Six Women of Salem

by Marilynne K. Roach

  When the clerk read the hearing notes describing how Bridget’s motions affected the afflicted, making them twist about to mirror “some Special Actions of her Body,” she shook her head and turned her eyes away. The afflicted followed that motion too, and one of them, commenting on Bridget’s supposed lack of compassion, said that the defendant “could not be Troubled to see the Afflicted thus Tormented.”

  More testimony followed amid all this—old incidents to show intent, character, years of supposed malice. Eighteen-year-old John Cook saw her specter a half dozen years ago grinning at him in his chamber one sunrise before it struck him on the side of his head. Samuel Gray, haunted by her specter fourteen years ago at his bedside in a locked room, felt her trying to put something in his mouth when his “Child in the Cradle gave a great screech out as if it was greatly hurt,” whereupon the specter vanished. Thereafter the baby’s health declined, and in a few months it died. (Gray had sworn to his story on May 30, but the document lacks the notation “Jurat in Curia,” suggesting it may not have been used at the jury trial. However, Cotton Mather saw a copy of it, for he summarized the testimony in his account. Robert Calef, criticizing the trials a few years later, thought that the persistent rumors of Bridget’s association with witchcraft all stemmed from “the Accusations of one Samuel Gray”).

  John and Rebecca Bly described the strange fits visited on the sow they bought from Edward Bishop—Bridget’s sow—without her approval. Richard Coman, told how, eight years earlier, her pesky specter stalked him by night, paralyzing him when she appeared in the locked room and began clawing at his throat, pulling him nearly out of bed. Samuel and Sarah Shattuck, twelve years past and already suspicious of her transactions at his dye-works, had encountered not a specter but Bridget herself, whom he blamed for the sudden change in his son, who lost his understanding and continued to be plagued with fits and fancies, a danger to himself and a constant worry to his parents. Doctors deduced witchcraft at work.

  Naomi Maule testified in court that Bridget’s evil magic had killed her baby. John Louder—that drunken liar—related his visions of imps and spectral hogs after a quarrel with Bridget when her hens scratched up his employer’s garden behind the Sun Tavern. At this Bridget protested that she did not even know Louder, but the judges did not believe this, for she and Louder had been neighbors for years and had quarreled more than once. (How did Bridget phrase her objection? Or had she not recognized Louder for some reason? The fearful situation of being tried on a capital charge must have quickly turned anxiety to terror, as it became more and more clear that the court believed only her accusers’ tales and did not believe anything she tried to say in her defense.) William Stacy the miller blamed her for miring his cart, told of her specter menacing him at his bedside, of something heaving him against a stone wall one night, and of something causing his infant daughter Priscilla’s untimely death.

  John Bly returned with his son William to depose about how, when Bridget had hired them to remove a wall in the cellar “of The owld house she formerly Lived in,” they found poppets walled up in the cellar—actual poppets made of rags and hogs bristles and studded with headless pins points outward. Whatever she said to this did not impress the court but instead sounded merely like a thin excuse. (Had she known the poppets were there, or had they been walled into the building at its construction before Bridget’s occupancy?)

  As far as the justices were concerned much of what Bridget said sounded like lies or, at best, contradictions even when making her plea. The apparent witch teat that the jury of matrons found earlier was no help either.

  Once all the witnesses had had their say, Bridget’s fate was left to the jury. Perhaps she hoped that the jurors would balance the testimony against the obvious fact that the afflicted, when not convulsing, appeared perfectly well, that their health was not physically damaged as the indictments specified. Although Thomas and Ann Putnam would not have agreed, the fact was certainly evident to others present, such as Boston merchant Thomas Brattle, who noted that the afflicted, though taken by “scores of strange fits in a day,” were otherwise “hale and hearty.”

  But Chief Justice Stoughton saw things differently. “[W]hen the chief Judge gave the first Jury their charge,” Brattle would write, “he told them, that they were not to mind whether the bodies of the said afflicted were really pined and consumed, as was expressed in the indictment; but whether the said afflicted did not suffer from the accused such afflictions as naturally tended to their being pined and consumed, wasted, etc. This, (said he,) is a pining and consuming in the sense of the law.”

  The jury withdrew to deliberate, leaving Bridget clinging to shreds of hope that the twelve men would realize that whatever they thought of her accusers, they could see that nothing that had been presented proved that she had caused any of the troubles. But when they returned, the foreman pronounced the verdict that they had found Bridget Bishop guilty of witchcraft as charged.

  It must have been as though the ground dropped out from under her feet, as the complete unreality of the verdict filled her mind along with the cold, opposing knowledge that it was very real indeed, her consciousness nearly overwhelmed with this cold drench of horror.

  Bridget was brought back, furious and frightened, to the jail where the other prisoners, waiting to hear what happened, to learn what they might expect, could read the verdict in her face.

  Word of the trial’s outcome spread among the suspects—disheartening news for sure. Given the general attitude toward all the accused, the guilty verdict was not wholly unexpected. Now a sickening dread joined apprehension. Now they knew the justices were accepting the spectral evidence of the afflicted witnesses at face value, accepting the accusers’ stories but not accepting any retractions or alterations in interpretation. Now Mary Warren knew not only that testimony like hers could have deadly results but also that her story would be even harder to change.

  But there was no time left that day for the court to consider the cases of Rebecca Nurse or John Willard. Witnesses summoned for Rebecca’s trial would have to return on the morrow. There was time enough, however, for various people to swear to their depositions. Ann Putnam swore to her statement that John Willard’s specter and the ghost of his murder victims—dead neighbors, dead babies—had appeared to her that very day, the tale implicating William Hobbs and Martha Corey as well. Her deposition against Rebecca Nurse enumerated more murdered victims, including Ann’s nieces and nephews and “young Jno putnams child” because he had commented on Rebecca and her sisters “that it was no wonder they ware wicthes for their mother was so before them.”

  Bridget and the other women faced a second search from the matrons at four o’clock, and this time the searchers noted certain changes. They now found Bridget Bishop “in a clear & free state from any preternaturall Excresence.” Rebecca Nurse, the report emphasized, now had “only a dry skin nearer to the anus” although it apparently lacked feeling. “& as for Elizabeth Procter which Excresence like a tett red & fresh, not any thing appears, but only a proper procedentia Ani”—which is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a “prolapsus or slipping down of the rectum.” “& as for Susanna Martine whose breast in the Morning search appeared to us very full; the Nibbs fresh & starting, now at this searching all lancke & pendant”—more as one would expect from an older woman or from one who had given nourishment to greedy imps. The report did not mention Alice Parker or Sarah Good at all.

  Due to the old continuing suspicions and her earlier arrest, the court had evidently selected Bridget’s case to be the first. The case against Rebecca Nurse would not be as straightforward, as she was a member of the Salem town church and backed by a supportive family and many neighborhood friends. The night before her postponed grand jury trial had to have been nearly as difficult for Rebecca as it was for the condemned Bridget Bishop.

  The grand jury for Rebecca Nurse convened on Friday, June 3, with Mrs. Ann Putnam as well as her daughter Annie among the witnesses.


  Annie swore that she had seen Rebecca’s specter hurt her and the other afflicted girls during the March 24 examination, that it had bitten and pinched since March 13, even though at first “I did not know what hir name was then tho I knew whare she used to sitt in our Meetinghouse.”

  Thomas Putnam had written the account for his daughter as he had for Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott about their spectral torments. Both Elizabeth and Mary swore to the statements before the Grand Jury.

  Susanna Sheldon, though summoned, is presumably the witness whose name was written as Joanna Childen when she deposed that the ghost of Goodman Harwood accused Rebecca’s specter of killing him by pushing him off his cart. She was not asked to swear to the statement, however, so presumably it was not used.

  Mrs. Ann Putnam swore to her statements about Rebecca’s spectral attacks that had begun in March, how her enemy had tried to argue scripture against her and hurt her so terribly during the March 24 hearing that Thomas had had to carry her bodily from the meeting house.

  Abigail Williams swore to her March statements against Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce—how they had tormented her with that book and how they had participated in the Devil’s sacrament.

  Various other papers more favorable to Rebecca’s case may have been submitted this day, papers her family had gathered. Clement Coldum, when giving Elizabeth Hubbard a ride to the Village, had heard her claim that not only was she not afraid of the Devil but also, he said, “she could discourse with the Devil as well as with me.” Who could trust anyone who trusted the Devil so?

  Rebecca’s daughters Rebecca Preston and Mary Tarbell, countering the search committee’s report, also submitted a paper:

  we whos nams are under written cane testiefie if cald to it that goodde nurs have bene trobled with an Infirmity of body for many years which the Juree of wemen seme to be Afraid it should be something Elce

  Rebcah preson.

  Mary Tarbel

  Many neighbors sided with Rebecca. At some point, possibly as early as her hearing, Israel and Elizabeth Porter (Hathorne’s sister) wrote a statement about their visit to Goody Nurse in March, with Peter Cloyce and Daniel Andrews describing Rebecca’s sincerely surprised reaction to the rumor that she was suspected of witchcraft.

  In addition, Francis and his children had gathered a petition of thirty-nine names—neighbors speaking out on her behalf. Whether this was submitted or not is in question. Daniel Andrews had signed it, and he had recently been accused of witchcraft and fled before the law could reach him. His name thus may not have helped her case, although the Porters had noted Andrews’s presence at the March visit along with Peter Cloyce, who was married to Rebecca’s suspected sister Sarah. Judge John Hathorne, thinking himself to be objective, could well have disregarded his sister’s opinion, assuming that the Andrews and Cloyce names verified his view. In any case, Rebecca had many supporters.

  The grand jury considered the offered evidence, the account of events during Rebecca’s hearing, and their own observation of the afflictions before them among the witnesses as well as the four indictments against her. She had, the documents declared, on March 24 (during the initial examination) and at “Divers other Dayes & times as well before as after certaine detestable Arts called Witchcrafts & Sorceries wickedly and ffelloniously hath used Practised & Exercised at and within the Towneship of Salem” against Ann Puttnam Jr., Abigail Williams, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Hubbard.

  Mangling the Latin, foreman John Ruck signed all four “Bill Avara.” Rebecca Nurse’s case would proceed to the trial jury.

  While guards took Rebecca back to the jail, her family and friends still determined to do all they could on her behalf, the witnesses remained as John Willard faced the grand jury. The report of the coroner’s jury on the mysterious death of young Daniel Wilkins plus testimony about the torments the afflicted witnesses endured at Willard’s May 18 hearing seemed to have made up the bulk of the presented evidence. Reverend Samuel Parris, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and Thomas Putnam swore before the grand jury about what they had witnessed. Along with the other afflicted witnesses—including Sarah Bibber, a married woman—Annie Putnam swore to her lengthy statement itemizing Willard’s spectral assaults against her and how his specter told her “he had whiped my little sister Sarah to death.”

  Thomas Newton had seven indictments drawn up against Willard for tormenting seven victims during his May 18 examination. On each document all seven names were listed as witnesses to each other’s torments: Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams, Mary Walcott, Susanna Sheldon, Ann Putnam Sr., Ann Putnam Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard. (The fifth and sixth indictments are missing but presumably named Mrs. Ann Putnam Sr. and Mary Walcott, for the names are listed in the same order on all seven documents.)

  All but one, it seems, were declared billa vera. The grand jury rejected Susanna Sheldon’s—her testimony tended to be more embellished than any of the others—and this indictment was marked “Ignoramos,” with ignoramus being Latin for “we don’t know.” The judges and jurors must have been confident that they were capable of winnowing out the mistaken or false claims from the true in so important a charge.

  Newton listed two additional afflicted witnesses against Willard, Sarah Churchill, and Margaret Jacobs, noting that Willard (his specter) had dissuaded them from testifying. Sarah would still be among the confessors months later, but Margaret seemed less and less willing to accuse the suspects.

  Brooding on her confession and accusations, Margaret finally marshaled her thoughts and courage and, at some point, recanted her earlier admission of witchcraft. It was all false, she told the magistrates. She was not a witch, none of her family were witches. She would no longer give the Devil power over her with her lies. The magistrates did not believe her any more than they had believed Mary, Deliverance, and Sarah. Because she was no longer a cooperating witness to the supposed plot, they placed her in close confinement, where she was not allowed to go outside. Regretting her earlier cowardice, Margaret left the relative freedom of the status that Mary still occupied, greatly relieved by her decision.

  Mary Warren certainly did not change her story, probably did not dare to by now and possibly half convinced (at least sometimes) of whatever the magistrates thought of her—these men so respected, so diligent in the public’s interest, so educated and so wealthy, so unlike herself.

  This first session over, the Oyer and Terminer judges presumably returned home to their several towns before the next Sabbath. Even so, Ann Putnam must have felt confident that court was proceeding in the right direction, that although the jury trials of her two greatest enemies—Nurse and Willard—were postponed to a later session, the law was at last working to protect her family.

  However, spectral troubles continued to plague Salem. On Saturday, June 4, Annie Putnam, Susanna Shelden, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Elizabeth Booth, the married woman Sarah Bibber, and Mary Warren witnessed at a hearing for laborer Job Tookey of Beverly. Bartholomew Gedney presided with John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin as the afflicted girls convulsed, accusing Tookey, declaring that the ghosts of five of his murder victims were present, crying for vengeance. Annie, Susanna, and Mary Warren swore that Tookey himself had boasted that “he had Learneing and could Raise the divele when he pleased.” Tookey may have made some kind of rash statement, for one James Darling also swore that he had heard Tookey say “he was not the Devills Servant but the Devill was his.”

  John Louder, who had testified against Bridget Bishop, swore that Tookey told him he could “freely discourse the Divell as well as he speaking to him.” Four other men heard this exchange and backed up Louder’s claim.

  Nevertheless, Hathorne also jotted the note: “Job Tuckey sayth its not he but the divell in his shape that hurts the people”—which a servant devil, as well as an interfering imp, might do after all.

  Evidently the afflicted saw other people’s specters. Edward Putnam and Thomas Rayment entered a complaint before Hathorne against Goodwife
Mary Ireson of Lynn for tormenting Putnam’s niece Annie, Abigail Williams, Susanna Shelden, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Booth, and Mary Warren. Mary Warren had claimed that Goody Ireson and Goodwife Mary Toothaker tormented her with the Devil’s book: while in a trance-like fit on May 24 she was heard conversing with a specter of Dr. Toothaker’s wife that also brought the book and threatened her with a coffin for not signing it.

  By ten o’clock, Monday, June 6, the constable of Lynn brought Goodwife Mary Ireson before Gedney, Hathorne, and Corwin at Thomas Beadle’s tavern. Merchant Simon Willard prepared to take notes.

  The afflicted fell in fits even during the opening prayer, even before the suspect was brought into the room. This time the justices experimented with the afflicted witnesses’ ability to identify their attacker when seen in the flesh—perhaps Bridget’s assertions that she had never seen certain parties had some effect. As some of Goody Ireson’s relatives had accompanied her, the magistrates indicated the suspect’s sister and asked the girls if she were the same person whose specter tormented them. No, they said, “it was she that had a hood on.” That Goody Ireson wore a more eye-catching riding hood was not taken into account.

  “Do you not see how you are discovered?” a magistrate asked Goody Ireson. Mary Warren and the other witnesses, meanwhile, fell writhing if Ireson so much as glanced at them. Although all the afflicted identified the specter, only Mary Walcott said that she had seen the woman in person before. Willard’s notes name Mary Warren, Susanna Sheldon, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Booth among the afflicted but not Annie Putnam or Sarah Bibber, even though they were named in the complaint.

  The touch test helped bring them out of their fits, as time consuming as that was. Goody Ireson admitted to having a temper, which perhaps, she said, had left her vulnerable to this misfortune, but she was not guilty of witchcraft—not that sin.