The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut Part 1

The Witchcraft Delusion In Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697).

by John M. Taylor.

FOREWORD

The true story of witchcraft in old Connecticut has never been told. It has been hidden in the ancient records and in ma.n.u.scripts in private collections, and those most conversant with the facts have not made them known, for one reason or another. It is herein written from authoritative sources, and should prove of interest and value as a present-day interpretation of that strange delusion, which for a half century darkened the lives of the forefathers and foremothers of the colonial days.

J.M.T.

Hartford, Connecticut.

TWO INDICTMENTS FOR WITCHCRAFT

"John Carrington thou art indited by the name of John Carrington of Wethersfield--carpenter--, that not hauing the feare of G.o.d before thine eyes thou hast interteined ffamilliarity with Sattan the great enemye of G.o.d and mankinde and by his helpe hast done workes aboue the course of nature for wch both according to the lawe of G.o.d and the established lawe of this Commonwealth thou deseruest to dye."

Record Particular Court, 2: 17, 1650-51.

"Hugh Crotia, Thou Standest here presented by the name of Hugh Crotia of Stratford in the Colony of Connecticut in New England; for that not haueing the fear of G.o.d before thine Eyes, through the Instigation of the Devill, thou hast forsaken thy G.o.d & covenanted with the Devill, and by his help hast in a preternaturall way afflicted the bodys of Sundry of his Majesties good Subjects, for which according to the Law of G.o.d, and the Law of this Colony, thou deseruest to dye."

Record Court of a.s.sistants, 2: 16, 1693.

A WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF A WITCH[A] AND THE SHERIFF'S RETURN THEREON

To George Corwin Gentlm high Sheriff of the County of Ess.e.x Greeting

Whereas Bridgett Bishop als Olliver the wife of Edward Bishop of Salem in the County of Ess.e.x Sawyer at a special Court of Oyer and Terminer ---- (held at?)[B] Salem this second Day of this instant month of June for the Countyes of Ess.e.x Middles.e.x and Suffolk before William Stoughton Esqe. and his a.s.sociates Justices of the said Court was Indicted and arraigned upon five several Indictments for useing practising & exercising on the ----[B] last past and divers others days ----[B] witchcraft in and upon the bodyes of Abigail Williams Ann puttnam Jr Mercy Lewis Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Hubbard of Salem Village single women; whereby their bodyes were hurt afflicted pined consumed wasted & tormented contrary to the forme of the statute in that case made and provided To which Indictmts the said Bridgett Bishop pleaded not guilty and for Tryall thereof put herselfe upon G.o.d and her Country ----[B] she was found guilty of the ffelonyes and Witchcrafts whereof she stood Indicted and sentence of death accordingly pa.s.sed agt her as the Law directs execution whereof yet remaines to be done These are therefore in the name of their Majties William & Mary now King & Queen over England & to will and command you that upon Fryday next being the fourth day of this instant month of June between the hours of Eight and twelve in the aforenoon of the same day you safely conduct the sd Bridgett Bishop als Olliver from their Majties Goale in Salem aforesd to the place of execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck until she be dead and of your doings herein make returne to the Clerk of the sd Court and precept And hereof you are not to faile at your peril And this shall be sufficient warrant Given under my hand & seal at Boston the Eighth of June in the ffourth year of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lords William & Mary now King & Queen over England Annoque Dm 1692 Wm. Stoughton

[Footnote A: Original in office of Clerk of the Courts at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts. Said to be the only one extant in American archives.]

[Footnote B: Some of the words in the warrant are illegible.]

June 16 1692

According to the within written precept I have taken the Bodye of the within named Bridgett Bishop out of their Majties Goale in Salem & Safely Conueighd her to the place provided for her Execution & Caused ye sd Bridgett to be hanged by the neck till Shee was dead all which was according to the time within Required & So I make returne by me George Corwin Sheriff

CHAPTER I

"First, because Witchcraft is a rife and common sinne in these our daies, and very many are intangled with it, beeing either pract.i.tioners thereof in their owne persons, or at the least, yielding to seeke for helpe and counsell of such as practise it." _A Discovrse of the d.a.m.ned Art of Witchcraft_, PERKINS, 1610.

"And just as G.o.d has his human servants, his church on earth, so also the Devil has his--men and women sworn to his service and true to his bidding. To win such followers he can appear to men in any form he pleases, can deceive them, enter into compact with them, initiate them into his wors.h.i.+p, make them his allies for the ruin of their fellows.

Now it is these human allies and servants of Satan, thus postulated into existence by the brain of a monkish logician, whom history knows as witches." _The Literature of Witchcraft_, BURR.

Witchcraft in its generic sense is as old as human history. It has written its name in the oldest of human records. In all ages and among all peoples it has taken firm hold on the fears, convictions and consciences of men. Anch.o.r.ed in credulity and superst.i.tion, in the dread and love of mystery, in the hard and fast theologic doctrines and teachings of diabolism, and under the ban of the law from its beginning, it has borne a baleful fruitage in the lives of the learned and the unlearned, the wise and the simple.

King and prophet, prelate and priest, jurist and lawmaker, prince and peasant, scholars and men of affairs have felt and dreaded its subtle power, and sought relief in code and commandment, bull and anathema, decree and statute--entailing even the penalty of death--and all in vain until in the march of the races to a higher civilization, the centuries enthroned faith in the place of fear, wisdom in the place of ignorance, and sanity in the seat of delusion.

In its earlier historic conception witchcraft and its demonstrations centered in the claim of power to produce certain effects, "things beyond the course of nature," from supernatural causes, and under this general term all its occult manifestations were cla.s.sified with magic and sorcery, until the time came when the Devil was identified and acknowledged both in church and state as the originator and sponsor of the mystery, sin and crime--the sole father of the Satanic compacts with men and women, and the law both canonical and civil took cognizance of his malevolent activities.

In the Acropolis mound at Susa in ancient Elam, in the winter of 1901-2, there was brought to light by the French expedition in charge of the eminent savant, M. de Morgan, one of the most remarkable memorials of early civilization ever recovered from the buried cities of the Orient.

It is a monolith--a stele of black diorite--bearing in bas-relief a likeness of Hammurabi (the Amrephel of the Old Testament; Genesis xiv, 1), and the sixth king of the first Babylonian dynasty, who reigned about 2250 B.C.; and there is also carved upon it, in archaic script in black letter cuneiform--used long after the cursive writing was invented--the longest Babylonian record discovered to this day,--the oldest body of laws in existence and the basis of historical jurisprudence.

It is a remarkable code, quickly made available through translation and transliteration by the a.s.syrian scholars, and justly named, from its royal compiler, Hammurabi's code. He was an imperialist in purpose and action, and in the last of his reign of fifty-five years he annexed or a.s.similated the suzerainty of Elam, or Southern Persia, with a.s.syria to the north, and also Syria and Palestine, to the Mediterranean Sea.

This record in stone originally contained nineteen columns of inscriptions of four thousand three hundred and fourteen lines, arranged in two hundred and eighty sections, covering about two hundred separate decisions or edicts. There is substantial evidence that many of the laws were of greater antiquity than the code itself, which is a thousand years older than the Mosaic code, and there are many striking resemblances and parallels between its provisions, and the law of the covenant, and the deuteronomy laws of the Hebrews.

The code was based on personal responsibility. It protects the sanct.i.ty of an oath before G.o.d, provides among many other things for written evidence in legal matters, and is wonderfully comprehensive and rich in rules for the conduct of commercial, civic, financial, social, economic, and domestic affairs.

These sections are notably ill.u.s.trative:

"If a man, in a case (pending judgment), utters threats against the witnesses (or), does not establish the testimony that he has given, if that case be a case involving life, that man shall be put to death.

"If a judge p.r.o.nounces a judgment, renders a decision, delivers a verdict duly signed and sealed and afterwards alters his judgment, they shall call that judge to account for the alteration of the judgment which he had p.r.o.nounced, and he shall pay twelvefold the penalty which was in the said judgment, and, in the a.s.sembly, they shall expel him from his seat of judgment, and he shall not return, and with the judges in a case he shall not take his seat.

"If a man practices brigandage and is captured, that man shall be put to death.

"If a woman hates her husband, and says: 'thou shalt not have me,' they shall inquire into her antecedents for her defects; and if she has been a careful mistress and is without reproach and her husband has been going about and greatly belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall receive her presents and shall go to her father's house.

"If she has not been a careful mistress, has gadded about, has neglected her house and has belittled her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water.

"If a physician operates on a man for a severe wound with a bronze lancet and causes the man's death, or opens an abscess (in the eye) of a man with a bronze lancet and destroys the man's eye, they shall cut off his fingers.

"If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction firm and the house, which he has built, collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death."

It is, however, with only one of King Hammurabi's wise laws that this inquiry has to do, and it is this:

"If a man has placed an enchantment upon a man, and has not justified himself, he upon whom the enchantment is placed to the Holy River (Euphrates) shall go; into the Holy River he shall plunge. If the Holy River holds (drowns) him he who enchanted him shall take his house. If on the contrary, the man is safe and thus is innocent, the wizard loses his life, and his house."

Or, as another translation has it:

"If a man ban a man and cast a spell on him--if he cannot justify it he who has banned shall be killed."

"If a man has cast a spell on a man and has not justified it, he on whom the spell has been thrown shall go to the River G.o.d, and plunge into the river. If the River G.o.d takes him he who has banned him shall be saved.

If the River G.o.d show him to be innocent, and he be saved, he who banned him shall be killed, and he who plunged into the river shall take the house of him who banned him."

There can be no more convincing evidence of the presence and power of the great witchcraft superst.i.tion among the primitive races than this earliest law; and it is to be especially noted that it prescribes one of the very tests of guilt--the proof by water--which was used in another form centuries later, on the continent, in England and New England, at Wurzburg and Bonn, at Rouen, in Suffolk, Ess.e.x and Devon, and at Salem and Hartford and Fairfield, when "the Devil starteth himself up in the pulpit, like a meikle black man, and calling the row (roll) everyone answered, Here!"

CHAPTER II