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WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY BOSTON
By GILBERT PATTEN BROWN, Member American Press Writers Association.
VERY man has religion in his
heart. It is a fact in human na
ture and is as old as the race it
self. We feel its fervor and will
ingly yield to its ascendency. It
is the creed monger that has
caused much trouble for mankind
all in the name of religion. The
world needs more religion and
L
less creed as does this and all true republics
need more patriotism and less politics.
The writer of this monograph has been a
pilgrim in holy ground, not that he has visited
the old world, but that he is a son of New Eng
land—an American author, whose pilgrimage
has been made to the last resting places of such
men of the Revolution as Ethan Allen, Benja
min Franklin, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and
John Hancock (men who cared more for free
dom of thought than they did for a single creed
or political party). Boston, my home, I love
her for her Garrison, Sumner, Phillips and
others of illustrious memory. She was found
ed by men whose ideas were hostile to the ideas
of these men. Even in her literary zenith was
she a slave to superstition, which is and ever
has been the capital of the demagogue and the
child of despotism. The chief enemies of reason
are Superstition, Despotism, Fanaticism and
Ambition. The settlers of Boston were good
men as to morals, but these four enslavers of
the race ruled their minds and hearts. And
now (Roman) Catholic bigots rule the political
life of this Athens of America. Yea, this old
town, where once lived the philosopher Emer
son, is in the hands of religious rum-sellers and
political experts.
Its masses, as in years past, mistake creeds
and dogmas for religion and morals. The wri
ter will treat his subject in question with all
the fairness of a free thinking and twentieth
century liberal writer. For several of his an
cestors (on both paternal and maternal lines)
were among the pilgrims of Boston. It is its
unique phase in history that prompts him to
portray that particular side of Puritan life that
treats upon religious freedom, more especially
“witchcraft,” which is false and never was
other than a delusion of the mind.
There is no city in the American common
wealths where religious bigotry has existed in
so high a degree as in Boston. Nor is there a
place in the New World where education is at
a higher standing than in this old city, where
settled Winthrop and his honored compeers in
1630. These men were honest in their views;
their lives are lasting monuments in Anglo-
Saxon civilization.
“Evil spirits” are said to have been the
cause of trouble among the “church goers” of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As
early as February 3, 1646, James Howell, who
was at one time “Historiographer Royal” to
Charles Second, writes: “We have multitudes
of witches among us, for in Essex and Suffolk
there were about two hundred indicted within
the two years and above the half of them ex
ecuted. I speak it with horror —God guard us
against the devil! For I think he was never
so busy upon any part of the earth that was
lightened by the beams of Christianity.”
This letter was published in England. It
not only caused much excitement there, but
copies were sent to Boston and vicinity. Howell
received many letters of inquiry and noted di
vines called to learn of the new issue. Men
high in the affairs of state, “Judges upon ye
benches of Justice” and “Doctors of ye most
true and Living God” gave most of their time
to persecuting their fellows, all in the name of
religion.
This prompted one Matthew Hopkins to take
up a new occupation. He became so renowned
in his war upon the witches that he was named
the “Witch-Finder-General.” “Prof.” Hop
kins first played his little game, that of the.
“water test,” in Connecticut, and the report
went forth that his victims did not sink, but
The Golden Age for February 15, 1912.
“swam like a cork.” The people in the “Nut
meg Colony” declared that he should at once
“leave the country.” He soon returned to Bos
ton, where he was warmly received, and where
lie most earnestly kept on “searching” and
“watching” for those “possessed of the devil.”
The earliest execution for witchcraft in Bos
ton was that of Margaret Jones, of Charles
town, on June 15, 1646. Thomas Jones, her
husband, was arrested at the same time on the
same charge, but for political reasons he was
not convicted. Governor Winthrop in his jour
nal credits her with having been “a strong
minded woman. ’’ She is known to have healed
the sick with but simple remedies. No evi
dence was shown that she had “bewitched any
one,” but a “public example” had to be made.
The court which tried her was chiefly compos
ed of the original founders of the colony. John
Winthrop was governor, Thomas Dudley dep
uty governor, and men of no less dignity than
John Endicott, Richard Bellingham, Increase
Nowell, Richard Salstonstall, Simon Bradstreet
and William Hibbins sat in court. One man
testified that her “imp” was seen in “the clear
daylight.” Winthrop’s journal reads: “At
this court, one Margaret Jones, of Charlestown,
was indicted and found guilty of witchcraft,
and hanged for it;” that she was found to have
“such a malignant touch.”
A contemporary, “Mr. John Gaule, Es
quire,” thus describes the mode of “watching
a witch:” “Having taken the sffspected witch,
she is placed in the middle of the room upon a
stool or table, crossed legged, or in some uneasy
posture, to which, if she submits not, she is
bound with cords. She is there watched and
kept without meat or sleep for the space of
four and twenty hours—for they say within
that time they shall see her imp come and suck.
A little hole is likewise made in the floor for
the imps to come in at.”
The hunting for witches had become a profit
able enterprise for some few creedists of Bos
ton and vicinity.
William Hibbins was one of the leading mer
chants of Boston. He left some wealth, dying
in 1654. The widow refused to give any of the
money to the local clergy to be used at their
discretion as charity. We find that on June 19,
1656, the third execution took place in Boston,
and that Mrs. Ann Hibbins was the unfortu
nate woman. A brief extract from the court
records under the date of May 14, 1656, reads:
“The Magistrates not receiving the verdict of
the Jury in Mrs. Hibbins, her case, having been
on trial for witchcraft, it came in and fell, of
course, to the General Court. Mrs. Ann Hib
bins was called forth; appeared at the bar; the
indictment against her read, to which she an
swered ‘Not guilty’ and as willing to be tried
by God and this court.” The verdict of the
jury was “guilty,” and in a few days widow
Ann was executed. At the time of the death of
Mrs. Hibbins Boston was in a state of great
excitement. But few women were seen upon
the streets. On Sundays all attended Church
for fear they would be declared to be of “evil
spirits.” The “Devil” was frequently men
tioned in the sermon of the preacher of the day.
The fourth and last execution for witchcraft
in Boston is perhaps the most interesting of
this monograph. It took place Nov. 16, 1688.
There resided in the “North End” one John
Goodwin, “a brave man and a good liver.”
The wife of Deacon Goodwin was an ardent
Christian. The children “were all remarkable
for ingenuity of temper,” the eldest being a
girl of fourteen years at the time of family
trouble. The dainty maiden appears to have
charged the laundress with taking away some
of the Goodwin linen. This at once aroused
the mother of the laundress (who, Governor
Hutchinson, in his abstract of facts, says “was
one of the wild Irish”). This daughter of
Erin gave the Goodwin maiden “harsh lan
guage,” and in a short time the girl fell into
fits. Soon one of her sisters and two brothers
were also taken sick in the same manner. This
thoroughly heated Boston and vicinity. The
ministers of the town kept a day of “fasting”
and prayed long and often at the Goodwin
home, The Rev. Cotton Mather, after his visit
to the modest dwelling, describes the father of
the family as “a sober and pious man, whose
trade is that of a mason.” The “wild Irish”
woman was the “Widow Glover.” After she
was taken for trial, a committee of ministers
searched her house and several small images,
or “puppets,” made of rags and stuffed with
goats’ hair, were found. The things were pro
duced in court. When questioned as to the
images, she stated to the court that to keep her
enemies from doing her harm she wet her fin
gers and stroked them. This she was required
to do before the court. Upon one of the Good
win children seeing her do this he fell into fits.
This was considered as the chief evidence
against the old lady. Dr. Thomas Oakes testi
fied that he had attended the family in their
sickness and that the children had “distem
pers,” and concluding said it was “nothing
but hellish witchcraft.”
Our early friend in “ye arts of medicine”
was member of Mather’s Church. He too was
to a large degree insane with the then popu
lar religious thought: “Right before ye Liv
ing God” and in “ye most holy open court”
the judge asked the ancient widow if she had
“any one to stand by her.” She at once look
ed upward and replied, “No, he is gone.” An
other witness, one Mrs. Hughes, testified that
she had seen Glover “come down the chim
ney.” While Mrs. Glover was in prison Doctor
Mather visited her twice that he might “ques
tion her” and pray for her welfare “in heav
en.” She informed him that she “could pray
for herself. ’’ She spoke of her “spirits” or
her “Saints.” Mr. Mather writes at length
upon the shameful subject. The following con
cludes his narrative: “All that I have now to
publish is that Prayer and Faith was the thing
which drove the devils from the children, and
I am to hear this testimony unto the world:
That the Lord is nigh to all them that call up
on Him in truth, and that blessed are all they
that wait for Him.” John Goodwin “and Mar
tha, his wife,” were received into Dr. Mather’s
Church May 15, 1690. Their eldest son, Nath
aniel, on the 22d of July, 1728, took out letters
of administration on the estate of the lamented
Cotton Mather.
The witches sleep in the Copp’s Hill, King’s
Chapel, and the Granary graveyards. No costly
stones mark their last resting-places.
Times have changed in Boston. It is to be
remembered that it was the Puritans and not
the Pilgrims that were so intolerant. Many
of their descendants have fallen into the pop
ular and rational way of reasoning, thus mak
ing them builders in the arena of civilization.
4* 4* 4*
FLOWERS FROM BETHLEHEM.
0, messengers sweet from faraway!
I kiss you here with lips that pray;
For once the Christ who loved and knew
The lonely hills whereon you grew
Did press His feet upon the sod
Wherefrom you sprang—the thoughts of God!
ITALY HEMPERLY.
BE WISE—
You will if you take advan
tage of our Magnificent Of
fer on Page Sixteen.