USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. I > Part 33
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spacious grounds, surrounded by magnificent trees. When the Earl of Bellomont came to Boston in 1699, Mr. Sergeant enter- tained him at his handsome residence, and was " prevailed with" to vacate it for the use of the governor during his stay in the town of a little more than a year. When Mr. Sergeant mar- ried Lady Phips, widow of Sir William, in the autumn of 1701, he took up his abode at her mansion house at the north end of the town, and let his own house to Major Hobby, afterward Sir Charles Hobby. He died in 1713, and in 1716 the house was sold to the Province, and was occupied by Samuel Shute, the first governor from beyond the sea after Lord Bellomont. We learn from Judge Sewall that the valuable papers belonging to the church had hitherto been in the keeping of Mr. Secretary Rawson, but it was proposed in 1690 to place them in Mr. Ser- geant's house, " being of brick and conveniently situated."
Friday November 21. 1690. Mr. Saml. Willard, Mr. Edw. Rawson, Capt. Joshua Scottow, Deacon Jacob Eliot, Deacon Theophilus Frary and Samuel Sewall met together, at said Sewall's house in Boston. Mr. Edward Rawson in regard of his Age, and dwelling out of Town desired that Mrs. Judith Winthrop's Deed of the Meeting-house Land in Boston, her Receipt, Mr. Leveret's Release, Mrs. Norton's Deed of Gift 1669, Mrs. Norton's Deed of Gift 1677, An Instrument of Mr. Edw. Rawson, Capt. Joshua Scottow and Capt. Jacob Eliot to Saml. Sewall and others, being Six Writings in all, should be put in a Chest to be provided for that purpose, on which a Copper plate to be fastened with this Engraving, South Church, and Mr. Peter Sergeant to be en- treated to keep the said Chest in his house, being of Brick and con- veniently situated : and that, if can conveniently do, also put the Church plate in said Chest ; and said Edward Rawson committed the above-mentioned writings to said Eliot to be disposed of as above with as great Speed as conveniently may be, according to this Agree- mént.
Signed by : - EDWARD RAWSON SAM SEWALL J. SCOTTOW JACOB ELIOT THEO. FRARY.
room, in its present condition, cannot boast even of faded magnificence. . . . The most venerable and ornamental object is a chimney-piece set round with Dutch tiles of blue-figured china, repre- senting scenes from Scripture. . . .
" The great staircase . .. winds through the midst of the house by flights of broad steps, each flight terminating in a square
landing-place, whence the ascent is con- tinued towards the cupola. A carved balustrade, freshly painted in the lower stories, but growing dingier as we ascend, borders the staircase with its quaintly twisted and intertwined pillars, from top to bottom. . .. The cupola is an octa- gon, with several windows, and a door opening upon the roof."
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Sabbath, Nov. S. 1691 Is a Contribution for the Frontier Towns ; Capt. Eliot, though abroad on the Day of the Thanksgiving, is now ill again ; . . . I set the Tune; York, Windsor, 119th Ps., on the two last Staves of the 34th Psalm.
Nov. 10. 1691 Council of Churches meet at Lin. From Boston, Mr. Willard, Sewall, Frary ; [James] Allen, Hutchinson, Bridgham ; [Cotton] Mather, Foster, Keech ; Malden [Michael] Wigglesworth, Sprague. Green ; Salem, [Nicholas] Noyes, Hathorn, Corwin, Gar- dener, Lindon. Had much adoe to prevail with the Church to own us as a Council, but did do it at last ; heard what was to be said, drew up our Advice by Mr. Cotton Mather ; wherein all parties blamed ; They accepted of it and thank'd us heartily for our visiting them. Bell was rung both times before going into Meeting-house. Mr. Wiggles- worth Moderator.1 (Sewall.)
The year 1692 is memorable for the sudden and violent out- burst in Massachusetts of what we now call " the witchcraft de- lusion." It is not for us to attempt to account for that strange combination of superstition and panic which ruled the hour, and which has engaged the attention of so many writers, nor need we dwell at length upon the painful occurrences to which it led. The history of the delusion has to do no more with New England than with the mother country or the continent of Europe ; no more with the Puritan churches than with the Anglican or any other communion. A distinguished scholar,2 speaking of the fathers in this connection, says: "About their treatment of witches there has been a great deal of ignorant babble. Puri- tanism had nothing whatever to do with it. They acted under a delusion which, with an exception here and there, darkened the understanding of all Christendom. . . . It is more philo- sophical to say that the age believes this and that, than that the particular men who live in it do so. . . . The proceedings at the Salem trials are sometimes spoken of as if they were excep- tionally cruel. But in fact, if compared with others of the same kind, they were exceptionally humane." Another writer 3 says :
1 [An entry by Mr. Higginson in the of Boston and Malden, to help to make records of the Salem church refers to this council at Lynn, although there is a discrepancy in the date : -
" In December there was a council at Lyn, in relation to some differences between some brethren and Mr. Shepard, their Pastor. Mr. Noys and three other brethren were, by a vote of the church, desired to go thither and join with other Elders and messengers of the Churches
peace: which, through the blessing of God on their endeavours, was attained to the general satisfaction of all." Judge White's New Eng. Congregationalism, p. 95.]
2 James Russell Lowell, Among My Books. Articles on Witchcraft, and on New England Two Centuries Ago.
3 William F. Poole, Mem. Ilist. of Bos- ton, vol. ii. p. 131.
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WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND.
"The storm of terror and death, called the witchcraft delusion, which swept over Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies, left its traces on the early life of the New England colonies. While it raged in Europe, thirty thousand victims perished in the British Islands, seventy-five thousand in France, one hundred thousand in Germany, and corresponding numbers in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden. Witchcraft in New England was of a sporadic and spasmodic type compared with its epidemic and protracted virulence in the Old World; and yet the thirty-two executions in the New England colonies, for supposed confederation with devils, have filled a larger space in history and in public attention than the thirty thousand similar executions which occurred in the mother country. English writers at this day, when they need striking proofs of the super- stitions of former times, take their illustrations from the records of New England witchcraft. A full and impartial account of English and Scottish diabolism has never commended itself, as a subject of historical investigation, to a modern English writer."
The Salem tragedy touched the Third or South Church at several points. Three of its members, Wait Winthrop, Samuel Sewall, and Peter Sergeant, were judges of the Special Court ap- pointed to try the witchcraft cases in Eastern Massachusetts.1 One of its founders and most respected members, John Alden, was accused, imprisoned, and tried, and had a narrow escape of his life. Its minister, Mr. Willard,2 was one of the most determined and influential in opposition to the judicial proceedings ; a mem- ber of the congregation, Thomas Brattle, wrote a very careful and able review of these proceedings ; and Robert Calef,3 who
I Another of the judges, Jonathan Corwin, married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Sheaffe, and widow of Robert Gibbs. Mr. B'rattle, in his Account, says that Mrs. Thacher was suspected of witchcraft, and he calls Mr. Corwin to account for favoritism, in shielding his mother-in-law, and in conniving at the escape from the province of Hezekiah Usher (second of the name) who had been ordered to prison by a mittimus under Mr. Lynde, and had been allowed to live for more than a fortnight in a private house. Mr. Brattle says that of the judges, Mr. Hathorne and Mr. Cor- win were the most active, and that the chief justice, Mr. Stoughton, was very zealous.
2 During Mr. Willard's pastorate at Groton, in 1671, one of his parishioners was strangely affected, "railed at the godly minister of the town, and at the same time uttered many blasphemous expressions, and then charged all her afflictions upon a good woman in the neighborhood." There was no panic at that time, and Mr. Willard carefully ex- amined the case with a view to ascertain whether the possession were real or counterfeit. He was led by his investi- gation to the opinion that there was something preternatural in the experi- ences of the woman. See The Mather Papers, pp. 555-571.
3 Robert Calcf, or Calf, owned the covenant at the South Church in 1703,
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
became a member a few years later, is thought by some to have been the author of More Wonders of the Invisible World, a book which severely criticised all who had been prominent in abetting or encouraging the popular excitement.
In June, 1692, Sir William Phips, the newly-arrived royal governor, appointed special Commissioners of Oyer and Ter- miner to try the witchcraft cases which had been for some time accumulating, with jurisdiction in the counties of Suffolk, Essex, and Middlesex ; they were William Stoughton, deputy- governor, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Wait Still Winthrop, Bartholomew Gedney, Samuel Sewall, John Ha- thorne, Jonathan Corwin, and Peter Sergeant, or any five of them. Previously to this, there had been legal proceedings against reputed witches before the local magistrates in Salem. Sewall records his going thither on the 11th of April : -
Went to Salem, where, in the Meeting-house, the persons accused of Witchcraft were examined ; was a very great Assembly ; 'twas awfull to see how the afflicted persons were agitated. Mr. Noyes pray'd at the beginning, and Mr. Higginson concluded.
On the 28th of May, Captain John Alden, who had recently returned from a voyage to Quebec,1 whither he had sailed for the redemption of some prisoners of war held by the French since the preceding October, was summoned by the magistrates of Salem, "upon the accusation of a company of poor distracted or possessed creatures or witches." The names of his accusers were : Mary Lewis, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Booth, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Mary Warren. He was sent by Mr. Stoughton, and on the 31st of May he appeared at Salem Village before Mr. Gedney, Mr. Hathorne, and Mr. Corwin. Fortunately we have an account of the examination in his own emphatic language, as communicated to Mr. Calef :-
Those wenches being present, who played their juggling tricks, fall- ing down, crying out, and staring in people's faces ; the magistrates demanded of them several times, who it was of all the people in the room that hurt them? one of these accusers pointed several times at one Captain [John] Hill, there present, but spake nothing; the same accuser had a man standing at her back to hold her up; he and had children baptized there, the last, 1 Captain Alden had commanded ves- sels several years before this for John Hull, and lately had been employed in the public service; he commanded a vessel in the expedition against Port Royal in 1690. " Robert, of Robert and Margaret Calf," March 3, 1716-17. John Alden, son of Captain John Alden, was one of the wit- nesses to his will, which was probated before Judge Sewall, February 18, 1722-3.
287
TRIAL OF JOHN ALDEN.
stooped down to her ear, then she cried out Aldin, Aldin afflicted her ; one of the magistrates asked her if she had ever seen Aldin, She answered no, he asked how she knew it was Aldin? She said, the man told her so.
Then all were ordered to go down into the street, where a ring was made ; and the same accuser cried out, there stands Aldin, a bold fellow with his hat on before the judges, he sells powder and shot to the Indians and French. . . . Then was Aldin committed to the marshal's custody, and his sword taken from him; for they said he afflicted them with his sword. After some hours Aldin was sent for to the meeting house in the village before the magistrates ; who re- quired Aldin to stand upon a chair to the open view of all the people.
The accusers cried out that Aldin did pinch them, then, when he stood upon the chair, in the sight of all the people, a good way distant from them, one of the magistrates bid the marshal to hold open Aldin's hands, that he might not pinch those creatures. Aldin asked them why they should think that he should come to that village to afflict those persons that he never knew or saw before? Mr. Gidney bid Aldin confess, and give glory to God : Aldin said he hoped he should give glory to God, and hoped he should never gratify the devil; but appealed to all that ever knew him, if they ever suspected him to be such a person, and challenged any one, that could bring in any thing upon their knowledge, that might give suspicion of his being such an one. Mr. Gidney said he had known Aldin many years, and had been at sea with him, and always looked upon him to be an honest man, but now he did see cause to alter his judgment ; Aldin answered, he was sorry for that, but he hoped God would clear up his innocency, that he would recall that judgment again, and added that he hoped that he should with Job maintain his innocency till he died. They bid Aldin look upon the accusers, which he did, and then they fell down. Aldin asked Mr. Gidney, what reason there could be given, why Aldin's looking upon him did not strike him down as well? but no reason was given that I heard. But the accusers were brought to Aldin to touch them, and this touch they said made them well. Aldin began to speak of the Providence of God, in suffering these creatures to accuse innocent persons ; Mr. Noyes asked Aldin why he would offer to speak of the Providence of God, God by his Providence, (said Mr. Noyes) governs the world, and keeps it in peace ; and so went on with discourse, and stopped Aldin's mouth, as to that. Aldin told Mr. Gidney, that he could assure him that there was a lying spirit in them, for I can assure you that there is not a word of truth in all these say of me. But Aldin was again committed to the marshal.
Captain Alden was taken to Boston by a constable, and lodged in jail there : it was in vain that he and his friends offered bail,
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
and he remained in confinement for fifteen weeks. When the terror was at its height, he was prevailed upon to make his escape, and with the aid of his good minister and others he accomplished this. He went to Duxbury, where, however, he did not long remain, but returned to Boston, and gave himself up to the authorities. Bonds were now accepted for him, and a few months later, when the delusion had passed away, he and others who had been similarly accused were legally discharged. While he lay in Boston jail, a fast was held at his house, at which Judge Sewall was present, and of which he gives us the following particulars :-
July 20. Fast at the house of Capt. Alden, upon his account. Mr. Willard pray'd. I read a Sermon out of Dr. Preston, Ist and 2d Uses of God's Alsufficiency. Capt. Scottow prayd, Mr. Allen came in and pray'd, Mr. Cotton Mather, then Capt. Hill. Sung the first part 103, Ps., concluded about 5. aclock.1
All this, however it may appear to us now, was a terrible reality then to the magistrates and ministers of the province as well as to the people. There were few who doubted that the visitation came directly from the kingdom of darkness, and that some, at least, of the accused persons were in league with Satan, or under his immediate and personal control. But there were many who thoroughly disapproved of the wholesale and promiscuous manner in which accusations were made, and of the way in which the judicial proceedings were conducted. Two theories prevailed among those who held to the reality of dia- bolical agency. One was that Satan could operate by means of spectres, fits, and spasms, only through those who were in willing league with him, that is, actual witches. This was the generally received opinion in England, in the courts and among the lawyers. Testimony as to spectral and other preter- natural appearances was admitted there against persons accused of witchcraft, and the colonial judges naturally adopted the same course. Hutchinson says: "The evidence here was of the same sort which had been judged sufficient to hang people there; ... we had their best authority to justify us." The other of the two theories, which was held for the most part by
1 [On the 22d of December, Judge Sewall called at the parsonage, and he says : " Mrs. Willard talks to me very sharply about Capt. Alden's not being at the Lord's Supper last Sabbath-day."
What, if anything, the judge had done to prevent his attendance, we do not know. He may have thought that a man under accusation before a court ought not to approach the Lord's table.]
289
MR. WILLARD'S POSITION.
the clergy of New England, was that Satan could and did cause the spectres of innocent people to appear as readily as those of persons in league with him, and that what was known as spectral testimony should be rejected by the courts.
It should be remembered to the credit of the Boston min- isters, at this trying time, that as a body they exercised a de- cidedly restraining influence upon the excited multitude and on the officers of the law. Whatever they may have thought about the possibility of demoniacal possession, they did not part com- pany for the occasion with their reason and common sense. At the request of the governor, Cotton Mather drew up a Return, June 15, 1692, in behalf of several ministers, in which it was said : "The afflicted state of our poor neighbours that are now suffering by molestations from the invisible world, we apprehend so deplorable that we think their condition calls for the utmost help of all persons in their several capacities. . . . We judge that in the prosecution of these and all such witchcrafts, there is need of a very critical and exquisite caution, lest by too much credulity for things received only upon the Devil's authority, there be a door opened for a long train of miserable conse- quences, and Satan get an advantage over us." It was urged, " that all proceedings thereabout be managed with an exceeding tenderness towards those that may be complained of, especially if they have been persons formerly of an unblemished repu- tation."
How nobly Mr. Willard carried himself in these dark hours we learn from his funeral sermon, preached by his colleague and successor, the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton : -
It ought never to be forgotten with what prudence, courage and zeal, he appeared for the good of this people, in that dark and mys- terious season, when we were assaulted from the invisible world. And how singularly instrumental he was in discovering the cheats and delusions of Satan, which did threaten to stain our land with blood, and to deluge it with all manner of woes.
The testimony of a member of his congregation is even more emphatic. Thomas Brattle, in his review of the proceedings in Essex County, addressed to a clergyman who had asked him for an account of them, said : -
Although the chief judge, and some of the other judges, be very zealous for these proceedings, yet this you may take for a truth, that there are several about the Bay, men for understanding, judgment and
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
piety, inferior to few, if any, in New England, that do utterly condemn the said proceedings, and do freely deliver their judgment in the case to be this, viz. that these methods will utterly ruin and undo poor New England. I shall nominate some of them to you, viz. the Hon. Simon Bradstreet Esqr our late governor, the Hon. Thomas Danforth Esqr our late deputy governor, the Rev. Mr. Increase Mather, and the Rev. Mr. Samuel Willard. . . . I cannot but highly applaud, and think it our duty to be very thankful for, the endeavours of several elders, whose lips, I think, should preserve knowledge, and whose counsel should, I think, have been more regarded, in a case of this nature, than as yet it has been : in particular, I cannot but think very hon- ourably of the endeavours of a Reverend person in Boston, whose good affection to his country in general, and spiritual relation to three of the judges in particular, has made him very solicitous and indus- trious in this matter ; and I am fully persuaded that, had his motions and proposals been hearkened to, and followed, when these troubles were in their birth, in an ordinary way, they would never have grown unto that height which now they have. He has, as yet, met with little but unkindness, abuse, and reproach from many men ; but, I trust that in after times, his wisdom and service will find a more universal ac- knowledgment ; and if not, his reward is with the Lord.1
It has been well said, that when we take all the circumstances into the account, "we shall be less astonished that the delusion in Salem Village rose so high, than that it subsided so soon." As the reaction began to set in, juries refused to convict. The spirit in which many of the accused and condemned met their fate made a deep impression on the community. The Rev. George Burroughs, who in happier days had been a guest at Sewall's table, " by his speech, prayer, protestation of his inno- cence, did much move unthinking [we should say thinking] persons, which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being executed."
Hutchinson says of the judges that they did not change as soon as the juries. The opinion which they had "of their own superior understanding and judgment probably made them more backward in owning or discovering their errors." , One of them, however, when he came to be convinced of the terrible mistake he had made, did everything in his power to manifest his sorrow and contrition. Tradition says that Judge Sewall observed a day of private prayer annually, as long as he lived, in humble and penitential remembrance of his part in the witch- craft trials. This may not be literally true, but as to the fact of
1 [Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. v. pp. 74-77.]
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JUDGE SEWALL'S PENITENCE.
the judge's penitence there can be no question ; and the tradi- tion, as put into verse by the poet Whittier, is destined to live as long as the trials are remembered : -
Touching and sad, a tale is told,
Like a penitent hymn of the Psalmist old, Of the fast which the good man lifelong kept
With a haunting sorrow that never slept, As the circling year brought round the time Of an error that left the sting of crime,
When he sat on the bench of the witchcraft courts,
With the laws of Moses and Hale's Reports,
And spake, in the name of both, the word That gave the witch's neck to the cord,
And piled the oaken planks that pressed
The feeble life from the warlock's breast !
All the day long, from dawn to dawn,
His door was bolted, his curtain drawn ; No foot on his silent threshold trod,
No eye looked on him save that of God, As he baffled the ghosts of the dead with charms
Of penitent tears, and prayers, and psalms, And, with precious proofs from the sacred word Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord, His faith confirmed and his trust renewed That the sin of his ignorance, sorely rued, Might be washed away in the mingled flood Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood !
Judge Sewall was not content with making a private confes- sion in his closet before Him who seeth in secret. He openly acknowledged his sin, and asked the pardon of his fellowmen, in the great congregation. A public fast had been appointed by the Governor and Council for the 14th of January, 1696-7. The proclamation, drawn up by the ministers of Boston, men- tioned various calamities and judgments under which the prov- ince was suffering, and then said : "Doubtless there are som particular Sins, which God is angry with our Israel for, that have not been duely seen and resented by us, about which God expects to be sought; if ever He turn again our Captivity." The earnest supplications of God's people were desired : "That all Iniquity may be put away which hath proved God's holy Jealousie against this Land; that He would shew us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to doe so no more : And, especially, that whatever Mistakes, on either hand, have been fallen into, either by the body of this People, or any Orders of them, referring to the late Tragedie raised amongst us by Satan and his Instruments, through the awfull judgment of God; He would humble us therefore, and pardon
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
all the Errors of his Servants and People that desire to Love his Name, and be attoned to His Land."
Judge Sewall at this time was mourning the loss of two of his children who had died within a few months, and his conscience was in a very tender state. Between the proclamation of the fast and its observance, his son Samuel was reciting to him in Latin a part of the twelfth chapter of Mat- thew's Gospel, and he re- cords : " The 7th verse did awfully bring to mind the Salem Tragedie." The English version of this pas- sage is : " If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacri- fice, ye would not have con- demned the guiltless." On the afternoon of the Fast Samuel Sewall. Day the judge handed to Mr. Willard as, in gown and bands, he was passing up one of the "alleys " to the pulpit, the following " bill " to be read by him :-
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