Six Women of Salem
Page 26
The girl panics, snatching a handful of the dirty wood shavings from the floor. “That’s Tobacco good enough for you!” she shouts, throwing the filthy remnants into Good’s face.
Sarah erupts in an enraged spate of ill words that terrifies the maid even more, sending her running to the guard to be let out.
The suspected witches are a fearful class of prisoner to most of the population, though this prisoner class clearly makes its own distinctions—Tituba and Good apart from Nurse and Esty, all apart from Cary and English. Later, word trickles back that that girl has become as wracked by fits as any in Salem.
Tituba is not surprised. When the mischievous and malicious run free, aren’t we all, both high and low, enslaved by other’s whims?
Francis and Rebecca Nurse’s Neighborhood. Francis Nurse divided about half of his farm in 1690 and parceled the various lots to his son Samuel Nurse and sons-in-law John Tarbell and Thomas Preston. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Endicott Lands, Salem in 1700.”)
N Samuel Nurse
T John Tarbell
P Thomas Preston
Bridget Bishop’s Neighborhood. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Part of Salem in 1700,” Nos. 1, 2, 3, 14, 15, 28.)
1. Edward and Bridget Bishop, the Thomas Oliver estate.
2. Daniel Epps, schoolmaster.
3. Jail.
4. Samuel Beadle, tavern.
5. Robert Gray, said he was tormented by Bridget’s specter.
6. John Burton, surgeon, examined Bridget and other suspects for witch marks.
7. Ship Tavern.
8. Samuel Shattuck, said Bridget bewitched his son.
9. Salem Meeting House.
10. Sheriff George Corwin.
11. John Hathorne, magistrate and judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
12. Stephen Sewall, clerk of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
13. Reverend Nicholas Noyes.
14. Town House, scene of Oyer and Terminer trials.
Mary English’s Neighborhood. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Part of Salem,” Nos. 21, 23, 22, 23.)
1. “English’s Great House,” Philip and Mary English.
2. Walter Whitford, fisherman, died 1692.
3. John and Bridget Whitford. John also died 1692. Whitford is presumably the same as Whatford. A distracted Goodwife Whatford said the specters of Bridget Bishop and Alice Parker tormented her.
4. William and Elizabeth Dicer here 1668to 1685 when William sold the lot to Philip English and moved to Maine. Elizabeth called Eleanor Hollingworth a witch in 1679 (and would herself be accused in 1692).
5. Fisherman John Parker and wife Alice rented this house. Originally owned byWilliam Hollingworth, it passed to his daughter Mary English, and then to Philip English.
6. Blue Anchor Tavern, operated by Eleanor Hollingworth in her home, deeded to her daughter Mary English in 1685, descended to Mary’s son John English Jr.
7. In 1735, John Beckett inherited half of the family home and purchased the remainder for himself and his wife Susanna (Mason) Beckett.
8. Rental property owned in 1662 by Eleanor Hollingworth, then by her sonWilliam who sold it. A few owners later, Philip English bought it in 1675 and later willed it to his daughter Mary (English) Browne.
9. Rental property purchased in 1674 by Philip English (when the tenants wereWilliam and Sarah Buckley and their family, who later moved to Salem Village where Sarah and a daughter were accused of witchcraft in 1692). Philip later willed this property to his daughter Susanna (English) Touzel.
10. Bridget Bishop’s widowed husband Edward Bishop, the sawyer, bought this house 1694. John and Susanna Beckett eventually owned it.
Ann Putnam’s Neighborhood. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Hathorne: Part of Salem Village in 1700. No. 1,” and [2]; “The Plains No. 2.”)
1. Thomas and Ann Putnam.
2. Constable John Putnam.
3. Location of Thomas and Ann Putnam’s 1697 house.
4. Edward Putnam.
5. Eleazer Putnam.
6. Alexander and Sarah Osborn, (she was one of the first three people to beaccused).
7. Putnam Burying Ground.
8. Joseph Putnam.
Tituba’s Neighborhood. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Center of Salem Village in 1700”; Trask, “The Devil Amongst Us.”)
1. Salem Village parsonage, (the Ministry land owned either by the Village or by Reverend Samuel Parris); Tituba lived here.
2. Jonathan Walcott, his afflicted daughter Mary Walcott.
3. Samuel and Mary Sibley (who recommended the “witch-cake” countercharm).
4. Salem Village Meeting House.
5. Reverend James and Mary (Carr) Bailey, (house was rented out after they moved away).
6. Francis and Rebecca Nurse.
7. Widow Sarah Holton.
8. Watch House.
9. Nathaniel Ingersoll’s ordinary.
Mary Warren’s Neighborhood. (Map by the author. Source: Perley, “Groton, Salem in 1700”; Brown, A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692.[corrects house location though the present building is probably post-1692], 28, 103-104; Upham, House of John Procter.)
1. John Procter’s rented farm, “Groton;” Mary Warren lived here.
2. Lot owned by John Procter.
Salem Town. (Map by the author.)
1. Gallows Hill
2. Town Bridge
3. Stacey’s mill.
4. Bridget Bishop.
5. Mary English.
6. Point of Rocks.
Salem and Vicinity. (Based on Marilynne K. Roach, “A Map of Salem and Vicinity in 1692.” Sassafras Grove Press: Watertown, MA,1985, 1990.)
Three items excavated by Richard Trask from the 1681 Salem Village Parsonage Archaeological Site: part of a blue and gray Rhenish stoneware jug; a green glass wine bottle neck; and a metal plate rim monogrammed SPE (Samuel and Elizabeth Parris). (Photo by Richard B. Trask.)
Salem Village Parsonage Site. The view of the L-shaped house is from the cellar hole marking the lean-to, with the main room (the hall) to the left, and the cellar hole beyond that was under the parlor. Tituba testified how, when she stood in the hall, she could hear the cries of the girls in the parlor. (Photo by the author.)
Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Danvers, Massachusetts. (Photo by Tina Jordan.)
Salem Village Meeting House replica, based on dimensions in the Salem Village records, built on the Nurse Homestead property for the film Three Sovereigns for Sarah. (Photo by Tina Jordan.)
Mary English’s statement concerning the unreliability of Mary Warren’s testimony, dated June 1, 1692. Mary may have signed this herself, though not all scholars agree. (Essex County Court Archives, Vol. 1:19, deposited with the Peabody Essex Museum. Used courtesy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Image courtesy of University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archives, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca.html)
Gravestone for Mary English’s brother William Hollingworth and their mother Eleanor Hollingworth, Charter Street Burial Ground, Salem, Massachusetts. (Photo by the author.)
Mary Hollingworth’s sampler, c. 1665. (Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.)
John Procter’s brass sundial, dated 1644. (Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.)
Bridget Bishop’s name carved into the Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts. (Photo by the author.)
Cloth poppet reportedly found walled into the brickwork of afirst period house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on loan to theWitch House/Corwin House, City of Salem. This wasprobably meant to be a protective charm, unlike the pin-studded poppets supposedly found in Bridget Bishop’s cellar.(Photo by the author. Used courtesy of the City of Salem.)
Putnam tomb, Putnam Burying Ground, Danvers, Massachusetts. The unmarked mound in the foreground is the site of the tomb. (Photo by the author.)
Dedication of the Rebecca Nurse Monument on July 30, 1
885. (Photocourtesy of Danvers Historical Society.)
( 9 )
June 1 to 9, 1692
Mistress Mary English, surveying the Boston jail’s common room, notices that something is afoot in the bustle of the guards and the tension of the prisoners. Court would sit soon—at last, after years of suspension—though no one quite knows whether or not that is good.
The new justices are men of influence responsible for the public’s safety. Yet considering the evidence brought against the accused—against herself—at the hearings, could those men truly discern what had and had not happened? Some of the Salem magistrates are part of the new court, and their acceptance, so far, of what the witnesses say is far from encouraging. The court must be informed of the true situation. The Nurse kindred thinks so too, having collected an impressive number of names on Rebecca’s behalf. The justices are reasonable men, aren’t they? Usually reasonable, anyhow, even if Hathorne and Corwin get carried away by the noise and fits.
Soon the heavy door rattles open, and the jailer, John Arnold, enters with a document. Certain prisoners, he announces, will be transferred to Salem to stand trial, moved out today—now. The prisoners have been expecting this, yet the moment still sends a shock of fear through the room, with their desire for something to break the monotony warring with trepidation.
Bridget Bishop, the officer calls, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Alice Parker, Tituba, John Willard, John and Elizabeth Procter.
Not yet, Mary English thinks. Not this time. She watches the leave-takings wondering when—and under what circumstances—she will see Philip again. The guards have told her of his arrest.
Rebecca bids farewell to her sisters Mary Esty and Sarah Cloyce.
The Procters part from son Benjamin, Elizabeth from her sister Mary DeRich and sister-in-law Sarah Bassett. John murmurs some sort of fatherly advice to Benjamin, the words lost in the room’s commotion.
No one mentions it, but all know they might never see each other again in this life.
The jailer’s men move among them, unlocking the chains from the wall, levering the elderly and unsteady from the floor, where they have sat for so long.
The guards part Sarah Good from her daughter, the mother protesting, struggling, and the child wailing at this additional loss, frantic to join her mother but left behind all the same.
The door thuds shut at last, and the bolts clank into place. Dear God, thinks Mary. What next?
____________________
Led, shuffling and clanking into the daylight, into a fresher breeze of salt air from the harbor after the closed-in fetor of the common room, hearing the sharp cries of gulls, most of the prisoners would be hoisted into a cart, John Procter likely insisting on helping Elizabeth. Tituba, as a repentant witch, was being treated as a potential witness. Newton had sent orders for her to be kept apart from the others, so perhaps she rode on a pillion behind one of the mounted officers. The procession left the stone jail, and as they headed to the ferry at the north end of Boston’s peninsula, they could probably hear Dorothy Good’s muffled wail, the child’s cries fading as the party threaded the narrow streets to the ferry wharf.
Once across the mouths of the Charles and Mystic Rivers, they began the journey through and around the great stretch of marsh that hummed this time of year with mosquitoes, unless the wind favored them. Partway though the trip the party encountered another cavalcade heading south, men on horseback with another wagonload of people—the latest batch of prisoners assigned to Boston. The groups would pause while the guards conversed, exchanging news and gossip of the latest suspects, the goings-on in court. From the wagons the prisoners could eye each other, the Procters recognizing their son William in the other cart headed for the Boston jail, as he saw his parents heading for trial and, after that, who knew what.
Philip English was in the cart as well and would reach Boston prison after the long, tiring trip, entering the stone jail where his wife awaited him.
But Mary English did not wait idly. On June 1 she and Mary Esty, with Edward and Sarah Bishop, submitted statements regarding Mary Warren’s testimony, determined to tell the court just what sort of “evidence” was being given against them. All four had been present in the Salem jail when Mary Warren explained that her visions had been only distraction—distraction or the Devil’s delusions, the four knew. Not accurate in any case. Certainly not accurate.
Prisoners could acquire ink, pens, and writing paper from visiting relatives (or servants), or obtain such supplies from the jailer for a fee. The Bishops and Goody Esty appear to have dictated their joint statement about the Warren girl to someone else:
Aboute three weekes Agoe . . . In Salem Goale . . . wee Heard Mary warrin severall Times say that the Majestrates Might as well Examine Keysars Daughter that had Bin Distracted Many Yeares And take Noatice of what shee said as well as any of the Afflicted persons . . . [Warren said] when I was Aflicted I thought I saw the Apparission of A hundred persons for shee said hir Head was Distempered that shee Could Not tell what shee said . . . [and] when shee was well Againe shee Could Not say that shee saw any of the Apparissions at the Time Aforesaid.
Mistress English was none too sure about these Bishops, what with that raucous, illegal tavern of theirs, not since her desperate cousin—one of the Bishop’s long-suffering neighbors—cut her own throat after trying to reason with them. However, she and they agreed about Warren. In any case she was quite capable of writing her own statement. Looping the letters across the paper and signing it at the end, she wrote,
1 June 1692
Mary English Aged about 39 years Testifyeth that about a Month agoe at Sallem That I heard the Said Mary Warrine to Spake the Same words (as is Testifyed too by Edward Bishop Sarah Bishop And Mary Easty) that She Said that the Majestrats might as well Examen Keysers Daughter that had bene Distracted many years And take Notice of what She Said as well as any of the Eflicted persons &c
as witnes my hand Mary English
There. The court had to listen to that.
One way or another the two papers found their way into the official files, but just how is a puzzle considering the four were suspected of adhering to the Prince of Lies.
Prior to this, perhaps Mistress English had been able to secure a private sleeping room for herself, one of the spaces along the common dungeon’s outside wall, and this would offer not only a measure of privacy but also a small window. This would cost more than the usual room and board fee charged to the prisoners, but Mary had a good head for business and a reputation for speaking up. She could well have been in contact with her staff in Salem. Someone had to be watching the children, and as later generations had it, her servants were loyal. Once Philip was with her in Boston as well they could see about better accommodations. The law, as Mary English would learn, had searched the home of merchant George Hollard, one of Philip’s Boston colleagues, but they found nothing the first time. What gossip did not yet know was that Philip had hidden under a pile of dirty laundry in Hollard’s house, a place the constables did not examine. But Philip would join Mary in the Boston jail before the day was out.
That prisoners would be brought to Salem on the first of June was common knowledge to anyone following events. In Salem Village that same day Ann Putnam felt attacked once again by the specter of her enemy, Rebecca Nurse. While the real Goody Nurse circled the marshes with the other prisoners, the tormenting spirit lit into Ann, snarling its intention to murder her at last for her defiance and bragging of the local people it had killed. More frightening still were the ghosts of murdered children that appeared, clamoring for vengeance.
Thomas Putnam wrote an account of his wife’s vision to give to the authorities. The Nurse specter had choked Ann, it said, also declaring,
that now she was come out of prison she had power to afflet me and that now she would afflect me all this day long and would kil me if she could and she also tould me that she and hir sister Cloyes and Ed Bishops wife [i.e., Sarah, not Bridget]
of Salem village had kiled young Jno putnams child because yong Jno putnam had said that it was no wonder they ware wicthes for their mother was so before them and because they could not aveng themselues on him they did kill his child. and Immediatly their did appere to me six childeren in winding sheets which caled me aunt: which did most greviously affright me. and they tould me that they ware my sisters Bakers children of Boston and that gooddy nurs and Mistris Cary of Chalstown and an old deaf woman att Boston had murthered them and charged me to goe and tell thes things to the majestrats or elce they would tare me to peaces for their blood did crie for vengeance.
The ghosts of Ann’s sister Mary Bayley and three of her children, all in grave clothes, all accusing Goody Nurse of their murders, soon joined those violent ghosts.
John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, preparing for the trials, interviewed some of the confessors—Deliverance Hobbs and her stepdaughter Abigail as well as Mary Warren—while Thomas Newton took notes. After Abigail described the specter of Reverend Burroughs as he threatened to make her join the great witch meetings in Reverend Parris’s field, Mary Warren told how Burroughs announced that Devilish witch-sacrament with a trumpet blast and tried to make her join them. This had happened “in prison in Salem about a fortnight agone.” Goodwives Nurse Procter, Parker, Pudeator, and Dustin as well as Abigail Soames were in his troupe along with Goodman Procter “& others unknowne.” While she deposed, specters of Rebecca Nurse and Philip English invaded the room, with Nurse choking the three women and English running a pin into Mary’s hand.