How Mrs. Glover came to be in Boston can only be conjectured. It is possible she came in that train of servants and Indian slaves brought to the Puritan Colony from the Barbadoes, some of whom fell to the Rev. Mr. Parris, of Salem fame. Little is known of her life in Boston before 1682, beyond the fact that the presence of a Catholic in a community that looked upon itself as “the only Christian people” gave great umbrage.

In 1682 a woman who had labored in vain to convince Mrs. Glover of her “Papistical errors,” accused her of witchcraft; and, dying shortly after, prophesied that “Goody Glover would be hung.” The prophecy was not forgotten.

The mother and daughter were wretchedly poor, and barely able to make a scant living by washing the clothes of such as could be induced to employ a “Papist.” Among those who employed them was the family of John Goodwin. John Goodwin had come to Boston from Charlestown, and was the father of four children—Nathaniel, Martha, John and Mercy,—all of whom were to be in the plot which did to death two harmless women, and which “sadly perplexed and befooled Cotton Mather.”

Cotton Mather, who was charged in 1693 with being “the chief cause, promoter and agent, and favourer of the prosecutions for witchcraft”! Cotton Mather, who “countenanced the executioners by his presence, and in various ways urged the terrible work of blood in Salem”! Cotton Mather, who, from being extolled for sanctity and learning, has come to be scoffed at as an “ignoramus, vain and mendacious”! Such was the pastor of Old North Church, of which the Goodwins were “pillars.”

In 1687 Martha Goodwin, who was then a child of twelve years, charged Mrs. Glover’s daughter with having purloined some clothes. The charge was indignantly repelled, and accusation was made that Martha wished to get Mrs. Glover into trouble. And then the daughter cried out: “You may have us whipped, but to the sermons we will not go.” Hereupon, Martha fell into a fit, which the “learned physicians of Boston declared to be diabolical.”

I think you will agree with me, when Martha’s pranks are further displayed, that the little girl had an attack of nerves and temper. What between tirades against witches, Catholics, Baptists and Quakers, and long sermons and long faces, the whole community was in a highly nervous state. Cheerfulness was sinfulness. Read of that monstrous Pharisee of five years old lauded in the Magnalia. She never laughed; she prayed her mother might be one of the elect, even as she was.

Mrs. Glover and her daughter were now in sorer straits than ever. No one would employ them, and had it not been for some secret aid they received from the Calefs, who were not bereft of reason and humanity, they must have starved. Even as it was, the treatment the daughter received—“stonings and revilings”—turned her brain, and she died a lunatic, frightened to death.

In the meanwhile, the lost clothes were found, by a woman employed in the Goodwin household, “stuck under a wardrobe.” This discovery led to no good results for Mrs. Glover, for now Mercy and the two Goodwin boys had fits “like unto those of the maid Martha”; and then Martha took it into her head to be again “afflicted.” The children asserted that the spirit of Goody Glover struck them with blows, cut them with knives, strangled them and sat on their chests. At devotions they pretended they could hear nothing of what was said. “Goody Glover stopped their ears! Goody Glover would have them worship her idols!” was their cry.

All this was so much gospel to a people saturated with prejudice; and the Boston and Charlestown ministers held a fast at Mr. Goodwin’s house. “The fast did greatly relieve the children.” Which goes to prove that if Mr. Goodwin had “whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed,” they would have been permanently cured.

But now “the magistrates, long annoyed by the presence of an obstinate Papist in Boston, ordered Goody Glover to be taken into custody.” A search was made of her house, “and certain images were found in secret.” It is not difficult to conjecture what they were. Beads or medals, maybe; certainly a cross or crucifix was one of them.