Six Women of Salem (41 page)

Then someone else was talking, one of the ministers—Hale from Beverly, who had walked out with the crowd—praying for her soul. The ministers look like crows to her, the lot of them.

A few of the other onlookers seem disgusted by the offered prayer. She recognizes Maule, the trouble-making Quaker, who blames her for his brat’s death. He smirks and rolls his eyes at the minister’s prayer. Is Shattuck here as well to gloat? Strangled shouts and shrieks punctuate the prayer from one side, where the so-called afflicted huddle together: two young women, the Putnam girl, and that Bibber woman, who is old enough to know better. As Bridget turns to see, one is on the ground rolling in the dust. “Jacobs!” she hears the girl yelp. It’s old Jacobs, clubbing her with one of his walking sticks. The Devil, the other afflicted explain, is present to support old Jacobs’s specter.
It must be as arthritic as Jacobs’s body. Will they never quit their nonsense?
she wonders. The prayer ends.

And then something rough drags over her head—the noose. The hangman is on a ladder beside hers. He pulls the rope firmly through the knot and secures it snugly behind her neck. She feels a cold sweat that is more than the slight sea breeze and hears the blood sing in her ears as she tamps down rising panic—she will not give her persecutors the satisfaction. She will
not
plead or cry or act the fool. She looks out over the crowd toward the sea, hears the gulls cry as the people hush in anticipation, sees a flash of white wings as the distant birds wheel.

And then the bag comes down over her face, blots out the world beyond, stifling her breath in the heat. Slight gleams of daylight glare through the rough weave of the sack, which stinks of a barn. A man’s voice barks an order, and before she can figure what he just said, her feet jerk out from under her and a terrible pressure slams into her throat and the base of her skull.

And then there is no support, nothing to hold onto or stand on. She strains against the cords that hold her hands useless, tries to kick her feet to find purchase, but there is nothing. Her head feels as if it will explode, and the little light though the sack darkens as darkness rushes toward her, into her. She is vaguely aware she is soiling herself, but pain and desperation overmatches embarrassment or shame.
No,
she thinks,
No.
Her consciousness is one great shout of
NO.

And then, . . . and then . . .

____________________

A
nd beyond that is only speculation.

Hangmen then still used a slipknot rather than the later, more elaborate “hangman’s knot.” A quick snap of the neck was rare, so death came by a slower strangulation.

Below the gallows, meanwhile, Thomas Maule directed loud comments at Reverend John Hale, who had prayed for Bridget’s soul. Maule declared that if anyone had asked
him
to pray for Bishop, he certainly would
not
pray for her—not for a witch, a malefactor who had forsaken God to join the Devil and thus committed the unforgivable sin.
That
was the sin that scripture said we must
not
pray for. Besides, the woman had killed one of his children with her magic, and he could have testified to that if he had desired. (His wife had testified.) Most of the prisoners were witches as well, Maule continued. (To him, anyone not a Quaker was in the Devil’s pocket.)

When the work was finished Deputy Sheriff George Herrick wrote an account at the end of the warrant that Sheriff Corwin then signed, ready to submit to the court:

June
10
th
1692

According to the Within Written precept I have taken the body of the within named Bridget Bishop out of their Majesties’ Goale in Salem and Safely conveyed her to the place provided for her Execution and Caused the said Bridget to be hanged by the neck until she was dead and
buried in the place
all which was according to the time Within Required and So I make Return by me

George Corwin Sheriff

The crossed out phrase may indicate someone else claimed the body, although there is no written record of that. Or perhaps, as Herrick may have written more than the original order had described, he then omitted the part about burial to let the phrasing of the return match the phrasing of the warrant. The custom, after all, was to leave felons’ bodies hanging for a time as a warning and then bury them near the gallows they had died on. How long Bridget’s body was left hanging is not known.

On June 13 word reached Boston that French and Indian forces had attacked Wells, Maine, Reverend Burroughs’s town, on June 10 (the day of Bridget’s execution). Governor Phips ordered a detachment of the Essex County regiment to march north and placed an embargo on all Massachusetts ports for as long as French ships prowled the coast. Physical as well as the spectral woes besieged New England.

That the current methods of the witch trials might at least be aggravating the region’s trouble must have crossed some people’s minds—though presumably not Stoughton’s. Governor Phips had requested advice from the Boston-area ministers on how to deal with the spiritual world, and the answer, largely composed by Reverend Cotton Mather, was submitted Wednesday, June 15, the same day the legislature determined that while they were revising their code of Massachusetts laws all the old laws not in contradiction to the new charter or “repugnant” to the laws of England would remain in force.

“The Return of Several Ministers” took note of the serious sufferings of the afflicted and the prudence of the magistrates who had to cope with the complicated matter. Principally it warned against accepting spectral evidence, which was, after all, “received only upon the Devil’s Authority.” Thus, blind acceptance would “be a Door opened for a long Train of miserable Consequences.” They recommended Perkins and the other standard English law books, and they rejected the use of folk tests (like the touch test) as too easily “abused by the Devil’s Legerdemains.” Most of all they warned that “it is an undoubted and notorious thing, that a Demon may, by God’s Permission, appear even to ill purposes, in the Shape of an innocent, yea, and a virtuous Man.” Ignoring spectral evidence could end the whole “dreadful Calamity.” The court should employ “the speedy and vigorous Prosecution of such as have rendered themselves obnoxious” by using “the Laws of God”—that is, no folk methods—“and the wholesome statutes of the
English
nation.”

Justice Nathaniel Saltonstall, “very much dissatisfyed with the proceedings of it,” resigned from the Court of Oyer and Terminer at some point, presumably before the next sitting but possibly later.

If Francis and any of the rest of Rebecca’s family still attended services in Salem Village, they found no comfort in Reverend Parris’s prayers and sermons. If Parris mentioned concern for the suffering, he meant the supposed afflicted. If he mentioned the accused, it was clear that he believed they were guilty. Samuel and Mary Nurse went to the Sabbath meeting occasionally, but she avoided the communion services that he sometimes attended.

People in the village still spoke of Rebecca’s specter. On June 18 Jonathan Putnam was taken “very ill,” as Reverend Parris noted when he wrote a statement about the incident. The family summoned Mercy Lewis to check what specters might be at work, and the girl, though she was for a time entranced and unable to speak, at last “said she saw Goody Nurse & Goody Carrier holding said Jonathans head.”

With reports like
that
still circulating, knowing that Rebecca’s trial fast approached and remembering all too well what had happened to Bridget Bishop, the Nurse family put their hope in God’s mercy
and
in their own efforts to gather names and statements on her behalf. How much mercy the court might have was yet to be seen.

Ann Putnam, meanwhile, likely found Bridget’s hanging a blessing—one witch gone—and worried about that Bradbury woman who gave her kin so much trouble, who was still at large, her specter still reported to be active.

On June 28 the grand jury considered the case of Sarah Good. Someone wrote a list of witnesses, both the presently afflicted, like Annie Putnam, as well as others who had had strange encounters with Good or her specter in the past. One of the names is “Tittube indian,” written somewhat indented from the rest. She could have spoken about the spectral torments of February and March, the events she had described at her own March 1 hearing and subsequent confessions. Whether Tituba was actually called to testify or what she actually said is, unfortunately, unknown. Sarah Good was indicted on at least three counts: for tormenting Sarah Bibber beginning May 2 and for tormenting Elizabeth Hubbard and Annie Putnam on March 1.

The court also dealt with a flurry of depositions, mainly against Sarah Good but also one
for
Elizabeth How from her husband as well as a petition from Rebecca Nurse herself.

To the Honourd Court of Oryn and Terminer now sitting In Salem this
28
of June Ano
1692

The humble petission of Rebecca Nurse of Salem Village

Humbley Sheweth

That whareas sum Women did sarch Yor Petissionr At Salem as I did then Conceive for sum supernaturall Marke, And then one of the sd Women which is Known to be, the Moaste Antient skillfull prudent person of them all as to Any such Concerne did Express hir selfe to be of A contrary opinion from the Rest And did then Declare, that shee saw Nothing In or Aboute yor Honors poare pettissioner But what might Arise from A naturall Cause And I then Rendered the said persons a sufficient Knowne Reason as to my selfe of the Moveing Cause Thereof which was by Exceeding Weaknesses decending partly from an overture of Nature And difficult Exigences that hath Befallen me In the Times of my Travells And therefore Yor pettissionr Humbley prayes That yor Honours would be pleased to Admitt of sum other Women to Enquire Into this Great Concerne, those that are Moast Grave wise and skillfull Namely Ms Higginson senr Ms Buckstone Ms Woodbery two of them Being Midwives Ms Porter Together with such others, as may be Choasen on that Account Before I am Brought to my triall All which I hoape yor Honours will take Into yor prudent Consideration And find it Requisite Soe to doe for my Life Lyes Now In yor Hands under God And Being Conscious of My owne Innocency I Humbley Begg that I may have Liberty to manifest it to the wourld partly by the Meanes Abovesaid

And Yor Poare pettissior shall Evermore

pray as In duty Bound &c

Rebecca Nurse

Someone else wrote the paper, but Rebecca inked her mark below her name. However, there is no indication that the court ordered this second examination before her trial on the following day.

On Wednesday, June 29, the grand jury indicted Elizabeth How and Susannah Martin—Annie Putnam witnessed against both of these suspects—while Thomas Putnam swore to his testimony against Goody Martin. The Court of Oyer and Terminer tried three witchcraft cases this day: Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, and Rebecca Nurse.

King’s Attorney Thomas Newton listed the evidence offered against Sarah Good, beginning with “Titabe’s Confession & Examinacon agt her selfe & Sarah Good abstracted”—so perhaps Tituba was not present in court today nor had been the day before with the grand jury if an abstract from the hearing notes was sufficient. Newton summarized the supposed events of February 28 when Good and the other spectral witches invaded the parsonage “& stopped her Eares in prayer time” as they tried to make Tituba hurt the children. Failing this, “Good with others are very strong & pull her with them to Mr putnams & make her hurt the Children.” She also described Good’s familiars: a cat, a yellow bird, and “a thing all over hairy.”

(Newton’s note that “Sarah Good appeared like a wolfe to Hubbard going to proctors & saw it sent by Good to Hubbard” does not clarify whether Tituba said she saw Good send the wolf or whether Elizabeth Hubbard said this. Newton also noted, “Dorothy Goods Charge ag[ains]t her mother Sarah Good That she had three birds one black, one yellow & that these birds hurt the Children & afflicted persons.” This deposition is otherwise lost, but Dorothy, still in Boston jail, was not present to testify.)

The “confessions” of Deliverance and Abigail Hobbs that described Good’s activities at the witch sacraments were introduced with these women presumably in court, as they would be during Rebecca Nurse’s trial. Perhaps Mary Warren was also brought in to recount her jailhouse apparitions, for under “Mary Warrens Confession,” Newton wrote, “That Sarah Good is a Witch & brought her the booke to signe
to wch she did
.” The last four words were crossed out as if Mary had insisted that, though threatened, she had
not
signed. However, neither Mary Warren nor Tituba’s name appears in the list of witnesses to the three indictments.

Most of the other testimony against Good came from various folk, including several relatives who had suffered livestock losses after refusing to let her move in with them.

Robert Calef later recounted an incident from this trial that was
not
preserved in the official papers. On recovering from a fit, “one of the afflicted” accused Sarah Good of “stabing her in the breast with a Knife”—breaking the blade in the process. A fragment of knife blade was indeed found in her clothing, the discovery of which caused a stir in one part of the audience. A young man was allowed to come forward to show “a Shaft and part of the Blade” to the court.