On 12/31/01, "Julie Jirout" <juliejirout@hotmail.com> wrote: >In the trial transcripts it's clear that the magistrates and others >were manipulating the children - Parents were motivated to >manipulate them too - but where is the documentation? Have you a >quote or something indicating that the parents were involved in the >manipulation? I have a good one for you: When John Tarbell and Samuel Nurse, Rebecca Nurse's son-in-law & son, went to the Putnam residence to inquire about Ann Putnam Jr.'s accusations of their mother, this is their statement of what transpired: "John tarball being at the house of thomas putnams upon the 20: day of this instant march being the yeare 1692 upon descource of many things i asked them some questions and among others i asked this question wheter the garle that was afflicted did first speack [of] of goody nurs before others mentioned her to her they said she told them she saw the apperishton of apale fast woman that Sat in her granmothers seat but did not know her name: then i replyed and said but who was it that told her that it was good nurs: mercy lewes said it was goody putnam that said it was goody nurse: goody putnam said it was mercy lewes that told her: thus they turned it upone one an other saying it was you & it was you that told her: this was be fore any was afflicted at thomas putnams beside his daughter that they told his daughter it was goody nurs Samuel nurs doth testifie to all above written" (Boyer & Nissenbaum, p. 603) It seems that early on, Ann Putnam, Jr., did *not* accuse Rebecca Nurse -- but that Nurse's name was put into her mouth by others, including her mother and Mercy Lewis, then a servant in the Putnam household, and soon to be one of the afflicted herself. Happy New Year, one and all! Cheers, Margo -- Margo Burns, List Owner of the SALEM-WITCH List at Rootsweb.com margo@ogram.org