Analyzing a Historical Debate

"Here Are No Newters": Witchcraft and Religious Discord in Salem Village and Andover Author(s): Richard Latner Source: The New England Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Mar., 2006), pp. 92-122 Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20474413 Accessed: 28-11-2017 23:47 UTC

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"Here Are No Newters": Witchcraft and Religious Discord in Salem Village and Andover

RICHARD LATNER

N 1692, two young girls in Salem exhibited fits and other strange behavior that a local physician ascribed to supernat

ural causes. The witch craze that resulted spread throughout Massachusetts Bay, eventually resulting in twenty executions and accusations against scores of others. Over three hundred years later, explanations for this turbulent episode have prolif erated. Adapting approaches from psychology, cultural geogra phy, anthropology, and gender studies, scholars have implicated a host of causes: Puritan narrow-mindedness; hallucinations caused by ergot poisoning; conflict between rival socioeco nomic factions; hysteria brought on by the actual existence of practicing witches; quarrels among neighbors over social oblig ations; restrictive child-rearing practices and family dynamics; external political threats from English colonial policy; anxieties about women's ownership of property; and the warfare be tween colonists and Native Americans. But as Bernard Rosen thal has observed, "attempts to explain by a single theory what happened in 1692 distort rather than clarify the events of that year." Despite the outpouring of literature on Salem witchcraft, many questions remain.'

"The author thanks the staffs of the Danvers Archival Center and the North Andover

and Andover Historical Societies, particularly Juliet Haines Mof?brd, as well as David All mendinger, Larry Gragg, Steven Mintz, and Bernard Rosenthal for their expert assistance.

Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 16Q2 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 4. A useful guide to the literature on Salem and witchcraft is David D. Hall, "Witchcraft and the Limits of Interpretation," New En gland Quarterly 58 (June 1985), pp. 253-81. Among the most noteworthy studies pub lished since Hall's survey are Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: The New England Quarterly vol. LXXIX, no. 1 (March 2006). Copyright ( 2006 by The New England Quarterly. All rights reserved.

92

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 93

One aspect that has been overlooked concerns the dispro portionate number of witchcraft accusations in Salem Village and Andover. Two-fifths of the approximately one hundred and fifty accusations made against New England townspeople were directed at residents of these two communities (see ap pendix). Explanations for the events of 1692 generally do not involve factors specific to these two towns. Mary Beth Norton, for example, provides telling evidence that Indian wars had a bearing on the witchcraft crisis, but the conflict had no special impact on Salem Village and Andover. These communities were no longer in the early stages of settlement, and though they suffered occasional Indian forays, they did not face the constant peril that frontier areas to the north did.2 What these two communities did share, however, was an environment con ducive to charges of witchcraft-an environment of divisive re ligious contention, fomented by young, aggressive ministers quick to believe reports of evil spirits. Examining the bitter disputes that wracked Salem Village and Andover suggests that we should accord religion-that is, matters involving religious doctrine, church organization, and actions by individual minis ters-greater weight as an explanation for the witchcraft frenzy.

It was in Salem Village, at the home of its minister, Samuel Parris, that the outbreak began in early 1692. Salem Village was a fractured community: inhabitants were often at odds with neighboring communities and among themselves over such matters as boundary lines, taxes, voting rights, and the village ministry. Although historians have documented these quarrels, they have not sufficiently recognized the degree to which the

Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: Norton, 1987); Richard Godbeer, The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witch craft Crisis of 1692 (New York: Knopf, 2002).

2Norton, In the Devil's Snare.

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94 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Salem Village church became the focal point of this culture of conflict.3

Salem Village, now the town of Danvers, originated in 1639 as the outlying agricultural settlement of Salem Town, a fishing community that was becoming increasingly mercantile. As the village's population increased in the 166os, the inhabitants re quested a separate church from that of Salem Town, and, in 1672, the Massachusetts General Court confirmed Salem Vil lage's right to maintain a ministry and to collect taxes for that purpose.4 The church did not become a full-fledged, compre hensive institution, however, until 1689. Its first ministers were not ordained; thus, they could not conduct certain church ritu als, such as communion, nor could they admit congregants to formal church membership. The Salem Village church pro vided a convenient location for general religious education, but many villagers continued to belong to the Salem Town church or other neighboring churches headed by ordained ministers.'

In 1672 Salem Village constructed a meetinghouse for wor ship and hired its first minister, James Bayley; the following year, the inhabitants voted to retain Bayley and to build a par sonage. By 1679, however, the village had split into factions, and Bayley stepped down. Bayley's successors fared no better. George Burroughs, hired in 168o, served three unhappy years before quitting. Burroughs was followed by Deodat Lawson, whose ministry came to a tumultuous end in 1687. Lawson, too, resigned, and Salem Village was again without a minister.6 Underlying the town's inability to retain a minister were dis

agreements about what kind of full-fledged church should be

3Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 43-50; Marion L. Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (New York: Knopf, 1949; reprint, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969), pp. 26-28; Larry Gragg, The Salem Witch Crisis (New York: Praeger, 1992), pp. 30-31.

4Paul Boyer and Steven Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documen tary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England (Belmont, Calif: Wordsworth Publishing Company, 1972), pp. 233-34; Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, PP- 37-43

5Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 41-43, 102.

6Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 314-15, 319, 172, 242-53

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 95

established. An ordained minister would wield great influence in the community, providing religious direction, discipline, and authority. Behind the publicly expressed opposition to Law son's salary and housing were larger questions about the kind of leadership and organization he would provide should he be or dained.

Throughout New England at this time, congregations and ministers debated the criteria for church membership. Salem Town's church was inclusive, with membership and its privi leges relatively easy to obtain. It accepted the Half-Way Covenant, admitting to partial membership adults who had been baptized but had not made a public declaration of experi encing God's free grace, and permitting their children to be baptized. The church's requirements for half members to be come full members were also permissive. It accepted those who professed an understanding of Christian doctrine, exhibited up right behavior, and were without scandal, none of which re quired an experience of saving faith.7 Other congregations and their ministers imposed more exacting and exclusive policies, rejecting the Half-Way Covenant and restricting baptism to fully qualified church members. Evidence suggests that Lawson

may have proposed instituting such restrictive policies if he were ordained and that villagers opposed to this approach pro voked his resignation.8

After Lawson resigned, Salem Village searched for a new minister. In 1689, after a period of negotiation, the congre gation hired Samuel Parris, who was ordained on 19 Novem ber. At this point, Salem Village possessed a full-fledged,

7Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 343-45; Christine Alice Young, From "Good Order" to Glorious Revolution: Salem, Massachusetts, 1628-1689 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980), pp. 109-10; Edmund S. Morgan, Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1963), pp. 141-45

8Lawson's close association with his successor, Samuel Parris, who did take this posi tion, and the overlapping membership of the groups opposed to both ministers argues for his taking a hard line on church membership. Deodat Lawson, "A Brief and True Narrative," in Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases: 1648-1706, ed. George Lincoln Burr (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914), pp. 147-50; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 340-41; Bryan F. Le Beau, The Story of the Salem Witch Trials (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998), pp. 87-90.

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96 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

covenanted church. Parris seems to have been acceptable at first to the general village community, including those who had recently defeated Lawson's ordination. Villagers were appar ently not fully aware of Parris's aspirations, and they certainly did not expect that he would be at the center of a much more serious conflict than the one that had precipitated Lawson's de parture.9

Parris, who was born in 1653 in London, had initially pursued a career as a merchant and planter, joining his uncle and father in these activities in Barbados. Perhaps anticipating a calling in the ministry, or to elevate his status in business, Parris attended Harvard for a few years in the early 1670s. When his father died, he returned to Barbados. In 168o, he set out again for Boston, where he hoped to make his mark in commerce; he re tained only one parcel of land in Barbados, which he leased.10

The standard view of Parris's career is that his failure in busi ness led him to the ministry. His contemporary Robert Calef explained that Parris turned to religion as a result of "Not meet ing with any great Encouragement, or Advantage in Merchan dizing," and historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum concur, contending that it was Parris's "earlier failures in the world of commerce which had driven him . . . to seek the ap parent security of a New England pulpit."'1

But Parris's new calling could have been rooted in more posi tive aspirations. His recent biographer concluded that Parris

was in fact enjoying "modest success" as a merchant in Boston when he decided to switch careers. Moreover, religion was as central to his family as was commerce. Parris's father, Thomas, was a "devout" Puritan, who arranged for his brother's widow to marry a minister, and Samuel's elder brother also entered the ministry. Samuel Parris may indeed have completed his reli gious training at Harvard. Although there is no direct evidence

9Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 183-84, 356-57; Larry Gragg, A Quest for Security: The Life of Samuel Partis (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990), pp. 46-50.

10For Parris's early career, see Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 2-35.

"Robert Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," in Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, p. 341; Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, p. 159.

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that he did so, Marilynne K. Roach thinks it likely because it was unusual to enter the ministry, particularly as an ordained minister, without a college degree. All of Salem Village's previ ous ministers had been college graduates, and Parris's minister ial credentials were never challenged. Whatever his degree sta tus, even the unfriendly Calef acknowledged Parris to be "a Gentleman of Liberal Education. "12

Parris's religious preparation is significant because it indi cates that he was familiar with contemporary doctrine and prac tice, and, although he "would not qualify as one of the great preachers of colonial New England," he was a serious, dedi cated minister. The upheaval in Salem Village that he helped instigate resulted not from incompetence, ignorance, or oppor tunism, as some critics have suggested, but rather from a nox ious mix of psychological rigidity and religious enthusiasm that ill served a divided community. His evangelical piety drove him to lead a campaign to revitalize and purify religion in Salem

Village. 13 Clergy in late-seventeenth-century New England confronted

momentous challenges: the loss of first-generation leaders and a deterioration in ministers' status; a decline in church mem bership; the incursion of rationalism, materialism, and secular ism; and diminishing religious enthusiasm. Like many of his second-generation ministerial contemporaries, Parris sought to revive religious fervor and bring in new church members through a combination of enhanced ministerial authority and evangelical preaching. In addition to spiritual exhortation, he would reaffirm formal sacerdotal arrangements-requiring members to attend church, upholding the sacraments, and stressing the distinction between communicants and noncom municants.14

12Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 10 (quotation), 23, 30; Marilynne K. Roach, '"That child, Betty Parris': Elizabeth (Parris) Barron and the People in Her Life," Essex Insti tute Historical Collections 124 (January 1988): 3; Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible

World," p. 341 (quotation). 13James F. Cooper Jr. and Kenneth P. Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel

Parris, 1680-1694 (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1993), pp. 4-8, 16-17, 28-29 (quotation on p. 7).

14Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,

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Parris launched his campaign immediately. He insisted that the meetinghouse be improved and warned that "brethren [members]" who were absent from meeting were "marked ... in a disciplinary way." He reminded his congregation that they

were responsible for his salary and provisions; they were to sup ply him with "carnall [material] good things" out of justice and duty, not charity. And he bolstered church authority by insisting on adding the position of assistant deacon, though "some [members] propounded" that the one deacon was sufficient."5 From the outset of his ministry, Parris also drew a clear line

between members, or the elect, and nonmembers. In the win ter of 1689-go, over the objections of a few dissenters, he insti tuted rigorous requirements for membership. Rejecting the Half-Way Covenant, he stipulated that members make public professions of faith and that testimony be heard regarding each candidate. Only professed believers and their young children could be baptized. As his mission unfolded, Parris confirmed the special status of the elect: "Christ gathers a Church by sepa rating of the Elect from the rest of mankind," he intoned in early 1692. Ministers were to enforce "a true separation be tween the precious & the vile" in order to "gather a pure church."'6

Parris's reference to a "true separation" reveals his propensity for stark dualisms. In sermons delivered both before and after the witchcraft outbreak, he portrayed the world as engaged in a "grand spiritual battle" between "the damned and the elect." On one side was Christ's church and on the other were enemies whose purpose was "to pull it all down." Just as "Divels & wicked men" conspired to "wound & Bruise" Christ, he warned, so they operated "here" in the temporal world. After

1982), pp. 23, 242-78; Harry S. Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 95-115; Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 5-6.

15Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 48-49, 51 (quotations on pp. 48, 51); Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 271-73, 351 (quotation on p. 273).

l6Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 270?71; Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 182-85, 190 (quotations on pp. 182, 190); Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 73-76.

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 99

six witches, including one member of the village church, had been condemned, his language grew more vivid. "Here are but 2 parties in the World," he announced to his congregation in September 1692, "the Lamb & his Followers, & the Dragon & his Followers.... Here are no Newters. Every one is on one side or the other."'17

Parris was doing more than embellishing traditional Calvinist doctrine. Motivated by contemporary impulses of piety and re vivalism, he was delivering a call to revitalize his congregation and community, to reawaken the spiritual promptings that had animated first-generation New Englanders. His purpose was similar to that of many ministers of older churches, whose members joined together in public ceremonies of covenant re newal during which they formally rededicated themselves to the religious mission that had inspired their churches' founders. The official dedication of Salem Village's church gave Parris the opportunity to reset the religious life of the village, to recruit and convert members, and to arouse the piety of the elect.18

In carrying out his program, Parris accorded special promi nence to the sacrament of communion, or the Lord's Supper. He and his congregation agreed that this central ritual, which enabled the elect to continue growing in grace toward salvation, would be held on Sundays "once in about six weeks." The sacra ment would be performed with no compromises and would be restricted to the elect, who were obligated to attend. In Parris's eyes, however, the spiritual purpose of doctrinal purity and sep aration of the elect from the nonelect was not to exclude but, rather, to encourage both groups to strive for greater holiness. "Men must be Christians before they partake, but when they are Christians they should partake for their growth in grace," he explained.19 At the same time, he used communion to inspire

17Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 190, 20, 76, 203 (quotations); see also pp. 17, 135; Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 100; Boyer and Nis senbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 165-66.

l8For the use of covenant renewals by second-generation ministers, see Stout, New England Soul, pp. 96-99.

19Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 270 (quotation); Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 182, 219 (quotation), 284-85; Hambrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety, pp. 123-24, 206-7; Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 57, 73-76.

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100 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

the nonelect through dramatic and emotional prodding. The "Bread represent[s] his broken body; & the wine his poured out Blood.... Reach hither your hands, & thrust it into his side; feel his very Blood," he proclaimed, presenting vivid images de signed to arouse the congregation. Parris urged nonmembers to remain and view the ceremony. By the "sight of the eye God may so affect their hearts, as that they may come nearer, & not be able to rest in a beholding afar off, but come near & behold; yea behold, & Take, & Eat, & Drink too."20

Parris admonished his congregation that the path to a purer church was neither smooth nor easy. His duty as minister re quired him to "administer corrosives" along with "Cordials" to his flock. Christ, he reminded them, governed his church "not only by his word & spirit, but also by his Rod, & afflictions." The elect were not exempt. Christ exercised discipline on them by "manifold & various troubles, afflictions, & persecu tions in this world" in order to humble "his Church" for its sins and to make it more "watchfull to duty." Parris assured the entire congregation, however, that Christ "chastens us for our profit" and that the path of purity would lead to salvation. The church "shall never sink. For Christ ... takes most faithful care of his little Ship (the Church) bound for the Port of Heaven."2'

Parris's early sermons might seem to foreshadow the coming turbulence in their references to the devil's ire, the need to subdue enemies, and the belief that troubles and afflictions were essential to spiritual fulfillment. But other ministers' ser mons featured similar themes; what made Parris's ministry combustible was, rather, his expectation of reviving his new community. The lack of a covenanted church, he informed the village, was in the eyes of God and of godly persons "your Re proach." While some, "alas but a few," village residents were members of neighboring, covenanted, churches, the "Reproach of Egypt continued in this place" where "such a Number of people (so well able to maintain the Lords Ordinances)" contin

20Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 261, 263.

21Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 50, 182-84, 193

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 101

ued for so long "without [the] signs & seals of the blessed Covenant of Grace." Parris assured villagers, however, that with his ordination, "God gives you hopes of rolling away this Re proach." His ordination not only vindicated those church mem bers who wanted "the seals of the Covenant . .. brought home to their own doors" but also provided the opportunity for others to come under these seals. Indeed, now that a covenanted church existed, those who resisted attending "will of necessity heighten your sins by such neglects or omissions." "Let none say in their hearts, they were in as good a case before," Parris reminded his charges, doubtless alluding to the fact that some listeners were saying just that.22 Parris's proselytizing, though favorably received by the ma

jority of village church members, provoked discord.23 He stirred strong opposition primarily among the nonelect but also among a minority of church members, and within two years of his ordination, the consensus that had resulted in his hiring had evaporated. The combination of Parris's rigidity concerning rit uals with his evangelicalism set off a bitter backlash among those who preferred a more moderate ministry and a more lib eral membership policy, such as characterized the Salem Town church. As they had done with Lawson, the dissenters chal lenged the generous contractual arrangements that provided Parris with his house, land, and salary. They attempted to gain control of the village committee that collected taxes for the ministry, and they defied Parris's religious authority by refusing to attend services. Their resistance thwarted Parris's campaign. There had been an initial rush of villagers, many of them trans fers from neighboring churches, to join the Salem Village church in the first year of Parris's ministry. By December 1690, the church contained approximately fifty-five villagers, includ ing the twenty-eight initial signers of the covenant.24 But appli

22Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 44-47, 49 (quotations on pp. 45, 44, 49). For a study of the different types of orthodoxies within early Puritanism, see Janice Knight, Orthodoxies in Massachusetts: Rereading American Puritanism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 30-33, 196-201.

23Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 166-67.

24Assuming that those who signed the covenant had been members of other churches, about half (twenty-nine) of Salem Village's church members by December

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102 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

cations dwindled during his second year. Between December 1690 and November 1691, only seven new members joined the church, all women. The following year, no villagers joined.25 At first, Parris adopted a conciliatory stance toward the dis

senters, advising a "dutifull carriage" toward "enemies" of the true church. But as resistance persisted, he began to interpret his situation as a clash between those who exalted Christ and those who were both his and Christ's enemies. His sermons im plied parallels between Christ's suffering and the ordeal that he and his church were undergoing. When the village committee fell into the hands of his opposition in October 1691, it ques tioned Parris's contract and refused to levy a tax to support the ministry. Parris's response to this attempt to drive him from the pulpit was expressed in his theme for a November sermon: "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine Enemies thy footstool." Shortly before the first witches were identified, Parris evoked Christ's defense of the church "against all the madness, rage, & fury" of its "enemies" and pointedly remarked that "not Seldom great hatred ariseth even from nearest Relations."26

Controversies between ministers and their communities, whether involving the Half-Way Covenant or other matters, were not uncommon in seventeenth-century New England, and before 1692, they had not contributed to a mass witchcraft out break anywhere in the region. But the conflict in Salem Village in 1692 was of a different order. The deep divisions over Par ris's determination to purify and awaken the community reached a critical point as he rallied loyalists in his church while his opponents took control of the village's elected committee.

1690 came from other churches. The remaining were villagers who first joined the church. Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 269-73.

25Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 273, 351-53; Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 49, 89.

26Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 16-17, 121 (quotation), 170 (quotation), 184 (quotation); Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Vil lage Witchcraft, p. 356; Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 93-96.

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The incident that sparked the Salem crisis occurred in Par ris's own home, possibly beginning as early as mid-January 1690, and involved his daughter and niece.27 The children, "af flicted of they knew not what Distempers," were described by a contemporary as being "bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, necks, and backs turned this way and that way.... they were taken dumb, wracked and tormented," and neighbors concluded that the children were "bewitched." In early 1692, Parris's home provided a setting ripe for upheaval. His house hold, as much as the meetinghouse, was the institutional center of his campaign to make village life more holy. Parris and his family were expected to be a model of "good family order," and Parris pledged in his ordination sermon that in his own life, he would "labour to be exe[m]plary." At the same time, his family was engulfed by the excitement and emotional fallout that his leadership had provoked in both church and community.

Whether spirit possession signaled the children's reaction to Parris's religious demands or to the commotion that sur rounded them, its appearance in Parris's home is unsurprising. And once witchcraft, the "Evil Hand," was diagnosed as the cause of the affliction, Parris, with his proclivity for religious dualism and his disposition to identify his opponents with the enemies of God's church, turned what might have been con tained as a private incident of bewitchment into a public cru sade against the devil and his minions.28 Accusations of witchcraft soon spread outward from Parris's

home into Salem Village and eventually reached more than a score of New England communities by the end of 1692. In

27Norton, In the Devil's Snare, p. 18.

28John Hale, "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft," in Burr, ed., Narra tives of the Witchcraft Cases, p. 413 ("distempers" and "evil hand" quotations); Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 70-72 ("family order" quotation on p. 71); Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 6-7, 50 ("labour" quotation); see also Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," pp. 341-42. David D. Hall has noted that in seventeenth-century New England, issues regarding conversion were in tertwined with concerns about the devil ("Witchcraft and the Limits of Interpretation," pp. 277-78), and Keith Thomas observers that cases of possession "frequently origi nated in a religious environment" (Religion and the Decline of Magic [New York: Scrib ner, 1971], p. 480).

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Salem Village, however, all the accusations occurred between the last day of February and 23 May 1692. Sixteen Salem Vil lagers were formally accused, only three of whom, Daniel An drew, Sarah Cloyce, and Rebecca Nurse, were directly associ ated with the dissenters opposed to Parris.29 Nevertheless, Salem Village's religious situation helped shape the events in the village and elsewhere. From the beginning, Salem Village church members, who

constituted the core of Parris's supporters, were active witch hunters. Of the seventeen men who signed the church's origi nal covenant when Parris was ordained, thirteen swore out for mal complaints or provided evidence against at least one accused witch during the outbreak.30 Deacon Edward Putnam and his brother and fellow church member Thomas, for exam ple, were among the four villagers who filed formal complaints against the first victims of the Salem outbreak, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Parris's slave Tituba. Edward went on to make four more complaints and to provide testimony against other accused witches. Thomas, whose household contained four afflicted women, including his wife and daughter, signed over thirty complaints in addition to testifying against others.3' The involvement of church members bolsters the idea that Par ris's religious campaign provided a supportive theological framework for the pursuit of witches. Members continued to

29Andrew had been elected to the village committee of 1691 that had attempted to undo Parris's contract. Rebecca Nurse, the sister of Sarah Cloyce, was married to Fran cis Nurse, who was also a member ofthat committee. Additionally, nineteen inhabitants of Salem Town were accused by 6 June. Only four more Town residents were accused between then and the end of 1692. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds., The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem

Witchcraft Outbreak of 16Q2, 3 vols. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1977), 1:269; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 277.

3?Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 261, 269, 15; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:300. In his list of signatories, Parris numbered but omitted the name of an eighteenth male signer of the covenant, who was probably Samuel Abbey; Abbey's wife was the last woman listed with the female covenant signers. Abbey appears on a 1695 list of church members. Since there is no mention of his joining the church in Parris's records, it is likely that he was already a member when he signed the covenant. Abbey and his wife testified against Sarah Good, and he also testified against three others.

31Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 2:355, 3:745.

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back Parris even after the crisis ended. Following the witch tri als, when Parris came under attack for his "conduct in the time of the difficulties and calamities," he was defended by an over whelming majority of church members. In the spring of 1695, seventeen members of his church signed a petition calling for his removal, but over three times as many-fifty-two-urged his retention.32

In March 1692, one of the village church's own members, Martha Corey, was accused of being a witch and arrested along with Rebecca Nurse, a member of the Salem Town church. Parris's sermon of 27 March, occasioned by this new situation, elaborated on the theme that "there are Devils as well as Saints in the Church of Christ." Devils, he explained, were not only

wicked angels or spirits, they were also "vile & wicked persons." And they could be church members. "Let none ... build their hopes of Salvation merely upon this, that they are Church members," Parris cautioned. "This you & I may be, & yet Dev ils for all that." Church members, he asserted, were "either Saints, or Devils, the scripture gives us no medium." Although the devil might try to make saints appear to be witches, "it is not easy to imagine that his power is of such extent." Thus Par ris drew a rigid line within his church; he signaled that those suspected of witchcraft could be presumed to be witches and prayed that "God would not suffer Devils in the guise of Saints to associate with us." In accordance with these beliefs, he testi fied against both Corey and Nurse.33

In July, August, and September 1692, accusations in both Salem Village and Salem Town declined, but they spread into other communities. At the same time, the proceedings of a spe cial Court of Oyer and Terminer (to hear and determine), which began trying witches in June, kept the disturbance alive.34 During this period, Parris's rhetoric became more mili

32Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 307 (quotation), 261-63.

33Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 194-98 (quo tations), 3; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:259, 2:598-99

34This court, established by the governor in late May, allowed accused witches to be formally indicted and tried by jury. The court heard its first case, that of Bridget

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1o6 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

tant as evidence appeared to confirm his view that the devil was battling against those who stood with Christ and a pure church. Parris chose as the theme for his sermon of 11 September, after six of the accused, including Martha Corey, were convicted, "These shall make War with the Lamb, & the Lamb shall over come them." This war, he announced, resulted from "the en mity of the Devil & his Instruments to Religion." The witches, "the seed of the Devil," were doing "the works of the Devil." As for those who denied that the devil was now waging war "amongst us by Wizards, & Witches," Parris proclaimed that "if ever there were Witches, Men & Women in Covenant with the Devil, here are Multitudes in New-England." To Parris, witch craft involved a religious battle between Christ's church and its enemies, within and without, and as the crisis grew, he pro jected the divisions within his own church and community onto the broader New England landscape.35

Although the 1692 witchcraft outbreak is usually associated with Salem, more Andover inhabitants were charged with witchcraft than those of any other New England community. One historian has described Andover as a "closely integrated" community that exemplified the Puritan ideals of "stability and orderliness," but closer inspection reveals religious strains that were similar to, though less severe than, those in Salem Village.

In Andover, tensions resulted from a complex interaction of geography, ethnicity, and wealth. As the town's population in

Bishop, in early June; she was convicted and, on 10 June, hanged. Gragg, Salem Witch Crisis, pp. 84-95.

35Cooper and Minkema, eds., Sermon Notebook of Samuel Parris, pp. 199-206 (quo tations on pp. 199, 201, 202).

36Chadwick Hansen, "Andover Witchcraft and the Causes of the Salem Witchcraft Trials," in The Occult in America: New Historical Perspectives, ed. Howard Kerr and Charles L. Crow (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 38-57; Philip Greven, Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970), pp. 269 (quotation), 271; Gragg, Salem Witch

Crisis, p. 142; Norton, In the Devil's Snare, pp. 263-64.

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creased, two divergent settlement clusters emerged, one in the North End and the other in the South End, with the more well to-do living in the North End. Each section was settled by peo ple from a distinct area of England.37 Andover's settlers quar reled over any number of issues-land, liquor licensing, hiring a schoolteacher, and town elections, for example. Unruly be havior was not limited to taverns. In 1673, the town adopted a rule directing "that if any man shall speak in the town meeting while any thing of town affairs is either in voting or agitation after the Moderator hath commanded silence twice, he shall forfeit twelve pence per times . . . and this order to stand good forever." But much of Andover's internal conflict revolved around its church. Just as Salem Villagers had complained about the distance to the Salem Town church, South Enders grumbled that the meetinghouse, which was located in the North End, was inconvenient for them. By 168o, there was talk of moving the church to a more central location. When this idea faded, South Enders proposed, instead, creating a new parish with a separate church.38

The disruptive issue of the church's location spilled over into controversy about Andover's minister, Francis Dane, who had held office since 1648. Although he resided in the North End near the church, Dane was associated with the settlers in the southern sector. By i681, when he was in his seventies, a com plaint from "church & toune" reached the Massachusetts Gen eral Court. The petitioners noted that Dane was not conducting regular services and requested permission to hire another

minister. Dane protested, but in 1682, the magistrates arranged a compromise. Dane, who was advised to adopt a carriage of "tender loue & respect (forgetting all former disgusts)," would remain in place at a reduced salary, and the community would hire an associate minister. The new minister, Thomas

37Elinor Abbot, "Transformations: The Reconstruction of Social Hierarchy in Early Colonial Andover, Massachusetts" (Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1990), pp. 11-12, 29-30, 173-76, 229-30.

38Andover Land Grants and Town Meetings 1656-1709, 2 February 1673 (typescript of microfilm copy at North Andover Historical Society, North Andover, Mass.); Abbot, "Transformations," pp. 164-65, 183-90, 197-204.

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1o8 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

Barnard-at age twenty-four, considerably younger than Dane-was given "use" of the parsonage and promised that when Dane stepped down, his salary would increase.39

Barnard was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and brought up in Hadley, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1679, one year behind Cotton Mather, and was roughly contempora neous with Samuel Parris, who probably left Harvard in late 1673. After a short stint teaching in Roxbury in a building that he considered in such a "nastie posture" that he might as well have kept school "in a hog stie as in it," he accepted the position in Andover.40

Barnard's hiring did little to mollify disgruntled townspeople, and efforts to establish a separate parish and church continued. Indeed, in some respects, the arrival of Barnard, who was tied more closely to the North than the South End, reinforced An dover's divisions; not only were Barnard and Dane associated with different population clusters, but they also possessed dif ferent religious temperaments and outlooks. Over forty years younger than the English-born Dane, Barnard had studied a curriculum at Harvard that taught of an invisible, spiritually charged world that was as much a part of God's creation as the visible, material world.4'

Andover initially felt few repercussions from the witchcraft outbreak in Salem Village, located just to the southeast; only one resident was accused of witchcraft during the five months following the first accusations in Salem Village. After com plaints in Salem Town and Village had almost entirely ceased, however, suspicions began to mount in Andover. Some time in

39Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, Comprising the Present Towns of North Andover and Andover (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1880; reprint, North Andover: North Andover Historical Society, 1990), pp. 420-23; Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 5 vols. (Boston: W. White, Printer to the Commonwealth, 1853-1854), 5:325, 343-45 (quotations on pp. 325 and 344); Andover Town Meetings, 2 January and 6 March 1682 (quotation).

4?Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 12; John Langdon Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge Massachusetts, 18 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1873-1919), 3:174-77 (quotations on pp. 174 and 175).

41Stout, New England Soul, pp. 86-91; Abbot, "Transformations," pp. 88-92, 181-83, 196-98.

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD log the spring of 1692, the wife of Joseph Ballard, a farmer and brother of an Andover constable, became ill "w'th Strange pains and pressures." When she did not improve after several months, Ballard decided to ascertain whether witchcraft was the cause, and in July, he sent for two of Salem Village's af flicted girls to identify the guilty party.42 After inspecting Ballard's wife and naming her tormenters,

the visitors were taken into the homes of others who were suf fering from suspicious causes. According to a contemporary narrative, they would fall "into a Fit; after which ... they would ... name one whom they said sat on the head, and another that sat on the lower parts of the afflicted." Under examination, a number of the accused confessed their guilt and named others as their accomplices. Accusations quickly began to flow freely. The first suspected Andover witch, Ann Foster, was examined on 15 July, and by mid-September, forty-two more residents had been formally charged, and more may have been accused.43

Although Barnard's footprint in the Andover case is less prominent than Parris's in Salem Village, he lent support to the proceedings, and, like Parris, he accepted supernatural explana tions and endorsed the use of occult practices in seeking out

witches. In early September, a group of suspected women were called to Andover's meetinghouse to be confronted by the af flicted, whose reaction to their touch would demonstrate

whether they possessed harmful powers. If the afflicted were relieved by touching a suspect, witchcraft was at work. The touch test was controversial; Cotton Mather, for example, cau tioned that it was "frequently liable to be abused by the Devil's legerdemains." Nevertheless, aggressive judges and magistrates employed the test to identify witches. In Andover, the women implicated as witches stated that they "were blindfolded, and

42Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:183, 2:499> 513 (quota tion), 3:971; Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," pp. 371-72; Bailey, Histori cal Sketches of Andover, pp. 197-98.

43Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," p. 372 (quotation); Boyer and Nis senbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 2:342; Richard Weisman, Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts (Amherst: University of Massachu setts Press, 1984), p. 143; Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, p. 198.

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our hands were laid upon the afflicted persons, they being in their fits . . . and then they said they were well, and that we were guilty of afflicting them." Bamard participated actively in this performance. He placed Andover's meetinghouse at the disposal of the witch-hunters, offered prayers to sanction the examinations, and oversaw the use of the touch test. Barnard's house may even have been a site for examining suspects; one of them later claimed that "the Divel went in her shape to Mr Bernards Where Sarah Wilson [one of the accused] was Conffesing."44

Andover's religious tensions were manifested at the meeting house when Dane conspicuously avoided joining his younger colleague in supervising the touch test. This was not the first time that Dane had absented himself from a witch case. Years before, he had failed to appear at a witchcraft proceeding against John Godfrey, a notoriously litigious gadfly, who was tried for witchcraft on at least three occasions, though never convicted. Dane's evident reservations about witch hunts sharply contrasted with Barnard's readiness to sanction irregu lar means to detect witches.45 Dane's low profile during the Andover proceedings also had

something to do with his own precarious situation. Accusations began to circle close to Dane as numerous members of his fam ily were identified as witches. At least eight of the accused were near family, including two of Dane's daughters, a daughter-in law, and five grandchildren. By one count, as many as twenty

44Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 118 (quotation); Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 3:971 (quotation), 775 (quotation); Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Commu nity under Siege (Lanham, Md.: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002), p. 292.

45Demos, Entertaining Satan, pp. 36-56; John Noble and John F. Cronin, eds., Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay: 1630-1692, 3 vols. (Boston: The County of Suffolk, 1901-1928), 2:159; George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 9 vols. (Essex Institute: Salem, 1911-1921), 2:297 (25 June 1661), 3:12 (13 November 1662).

Dane had had legal scuffles with Godfrey, but he did not support his neighbors' testi mony of Godfrey's suspicious behavior, pleading "prevailing infirmity" as justification for his nonappearance; see David D. Hall, ed., Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History, 1638-1693 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999), p. 124.

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD III

seven of Andover's accused were related to Dane through blood or marriage. Since witchcraft was thought to follow bloodlines, Dane himself would have attracted suspicion.46 Moreover, these accusations against the Dane family coin

cided with events that further heightened Dane's risk by draw ing attention to the religious dimensions of witchcraft and the ominous possibility of ministerial involvement. When the Court of Oyer and Terminer reconvened on 5 August 1692, it heard two cases that had special meaning for Andover and for Dane, those of Martha Carrier and George Burroughs. Both were convicted and, on 19 August, executed.47 Carrier was the first Andover resident to be accused and

tried. One Andover witness testified that the devil had promised that Carrier would be "a Queen in hell," and through out July and August, as evidence was collected and her trial proceeded, a number of Andover residents testified that Car rier had baptized them in the devil's service. Among this group was Elizabeth Johnson Jr., Dane's twenty-two year old grand daughter, who confessed on lo August that Carrier had bap tized her and her daughter.48 But the trial of George Burroughs, who had moved to Maine

after serving briefly as minister of Salem Village in the early 168os, had even more sinister implications.49 Indeed, within a week of Burroughs's court appearance on 5 August, one of Dane's daughters as well as a second granddaughter were ac cused. The proceedings against Burroughs cast suspicion on Dane by introducing evidence that ministers might serve the devil. Burroughs was identified as the "Cheife of all the persons

46Enders A. Robinson, The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692 (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1991), pp. 300-302; Jeremy M. Sher, "Brand of Infamy: The An dover Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692" (B.A. thesis, Princeton University, 2001), p. 35.

47All but seven of the more than forty Andover accusations came after the court re convened. Peter Charles Hoffer, The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), pp. 71-72, 85-88; Roach, Salem Witch Trials, pp. 233-34, 239; Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," p. 360.

48Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:135, !88, 201-3, 2:503, 522-26, 531 (quotation on p. 523).

49Bernard Rosenthal provides an insightful account that links Burroughs's case to the Andover outbreak (Salem Story, pp. 129-50).

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112 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

accused of witchcraft . .. the Ring Leader of them," recruiting witches and offering baptism and communion at gatherings that mimicked the Sabbath. "Mr Burroughs was the Preacher, and prest them to bewitch all in the Village," Deliverance Hobbs confessed. "He administred the sacrament unto them ... with Red Bread, and Red Wine Like Blood." One of Salem Village's afflicted related that Burroughs "had a trumpet & sounded it" to call her to a ceremony where some of the accused witches told her that they were "Deacons & would have had her eat some of their sweet bread & wine."5" During Burroughs's exe cution procession, when some in the crowd protested the ver dict, Cotton Mather asserted that Burroughs was not a proper minister and that "the Devil has often been transformed into an Angel of Light.""5

The idea that the devil, assisted by Burroughs and his re cruits, intended to destroy churches and communities from within, beginning with Salem Village, had first appeared around the time of Burroughs's arrest in late April, but it became a central motif with the approach of Burroughs's trial and the shift of accusations from Salem to Andover. When William Barker of Andover confessed at the end of August 1692, he identified Salem Village's religious contention as inspiring the devil's nefarious scheme to take over Salem and the rest of New England's holy outposts. Barker related that he had attended a meeting of about one hundred witches in Salem Village "neare the ministers house" and that there was "a Sacrament at that meeting, there was also bread & wyne." The witches' purpose was to destroy the village "by reason of the peoples being di vided & theire differing with their ministers." Satan's plan was to "make as many witches as they could" and to "set up his own worship" and "abolish all the churches in the land," starting with Salem.52

5?Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:172-73, 177, 2:410, 423 (quotations on pp. 1:177, 2:423> 1:173); Rosenthal, Salem Story, pp. 128-32.

51Roach, Salem Witch Trials, pp. 233-34, 239; Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisi ble World," p. 361.

52The examination and confession of Barker took place on 29 August 1692. See Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:65-69.

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 113

Andover's numerous accusers and confessors, often the same individual, constructed vivid narratives of witches' Sabbaths in Salem Village and in and around Andover. Participant witches told of how they had renounced their bond to God in order to be "Baptised by the old Serpent." They invariably identified Burroughs as being present, but, with dangerous implications for Dane, they often mentioned that other ministers also presided over these assemblies.53

Ann Foster of Andover, the first to be accused as a result of Joseph Ballard's actions, was examined in mid-July and spoke of "two men besides mr Buroughs" who attended a meeting of witches at Salem Village whose purpose was "to set up the Divills Kingdome" there. She recalled that one of them had "gray haire." Foster's daughter and granddaughter provided similar testimony. Martha Carrier's son Richard spoke of a meeting at Salem Village at which he heard one witch "talk of a minister or two." He identified one as Burroughs but could not remember the name of the other. Later in August, Susannah Post described a large "witch meeting at Andover" attended by as many as two hundred witches and an unnamed minister, where they ate the bread and wine of a sacrament.54

Mary Osgood's confession in early September suggests that some fingers were pointing in Dane's direction. Osgood stated that she and Dane's daughter-in-law had "carried the shape of Mr. Dean, the minister, between them, to make persons be lieve that Mr. Dean afflicted." But, Osgood continued, the "Lord would not suffer it so to be, that the devil should afflict in an innocent person's shape." Osgood's testimony was corrobo rated by Deliverance Dane, who claimed it was "Satan's subtil ity" to make people believe that her father-in-law "did afflict." The two women seemed to be trying to defend Dane from those who claimed that he was involved in the devil's schemes. One of Dane's daughters, Elizabeth Johnson, may also have

^Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:172-73, 2:410, 423, 514 (quotation).

^Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 2:343, 522-23, 528-30, 643, 647-48 (quotations on pp. 343, 523, 522, 528, 647).

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sought to deflect attention from her father by claiming that it was "Burroughs & Buss" who led meetings in both Salem Vil lage and Andover. "Buss" was John Buss (or Busse), a part-time physician and minister in New Hampshire and Wells, Maine (where Burroughs was minister at the time of his arrest). Buss had been named in Barker's confession just the day before as being a "ringleader" of the Salem meeting, and Dane's daugh ter may well have wished to associate Buss rather than her fa ther with Burroughs.55 Despite the dark clouds hanging over him, Dane was never

prosecuted. As Bernard Rosenthal suggests, ministers pos sessed "some inherent protection." To be sure, Burroughs's fate demonstrates that ministers were not unassailable, but Bur roughs was also understood to harbor unorthodox Baptist lean ings. The cautious and moderate Dane, on the other hand, was a long-established, orthodox minister. In addition, Dane was considerably helped by a dramatic change of sentiment in Massachusetts regarding the outbreak.6

By early October, opposition to the trials began to swell among lay and clerical leaders. In Andover, no new arrests were recorded after September i6, a sign of changing public senti ment. Dane added his voice to this growing chorus of dissent by penning a letter to the court rebutting "scandalous" rumors that his community had given itself over to the use of charms and other magical practices. He used the occasion to inform the court about the unfortunate direction that events had taken. "Many Innocent persons have been accused, & Imprisoned," he declared. He blamed "the Conceit of Spectre Evidence" for causing his flock to lose "Charity" and to turn their backs on neighbors "of honest, & good report," including members in full communion. He attributed the many Andover confessions

55Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:66 ("ringleader" quota tion); 2:616 ("carried" quotation), 500-501 ("Burroughs and Buss" quotation on p. 501); Richard B. Trask, ed., "The Devil hath been raised": A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692 (Danvers, Mass.: Yeoman Press, 1997), p. 159 ("Satan's subtility" quotation); Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witch craft Papers, 3:761-62; Roach, Salem Witch Trials, p. 88.

56Rosenthal, Salem Story, pp. 130-32 (quotation on p. 130).

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to "flatteries" and "threats," which overcame professions of in nocence.57

The court soon received additional petitions signed by family members and friends of the accused as well as by Dane's junior partner, Thomas Barnard. In mid-October, nine relatives of ac cused witches, including Dane's son Nathaniel, whose wife had been accused, submitted a petition to the court asking that their wives and relations-all "penitent Confessors"-be re leased on bond. A week later, fifty-three inhabitants of An dover, including Dane and Barnard, addressed a petition to the governor and the Massachusetts General Court. The petition ers stated that although they desired the land to be "purged" from the "horrid" crime of witchcraft, many accusations had come from "some distempered persons in these parts," and it was possible that some of those charged had been "misrepre sented." As for those who had confessed, the petitioners attrib uted their conduct to the "extreme urgency" applied by fami lies, friends, and others. They warned that unless something

was done, Andover's troubles were likely "to continue and in crease" because "more of our neighb'rs of good reputation & approved integrity" were coming under suspicion. Doubtless the colony's leaders took particular note of the petitioners' ob servation that "Honorable & worthy men of other places" had also been called out by Andover's afflicted accusers."8 The Oc

57Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 3:882-83, 914-15, 923-24 (quotations on pp. 881 and 882); Roach, Salem Witch Trials, p. 362. Dane's memorial, though dated 2 January [1693], was certainly written and circulated earlier. In a letter dated 8 October 1692, Thomas Brattle, Boston's influential merchant and man of let ters, referred to an inquiry that had been made by Andover's "Rev'd Elders" regarding rumors about the widespread practice of "Sorcery" in the town. In Dane's statement, the January date and his signature appear immediately after the body of the text. A postscript defends his daughter, Elizabeth Johnson, and her daughter from allegations of witchcraft. Since Elizabeth Sr. came before the new Superior Court of Judicature for trial on 6 January 1693, it is likely that Dane submitted a copy of his earlier statement along with these additional comments regarding his family members to this court. (Thomas Brattle, "Letter of Thomas Brattle, F.R.S., 1692," in Burr, Narratives of the

Witchcraft Cases, pp. 170,181 [quotations] ). s8The petition of Nathaniel Dane and other relatives was dated 12 October 1692,

while the larger one containing the signatures of Dane and Barnard was dated 18 Octo ber 1692. Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 3:875-78.

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iL16 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

tober petitions effectively marked the end of Andover's witch hunt and the personal threat to Dane.

As a result of these and other complaints, governor William Phips called a halt to the trials. On 12 October, he instituted strict curbs on new accusations and stopped further court pro ceedings and executions. Two weeks later, he dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer.59

The reasons for the witch hunt's retreat in the fall of 1692 are as complex and multifaceted as the explanations for its appear ance. Opposition to the trials built as accusations mounted, par ticularly against prominent citizens and people of hitherto un blemished character; confessors recanted; judges seemed too reliant on spectral evidence; and families and supporters of the accused complained and petitioned officials. In disbanding the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the governor was responding to a "ferment of dissatisfaction" that had provoked disputes about the court's conduct. He himself became convinced that "the Devill had taken upon him the name and shape of severall per sons who were doubtless inocent.""6

In Andover, local circumstances also contributed to the demise of the witchcraft outbreak. Shortly after the September touch test incident, for example, Andover's justice of the peace refused to grant more arrest warrants. But a significant element in restoring calm to Andover was the unity-at least in public of its two ministers, both of whom signed the October petition to the governor and magistrates. The document did not repudi ate the use of spectral evidence, and it conceded that some of the accused might have been proper subjects of investigation; nevertheless, the fact that Barnard had signed it meant that An dover's accusers no longer had the sanction of one of its minis

59Rosenthal, Salem Story, pp. 130-32; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witch craft Papers, 3:861-62; Le Beau, Story of the Salem Witch Trials, pp. 201-6.

6oGragg. Salem Witch Crisis, p. 161; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 3:861-62 (quotations).

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 117

ters and could not take advantage of division within the town's religious leadership. Dane and Barnard collaborated further during the next few

months as Andover's suspects waited for their cases to be re solved. A new Superior Court of the Judicature was established in December to treat all remaining witchcraft cases, replacing the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and its judges assured the governor that they would place less emphasis on spectral evi dence and touch and sight tests. As the new court met in Janu ary 1693, thirty-three Andover residents, including Dane and Barnard, sent a petition seeking the "vindication" of five female church members, including Dane's daughter-in-law. It com mended the women's "sober godly and exemplary conversa tion" and attributed their confessions to "unwearied solicita tions." As for the others who remained in jail, the petitioners claimed that there were no "just grounds" to suspect them.

With this petition, Andover's ministers affirmed more forcefully than in October their conviction that mistakes had been made and that the accused should be returned to their community.6i

The agreement between Andover's two ministers helped put a stop to the community's witchcraft frenzy, but the internal di visions occasioned by the town's growth did not immediately disappear. When Francis Dane died in 1697 after fifty years of service, leaving Barnard as the town's sole minister, South En ders, with whom Dane had been identified, revived the move ment for a second church. In 1705, Barnard proposed con structing a new and larger meetinghouse, and the South End inhabitants, now a clear majority of the town, insisted that it be located there. The resulting controversy eventually went to the

Massachusetts General Court, which in 1708 and 1709 resolved the issue by dividing the town into two precincts, each with a

6lAt the trials in January, the Superior Court found only three of the accused to be guilty. The governor, however, signed reprieves for them as well as for five others, who had been condemned by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In May, the governor issued a general pardon and released all those still in jail who could pay their fees. Calef, "More Wonders of the Invisible World," p. 372; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem

Witchcraft Papers, 2:618-20, 3:864-65 (quotations on pp. 2:618-19); Gragg. Salem Witch Crisis, pp. 181-83.

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ii8 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

church, and in May 1709, the South Parish was officially incor porated. Barnard, given his choice as to which church he would head, remained in the North Parish. South Parish hired Samuel Phillips, the son of a minister in neighboring Rowley who had taken a stand against witchcraft prosecutions. In what must have been a symbolic expression of reconciliation and hope for future harmony, Barnard and Joseph Green, Parris's successor in Salem Village, attended Phillips's ordination ceremony in October 1711.62

In Salem Village, the peace that came under Joseph Green's conciliatory leadership underscores the important role religious strife played in the events of 1692. The new minister, a twenty two-year-old Harvard graduate, was hired in late 1697 to re place Parris, whose exit was by that time desired by all parties, including Parris himself. After a brief trial period, Green was ordained in November 1698. By initiating changes in doctrine and organization, Green defused the disagreements that under lay Salem Village's lethal factionalism, and he established a suc cessful ministry that lasted until his death in 1715.63 Green's judicious leadership and reforms brought a greater

openness to the Salem Village church. During the last six years of Parris's ministry, baptisms and new memberships had almost ceased. With Green's ordination, the church resumed its growth. In the first year of his ministry, Green welcomed ap proximately twenty-eight villagers to church membership and baptized some twenty-nine children. The numbers continued to rise after changes in ritual went into effect.

62Abbot, "Transformations," pp. 196-204; Juliet Haines Mofford, The History of North Parish Church of North Andover, 1645-1974 (North Andover, Mass.: Mofford, 1975), pp. 48-56; Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, pp. 427-29.

63"A Book of Record of the Severall Publique Transactions of the Inhabitants of Sale[m] Village Vulgarly Called the Farme[s]," The Historical Collections Danvers His torical Society 16 (1928): 73-74; Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, p. 217; Rev. Charles B. Rice, "Memorial Address," in First Church of Danvers Congregational, 300th Anniversary (n.p., n.d.), p. 22 (deposited in the Danvers Archival Center, a de partment of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass.).

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 119

Green took several steps to harmonize the village's warring factions. Shortly after assuming his post, he gained the church's consent to end its quarrel with the "dissenting brethren," who had continued to boycott services as a protest against Parris's behavior during the witchcraft episode. On 5 February 1699, the dissenters and their wives joined in communion with the church, "which is a matter of thankfulness," Green commented. He also reseated the church, placing members of the pro- and anti-Parris factions next to each other. By 1702, the village was able to construct a new meetinghouse without the friction that had previously marked such undertakings.64

Green's success also resulted from a well-planned strategy to liberalize church membership and institute the Half-Way Covenant. He proceeded cautiously. In the spring following his ordination, he and the church agreed on a set of "particulars" that established membership procedures. Individuals wishing to join the church could be admitted only "in full communion,"

meaning that they had to provide testimony of saving faith. Candidates were announced to church members ahead of time to ascertain if there were objections.6" But at the end of De cember 1699, Green introduced measures that allowed those unqualified for full communion to become members and have their children baptized. Candidates for this lesser form of

membership did not profess a saving faith. Rather, they "owned the covenant" by acknowledging basic church tenets and lead ing upright lives. The new procedure was initiated on 24 De cember 1699 when John Buxton Jr. joined the Salem Village church. In 1695, Buxton along with his brother and father, none of whom were church members, had signed a petition calling for Parris's removal. Now seeking admission to the church, Buxton "owned the covenant & was baptized."'66

64Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 281 (quotation); First Church Record Book: 1689-1845 (photocopy of original in the Danvers Archival Cen ter), 5 February 1699 (quotation); Rice, "Memorial Address," p. 24; Boyer and Nis senbaum, Salem Possessed, p. 219.

65First Church Record Book, 26 March, 9 April, 30 April, and 6 June 1699.

^First Church Record Book, 24 December 1699 (quotation); Patricia J. Tracy, Jonathan Edwards, Pastor: Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Northampton (New York: Hill and Wang, 1980), pp. 9-10; Morgan, Visible Saints, pp. 131-32.

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120 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

In January 1700, at Green's request, church members met to formally consider his new admission procedure. After "much loving" discourse, they consented to it. The new policy effec tively undid the divisive practice Parris had instituted, which clearly distinguished the elect from the rest of the congrega tion. When his church agreed to these reforms, Green was re lieved: "Blessed be God for such a peaceable meeting," he in scribed in the church's records.67 Both half-way and full members were now admitted into the

Salem Village church. On 7 April 1700, Thomas Flint expressed a desire "to own the covenant," whereas Mary Howard desired to join the church "in full communion." A week later, Green re ceived testimony concerning Howard's character and behavior, and on 21 April, Green recorded that "Thomas Flint junr owned the covenant-and Mary Howard was admitted to full communion." During the year 1700, seven people were admit ted to full communion, six owned the covenant, and twenty seven children were baptized. Among those who joined were John Rae and his wife, who, on 26 May 1700, owned the covenant and had four of their children baptized.68

By spring 1701, when Salem Village held a day of thanksgiv ing "for the peace & prosperity which God ... conferred on this people in answer to [their] prayers," the evidence of Green's achievement was palpable. Parris's successor had both neutral ized dissension within the church and removed the walls that had separated the church from the rest of the village. Over the course of Green's ministry, members of the anti-Parris move ment, including Joseph Hutchinson Jr. and Joseph Putnam and his wife, joined the village church. The discord unleashed by Parris's religious enthusiasm had come to an end.69

6?First Church Record Book, 19 January 1700.

68First Church Record Book, 7 April, 14 April, 21 April, and 26 May 1700.

^First Church Record Book, 4 February 1700, 9!?] June 1701 (quotation), 7 April 1706; S. P. Fowler, "Diary of Rev. Joseph Green, of Salem Village," Essex Institute His torical Collections 8 (December 1866): 220.

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WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGIOUS DISCORD 121

Richard Latner is Professor of History at Tulane University. He has written extensively on Jacksonian America and is the au thor of the award-winning website Crisis at Fort Sumter (http://www.tulane.edu/lsumter). Readers who wish to see the Salem data set can contact him at [email protected].

APPENDIX DISTRIBUTION OF WITCHCRAFT

ACCUSATIONS IN NEW ENGLAND, 1692

We will never know the exact number of alleged witches men, women, and children-who were accused, jailed, in dicted, or tried for witchcraft throughout the 1692 witchcraft episode. Everyone acknowledges that the records are incom plete and that accusations were leveled against many people who were never formally charged. Richard Godbeer identifies 156 people against whom legal action was taken. Mary Beth Norton points to problems in Godbeer's list and calculates that legal action occurred "against at least 144" people. My own re search yields the names of 152 people against whom a formal complaint was registered in legal records. Those charged came from twenty-five towns and villages, or, if one distinguishes Salem Village from Salem Town, twenty-six (the village was a parish within the town, having a separate church with taxing power).*

Accusations were not distributed evenly throughout these communities, however. Of the 151 accused whose residences are known, Salem Village (16) and Andover (43) account for 39 percent of the total. Indeed, if we add Salem Town's 23 ac cused witches to this tally, the combined accusations of An dover and Salem (Town and Village) amount to 54 percent of all accusations. Aside from Andover and Salem, only six other communities had five or more accusations, the highest being Gloucester, with nine. Fifteen towns, which constituted more

*Godbeer, Devil's Dominion, pp. 179, 238-42; Norton, In the Devil's Snare, pp. 3-4, 327 n.2 (quotation on p. 3). Only one accused witch could not be identified by resi dence.

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122 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

than half of the twenty-five legally distinct communities in volved, had just three or fewer accusations. Moreover, the dis parity of Andover's and Salem's numbers cannot be attributed to their size. Andover's estimated population in the late seven teenth century was between six hundred and seven hundred in habitants, while Salem Village comprised some "6oo-odd" and Salem Town about i,68o. By comparison, Boston, with a popu lation of almost seven thousand, had only two accusations, and Ipswich, larger and wealthier than Andover and where the county court met twice a year, had only four accusations.

Wobum, which contained approximately the same population as Andover, had only three accused witches. In short, while there was a considerable geographic spread of witchcraft accu sations in 1692, a disproportionate number of people were ac cused in Andover and Salem.t

fThe data on witchcraft accusations is derived from my Salem Data Sets, a collection of information that will be available to scholars on a website. For estimates of town pop ulation, see Greven, Four Generations, pp. 103-4, 176; Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem Witchcraft Papers, 1:5 (quotation); Richard P. Gildrie, Salem, Massachusetts: 1626-1683, A Covenant Community (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975), pp. 156, 117 n.23; Joseph B. Felt, The History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton (Cambridge, Mass.: C. Folsom, 1834), pp. 94-103, 114, 120; Samuel Sewall, The His tory of Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts (Boston: Wiggin and Lunt, 1868), p. 240. For Woburn, I multiplied the number of taxpayers in 1700 (187) by 5 to repli cate the procedure used by Greven to estimate Andover's population.

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