The Penguin Book of Witches

by Katherine Howe

  The Examination of Giles Cory4

  The examination of Giles Cory, at a court at Salem Village, held by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, esquires, April 19, 1692.

  [Q]: Giles Cory, you are brought before authority upon high suspicion of sundry acts of witchcraft; now tell us the truth in this matter.

  [A]: I hope through the goodness of God I shall, for that matter I never had no hand in, in my life.

  [Q]: Which of you have seen this man hurt you?

  Mary Wolcott, Mercy Lewis, Ann Putman Jr., and Abigail Williams affirmed he had hurt them.

  [Q]: Hath he hurt you too? Speaking to Elizabeth Hubbard.

  She going to answer was prevented by a fit.

  [Q]: Benjamin Gold, hath he hurt you?

  [Gold]: I have seen him several times, and been hurt after it, but cannot affirm that it was he.

  [Q]: Hath he brought the book to any of you?

  Mary Wolcott and Abigail Williams and others affirmed that he brought the book to them.

  [Q]: Giles Cory, they accuse you, or your appearance, of hurting them and bringing the book to them. What do you say? Why do you hurt them? Tell us the truth.

  [A]: I never did hurt them.

  [Q]: It is your appearance hurts them, they charge you; tell us what you have done.

  [A]: I have done nothing to damage them.

  [Q]: Have you never entered into contract with the Devil?

  [A]: I never did.

  [Q]: What temptations have you had?

  [A]: I never had temptations in my life.

  [Q]: What, have you done it without temptations?5

  [Q]: What was the reason (said Goodwife Bibber) that you were frighted in the cow-house? And then the questioner was suddenly seized with a violent fit.

  Samuel Braybrook, Goodman Bibber, and his daughter testified that he had told them this morning that he was frighted in the cow-house.

  Cory denied it.

  [Q]: This was not your appearance but your person, and you told them so this morning. Why do you deny it? What did you see in the cow-house?

  [A]: I never saw nothing but my cattle.

  Diverse witnessed that he told them he was frighted.

  [Q]: Well, what do you say to these witnesses? What was it frighted you?

  [A]: I do not know that ever I spoke the word in my life.

  [Q]: Tell the truth. What was it frighted you?

  [A]: I do not know anything that frighted me.

  All the afflicted were seized now with fits and troubled with pinches. Then the court ordered his hands to be tied.

  [Q]: What, is it not enough to act witchcraft at other times, but must you do it now in the face of authority?

  [A]: I am a poor creature, and cannot help it.

  Upon the motion of his head again, they had their heads and necks afflicted.

  [Q]: Why do you tell such wicked lies against witnesses, that heard you speak after this manner, this very morning?

  [A]: I never saw anything but a black hog.

  [Q]: You said that you were stopped once in prayer. What stopped you?

  [A]: I cannot tell. My wife came toward me and found fault with me for saying living to God and dying to sin.

  [Q]: What was it frighted you in the barn?

  [A]: I know nothing frighted me there.

  [Q]: Why, here are three witnesses that heard you say so today.

  [A]: I do not remember it.

  Thomas Gold testified that he heard him say that he knew enough against his wife that would do her business.6

  [Q]: What was that you knew against your wife?

  [A]: Why that of living to God, and dying to sin.

  The marshal and Bibber’s daughter confirmed the same, that he said he could say that that would do his wife’s business.

  [A]: I have said what I can say to that.

  [Q]: What was that about your ox?

  [A]: I thought he was hipt.7

  [Q]: What ointment was that your wife had when she was seized? You said it was ointment she made by Major Gidney’s direction.

  He denied it, and said she had it of Goody Bibber, or from her direction.

  Goody Bibber said it is not like that ointment.

  [Q]: You said you knew, upon your own acknowledgment, that she had it of Major Gidney.

  He denied it.

  [Q]: Did not you say, when you went to the ferry with your wife, you would not go over to Boston now, for you should come yourself the next week?

  [A]: I would not go over, because I had not money.

  The marshal testified he said as before.

  One of his hands was let go, and several were afflicted.

  He held his head on one side, and then the heads of several of the afflicted were held on one side. He drew in his cheeks, and the cheeks of some of the afflicted were sucked in.

  John Bibber and his wife gave in testimony concerning some temptations he had to make away with himself.8

  [Q]: How doth this agree with what you said, that you had no temptations?

  [A]: I meant temptations to witchcraft.

  [Q]: If you can give way to self-murder, that will make way to temptation to witchcraft.

  Note. There was witness by several that he said he would make away with himself, and charge his death upon his son.

  Goody Bibber testified that the said Cory called said Bibber’s husband damned, devilish rogue.

  Other vile expressions testified in open court by several others.

  Salem Village, April 19, 1692

  Mr. Samuel Parris being desired to take in writing the examination of Giles Cory, delivered it in, and upon hearing the same, and seeing what we did see at the time of his examination, together with the charge of the afflicted persons against him, we committed him to Their Majesties’ jail.

  John Hathorne

  EXAMINATIONS OF ABIGAIL HOBBS IN PRISON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1692

  In this examination, confessed witch Abigail Hobbs accused George Burroughs, the previous minister in Salem Village, of being a witch. After his time in Salem, Burroughs had moved to Falmouth, Maine, where Hobbs knew him when she was living there with her family. Abigail claimed that Burroughs had brought her puppets to stick with thorns, including a puppet of his wife, which was a reference to the image magic that appeared frequently in accounts of early modern English folk magic. This examination elucidates the fact that the Salem Villagers would have seen the presence of witches in their midst as part of an overarching attack on their godly settlement by the Devil, who was also responsible for the attacks on their settlements by Catholic Indians and French, and who was recruiting witches to Maine in league with the Wabanaki tribe.

  With the naming of George Burroughs, a man and a respected minister, as a witch, we also begin to see the rapid ascent of the accusations up the social hierarchy.1 By this time in the trials, the inquiry had expanded far beyond the normal confines of a North American (or even English) witch trial. The accusations were reaching people whose reputations would normally have made them immune to suspicion. They have also extended well beyond the confines of the village. Though Burroughs would have left a reputation behind him when he left Salem Village, it is his questionable reputation and involvement in the Maine violence that drew suspicion.

  Hobbs Accuses George Burroughs2

  Abigail Hobbs’s Examination, 20 April 1692 in Salem Prison.

  This examinant declares that Judah White, a Jersey maid that lived with Joseph Ingersoll at Casco but now lives at Boston, with whom this examinant was very well formerly acquainted, came to her yesterday in apparition, as she was g[scored out from “as”] together with Sarah Good, as this examinant was going to examination, and advised her to fly, and not to go to be examined. She told them that she would go. They charged her if she di
d go to examination not to confess anything. She said she would confess all that she knew. They told her also Goody Osburn was a witch. This Judah White came to her in fine clothes, in a sad3 colored silk [illegible] mantel, with a topknot and a hood. She confesseth further that the Devil, in the shape of a man, came to her and would have her to afflict Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Abigail Williams, and brought their images with him in wood like them, and gave her thorns, and bid her prick them into those images, which she did accordingly into each of them one.4 And then the Devil told her they were afflicted, which accordingly they were and cried out they were hurt by Abigail Hobbs. She confesseth she was at the great meeting in Mr. Parris’s pasture when they administered the sacrament, and did eat of the red bread and drink of the red wine at the same time.5

  Abigail Hobbs’s Examination at Salem Prison, May 12, 1692

  [Q]: Did Mr. Burroughs6 bring you any of the poppets of his wife’s to stick pins into?

  [A]: I do not remember that he did.

  [Q]: Did he of any of his children or of the Eastward soldiers?7

  [A]: No.

  [Q]: Have you known of any that have been killed by witchcraft?

  [A]: No. Nobody.

  [Q]: How came you to speak of Mr. Burroughs’s wife yesterday?

  [A]: I don’t know.

  [Q]: Is that true about Davis’s son of Casco? And of those of the village?

  [A]: Yes, it is true.

  [Q]: What service did he put you upon? And who are they you afflicted?

  [A]: I cannot tell who, neither do I know whether they died.

  [Q]: Were they stranger to you, that Burroughs would have you afflict?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: And were they afflicted accordingly?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: Can’t you name some of them?

  [A]: No. I cannot remember them.

  [Q]: Where did they live?

  [A]: At the Eastward.

  [Q]: Have any vessels been cast away by you?

  [A]: I do not know.

  [Q]: Have you consented to the afflicting of any other besides those of the village?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: Who were they?

  [A]: I cannot tell. But it was of such who lived at the fort side of the river about half a mile from the fort, toward Captain Bracketts.

  [Q]: What was the hurt you did to them by consent?

  [A]: I don’t know.

  [Q]: Was the[illegible] anything brought to y [torn] ke them?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: Did [scored out] Q. What did you stick into the [illegible]?

  [A]: Thorns.

  [Q]: [torn] of them die?

  [A]: Yes. [torn] of them was Mary.

  [Q]: [torn] Did you stick the thorns?

  [A]: I do not know.

  [Q]: Was it about [illegible] [torn]

  [A]: Yes, and I stuck it right in.

  [Q]: What provoked you? Had she displeased you?

  [A]: Yes, by some words she spoke of me.

  [Q]: Who brought the image to you?

  [A]: It was Mr. Burroughs.

  [Q]: How did he bring it to you?

  [A]: In his own person. Bodily.

  [Q]: Where did he bring it to you?

  [A]: Abroad a little way off from the house.

  [Q]: And what did he say to you then?

  [A]: He told me he was angry with that family.

  [Q]: How many years since was it?

  [A]: Before this Indian war.8

  [Q]: How did you know Mr. Burroughs was a witch?

  [A]: I don’t know.

  She owned again she had made two covenants with the Devil, first for two years, and after that for four years, and she confesseth herself to have been a witch these six years.

  [Q]: Did the maid complain of pain about the place you stuck the thorn in?

  [A]: Yes. But how long she lived I don’t know.

  [Q]: How do you know Burroughs was angry with Lawrence’s family?

  [A]: Because he told me so.

  [Q]: Where did any other live that you afflicted?

  [A]: Just by the other toward James Andrews’s, and they died also.

  [Q]: How many? Were they more than one?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: And who brought those poppets to you?

  [A]: Mr. Burroughs.

  [Q]: What did you stick into them?

  [A]: Pins, and he gave them to me.

  [Q]: Did you keep those poppets?

  [A]: No, he carried them away with him.

  [Q]: Was he there himself with you in bodily person?

  [A]: Yes, and so he was when he appeared to tempt me to set my hand to the book, he then appeared in person, and I felt his hand at the same time.

  [Q]: Were they men, women or children you killed?

  [A]: They were both boys and girls.

  [Q]: Were you angry with them yourself?

  [A]: Yes, though I don’t know why now.

  [Q]: Did you know Mr. Burroughs’s wife?

  [A]: Yes.

  [Q]: Did you know of any poppets pricked to kill her?

  [A]: No, I don’t.

  [Q]: Have you seen several witches at the Eastward?

  [A]: Yes. But I don’t know who they were.

  SUSANNAH MARTIN AND HER POOR REPUTATION, MONDAY, MAY 2, 1692

  Susannah Martin, a widow from Amesbury only a few years younger than Rebecca Nurse, had suffered a poor reputation as a witch for over two decades.1 She mounted her own defense in theological terms, articulating the controversial belief that the Devil could appear in whatever shape he would like, including the shape of an innocent person. In her claim that “he that appeared in same shape as glorified saint can appear in anyone’s shape,” she spoke to some of the doubts that theologians were beginning to express as the course of the trials started to rapidly expand. “Glorified saint” in Martin’s telling refers to the Bible’s witch of Endor, who conjured an image meant to be the spirit of Samuel.2 If Samuel could be represented by witchcraft, then certainly Susannah Martin could have been. Like Martha Cory, Susannah Martin also expressed contempt for the proceedings.

  At Martin’s examination we learn that the makeup of the group of afflicted has started to shift. What began as a collection of young girls bolstered by the word of a few teenagers now included a number of adults, most notably John Indian, Tituba’s husband. His affliction undermines the fun, but unsound, theory that ergot poisoning caused the girls’ fits: as a grown man, he would not have had the same symptoms of convulsive ergotism as an adolescent girl.

  Susannah Martin Defending Herself3

  The Examination of Susannah Martin, 2 May 1692

  As soon as she came in many had fits.

  [Q]: Do you know this woman?

  Abigail Williams saith, It is Goody Martin. She hath hurt me often.

  Others by fits were hindered from speaking.

  Elizabeth Hubbard said she hath not been hurt by her.

  John Indian said he hath not seen her.

  Mercy Lewis pointed to her and fell into a little fit.

  Ann Putman threw her glove in a fit at her.

  The examinant laughed.

  [Q]: What do you laugh at?.

  [A]: Well I may at such folly.

  [Q]: Is this folly? The hurt of these persons?

  [A]: I never hurt man, woman, or child.

  Mercy Lewis cried out, She hath hurt me a great many times and pulls me down.

  Then Martin laughed again.

  Mary Walcott saith, This woman hath hurt me a great many times.

  Susannah Sheldon also accused her of afflicting her.

  [Q]: What do you say to this?

  [A]: I have no hand in witchcraft.
<
br />   [Q]: What did you do? Did not you give your consent?4

  [A]: No, never in my life.

  [Q]: What ails this people?

  [A]: I do not know.

  [Q]: But what do you think?

  [A]: I do not desire to spend my judgment upon it.

  [Q]: Do not you think they are bewitched?

  [A]: No, I do not think they are.

  [Q]: Tell me your thoughts about them.

  [A]: Why, my thoughts are my own, when they are in, but when they are out they are another’s.

  [Q]: You said their master. Who do you think is their master?

  [A]: If they be dealing the black art, you may know as well as I.5

  [Q]: Well, what have you done toward this?

  [A]: Nothing.

  [Q]: Why it is you, or your appearance.

  [A]: I cannot help it.

  [Q]: That may be your master.

  [A]: I desire to lead myself according to the will of God [scored from “will”] word of God.

  [Q]: Is this according to God’s word?

  [A]: If I were such a person I would tell you the truth.

  [Q]: How comes your appearance just now to hurt these.

  [A]: How do I know?

  [Q]: Are not you willing to tell the truth?

  [A]: I cannot tell. He that appeared in same shape as glorified saint can appear in anyone’s shape.6

  [Q]: Do you believe these do not say true?

  [A]: They may lie for aught I know.

  [Q]: May not you lie?

  [A]: I dare not tell a lie if it would save my life.7

  [Q]: Then you will speak the truth.

  [A]: I have spoke nothing else. I would do them any good.

  [Q]: I do not think you have such affections for them, whom just now you insinuated had the Devil for their master.

  Elizabeth Hubbard was afflicted and then the marshal who was by her said she pinched her hand.

  Several of the afflicted cried out they [torn] her upon the beam.

  [Q]: Pray God discover you, if you be guilty.

  [A]: Amen. Amen. A false tongue will never make a guilty person.8