USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
-
187
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
promised to go with him when he called, which accordingly she had sundry times done, and that the devil told her that at Christmas they would have a merry meeting, and then the covenant between them should be subscribed. The next day she was more particularly enquired of concerning her guilt respecting the crime she was accused with. She then acknowl- edged, that though when Mr. Haines began to read what he had taken down in writing, her rage was such that she could have torn him in pieces, and was as resolved as might be to deny her guilt (as she had done before), yet after he read awhile, she was (to use her own expression) as if her flesh had been pulled from her bones, and so could not deny any longer : she likewise declared, that the devil first appeared to her in the form of a deer or fawn, skipping about her, wherewith she was not much affrighted, and that by degrees he became very familiar, and at last would talk with her; moreover she said that the devil had frequently the carnal knowledge of her body; and that the witches had meetings at a place not far from her house; and that some appeared in one shape, and others in another; and one came flying amongst them in the shape of a crow. Upon this confession, with other concurrent evidence, the woman was executed; so likewise was her husband though he did not acknowledge himself guilty. Other persons accused in the discourse made their escape. Thus doth the devil use to serve his clients. After the sus- pected witches were either executed or fled, Ann Cole was restored to health, and had continued well for many years approving herself a serious Christian.
"There were some that had a mind to try whether the stories of witches not being able to sink under water were true; and accordingly a man and woman, mentioned in Ann Cole's Dutch-toned discourse, had their hands and feet tied, and so were cast into the water, and they both apparently swam after the manner of a Buoy, part under, part above the water. A By-stander, imagining that any person bound in that posture would be so borne up, offered himself for trial; but being in the like manner gently laid on the water, he imme- diately sunk right down. This was no legal evidence against
1 88
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
the suspected persons, nor were they proceeded against on such account; however, doubting that a halter would choak them, though the waters would not, they very fairly took their flight, not having been seen in that part of the world since."
I have quoted this, though it did not occur in Essex County, partly to show the early procedure in witchcraft cases in New England and also to show the interest that Increase Mather had in these proceedings.
In 1660 a conviction for witchcraft could not be obtained in Essex County. The case of John Godfrey, of Andover, is sufficient proof of this. Godfrey was a very eccentric character, and it seems as though he rather wanted to be thought of as a witch and took delight in playing upon the superstitious nature of his neighbors. He prob- ably was involved in more lawsuits than any other person in the Colony. In 1692 the evidence against none of the convicts was half as strong as that against Godfrey. But in 1660 the people were not ready to strike. Some one like Cotton Mather was needed; some one who would play upon the thoughts expressed in the literature, philosophy, and theology of the time and stir the people to action. In 1674 there was further evidence that there was not a violent feeling about witchcraft when a case was brought up in the County Court meeting at Salem in which one Christopher Browne admitted that "he had been treating or discoursing with one whom he appre- hended to be the Devil, which came like a gentleman," in order that the Devil might bind him to be his servant. Upon the examination of Browne "his discourse seeming inconsistent with truth, the Court, giving him good counsel and caution for the present, dismissed him."
The first important witchcraft case in Essex County was that against Elizabeth Morse, of Newbury, in 1679. Because this case tells so much of the current thought about witchcraft, I shall quote at length from the writings of Increase Mather, the president of Har- vard College, with some interpolation-paraphasing of my own. "As there have been several persons vexed with evil spirits, so divers houses have been wofully haunted by them. In the year 1679, the house of William Morse of Newbury in New England was strangely disquieted by a daemon. After these troubles began, he did, by the advice of friends, write down the particulars of those unusual acci- dents. And the account which he giveth thereof is as followeth":
189
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
"On December 3, in the night time, he and his wife heard a noise upon the roof of their house, as if sticks and stones had been thrown against it with great violence; whereupon he rose out of his bed, but could see nothing. Locking the doors fast he returned to bed again. About midnight they heard an hog making a great noise in the house, so that the man rose again, and found a great hog in the house; the door being shut but upon the opening of the door it ran out.
"On December 8, in the morning, there were five great stones and bricks by an invisible hand thrown in at the west end of the house while the man's wife was making the bed; the bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and the bedstaff flung out of the window, and a cat was hurled at her; a long staff danced up and down the chimney; a burnt brick and a piece of weatherboard, were thrown in at the window. The man at going to bed put out his lamp, but in the morning found that the saveall of it -- the device at the bottom of the candlestick -was taken away, and yet it was unaccountably brought into its former place. On the same day the long staff, now spoken of, was hang'd up by a line, and swung to and fro; the man's wife laid it in the fire, but she could not hold it there, inasmuch as it would forcibly fly out; yet after much ado, with joynt strength they made it to burn. A shingle flew from the win- dow, though nobody near it; many sticks came in at the same place, only one of these was so scragged that it could enter the hole but a little way, whereupon the man pusht it out; a great rail likewise was thrust in at the window, so as to break the glass."
Ashes from the fireplace were favorite weapons of the evil one. They would be thrown out upon the Morses when they were eating their meals or when they were sitting in front of the fire. Anything that was attached to the fireplace might be flung into the fire, and the owners had to be very nimble to rescue their possessions. Prayers were forcibly interrupted by flying missiles.
"People were sometimes barricado'd out of doors, when as yet there was nobody to do it; and a chest was removed from place to place, no hand touching it. Their keys being
190
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
tied together, one was taken from the rest, and the remain- ing two would fly about making a loud noise by knocking against each other. But the greatest part of this devil's feats were his mischievous ones, wherein indeed he was some- times antick enough too, and therein the chief sufferers were, the man and his wife, and his grand-son. The man especially had his share in the diabolocal molestations. For one while they could not eat their suppers quietly, but had the ashes on the hearth thrown into their victuals, yea, and upon their heads and clothes, insomuch that they were forced up into their chamber, and yet they had no rest there; for one of the man's shoes being left below, it was filled with ashes and coals, and thrown up after them. Their light was beaten out, and, they being laid in their bed with their little boy between them, a great stone (from the floor of the loft) weighing about three pounds was thrown upon the man's stomach, and he turning it down upon the floor, it was once more thrown upon him. A box and a board were likewise thrown upon them all; and a bag of hops was taken out of their chest, therewith they were beaten, till some of the hops were scat- tered on the floor, where the bag was then laid and left."
At another time when the family was at the table an iron crook and a chair flew about the room in such a manner as to make it almost impossible for them to eat. After several such interruptions they were able to put things in order and finish their meal, although it had become almost too cold to eat.
"On another day, when they were winnowing of barley, some hard dirt was thrown in, hitting the man on the head, and both the man and his wife on the back; and when they had made themselves clean, they essayed to fill their half- bushel; but the foul corn was. in spite of them often cast in amongst the clean, and the man, being divers times thus abused, was forced to give over what he was about.
"On January 23 (in particular), the man had an iron pin twice thrown at him, and his inkhorn was taken away from him while he was writing; and when by all his seeking it he could not find it, at last he saw it drop out of the air, down by the
191
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
fire. A piece of leather was twice thrown at him; and a shoe was laid upon his shoulder, which he catching at, was suddenly rapt from him. The shoe was then clapt upon his head, and upon it he clapt his hand, holding it so fast, that somewhat unseen pulled him with it backward on the floor.
"On the next day at night, as they were going to bed, a lost ladder was thrown against the door, and their light put out, and when the man was a bed he was beaten with a heavy pair of leather breeches, and pulled by the hair of his head and beard, pinched and scratched, and his bed-board was taken away from him. Yet more: in the next night when the man was likewise a bed, his bed-board did rise out of its place, notwithstanding his putting forth all his strength to keep it in ; one of his awls was brought out of the next room into his bed, and did prick him; the clothes wherewith he hoped to save his head from blows, were violently pluckt from thence. Within a night or two after, the man and his wife received both of them a blow upon their heads, but it was so dark that they could not see the stone which gave it. The man had his cap pulled off from his head while he sat by the fire.
"The night following they went to bed undressed, because of their late disturbances, and the man, wife, boy, presently found themselves pricked, and upon search, found in the bed a bodkin, a knitting needle, and two sticks priked at both ends; he received also a great blow, as on his thigh, so on his face, which fetched blood; and while he was writing a candlestick was twice thrown at him; and a great piece of bark fiercely smote him; and a pail of water thrown up without hands.
"On the 28th of the mentioned month, frozen clods of cow-dung were divers times thrown at the man out of the house in which they were. His wife went to milk the cow, and received a blow on her head, and sitting down at her milking work, had cow-dung divers times thrown into her pail. The man tried to save the milk by holding a piggin side-wayes under the cowes belly, but the dung would in for all, and the milk was only made fit for hogs. On that night ashes, which flying upon the man and his boy, brought them ready for their supper, so as that they could not eat it; ashes
192
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
were likewise often thrown into the man's eyes as he sat by the fire; and an iron hammer flying at him, gave him a great blow on his back. The man's wife going into the cellar for beer, a great iron peel 'or shovel' fell after her through the trap door of the cellar; and going afterwards on the same errand to the same place, the door shut down upon her, and the table came and lay upon the door, and the man was forced to relieve it e'er his wife could be released from where she was. On the following day, while he was writing, a dish went out of its place, leapt in the pale, and cast water upon the man, his paper, his table, and disappointed his procedure in what he was about; his cap jumped off from his head, and on again, and the pot-lid leapt off from the pot into the kettle on the fire.
"February 2. While he and his boy were eating of cheese the pieces which he cut were wrested from them, but they were afterwards found upon the table, under an apron and a pair of breeches; and also from the fire arose little sticks and ashes, which flying upon the man and his boy, brought them into an uncomfortable pickle. But as for the boy, which the last passage spoke of, there remains much to be said con- cerning him and a principal sufferer in these afflictions; for on the 18th of December, he sitting by his grandfather, was hurried into great motions, and the man thereupon took him, and made him stand between his legs, but the chair danced up and down, and had like to have cast both man and boy into the fire; and the child was afterwards flung about in such a manner, as that they feared that his brains would have been beaten out; and in the evening he was tossed as afore, and the man tried the project of holding him but ineffectually. The lad was soon put to bed, and they presently heard an huge noise, and demanded what was the matter ? and he answered, that his bedstead leaped up and down; and they (i. e., the man and his wife) went up, and at first found all quiet, but before they had been there long, they saw the board by his bed trembling by him, and the bedclothes flying off him; the latter they laid on immediately, but they were no sooner on than off; so they took him out of his bed for quietness."
193
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
When the boy was most severely pestered, his grandparents would take him to the home of the doctor, for there he would find relief. But just as soon as they would get him home, the trouble would return. At one such time the old man and his grandson had great difficulty avoiding the fireplace toward which they were pitched by some unseen force. They carried him to the doctor's again, and the next morning he came home quiet ;
"but as they were doing somewhat he cried out that he was prikt on the back; they looked and found a three-tin'd fork sticking strangely there; which being carried to the doctor's house, not only the doctor himself said that it was his, but also the doctor's servant affirmed it was seen at home after the boy was gone."
The boy's vexations continuing, they left him at the doctor's, where he remained well till a while after, and then he complained he was pricked; they looked and found an iron spindle sticking below his back; he complained he was pricked still; they looked, and found there a long iron and a bowl of a spoon. They lay down by him on the bed, with the light burning, but he was twice thrown from the bed, and the second time thrown quite under the bed. In the morning the bed was tossed about, with such a creaking noise as was heard by the neighbors. In the afternoon, their knives were, one after another, brought, and put into his back, but pulled out by the spectators; but one knife, which was missing, seemed to the standers-by to come out of his mouth. He was bidden to read; his book was taken and thrown about several times, at last hitting the boy's grandmother on the head. Another time he was thrust out of his chair, and rolled up and down, with outcries that all things were on fire; yea, he was three times very dangerously thrown into the fire, and preserved by his friends with much ado. The boy also made, for a long time together, a noise like a dog, and like a hen with her chickens, and could not speak rationally.
"Particularly, on December 26, he barked like a dog, and clock't like a hen; and after long distraining to speak, said, 'There's Powel, I am pinched.' His tongue likewise hung out of his mouth, so that it could by no means be forced in till his fit was over, and then he said "twas forced out by
Essex -- 13
194
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
Powel.' For some undetermined reason there was no fur- ther disturbance until the 9th of January. At this time the child, because of his intolerable ravings, lying between the man and his wife, was pulled out of bed, and knockt vehemently against the bedstead boards, in a manner very perilous and amazing. In the daytime he was carried away beyond all pos- sibility of their finding him. His grandmother at last saw him creeping on one side, and drag'd him in, where he lay mis- erably lame; but recovering his speech, he said, that he was carried above the doctor's house, and that Powel carried him; and that the said Powel had him into the barn, throwing him against the cartwheel there, and then thrusting him out at an hole; and accordingly they found some of the remainders of the threshed barley, which was on the barn floor, hanging to his clothes.
"At another time he fell into a swoon; they forced some- what refreshing into his mouth, and it was turned out as fast as they put it in; e'er long he came to himself, and expressed some willingness to eat, but the meat would forcibly fly out of his mouth; and when he was able to speak, he said Powel would not let him eat. Having found the boy to be best at a neighbor's house, the man carried him to his daughter's, three miles from his own. The boy was growing antick as he was on the journey, but before the end of it he made a grievous hollowing; and when he lighted, he threw a great stone at a maid in the house, and fell on eating of ashes. Being at home afterwards, they had rest awhile; but on the 19th of Janu- ary, in the morning he swooned, and coming to himself, he roared terribly, and did eat ashes, sticks, rug-yarn. The fol- lowing morning, there was such a racket with the boy, that the man and his wife took him to bed with them; a bed-staff was thereupon thrown at them, and a chamberpot with its contents was thrown upon them, and they were severely pinched. The man being about to rise, his clothes were divers times pulled from him, himself thrust out of his bed, and his pillow thrown after him. The lad would also have his clothes plucked off from him on these winter nights, and was wofully dogg'd with such fruits of devilish spite, till it pleased God to shorten the chains of the wicked daemon."
195
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
Dr. Mather remarks that the devil did not appear in the visible form of a person. Once the old man thought he saw a fist that struck him and felt a hand clasp his wrist, but he was not quick enough to catch it. Only once were any words spoken by this invisible force of evil. At that time a scraping and a drumming on the boards was heard and finally a voice said, "Revenge! Revenge! Sweet is revenge." Naturally those who heard this voice were terrified and they sought help from God in prayer. Their prayers were answered by a lengthy repetition of the words "Me strike no more" and then the noise ceased.
It has been noted that the grandson said that it was Powel who had been hurting him. This Caleb Powel was a seaman, the mate of a vessel, and had traveled far and wide. Because he knew how to chart a course by the stars he was accused of being an astrologist. He had undoubtedly seen many demonstrations of necromancy and mesmerism in some of the ports which he had visited, and his talks on these subjects convinced those who attempted to fix upon him the blame of what had happened in the Morse household that he was a spiritualist. This feeling may have been heightened when it was seen how much power Powel had over the afflicted lad. Powel became convinced that it was the boy that had been causing the trouble and not the grandmother as some were beginning to think, and persuaded the grandparents to let him have the boy for a one whole day. The sailor must have cured him, because after he returned him that night the family was never molested again.
Mather in his account goes on to say that the true explanation of the disturbances in the Morse household is not known, but that some did blame the grandmother as has been noted. He reports the fol- lowing ingenious methods of the neighbors in their attempt to prove that she, Elizabeth Morse, was a witch, and gives his thoughts on the whole procedure :
"One of the neighbors took apples which were brought out of that (the Morses') house, and put them into the fire; upon which, they say, their houses were much disturbed. Another of the neighbors caused a horse-shoe to be nailed before the doors (of his house) and as long as it remained so he could not persuade the suspected person to go into the house; but when the horse-shoe was gone, she presently visited them. I
-
---
SALEM-JONATHAN CORWIN HOUSE, "WITCH HOUSE" Built before 1675.
Courtesy of The Essex Institute
197
WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA
shall not here enlarge on the vanity and superstition of those experiments . . . . ; all that I shall say at the present is that the daemons, whom the blind Gentiles of old worshipped, told their servants, that such things as these would very much affect them; yea, that certain characters, signs, and charms, would render their power ineffectual; and accordingly they would become subject, when their own directions were obeyed. It is a sport to the devils when they see silly men thus deluded and made fools of by them. Others were apt to think that a sea- man, by some suspected to be a conjurer, set the devil on work thus to disquiet Morse's family; or, it may be, some other thing as yet hid in the secrets of Providence, might be the true original of all this trouble."
Powel was tried, but not convicted of witchcraft. He was forced to pay the charges of the trial. After Powel had been acquitted, they next tried to fasten suspicion on Elizabeth Morse, the old grand- mother. The case of Powel had shown that an Essex County jury could not be relied on for a conviction in witchcraft, so the case was taken higher. A bill of indictment was returned against her to the Court of Assistants sitting in Boston. Upham says, "This was the highest tribunal in the county, subject only to the General Court, and embracing the whole colony in its jurisdiction." Elizabeth Morse was tried and convicted of witchcraft by this court, and the sentence of death was pronounced, but she was reprieved by the vote of the Gov- ernor and the Assistants until the next session. At the next session the reprieve was continued. Finally, on the urgent appeal of her husband, William Morse, she was released from prison and allowed to return home.
The above-mentioned cases illustrate fully the history and condi- tions of the public mind in New England as well as in Europe in the seventeenth century in reference to witchcraft. Upham sums it up this way :
"They show that there was nothing unprecedented, unusual or eminently shocking, after all, in what I am about to relate as occurring in Salem in 1692. The only real offense proved upon Margaret Jones was that she was a successful practi- tioner of medicine, using only simple remedies. Ann Hibbins was the victim of the slanderous gossip of a prejudiced neigh-
198
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
borhood; all our actual knowledge of her being her will, which proves that she was a person of much more than ordi- nary dignity of mind. Elizabeth Morse appeared to have been one of the best of Christian women. The accusations against her, on the whole, cover nearly the whole ground upon which the subsequent prosecutions in Salem rested. John Winthrop passed sentence upon Margaret Jones, John Endi- cott upon Ann Hibbins, and Simon Bradstreet upon Eliza- beth Morse. The last-named Governor performed the office as an unavoidable act of official duty, and prevented the execu- tion of the sentence by the courageous use of his prerogative, in defiance of public clamor and the wrath of the representa- tives of the whole people of the colony."
It is obvious that Governor Bradstreet disapproved of the witch- craft persecutions in 1692, and according to Upham, from whom I am quoting in this paragraph, "it is safe to say that if he had not been superseded by the arrival from England of Sir William Phips as Governor under the new Charter, they would never have taken place."
I have said before that outbreaks of prosecution are apt to occur whenever there are troublesome times. That the times were trouble- some politically is shown by the fact that in the spring of 1689 the people of Massachusetts, having grown tired of what they considered the misrule of Sir Edmund Andros, the royal Governor, had seized him and put him into prison. Their old charter Governor, Simon Bradstreet, then eighty-seven years old and living in Salem, was called back into power and the assistants of 1686 were recalled. The assistants, or members of The Court, provided for an election of rep- resentatives by the people of the towns. This government existed until May, 1692. The government during these three years was, therefore, based upon an uprising of the people and was one of abso- lute independence of the English Crown and Parliament. That Eng- land would not allow the people this measure of independence per- manently is shown by the arrival of the new royal Governor in May, 1692. It was hardly with relish that a people who had been govern- ing themselves submitted to this change. Such conditions provided the political unrest for the outbreak in Salem in 1692.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.