hands upon them, and then they said they were well, and that we were guilty of afflicting them: Whereupon we were all seized as prisoners, by a warrant from the justice of the peace and forthwith carried to Salem. And, by reason of that sudden surprizal, we knowing ourselves altogether innocent of that crime, we were all exceedingly astonished and amazed, and consternated and affrighted even out of our reason; and our nearest and dearest relations, seeing us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our great danger, apprehended there was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then circumstanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be, they, out of tenderness and pity, persuaded us to confess what we did confess. And indeed that confession, that it is said we made, was no other than what was suggested to us by some gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it, and we knew it, which made us think it was so; and our understandings, our reason, our faculties, almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition; as also the hard measures they used with us rendered us incapable of making our defence, but said any thing and every thing which they desired, and most of what we said was but, in effect, a consenting to what they said. Some time after, when we were better composed, they telling us what we had confessed, we did profess that we were innocent and ignorant of such things; and we hearing that Samuel Wardwell had renounced his confession, and quickly after condemned and executed, some of us were told we were going after Wardwell.

Mary Osgood, Deliverance Dane, Sarah Wilson,
Mary Tiler, Abigail Barker, Hannah Tiler.

The testimonials to these persons characters by the principal inhabitants of Andover will outweigh the credulity of the justices who committed them, or of the grand jury which found bills against them.

Although the number of prisoners had been increasing, from February until the beginning of June, yet there had been no trials. The charter was expected from day to day, and the new constitution of government to take place. Soon after it's arrival, commissioners of oyer and terminer were appointed for the trial of witchcrafts. By the charter, the general assembly are to constitute courts of justice, and the governor with the advice of the council is to nominate and appoint judges, commissioners of oyer and terminer, &c. but whether the governor, with advice of council, can constitute a court of oyer and terminer, without authority for that purpose derived from the general assembly, has been made a question; however, this, the most important court to the life of the subject which ever was held in the province, was constituted in no other manner. It was opened at Salem, the first week in June. Only one of the accused, Bridget Bishop, alias Oliver, was then brought to trial. She had been charged with witchcraft twenty years before. The accuser, upon his death bed, confessed his own guilt in the accusation; but an old woman, once charged with being a witch, is never afterwards wholly free

from the accusation, and she being, besides, of a fractious temper, all the losses the neighbours met with in their cattle and poultry, and accidents in oversetting their carts, &c. were attributed to her spite against them, and now suffered to be testified against her. This evidence, together with the testimony of the afflicted, and of the confessors, what they had heard from the spectres and seen of her spectre, and an excrescence, called a teat, found upon her body, were deemed by court and jury plenary proof, and she was convicted, and on the 10th of June executed. The further trials were put off to the adjournment, the 30th of June."

"At the first trial, there was no colony or provincial law against witchcraft in force. The statute of James the first must therefore have been considered as in force in the province, witchcraft not being an offence at common law. Before the adjournment, the old colony law, which makes witchcraft a capital offence, was revived, with the other local laws, as they were called, and made a law of the province.

At the adjournment, June 30, five women were brought upon trial, Sarah Good, Rebekah Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How, and Sarah Wilder.

There was no difficulty with any but Nurse. She was a member of the church and of a good character, and, as to her, the jury brought in their verdict not guilty; upon which the accusers made a great clamour, and the court expressed their dissatisfaction with the verdict, which caused some of the jury to desire to go out again; and then they brought her in guilty. This was a hard case, and can scarcely be said to be the execution of the law and justice in mercy. In a capital case, the court often refuses a verdict of guilty, but rarely, if ever, sends a jury out again, upon one of not guilty. It does not indeed appear, that in this case the jury was ordered out again; but the dissatisfaction expressed by the court seems to have been in such a manner as to have the same effect."

"At the next adjournment, August 5th, George Burroughs, John Procter and Elizabeth his wife, John Willard, George Jacobs and Martha Carrier were all brought upon trial and condemned, and all executed upon the 19th of August, except Elizabeth Procter, who escaped by pleading pregnancy.

Burroughs had been a preacher, several years before this, at Salem village, where there had been some misunderstanding between him and the people. Afterwards he became a preacher at Wells in the province of Main. We will be a little more particular in our account of his trial. The indictment was as follows,

"Anno Regis et Reginæ, &c. quarto.

Essex ss. The Jurors for our sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen, present, that George Burroughs, late of Falmouth in the Province of Massachusetts bay, clerk, the ninth day of May, in the fourth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord and Lady William and Mary, by the grace of God of England, Scotland, France and

Ireland, King and Queen, defenders of the faith, &c. and divers other days and times, as well before as after, certain detestable arts called witchcrafts and sorceries; wickedly and feloniously hath used, practised and exercised, at and within the town of Salem, in the county of Essex aforesaid, in, upon and against one Mary Walcot of Salem village, in the county of Essex, single woman; by which said wicked arts, the said Mary Walcot, the ninth day of May, in the fourth year above said, and divers other days and times as well before as after, was and is tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed, wasted and tormented, against the peace of our sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen, and against the form of the statute in that case made and provided. Endorsed Billa vera." Three other bills were found against him for witchcrafts upon other persons, to all which he pleaded not guilty, and put himself upon trial; &c."

"September the 9th, Martha Cory, Mary Esty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeater, Dorcas Hoar, and Mary Bradbury were tried, and September 17th, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Read, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Falkner, Rebekah Eames, Mary Lacey, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs, and all received sentence of death. Those in italick were executed the 22d following.

Mary Esty, who was sister to Nurse, gave in to the court a petition; in which she says, she does not ask her own life, although she is conscious of her innocence; but prays them, before they condemn any more, to examine the confessing witches more strictly; for she is sure they have belied themselves and others, which will appear in the world to which she is going, if it should not in this world.

Those who were condemned and not executed, I suppose, all confessed their guilt. I have seen the confessions of several of them. Wardwell also confessed, but he recanted and suffered. His own wife, as well as his daughter,* accused him and saved themselves. There are many instances, among the examinations, of children accusing their parents, and some of parents accusing their children. This is the only instance of a wife or husband, accusing one the other. and surely this instance ought not to have been suffered. I shudder while I am relating it. Besides this irregularity, there were others in the course of these trials. The facts laid in the indictments were, witchcrafts upon particular persons, there was no evidence of these facts, but what was called spectral evidence, which, in the opinion of the ministers, was insufficient; some of the other evidence was of facts ten or twenty years before, which had no relation to those with which they were charged; and some of them no relation to the crime of witchcraft. Evidence is not admitted, even against the general character of persons upon trial, unless to encounter other evidence brought in favor of it; much less ought their whole lives to be arranged, without giving time sufficient for defence.

Giles Cory was the only person, besides those already named, who

The daughter upon a second enquiry denied that she knew her father and mother to be witches; the wife was not asked a second time.

suffered. He, seeing the fate of all who had put themselves upon trial, refused to plead; but the judges, who had not been careful enough in observing the law in favor of the prisoners, determined to do it against this unhappy man, and he had judgment of peine fort et dure for standing mute, and was pressed to death; the only instance which ever was, either before this time or since, in New-England. In all ages of the world superstitious credulity has produced greater cruelty than is practised among the Hottentots, or other nations, whose belief of a deity is called in question.

This court of oyer and terminer, happy for the country, sat no more. Nineteen persons had been executed, all asserting their innocence; but this was not enough to open the eyes of the people in general. The goal at Salem was filled with prisoners, and many had been removed to other goals: some were admitted to bail, all reserved for trial, a law having passed constituting a supreme standing court, with jurisdiction in capital, as well as all other criminal cases. The gene

ral court also showed their zeal against witchcraft, by a law passed in the words of the statute of James the first, but this law was disallowed by the King.

The time, by law, for holding the court at Salem, was not until January. This gave opportunity for consideration; and this alone might have been sufficient for a change of opinions and measures, but another reason has been given for it. 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 reputable 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 publickly 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.

At the court in January, the grand jury found bills against about 50 for witchcraft, one or two men, the rest women; but upon trial, they were all acquitted, except three of the worst characters, and those the governor reprieved for the King's mercy. All that were not brought upon trial he ordered to be discharged.* Such a goal delivery was made this court, as has never been known at any other time in New-England."-Hutchinson's Hist. Mass.

It is said, the governor's lady, when Sir William was absent, saved one poor woman from trial. "In Sir William's absence, his lady, I suppose upon account of her name's being Mary, (William and Mary) was solicited for a favour in behalf of a woman committed by one of the judges, on accusation of witchcraft, by a formal

The two following appear to be the only cases of trials for witchcraft on the records of Connecticut. The orthography is retained.

"A Court held at Hartford, July 2d, 1663.

Elizabeth Seger, thou

art here Indited by the name of Elizabeth Seger, for not haveing the feare of God before thine Eyes; thou hast enterteined familiarity with Sathan, the grand Enemie of God and mankind, and by his help, hast acted things in a preternaturall way beyound the ordenary course of nature, as allso for that thou hast committed Adultery, and hast spoken Blasphemy against God, contrary to the Lawes of God and the established Lawes of this Corporation, for all or any of which crimes by the said Lawes thou deservest to dye.

The Prisoner pleaded not Guilty of the Inditement, and refered herselfe to the tryall of the Jury.

The Jury returne that they finde the Prisoner Guilty of the Inditement in that perticuler of Adultery.

June, A. D. 1665..

The Inditement of Elizabeth Seger. Elizabeth Seager, thou art here indited by the name of Elizabeth Seager, the wife of Richard Seager, not having the feare of God before thine eyes, thou hast entertained familiarity with Satan, the Grand Enemy of God and mankind-hast practiced witchcraft formerly, and continuist to practice witchcraft, for which, according to ye Lawes of God and the establisht Law of this Corporation, thou deservest to die.

The Prisoner answers not guilty, and refers herself to be tried by God and the Country.

The Jury being called to return their Verdict upon ye Inditement of Elizabeth Seager, the Foreman declares that they find the prisoner Guilty of familiarity with Satan.

Respecting Elizabeth Seager, this Court considering the verdict of ye Jury, and finding that it doth not legally answer the Inditement, doe therefore discharge and set her free from further suffering or imprisonment.

This is a true copy of record.

The same Elizabeth Segar had been before tried and acquitted for the same offence committed with the crime of adultery, and found guilty of adultery, and not guilty of witchcraft.

Court of Assistance at Hartford May 25, 1699

Kateram Harrison, thou standest here Indited by ye name of Kateram Harrison, of Weathersfield, as being guilty of Witchcraft, for that thou not having the fear of God before thine eyes, hast had familiarity warrant under his hand and seal, and in close prison for trial the next assizes, then not far off. The good lady, propria virtute, granted and signed a warrant for the said woman's discharge, which was obeyed by the keeper, and the woman lives still for aught I know. Truly, I did not believe this story till I saw a copy of the mittimus and discharge, under the keeper's hand, attested a true copy, for which discovery the keeper was discharged from his trust and put out of his employment, as he himself told me. M.S. letter.