In the earliest years witches were generally burned, and in the first one hundred and fifty years it is estimated thirty thousand thus perished. Later, in France, in one century, an almost incredible number suffered—one thousand in a single diocese. In the century, 1600 to 1700, two hundred were hanged in England, one thousand were burned in Scotland, and a much greater number on the Continent.

The American Witch and
Views of the Educated

In America there were witch trials—in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania,[[3]]—some years before 1692. In Boston, 1648, Margaret Jones, of malignant touch, was hanged, and Mrs. Ann (Wm.) Hebbins, in 1655. In Springfield, 1651, Mrs. Mary (Hugh) Parsons was hanged. In Ipswich quarter court, 1652, a man was sentenced to pay a fine of twenty shillings, or to be whipped for “having familiarity with the Devil.”

The doctrine of witches was embraced not only by the common people, but also by the learned; Tycho Brahe, the prince of astronomers, and Kepler, his student, Martin Luther, the bold theologian, and Melancthon, the gentle; the silver-tongued Dr. Watts and the pious Baxter, who styled a disbeliever in witchcraft “an obdurate Sadducee,” and others whom time fails me to mention.

Old Crone Lore and
Three Notable Dissenters

Witch stories were a social entertainment, to the mingled fear and merriment of guests and the positive foreboding of children. Who even now among the older people has forgotten the crone lore of our grandmothers—how witches would seize a red-hot iron, glide into a heated oven, ride through the air on enchanted broomsticks, and how stalwart men would stalk through keyholes, supported and directed by Satanic power! It was believed that witches made an actual, deliberate, and formal compact with Satan.

There were, however, two or three persons of learning and influence in the Province who (to their great credit, be it said) dared to oppose the doctrine of witches—the celebrated Rev. Samuel Willard, of the Old South Church, Boston,—Maj. Nathaniel Saltonstall, who declined a seat upon the bench rather than participate in the witch trials,—and Rev. John Higginson (son of Rev. Francis, the first minister of Salem), who was cautious and held himself aloof; for his conscience whispered he had gone too far against the Quakers.

Pen Picture of a Witch
Home of the “Delusion”

The New England witch was supposed to be an old woman of attenuated form, somewhat bent; clothed in lively colors and ample skirts; having a darting and piercing eye, a head sporting disheveled hair and crowned with a sugar-loaf hat, a carlin’s cheek, a falcated chin bent to meet an aquiline nose, by both of which was formed a Neapolitan bay, her mouth in the background resembling Vesuvius in eruption; and riding an enchanted broomstick with a black cat as guide.

Salem Village, the location of the hideous catastrophe, was the northern precinct of Salem; and when it was incorporated Danvers, its name became Danvers Center. Quite recently (1910) the trolley car company changed the name to Danvers Highlands, but in the steam car nomenclature it is Collins Street. From Town House Square in Salem to the Highlands a trolley ride costs a nickel; the distance is five miles, and every mile a pleasure.