Chapter 5 of 7 · 3929 words · ~20 min read

Part 5

I think I have found a clue to the name of this Dorchester woman. Increase Mather, in his _Remarkable Providences_, 1684, gave some of the cases of witchcraft which had occurred in New-England. He sent a copy of this book to his brother Nathaniel, a minister in Dublin. In a letter, dated Dec. 31, 1684, Nathaniel Mather acknowledged the receipt of the book, and says: “Why did you not put in the story of Mrs. Hibbins witchcrafts and the discovery thereof; and also of H. Lake’s wife, of Dorchester, whom as I have heard the Devil drew in by appearing to her in the likeness, and acting the part of a child of hers then lately dead on whom her heart was much set; as also another of a girl in Connecticut, who was judged to die a real convert, though she died for the same crime?—stories, as I have heard them as remarkable for some circumstances as most I have read.” (Mather Papers, _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. xxxviii. p. 58.) Mr. Mather probably heard these stories before he went abroad. The precise date of his departure does not appear. It was, however, before March 23, 1650-51, when he writes from London. There was a Henry Lake residing in Dorchester in 1678, who, with his children, was named as the residuary legatees in the will of Thomas Lake, a prominent citizen of the town, who died Oct. 27, 1678 (_History of Dorchester_, p. 125). Mr. Savage (_Geneal. Dict._) says there was a Henry Lake, currier, in Salem, in 1649, “who may have been the Henry Lake of Dorchester”; but he makes no mention of his wife being executed for witchcraft.

The details of the case as related by Mr. Mather are quite unlike those related by Mr. Hale. One or both of the statements must be incorrect. The error I think must be in that of Mr. Hale. Mr. Mather was a resident of Dorchester, and a graduate of the college in 1647. He gives the name of the person accused, and was so situated as to be familiar with all the incidents. Mr. Hale was a resident of Charlestown, and in 1650 was but fourteen years of age. He did not know the name of the person, and gives the same incidents to a Springfield case. He says, p. 19: “There was another executed of Boston anno 1656 [Mrs. Hibbins] for that crime; and two or three of Springfield, one of which confessed, and said the occasion of her familiarity with Satan was this: She had lost a child, and was exceedingly discontented at it, and longed _Oh that she might see her child again!_ And at last the Devil in likeness of her child came to her bed-side and talked with her, and asked to come into the bed to her that night and several nights after, and so entered into covenant with Satan and became a witch. This was the only confessor in those times in this government.” If any person, other than Mary Parsons, was executed at Springfield for witchcraft, no details have come down to us. Increase Mather probably omitted to mention the cases of Mrs. Hibbins and Mrs. Lake, with which he must have been familiar, in deference to the feelings of their friends then living.

[8] This was the case of Mrs. Kendal, of Cambridge, who was executed for bewitching to death a child of Goodman Genings, of Watertown. The principal evidence was that of a Watertown nurse, who testified that the said Kendal did make much of the child, and then the child was well, but quickly changed in color and died a few hours after. The court took this evidence without calling the parents of the child. After the execution the parents denied that their child was bewitched, and stated that it died from imprudent exposure to cold by the nurse the night before. The nurse soon after was put in prison for adultery, and there died, and so the matter was not further inquired into. Hale’s _Modest Inquiry_, p. 18.

Rev. Lucius R. Paige, of Cambridgeport, has recently found in the Middlesex court records, 1660, another alleged case of witchcraft in Cambridge, which was tried that year. Winifred Holman, an aged widow, was accused by her neighbors, John Gibson and wife, their son John Gibson, Jr., and their daughter Rebecca, wife of Charles Stearns. Actions of defamation were commenced against these parties, and on the trial, they, by way of justification, presented their supposed proofs of witchcraft, some details of which may be seen in _Hist. and Geneal. Register_, vol. xxiv. p. 59. Probably other cases were tried in the courts of that period, of which nothing is now known. John Dunton, in 1683, said there had been twenty cases of witchcraft recently tried in the colony. (_Letters_, p. 72.)

[9] Vol. i. p. 187.

[10] See _Mass. Rec._, vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 269. Joshua Scottow’s representation, dated March 7, 1655-6, that he did not intend to oppose the proceedings of the court in the case of Ann Hibbins, is in _Mass. Archives_, vol. cxxxv. fol. 1. She was executed June 19, 1656.

[11] Magnalia.

[12] The case of Ann Cole was fully reported in a letter by Mr. John Whiting, minister at Hartford, under whose observation it occurred, to Increase Mather, dated Dec. 10, 1682. The document is one of the _Mather Papers_, and is printed in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, vol. xxxviii. pp. 466-469. An abstract of the case is in Increase Mather’s _Remarkable Providences_, chap. v. pp. 96-99, London ed. 1856, and Cotton Mather’s _Magnalia_, Hartford ed. 1855, vol. ii. p. 448. Several of the incidents are not correctly stated by Hutchinson, either in the manuscript or printed text. Ann Cole did not live next door to a Dutch family. The name of the woman executed, Greensmith, appears in both abstracts by the Mathers, but not in Mr. Whiting’s original statement. The woman and her husband were both executed.

[13] This woman was one of the victims hanged for witchcraft at Salem, in 1692. The evidence offered at her examination is in Mather’s _Wonders_, pp. 70-76; Calef’s _More Wonders_, pp. 125-132, and Woodward’s _Records of Salem Witchcraft_, vol. i. pp. 193-233. She bore the reputation of a witch for many years, and her suits at law frequently brought her name into the General Court records.—_Mass. Rec._ iv. pt. 2, pp. 540-555; v. pp. 6, 26.

[14] To a person interested in the psychological inquiries pertaining to the witchcraft manifestations of the seventeenth century, the case of Elizabeth Knap is one of the most interesting that occurred in New-England. It took place twenty-one years before the great outbreak at Salem, and under circumstances which gave opportunity for calm observation. Samuel Willard, afterwards pastor of the Old South Church, in Boston, and who distinguished himself by his prudent conduct in 1692, was the pastor of the church in Groton at the time, and was the daily attendant and spiritual adviser of the family. He wrote a full account of the case, which fortunately has been preserved, and is now printed in the _Mather Papers_, pp. 555-571. In this paper he has calmly discussed the question whether her distemper was real or counterfeit. At first he was inclined to the latter opinion, and at times she confessed as much; but in view of all the facts he was of the opinion that there was something preternatural in the case. Increase Mather has an abstract of Mr. Willard’s account in _Remarkable Providences_, p. 99. See also _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 449.

[15] Rebeckah Nurse.

[16] Complaints against Eunice Cole for being a witch were made as early as 1656, and were continued till 1680, when she was up before the Quarter Court at Hampton, and committed on suspicion of being a witch. During most of this period she was a town pauper. Thirty-five depositions and other original papers relating to Eunice Cole’s case, from Sept. 4, 1656 to Jan. 7, 1673-4, are in _Mass. Archives_, vol. cxxxv. fol. 2-15. See also Drake’s _Annals of Witchcraft_, pp. 99-103.

[17] In the printed text Gov. Hutchinson gives but four lines to the Morse case. Fuller details may be found in _Remarkable Providences_, pp. 101-111; _Magnalia_, vol. ii. pp. 450-452, and Drake’s _Annals_, pp. 144-150. In his Appendix (pp. 258-296), Mr. Drake has given depositions and other papers connected with the proceedings against Mrs. Morse. Other depositions, with a petition of Wm. Morse in behalf of his wife, are in _Mass. Archives_, vol. cxxxv. fol. 11-19.

Mrs. Morse was convicted 20 May, 1680, and sentenced to be hanged. June 1, she was reprieved till the next session of the court. “Nov. 3. The deputies, on perusal of the acts of the honored court of assistants relating to the woman condemned for witchcraft, do not understand the reason why execution of the sentence given against her by the court is not executed, and that her second reprieval seems to us to be beyond what the law will allow, and do therefore judge meet to declare ourselves against it, with reference to the concurrence of the honored magistrates hereto.” This action was “not consented to by the magistrates.” (MS. memoranda in _Mass. Archives_, vol. cxxxv. fol. 18.) The deputies subsequently voted to give her a new trial; but the magistrates refused. Between this disagreement of the deputies and magistrates she escaped punishment. She was released from prison, but never acquitted or pardoned.

[18] Caleb Powel was the name of the person implicated.

[19] Magnalia.

[20] John Russell, minister of Hadley (in whose house the regicides Whalley and Goff were long concealed), communicated this case to Increase Mather under date of August 2, 1683. It occurred the year before at Hartford. An abstract is in _Remarkable Providences_, pp. 112-114, and _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 452. The original account is printed in _Mather Papers_, pp. 86-88.

[21] An account of the Walton case was furnished to Increase Mather by Joshua Moody, then minister at Portsmouth. (_Mather Papers_, p. 361.) The paper is given in _Remarkable Providences_, pp. 114-116, and _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 453.

A long and circumstantial account of the disturbance in George Walton’s house is the subject-matter of a tract, printed in London, 1698, 15 pp. 4to., a copy of which is in the Dowse Library belonging to the Massachusetts Historical Society. The title of the tract is “LITHOBOLIA; or the STONE THROWING DEVIL. Being an exact and true Account of the various actions of Infernal Spirits, or (Devils Incarnate) Witches, or both; and the great Disturbance and Amazement they gave to George Walton’s family, at a place called Great Island, in the Province of New-Hampshire in New-England.... By R. C. who was a sojourner in the same family the whole time, and an ocular witness of these Diabolic Inventions; the contents thereof being manifestly known to the inhabitants of that Province, and the persons of other provinces, and is upon record in his Majesty’s Council Court held in that Province.”

The writer says, “Some time ago being in America, in his Majesty’s service, I was lodged in the said George Walton’s house, a planter there.”

The following names appear as attestants of the truth of the narrative: “Samuel Jennings, Governor of West-Jarsey; Walter Clark, Deputy-Governor of Road-Island; Arthur Cook; Matt. Borden of Road-Island; Oliver Hooton of Barbadoes, Merchant; T. Maul of Salem in N. E. merchant; Capt. Walter Barefoot; John Hussey and John Hussey’s wife.” The narrative treats of throwing about, by an invisible power, stones, brick-bats, hammers, mauls, crow-bars, spits and other domestic utensils, for the period of three months.

“R. C.,” the author of the tract, I have no doubt, was Richard Chamberlayne, Secretary of the Province of New-Hampshire in 1682. That he resided at Great Island appears by his signature to several depositions printed in _New-Hampshire Hist. Coll._, vols. ii. and viii. Chamberlayne and Barefoot were among the prosecutors of Joshua Moody at Portsmouth the next year for not conducting his services according to the English Prayer Book, and occasioned his imprisonment for three months. It appears that Increase Mather was aware that Secretary Chamberlayne had prepared an account of the Walton case, and he wrote to Mr. Moody to procure it, together with a narrative of the Hortando case. Mr. Moody, July 14, 1683, writes to Mr. Mather: “About that at G. Walton’s, because my interest runs low with the Secretary, I have desired Mr. Woodbridge to endeavor the obtaining it; and if he can get it, shall send it by the first; though if there should be any difficulty thereabout, you may do pretty well with what you have already.” (_Mather Papers_, p. 359.) Mr. Moody writes again, August 23: “My endeavors also have not been a-wanting to obtain the other [the Walton case], but find it difficult. If more may be gotten, you may expect [it] when I come, or else must take up with what you had from me at first, which was the sum of what was then worthy of notice, only many other particular actings of like nature had been then and since. It began on a Lord’s day, June 11, 1682, and so continued for a long time, only there was some respite now and then. The last thing [printed _sight_] I have heard of was the carrying away of several axes in the night, notwithstanding they were laid up, yea locked up very safe, as the owner thought at least, which was done this spring. [Postscript.] Before sealing of my letter came accidentally to my hand this enclosed that I had from William Morse of Newbury concerning the troubles at his house in 1679. If it may be of use to me, you may please to peruse and return it.” (_Ibid._ 360.)

The Secretary doubtless declined to furnish the unlovely Puritans at the Bay with his narrative, and, on returning to England, he printed it in London in 1698. The tract shows that Church-of-England men were quite as observant of signs and wonders as the Puritans. “Who that peruses these preternatural occurrences,” asks the writer, “can possibly be so much of an enemy to his own soul and irrefutable reason, as obstinately to oppose himself to, or confusedly fluctuate in, the opinion and doctrine of demons or spirits, and witches?”

The tract is reprinted in _Historical Magazine_ (N.Y., vol. v. pp. 321-327), and is followed (vol. vi. p. 159) with a statement, by Rev. Lucius Alden, on the persons and localities mentioned therein. Brewster’s _Rambles about Portsmouth_, 2d series, 1869, has a chapter on the subject (pp. 343-351), with Mr. Alden’s statement; but none of these writers seem to be aware that Richard Chamberlayne was the author of _Lithobolia_. Since writing the above I find the tract under the name of Richard Chamberlain in British Museum Catalogue, 1814, and the title was so copied into Watt and Lowndes.

[22] This was the Hortando case, a brief narrative of which, “sent in by an intelligent person,” is given in _Remarkable Providences_, pp. 116-118, and _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 453.

“The enclosed I transcribed from Mr. Tho. Broughton, who read to me what he took from the mouth of the woman and her husband, and judge it credible; though it be not the half of what is to be gotten. I expect from him a fuller and further account before I come down to the Commencement.” (Mr. Moody to Mr. Mather, August 23, 1683. _Mather Papers_, p. 360.) The date, place and attending circumstances make it clear that this was “the narrative sent in by an intelligent person,” which Mr. Mather printed.

[23] Gov. Hutchinson found this case reported in _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 454.

[24] Increase Mather’s _Remarkable Providences_ is the work here alluded to; but the date should have been 1684 and not 1685. The book was issued in the Spring of 1684. Nathaniel Mather, in a letter to the author, dated Dec. 31, 1684, acknowledges receiving a copy on which “was written in your hand 7 ber 16.” (_Mather Papers_, p. 58.) John Bishop acknowledges the receipt of a copy, in a letter dated June 10, 1684. (_Ibid._ p. 312.) This erroneous date, and a typographical error in the _Magnalia_, vol. ii. p. 473, have led some writers to suppose that Cotton Mather wrote his first book on witchcraft in 1685. He was then twenty-two years of age. Before 1686 he published no works except _Elegy on Rev. Nath. Collins_, 1685, and _The Boston Ephemeris_, an Almanac for 1683, neither of which are in the printed list of his works. His first writing on witchcraft was issued in 1689.

[25] This date is correct. It is singular that in his final draft the author should be in doubt, and say, “in 1687 or 1688.”

[26] The names and ages of the children were as follows: Martha 13, John 11, Mercy 7, Benjamin 5.

[27] Cotton Mather’s _Memorable Providences_, Boston, 1689. 2d ed. London, 1691.

[28] Cotton Mather’s. On the 4th of October, 1688, Joshua Moody wrote a letter to Increase Mather, then in London, in which he spoke of the Goodwin case. (_Mather Papers_, pp. 367-8.) He says “We have a very strange thing among us, which we know not what to make of, except it be witchcraft, as we think it must needs be. Three or four children of one Goodwin, a mason, that have been for some weeks grievously tormented, crying out of head, eyes, tongue, teeth; breaking their neck, back, thighs, knees, legs, feet, toes, &c.; and then they roar out, _Oh my head! Oh my neck!_ and from one part to another the pain runs almost as fast as I write it. The pain is doubtless very exquisite, and the cries most dolorous and affecting; and this is noteable, that two or more of them cry out of the same pain in the same part, at the same time, and as the pain shifts to another place in one, so in the other, and thus it holds them for an hour together and more; and when the pain is over they eat, drink, walk, play, laugh, as at other times. They are generally well a nights. A great many good Christians spent a day of prayer there. Mr. Morton came over, and we each spent an hour in prayer; since which, the parents suspecting an old woman and her daughter living hard by, complaint was made to the justices, and compassion had so far, that the women were committed to prison and are there now. Yesterday I called in at the house, and was informed by the parent that since the women were confined the children have been well while out of the house; but as soon as any of them come into the house, then taken as formerly; so that now all their children keep at their neighbors’ houses. If any step home they are immediately afflicted, and while they keep out are well. I have been a little larger in this narrative because I know you have studied these things. We cannot but think the Devil has a hand in it by some instrument. It is an example, in all the parts of it, not to be parallelled. You may inquire further of Mr. Oakes [Edward, Jr., the bearer of the letter], whose uncle [Dr. Thomas Oakes] administered physic to them at first, and he will probably inform you more fully.”

We have here a motive other than curiosity or credulity, which led Mr. Mather to take one of the Goodwin children to his own house, where he kept her till spring and till she fully recovered. This letter of Mr. Moody’s was prior to any writing on the subject by Mr. Mather. An account of this case is in the _Magnalia_, vol. ii. pp. 456-465. See also _North American Review_, vol. cviii. pp. 350-359.

[29] A friend skilled in the Indian dialects suggests that Mr. Mather’s pronunciation of the Indian language was probably so imperfect that the Devil was excusable for not understanding it.

[30] In the year 1720, at Littleton, in the Massachusetts Province, a family were supposed to be bewitched in much the same manner with this of Goodwin’s. I shall give a brief account of the affair, and the manner how the fraud came to be disclosed, to show the similitude between the two cases, and to discourage parents from showing the least countenance to such pranks in their children.

One J. B. of Littleton, had three daughters of 11, 9, [and] 5 years of age. The eldest being a forward girl, and having heard and read many strange stories, used to surprise the company where she was with her manner of relating them. Pleased with applause she went from stories to dreams, and from dreams to visions, attaining the art of swooning away, and being to all appearance breathless for some time; and upon her reviving would tell strange stories of what she had met with in this and other worlds. When she met with the words _God_, _Christ_ or _Holy Ghost_ in the Bible, she would drop down with scarce any signs of life in her. Strange noises were heard in the house, stones came down the chimney and did great mischief. It was common to find her in ponds of water, crying out she should be drowned, sometimes upon the top of the house, and sometimes upon the tops of trees, and, being asked, said she flew there; complained of beating and pinching by invisible hands which left the marks upon her. She complained of a woman of the town, one Mrs. D—y, and that she appeared to her, and once her mother struck at the place where the girl said she saw D—y, and thereupon the girl cried out _you have struck her upon the belly_, and it was found that D—y complained of a hurt in her belly about the same time. Another time the mother struck at a place where the girl said there was a yellow bird, and she then told her mother she had hit the side of its head, and it turned out that D. was hurt in the side of her head at that time.

D. being with child, when the first blow was struck, took to her bed soon after and died, and, as soon as it was known, the girl was well.

The next daughter, after her sister had succeeded so well, imitated her in complaining of D. and outdid her in her feats of running to the top of the barn where a man could not have got without danger, and pretended she was carried in the air; but, upon the news of D.’s death, she was well too. The youngest though but five years old attempted the same things, and in some instances went beyond her sisters; but she would not be well until a considerable time after D.’s death.

The second daughter really believed the first bewitched, by her being in ponds, upon trees, &c; but had the curiosity to try if she could not do the same things. The third, seeing her sisters were pitied and tenderly used, was willing to share with them. The eldest, seeing the others following her, let them into the secret, and then they acted in concert.