SALEM WITCH TRIALS, BRIDGET BISHOP IS EXECUTED

Salem Witch Trials, Massachussets, 1692-1693

Today, The Grandma has gone to the library to search information about the Salem Witch Trials, the events happened in the Colonial America during the 17th century that finished with the lives of nineteen people with a false accusation.

This episode is one of Colonial America's most notorious cases of mass hysteria and The Grandma wants to remember it today on the 327th anniversary of the execution of Bridget Bishop, the first victim of these fake trials.

The Grandma remembers her last visit to Danvers (then Salem Village) in Massachussets and how the history of the witches of Salem impacted her because of the similarities between this story in the USA in the 17th century and the Cathars in Occitania in the 13th century.

More information: Salem Witch Trials-Documentary Archive

Justice must be a tool to find the truth but never a method of revenge based of religious or political ideals. Sadly, nowadays, fake justice is easy to find in some countries under a supposed disguise of democracy and legality.

More than three hundred years later, some Justice Courts continue their proposals of accusing people who express ideas, feelings or opinions that are nor in the same line of the judges or tribunals that are judging them. It is a must for us to denounce them and to repair their actions.

The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, 19 of whom were found guilty and executed by hanging, 14 women and 5 men.

Salem Witch Trials, Massachussets, 1692-1693

One other man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail. It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America.

Twelve other women had previously been executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 17th century. Despite being generally known as the Salem Witch Trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns: Salem Village, now Danvers, Salem Town, Ipswich, and Andover. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town.

More information: Smithsonian

The episode is one of Colonial America's most notorious cases of mass hysteria. It has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process. It was not unique, but a Colonial American example of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the early modern period, which took place also in Europe.

Memorial, Danvers

Many historians consider the lasting effects of the trials to have been highly influential in subsequent United States history. According to historian George Lincoln Burr, the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered. At the 300th anniversary events in 1992 to commemorate the victims of the trials, a park was dedicated in Salem and a memorial in Danvers.

In November 2001, an act passed by the Massachusetts legislature exonerated five people, while another one, passed in 1957, had previously exonerated six other victims. As of 2004, there was still talk about exonerating all the victims, though some think that happened in the 19th century as the Massachusetts colonial legislature was asked to reverse the attainders of George Burroughs and others. 

In January 2016, the University of Virginia announced its Gallows Hill Project team had determined the execution site in Salem, where the 19 witches had been hanged. The city owns the site and is planning to establish a memorial to the victims.

More information: History of Massachussets

Bridget Bishop (c. 1632-10 June 1692) was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Altogether, about 200 people were tried, and 20 others were executed.

Bridget Bishop

One interpretation of the historical record suggests that she was a resident of Salem Town and thus not the tavern owner. Perhaps she did not know her accusers. This would be supported in her deposition in Salem Village before the authorities stating, I never saw these persons before, nor I never was in this place before.

The indictments against her clearly note that she was from Salem which meant Salem Town, as other indictments against residents of Salem Village specified their locations as such. She was often confused with Sarah Bishop, one of the other accused during the Salem trial.

Bridget's maiden name appears to have been Mangus or Playfer. She was married three or an undocumented four times. She married her first husband Captain Samuel Wesselby on 13 April 1660, at St. Mary-in-the-Marsh, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

She had only one son and one daughter from her first marriage, Benjamin and Mary. She had another daughter from her marriage to Thomas Oliver, Christian Oliver -sometimes spelled Chrestian-, born 8 May 1667.

Her second marriage, on 26 July 1666, was to Thomas Oliver, a widower and prominent businessman. She was earlier accused of bewitching Thomas Oliver to death, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. Her last marriage c. 1687 was to Edward Bishop, a prosperous sawyer, whose family lived in Beverly.

More information: All That's Interesting

Bishop was accused of bewitching five young women, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Hubbard, on the date of her examination by the authorities, 19 April 1692.

A record was given of her trial by Cotton Mather in The Wonders of the Invisible World. In his book, Mather recorded that several people testified against Bishop, stating that the shape of Bishop would pinch, choke or bite them. The shape also threatened to drown one victim if she did not write her name in a certain book.

Bridget Bishop's memorial, Salem, Massachussets

During the trial, anytime Bishop would look upon one of those supposed to be tortured by her, they would be immediately struck down and only her touch would revive them.

More allegations were made during the trial including that of a woman saying that the apparition of Bishop tore her coat, upon further examination her coat was found to be torn in the exact spot. Mather mentions that the truth of these many accusations carried too much suspicion, however. William Stacy, a middle aged man in Salem Town, testified that Bishop had previously made statements to him that other people in the town considered her to be a witch. He confronted her with the allegation that she was using witchcraft to torment him, which she denied.

More information: Learn Religions

Another local man, Samuel Shattuck, accused Bishop of bewitching his child and also of striking his son with a spade. He also testified that Bishop asked him to dye lace, which apparently was too small to be used on anything but a poppet, doll used in spell-casting.

John and William Bly, father and son, testified about finding poppets in Bishop's house and also about their cat that appeared to be bewitched, or poisoned, after a dispute with Bishop. Other victims of Bishop, as recorded by Mather, include Deliverance Hobbs, John Cook, Samuel Gray, Richard Coman, and John Louder.

During her sentencing, a jury of women found a third nipple upon Bishop, then considered a sure sign of witchcraft, yet upon a second examination the nipple was not found. In the end Mather states that the biggest thing that condemned Bishop was the gross amount of lying she committed in court. According to Mather, there was little occasion to prove the witchcraft, it being evident and notorious to all beholders. Bishop was sentenced to death and hanged.

More information: ThoughtCo

Satan’s design was to set up his own worship,

abolish all the churches in the land,

to fall next upon Salem and so go through the country.

William Barker Sr.