clergymen of his day, he dwelt more upon the love of God than upon His awful wrath, and the iron-souled members of Salem congregation released him in favor of a preacher of sterner doctrine. Incidentally, they allowed him to depart with a considerable portion of his salary unpaid.
Evil fortune seemed to dog Mr. Burroughs’ steps. While he was in Salem his wife died; he remarried shortly after taking up his work in another parish, and his second mate also died. Discouraged, all but despairing, he quit the colony of Massachusetts to take up missionary work in Maine. On April 10, 1692, one John Partridge, a marshal of the latter province, arrested him on a warrant charging witchcraft, trafficking with the Evil One, and sundry other diabolical crimes. May 4, he was returned to Salem Village to answer the accusation.
The Reverend Samuel Parris, who acted as clerk of court and assistant prosecutor in this case, as well as others, leaves us this quaint notation of Mr. Burroughs’ examination:
At his entry into the courtroom many (if not all of the bewitched) were grievously tortured. Susan Sheldon testified that Burroughs his two wives appeared in their winding sheets and said that man had killed them. He was bid to look upon Susan Sheldon. He looked back and knocked down all (or most of the afflicted who stood behind him.
Mercy Lewis’ deposition going to be read and he looked at her and she fell into a dreadful and tedious fit.
| Mary Walcot | Testimony going to be read and they all fell into fits. | |
| Elizabeth Hubbard | ||
| Susan Sheldon |
The magistrates, as was usual in these cases, attempted to bully the accused into an admission of guilt, asking him again and again if it were not a fact that his house in Maine was haunted by the ghosts of his two murdered wives. The officials appear to have taken it for granted that he had murdered his wives, for had not their shades appeared to the “afflicted” children? And had not these very children sworn away the lives of half a dozen other persons?
Mr. Parris notes that the accused clergyman stoutly denied his house was haunted by ghosts, either of his wives or others, but adds with an air of triumph that he admitted “there were toads in his garden"!
Among other proofs that George Burroughs was a servant of Satan the following facts were testified to: he had been seen to lift a barrel of molasses in his arms and carry it; he had been seen to carry a barrel of cider in his arms; he had been seen to pick up a musket by the muzzle and hold it out at arm’s length.
When he explained that God had been pleased to endow him with more than usual strength, the “afflicted children” were one and all “grievously vexed”, falling in fits upon the courtroom floor and screaming and crying till the proceedings had to be halted.
No witchcraft trial was complete without testimony from that remarkable twelve-year-old child, Ann Putnam. It was on her testimony that Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn were condemned to death; Giles Corey, of Salem Farms, was arrested on her accusation, so was his wife, Martha Corey. Rebecca Nurse, loved and respected by nearly every dweller in Salem, received sentence of death by hanging largely on Ann’s testimony. Whenever other witnesses were wanting to bear conclusive proof against a suspected witch, Ann Putnam could be depended on to furnish the necessary testimony. Consequently, we find this child being duly sworn upon the Holy Scriptures to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” and testifying that Burroughs had appeared to her one night and told her he had three wives and had “butchered the first two to death.”
