USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877. With a genealogical register > Part 36
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1 Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., i. 203, 204.
2 New England judged, etc., p. 376.
8 Ibid., p. 377.
5 Ibid., p. 383.
Ibid., p. 414.
6 Ibid., p. 415.
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desired his brother Hathorne to send some Quakers that way, that he might see them lashed, as is mentioned elsewhere in this treatise." 1
" Thomas Danfort, a magistrate of Cambridge, one whose cruelties were exceeding great to the innocent, mentioned before ; le laid his hand on Wenlock Christison's shoulder, in your Gov- ernor's house at Boston, and said to him, Wenlock, I am a mor- tal man, and die I must, and that ere long, and I must appear at the tribunal-seat of Christ, and must give an account for my deeds in the body ; and I believe it will be my greatest glory in that day, that I have given my vote for thee to be soundly whipped at this time." 2
Making due allowance for extravagance and embellishment, it appears by Bishop's account, that no Quaker missionaries visited Cambridge before 1662; 3 that when they did appear, Gookin and Danforth were ready to enforce the law against them ; and that Benanuel Bowers, who had formerly suffered as a Baptist, had be- come a Quaker, and subject to fine and imprisonment. His wife, Elizabeth, and his daughters Barbara and Elizabeth, shared his faith and his sufferings.4 At the County Court, October 6, 1663, " Benanuel Bowers appearing before the court, and being con- victed of absenting himself from the public ordinances of Christ on the Lord's days, by his own confession, for about a quarter of a year past, and of entertaining Quakers into his family two several times ; on his examination he affirmed that the Spirit of God was a Christian rule, and that David had no need of the word, nor never contradicted it, and that he speaks of no other law but that which was in his heart. The court fined him, for his absenting himself from the public ordinances, twenty shillings ; and for twice entertaining the Quakers, four pounds, and costs three shillings to the witnesses." For the next twenty years he was called to account, almost every year, and fined for the ab- sence of himself and his wife from the public ordinances.5 Not- ably was this the fact, October 3, 1676, when he was fined forty
1 New England judged, etc., p. 418.
2 Ibid., p. 467.
8 The date 1662 is affixed to Elizabeth Hooton's first visit and imprisonment, by Sewell, in his History of the Quakers, p. 327.
4 Sufferings of the Quakers, by Joseph Besse, pp. 260-264.
5 He was also fined, in 1666, for enter-
ing the meeting-house with his hat on his head ; in 1670, for saying " I dare as well come to an Image among the heathen as to your worship ; " in 1673 for slandering and reviling the Court, and for servile labor on the Lord's Day; and in 1676, for " profane and wicked cursing." - County Court Records and Files.
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shillings for his own absence, and twenty shillings for the absence of his wife, with costs of court, and was ordered to stand com- mitted until payment should be made. He refused to pay, and was committed to prison, where he remained more than a year ; during which time he offered several petitions and addresses to the County Court and to the General Court, some of which are yet preserved on file, and refer to facts which do not else- where appear on record. For example : "To the Court now held in Cambridge. I have been kept in prison this six months upon account of my not attending the public worship of God. I desire the Court to consider of my condition and the condi- tion of my family; and if it be just and necessary that you should relieve us in this case, I desire you to do it. I leave it with you to act as you think meet. 3 April, 1677. BENAN- UELL BOWER. From prison in Cambridge." The Court re- plied : " The Court understands that you are imprisoned for not paying a fine duly imposed upon you according to law ; and therefore if yourself or any for you will pay it, or tender goods to the officer that he may take it, you may be discharged, paying also the prison charges ; which is all the favor that the Court can show you."1 He then presented to the higher court a long ad- dress, commencing thus : " To the General Court, whom I honor in the Lord, and whose laws I am bound to obey by doing or suf- fering for conscience sake, and that not of constraint, but wil- lingly. I am kept in prison this eight months, because I refuse to attend the publick meetings to hear the ministers preach in order to the public worship of God, or pay the sum of three pounds ten shillings according to law. It seems if I will either give money or lie constantly in prison, I may be left to my liberty whether I will worship God according to your law or be of any use in the Commonwealth, contrary to the law in nature, -a large liberty ! And I told the Court then, and do now tell you, that I did attend God's worship according to my faith and con- science, and according to Scripture which saith, where two or three are assembled together in Christ's name he is in the midst of them. And this I can prove by those that assaulted us (on the first day of the week) when we were met to worship God. At that very instant, because I would not obey men's commands and leave the worship of God, though I told them if they would for- bear whilst we had done, I did not know but I might attend their order. They would not forbear, but violently hauled me out of
1 County Court Files, 1677.
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the room down a pair of stairs by the heels into the open street, and carried mne in a wheelbarrow to prison ; and was whipped (as I have been at several courts), which is no shame for me to tell of, though I am sure 'tis a shame for some to hear of. I am about sixty years of age, thirty of which I have dwelt within about a mile of Cambridge town. What my life and conversa- tion hath been amongst them, and what I have suffered this fifteen years for not going to the public meeting is well known to many of my neighbors." He then appealed for relief. Dated, " From Cambridge Prison the 24th 3d mo., 1677," and signed " Benanuel Bower."1 This address, like the former, is not an autograph except the signature. " In answer to the petition of Benanuell Bowers, the Court judgeth meet to refer the considera- tion thereof to the next County Court in Middlesex for answer." 2 At the session of the County Court, Oct. 2, 1677, " The remon- strance exhibited by Benanuel Bowers to the General Court in May last being, by order of said Court referred unto the con- sideration of this Court for answer, - this Court sent for the said Bowers, and gave him liberty to declare what he had to say, and no just exception appearing against the sentence of the Court that committed him unto prison, but on the contrary he manifesting much perverseness and peremptory obstinacy against the laws and government here established, making his appeal to England : the Court declared unto him that they judged his sentence to be just, and his imprisonment just, and that it was the pride and perverseness of his own spirit that was the cause and ground of his suffering by his imprisonment."3 He had now been in prison a year, and he again appealed to the General Court, which Court summarily settled the whole matter, Oct. 22, 1677 : " In answer to a paper signed by Benanuel Bower, it is ordered that the marshal general do forthwith levy upon the estate of the said Bowers such fine or fines as have been laid on him according to law by the County Court of Cambridge, and that thereupon he be discharged the prison." 4
Imprisonment for more than a year, however, was not the full ineasure of punishment endured by Mr. Bowers. Naturally im- patient of confinement, he gave vent to his feelings in some doggerel poetry, which he sent by his wife to Mr. Danforth, whom he seems to have regarded as his chief opposer. For this he was convented before the General Court, convicted and pun- ished. The official record appears in " Mass. Col. Rec.," v. 153.
1 County Court Files, 1677.
2 Mass. Col. Rec., v. 153.
8 County Court Records.
4 Mass. Col. Rec., v. 168.
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The original papers, never before printed, are preserved in the files of the Middlesex County Court, 1677, and are here in- serted 1 : -
" To THOMAS DANFORTH, MAGGISTRATE.
" It is nigh hard this fifteene years since first oure war begun And yet the feild I have not lost nor thou the conquest wunu Against thy power I have ingaged which of us twoo shall conquer I am resolvd if God assist to put it to the venter
Bothı my person and estate for truth Isle sacrafise
And all I have Ile leave at stake Ile venter winn or loose He that from his cullors runs and leaves his captaine in the feild By the law of armes he ought to dy and reason good shoud yeald Unwise art thou against the streame to strive
For in thy enterprise thou art not like to thrive
Thy forces are to weake thou art not like to conquer For with a power thou hast ingagd that will thy forces scatter Of him thats wise thou counsell didst not take
Thy teachers like unto thyself Ime sorry for thy sake Thougli of Christianity profession thou dost make
And yet thy neighbor doest oppress only for conscience sake
Tho art as blind as Bonner was that burnt the martyrs at the stake To the proud belongs the fall he surely shall comm downe
Out of his throne be brought he shall mans pride must come to th ground
Abomminable if be his deed soe in the end heas like to speed Dread belongs to the evell Almighty God will recompence 2
From Cambridge Prison March 3, 1677. BENANUELL BOWER."
" I do attest that on ye 5th of March last Elizabeth ye wife of Ben11 Bowers came to my house & put a printed book & this abovewritten paper into my hand ; the book I perceiving by the frontispeace it was a Quakers work I caused it at the same time to be burnt ; this paper I tore it imediately before her face & did after a time peice it again as above.3 Also I do assert yt accord- ing to ye knowledge yt one man may have of another's hand it have been written by Ben11 Bowers owne hand. By mee,
THO. DANFORTH.
Sworn to by Mr. Danforth in Court, 30th of May, 1677. E. R. S." 4
1 As these documents are autographs, the orthography is preserved.
2 Fifteen more lines were written ; but they are so mutilated as to be illegible.
8 The paper was rent asunder, and was reunited by being pasted upon another
sheet of the same size. In their efforts to consume the paste, the worms have not spared the paper.
+ The initials of Edward Rawson, Secretary.
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" The Deputyes haveing read a paper of scurilous verses pre- sented & subscribed by Benanel Bower, now in Cambridge prison, wherein the honord Mr. Danforth by name & others are defamed, they judge it no less than duty to call the sª Bower to give an account thereof, & to that end that a warrant be issued out from this Court to the Marshall Gen" to bring or cause to be brought the sd Bower before this Court on the morrow by four of the clock, & not to fayle, & desire of honord Magist8 consent thereto. 30th May, 1677. WILLIAM TORREY, Cleric.
" The Magist. consent, so it be 4 of the clock in the afternoon. " EDWP. RAWSON, Secrt.
" The magistrates on further consideration doe judge meet that Benanull Bowers be severely whipt wth twenty stripes, or pay the fine of five pounds mony. The Magists have past this wth reference to their brethren the Deputies hereto consenting. 7 of June 1677.
EDWP. RAWSON, Secrt.
" Consented to by the Deputies. WILLIAM TORREY, Cleric."
Smarting under this sharp discipline, Mr. Bowers publicly de- nounced Mr. Danforth in presence of the congregation, about a fortnight afterwards. The deposition of witnesses 'is still pre- served in the county court files : -
" I, John Danforth,1 aged about 16 years, testify that on the 24th of June last past, being Sabbath day, after the pronuncia- tion of the blessing in conclusion of that day's exercise, Benan- uel Bowers, standing forth upon one of the benches in public view of the assembly, began to speak unto them. Then the Reverend Mr. Oakes interrupted him and told him that if he had any exception to make against what himself had delivered he should give him liberty so to do, provided he did it on a week day and not on the Sabbath, alleging that it was not the custom of the church. This notwithstanding, the said Benanuel pro- ceeded in his speech. Whereupon the constables were required to carry him the said Bowers out of the Assembly by the wor- shipful Major Gookin, and he the said Bowers commanded silence. Nevertheless he proceeded in his speech, saying that he was very grievously oppressed and slandered by Magistrate Danforth, and desired the church to take notice thereof and single out such of themselves as might take cognizance of his great affliction, using that for a motive, that he that did him the wrong was a member
1 John Danforth, H. C. 1677, son of afterwards pastor of the church in Dor- Rev. Samuel Danforth of Roxbury, was chester.
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of the church. Many other words did he utter to the like pur- pose in the audience of the abovesaid assembly. The above written being truth for substauce, and the very words that he then uttered as near as I can remember. 9, 5th, 77.
JNº. DANFORTH."
No immediate action seems to have been had by the court. But on the 20th of November, after Bowers was discharged from prison in accordance with the order of the General Court before mentioned, the foregoing deposition was substantially confirmed by the oatlis of five witnesses, and the court rendered judgment Dec. 18, 1677 : " Benanuel Bowers and Elizabeth Bowers his wife appearing before the Court to answer the presentment of the Grand Jury for reproaching and slandering Thomas Dan- forth, and by their own confession convicted thereof, the Court sentenced them to be openly whipped fifteen stripes apiece, un- less they pay five pounds apiece in money ; and to stand com- mitted until the sentence of the Court be executed."
Quakerism obtained no firm establishment in Cambridge ; there is no evidence within my knowledge that it extended be- yond the family of Mr. Bowers. Whether he held fast the faith through life or renounced it, and whether he maintained perpet- ual warfare or made his peace with the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, does not appear.1 It may be hoped, however, that the closing years of his life were peaceful. It is certain that the witnesses of his will (dated Oct. 5, 1693, and proved May 28, 1698), were John Leverett, H. C. 1680, William Brattle, H. C. 1680, Isaac Chauncy, H. C. 1693, and Joseph Baxter, H. C. 1693 ; of whom the first was afterwards President of Harvard College, and all the others became orthodox ministers. This fact justifies the presumption that he did not regard them as perse- cutors, and that they did not consider him to be an arch heretic.
Early in 1692, a strange infatuation seized the inhabitants of Salem village, and soon spread widely. It was imagined that Satan was making a deadly assault on men through the interven- tion of witches. I do not propose to enter upon the general history of that tragedy ; 2 but as one of the victims was a child
1 The Court Records indicate that as during her old age, for her testimony was late as June, 1682, he was fined for non- received in Court, Dec. 26, 1693, notwith- standing "she being a Quaker took no oath." attendance on public worship, and that in April, 1681, both he and his son George were fined for the same offence. His wife 4 " The mischief began at Salem in seems to have been tolerated in her heresy February; but it soon extended into
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of Cambridge, a brief notice of her case may be proper. Re- becca, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Andrew, was born here, April 18, 1646, and married John Frost, June 26, 1666 ; he died in 1672, and she married George Jacobs, Jr., of Salem. The father of her second husband and her own daughter had already been imprisoned, and her husband had fled to escape a similar fate, when she was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. She was long confined in prison, leaving four young children, one of them an infant, to the tender mercies of her neighbors. What made her case the more deplorable was, that she had long been par- tially deranged. During her confinement, her mother1 presented a petition to the court in her behalf, on account of her mental infirmity, but in vain. She then addressed to the Governor and Council a petition which is still preserved in the archives of the Commonwealth, and which deserves insertion here : -
" To his Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt., Governor, and the honorable Council now sitting in Boston, the humble petition of Rebeccah Fox of Cambridge sheweth, -
" That whereas Rebecalı Jacobs (daughter of your humble pe- titioner) has a long time, even many months now lyen in prison for Witchcraft, and is well known to be a person crazed, distracted, and broken in mind, your humble petitioner does most humbly and earnestly seek unto your Excellency and to your Honors for re- lief in this case. Your petitioner, who knows well the condition of her poor daughter, together with several others of good repute and credit, are ready to offer their oaths that the said Jacobs is a woman crazed, distracted, and broken in her mind ; and that she has been so these twelve years and upwards. However, for (I think) above this half year the said Jacobs has lyen in prison, and yet remains there, attended with many sore difficulties. Christianity and nature do each of them oblige your petitioner to be very solicitous in this matter ; and although many weighty cases do exercise your thoughts, yet your petitioner can have no rest in her mind till such time as she has offered this her address on behalf of her daughter. Some have died already in prison, and others have been dangerously sick, and how soon others, and
various parts of the Colony. The con- tagion, however, was principally within the County of Essex. Before the close of September, nineteen persons were ex- ecuted and one pressed to death, all of whom asserted their innocence." - Holmes' Amer. Annals, i. 438.
1 Thomas Andrew, the father of Mrs. Jacobs, died about 1647, and his widow married Nicholas Wyeth ; he died July 19, 1680, and she married Thomas Fox, Dec. 16, 1685 ; she died in 1698.
23
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among them my poor child, by the difficulties of this confine- ment, may be sick and die, God only knows. She is uncapable of making that shift for herself that others can do ; and such are her circumstances on other accounts, that your petitioner, who is her tender mother, has many great sorrows and almost overcom- ing burthens on her mind npon her account ; but in the midst of all her perplexities and troubles (next to supplicating to a good and merciful God), your petitioner has no way for help but to make this her afflicted condition known unto you. So, not doubting but your Excellency and your Honors will readily hear the cries and groans of a poor distressed woman, and grant what help and enlargement you may, your petitioner heartily begs God's gracious presence with you, and subscribes herself in all humble manner your sorrowful and distressed petitioner,
REBECCAH FOX." 1
This petition availed nothing, except perhaps to delay the trial. The poor demented woman was kept in prison until the next January, when she was indicted, tried, and acquitted. Be- fore this January Court, a great change had occurred in the pub- lic opinion. A principal reason for such a change is mentioned by Hutchinson : "Ordinarily, persons of the lowest rank in life have had the misfortune to be charged with witchcrafts ; and although many such had suffered, yet there remained in prison a number of women, of as respectable families as any in the towns where they lived, and several persons, of still superior rank, were hinted at by the pretended bewitched, or by the confessing witches. Some had been publicly named. Dudley Bradstreet, a justice of the peace, who had been appointed one of President Dudley's Council, and who was son to the worthy old governor, then living, found it necessary to abscond. Having been remiss in prosecuting, he had been charged by some of the afflicted as a confederate. His brother, John Bradstreet, was forced to fly also. Calef says it was intimated that Sir William Phips's lady was among the accused. It is certain that one who pretended to be bewitched at Boston, where the infection was beginning to spread, charged the Secretary of the colony of Connecticut. Mrs. Hale, wife to the minister of Beverly, was accused also ; which caused her husband to alter his judgment, and to be less active in prosecutions than he had been." 2
1 Mass. Arch., cxxxv. 76. jury found bills against about fifty for 2 Hist. Mass., ii. 60. Hutchinson adds : witchcraft, one or two men, the rest women ; but upon trial they were all ac-
" At the Court in January, the grand
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A few years afterwards, Mr. Hale published " A Modest En- quiry into the Nature of Witchcraft," etc., wherein he gave the reasons for his change of opinion. In this book reference is made to two cases of suspected witchcraft in Cambridge, one of which had a tragical result : " Another suffering in this kind was a woman of Cambridge, against whom a principal evidence was a Watertown nurse, who testified that the said Kendal 1 (so was the accused called) did bewitch to death a child of Goodman Genings 2 of Watertown ; for the said Kendall did make much of the child, and then the child was well, but quickly changed its color and dyed in a few hours. The court took this evidence among others, the said Genings not knowing of it. But after Kendal was executed (who also denyed her guilt to the death), Mr. Rich. Brown, knowing better things of Kendall, asked said Genings if they suspected her to bewitch their child ; they an- swered, No. But they judged the true cause of the child's death to be thus ; viz., the nurse had the night before carryed out the child and kept it abroad in the cold a long time, when the red gum was come out upon it, and the cold had struck in the red gum, and this they judged the cause of the child's death. And that said Kendal did come in that day and make much of the child, but they apprehended no wrong to come to the child by her. After this the said nurse was put into prison for adultery, and there delivered of her base child ; and Mr. Brown went to her, and told her it was just with God to leave her to this wickedness as a punishment for murdering Goody Kendal by her false wit- ness bearing. But the nurse dyed in prison, and so the matter was not further inquired into." 3 " Another instance was at Cambridge about forty years since ; 4 There was a man much troubled in the night with cats, or the devil in their likeness, haunting of him ; whereupon he kept a light burning, and a quitted, except three of the worst chiarae- Jackson; but whether this were the ters, and those the governor reprieved for woman mentioned by Hale is problemat- ical. the king's mercy. All that were not brought upon trial he ordered to be dis- 2 The reference is probably to Robert Jennison, who died July 4, 1690, or to luis son Samuel Jennison, who died Oct. 15, 1701. charged. Such a goal delivery was made this court as has never been known at any other time in New England."
1 I cannot certainly identify this per- son. The only known early inhabitant of Cambridge bearing this name was John Kendall, who resided on the south side of the river, and married Elizabeth, widow of Samucl Holley, before Sept. 8, 1646, when the cstate was sold to Edward
8 A Modest Enquiry, etc., pp. 18, 19.
4 It is not known to what ease of sup- posed witcheraft Mr. Hale here refers. Mrs. Holman was accused at about the date indicated, but the circumstances of the two cases were different.
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sword by him as he lay in bed ; for he suspected a widow woman to send these cats or imps by witchcraft to bewitch him. And one night as he lay in bed, a cat or imp came within his reach, and he struck her on the back; and upon inquiry heard this widow had a sore back ; this confirmed his suspicion of the widow, he supposing that it came from the wound he gave the cat. But Mr. Day, the widow's chyrurgeon, cleared the matter, saying this widow came to him and complained of a sore in her back, and because she could not see it desired his help ; and he found it to be a boyl, and ripened and healed it as he used to do other boyls. But while this was in cure, the supposed cat was wounded as already rehearsed." 1
Although we are not certain to whom Mr. Hale refers in the foregoing instances of supposed witchcraft, yet one case did occur, about forty years before he wrote his "Modest Enquiry," in regard to which a circumstantial account has been preserved. William Holman resided on the northeasterly corner of Garden and Linnæan Streets (where the Botanic Garden now is) ; he died Jan. 8, 1652-3, aged 59, leaving a widow, Winifred, and several children, among whom was an unmarried daughter, named Mary. On the opposite side of Garden Street, and extending to Sparks Street, was an estate of six acres belonging to John Gibson, whose house was within plain view from Mrs. Holman's. Sonie " root of bitterness " sprung up between these neighbors, and troubled them, until Mr. Gibson entered a complaint against Mrs. Holman and her daughter as witches, and a warrant of pe- culiar form was issued for their arrest: " To the Constable of Cambridge. You are required forthwith to apprehend the per- sons of Widow Holman and her daughter Mary, and inmedi- ately bring them before the County Court now sitting at Charles- towne, to be examined on several accusations presented, on sus- picion of witchcraft; and for witnesses John Gipson and his wife; you are forthwith to bring them away, and not suffer them to speak one with another after their knowledge of this warrant, and hereof you are not to fayle at your perill. Dat. 21 (4) 1659. THOMAS DANFORTH, R. It will be convenient that you charge some meet person to bring away the mayd first, and then you may acquaint the mother also with this warrant respecting her also." 2
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