The Penguin Book of Witches by Katherine Howe

Author:Katherine Howe
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

THE SUSPICION OF MARTHA CORY, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1692

Martha Cory was the wife of Giles Cory and was the first woman accused whose accusation might be termed atypical. She was a full church member at a time when church membership was tantamount to social rank and respect, and meant probable membership in the elect who would advance to heaven. She was married, and not in a scandalous or volatile way. She was moneyed. Once Tituba’s confession planted the seed of the idea that there was a conspiracy in town, suspicion was then free to spread to members of the community who might otherwise have been thought to be above reproach.

Most striking in Martha Cory’s examination was her incredulity that this was really happening to her. In the course of her examination, she claimed that the children were “distracted,” that is, crazy. She laughed during the proceedings. She did not claim to know whether there were or were not witches “in the country.” The magistrates, in turn, pointed to Tituba’s confession as evidence that witches were around, privileging the word of a slave woman over that of a churchwoman.

Martha Cory had publicly suspected that the afflicted girls were lying from the beginning, but her doubt, rather than being heard as a voice of reason within the community, would have been taken by doctrinaire Puritans as an error of faith. To doubt the existence of witches or the Devil was to go against the truth as laid out in the Bible. It was Martha Cory’s very skepticism that made her worthy of suspicion and led to her eventual hanging.

Martha Cory’s Examination1 21 March, 1691/2

[Mr. Hathorne]: You are now in the hands of authority. Tell me now why you hurt these persons.

[Martha Cory]: I do not.

[Mr. Hathorne]: Who doth?

[Martha Cory]: Pray give me leave to go to prayer.

This request was made sundry times.

[Mr. Hathorne]: We do not send for you to go to prayer.

[Mr. Hathorne]: But tell me why you hurt these?

[Martha Cory]: I am an innocent person; I never had to do with witchcraft since I was born. I am a Gospel woman.

[Mr. Hathorne]: Do not you see these complaints of you?

[Martha Cory]: The Lord open the eyes of the magistrates and ministers. The Lord show his power to discover the guilty.

[Mr. Hathorne]: Tell us who hurts these children.

[Martha Cory]: I do not know.

[Mr. Hathorne]: If you be guilty of this fact do you think you can hide it?

[Martha Cory]: The Lord knows.

[Mr. Hathorne]: Well, tell us what you know of this matter.

[Martha Cory]: Why, I am a Gospel woman, and do you think I can have to do with witchcraft too?2

[Mr. Hathorne]: How could you tell then that the child was bid to observe what clothes you wore when some came to speak with you?

Cheever interrupted her and bid her not begin with a lie and so Edward Putman declared the matter.3

[Mr. Hathorne]: Who told you that?

[Martha Cory]: He said the child said.

[Cheever]: You speak falsely.

Then Edward Putman read again.4

[Mr. Hathorne]:

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