The Penguin Book of Witches (17 page)

[Mr. Noyes]:
I believe it is apparent she practiceth witchcraft in the congregation. There is no need of images.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What do you say to all these things that are apparent?

[Martha Cory]:
If you will all go hang me, how can I help it?

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Were you to serve the Devil ten years? Tell how many.
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She laughed.

The children cried,
There was a yellow bird with her.

When Mr. Hathorne asked her about it, she laughed.

When her hands were at liberty, the afflicted persons were pinched.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Why do not you tell how the Devil comes in your shapes and hurts these? You said you would.

[Martha Cory]:
How can I know how?

She laughed again.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What book is that you would have these children write it?

[Martha Cory]:
What book? Where should I have a book? I showed them none, nor have none nor brought none.

The afflicted cried out there was a man whispering in her ears.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What book did you carry to Mary Walcott?

[Martha Cory]:
I carried none. If the Devil appears in my shape.

Then Needham said that Parker some time ago thought this woman was a witch.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Who is your God?

[Martha Cory]:
The God that made me.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Who is that God?

[Martha Cory]:
The God that made me.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What is his name?

[Martha Cory]:
Jehovah.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Do you know any other name?

[Martha Cory]:
God Almighty.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Doth he tell you that you pray to that he is God Almighty?

[Martha Cory]:
Who do I worship but the God that made?

[Mr. Hathorne]:
How many Gods are there?

[Martha Cory]:
One.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
How many persons?

[Martha Cory]:
Three.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Cannot you say so? There is one God in three blessed persons.

[Torn]

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Do not you see these children and women are rational and sober as their neighbors? When your hands are fastened.

Immediately they were seized with fits and the standers by said she was squeezing her fingers.

Her hands being eased by them that held them on purpose for trial.

Quickly after, the marshal said she hath bit her lip and immediately the afflicted were in an uproar.

[Torn]

[Mr. Hathorne]:
You hurt these. Or who doth?

She denieth any hand in it.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Why did you say if you were a witch you should have no pardon?

[Martha Cory]:
Because I am a [torn] woman.

Salem Village, March the 21st, 1691/2

The Reverend Mr. Samuel Parris being desired to take in writing the examination of Martha Cory, hath returned it as aforesaid. Upon hearing the aforesaid and seeing what we did then see, together with the charges of the persons then present we committed Martha Cory, the wife of Giles Cory of Salem Farms, unto the jail in Salem as mittimus then given out.

John Hathorne. Assistant, Jonathan Corwin.

The accusation of Rebecca Nurse, like that of Martha Cory, represented a complete break with convention in New England witch trials. Rebecca Nurse was universally well liked and, like Martha Cory, was a full church member. Unlike the other accused witches who were women of middle age, therefore posing at least a theoretical threat of bringing physical harm against their accusers, Nurse’s possible malfeasance would have been confined wholly to the spectral realm. Rebecca Nurse at the time of the trials was sick and bedridden.
1
Only through spectral means, such as sending her spirit out in a different shape, could she harm anyone, opening the legal problem of spectral evidence in the course of the Salem witch trials. Theologians remained undecided over whether the Devil could assume the shape of an innocent person.

Rebecca Nurse’s accusation stemmed from the reported spectral sufferings of Ann Putnam Jr., the daughter of Thomas Putnam. The Putnams and the extended Nurse family had been in conflict for several years over the boundaries of their land, and so Ann would have heard her spoken of often in the course of family discussions and complaints. In fact, it has been suggested that Ann Carr Putnam, the mother of Ann Jr., supplied the name to the apparition that Ann Jr. reported seeing.
2

Unlike Martha Cory, who was dismissive during her examination, Rebecca Nurse appeared calm and godly, expressing empathy for the afflicted girls. Nurse believed in the reality of their bewitchment, even if she claimed to be an “innocent person” herself. Her empathy did not save her, in the end, from the gallows, any more than Cory’s contempt.

Rebecca Nurse’s Examination
3

The Examination of Rebecca Nurse at Salem Village, 24 March, 1691/2

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What do you say (speaking to one afflicted)? Have you seen this woman hurt you?

[Afflicted girl]:
Yes, she beat me this morning.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Abigail, have you been hurt by this woman?

[Abigail]:
Yes.

Ann Putnam in a grievous fit cried out that she hurt her.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Goody Nurse, here are two, Ann Putnam the child and Abigail Williams, complain of your hurting them. What do you say to it?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I can say before my eternal father I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Here is never a one in the assembly but desires it, but if you be guilty, may God discover you.

Then Henry Kenny rose up to speak.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Goodman Kenny, what do you say?

Then he entered his complaint and farther said that since this Nurse came into the house, We was seized twice with an amazed
4
condition.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Here are not only these but here is the wife of Mr. Thomas Putnam who accuseth you by credible information and that both of tempting her to iniquity and of greatly hurting her.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I ha[scored out] am innocent and clear and have not been able to get out of doors these 8 or 9 days.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Mr. Putnam, give in what you have to say.

Then Mr. Edward Putnam gave in his relate.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Is this true Goody Nurse?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I never afflicted no child never in my life.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
You see these accuse you. Is it true?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
No.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Are you an innocent person relating to this witchcraft?

Here Thomas Putnam’s wife cried out,
Did you not bring the black man with you? Did you not bid me tempt God and die? How oft have you eat and drunk your own damaon?
5

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What do you say to them?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
Oh, Lord help me,
and spread out her hands, and the afflicted were grievously vexed.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Do you not see what a solemn condition these are in? When your hands are loose the persons are afflicted.

Then Mary Walcott (who often heretofore said she had seen her, but never could say or did say that she either bit or pinched her or hurt her) and also Elizabeth Hubbard
6
under the like circumstances both openly accused her of hurting them.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Here are these 2 grown persons now accuse you. What say you? Do not you see these afflicted persons and hear them accuse you?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
The Lord knows I have not hurt them. I am an innocent person.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
It is very awful to all to see these agonies and you an old professor
7
thus charged with contracting with the Devil by the effects of it and yet to see you stand with dry eyes when these are so many what.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
You do not know my heart.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
You would do well if you are guilty to confess and give glory to God.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I am clear as the child unborn.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What uncertainty there may be in apparitions I know not, yet this with me strikes hard upon you that you are at this very present charged with familiar spirits. This is your bodily person they speak to. They say now they see these familiar spirits come to your bodily person. Now what do you say to that?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I have none, sir.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
If you have confessed and give glory to God, I pray God clear you if you be innocent, and if you are guilty discover you. And therefore give me an upright answer. Have you any familiarity with these spirits?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
No, I have none but with God alone.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
How came you sick for there is an odd discourse of that in the mouths of many.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I am sick at my stomach.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Have you no wounds?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I have none but old age.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
You do know whether you are guilty and have familiarity with the Devil and now when you are here present to see such a thing as these testify a black man whispering in your ear and birds about you, what do you say to it?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
It is all false. I am clear.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Possibly you may apprehend you are no witch, but have you not been led aside by temptations that way?
8

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I have not.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What a sad thing is it that a church member here and now an
9
others of Salem should be thus accused and charged.

Mrs. Pope fell into a grievous fit and cried out,
A sad thing sure enough.
And then many more fell into lamentable fits.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Tell us. Have not you had visible appearances more than what is common in nature?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I have none nor never had in my life.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Do you think these suffer voluntary or involuntary?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I cannot tell.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
That is strange. Everyone can judge.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I must be silent.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
They accuse you of hurting them, and if you think it is [torn] but by design you must look upon them as murderers.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I cannot tell what to think of it.

Afterward when she was somewhat insisted on, she said,
I do not think so.
She did not understand aright what was said.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Well, then, give an answer now. Do you think these suffer against their wills or not?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I do not think these suffer against their wills.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Why did you never visit these afflicted persons?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
Because I was afraid I should have fits too.

Not upon the motion of her body had [scored out] fits followed upon the complainants abundantly and very frequently.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Is it not an unaccountable case that when yes[scored out] you are examined these persons are afflicted?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I have got nobody to look to but God.

Again upon stirring her hands, the afflicted persons were seized with violent fits of torture.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
Do you believe these afflicted persons are bewitched?

[Rebecca Nurse]:
I do think they are.
10

[Mr. Hathorne]:
When this witchcraft came upon the stage there was no suspicion of Tituba
(Mr. Parris’s Indian woman)
. She professed much love to that child Betty Parris, but it was her apparition did the mischief, and why should not you also be guilty, for your apparition doth hurt also.

[Rebecca Nurse]:
Would you have me bely
11
my your [scored out] self.

She held her neck on one side, and accordingly so were the afflicted taken.

The authority requiring it Samuel Parris read what he had in character
12
taken from Mr. Thomas Putman’s wife in her fits.

[Mr. Hathorne]:
What do you think of this?

[Verso]

This is a true account of the sum of her examination, but by reason of great noises by the afflicted and many speakers many things are pretermitted.
13

Memorandum

Nurse held her neck on one side and Elizabeth Hubbard (one of the sufferers) had her neck set in that posture. Whereupon another patient, Abigail Williams, cried out, Set up Goody Nurse’s head. The maid’s neck will be broke and when some set up Nurse’s head Aaron Wey observed that Betty Hubbard’s was immediately righted.

Salem Village, March 24th, 1691/2

The Reverend Mr. Samuel Parris being desired to take in writing the examination of Rebecca Nurse hath returned it aforesaid.

Upon hearing the aforesaid and seeing what we then did see together with the charges of the persons then present were committed Rebecca Nurse, the wife of Frances Nurse of Salem Village, unto Their Majesties’ jail in Salem as a Mittimus then given out, and [scored out] in order to further examination.

John Hathorne. Assistant, Jonathan Corwin