Part 176

A little more than a month from the overthrow of Andros a ship from England arrived at Boston, with news of the proclamation of William and Mary. This was joyful intelligence to the body of the people. The magistrates were at once relieved from their fears, for the revolution in the old world justified that in the new. Three days later the proclamation was published with unusual ceremony. … A week later the representatives of the several towns, upon a new choice, met at Boston, and proposals were made that charges should be forthwith drawn up against Andros, or that all the prisoners but Andros should be liberated on bail; but both propositions were rejected. The representatives likewise urged the unconditional resumption of the charter, declaring that they could not act in any thing until this was conceded. Many opposed the motion; but it was finally adopted; and it was resolved that all the laws in force May 12, 1686, should be continued until further orders. Yet the magistrates, conscious of the insecurity of the position they occupied, used prudently the powers intrusted to them." Meantime, Increase Mather, who had gone to England before the Revolution took place as agent for the colony, had procured an audience with the new king, William III., and received from him an assurance that he would remove Andros from the government of New England and call him to an account for his administration. "Anxious for the restoration of the old charter and its privileges, under which the colony had prospered so well, the agent applied himself diligently to that object, advising with the wisest statesmen for its accomplishment. It was the concurrent judgment of all that the best course would be to obtain first a reversion of the judgment against the charter by an act of Parliament, and then apply to the king for such additional privileges as were necessary. Accordingly, in the House of Commons, where the whole subject of seizing charters in the reign of Charles II. was up for discussion, the charters of New England were inserted with the rest; and, though enemies opposed the measure, it was voted that their abrogation was a grievance, and that they should be forthwith restored." But before the bill having this most satisfactory effect had been acted on in the House of Lords, the Convention Parliament was prorogued, then dissolved, and the next parliament proved to be less friendly. An order was obtained, however, from the king, continuing the government of the colony under the old charter until a new one was settled, and requiring Andros and his fellow prisoners to be sent to England for trial. On the trial, much court influence seemed to go in favor of Sir Edmund; the proceedings against him were summarily quashed, and he was discharged. Soon afterwards he was made governor of Virginia, while Dudley received appointment to the office of chief justice at New York. Contending against the intrigues of the Andros party, and many other adverse influences, the agents of Massachusetts were reluctantly forced at last to relinquish all hopes of the restoration of the old charter, and "application was made for a new grant, which should confirm the privileges of the old instrument, and such in addition as the experience of the people had taught them would be of benefit. … The king was prevailed upon to refer the affairs of New England to the two lords chief justices and the attorney and solicitor-general, all of whom were supposed to be friendly to the applicants. Mr. Mather was permitted to attend their meetings." Difficulties arose in connection with Plymouth Colony. It was the determination in England that Plymouth should no longer be separately chartered, but should be joined to Massachusetts or New York. In opposing the former more natural union, the Plymouth people very nearly brought about their annexation to New York; but Mather's influence averted that result. "The first draught of a charter was objected to by the agents, because of its limitation of the powers of the governor, who was to be appointed by the king. The second draught was also objected to; whereupon the agents were informed that they 'must not consider themselves as plenipotentiaries from a foreign state, and that if they were unwilling to submit to the pleasure of the king, his majesty would settle the country without them, and they might take what would follow.' {2113} Nothing remained, therefore, but to decide whether they would submit, or continue without a charter, and at the mercy of the king." The two colleagues who had been associated with Mather opposed submission, but the latter yielded, and the charter was signed. "By the terms of this new charter the territories of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine, with a tract farther east, were united into one jurisdiction, whose officers were to consist of a governor, a deputy governor, and a secretary, appointed by the king, and 28 councillors, chosen by the people. A General Court was to be holden annually, on the last Wednesday in May, and at such other times as the governor saw fit; and each town was authorized to choose two deputies to represent them in this court. The choice of these deputies was conceded to all freeholders having an estate of the value of forty pounds sterling, or land yielding an income of at least forty shillings per annum; and every deputy was to take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the crown. All residents of the province and their children were entitled to the liberties of natural born subjects; and liberty of conscience was secured to all but Papists. … To the governor was given a negative upon all laws enacted by the General Court; without his consent in writing none were valid; and all receiving his sanction were to be transmitted to the king for approval, and if rejected at any time within three years were to be of no effect. The governor was empowered to establish courts, levy taxes, convene the militia, carry on war, exercise martial law, with the consent of the council, and erect and furnish an requisite forts. … Such was the province charter of 1692—a far different instrument from the colonial charter of 1629. It effected a thorough revolution in the country. The form of government, the powers of the people, and the entire foundation and objects of the body politic, were placed upon a new basis; and the dependence of the colonies upon the crown was secured. … It was on Saturday, the 14th of May, 1692, that Sir William Phips arrived at Boston as the first governor of the new province."

_J. S. Barry, History of Massachusetts, volume 1, chapter 18._

ALSO IN: _W. H. Whitmore, The Inter-Charter Period (Memorial History of Boston, volume 2)._

_G. P. Fisher, The Colonial Era, chapter 13._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1689-1697. King William's War. Temporary conquest of Acadia. Disastrous expedition against Quebec. Threatened attack by the French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1690. The first Colonial Congress.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692. The Salem Witchcraft madness: in its beginning.

"The people of Massachusetts in the 17th century, like all other Christian people at that time,—at least, with extremely rare individual exceptions,—believed in the reality of a hideous crime called 'witchcraft.' … In a few instances witches were believed to have appeared in the earlier years of New England. But the cases had been sporadic. … With three or four exceptions … no person appears to have been punished for witchcraft in Massachusetts, nor convicted of it, for more than sixty years after the settlement, though there had been three or four trials of other persons suspected of the crime. At the time when the question respecting the colonial charter was rapidly approaching an issue, and the public mind was in feverish agitation, the ministers sent out a paper of proposals for collecting facts concerning witchcrafts and other 'strange apparitions.' This brought out a work from President [Increase] Mather entitled 'Illustrious Providences,' in which that influential person related numerous stories of the performances of persons leagued with the Devil. The imagination of his restless young son [Cotton Mather] was stimulated, and circumstances fed the flame." A poor Irish washerwoman, in Boston, accused by some malicious children named Goodwin, who played antics which were supposed to signify that they had been bewitched, was tried, convicted and sent to the gallows (1688) as a witch. "Cotton Mather took the oldest 'afflicted' girl to his house, where she dexterously played upon his self-conceit to stimulate his credulity. She satisfied him that Satan regarded him as his most terrible enemy, and avoided him with especial awe. … Mather's account of these transactions ['Late Memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions'], with a collection of other appropriate matter, was circulated not only in Massachusetts, but widely also in England, where it obtained the warm commendation of Richard Baxter; and it may be supposed to have had an important effect in producing the more disastrous delusion which followed three years after. … Mr. Samuel Parris was minister of a church in a part of Salem which was then called 'Salem Village,' and which now as a separate town bears the name of Danvers. He was a man of talents, and of repute for professional endowments, but avaricious, wrong-headed, and ill-tempered. Among his parishioners, at the time of his installation and afterwards, there had been angry disputes about the election of a minister, which had never been composed. Neighbors and relations were embittered against each other. Elizabeth Parris, the minister's daughter, was now nine years old. A niece of his, eleven years old, lived in his family. His neighbor, Thomas Putnam, the parish clerk, had a daughter named Ann, twelve years of age. These children, with a few other young women, of whom two were as old as twenty years or thereabouts, had become possessed with a wild curiosity about the sorceries of which they had been hearing and reading, and used to hold meetings for study, if it may be so called, and practice. They learned to go through motions similar to those which had lately made the Goodwin children so famous. They forced their limbs into grotesque postures, uttered unnatural outcries, were seized with cramps and spasms, became incapable of speech and of motion. By and by [March, 1692], they interrupted public worship. … The families were distressed. The neighbors were alarmed. The physicians were perplexed and baffled, and at length declared that nothing short of witchery was the trouble. The kinsfolk of the 'afflicted children' assembled for fasting and prayer. Then the neighboring ministers were sent for, and held at Mr. Parris's house a prayer-meeting which lasted through the day. The children performed in their presence, and the result was a confirmation by the ministers of the opinion of the doctors. Of course, the next inquiry was by whom the manifest witchcraft was exercised. {2114} It was presumed that the unhappy girls could give the answer. For a time they refused to do so. But at length, yielding to an importunity which it had become difficult to escape unless by an avowal of their fraud, they pronounced the names of Good, Osborn, and Tituba. Tituba—half Indian, half negro—was a servant of Mr. Parris, brought by him from Barbadoes, where he had formerly been a merchant. Sarah Good was an old woman, miserably poor. Sarah Osborn had been prosperous in early life. She had been married twice, and her second husband was still living, but separated from her. Her reputation was not good, and for some time she had been bedridden, and in a disturbed nervous state. … Tituba, whether in collusion with her young mistress, or, as was afterwards said, in consequence of having been scourged by Mr. Parris, confessed herself to be a witch, and charged Good and Osborn with being her accomplices. The evidence was then thought sufficient, and the three were committed to gaol for trial. Martha Corey and Rebecca Nourse were next cried out against. Both were church-members of excellent character, the latter, seventy years of age. They were examined by the same Magistrates, and sent to prison, and with them a child of Sarah Good, only four or five years old, also charged with diabolical practices."

_J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, book 4, chapter 4 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN: _C. W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, part 3 (volume 2)._

_S. G. Drake, Annals of Witchcraft in New England._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692. The Salem Witchcraft madness: in its culmination.

"Now a new feature of this thing showed itself. The wife of Thomas Putnam joined the children, and 'makes most terrible shrieks' against Goody Nurse—that she was bewitching her, too. On the 3d of April, Minister Parris preached long and strong from the Text, 'Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?' in which he bore down so hard upon the Witches accused that Sarah Cloyse, the sister of Nurse, would not sit still, but 'went out of meeting'; always a wicked thing to do, as they thought, but now a heinous one. At once the children cried out against her, and she was clapt into prison with the rest. Through the months of April and May, Justices Hawthorne and Curwin (or Corwin), with Marshal George Herrick, were busy getting the Witches into jail, and the good people were startled, astounded, and terror-struck, at the numbers who were seized. … Bridget Bishop, only, was then brought to trial, for the new Charter and new Governor (Phips), were expected daily. She was old, and had been accused of witchcraft twenty years before. … So, as there was no doubt about her, she was quickly condemned, and hung on the 10th day of this pleasant June, in the presence of a crowd of sad and frightened people. … The new Governor, Phips, one of Mather's Church, fell in with the prevailing fear, and a new bench of special Judges, composed of Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, Major Saltonstall, Major Richards, Major Gidney, Mr. Wait Winthrop, Captain Sewall, and Mr. Sargent, were sworn in, and went to work. On the 30th of June, Sarah Good, Rebeka Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth How, and Sarah Wilder, were brought to trial; all were found guilty, and sentenced to death, except Nurse, who, being a Church member, was acquitted by the jury. At this, the 'afflicted' children fell into fits, and others made great outcries; and the popular dissatisfaction was so great, that the Court sent them back to the jury room, and they returned shortly, with a verdict of Guilty! The Rev. Mr. Noyes, of Salem, then excommunicated Nurse, delivered her to Satan, and they all were led out to die. Minister Noyes told Susannah Martin that she was a witch, and knew it, and she had better confess it; but she refused, and told him that 'he lied,' and that he knew it; and, 'that if he took away her life, God would give him blood to drink;' which curse is now traditionally believed, and that he was choked with blood. They were hanged, protesting their innocence; and there was none to pity them. On the 5th of August, a new batch was haled before the Court. Reverend George Burroughs, John Proctor and his wife, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier. Burroughs was disliked by some of the Clergy, for he was tinctured with Roger Williams's Heresies of Religious Freedom; and he was particularly obnoxious to Mather, for he had spoken slightingly of witchcraft, and had even said there was no such thing as a witch. Willard had been a constable employed in seizing witches, but, becoming sick of the business, had refused to do it any more. The children at once cried out, that he, too, was a witch; he fled for his life, but was caught at Nashua, and brought back. Old Jacobs was accused by his own grand-daughter; and Carrier was convicted upon the testimony of her own children. They were all quickly convicted and sentenced. … All but Mrs. Proctor saw the last of earth on the 19th of August. They were hanged on Gallows Hill. Minister Burroughs made so moving a prayer, closing with the Lord's Prayer, which it was thought no witch could say, that there was fear lest the crowd should hinder the hanging. As soon as he was turned off, Mr. Mather, sitting on his horse, addressed the people, to prove to them that Burroughs was really no Minister, and to show how he must be guilty, notwithstanding his prayer, for the devil could change himself into an angel of light. … Giles Cory, an old man of 80, saw that the accused were prejudged, and refused to plead to the charge against him. What could be done with him? It was found that for this, by some sort of old law, he might be pressed to death. So on the 16th of September, just as the autumn tints were beginning to glorify the earth, he was laid on the ground, bound hand and foot, and stones were piled upon him, till the tongue was pressed out of his mouth; 'the Sheriff with his cane forced it in again when he was dying.' Such cruel things did fear—fear of the Devil—lead these people to do. He was the first and last who died in New England in this way. On the 22d of September, eight of the sentenced were carted up Gallows Hill and done to death. Amid a great concourse of men, women, and children, from the neighboring villages, and from Boston, the victims went crying and singing, dragged through the lines of terror-stricken or pitying people. Some would have rescued them, but they had no leaders, and knew not how to act; so that tragedy was consummated; and the Reverend Mr. Noyes, pointing at them, said, 'What a sad thing it is to see eight fire-brands of hell hanging there!' Sad indeed! {2115} Nineteen had now been hung. One pressed to death. Eight were condemned. A hundred and fifty were in prison; and two hundred more were accused by the 'afflicted.' Some fifty had acknowledged themselves witches, of whom not one was executed. … It was now October, and this mischief seemed to be spreading like fire among the dry grass of the Prairies; and a better quality of persons was beginning to be accused by the bewitched. … But these accusations made people consider, and many began to think that they had been going on too fast. 'The juries changed sooner than the judges, and they sooner than the Clergy.' 'At last,' says one of them, 'it was evidently seen that there must be a stop put, or the generation of the church of God would fall under that condemnation.' In other words, the better class of church members were in danger! At the January session, only three were convicted, and they were reprieved; whereat Chief Justice Stoughton rose in anger, and said, 'The Lord be merciful to this country!' In the spring, Governor Phips, being about to leave the country, pardoned all who were condemned, and the jails were delivered. The excitement subsided as rapidly as it had arisen, but the evil work was done."

_C. W. Elliott, The New England History, volume 2, chapter 3._

ALSO IN: _S. P. Fowler, editor, Salem Witchcraft (including Calef's "More Wonders of the Invisible World," etc.)._

_C. S. Osgood and H. M. Batchelder, Historical Sketch of Salem, chapter 2._

_J. S. Barry, History of Massachusetts, volume 2, chapter 2._

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692-1693. The Salem Witchcraft madness: its ending, and the reaction.

"On the second Wednesday in October, 1692, about a fortnight after the last hanging of eight at Salem, the representatives of the colony assembled; and the people of Andover, their minister joining with them, appeared with their remonstrance against the doings of the witch tribunals. Of the discussions that ensued no record is preserved; we know only the issue. The general court ordered by bill a convocation of ministers, that the people might be led in the right way as to the witchcraft. … They abrogated the special court, established a tribunal by statute, and delayed its opening till January of the following year. This interval gave the public mind security and freedom; and though Phips still conferred the place of chief judge on Stoughton, yet jurors acted independently. When, in January, 1693, the court met at Salem, six women of Andover, renouncing their confessions, treated the witchcraft but as something so called, the bewildered but as 'seemingly afflicted.' A memorial of like tenor came from the inhabitants of Andover. Of the presentments, the grand jury dismissed more than half; and of the twenty-six against whom bills were found through the testimony on which others had been condemned, verdicts of acquittal followed. … The people of Salem village drove Parris from the place; Noyes regained favor only by a full confession and consecrating the remainder of his life to deeds of mercy. Sewall, one of the judges, by rising in his pew in the Old South meeting-house on a fast-day and reading to the whole congregation a paper in which he bewailed his great offence, recovered public esteem. Stoughton never repented. The diary of Cotton Mather proves that he, who had sought the foundation of faith in tales of wonders, himself 'had temptations to atheism, and to the abandonment of all religion as a mere delusion.'"

_G. Bancroft, History of the United States (Author's last revision), part 3, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

"It was long before the public mind recovered from its paralysis. No one knew what ought to be said or done, the tragedy had been so awful. The parties who had acted in it were so numerous, and of such standing, including almost all the most eminent and honored leaders of the community from the bench, the bar, the magistracy, the pulpit, the medical faculty, and in fact all classes and descriptions of persons; the mysteries connected with the accusers and confessors; the universal prevalence of the legal, theological, and philosophical theories that had led to the proceedings; the utter impossibility of realizing or measuring the extent of the calamity; and the general shame and horror associated with the subject in all minds; prevented any open movement. … Dr. Bentley describes the condition of the community in some brief and pregnant sentences … : 'As soon as the judges ceased to condemn, the people ceased to accuse. … Terror at the violence and guilt of the proceedings succeeded instantly to the conviction of blind zeal; and what every man had encouraged all professed to abhor. Few dared to blame other men, because few were innocent. The guilt and the shame became the portion of the country, while Salem had the infamy of being the place of the transactions.'"

_C. W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, volume 2, supplement._