Speaker 1: It wasn't the sort of gathering one would have expected
Speaker 1: in Salem Village, especially after months of intense fear, public executions,
Speaker 1: and personal betrayal. It was the sort of thing you
Speaker 1: might have expected the year prior, or many years later,
Speaker 1: just not now, Not on October, after nine months of
Speaker 1: devoting every ounce of attention and energy toward the Witchcraft trials.
Speaker 1: It was a baptism, two actually, from two different local families,
Speaker 1: and they all gathered in the Salem Village meeting house
Speaker 1: to partake in that essential tradition that put their children
Speaker 1: on the path toward membership. It was a ceremony that
Speaker 1: was meant to feel special and encouraging. It was a
Speaker 1: sign of health and growth, and honestly it was normal,
Speaker 1: and maybe everyone in the village needed a bit of
Speaker 1: normalcy for a change. But there was a darkness surrounding
Speaker 1: this baptism because both families had recently experienced death and
Speaker 1: the pain was still fresh worse yet, each of those
Speaker 1: families blamed the other for their loss. So while the
Speaker 1: baptisms were meant to signify a new beginning, each of
Speaker 1: them was more likely to be consumed with the past.
Speaker 1: The first of these families was Thomas and and Putnam.
Speaker 1: We know them as the parents of Annie Putnam, one
Speaker 1: of the most vocal afflicted girls. Over the course of
Speaker 1: the trials, Annie and her mother Anne had both provided
Speaker 1: mountains of spectral evidence for the courts, while Thomas had
Speaker 1: been working with the court to bring as many witches
Speaker 1: to justice as he could. But through all of that,
Speaker 1: And had been pregnant with their newborn daughter, Abigail, through
Speaker 1: all of the fits and seizures, through the chaos inside
Speaker 1: her own household, through countless days in court giving testimonies
Speaker 1: against the accused. Maybe it was religious piety that drove
Speaker 1: them all to do it, or maybe it was something
Speaker 1: much more personal, because three years prior, Thomas and Anne
Speaker 1: had to endure the death of their daughter, Sarah, who
Speaker 1: was barely six weeks old at the time. It was
Speaker 1: a tragedy that no parent should have to go through,
Speaker 1: and it happened without reason or obvious cause. That is
Speaker 1: until their daughter Annie gave testimony in court one day
Speaker 1: in claiming to see the ghost of John Willard, the
Speaker 1: escaped constable who was captured, brought back, and later executed.
Speaker 1: Annie told the court that he confessed to her that
Speaker 1: he was the one who had killed little Sarah. He
Speaker 1: whipped her to death with a spectral lash. So, as
Speaker 1: you can imagine, Thomas and and Putnam were upset, even
Speaker 1: if they were a bitness guy did. And while it
Speaker 1: might not make sense right now, it's important to know
Speaker 1: that they blamed the other family for Sarah's death, a
Speaker 1: family that you've never heard of before, the Tarbells, who
Speaker 1: were present at the baptism with their own son, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: Little Jonathan Tarbell was older than the Putnam's newborn. He
Speaker 1: had been born in the spring, just as the witchcraft
Speaker 1: panic had begun to pick up speed. But his parents,
Speaker 1: John and Mary Tarbell had experienced their own portion of
Speaker 1: loss over the months between his birth and baptism. Mary,
Speaker 1: you see, was the daughter of Rebecca Nurse, and the
Speaker 1: Putnam's had been instrumental in her arrest and conviction. And
Speaker 1: yet despite those intents and passionate differences, they were standing
Speaker 1: together in the Salem Village meeting house. Reverend Paris had
Speaker 1: to have known how awkward things were between the two families,
Speaker 1: and yet there was nothing he could do about it.
Speaker 1: This innocent event was a small dem straation of a
Speaker 1: much larger truth life was never going to be the
Speaker 1: same in Salem. This is unobscured. I'm aaron Manky. Passionate
Speaker 1: people are capable of enormous amounts of work. If you
Speaker 1: believe in something deeply enough, that belief can act like
Speaker 1: a fuel that drives the car forward. But how that
Speaker 1: power is used is entirely up to the person, and
Speaker 1: Thomas and Ann Putnam spent months focusing theirs into the
Speaker 1: destruction of the lives around them. In the first few
Speaker 1: weeks of the witchcraft trials, Thomas Putnam filed eight complaints
Speaker 1: with the magistrates against a total of twenty one people.
Speaker 1: He saw it as his duty to put a stop
Speaker 1: to the activity of the witches before the village was
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by the devil's forces, and I drove him to action.
Speaker 1: By the time the baptism of his daughter Abigail rolled
Speaker 1: around in October, Thomas and his family were responsible in
Speaker 1: some way or another for the prosecution of at least
Speaker 1: fifty eight individuals. That's more than one third of the
Speaker 1: entire collection of accused and arrested. Throughout the trials, Thomas
Speaker 1: Putnam was a busy man. One of the most significant
Speaker 1: moments for the Putnam family was when Thomas's daughter Annie
Speaker 1: testified that George Burrows Specter had bragged to her about
Speaker 1: his efforts to advance the Devil's kingdom in Maine. She
Speaker 1: claimed he told her he had recruited a great many
Speaker 1: witches into his army and they were coming for them all.
Speaker 1: But Thomas and Annie weren't alone in their efforts to
Speaker 1: fight the witchcraft epidemic. Despite being pregnant and willingly threw
Speaker 1: herself into the fray. In fact, she was one of
Speaker 1: the very few adults who joined the afflicted girls in
Speaker 1: the courtroom displays of spiritual warfare and spectral visions. And
Speaker 1: that was a bold claim from such a well respected
Speaker 1: member of the Salem village community. So when Rebecca Nurse
Speaker 1: had stood trial, it was Ann Putnam's testimony that rose
Speaker 1: above all the others. Remember, Rebecca had been a full
Speaker 1: member in good standing in the church. She was loved
Speaker 1: and respected by many, and lived a generous and humble life.
Speaker 1: The word of a few young teenagers wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be enough to convict her. That's why, and Putnam added
Speaker 1: her own voice. Today, some historians believe that Thomas and
Speaker 1: and Annie, along with their households, servant girl Mercy Lewis
Speaker 1: were responsible for more than one hundred sixty witchcraft accusations.
Speaker 1: They were waging a war against an entire coven of witches,
Speaker 1: and that somehow made John Willard, Rebecca Nurse and all
Speaker 1: the others responsible for the death of their daughter Sarah
Speaker 1: three years before. The Tarbells begged to differ. Yes, they
Speaker 1: might have been related to Rebecca Nurse by blood, but
Speaker 1: they had done an admirable job of staying out of
Speaker 1: the spotlight all year long, and honestly, who could blame them?
Speaker 1: They watched as Mary's mother and aunts were rounded up
Speaker 1: and arrested, and by late October two of them had
Speaker 1: been executed. John Tarbell only appears in the court documents once.
Speaker 1: In March of that year, when accusations were pointed at
Speaker 1: his mother in law, Rebecca Nurse. John actually went to
Speaker 1: the home of Thomas Putnam and demanded to know who
Speaker 1: had been the first to accuse her. Mercy Lewis said
Speaker 1: it was Anne, and of course said it was Mercy.
Speaker 1: None of them would admit to who slipped young Annie
Speaker 1: Putnam Rebecca's name, though, and the matter en did there,
Speaker 1: allowing her arrest and conviction. To move forward, Mary and
Speaker 1: John Tarbell would have been front row witnesses to the
Speaker 1: destruction caused by the witchcraft trials. They rented farmland from
Speaker 1: Mary's parents and were close to her family, including her
Speaker 1: aunt's Sarah Klois and Mary Esty. As the accusations flew
Speaker 1: like bullets and struck member after member of their family,
Speaker 1: it would have been easy for them to see who
Speaker 1: was firing the shots, the Putnam's. But despite this, Mary's
Speaker 1: family wasn't the only one hit so hard. Sure, the
Speaker 1: high profile hangings of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty, alongside
Speaker 1: other families like the Proctors and the Corries, are the
Speaker 1: ones we tend to remember. But as the witchcraft trials
Speaker 1: wore on through the summer and fall, bigger numbers began
Speaker 1: to add up in nearby and Over, and they told
Speaker 1: a frightening story. Through August and September, the number of
Speaker 1: accused witches in Andover had exploded to more than forty
Speaker 1: six individuals. That's more than Salem Town and Salem Village combined,
Speaker 1: and it highlighted a dark fact. However much the Putnam's
Speaker 1: attacked and harmed the Nurse family, there was another clan
Speaker 1: in town that suffered the most. According to historians, this
Speaker 1: single family represented eleven percent of all suspects across the trials.
Speaker 1: We don't know when Edmund and Ann Ingalls moved into
Speaker 1: the area. They were part of a larger migration of
Speaker 1: settlers who moved into the colony decades before the witchcraft trials,
Speaker 1: putting down their roots in the town of Lynn. Those
Speaker 1: roots grew into a mighty tree over the years, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to try my best to give you a
Speaker 1: quick tour of all the branches hold on tight. Edmund
Speaker 1: and Anne had at least three children that we know of, Henry, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: and Faith, all of whom seemed to have moved north
Speaker 1: to and Over. Henry had three sons, Henry Jr. Samuel,
Speaker 1: and John. Elizabeth married the Andover minister Francis Dane, and
Speaker 1: Faith married into the Allen family. Simple so far right,
Speaker 1: Families grow, the kids get married, and they have kids,
Speaker 1: and on and on it goes. But the Ingles family
Speaker 1: had a long road ahead of them. You see, two
Speaker 1: of Faith's daughters were familiar to us already, Martha Carrier
Speaker 1: and Mary Toothicker. Martha, of course, was known as the
Speaker 1: Queen of Hell, and by the time the October baptisms arrived,
Speaker 1: she had already been executed. Mary, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: still sat in a jail awaiting her own trial and
Speaker 1: possible conviction, having already lost her husband, Roger, who died
Speaker 1: in jail months before. The Carriers weren't doing much better.
Speaker 1: Martha was hanged on August nine, and we've already covered
Speaker 1: that in an earlier episode. What I haven't mentioned is
Speaker 1: that her two children, seven year old Sarah and ten
Speaker 1: year old Thomas, were also arrested and examined in August.
Speaker 1: The accusations of Thomas Putnam had cut straight through the
Speaker 1: Carrier family, and the pain was powerful. Elizabeth Ingalls, as
Speaker 1: I said before, married the Andover minister Francis Dane, but
Speaker 1: despite being a solid and respected minister's family, two of
Speaker 1: their daughters, five of their grandchildren, and one daughter in
Speaker 1: law were all accused of witchcraft. In fact, historians think
Speaker 1: it was because of Francis that the accusations happened at all,
Speaker 1: due to how outspoken he was about his disapproval of
Speaker 1: which trials in general. But family ties were incredibly significant
Speaker 1: and incriminating during the events of and guilt by association
Speaker 1: was a deadly reality for many. The Ingles family and
Speaker 1: their widespread of branches suffered through those attacks more than most. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: though they made it out alive. Some of them, at
Speaker 1: least one of their descendants would eventually move west by
Speaker 1: the way. He and his family would live in a
Speaker 1: little house on a big open prairie, and his daughter
Speaker 1: Laura would go on to write a series of books
Speaker 1: about growing up as a pioneer family in early America.
Speaker 1: Considering what Laura Ingalls Wilder's ancestors went through, her tails
Speaker 1: suggest that life can get better. Sadly, though there were
Speaker 1: some in Salem who didn't want that to happen. Thomas
Speaker 1: Putnam might have earned top marks as a citizen watchdog
Speaker 1: during the Salem trials, but thankfully he wasn't in a
Speaker 1: position of power. Given enough authority, Putnam might actually have
Speaker 1: done worse. Sadly, there was someone else in a position
Speaker 1: to do just that, William Stoughton. He had been in
Speaker 1: charge of the examinations almost from the very beginning, and
Speaker 1: he was the driving force behind the Oyer and terminer
Speaker 1: its sessions. He was even the one petitioning Governor Phipps
Speaker 1: for the chance to keep going to run his violent,
Speaker 1: biased witch hunt to the very end. Because of that,
Speaker 1: he developed a reputation for breaking families over his knee
Speaker 1: like a bundle of dry sticks. Stowton lived for power
Speaker 1: and prestige. He was known to entertain all of the
Speaker 1: most influential and powerful people from Boston at extravagant parties
Speaker 1: in his home. He had money and he liked showing
Speaker 1: it off, even importing chocolate as a treat for his guests.
Speaker 1: Back in September of six, Stowton had actually officiated a
Speaker 1: wedding and the gathering was a who's who of Massachusetts
Speaker 1: power players. The groom was none other than John Richards,
Speaker 1: one of the judges on the Court of Oyer and Terminer,
Speaker 1: and as bride was Annie Winthrop. She was the granddaughter
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts founder John Winthrop, as well as sister to
Speaker 1: wait Still Winthrop. Yet another of the judges, even Judge
Speaker 1: Samuel Sewell, was there. And I think this autumn wedding
Speaker 1: celebration shows off just how insulated many of the powerful
Speaker 1: people were from the witch trials. Families like the Tarbells
Speaker 1: and Putnam's couldn't attend their own baptisms without bumping into
Speaker 1: reminders of their loss and grief. But Stowton and his
Speaker 1: friends could retreat to their circles of power and pretend
Speaker 1: nothing was going on outside their beautiful walls. And this
Speaker 1: was the life that Stouton wanted. He was a colonial
Speaker 1: power broker, celebrating and raising a glass of Burgundy or
Speaker 1: Canary wine to the good health of his friends, with
Speaker 1: himself at the center of it all. But inside we
Speaker 1: know Stowton was thinking about other issues, and it wasn't
Speaker 1: a simple thing to leave it all outside the wedding.
Speaker 1: That very day, September one, was the day that the
Speaker 1: Wardwell family had been pulled from their home and arrested,
Speaker 1: four of them at once. In fact, they were thrown
Speaker 1: into a cart headed to the Salem jail, along with
Speaker 1: two other named teenage boys. The surge in accusations and
Speaker 1: arrests and andover had begun to peak, and Stowton would
Speaker 1: have been reveling in it. William Stoughton wanted the trials
Speaker 1: to continue. He believed in them. He was passionate about them.
Speaker 1: I think if there was a candidate for the one
Speaker 1: person who might have actually enjoyed them, Stoughton would be
Speaker 1: that person. So when Governor Phipps finally struck down the
Speaker 1: court of oyer and terminal, Stowton would have taken that
Speaker 1: as a personal slight, which of course Phipps knew. That's
Speaker 1: why he waited for Stowton to leave the General Court
Speaker 1: meeting before making his decision. The tide was turning, and
Speaker 1: Stowton knew it. Yes, there were still some who believed
Speaker 1: the trials were necessary and that there was a satanic
Speaker 1: plot against their Bible commonwealth and they needed to confront
Speaker 1: it head on. But there were many more who believe
Speaker 1: that the trials had relied too heavily on spectral evidence
Speaker 1: and forced false confessions out of the accused, and the results,
Speaker 1: they feared was damaged that was impossible to undo. The
Speaker 1: tension between Stowton and Phipps was just one example of
Speaker 1: that divide. Back in Salem Village, Thomas Putnam was still
Speaker 1: firm in his position that there was a spectral threat,
Speaker 1: but his younger half brother was balancing out the scales.
Speaker 1: Joseph Putnam had married into the Porter clan and made
Speaker 1: an enemy of his own kin by openly opposing the trial,
Speaker 1: and that was a risky position to take in There's
Speaker 1: a Putnam family legend that Joseph kept one of his
Speaker 1: horses saddled and ready for over six months during the
Speaker 1: witchcraft panic, and even carried a pistol. Also he could
Speaker 1: be ready to defend himself and flee should the need arise.
Speaker 1: Thomas might have wanted to round up more victims, but
Speaker 1: his brother Joseph clearly wanted it all to end. One
Speaker 1: thing I want to point out, though, no matter what
Speaker 1: side of the fence most colonists fell on whether they
Speaker 1: believe the court was just or unjust, they were still
Speaker 1: in agreement about the truth of the subject matter. They
Speaker 1: still believed that the Puritan community was under spiritual attack.
Speaker 1: They still believed that the devil could use sinful people
Speaker 1: from among them to undermine their mission. And they still
Speaker 1: believed in the power and existence of witches. If we
Speaker 1: want proof of that, we need look no further than
Speaker 1: the week after Phipps decided that the court of Oyer
Speaker 1: and Terminer must come to an end. That was when
Speaker 1: more accusations popped up in the town of Gloucester, just
Speaker 1: up the coast, Just as with and over a few
Speaker 1: of the afflicted girls from Salem. Elizabeth Hubbard among them
Speaker 1: traveled there to provide witch finding services. Over the course
Speaker 1: of three days, they identified three local women who had
Speaker 1: been attacking their neighbors with witchcraft, and they were summarily
Speaker 1: arrested on November five. This was a week after Phipps
Speaker 1: had called for no more arrests, and it didn't stop.
Speaker 1: There new accusations in the town of Wenham pointed the
Speaker 1: finger at the wife of Beverly minister John Hale, one
Speaker 1: of the few ministers who had been helpful to Samuel
Speaker 1: Paris throughout the spring. In response, Hale got on his
Speaker 1: horse and rode to the accuser's house. I assume he
Speaker 1: had intended to make the accusations go away, or to
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of why that person believed his
Speaker 1: wife would be a witch. But all we know is
Speaker 1: that he came away shaken by the experience. He later wrote,
Speaker 1: what grief of heart. It brings to a tender conscience
Speaker 1: to have been unwittingly encouraging the sufferings of the innocence. Hale,
Speaker 1: it seems, had finally seen the error of his ways
Speaker 1: and the destruction it had helped cause. But others were
Speaker 1: much less open to change. In growth and at the
Speaker 1: center of it all was one figure who held the
Speaker 1: movement in his hands and yet refused to bring it
Speaker 1: to an end. William Stoughton would not be swayed. How
Speaker 1: however misguided William Stoughton might have been, you can't deny
Speaker 1: his commitment to the moment. It didn't matter what sort
Speaker 1: of wind blew at him. He would not be pushed
Speaker 1: off course, Not by petitions from the accused before their deaths,
Speaker 1: not by the please of the innocent from their friends
Speaker 1: and neighbors. Certainly not by ministers who attempted to undermine
Speaker 1: the court by using scripture and Puritan custom against his
Speaker 1: own command of English law. Stoughton was unshakable, and he
Speaker 1: was also fully aware of his power. All he had
Speaker 1: to do was look inside the jails of the area
Speaker 1: around Salem to see its influence. Over fifty people were
Speaker 1: still in jail awaiting their own trial for witchcraft, and
Speaker 1: a handful were just waiting for the date of their
Speaker 1: execution to be announced. Elizabeth Procter was waiting for the
Speaker 1: birth of her unborn child so that she too could
Speaker 1: be taken to the gallows and hanged. On October thirty one,
Speaker 1: Stoughton had returned to the legislative meeting that were still
Speaker 1: going on in Boston. The Upper House was continuing to
Speaker 1: discuss the establishment of permanent courts, and he was part
Speaker 1: of that conversation. It was all Hallow's Eve, but the
Speaker 1: Puritans didn't celebrate Halloween. But let's be honest. Seeing a
Speaker 1: man as twisted and bloodthirsty as William Stoughton exercise his
Speaker 1: influence over the formation of a new government was probably
Speaker 1: frightening enough to the people around him. The Upper House
Speaker 1: spent the rest of November on setting out the terms
Speaker 1: by which the colony would operate, everything from the rights
Speaker 1: and duties of the local governments across the area, to
Speaker 1: a proposed public works tax that would be used to
Speaker 1: build bridges and care for the poor, and of course
Speaker 1: what laws would be complete without penalties for crimes such
Speaker 1: as counterfeiting. It wasn't sexy stuff, but it was the
Speaker 1: essential work of a new government, and there are little
Speaker 1: hidden gems in their work. For example, the Upper House
Speaker 1: seriously discussed a limitation on mackerel fishing, as well as
Speaker 1: options for how they might regulate trade in pickled fish,
Speaker 1: because there was apparently a lot of scandal in that industry.
Speaker 1: Those crazy fishermen, always trying to pull one over on
Speaker 1: the government. Right, the pieces fell into place. On novembery
Speaker 1: the judicial system was officially re established and dates were
Speaker 1: set for the convening of the courts. They voted to
Speaker 1: determine who would serve in the various roles from Justices
Speaker 1: of the Peace and constables, two judges serving across all
Speaker 1: the courts, and of course that meant the Superior Court
Speaker 1: as well. You'd actually be amazed at how many member
Speaker 1: names you'd recognize on the newly elected Superior Court. Wait still, Winthrop,
Speaker 1: Samuel Sewell, John Richards, all of whom had served on
Speaker 1: the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The man elected Chief
Speaker 1: Justice of the Superior Court was you guessed it, William Stowton.
Speaker 1: But Thomas dan fourth was also elected, and that might
Speaker 1: have turned out to be a decision that changed the
Speaker 1: course of history. Let me try and explain why dan
Speaker 1: fourth was one of the few men who could put
Speaker 1: his service record right beside Stowton's and hold his head
Speaker 1: up with pride. His resume was impressive. He served as
Speaker 1: the treasurer of Middlesex County and then Treasurer and steward
Speaker 1: of Harvard University. After that, he held positions on the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts General Court before heading north to serve six years
Speaker 1: as the president of the Province of Maine. While he
Speaker 1: was there, dan Forth led troops in battle, negotiated land
Speaker 1: deals with the Wabanaki, and even dabbled in a bit
Speaker 1: of city planning by drawing up the original street plans
Speaker 1: for the town of Falmouth. And while he was on
Speaker 1: the front line serving his people, his own son died
Speaker 1: doing the exact same thing in Rhode Island. Back in Boston,
Speaker 1: he served a total of ten years as deputy governor,
Speaker 1: some of it before the botched Androws administration and some after.
Speaker 1: And remember Andros was a crown appointed Anglican governor over
Speaker 1: a Puritan colony. That would be sort of like electing
Speaker 1: a Russian politician to the office of President of the
Speaker 1: United States. During the time Andros was in power, some
Speaker 1: people compromise their Puritan beliefs to advance their career. Stowton
Speaker 1: was one of those men. Dan Fourth, however, wasn't, and
Speaker 1: that meant something to a lot of people. At seventy
Speaker 1: years of age, Dan Fourth was also eight years older
Speaker 1: than Stowton, giving him a bit more seniority over the
Speaker 1: fiery man, and as if all of that weren't enough,
Speaker 1: just a year before the Salem panic had erupted, Dan
Speaker 1: Fourth served over a witchcraft trial of a woman named
Speaker 1: Martha Sparks, who he had arrested and thrown in jail.
Speaker 1: At it all up and Dan Fourth was a powerhouse.
Speaker 1: He was experienced, trusted and willing to do the right thing,
Speaker 1: and rather than allow the fear and panics surrounding the
Speaker 1: witchcraft accusations to cloud his judgment, he had shown he
Speaker 1: could be restrained and level headed. Stowton didn't even come
Speaker 1: close to that sort of reputation, and now the two
Speaker 1: of them were partner together on the Superior Court. Dan Fourth, however,
Speaker 1: was reluctant to accept the position. Not only would he
Speaker 1: have to work with Stowton, but the younger man was
Speaker 1: the chief justice, which meant that he was calling the shots.
Speaker 1: That didn't sound like an attractive place to be for
Speaker 1: a man with a backbone and very different opinions. He
Speaker 1: was just the sort of man they needed on the court, though,
Speaker 1: so some of the others decided to convince him to
Speaker 1: take the job. Samuel Sewell, the judge who had previously
Speaker 1: asked dan Forth about his position on the Salem Trials.
Speaker 1: After hearing from Thomas Brattle that he didn't approve, invited
Speaker 1: dan Forth to dinner there Sewell and a pair of
Speaker 1: ministers that included Increase Mather urged the old leader to
Speaker 1: stick around and serve on the court. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long he deliberated over that decision, but I can
Speaker 1: imagine it was a difficult one to make. He probably
Speaker 1: felt that he was just a bit too old for
Speaker 1: divisive politics, and endless fighting with Stoughton was the least
Speaker 1: attractive thing he could think of. At the same time,
Speaker 1: though sometimes you have to be divisive to put a
Speaker 1: stop to evil. True tolerance includes being intolerant of people
Speaker 1: with the destructive message, and this was his chance to
Speaker 1: make a difference. But he made a decision, and thankfully
Speaker 1: for us at least it was the right one. Thomas
Speaker 1: Danforth would serve on the Superior Court and try to
Speaker 1: balance out the hatred of William Stoughton. That was the
Speaker 1: plan on paper anyway. In practice, though it would be
Speaker 1: much more difficult. There was one individual missing from the
Speaker 1: Superior Court, though at least that's how he viewed it. Himself.
Speaker 1: Remember back to the very first Oyer and Terminer session
Speaker 1: and a judge named Nathaniel salt Install. Remember how he
Speaker 1: quit after that first session went in a dark direction
Speaker 1: and ended with the execution of Bridget Bishop Well. He
Speaker 1: was still upset about that. Most people don't know that.
Speaker 1: Salt Install returned home to Haverll after his first and
Speaker 1: only session on the Court. In the weeks that followed,
Speaker 1: four women in his town were accused of witchcraft, and
Speaker 1: they were brought to him for examination, but he refused
Speaker 1: to hold hearings about it. He flat out refused to
Speaker 1: play along with the witch trials. In the end, those
Speaker 1: four women were taken to andover and examined. There in
Speaker 1: his mind he had stood up against the court. He
Speaker 1: had put his foot down and declared it a farce
Speaker 1: and a gross injustice. While the rest of the world
Speaker 1: around him screamed for more blood and more names. He
Speaker 1: had reached the opinion in June that most everyone else
Speaker 1: was only just now reaching at the beginning of December.
Speaker 1: He was an early adopter, so to speak. So there's
Speaker 1: this story from the day that judges for the Superior
Speaker 1: Court were selected. Samuel Sewell recalled how he was leaving
Speaker 1: the Assembly building when he found salt Install sitting on
Speaker 1: a bench in the room, drunk and upset that he
Speaker 1: had been overlooked by the courts. He had assumed, now
Speaker 1: that Phipps and the others were in agreement that the
Speaker 1: trials had gotten out of hand, that he would be
Speaker 1: a logical choice for the Superior Court. When he wasn't.
Speaker 1: He went out and got blitzed and then showed up
Speaker 1: to complain about it. I mean, you've got to admire
Speaker 1: the man's initiative, even if his methods were a bit uncouth.
Speaker 1: I bring this up because we can learn something from
Speaker 1: how Sewel tried to reassure salt Install. He made it
Speaker 1: clear to the man that he had no part in
Speaker 1: influencing Phips to pass over him, and that he didn't
Speaker 1: think it signified anything else about the overlook judge's future prospects.
Speaker 1: Sewell seemed to be communicating to his friend that while
Speaker 1: he had played along with Stoughton for months, his allegiances
Speaker 1: were finally changing, and Samuel Sewell's opinions weren't the only
Speaker 1: things that were changing. I mentioned earlier that Stowton still
Speaker 1: had over fifty people in local jail's awaiting trial, but
Speaker 1: that was beginning to shift as well. Prisoners were slowly
Speaker 1: leaking back out into the community. Some did it the
Speaker 1: legal way, while others might have skirted around the rules
Speaker 1: just a bit. One young man, Benjamin Procter, the oldest
Speaker 1: son of executed John Proctor, actually walked out of prison
Speaker 1: and headed home. On November, two women were set free
Speaker 1: from the Boston jail, and another paid her bonds on
Speaker 1: December three and left the Cambridge jail that she had
Speaker 1: been stuck in. One prisoner, Abigail Faulkner, had already been
Speaker 1: condemned to be hanged and was waiting to give birth
Speaker 1: before that sentence could be carried out. She petitioned Governor
Speaker 1: Phipps for her own release, stating that the only evidence
Speaker 1: used to convict or had been spectral, and he let
Speaker 1: her go free. It was something that had been unthinkable
Speaker 1: just a month earlier, and now it was happening. The
Speaker 1: trickle soon became a flood. On December six, the eight
Speaker 1: men from and Over petition Phipps to ask that their
Speaker 1: wives and daughters be allowed bail. Winter was getting colder
Speaker 1: and more brutal, and jails were far from the safest
Speaker 1: places to be during those frigid months. Some of the
Speaker 1: bails were set high, but they paid the price. Anything
Speaker 1: was better than the current conditions. Around the same time,
Speaker 1: Captain John Alden, the convicted witch who had fled the
Speaker 1: colony to spend time in the safety of New York,
Speaker 1: actually returned to Boston. Two of his good friends took
Speaker 1: him straight to Judge Jonathan Richards and paid his bond
Speaker 1: in full, setting him free. But if you were one
Speaker 1: of the families that lacked the funds to buy your
Speaker 1: loved ones freedom, December of two wasn't as encouraging as
Speaker 1: it seemed. For them. It was still a waiting game.
Speaker 1: The new court system had been put together, but their
Speaker 1: first trial under that new system hadn't been announced yet.
Speaker 1: I realized many had suffered through actual torture over the
Speaker 1: course of the witchcraft trials, But for the people left
Speaker 1: in the cold, unsanitary jails, this was pretty close. Staying
Speaker 1: in jail could be deadly, and it was for one
Speaker 1: person at least. The elderly and over woman and foster
Speaker 1: passed away in jail on de summer ninth. She was
Speaker 1: the one who had been so frail. They had to
Speaker 1: carry her into the courtroom. After that, she had to
Speaker 1: endure the emotional trauma of hearing her daughter and granddaughter
Speaker 1: confess and accuse her of witchcraft. But even though her
Speaker 1: judgment had been swift, she had been left for weeks
Speaker 1: to wait for her execution. Instead, she died in jail.
Speaker 1: When her son Abraham visited the jail to claim her body,
Speaker 1: he was told that he would need to pay her
Speaker 1: outstanding expenses and provision costs before her body would be
Speaker 1: handed over. He had just lost his mother, and yet
Speaker 1: he would have to scrape together the fees in order
Speaker 1: to take her home and grieve properly. There were bright
Speaker 1: spots though. On December tenth, a man in Salem named
Speaker 1: Samuel Ray showed up at the jail and paid the
Speaker 1: full fifty pound bond for Dorothy good the little girl
Speaker 1: who had been jailed alongside her mother, Sarah good Way
Speaker 1: back in March. Little Dorothy spent ten months in chains,
Speaker 1: a tragedy that no child should ever have to endure.
Speaker 1: According to historians, it would shape the rest of her life. Finally,
Speaker 1: word went out that the next trial would take place
Speaker 1: in January, not another oyer and terminer like the past sessions,
Speaker 1: but a new trial by the Massachusetts Superior Court. It
Speaker 1: offered hope to those still waiting for a decision and
Speaker 1: praying for their release from captivity, perhaps even an occasion
Speaker 1: to celebrate before the trial date could arrive. Though the
Speaker 1: Governor declared December twenty nine to be a day of
Speaker 1: fasting and prayer across the colony. They were urged to
Speaker 1: consider the various and awful judgments of God continued upon
Speaker 1: the English nation and the dispersions thereof in their Majesty's
Speaker 1: several plantations by permitting witchcrafts and evil ages to rage
Speaker 1: against his people. Translation, judgment was coming, so pray for mercy.
Speaker 1: The Superior Court met in Salem's town meeting House on
Speaker 1: January three. Of It was cold, putting this new trial
Speaker 1: in stark contrast with the ones that had taken place
Speaker 1: over the sweltering summer. The jurors for the trial arrived early,
Speaker 1: and among them were some interesting choices, including Jacob Town
Speaker 1: from Topsfield, who just so happened to be the nephew
Speaker 1: of Rebecca Nurse. Another juror was Richard Reid, brother in
Speaker 1: law to Wilma Reid, who had been executed right alongside
Speaker 1: Martha Carrier back in September. The process of swearing in
Speaker 1: the full jury took up the entire first day, apparently,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't until January four that the first case
Speaker 1: was brought forward to the judges. The process would be
Speaker 1: a lot like the Oyer and Terminer. Evidence would be
Speaker 1: presented and considered by the jury, and then they would
Speaker 1: send their indictments to the judges for trial and sentencing.
Speaker 1: The huge difference now, though, was that spectral evidence no
Speaker 1: longer counted as real court worthy evidence. In fact, the
Speaker 1: Upper House had laid down incredibly strict rules about what
Speaker 1: did and did not count as evidence. The new law
Speaker 1: made no mention of signing the Devil's Book or spectral attacks,
Speaker 1: some of the most common stories told in the courtroom
Speaker 1: over the previous year, but it did describe the specific
Speaker 1: crimes that would be punished. Anyone who conjured or invoked
Speaker 1: evil spirits, then entertained, employed, or rewarded them in any way,
Speaker 1: who dug up a corpse or any part of a
Speaker 1: corpse to use for magical purposes, or who used any
Speaker 1: of these means to lame or to waste pine and
Speaker 1: consume anyone else in any way would be executed. In
Speaker 1: other words, no specters or ghostly apparitions. Sure, if you
Speaker 1: tried to kill another person with magic, you were guilty
Speaker 1: of a capital offense and therefore would be executed. But
Speaker 1: other behavior that was considered to be witchcraft would come
Speaker 1: with us or punishments. That list of crimes is fascinating
Speaker 1: to read. Using spells to discover precious ores or buried treasure,
Speaker 1: find lost items, lure another person's love, waste or destroy
Speaker 1: another person's property, including livestock, or hurt someone bodily without
Speaker 1: killing them. They were the actions of a witch as
Speaker 1: far as they were concerned, but they weren't capital crimes.
Speaker 1: On January four, the very first case demonstrated how different
Speaker 1: this new trial was going to be. The evidence was
Speaker 1: laid out and the testimonies were heard, but then as
Speaker 1: the indictments were considered one by one, they were marked
Speaker 1: with the term ignoramus, meaning we do not know without
Speaker 1: allowing spectral evidence. It became clear that almost no case
Speaker 1: that day was worthy of an actual trial. Of the
Speaker 1: four cases that did get moved onto a full trial,
Speaker 1: one of them was of Margaret Jacobs. She was the
Speaker 1: grand udter of George Jacobs, who had been convicted and
Speaker 1: hanged back in August, partly because of her own testimony,
Speaker 1: But on January four she recanted that confession, pled not
Speaker 1: guilty and was acquitted. Her mother, Rebecca, did the same thing,
Speaker 1: and she was also acquitted. She claimed that now that
Speaker 1: she had no distraction, she could think clearly. The third case,
Speaker 1: that of Andover Resident Hannah Tyler, ended with the same decision,
Speaker 1: and on and on went one case after another, as
Speaker 1: fear and desperation were replaced with celebration and joy. It
Speaker 1: was a major shift in tone for the trials. For months,
Speaker 1: the Oyer and Terminer had served as a gathering of
Speaker 1: fear and dread, of tempest and turmoil, but all of
Speaker 1: that seemed to be gone. Cold logic had moved in
Speaker 1: and replaced superstition at the head of the courtroom. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine William Stoughton was happy about the changes, but
Speaker 1: he was a servant of the law, and the new
Speaker 1: law made it clear that his personal views no longer
Speaker 1: held sway. I'm sure it helped that Thomas Danforth was
Speaker 1: seated with him balancing out his passionate hatred with calm reason,
Speaker 1: and that in turn must have given the other judges
Speaker 1: on the Superior Court a bit more courage to work
Speaker 1: against Oton. The tide hadn't just turned, it had rushed
Speaker 1: in and washed away the tragedy in the blink of
Speaker 1: an eye. Then, on January, the prisoners awaiting their turn
Speaker 1: and court received a shock. The day had begun on
Speaker 1: a similarly joyful note, with one case dismissed before it
Speaker 1: even reached the jurors, and another two sent to trial
Speaker 1: only to be dismissed by the judges. But it was
Speaker 1: the fourth case of the day, that of Sarah Hooper
Speaker 1: wardwell from and Over, that shook their confidence. The testimonies
Speaker 1: were heard, the evidence was presented, and then the jury
Speaker 1: was sent off to deliberate over their decision. Sarah's husband, Samuel,
Speaker 1: had already been convicted and hanged for witchcraft back on September,
Speaker 1: partly on her own confession, but she had recanted those
Speaker 1: words and was hoping for the new court to understand
Speaker 1: that everyone else who had done the same had walked
Speaker 1: away acquitted by the court. She prayed for the same results.
Speaker 1: When the jury returned with their verdict, it would shake
Speaker 1: the confidence that the community had built up over the
Speaker 1: previous week, she was declared guilty of covenanting with the
Speaker 1: devil and guilty of witchcraft. For whatever the specific reasons
Speaker 1: were in her case, the new court had failed her.
Speaker 1: She was taken back to jail and held until her
Speaker 1: execution date could be set. But her conviction sent a
Speaker 1: powerful message to the rest of the people awaiting their
Speaker 1: own trial. Nothing was guaranteed, not even hope. More bad
Speaker 1: news came their way during the court session on January
Speaker 1: a group of miners, including Martha care your son Stephen,
Speaker 1: we're all indicted on charges of witchcraft. The others, Mary
Speaker 1: and William Barker, and Stephen Johnson are a little more
Speaker 1: than names to us now, but they must have felt
Speaker 1: like blow after blow against the community's sense of safety.
Speaker 1: After their trial and over, girl Mary Lacey Jr. Was
Speaker 1: brought before the court. She had put her mother, Mary
Speaker 1: Lacey Senior and grandmother Ann Foster in jail due to
Speaker 1: her accusations, and that had led to Anne Foster's death
Speaker 1: in jail, her mother had already been found guilty and
Speaker 1: had been sentenced to death by hanging at a future date.
Speaker 1: So Mary Junior attempted to change her luck and plead
Speaker 1: not guilty. Amazingly, the jury came back with the same verdict,
Speaker 1: declaring her innocence of all charges. She and others were
Speaker 1: acquitted that day and many days afterwards. The officials seemed
Speaker 1: to have settled on a standard bond of one hundred
Speaker 1: pounds for each prisoner, and as the acquittals were handed out,
Speaker 1: family members rushed to the jails to purchase the freedom
Speaker 1: of their loved ones. By January, ten days after the
Speaker 1: court had started up, over fifty cases of witchcraft had
Speaker 1: been presented. Thirty of those were tossed out with the
Speaker 1: label of ignoramus, including Sarah Klois, the sister of Rebecca
Speaker 1: Nurse and Mary Est. After months in jail and the
Speaker 1: loss of both her sisters, Sarah was free. Her husband
Speaker 1: Peter brought her home from the jail, but the pain
Speaker 1: of it all was too much to bear. They immediately
Speaker 1: began plans to move their family south. Cases out of
Speaker 1: the fifty or so actually went to trial, and only
Speaker 1: three were found guilty, Sarah Wardwell, who we mentioned before,
Speaker 1: but also Elizabeth Johnson and Mary Post, Both of them
Speaker 1: might have actually been mentally disabled. According to Merchant Robert Califf,
Speaker 1: they were, and these are his words, not mine. Two
Speaker 1: of the most senseless and ignorant creatures that could be found.
Speaker 1: Three convictions out of over fifty suspects must have felt
Speaker 1: like a major defeat to William Stoughton. He had hoped
Speaker 1: for more. The witchcraft epidemic needed to be stamped out
Speaker 1: for good if his community was going to be safe
Speaker 1: from the forces of the devil. But I suppose he
Speaker 1: shrugged and told himself it was better than nothing. He
Speaker 1: moved quickly to sign the warrants for their speedy execution.
Speaker 1: But despite his haste, he was meticulous and deliberate. He
Speaker 1: didn't want to screw up along the way and prevent
Speaker 1: this last small victory. And then he reached a little
Speaker 1: further than anyone expected. You see, there were still five
Speaker 1: other prisoners who had been convicted and sentenced to death
Speaker 1: back in September, but the breakdown in the trials and
Speaker 1: the eventual replacement of the Oyer and terminer by the
Speaker 1: Superior Court had left them waiting in jail. Stowton added
Speaker 1: their names to the death warrant as well. They were
Speaker 1: Abigail Hobbs, Mary Bradberry, Dorcas Whore, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Faulkner,
Speaker 1: the last two women by the way, Faulkner and Proctor
Speaker 1: were safe for the moment because both of them were pregnant.
Speaker 1: They represented evidence of Stowton's hypocrisy. The unborn children were sacred,
Speaker 1: but once they were born, he would gladly end the
Speaker 1: lives of their mothers, all for justice. Thankfully, Stowton's actions
Speaker 1: caught the attention of Anthony Checkley, the Attorney General for
Speaker 1: the colony, and he sent a message to the governor
Speaker 1: telling him what was taking place. Phipps, away on business
Speaker 1: in Rhode Island, read over the report carefully. It seems
Speaker 1: he had a decision to make. On a snowy January seventeenth,
Speaker 1: Stowton made the trip south to Boston to discuss unrelated
Speaker 1: matters with Governor Phipps. It seems that the Crown had
Speaker 1: sent a messenger to deliver instructions to Phipps about the
Speaker 1: fate of the island known as Martha's Vineyard. Looking back,
Speaker 1: we know what those orders were. The island was to
Speaker 1: become the property of the New York Colony, not Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: But the messenger, standing off to the side of a
Speaker 1: room full of the governor's counselors refused to tell that
Speaker 1: to Phips, he had been given instructions to deliver his
Speaker 1: message in private, and he wouldn't budge. Phipps erupted an anger,
Speaker 1: calling the messenger and impudent saucy pitiful jack Napes, but
Speaker 1: the messenger stood his ground. Then Stoughton made a mistake.
Speaker 1: He stood up for the messenger, defending the man's right
Speaker 1: to deliver the Crown's message in private. Soon enough, the
Speaker 1: messenger found himself standing alone in a hallway while Phipps
Speaker 1: and Stoughton continued their argument in a room by themselves.
Speaker 1: When Stoughton finally left, the damage had been done. Phipps
Speaker 1: might have been torn about which side to support in
Speaker 1: the witch trials before the Chief Justice's arrival, but now
Speaker 1: it was settled Stoughton would have to be stopped. The
Speaker 1: snow of January seventeen didn't stop. By the twenty second,
Speaker 1: the north shore of Boston, including Salem Town and Salem Village,
Speaker 1: was under a thick blanket of white drifts. They sewond
Speaker 1: was a Sunday, and many managed to leave home and
Speaker 1: attend church at their local meeting house, including Samuel Sewell
Speaker 1: who described his trip to church with the word floundering.
Speaker 1: A week later, on January, William Stoughton sent men to
Speaker 1: Salem to dig eight graves. Too many witches had already
Speaker 1: gotten away, and he wasn't about to let the cold,
Speaker 1: hard ground stop him from finishing his work. You couldn't
Speaker 1: pay a bond to escape the grave, after all. Believing
Speaker 1: himself completely in control, he barreled forward with his plans.
Speaker 1: Two days later, on February one, a little over a
Speaker 1: year after the first afflicted girls experienced their fits and
Speaker 1: seizures in the home of Reverend Samuel Paris, Stoughton walked
Speaker 1: into the Salem Town meeting House with his head held high.
Speaker 1: He had done it. He had threaded the needle and
Speaker 1: guided the final eight witches to their execution day, and
Speaker 1: now he was here to see it all end. He
Speaker 1: planned to personally lead them all through the snow and
Speaker 1: cold to the gallows where they would hang. All that
Speaker 1: stood between him and that sweet victory was one final
Speaker 1: court session, a court that he presided over as Chief Justice.
Speaker 1: But as soon as the session began the doors opened
Speaker 1: at the rear of the room, a cold breeze blew in,
Speaker 1: along with a dazzling flash of white snow and blue sky.
Speaker 1: But it was the messenger that everyone was looking at.
Speaker 1: He had traveled up from Boston to deliver news from
Speaker 1: Governor Phipps himself. Each and every one of the eight
Speaker 1: convicted witches had been reprieved and were to be set free.
Speaker 1: Stoughton exploded with rage. Who it is obstructs the cause
Speaker 1: of justice? I know not, he cried out, But thereby
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Satan is advanced. The Lord have mercy
Speaker 1: on this country. Then he turned on his heel and
Speaker 1: stormed out of the room, abandoning the court and the
Speaker 1: victims he had intended to kill that day. Thomas Danforth,
Speaker 1: being the senior remaining judge, was left to wrap up
Speaker 1: the proceedings and carry out the governor's orders. But the
Speaker 1: tragedy wouldn't easily be erased from everyone's mind, and no
Speaker 1: messenger could bring back the innocent lives that have been lost.
Speaker 1: The Lord have mercy. Indeed, that's it for this week's
Speaker 1: episode of Unobscured. Stick around after this short sponsor break
Speaker 1: for a preview of what's in store for next week.
Speaker 1: Next time on Unobscured, we can spin the story of Salem.
Speaker 1: However we want, we can look for outside forces like
Speaker 1: illness or drug induced to lucin nations, or point of
Speaker 1: the age, old battle between superstition and science. We can
Speaker 1: invent any number of excuses, but none of it comes
Speaker 1: close to the most obvious answer on the table, the
Speaker 1: Salem which trials happened because humans were involved and we
Speaker 1: have a very long track record of making a mess
Speaker 1: of things. Unobscured was created and written by me Aaron
Speaker 1: Mankey and produced by Matt Frederick and Alex Williams in
Speaker 1: partnership with How Stuff Works, with research by Carl Nellis
Speaker 1: and original music by Chad Lawson. Learn more about our
Speaker 1: contributing historians further reading material, resource archive and links to
Speaker 1: our other shows at History unobscured dot com. Until next time,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening.