An arrest warrant for two witches

EDITORS: Photo available on request.

ANN ARBOR—In February 1692 a group of young girls in Salem, Mass., including the daughter of the town’s clergyman, began experiencing inexplicable fits, thrashing, shrieking, and painful pricks in their flesh. Grasping for an explanation, the authorities, through repeated interrogations, wrung a confession out of the “afflicted girls” saying that they were diabolically tormented. The pair also accused others in the community. At the height of the accusations in July, two witches were identified in the town of Haverhill, and a warrant for their arrest was issued. That warrant is among the treasures held at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library. The accused, Hannah Bromage and Mary Green, were married to longtime residents of the town. Shortly after their arrest, the two were clapped into irons. Green managed to escape from prison on Aug. 2 and again on Aug. 23, though in both cases she was apprehended.

These delays may have saved her life. While many were hanged or crushed under a weight of stones, in early October, the provincial government suspended the trials, worried about the escalating scale of accusations and the increasing prominence of those being accused.

In November, Green was one of nine women who petitioned from jail for the termination of all charges and requesting release on bail. With new, tighter rules of evidence, 49 of 52 of those imprisoned for being witches were acquitted in January’s court session. The remainder was released later in the spring.

While some men of the Haverhill community may have felt resentment towards a strong-minded, active woman like Mary Green and therefore accused her of witchcraft, one of her main accusers was a woman of good standing in the community, Ann Putnam. On applying for full membership in the church, Putnam confessed her belief that she was “an instrument for the accusing of several persons of a grievous crime, whereby their lives were taken away from them, whom now I have just grounds and good reason to believe they were innocent persons; and that it was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time?I desire to lie in the dust and to be humbled for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families.”

U-M News and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan