Just a reminder: please do not post off-topic messages to this list. A fair number of people had forgotten they were subscribed to this list until the recent surge of postings. I'd prefer that we stay on topic as much as possible so that it remains a worthwhile list to be on. Cheers, --Margo, your list elf Margo Burns [email protected] http://www.ogram.org

Hi, I've just joined your list and am looking forward to reading your posts. I'm a descendant of Ann Foster, who was accused and condemned on 17 September 1692 and became ill in jail, where she died. Her daughter, Mary Lacey was also accused and condemned on the same day. Ann was quite old at the time she was accused, though I don't have her exact date of birth. I'll include my line back to Ann, below, and hope to meet some other descendants of Ann's through the list. Thanks, Wendy Descent from Ann __ Foster Anne ____ Generation 1 ( - 3 Dec 1692) wife of Andrew Foster (1579 - 7 May 1685) | Andrew Foster Generation 2 (1640 - 14 Jan 1697) Children Mary Russ(E) 4 Siblings (16 Feb 1643 - 19 Apr 1721) | Abraham Foster Generation 3 (25 May 1677 - 15 Dec 1753) Mary Johnson (3 Feb 1682 - 21 Feb 1750) | Abraham Foster Generation 4 (1705 - 15 Sep 1743) Sarah Frost (25 Dec 1704 - Jul 1786) James Foster Generation 5 (29 Sep 1743 - 1790) Hannah? Jewett ( - dec.) Jacob Foster Generation 6 (23 Mar 1770 - 22 Apr 1854) Hannah Kendall (5 Mar 1774 - AFT 1849) Amelia 'Amy' Foster Generation 7 (25 Sep 1799 - 12 Sep 1872) Benjamin Smith ( - 22 Aug 1852) Isaac Foster Smith Generation 8 (1 May 1829 - 3 Oct 1919) Nancy Jane Pease (16 Feb 1841 - 2 Jun 1898) Nellie Jane Smith Generation 9 (8 Nov 1857 - 20 Nov 1947) Frederick Carleton Jones (18 Apr 1858 - 7 Apr 1901) Frederick William Jones Generation 10 (16 Jul 1895 - 27 Jul 1980) Lena Helen Baker (28 Mar 1899 - 23 Jul 1988) Wallace Frederick Jones Generation 11 (31 Jan 1923 - 20 Oct 1994) Mary Dale Dearth (13 Oct 1923 - ) Wendy Ann Jones Generation 12 (20 Feb 1950 - )

This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------ABE5C69A3A3DA358910A8EA1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------ABE5C69A3A3DA358910A8EA1 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from imo21.mx.aol.com (imo21.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.65]) by postal.c-zone.net (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id LAA21489 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 24 Apr 1999 11:18:26 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from [email protected]) From: [email protected] Received: from [email protected] (14408) by imo21.mx.aol.com (IMOv20) id fYMTa07748; Sat, 24 Apr 1999 14:16:49 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 14:16:42 EDT Subject: Virus To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 13 Reply-To: [email protected] X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Nasty PC Virus Set To Hit Monday By Dick Satran Reuters SAN FRANCISCO (April 22) -- A virus that can wipe out all the data on a personal computer's hard drive and even make it impossible to start programs up is set to hit next Monday, security experts warned. The virus is a malicious piece of software code that has been turning up in PCs for months, but the version that will strike Monday is the most-feared variation. The so-called CIH or ''space filler'' virus originated in Asia last summer and hits on the 26th of each month. The CIH 1.2 that appears only once a year in April is the ''most prevalent and dangerous'' form of the virus, said Sal Viveros, marketing vice president for Network Associates Inc., the largest computer security company. The CIH virus is far more dangerous to individual computers than Melissa, the much publicized bug that spread relatively benign problems far and wide on the Internet last month. The CIH virus can irretrievably destroy data on a user's computer, and even make the machine inoperable, while Melissa only really caused embarrassment, by sending a list of porn sites from a target computer's e-mail address book, and tied up some corporate e-mail systems with traffic. The CIH gets the name ''space filler'' because it uses a special technique that secretly fills file space on computers and thwarts many of the anti-virus softwares in place before its arrival. The virus is also called the Chernobyl virus because it's timed to go off on the anniversary of the Russian nuclear accident, one of technology's worst disasters. The virus is designed to hide from view by inserting itself into empty coding slots on a computer's software utilities. Viruses are often detected because they use up extra space on hard drives, but the ''space filler'' helps CIH avoid that traditional method of detection. It can lie dormant for months before causing damage. The April version of the virus is particularly damaging because it can also keep a computer from starting up by infecting the software on which all the PC's programs depend, the basic input/output system, or BIOS. If the BIOS is infected, the computer will not start. Most up-to-date anti-virus software will spot the bug, if it's there, and many corporate computers have recently upgraded their protection due to the Melissa scare, said Network Associates' Viveros. The biggest impact is likely to be on home computers, said Viveros, who added that computer users can download an anti-virus program free of charge from his company's site ( <A HREF="http://www.nai.com/">http://www.nai.com/</A>). The virus is spread by e-mail over the Internet or in pirated software. It infects Windows 95 and Windows 98 files. ''People should make sure they have the latest antivirus software run on their computers,'' said Bill Pollak, of Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute, which runs the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT. The center has already prepared an ''incident'' note that it will put on its site ( <A HREF="http://www.cert.org">http://www.cert.org</A>). REUTERS Reut18:00 04-22-99 Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. --------------ABE5C69A3A3DA358910A8EA1--

>From The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey Pg. 201 "Five witches, four men and one woman, were placed in a cart and ridden through the streets of Salem to Gallows Hill on August 19. Procter, his courage sinking at the last, had tried to postpone the date, pleading that he was not ready to die. But the convenience of a wizard is not consulted in making such arrangements. Nor would Noyes heed Procter's plea that he pray with him; prayers are only for the repentant. Cotton Mather, however, who had been visiting the condemned in prison, responded to the appeals of both Willard and Procter by riding out from Boston for the occasion; what spiritual help he could offer under the circumstances was questionable, but at least he came. When the cart set out, jolting through streets lined with spectators, Procter found his will steady again. His calm and Willard's made a deep impression."

from pp. 973-974 of Boyer & Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Petition of Isaac Easty et al.) To his Exelency the Governour and the Honourable Counsell and Generall Assembly for the Province of the Massatusetts Bay in New England convened at Boston May 25, 1709 The Humble adress and motion of several of the Inhabitants of the s'd Province some of which had their near Relations Either Parents or others who suffered Death in the Dark & Dolefull times that past over this province in the year 1692 under the suposition (and that Gloomy Day) by some thought provd of Being Guilty of Witchcraft w'ch. we have all the Reason in the world to hope & beleive they were Inocent of. and others of us that. Either our selves or some of our Relations have been Imprisoned impared & Blasted in our Reputations and Estates by Reason of the same its not our Intent neither doe we Reflect on the Judges or Jurors Concern'd in those sorrowfull tryalls whome we hope did that w'ch they Thought was Right in that hour of Darkness [but] that which we move & pray for is that you Would Please to pass some suitable Act as in your Wisdome you may think meet & proper that shall so far as may be Restore the Reputations to the Posterity of the Suffurrers & Remunerate them as to what they have been Damnifid in their Estates thereby: we doe not without Remors & greif Recount these sorrowful things But we Humbly Conceive that we are Bound in conscience and duty to god & to our selves Relatives & posterity & County Humbly to Make this Motion praying God to Direct you in this & all your weighty Consultations Wee subscribe Your sorrowful and Distresst Supliants Isaac Esty Jno Nurse Joseph parker Thorndick Procter George Jacobs In the names & on Behalf of our selves and several others. (Reverse) Pe'tion May 1709. Pe'ions about the Witchcraft in 1692. (Mass. Archives Vol. 13 5 No. 112)

from pp. 972-973 of Boyer & Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Petition of Phillip English et al.) To his Excelency the Governor and the Honorable Counsell and Generall Asembly for the Province of the Massatusetts Bay in New England Conven'd. at Boston May 25th 1709 The Humble Adress and Motion of Several of the Inhabitants of the s'd Province some of which had their near Relations Either Parents or others who suffered Death in the Dark and Dollfull times that past over this province in the Year 1692 under the suposition and in that Gloumy Day by Some (thought prov'd) of Being Guilty of witchcraft w'ch we have all the Reson in the world to hope and beleive they were Inocent off, and others of us that Either our selves or some of our Relations have Been Imprison'd impared and Blasted in our Reputations and Estates by Reson of the same. its not our Intent Neither Do we Reflect on the Judges or Jurors Concern'd in those Sorrowfull tryals whome we hope #[and beleive] Did that w'ch they thought was Right in that hour of Darkness. but that w'ch we move and pray for is that You Would Pleas to pass some sutable Acts as in Your Wisdom You may think meet and proper that shall (so far as may be) Restore the Reputations to the Posterity of the suffurers and Remunerate them as to what they have been Damnified in their Estates therby we Do not Without Remors and greif Recount these sorrowfull things But we Humbly Conceive that we are Bound in Consience and Duty to god and to our selves Relatives and posterity and Country Humbly to make this Motion praying God to Direct You in this and all Your Weighty Consultations. We subscribe Your sorrowfull and Distrest Supliants philip English Isack Estev sen Benjamin Procter John Procter Thorndik Procter George Jacobs John Tarbell John Parker Joseph Parker John Johnson Francis Faulkner Isaac Estey Joseph esty Samuel Nurs Benjamin Nurs john preston Samuel Nurs ju (Reverse) Original petion (Wass. A r( It iucs Vol. 135 No. 111)

>From pp.966-967 of Boyer & Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Petition of Francis Faulkner et al.) To his Excellency the Governour, and Councill, and Representatives now in Generall Court Assembled; at Boston: The Petition of severall of the Inhabitants of Andover, Salem village & Topsfield, humbly sheweth: That whereas in the year 1692 some of your Petitioners and the near Relations of others of them, viz: Rebecca Nurse, Mary Estey, Abigail Faulkner, Mary Parker, of Andover John Procter & Elizabeth his wife: Elizabeth How, Samuel Wardwell & Sarah his Wife: were accused of Witchcraft by certain possessed persons, and thereupon were apprehended and Imprisoned, and at a Court held at Salem were condemned upon the Evidence of the aforsaid possessed persons; and sentence of Death hath been executed on them (except Abigail Faulkner, Elizabeth Procter & Sarah Wardwell) of whose Innocency those that knew them are well satisfyed. And whereas the invalidity of the aforesaid Evidence and the great wrong which (through Errors & mistakes in those tryalls) was then done, hath since plainly appear'd which we doubt not but this Honored Court is sensible of: Your Peti-tioners being dissatisfyed and grieved, that (besides what the aforesaid condemned persons have suffered in their persons and Estates) their Names are Exposed to Infamy and reproach, while their Tryall & condemnation stands upon Publick Record: We therefore humbly Pray this Honored Court, that something may be Publickly done to take off Infamy from the Names, and memory of those who have suffered as aforesaid, that none of their surviving Relations, nor their Posterity may suffer reproach upon that account. And yo'r Petition'rs shall ever pray &c. Dated March 2d 1702/3 Francis Faulkner Abigail Faulkner Sarah Wardwel John Parker Joseph Parker Nathaniel Dane Francis Dane Mary How Abigail How Issac Estey Samuel Nurse Phebe Robinson Samuel Wardwell John Tarbel John Nurse Peter Cloys sen'r Isaac Estey Jun'r Sarah Gill Rebecca Preston Thorndick Procter Benjamin Procter In the House of Representatives March. 18th 1702. Read & sent up (Reverse) Pet'con of Fra. Faulkner &C. (Mass. Archives Vol. 135 No. 110) Margo Burns, Webweaver [email protected] http://www.ogram.org Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." -- Chomsky

>From pp.636-637 of Boyer & Nissenbaum, The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Petition of John Parker and Joseph Parker) To his Excellency the Governor, and Councill and Representatives; now sitting in Boston the humble Petition of John Parker, & Joseph Parker of Andover sheweth, That whereas our mother mary Parker of Andover, was apprehended upon suspition of witchcraft, and being brought to a tryall at Salem Court, was condemned: since her death the sherriff of Essex sent an officer to seise on her estate. The said officer required us in their majestyes name to give him an Account of our mothers estate, pretending it was forfeited to the King; we told him that our mother left no estate; (which we are able to make appear) notwithstanding which, he seised upon our cattell, Corn & hay, to a considerable value; and ordered us to go down to Salem and make an agreement with the sherrife, otherwise the estate would be exposed to sale. We not knowing what advantage the Law might give him against us, and fearing we should sustain greater Damage by the loss of our Estate, went to the sherriff accordingly, who told us he might take away all that was seised, if he pleased, but was willing to do us a kindness by giveing us an oppertunity to redeem it. He at first demanded ten pounds of us, but at length was willing to take Six pounds, which he has obliged us by Bill to pay him within a moneth. Now if our Mother had left any Estate, we know not of any Law in force in this Province, by which it should be forfeited upon her condemnation; much less can we understand that there is any justice or reason, for the sherriff to seise upon our Estate And tho it is true our own act has obliged us to pay him a Summ of money, yet we declare that we were drawn to it partly by the officers great pretences of Law for what he did, partly to prevent the loss of our estate which we feard would be immediately sold. How we humbly pray this Hon'red Court to consider our case, and if it be judged that so much money ought not to have been demanded of us, upon the forementioned account: we pray that we may be discharged from that obligation, which the sherriff, taking advantage of our ignorance hath brough us under And yo'r Petition'rs as in duty bound shall ever pray &c - Dated at Andov'r 7'th Novemb'r 1692 John Parker Joseph Parker (Mass. Archives, Vol. 135 No. 65)

>From The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey Pg. 148 "...John Procter had been collecting evidence on how "free confessions" were being extracted from the men. His own eldest son, brought in later in the spring, had been chained heel to neck in the form of torture that had wrung "confessions" from the sons of Martha Carrier, a torture almost impossible to withstand. The chances were that the decent men appointed to preside over the trials were ignorant of this aspect of "confession." John Procter would instruct them, and his spirit unbowed by his prison experience, he looked forward to the trials as a fighter in training looks forward to the ring." Pgs. 192 - 196 "...It was wonderful how such men as John Procter and such women as Rebecca Nurse and her sisters managed to keep unshaken their hold on reality in the face of the impregnable if mad logic of the judges and afflicted girls, and how, firm in their knowledge of their innocence, in their faith in God, they would not belie themselves, even though lying was sometimes made so easy that a mere "Yes," whispered on cue, would be accepted as full and free confession.........Six more defendants were coming up for trial in early August, and most of these were in their several ways no less worthy of veneration than Rebecca herself. John Procter was one of the six and he came up fighting. There was nothing of the martyr's will-to-die in John Procter. In his fierce will-to-live he did not wait for the trial to make his voice heard, but two weeks earlier, on July 23, addressed to five ministers of Boston a petition in behalf of himself "and others." The substance of this petition was an appeal to the ministers to exert their influence to transfer the trials from Salem to Boston, or if that were not possible, at least to substitute other judges, the present incumbents "having condemned us already before our trials." The force of the petition lay in the detailed account, already described, of how "full and free confessions" were being wrung from the male suspects by torture. "These actions," concluded Procter, never one to mince words, "are very like the Papish cruelties." The last was an unthinkable phrase to apply to any enterprise conducted under Puritan auspices; it gave such affront that Procter's kinsmen in Lynn were immediately cried out on and arrested. The petition went to Moody and Willard, no doubt chosen because of their notorious sympathy with certain defendants; to James Allen, from whom the Nurses were buying their estate in Salem Village; to John Bailey, who had once been Willard's associate and was now Allen's; to the elder Mather. None of these took any decisive action on the petition. Those most sympathetic to its reasoning were in the poorest position to do anything; although Willard's courage had not abated, his influence had, thanks to his known deviation from the party line on witchcraft. Increase Mather's interest was awakened, but he too was at a low ebb of public influence because of the storm of criticism aroused by his championship of the new charter. Besides he had returned from England too late to observe the inception of the witchcraft and had since then been largely preoccupied by defending the charter and catching up with his backlog of duties as president of Harvard and senior pastor of the meetinghouse in the North End. He was in general content to follow the reasoning of his son Cotton, who had done so brilliant a piece of laboratory work on demonology at the time of the possession of the Goodwin children. Nevertheless Procter's thesis apparently did serve to focus attention anew on the prosecution. Soon after receiving the petition he called a conference of seven ministers in Cambridge to discuss not explicitly the question of confessions, but rather the perennially troublesome matter of spectral evidence. His proposition was "Whether the devil may not sometimes have permission to represent an innocent person as tormenting such as are under diabolic manifestation." This time there was unanimous agreement that it could happen, with, however, the reservation "that such things are rare and extraordinary especially when such matters come before Civil Judicature." After obtaining this decision Mather took the trouble to go to Salem to see for himself how the trials were conducted when they reopened in August. Here, however, his interest was less in the inconsequential Procter than in Burroughs, and the trial of the latter seemed fair to him. "Had I been one of the judges," he later wrote, "I could not have acquitted him." Even so, whether because of Procter's appeal or his own observation, questions continued to arise in his mind. At long last, far too late to help poor Procter, he did undertake a personal investigation of the methods under which confessions were being secured. It was thanks to him that Mary Tyler's account of the ordeal of the Andover witches was put on record. On August 5 and the days following the judges tried John and Elizabeth Procter, John Willard, old George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, and their most notorious captive, George Burroughs; and they condemned them all. Procter did not come unbefriended to court. Thirty-one friends in Ipswich and twenty-one neighbors in Salem Village had risked the sensitive responses of the afflicted girls by putting their names to petitions which attested to their faith in Procter's good conduct. "His breeding hath been among us," said the Ipswich petitioners in reinforcement of this statement, and added that he "was of religious parents in our place and by reason of relations...with our town hath had constant intercourse with us." ...Procter did, however, accomplish one thing. He had originally become involved in the prosecution through his attempt to save his wife Elizabeth. Well, he had saved her. She was pregnant, and these judges would not condemn to death an unborn child even though it was begotten by a wizard on the body of a witch. Elizabeth, condemned with the others, was given a stay of execution until the baby came, and Procter, who could hardly believe that insanity could reign so long as this in Massachusetts, from March into August, must have had faith that the light of reason would shine again before his wife's months were fulfilled."

On 4/25/99, Jeen Ruff <[email protected]> wrote: >I am new to the list and I was wondering if there were any actual pictures >of Rebecca and Francis Nurse. Farmers like the Nurses were highly unlikely to have portraits painted in those days (and photography wasn't invented in the early 1800s). None are known to exist of any of the Salem Villagers involved in the trials except for an undated miniature of Reverend Parris. It is reproduced in color ("courtesy Massachussets Historical Society") as the frontispiece of The Sermon Notebooks of Samuel Parris, 1689-1694, James F.Cooper Jr. & Kenneth P. Minkema, Eds. [Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston, 1993]. I have seen black-and-white versions reproduced in other books. I have put a scan of it at http://www.ogram.org/17thc/images/index.shtml because the host for this list service filters out attachments, HTML, and styled text. Cheers, Margo Margo Burns, Webweaver [email protected] http://www.ogram.org Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." -- Chomsky

In a message dated 04/24/99 9:21:55 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << Bailey cites no source for this petition, saying only that it was filed by Mary PARKER's sons. Do any listmembers know where the full text of this petition can be found? >> Susie, My mother obtained a copy of the original petition to lift the attainder for our ancestor Mary Bradbury from the LDS Family History Center. She also obtained a copy of the court order which lifted the attainder. You could probably find the same records for your ancestor Mary Parker. The records can be found on microfilm roll # 0877465. I have copied the information contained on this roll from the Family History Library Catalogue that can be found at http://www.familysearch.org/. To get to the Family History Library Catalogue, click on "Browse Categories" from the menu on the left of the screen. Scroll down until you get to the link for the Family History Library Catalogue. Film or fiche number: 877465 Film/fiche search results: Item 1, Court Records 1648-1681, Massachusetts. County Court (Norfolk County): Microfilm of original records in the Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts. Court records, v. 1-2, 1648-1681, have special title: Records of the County Court of the County of Norfolk, Salisbury and Hampton Court. Old Norfolk County (1643-1680) contained the towns of Haverhill, Salisbury, Hampton, Exeter, Dover and Portsmouth. Haverhill and Salisbury became part of Essex County in 1680. The other towns became part of New Hampshire. Item 2, Witchcraft papers 1655-1750, Massachusetts. Court of Assistants: Microfilm of original records in the Essex County courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts. Contains cases of persons accused of witchcraft. Contains also records of the Court of Assistants, 1673-1692, and the Superior Court of Judicature, 1692-1695. Item 3, Court records 1638-1692, Massachusetts. County Court (Essex County): Microfilm of original records in the Essex County courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts. Additional indexes are found at the beginning of some volumes. Item 4, Massachusetts. County Court (Essex County): Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1636-1795. Microfilm of original records in the Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts. Births, marriages, and deaths were recorded by the County Court until 1692, and by the Court of General Sessions of the Peace thereafter. Indexes are included at the beginning of some volumes Items 5-6, Court records 1686-1726, Massachusetts. Inferior Court of Common Pleas (Essex County): Microfilm of original records in the Essex County Courthouse, Salem, Massachusetts Hope this helps, Kathy Smith Ventura, CA Descended from Susanna Martin, Mary Bradbury, and John Proctor

Hi all, I just recently discovered that I'm not only descended from the persecuted Rebecca Nurse, but also her persecutor Samuel Parris. Strange how it all can come together. I'd love to hear from anyone else descended from Rebecca Nurse through her daughter Sarah and her husband Michael Bowden. Bonnie Kearley

Hi there, I am new to the list and I was wondering if there were any actual pictures of Rebecca and Francis Nurse. I have purchased the movies based on her stories but would love to know what she actually looked like. Anything that makes the person become more real is always fun. Jeen

Looking for contact with descendants of Rebecca Town and Francis Nurse through Jonathan then Samuel JONES line. Francis Nurse/Rebecca Towne (Eng>Mass) (Eng>Mass) Wm.Russell/Elizabeth Nurse (Mass)(Mass) Wm.Russell/Ruth Richardson (Mass)(Mass) Jonathan Jones/Elizabeth Russell (Mass)(Mass) Samuel Jones/Hannah Hoar (Mass>NH)(Mass>NH) Milton Jones/Susannah Shedd (NH>IL)(NH>IL) Runnels Jones/Mary? Polly? (NH>OR)(NH>OR) Rodney Jones/Sophronia Tuckness (IL>OR)(OR) Emma Jones/Nelson Jones (no blood relation) (OR>WA)(IL>OR>WA) Sylvia Jones/Lloyd Fenimore (WA>OR)(OR) Victor Fenimore/Patsy Stowell ( WA>OR>WA) (OR>WA) Martin Fenimore(myself)/Christina Finch (OR>WA)(ENG>OR>WA) [email protected] Kelso, WA

Mary PARKER of Andover was hanged 2 Sept 1692 in Salem. In Bailey's "Historical Sketches of Andover," 1880, p210, a petition signed by Mary PARKER's sons is cited, and a portion quoted, "Whereas our honored mother was Imprisoned and upon her Tryal was condemned for supposed witchcraft upon such evidence as is now generally thought to be insufficient and suffered the Pains of Death at Salem in the year 1692 we being well satisfied of not only her innocency of that crime that she was condemned for, but of her piety humbly desire that the attainders may be taken off, that so her name that has suffered may be restored." Bailey cites no source for this petition, saying only that it was filed by Mary PARKER's sons. Do any listmembers know where the full text of this petition can be found? Does anyone know the names of the sons that signed the petition? Thanks for you help, Susie Susan Maybin Stevens Descendant of Mary Parker, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor

No where in my orig post did I say that I supported this as a reason for the hysteria in Salem, and Apologize if anyone took it as if I did. The 1st url is abt the pharmacology of Ergot/RyeSmut, the 2nd is the effects on animals. With the knowledge and use of Ergot in medieval times it seems unlikely that people [anywhere] would take this lightly when harvesting, and take extra precaution not to include any effected grain in storage for consumption of people or animals. >http://www.healthy.net/library/journals/naturopathic/vol1no1/news/clavines. htm >http://vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/cover1.htm

Susan, Here's the next installment: >From The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey Pgs. 85 -87 "For Mary Warren's absence from court there had been sound reason. John Procter had after all made one convert to the cause of common sense, and it was the girl he called his "jade." Procter, a titan of a man, as commanding of figure as he was downright in manner, had long ago won the respect if not the love of his maidservant. Her affection, to be sure, did not extend to his present wife. Mary felt that Elizabeth did not understand her husband, that she was making his life miserable, an observation for which there may have been some grounds in that Elizabeth was currently suffering the first stages of pregnancy. Yet Mary was in the present crisis too loyal to her master to testify against his wife. Besides, good sense may impress a hypnoid subject as well as fantasy. Living at close quarters with Procter's sanity, Mary has well before the examination begun to emerge from her dream. Older than the other girls, serious in her pieties, she now looked about her and saw that she had fallen into strange company. The taking of Procter with Elizabeth gave Mary a kind of shock treatment which completely restored her sanity. She might in her secret heart rejoice to see the wife put away, but the husband, never. Besides, Mary, left at home with Procter's five children, was in a difficult position. The three older children were old enough to speak to her in plain terms for her part in bringing about such a misfortune, and their comments were reinforced by the opinion of the neighborhood at large. Procter had been a good neighbor; few who knew him either here or in his native Ipswich would believe ill of him. Other people might be witches, but not in the name of common sense John Procter. If this were not enough, Mary may have had another and extreme object lesson in the misery fantasy may bring into the world. Under the law witches were to be treated like enemy aliens found guilty of conspiring against the government under which they lived; not only their lives but their goods were forfeit. Neither, to be sure, could be taken before trial and conviction, but in Procter's case a zealous sheriff overlooked this technicality. Well before the trial he "came to their house and seized all the goods, provision and cattle that he could come at, and sold some of the cattle at half price and killed others and put them up for the West Indies; threw out the beer out of the barrel and carried away the barrel, emptied out a pot of broath and took away the pot and left nothing for the support of the children." The youngest of these were three and seven respectively. So suggestible a nature as Mary Warren's could not look on such events unmoved. Looking at the other girls with whom she had spent so many tranced hours, she now saw them as a pack of undisciplined children who had somehow beguiled an entire community into playing a wicked game with them, such a game as a five year old might invent. "It was for sport." One of them had admitted it and apropos of the Procters. Well, here was their sport, an orderly household suddenly deprived of its mainstays and little children weeping. If this was sport, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam could have it. Mary Warren was through. Mary was not, however, of such stuff as heroines are made of. She did not at this point seek out Mr. Hathorne or the Reverend Samuel Parris to make a formal announcement of her change of heart. She might in the end as well as done so; she could not keep her views to herself, and what she confided to her friends presently reached the ears of the afflicted girls and immediately after, the magistrates." The "afflicted" girls were not about to let Mary Warren recant her testimony and leave their group. Mary soon found herself accused of tormenting the girls. A warrant was issued for her arrest and when she was brought into court Hathorne asked, "You were a little while ago an afflicted person; now you are an afflicter. How comes this to pass?" Mary, in fear for her life, eventually returned to the group of afflicted girls and again accused Elizabeth and John Proctor of witchcraft. More to follow.................Bonnie

>From The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion L. Starkey: pg. 49. " 'Bitch witches' was the word old George Jacobs had for the afflicted girls, one of whom was his own maidservant, Sarah Churchill. John Proctor, who had the prophesying Mary Warren on his hands, was reporting that he had cured her fits by plumping her down at her spinning wheel and promising her a thrashing if she stirred from it, in or out of possession. It irritated him that after he had thus "cured" her, the magistrates had sent for the girl over his protest to testify in court where, as Proctor drily remarked, "She must have her fits forsooth." Pg. 76. "John Proctor, coming to town Friday morning to pick up his 'jade,' Mary Warren, whom he had again been forced to let attend an examination, gave voice to some very strong and very public remarks about the girls. "They should be at the whipping post!" he said. "If they are let alone we should all be devils and witches." In his eyes the wrong people were being called to the stand. If one must have witches forsooth, look for them not among decent women of good reputations but among the obviously bedeviled, the girls themselves. "Hang them! Hang them!" shouted honest John Proctor. You can't say things like that. Not in public, not in Salem Village of 1692." Pgs. 82 - 85 "The first crying out had occurred on Monday, March 28, a few days after Rebecca Nurse's examination and John Proctor's outburst against the girls. "There's Goody Procter!" one of the latter had cried in Ingersoll's ordinary. "Old witch! I'll have her hang." For all John Procter's recent reckless talk about the girls, he and his family held a high place in the esteem of the community. Accordingly the several witnesses to this crying out responded with unwonted skepticism. They looked about them, remarked that there was nothing to see, and told the girl who had spoken that they believed she was lying. Had the girl run true to form she would have reacted to this reproof by going into convulsions. Instead she sheepishly came out of her trance. "It was for sport," she admitted. "I must have some sport." Later when Elizabeth Procter was taken anyway, Goody Ingersoll, Daniel Elliot, and William Raymond put the episode on record to present as testimony for the defense. They might have spared themselves the pains. The magistrates, committed to "spectral evidence," would waive as irrelevant and even frivolous any testimony based on the fact that other people could not see what the girls saw. One might as well in a modern court testify that water is free of bacilli on the grounds that it looks clear to the eye; the girls were the microscopes which God Himself had provided for the laboratory work of detecting witches. But though the magistrates would not honor such testimony, the fact that it had been offered did seem to have a chastening effect on the girls. When Elizabeth Procter took the stand they eyed her in silence. But for John Indian, Elizabeth might have left the place without a count against her. "There is the woman who came in her shift and choked me!" he yelled suddenly. The ice was broken. The girls began to mutter and moan and to go into the preliminary stages to their mediumistic trance, and then to produce the din that Sewall called "awful." Elizabeth was sighted on what was now the classic perch for a witch, the beam, and half a dozen said that she had been after them to sign the Book. "Did you not tell me that your maid had written?" cried little Abigail. The "maid" was Mary Warren, who significantly was not present. "Dear child, it is not so" said Elizabeth. "There is another judgment, dear child." It was as if she, the mother and stepmother of John Procter's brood, thought she could reason with one so young and tender. But there had never been anything tender about Abigail; today her demon was rampant; even after court it set her in a poltergeist frenzy in pursuit of her uncle, still laboring at his notes over the long table, until finally the poor man could only record that the demons loosed upon the girls were beyond control, and fold up his report unfinished. Thanks to this diabolic meddlesomeness, the contribution of John Procter to the situation is obscure. He had come unsummoned to stand by his wife. At one point, while he was raising his stentorian voice in order to make himself heard above the tumult, young Abigail turned on him with an air of pleased discovery. "Why he can pinch as well as she!" exclaimed Abigail, and she, unfortunately, was heard. Procter had never been given to holding his tongue in a crisis. Certainly his voice boomed out again and again during the scene that followed. But either Parris could not hear him through the uproar, or he considered everything he heard irrelevant. The magistrates, intent upon the reactions of the girls as their true source of information, turned to him only in reproof. "You see the devil will deceive you," one of them said. "The children could see what you was going to do before the woman was hurt. I would advise you to repentance, for the devil is bringing you out." Procter was learning that he had spoken more truly than he knew when he said that the girls if let alone would "make devils of us all." He must have accompanied his accused wife to Salem confident that now that some of the soberest minds in the colony, notably Danforth and Sewall, were investigating the witchcraft, common sense would prevail. Instead he now saw something like witchcraft of a most unexpected and disturbing nature. The common sense of these men had abdicated before the crazed fantasies of wenches in their teens. Had these men no eyes to see? Had they no daughters or sisters that they should not know how silly a female can be in the silly season of her teens, to what lengths she can go in her craving for attention? Procter knew how to handle the witches; look at Mary Warren, who knew better than to come to court today. Just give him a chance to demonstrate his therapy on the rest. But Procter's reasoning was like blasphemy to the magistrates. With them the devil had indeed taken over; this was his hour and the power of darkness; he came in the form of a stern mad logic, a closed circle which admitted no intrusion from the world of objectively observed reality. Or rather it was a logic which admitted of only one reality, the affliction of these girls and their testimony as to its cause. The girls had pointed out Procter as "a most dreadful wizard"; he must be put away with the rest. And so he was." More to follow................Bonnie

>From The Hammatt Papers by Abraham Hammatt: "PROCTOR, John. Came to New England in the ship Susan and Ellen, 1635, aged forty years; Martha Proctor, aged 28 years; John, 3 years; Marie, one year. John Proctor was a commoner, 1641; was one of the 27 richest inhabitants who had two shares in Plum Is. 1664. He had a houselot adjoining Christopher Osgood; and another, where he had his house, on the south side of the river, 1635, it being the lot nearest the bridge. This last mentioned lot, with the dwelling house, he sold to Thomas Firman, May 1, 1647, in exchange for a farm. In 635, he had a planting lot, "on the east side of the great hill called Heartbreak." This planting lot adjoined lots of Mr. Samuel Dudley, Thomas Wells, and "the way leading to Mr. Saltonstall's Farm." His will is dated August 28, and proved Nov. 28, 1672. In it he speaks of himself as aged and infirm. His first wife, Martha, died June 13, 1659. He left a wife, Martha. His sons were: John, Joseph, Benjamin. His daughters: Martha White; Abigail Varney; Sarah Dodge; Hannah Widden. Benjamin 2, son of John 1, married Deborah Hart, Feb. 1673. He was commoner, 1678. John 2, son of John 1, born 1632, married Elizabeth Thorndike, December, 1662. They had born in Ipswich: Mary, born Jan. 1, 1657; Benjamin, born June 10, 1659; Martha, born April 1, 1665. He removed to Salem, where, in 1692, he was hanged as a witch. A petition for a reprieve, signed by thirty-two of his Ipswich neighbors, testifying to the goodness of his character, availed nothing. His will, made in prison after his conviction, August 2, 1692, directs his property to be equally divided among his children. It amounted to 17 (pounds), 6,8, for each: Benjamin, Martha, Mary, William, Joseph, Samuel, John, Elizabeth Verry, Thorndike, Sarah, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail. It appears from the following that his wife, Elizabeth, was also convicted. Sir William Phipps prevented her execution by pardon: Essex, Ss. By ye Hon'bl Barth'o Gedney, Esq., Judge of Wills, &c., for said County, April 19th, 1697: Whereas Elizabeth Proctor Producing fro under the hand & seal of Sr William Phips, late Gov'en'r, a Repreve after her being Indicted, arraigned, convict and sentenced of & for the detestable crime of Witchcraft: and the said Gov'en'r in the names of their most Gracious Maj'es Wm & Mary, by ye grace of God of England, Holland & France & Ireland, King & Queen, defenders of the faith, freely, clearly & absolutely Pardon the said Elis'h Proctor of the sd Crime of Witchcraft of & for wch she stood convict & sentenced as afores'd, so as she may Injoy her life & liberty in as free & full manner as before, as in & by sd Pardon at large may appear: & whereas the sd Eliza'h being looked upon as dead in law & left out ye will of her Hus'd, John Proctor, & nothing given her ye'in, nor ordered her upon the distribution of the Estate of the said Proctor, but since producing the aforesaid pardon she becomes alive in law, whereby to Recover her right of Dowry, and upon her Request a citation went forth to the Ex'r of her dec'd Husb'ns Will, &c." more to follow........................Bonnie

It's easy to blame the Salem Witchcraft incidents on conspiracy. A group of adolescent girls were secretly indulging in behavior that flew in the face of the dominant ideology of the day. They were victims of extreme anxiety due to the restrictive society they inhabited, and the consequences they might have had to endure if discovered. I believe that the beginning of the episode occurred because a number of the girls were truly unbalanced by this anxiety. I don't doubt however, that the adults in control of these girls managed to influence them to accuse their enemies, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the case of both Salem, Massachusetts and Littleton, Colorado adolescents felt themselves to be isolated from the cultural milieu. In both cases they "avenged" themselves. In both instances, these teens leveraged the power that was available to them. In Littleton the boys exploited the violence, hatred and racism which, sadly, is still prevalent in our culture, and used bombs and guns as their weapons. In Salem the forces were prejudice and fear, and the weapons were the accusations made. Salem and Littleton - both are sad commentaries on the society of the day. Kathy Smith