Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer Read Free Book Online Page B

to take much notice of her surroundings. After all, she had a story to tell.

    The Hoyt-Barnum House in Stamford, built in the late seventeenth century and now restored to its original condition. Like most houses in New England, this one was built of wood; the framework consisted of posts and beams held together by wooden pins. The house had a stone foundation, and the chimney was also made from stones bonded by a mortar consisting of clay, animal hair, and straw.  (Source: This photograph is reproduced by kind permission of the Stamford Historical Society.)

    Kate told Mister Selleck that since her first examination four more women had appeared to her: a girl and her mother who both lived in Fairfield but whose names she did not know; a woman from New York who called herself Mary Glover; and another woman from Boston, whom the girl from Fairfield named as Goody Abison. Since Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disborough had been arrested, Kate added, they had come only once in the night to afflict her. But Goody Miller had tormented her repeatedly, along with these other women. Kate claimed that she was not their only victim: last night, she declared, Goody Miller and Goody Abison had dragged one of Mister Wescot’s children out of bed and along the floor.
    A woman named Mary Glover had indeed been accused of witchcraft in 1688, but she had lived in Boston, not New York, and was hanged that same year. Where was Kate getting her information? Mister Selleck asked Kate if her master or mistress or any other person had mentioned in her hearing any of the persons whom she now accused of tormenting her. Kate answered that she had never heard their names until the apparitions themselves told her who they were. Mister Selleck then asked Kate if she would take an oath as to the truth of what she said, especially her claim that nobody had mentioned the persons she accused before the specters themselves gave her the names. Kate answered that she would do so willingly.

    At the end of June, Daniel Wescot brought Kate back to tell Jonathan Selleck about her most recent afflictions. Neighbors crowded into the house, some doubtless drawn by sympathy for Kate’s plight, others by the thrilling prospect of witnessing one of her attacks. The room was thick with anticipation.
    Kate told Mister Selleck that Goody Clawson had reappeared last Saturday night and tormented her more grievously than ever. “She held my head back, pulling my arms, and pressed upon me, causing me much pain.” Daniel Wescot now stepped in to confirm and elaborate on his servant’s account. “She made a terrible screeching noise,” he declared. “She cried out, ‘Goody Clawson, Goody Clawson, why will you kill me? Why will you torment me?’ Her head was bent backward and when I went to lift her up she seemed three times heavier than her normal weight. The maid cried out, ‘Get off me!’ several times. When she came to her senses, I asked her who was tormenting her and she answered, ‘Goody Clawson, Goody Clawson, Goody Clawson.’ During her fit, she and the bedstead shook so hard that we were all much affrighted.”
    The torments had been repeated the following night, though not to such extremes. Then Elizabeth Clawson was finally removed from Stamford and sent away to be kept with Mercy Disborough at the jail in Fairfield, since when, Kate declared, she had been afflicted only by Goody Miller.
    Once Mister Selleck finished questioning Kate, she left the house, accompanied by his Indian servant. But a few minutes later the Indian reappeared: Kate had got some three hundred yards from the house when she suddenly fell down in a fit. Mister Selleck’s son John and David Selleck, a cousin, went outside and carried Kate back to the house, stiff as a board. Coming out of her stupor, she screamed and cried out, “Goody Clawson, you kill me! Goody Clawson, you kill me!” Kate’s head was bent backward, her arm twisted around to her back.
    “You’re breaking my