Discover the Truth Behind Witchcraft Stories. William Godwin

      Chapter XXIV.

       Table of Contents

      Cotton and Increase Mather—The Case of Goodwin’s Daughter—That of Mr. Philip Smith—The Story of the Salem Witchcrafts—List of Victims—Release of Suspects—Reversal of Attainder, and Compensation.

We now come to the time of Cotton Mather, whose name is a ‘household word’ in connection with witchcraft in Massachusetts. He was the son of Increase Mather, D.D., one of the early presidents of Harvard College, was born in 1633, studied at Harvard, and at the age of twenty was appointed co-pastor with his father at Boston. He begins his first witch story thus: ‘There dwells at this time, in the south part of Boston, a sober and pious man, whose name is John Goodwin, whose Trade is that of a Mason, and whose Wife (to which a Good Report gives a share with him in all the Characters of Virtue) has made him the Father of six (now living) Children. Of these Children, all but the Eldest, who works with his Father at his Calling, and the Youngest, who lives yet upon the Breast of its mother, have laboured under the direful effects of a no less palpable than stupendous Witchcraft.’128

      As the reader will see that it is impossible to quote Cotton Mather very much at length, on account of his excessively rotund style, I must tell the story as briefly as possible. Sometimes these unhappy children would be by turns either deaf, dumb, or blind, or all three at once, their jaws be dislocated, and then close sharply with a loud snap. ‘They would bark at one another like Dogs, and again purr like so many Cats.... Yea they would fly like Geese; and be carried with an incredible Swiftness thro’ the air, having but just their Toes now and then upon the ground, and their Arms waved like the Wings of a Bird. One of them, in the House of a Kind Neighbour, flew the length of the Room, about 20 foot, and flew into an Infant’s high armed Chair; none seeing her feet all the way touch the floor.’

      Cotton Mather took the eldest daughter home to live with them, in order that he ‘might be furnished with Evidence and Argument as a Critical Eye Witness, to confute the Saducism of this debauched Age.’ For some days all went well, but on November 20 she was once more possessed. She tried to fly, to dive, her eyes sunk into her head, so that they thought they would never return to their normal position, and she complained that Goody Glover, a poor crazy Irish woman, had put an invisible but very potent chain round her leg. She could not read the Bible, but a Quaker book she was able to read, with the exception of the names of God and Christ. Queer books, like the ‘Oxford Jests’ and ‘Cambridge Jests,’ she could read well enough, but could only pronounce the words ‘Devils’ or ‘Witches’ with extreme difficulty.

      ‘Every now and then an Invisible Horse would be brought unto her by those whom she only called them, and, Her Company: upon the Approach of Which, her eyes would be still closed up; for, (said she) They say I am a Tell-Tale, and, therefore, they will not let me see them. Upon this would she give a Spring as one mounting an Horse, and Settling her self in a Riding Posture, she would, in her Chair be agitated as one sometimes Amble-ing sometimes Trotting, and sometimes Galloping very furiously.’

      This state of things would not do, so divers ministers and devout friends fell to a-praying, but all to no purpose, her invisible adversaries on one occasion dragging her to an oven which was heating, and another time choking her, till she was black in the face, with an invisible rope and noose; she even began to torment good Mr. Mather. ‘When I had begun to study my Sermon, her Tormentors again seized upon her; and all Fryday and Saturday did they manage her with a special Design, as was plain, to disturb me in what I was about. In the worst of her extravagancies, formerly, she was more dutiful to myself than I had reason to Expect, but, now, her whole carriage to me, was with a Sauciness that I had not been us’d to be treated with. She would knock at my Study Door, affirming That some below would be glad to see me; when there was none that ask’t for me. She would call to me with multiplyed Impertinences, and throw small things at me, wherewith she could not give me any hurt. Shee’d Hector me at a strange rate for the work I was at, and threaten me with I know not what mischief for it.’

      By dint of energetic prayer she began to amend, but she had one more very bad breakout. ‘Moreover, Both she at my house, and her Sister at home, at the time which they call Christmas, were by the Dæmons, made very drunk, though they had no strong Drink (as we are fully sure) to make them so. When she began to feel herself thus drunk, she complain’d, O, they say they will have me to keep Christmas with them! They will disgrace me when they can do nothing else! And, immediately the Ridiculous Behaviour of one drunk, were with a wonderful exactness represented in her Speaking, and Reeling, and Spewing, and anon Sleeping, till she was well again.’

      The next example Cotton Mather gives us is that of ‘Mr. Philip Smith, aged about Fifty years, a Son of eminently vertuous Parents, a Deacon of the Church at Hadley, a Member of our General Court, an Associate in their County Court, a Select-man for the affairs of the Town, a Lieutenant in the Troop; and, which crowns all, a man for Devotion and Gravity, and all that was Honest, exceeding exemplary. Such a man, in the Winter of the year 1684 was murdered with an hideous Witchcraft, which filled all those parts with a just astonishment.

      ‘He was concerned about Relieving the Indigencies of a wretched woman in the Town; who, being dissatisfied at some of his just cares about her, expressed her self unto him in such a manner, that he declared himself apprehensive of receiving mischief at her hands; he said he doubted she would attempt his Hurt.’

      In the beginning of the following January he fell sick, and took to his bed; but he could not rest, he was delirious and spoke in sundry voices and languages, and felt hundreds of pins pricking him all over. Sometimes there was a strange smell of musk about the place. As, in his agony, he called upon the supposed witch, his kind friends ‘did three or four times in one Night go and give Disturbance to the Woman that we have spoken of: all the while they were doing of it, the good man was at ease, and slept as a weary man; and these were all the times they perceived him to take any sleep at all.’

      Sometimes fire was seen on the bed, but when attention was called to it, it vanished. Something as big as a cat moved in the bed, but no one could catch it; and ‘a discreet and sober Woman, resting on the Bed’s Feet, felt as it were, a Hand, the Thumb and the Finger of it, taking her by the side and giving her a Pinch; but turning to see What it might be, nothing was to be seen.’ Many more marvels occurred, and at last the poor man died, yet even then his bed moved of itself more than once, and at night, when they were preparing for his funeral, noises were heard in the room ‘as though there had been a great Removing and Clattering of stools and chairs.’ I cannot find that the witch was punished.

      He next gives an instance of a boy at Tocutt, who held a great deal of communication with the Devil without absolutely resigning his soul to him, and who must have lived a very uncomfortable existence. ‘He speaks of men coming to him before they come in Sight; and, once, two being with him, their Backs