Six Women of Salem (44 page)

We have knowne her for many years and Acording to our observation her Life and conversation was Acording to hur profestion [of being a Christian] and we never had Any cause or grounds to suspect her of Any such thing as she is nowe Acused of.

True, one of the thirty-six signers was Daniel Andrews, now a fugitive from a witchcraft charge. The family may not have risked using this petition before, or they may have hoped any one name might be overlooked. Perhaps the governor would not notice that detail.

Now on Monday, July 4, the day after Rebecca’s excommunication, while the local magistrates dealt with the unruly examinations of Mrs. Hawkes and Candy, the Nurse family collected statements and copies of court papers to support their case with an emphasis on clarifying the association of Rebecca with the Hobbs woman as “one of us.”

Clerk of the Court of Oyer and Terminer Stephen Sewall provided a sheaf of twenty copies and penned this comment on the sheet containing Rebecca’s indictment for tormenting Annie Putnam:

In this Tryall are Twenty papers besides this Judgment & these were in this Tryall as well as other Tryalls of the Same Nature Severall Evidences viva voce which were not written & so I can give no Copies of them Some for & Some against the parties Some of the Confessors did alsoe Mention this & other persons in their Severall declaracions which being promised & Considered the sd
20
papers herewith fild is the whole Tryall attest Steph Sewall Clerk

Copy of the above wrote on the Judgmt wch I Gave out to the Nurses

Francis then approached Thomas Fisk, the jury foreman for Rebecca’s trial, for a statement:

I Thomas Fisk, the Subscriber hereof, being one of them that were of the Jury the last week at Salem-Court, upon the Tryal of Rebecka Nurse, &c. being desired by some of the Relations to give a Reason why the Jury brought her in Guilty, after her Verdict not Guilty; I do hereby give my Reasons to be as follows, viz.

When the Verdict not Guilty was, the honoured Court was pleased to object against it, saying to them, that they think they let slip the words, which the Prisoner at the Bar spake against her self, which were spoken in reply to Goodwife Hobbs and her Daughter, who had been faulty in setting their hands to the Devils Book, as they have confessed formerly; the words were “What do these persons give in Evidence against me now, they used to come among us.” After the honoured Court had manifested their dissatisfaction of the Verdict, several of the Jury declared themselves desirous to go out again, and thereupon the honoured Court gave leave; but when we came to consider of the Case, I could not tell how to take her words, as an Evidence against her, till she had a further opportunity to put her Sense upon them, if she would take it; and then going into Court, I mentioned the words aforesaid, which by one of the Court were affirmed to have been spoken by her, she being then at the Bar, but made no reply, nor interpretation of them; whereupon these words were to me a principal Evidence against her.

Thomas Fisk

Rebecca herself dictated a statement to clear up the misunderstanding:

These presents do humbly shew, to the honoured Court and Jury, that I being informed, that the Jury brought me in Guilty, upon my saying that Goodwife Hobbs and her Daughter were of our Company; but I intended no otherways, then as they were Prisoners with us, and therefore did then, and yet do judge them not legal Evidence against their fellow Prisoners. And I being something hard of hearing, and full of grief, none informing me how the Court took up my words, and therefore had not opportunity to declare what I intended, when I said they were of our Company.

Rebecka Nurse.

The packet probably also included the statement from two of Rebecca’s daughters, Rebecca Preston and Mary Tarbell, offering to testify about the supposed witch-mark. This impressive collection of all the testimonials in Rebecca’s favor, the petition, the juror’s explanation that matched Rebecca’s own—surely the governor would see reason.

As Rebecca’s statement was dated July 4, the family must have taken the papers to Boston soon afterward. The legislature recessed on July 5 until October, but Phips was still in town to meet with his Council of Assistants (which included John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, who were also justices of the Court of Oyer and Terminer). Fortunately Phips had not yet returned to the frontier to oversee defenses. There was no point in approaching the lieutenant governor, William Stoughton, the rigid chief justice on the court that had found Rebecca guilty and, therefore, was unlikely to change his mind. July 6 was Harvard’s commencement, a day when everyone and his uncle seemed to crowd into Cambridge for the ceremonies and festivities. On July 7 Phips commissioned Anthony Checkley as the new King’s attorney to replace Thomas Newton, now secretary of New Hampshire. (Newton’s leaving appears to be for professional advancement rather than for any disagreement with the court’s method of dealing with spectral evidence.) Then, on July 8, Phips announced that he would soon return to Maine.

So the Nurse kin, led by Francis, presented their petition and paperwork on Rebecca’s behalf for the governor to consider during the first week of July before his return to the frontier war.

William Phips had grown up at the edge of English settlement in Maine, apprenticed as a ship carpenter, progressed to owning and captaining his own trading vessels, and, full of ambition, moved to Boston, where he married another Maine native, Mary Spencer, who, some hinted, taught him to read. Phips gambled on a sunken treasure expedition that failed, narrowly escaped mutiny from his piratical crew, got backing from King Charles II himself, failed once more, started a third expedition backed by various London merchants, and then finally succeeded beyond expectation. London balladeers made songs about his triumph, and the new king, James II (whose treasury was enriched by the crown’s share of the recovered treasure) knighted the New Englander. Now
Sir
William Phips, he was nevertheless more at home among seafaring men and soldiers than he was with politicians. His working relationship with William Stoughton was decidedly uneasy.

The preponderance of favorable documents along with whatever they were able to say in person to Phips at last convinced the governor that the second verdict
was
based on faulty information. Phips issued a reprieve, and the Nurse family, enormously relieved after months of worry and days of desperation, returned home from Boston in triumph.

But as soon as this reversal was known—or at the moment Phips signed the order, as the afflicted later claimed—the interested parties panicked. Certainly, the startling news threatened Ann and Annie Putnam, as their testimony had branded Rebecca as their great enemy. Fear of a freed witch returning to exact revenge and that their own testimony was now in doubt must have terrified them. As the accused so well knew, not being believed held deadly consequences. Even if they were fully convinced, as they may have been, that what they said was true, a warning voice in the back of the head must have sounded. Repercussions that could befall them—from neighbors; from the courts; from God Himself, who despised liars, considering them heirs of the Devil, Prince of Lies. To them the Nurse woman
had
to be guilty; the Putnams’ fears
had
to be real and based on reality.

All of the afflicted witnesses fell into seizures severe enough that “some Salem Gentlemen” hastened to Phips and persuaded him to rescind the order.

It took most of a day to reach Boston. Who were those unnamed “Salem Gentlemen?” Thomas Putnam and his supporters seem likely candidates as do the local magistrates sitting on the Court of Oyer and Terminer who had ordered the second session after the original guilty verdict. As representatives for Salem in the General Court, Hathorne and Corwin would be in Boston. As Assistants, they would have the governor’s ear. Perhaps Thomas Putnam—if it were he—contacted them once he hastened to Boston, and they arranged an interview with Governor Phips, no doubt letting him know their strong views on what was occurring.

Did Rebecca ever go free? Even for a short time to see her loved ones in her own home? Or did the second order arrive so quickly that it dashed all hope of that before the jailer could release her? So close, so close—and still that door slammed shut.

On Tuesday, July 12, Stoughton signed another death warrant:

To George Corwine Gent. High Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting

Whereas Sarah Good Wife of William Good of Salem Villiage Rebecka Nurse wife of Francis Nurse of Salem Villiage Susanna Martin of Amesbury Widow Elizabeth How wife of James How of Ipswich Sarah Wild Wife of John Wild of Topsfield all of the County of Essex in thier Majesties’ Province of the Massachusets Bay in New England Att A Court of Oyer & Terminer held . . . On the
29
th day of June last were Severaly Arraigned On Severall Indictments for the horrible Crime of Witchcraft by them practised & Comitted On Severall persons . . . they were Each of them found & brought in Guilty by the Jury that passed On them according to thier respective Indictments and Sentence of death did then pass upon them as the Law directs . . .

[Sheriff George Corwin was therefore commanded] in thier Majesties’ Names . . . upon Tuesday Next being the
19
th day of . . . July between the houres of Eight & twelve in the forenoon the Same day you Safely conduct the sd Sarah Good Rebecka Nurse Susanna Martin Elizabeth How & Sarah Wild from thier Majesties’ Goal in Salem aforesd to the place of Execucion & There Cause them & Every of them to be hanged by the Necks untill they be dead . . . Given under my hand & Seale at Boston the
12
th day of July in the fourth yeare of the Reign of Our Soveraign Lord & Lady Wm & Mary King & Queen &c

Anno Dom. 1692   Wm Stoughton

Learning that the death warrant had been formally issued would have eased only some of Ann Putnam’s anxieties, for the plague of witches had now spread to Andover. The conspiracy was growing, despite her family’s valiant efforts.

A rider leading another horse arrived in Ann’s dooryard one day around this time to respectfully ask Mr. Putnam whether he would allow his daughter to use her spectral sight to reveal who tormented the wife of his master, Joseph Ballard, a constable in Andover. Might the girls do for Andover what they had done at Will’s Hill?

So Annie and Mercy Lewis rode off to Andover. They later returned to recount how tortured the feverish Goodwife Elizabeth Ballard was and who she said she saw lurking at her bedside.

The girls saw specters too: of elderly Ann Foster, her daughter and granddaughter, as well as Mary Bradbury, whose material body was locked in Salem jail. The latter was no surprise to Ann or most of her Carr relatives; Bradbury’s specter had been going after Timothy Swan in Andover for some weeks already along with specters of old Ann Foster and her kin.

On this spectral evidence and for Goody Ballard’s sake, Ann Foster was under arrest and in Salem Village for questioning by Friday, July 15.

For this session local justice John Higginson Jr. joined Gedney, Hathorne, and Corwin on the bench. Higginson, son and namesake of Salem’s senior minister, was also brother to Ann Dolliver, who was currently jailed on suspicion of witchcraft. If any suspects hoped that Higginson’s presence would change the other justices’ minds, they would be disappointed.

Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott were especially tortured during this hearing, and Goody Foster confessed, verifying the accusers’ fears to the court. The old woman described how the Devil had come to her six months earlier as a strange, big-eyed bird that “came white & vanished away black.” It promised prosperity, which the Devil never delivered, and she had had the gift “of striking the aflicted downe wth her eye ever since.” But it was Martha Carrier who persuaded her to hurt
these
afflicted people.

Over the next few days she claimed her devilish service was six years, then two—but still blamed Goody Carrier. The witches’ purpose in afflicting the Village folk was part of their plan “to set up the Divills Kingdome,” she said, and then signed her confession with a mark. Her story kept changing, but because she did not try to deny her confession, the magistrates believed her.

But her confession did not prevent her relatives’ specters from assaulting the languishing Goody Ballard as well as Timothy Swan. Swan, from a large, raucous family farming in Haverhill across the Merrimack from Andover, was found guilty of siring Elizabeth Emerson’s first child, the infant she said was the result of rape, though the court did not believe that part of the story. This was the same Elizabeth Emerson presently in Boston prison awaiting execution for the infanticide of the twins she bore a few years later.

____________________

Francis Nurse has not attended Sabbath services in Salem Village for months now. Not only was the twitching of the afflicted distracting, but their yelping also drowned out the prayers and sermons—which may have been a blessing, because, when they did shut up, Reverend Parris was bound to be gabbling claptrap that made the suspects seem guilty of witchcraft. Even Rebecca.
Even
my
Rebecca,
he thinks.

All that and those furtive sidelong glances from his neighbors when they thought he didn’t notice—it was only a matter of time before all the Nurses are accused. It is simpler to keep heading north to Topsfield come Sunday. Then they can be with their kin, the families of Rebecca’s accused imprisoned sisters. And Topsfield’s minister, Reverend Capen, was willing to believe the accusations might be mistaken.