Mather's Preface to the Tryals.
[113] BUT I shall no longer detain my Reader from his expected entertainment, in a brief account of the Tryals, which have passed upon some of the Malefactors, lately Executed at Salem, for the Witchcrafts whereof they stood convicted. For my own part I was not present at any of them; nor ever had I any personal prejudice at the persons thus brought upon the Stage; much less, at the surviving Relations of those persons, with and for whom, I would be as hearty a mourner, as any Man living in the World: The Lord comfort them! But having received a command so to do, I can do no other than shortly relate the chief Matters of Fact, which occurr'd in the Tryals of some that were Executed; in an Abridgment collected out of the Court-Papers, on this occasion put into my hands. You are to take the truth, just as it was; and the truth will hurt no good Man. There might have been more of these, if my Book would not thereby have been swelled too big; and if some other Worthy hands did not perhaps intend something further in these Collections; for which cause I have only singled out four or five, which may serve to Illustrate the way of dealing, wherein Witchcrafts use to be concerned; and I report matters not as an Advocate, but as an Historian.
They were some of the Gracious words inserted in the Advice, which many of the Neighbouring Ministers did this Summer humbly lay before our Honourable Judges, We cannot but with all thankfulness, acknowledge the success, which the merciful God has given unto the Sedulous and Assiduous Endeavours of our Honorable Rulers, to detect the Abominable Witchcrafts, which have been committed in the Country; Humbly praying that the discovery of those Mysterious, and Mischievous wickednesses, may be perfected. If in the midst of the many Dissatisfactions among us, the publication of these Tryals, may promote such a Pious thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall rejoice that God is glorified; and pray that no wrong steps of ours may ever sully any of his glorious works.
George Burrough's Tryal.
The Indictment of George Burroughs.[58]
Essex ss.
Anno Regni Regis & Reginæ Williemi & Mariæ nunc Angliæ, &c. quarto.—
THE Jurors for our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen present, That George Burroughs, late of Falmouth, in the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England, Clerk.
The 9th Day of May, in the fourth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord and Lady William and Mary, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Queen Defenders of the [114] Faith, &c. And divers other days and times, as well before as after, certain detestable Arts, called Witchcrafts, and Sorceries, Wickedly and Feloniously hath used, practised, and exercised, at and within the Township of Salem, in the County of Essex aforesaid, in upon, and against one Mary Wolcott of Salem-Village, in the County of Essex, Single-woman, by which said wicked Arts the said Mary Wolcott, the Ninth Day of May, in the fourth Year abovesaid, and divers other days and times, as well before as after, was and is Tortured, Afflicted, Pined, Consumed, Wasted and Tormented, against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord and Lady, the King and Queen, and against the Form of the Statute in that Case made and provided.