Greetings! On Tuesday, January 7, 2003, at 09:51 PM, Bjohn3237@aol.com wrote: > I thought I remembered reading that [Corey had beaten a servant to > death, but was never charged] but I can't remember where I came across > that info. This refers to the death of Jacob Goodale in 1675, 17 years earlier. According to Bernard Rosenthal's "Salem Story," this story appears in Cotton Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World," in am undated letter from Thomas Putnam to Samuel Sewall, claiming that a specter of the dead man had come to Ann Putnam, Jr. and told her that he was murdered by witches, an event which had preceded her birth. I can't lay my hands on the reference this morning, but I seem to recall that the investigating jury at the time of Goodale's death did not rule it homicide, despite Goodale being pretty severely beaten up. I'm sure there are other references to this episode out there -- anyone else? > I also seem to remember that when his wife was accused of witchcraft > he actually made statements against her. When it looked like his > statements might "turn" against him, he then came to his wife's > defense. I'll have to try to track down the source of that > information. Believe it or not, just *yesterday* at the Peabody-Essex, I was looking at the original of the document outlining what Giles had said that implicated his wife. It is a very strange little document, which can be viewed at http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/archives/essex/ecca/vol1/ small/043_0001.jpg and found on pages 259-260 of Boyer & Nissenbaum. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer- new2?id=BoySal1.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/ oldsalem&tag=public&part=218&division=div2 I say it is "strange" because the handwriting is unusually small and tight, and I can't figure out whose it is. In Richard Trask's "The Devil Hath Been Raised," he speculates that it is Rev. Nicholas Noyes' handwriting, which would be interesting, but I can't find evidence to support this attribution. The structure of it is more in bullet format than a simple "statement," even though it does claim that Giles "testifieth" to the content. Happy New Year All! --Margo Margo Burns, List Owner of the Salem-Witch List at rootsweb.com margo@ogram.org