From the Salem Witchcraft Papers, Boyer and Nissenbaum, 1977
1st June 1692
Abigaile Hobbs then confessed before John Hathorn & Jonathan Corwin Esq’rs That the generall meeting of the Witches in the feild near Mr Parrisse’s house she saw Mr George Burroughs, Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne Bridgett Bishop als. Olliver & Giles Cory, two or three nights agone, Mr Burrough came & sat at the window & told her he would terribly afflict her for saying so much ag’t him & then pinch her, deliverance Hobbs then saw s’d Burroughs & he would have tempted her to sett her hand to the book & almost shooke her to pieces because she would not doe it.
Mary Warren Testifyeth that when she was in prison in Salem about a fortnight agone Mr George Burroughs, Goody Nurse Goody procter Goody parker, Goody pudeator, Abigail Soames, Goodman Procter, Goody Darling [Dowing?] & others unknowne came to this depon’t & Mr Burroughs had a trumpett & sounded it, & they would have had this depon’t to have gone up with them to a feast at Mr Parrisses & Goody Nurse & Goody Procter told her this depon’t they were Deacons & would have had her eat some of their sweet bread & wine & she asking them what wine that was one of them said it was blood & better then our wine but this depon’t refused to eat or drink with them & they then dreadfully afflicted her at that tyme.
Sworne the first of June 1692
John Hathorne
Jonathan Corwin
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You have to know where to look to find the foundations of the Salem Village Parsonage, where the Salem witch hysteria had its beginnings. Tucked between houses is a flagstone cart road which takes you back to the location where the Tituba and a handful of young girls first explored the dark arts. In all likelihood this was one of the only instances of witchcraft in Salem.
To add insult to injury, the young girls who acted as witness to the trials of twenty people sent to the gallows located the meeting spot for the witches’ sabbath in the orchard just to the north and west of the minister’s parsonage.
Today it’s all but impossible to find the spot the girls referred to, as likely or not there’s a house sitting on it now, or it’s someone’s back yard. But of all the locations mentioned during the Salem witch hunts, the Salem Village Parsonage is one of the few that keeps its aura of mystery.
