Annotated Text of Salem Witch Trial Documents

Salem Witch Trial Documents

This document, which is a letter from some of the accused witches in the Salem Witch Trials, asks that the authorities allow the accused to spend the winter at home, rather than in jail since a speedy trial seems uncertain. In this document, the accused insist that they do not have any knowledge of witchcraft and are willing to be put on trial in the spring, confident of their innocence.

This document pardons the convicted, well after the fact. The trials occurred in 1692 and 1693, while this act occurred in 1711. The witch trials themselves involved a large number of people in Salem—many of whom were executed. This is an instance in American history of mass hysteria.

In this first paragraph of this page, the act acknowledges that the trials—and particularly the accusations that set the trials in motion—were of a dubious nature, and ensnared a good many innocent people. The document talks about people of “known and good reputation” being accused of witchcraft; furthermore, the document questions the integrity of the accusers, distancing two groups of people involved in the Salem trials.

Regni ANNÆ Reginæ Decimo.

{illustration}

Province of the Massachusetts-Bay.

AN ACT,

Made and Passed by the Great and General Court or Assembly of Her Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, Held at Boston the 17th Day of October, 1711.

{Begin handwritten} Nal Lambert Salem {End handwritten}

{Begin handwritten} Jany 28^th, ? 1808 {End handwritten}

An Act to Reverse the Attainders of George Burroughs and others for Witchcraft.

FOR AS MUCH as in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety Two, Several Towns within this Province were Infested with a horrible Witchcraft or Possession of Devils; and at a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer holden at Salem, in the County of Essex in the same Year One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety Two, George Burroughs of Wells, John Procter, George Jacob, John Willard, Giles Core, and his Wife, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Good, all of Salem aforesaid: Elizabeth How, of Ipswich, Mary Eastey, Sarah Wild and Abigail Hobbs all of Topsfield: Samuel Wardell, Mary Parker, Martha Carrier, Abigail Falkner, Anne Foster, Rebecca Eames, Mary Post, and Mary Lacey, all of Andover: Mary Bradbury of Salisbury, and Dorcas Hoar of Beverly; Were severally Indicted, Convicted and Attained of Witchcraft, and some of them put to Death, Others lying still under the like sentence of the said Court, and liable to have the same Executed upon them.

The Influence and Energy of the Evil Spirits so great at that time acting in and upon those who were the Principal Accusers and Witnesses, proceeding so far as to cause a Prosecution to be had of Persons of known and good Reputation, which caused a great Dissatisfaction and a stop to be put thereunto, until Their Majesties Pleasure should be known therein.

And upon a Representation thereof accordingly made, Her late Majesty Queen MARY the Second, of blessed Memory, by Her Royal Letter given at Her Court at Whitehall the Fifteenth of April 1693. was Graciously Pleas’d to approve the Care and Circumspection therein; and to Will and Require that in all proceedings against Persons Accused for Witchcraft, or being possessed by the Devil, the greatest Moderation, and all due Circumspection be Used, so far as the same may be without Impediment to the ordinary Course of Justice.

And some of the Principal Accusers and Witnesses in those dark and severe Prosecutions have since discovered themselves to be Persons of Profligate and Vicious Conversation.

Upon the humble Petition and Suit of several of said Persons, and of the Children of others of them whose Parents were Executed.

Be it Declared and Enacted by His Excellency the Governour, Council and Representatives, in General Court Assembled and by the Authority of the same, That the several Convictions, Judgements and Attainders against the said George Burroughs, John Procter, George Jacob, John Willard, Giles Core, and..........Core, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth How, Mary Eastey, Sarah Wild, Abigail Hobbs, Samuel Wardell, Mary Parker, Martha Carrier, Abigail Falkner, Anne Foster, Rebecca Eames, Mary Post, Mary Lacey, Mary Bradbury and Dorcas Hoar, and every of them, Be and hereby are Reversed, Made and Declared to be Null and Void to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever, as if no such Convictions, Judgments or Attainders had ever been had or given. And that no Penalties or Forfeitures of Goods or Chattels be by the said Judgements and Attainders, or either of them had or incurr’d.

Any Law, Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

And that no Sheriff, Constable, Goaler, or other Officer shall be liable to any Prosecution in the Law for anything they then Legally did in the Execution of their respective Offices.

BOSTON: Printed by B. Green, Printer to His Excellency the GOVERNOUR and COUNCIL. 1713.