenport, a son of Richard, were in the thick of the terrible hand to hand fight with the forces of King Philip, when the Indian fort was stormed at sundown of a winter's day; and were with the foremost in the pursuit of the escaping In- dians through the wilderness, known to tradition as the hungry march. When it is remembered that the forces and even the officers of that memorable ex- pedition were drafted hastily for the service, and that many of them left home without even time to arrange their private affairs, the heroic bravery of the Narragansett fight will bear comparison with any deeds of military prowess that history has recorded. The Puritans of New England fought as did the army of Cromwell, with no fear of death, and with the inspiration which came from their firm belief in the Divine protection.
A company of troopers was early formed, made up from the farmers and neighboring settlements. The ranks became thinned in course of time, and in Oc- tober, 1678, a successful attempt was made to revive the company. Thirty-six men belonging to "the re- serve of Salem old troop," and " desirous of being serviceable to God and the country," petitioned the General Court for reorganization as a troop of horse, and for the issuing of the necessary commissions. Among the signers of this petition are Anthony Needham, Peter and Ezekiel Cheever, Thomas Flint, John Procter, William Osborne, and others of the region afterward incorporated into the middle pre- cinct. The officers appointed were men of property and energy, and the company of troops was kept in
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
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efficient training until all danger from Indians or other foes had passed away. The William Osborne here mentioned is not the early settler, who acquired land in 1638, and is not known to be a descendant, but probably collaterally related. The earlier Wil- liam Osborne is believed to have spent his later years in Boston, and died about 1662. The William Osborne whose name appears on the petition just spoken of, was born about 1644, and from him are descended most of the various families of Osbornes in the vicinity of Salem, Peabody and Danvers. The descendants of the earlier William are found in Con- necticut and Long Island.
The second William Osborne, and his son, the third William, lived on the road to the Village, in "the lane," now Central Street, near Andover Street. An old house, built in 1680 and said by tradition to have belonged to one of them, was taken down in 1887.
In all the duties of citizenship the farmers appear to have been prominent; and citizenship was then re- garded as a most serious and important allegiance, re- quiring the most faithful exercise of duty. The oath of a freeman, which was required to be taken by those seeking to share in the social and political privileges of the settlement, is full of the most strik- ing suggestions of the clear and vigorous political views held by the founders.
"Moreover, I doe solemnly binde myselfe, in the sight of God, that when I shall be caled to give my voyce touching any such matter of this state in which ffreemen are to deale, I will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in my own conscience may best conduce & tend to the publique weale of ye body without respect of persons or favour of any man. So help me God in the Lord Jesus Christ."
The policy which permitted every one who had a town lot of half an acre to relinquish it, and receive in its stead a country lot, of fifty acres or more, had the result of attracting to the forests and meadows of the Farms a population of a superior order. Men of property, education and high social position took the lead in developing the resources of the country, and they gave character to the farming interest and class. This process of selection is undoubtedly the source of the high character for industry, intelligence and energy, which has distinguished the descendants of these early settlers of the outlying lands of Salem.
r Of the social life of the middle of the seventeenth century in the farming district of Brooksby we know little, except what we learn from the annals of life in Salem in those early days, and from the light thrown upon the time by the exhaustive inves- tigations which have been made into the history of the following 'period of the witchcraft delusion. We know that their labors were severe and unremit- ting, and their social relaxations infrequent and care- fully guarded against excess. The vigorous style of English merrymaking, though put down with an
iron hand in the case of the roystering Morton, who tried to set up the Maypole festival at Merrymount, still asserted itself on such privileged occasions as house raisings and huskings. No vigor of Puritani- cal custom can wholly restrain the innocent joyous- ness of youth and healthful spirits, and in spite of their serious views of life, there is plenty of evidence that the magistrates and elders were wise enough not to attempt wholly to repress the natural and inno- cent enjoyments of country life and manners. The religious views of the people, though severe in doc- trine, were not gloomy in practical application to the life of the colony, and the faith which had led them into the wilderness brightened and cheered their hard and simple life on the rocky and unpromising farms which so many were forced to receive as their portion of the soil. They had a spirit which was above repining, and which noted hardship chiefly as a providential opportunity for the development of Christian character. They belonged to that rare class of men who are never dominated by their sur- roundings, but who, by mental and spiritual vigor, rise superior to the most powerful forces with which they are obliged to cope. The short lapse of time in which farms were brought under cultivation, roads built, orchards planted, mills erected and churches and schools established, bears witness, both to the wisdom with which the authorities allotted their pub- lic lands, giving the large grants to those who were able to employ labor to improve them, and to the wonderful vigor and natural resources of the indi- vidual settlers.
Among the most remarkable men who lived in that part of the Farms within the limits of Peabody was Sir George Downing. His father, Emanuel Down- ing, had several grants of land, one of which in the town was bought of him by John Pickering, and is the site of the house on Broad Street, still standing, built by Pickering. Another, already referred to, near Procter's corner, was in the central part of Brooks- by, and, as Mr. Upham points out, George Downing spent his later youth and early manhood there. Hunting and fishing were doubtless his amusements, and we may imagine him, fowling-piece in hand, traversing the woods which then thickly environed the scattered farms. He was one of the first class graduated from Harvard College in 1642 ; studied di- vinity ; after various travels he was brought to the notice of Cromwell, having returned to England at a time when so many of the exiled Puritans seemed to see the promise of an ideal English Commonwealth, and from chaplain was promoted to scout-master gen- eral in Cromwell's army. He married a sister of the Earl of Carlisle, became a member of Parliament for Scotland, and undertook high diplomatic missions for the Commonwealth, going at one time as ambassador to the Hague. At the restoration he kept in favor with the new government, and received from his new sov- ereign the order of knighthood. On his return to
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England he became a member of Parliament for Mor- peth, and soon assumed control of the exchequer, in the management of which he displayed financial ge- nius and statesmanship of a very high order. Mr. Upham ascribes to him the origin of the celebrated Navigation Act, and the credit of originating the principle of specific appropriations in Parliament, a principle which has been embodied in American con- stitutional law. His name is perpetuated in Down- ing Street, in London, and by the college in Cam- bridge, England, established by the gift of his for- tune. Of all the young men who have gone from the historic region of the farms of the middle precinct of Salem, no one has left a more romantic and bril- lian record of political success. A sister, Ann, married Governor Bradstreet in 1680.
The farmers of Brooksby continued to develop the agricultural resources of the region with little of the eventful in their history, except their share in the military operations of the time. The descendants of the first settlers exhibited much of that love of the home soil which has ever characterized the race ; new families came in from time to time, and remote as the region was from immediate danger of Indian invasion, its annals are a simple record of peace and thrifty comfort, if not prosperity.
- The witchcraft delusion found some of its victims in the farms of the middle precinct. John Procter, who lived on the the Downing farm, was one of the most prominent of those who lost their lives in that strange uprising of superstition. He originally lived in Ipswich, where he had a valuable farm. He was a man of great native force and energy, bold and fearless in language, impulsive in feeling and some- times rash and hasty in action. The vigorous train- ing of what was then frontier life while it did not tend to lawlessness, cultivated a marked independ- ence of mind and manners in many of the farmers. Procter was a man of good property. His name appears in connection with the establishment of the Salem troop of horse. Mary Warren, one of the "afflicted " girls, was a servant in his family, and it seems but too evident that she was affected by ma- licious feelings toward the family. He accompanied his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of John Thorndike, who was first arrested, from her arrest to her arraign- ment, and stood bravely and resolutely by her side, trying to support her under the terrible trials which she had to endure, without regard to the conse- quences to himself. Mr. Upham says that it was probably his fearless condemnation of the nonsense and the outrage perpetrated by the accusers in the examination of his wife which brought the ven- geance of the girls down on him. The account of the preliminary examination of these two good and brave people, before the magistrates in the meeting- house at Salem, on the 11th of April, 1692, stirs the blood to indignation against the folly of the courts and the malignity of the accusers. No coun-
sel was allowed, however, to any of the accused. Every sort of irregular evidence, not to be excused by doubtful precedent in English courts, was freely made use of; the afflicted children were permitted not only to testify to seeing the spectral semblances of Goodman and Goodwife Procter in their cham- ber, but even to declare that they saw Goody Proc- ter sitting in the rafters of the meeting-house in open court, while the awe-struck spectators gazed upward, straining their eyes to behold the witch. The most transparent trickery failed to be detected. Parris, in his report, quoted by Upham, says of the beginning of the accusation against Procter, which happened while his wife was being examined :
" (By and by, both of them [the accusing girls], cried out of Goodman Procter himself, and said he was a wizard. Immediately many, if not all of the bewitched had grievous fits.)"
" Ann Putnam, who hurt you ?- Goodman Procter and his wife too."
" (Afterwards some of the afflicted cried,-'There is Procter going to take up Mrs. Pope's feet !' and her feet were immediately taken up.)
" What do you say, Goodman Procter, to these things ?- I know not. I am innocent."
" (Abigail Williams cried out,-‘ There is Goodman Procter going to Mrs. Pope!' and immediately said Pope fell into a fit.)"
Some member of the court, who was wholly infatu- ated by the delusion, said to Procter,-" You see, the Devil will deceive you : the children could see what you was going to do before the woman was hurt."
One of the girls pretended to strike Goodwife Proc- ter, and drew her hand back crying that her fingers burned.
On such evidence Procter and his wife, with Good- wife Corey and others, were held by the magistrates for trial, and sent to the jail in Boston. Procter and his wife were tried on the 5th of August, and Procter himself was executed on the 19th of the same month. His wife, owing to her condition, was reprieved for the time, and before the time arrived for her execu- tion the storm had spent itself, and she was saved from the gallows. She gave birth to a child two weeks after her husband's execution. He made his will with the manacles on his hands. So bitter was the wrath of the persecutors against the Procters that they not only arrested and tried to destroy all the adult mem- bers of the family, but even relatives in Lynn. The children were left destitute and the home swept clear of its provisions by the sheriff. In spite of the dan- ger of such a proceeding, upwards of thirty citizens of Ipswich and a considerable number of their neighbors at the Farms signed and sent in petitions for clemen- cy in their case, testifying to the high standing of the couple. Notwithstanding his efforts, an appeal having been made by him to the ministers of Boston to pro- tect him in his rights, he was condemned and executed,
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and his body thrown into a hasty and dishonored grave, from which, Upham states, tradition says that, like some others of the more prominent victims, his body was taken secretly by his family and buried with the family dead. Years afterward, in 1711, the Gene- ral Court, in a distribution of money to those who suffered from the fearful consequences of the wicked- ness of the accusers and the infatuation of the people, gave to John Procter and his wife, and those who represented them, the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, the largest sum given to any of the suf- ferers.
At that time attainder, including forfeiture of property to the State, was an incident of conviction for felony ; and it was doubless the desire to save his property for his children which chiefly induced Giles Corey to stand mute and refuse to plead to his indict- ment; and so to submit himself to the horrible and barbarous form of death which has made his the most remarkable figure among the victims of that cruel conspiracy. Corey lived on a good farm of about one hundred and fifty acres, in what is now the north- western part of Peabody. He was a man of great in- dependence of character, careless of conventionalities, and hardened by the severities of farming life in that period to a cross-grained disregard for the opinions and talk of his neighbors. He was, throughout his life at the Farms, often in difficulties with others, sometimes seeking redress at law for injuries claimed by him, and sometimes dealt with for hard blows or unconcealed disregard of the rights of his neighbors. It is probable, as Mr. Upham thinks, that he was not nearly so bad as the reports of the day made him out, and that he was not essentially a lawless or unprinci- pled man. He was once or twice arrested on suspi- cion of serious offences, but always cleared himself, and continued to live on in his own way, with a fair share of prosperity. He and John Procter figure on the records as opponents in various disputes ; indeed, Corey was examined at one time on suspicion of set- ting Procter's house on fire, but it appeared clearly that he was innocent, and he in turn instituted pros- ecutions for defamation against Procter and his ac- cusers, in which he recovered against them all. His third wife, Martha, was a woman notable for piety, and a member of the village church; and it may have been owing to her influence that Corey himself, only a year or two before the witchcraft times, when he was eighty years old, offered himself and was re- ceived into membership at the First Church in Salem ; and the records of that church state that though he was of a " scandalous life " he made a con- fession of his sins satisfactory to that body. He was completely carried away by the fanaticism of the time, and frequented the examinations of the accused and believed all that he heard. Martha Corey, on the other hand, did not approve of the proceedings, and did not hesitate to express her want of faith in the afflicted children. She spent much of her time
in prayer, and her course was marked as peculiar and caused an estrangement between herself and her hus- band. As it happened in so many other cases, the accusers were quick to resent any opposition, and holding the power of life and death in their hands, crushed down opposition in a manner so unscrupu- lous and so remorseless that the arguments of Mr. Upham as to the deliberate character of the conspir- acy seem unanswerable.
The accusation of one of the girls set two of the citizens to call on Goodwife Corey, and her innocent and sprightly conversation was tortured into evidence against her. On her appearance at Thomas Putnam's one of the girls fell in a fit, and declared that Goody Corey was the author of her sufferings. Upon this conclusive evidence a warrant was issued for her ar- rest on the 19th of March, and on the 21st she was examined in the meeting-house at the village. Her examination is preserved by Mr. Upham, and shows that she was a bright, fearless old woman, who hardly seemed to realize the danger in which she stood. The ridiculous accusations in some instances made her laugh, which was thought a most convincing proof of devilish light-mindedness. She was bound over for trial by Justices Hathorne and Corwin. At her examination she requested to be allowed to "go to prayer," which was refused by the magistrates, though the Rev. Mr. Noyes, at the beginning of the proceedings, had put up what might be described as an exceedingly ex parte petition. It is probable that the managers of the excitement feared the effect which such a prayer might have on the spectators.
The criticisms of her husband for her failure to fall in with the current delusion were made use of against her, and a deposition of his, not directly accusing her, but evidently intended to weigh against her, is found on the records. On the 9th of September she was tried and condemned. Two days after, she was form- ally excommunicated from the Village church. Mr. Parris, with two deacons and Lieutenant Putnam, went to convey this sentence to her, and found her "very obdurate, justifying herself, and condemning all that had done anything to her just discovery or condemnation. Whereupon, after a little discourse (for her imperiousness would not suffer much), and after prayer-which she was willing to decline-the dreadful sentence of excommunication was pro- nounced against her." Calef says that "Martha Corey, protesting her innocency, concluded her life with an eminent prayer upon the ladder." She was executed September 22, 1692.
The dwelling-house of Corey was near the crossing of the Salem and Lowell and Georgetown and Boston railroads on the south side of the former road, a little distance to the west of the crossing. He had lived previously in the town of Salem, and sold his house there in 1659.
Giles Corey, as has been remarked, was induced to give some sort of evidence concerning his wife, but it
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does not appear to be of much importance. It is very probable, as Upham suggests, that the hostility of the accusers was incurred by him for his luke- warm deposition against her. It is very likely, too, that when the accusation was brought home to his own family, and his wife, whom it is evident he knew to be a good and pious woman, was subjected to ex- amination and committed to prison, he began to see matters in their true light, and expressed himself with his usual freedom. He was examined April 19, 1692, in the meeting-house at the village. The usual performances of the accusers were gone through with; they fell into fits, and were afflicted with grievous pinches, at which the court ordered his hands to be tied. The magistrates lost all control of themselves, and flew into a passion, exclaiming, "What ! is it not enough to act witchcraft at other times, but must you do it now in the face of authority ?" He seems to have been dumbfounded by these inexplicable pro- ceedings, and could only say, " I am a poor creature, and cannot help it." Upon the motion of his head again, they had their heads and necks afflicted.
One of his hands was let go, and several were afflicted. He held his head on one side and then the heads of several of the afflicted were held on one side. He drew in his cheeks, and the cheeks of some of the afflicted were sucked in. Through all this out- rageous accusation he firmly asserted his innocence. His spirit is shown by the indignation with which he repelled one charge. Some of the witnesses testified that Corey had said that he had seen the devil in the form of a black hog, and was very much frightened. He denied the imputation of cowardice, and when " divers witnessed that he had told them he was frighted," he was asked "Well, what do you say to these witnesses ? What was it frighted you?" He answered proudly, "I do not know that ever I spoke the word in my life."
He was much oppressed and distressed by his situ- ation, and the share that he had had in promoting the excitement in the case of his wife and others doubtless added to his distress of mind. His sons-in-law, Cros- by and Parker, were in sympathy with the crowd that pursued him, and he was accused of having meditated suicide.
He was bound over for trial and committed to jail. He was indicted by the grand jury upon spectral evi- dence chiefly, as appears by the few brief depositions on file.
What were his thoughts and feelings in his impris- onment there is little record to show, but there is reason to believe that in spite of his courage and fearlessness, he suffered greatly in mind. His eyes were fully opened to the wickedness, not only of his own accusation, but of that of all the other victims, and the utter injustice of the proceedings against him, and in the silence and gloom of his prison he made up his mind to that invincible determination which made his fate unique in the annals of legal
procedure in America and shocking even beyond that of any of his innocent fellow sufferers.
He resolved to stand mute at his arraignment, and so not only save his property from the effects of the attainder, but make a protest against the injustice of' the courts and juries and the malignity of his accus- ers, which should stand as long as history continued to record the awful deeds then done in the name of the law against innocent and God-fearing men and women. He meant, also, to attest the strength of his feelings towards those who had been true to him and to his wife, and his vengeance toward those who had sworn and acted against him and her. He caused to be drawn up a deed of conveyance while he was in the jail at Ipswich, by which he conveyed all his property to his two sons-in-law who had been faithful to him, and executed it in the presence of competent witnesses. It was not certain whether this deed, though executed before the time of his trial, would stand against the attainder consequent upon his con- viction ; he had looked upon conviction as a foregone conclusion, for he had no faith in the justice of court or jury. When he was called into court to answer to his indictment, whether he was guilty or not guilty, he refused to answer. We do not know how often he was called forth, but nothing could shake him,-he stood mute. As Mr. Upham says :
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