The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination (Vol. 3 of 3)

Woodward's Historical Series.
No. VII.
THE Witchcraft Delusion IN NEW ENGLAND: ITS Rise, Progress, and Termination, AS EXHIBITED BY Dr. COTTON MATHER, IN THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD ; AND BY Mr. ROBERT CALEF, IN HIS MORE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD . WITH A Preface, Introduction, and Notes , By SAMUEL G. DRAKE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. More Wonders of the Invisible World.
PRINTED FOR W. ELLIOT WOODWARD, ROXBURY, MASS. MDCCCLXVI.
No. ____
Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1865, By SAMUEL G. DRAKE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.
Edition in this size 280 Copies.
Munsell, Printer.
Matters of Fact.
After he had been there about two years, he obtained a Grant from a part of the Town, that the House and Land he Occupied, and which had been Alotted by the whole People to the Ministry, should be and remain to him, &c. as his own Estate in Fee Simple. This occasioned great Divisions both between the Inhabitants themselves, and between a considerable part of them and their said Minister, which Divisions were but as a beginning or Præludium to what immediately followed.
March the 11 th . Mr. Parris invited several Neighbouring Ministers to join with him in keeping a Solemn day of Prayer at his own House; the time of the exercise those Persons were for the most part silent, but after any one Prayer was ended, they would Act and Speak strangely and Ridiculously, yet were such as had been well Educated and of good Behaviour, the one a Girl of 11 or 12 years old, would sometimes seem to be in a Convulsion Fit, her Limbs being twisted several ways, and very stiff, but presently her Fit would be over.
A few days before this Solemn day of Prayer, Mr. Parris's Indian Man and Woman made a Cake of Rye Meal, with the Childrens Water, and Baked it in the Ashes, and as is said, gave it to the Dog; this was done as a means to Discover Witchcraft; soon after which those ill affected or afflicted Persons named several that they said they saw, when in their Fits, afflicting of them.