Escaping Salem

In April 1692, as Abigail Wescot was “enjoying a moment of peace,” Kate burst into the house, “crying and moaning, her hands clutching her chest, and […] panting as though the Devil himself had chased her home” (14). Abigail was suspicious of Kate’s outburst, believing she may have been trying to avoid her chores; when her husband Daniel returned home, Kate was still lying on the floor, and her torments reminded him of those experienced by their daughter, Joanna, some years earlier (from which she recovered after a few months). However, while Joanna insisted that someone had been after her, Kate refused to speak at all.

When Kate’s condition didn’t improve, the Wescots called in Sarah Bates, the local midwife. Stamford had no doctor, and as a result, Goody Bates’s experience went beyond typical midwifery. Although Sarah thought that Kate’s condition matched descriptions of “bewitchment” or “demonic assault,” she nevertheless sought a natural explanation, and after recommending a treatment of burning feathers under Kate’s nose, went on her way.

However, when this did not work, Daniel returned for further assistance. Sarah recommended bloodletting next, which she knew was risky, but was known to purge “the body of excess fluids so as to restore a healthy balance between the four humors” (17). However, as they were about to prick Kate’s foot, she fought against it; she eventually relented, but after the prick, cried out, then laughed into a pillow, confusing Sarah further.

As Kate’s affliction continued, she began to speak of cats and witches; as “Daniel Wescot reflected upon Kate’s fits, it seemed to him that the creatures she saw were more than likely witches in animal form, conspiring to lure his servant into their hellish band” (19). Kate had spoken of the animals attempting to lure her with “fine things”; Kate had come to the Wescots as an orphan, so it made sense to him that she might be lured by such a promise.

“Any doubt in [his] mind that they were dealing with witchcraft disappeared once Stamford’s minister [John Bishop] became involved,” as both he and Thomas Hanford, a pastor in Norwalk, believed that she was bewitched (21). Reverend Bishop explained that the witches wanted her to join them secretly, and that she “must not yield or else her soul would be lost to the Enemy of mankind” (21). Bishop further explained to the Wescots that they needed to keep close watch over Kate at all times in order to protect her. Though they were willing to do so, this placed considerable strain on the Wescots, forcing them to request help from their neighbors.

Additionally, in getting help from their neighbors, Daniel believed he might get confirmation “that something supernatural was indeed plaguing his home,” and further might aid in identifying the culprits (23). One night, David Selleck and Abraham Finch agreed to stay to watch over Kate. David’s turn was uneventful, but not soon after Abraham’s shift began, Kate screamed, and Abraham reported seeing “a ball of fire as big as [his] two hands pass across the room to the hearth,” then disappear (27). When Kate awoke, she claimed that a “woman had come into the room […] with fiery eyes” (27). Later, Abraham claimed he was pricked by Kate; Kate, however, blamed Goody Crump, then produced, out of thin air, the pin she had used to prick him.

Several nights later, while Ebenezer Bishop was watching Kate, Kate called out Goody Clawson’s name, then claimed that she and others were pinching her, pointing to red marks that hadn’t previously been present.

Joseph Garnsey, another neighbor, offered to watch over Kate for some time, while Daniel was away on business in Hartford. He had heard the reports, but also heard from others who were suspicious of Kate: Sarah Kecham, for example, had used a well-known test involving a sword that Kate had failed. Joseph also suspected that Daniel may be behind the whole thing. As he and Nathaniel Wyatt watched Kate, she fainted; with permission, they took a sharp knife to perform an experiment, at which Kate suddenly arose and ran out. Although this suggested to the men that she was faking it, when they later saw a “a light dart into the house and across the room,” they grew less sure (31).

The mystery of Kate’s afflictions deepened, but the author reiterates that the “residents of Stamford were anything but hasty in concluding that witchcraft must be responsible”; even the Wescots sought out the help of a midwife before reaching out to a minister (33). However, in order to take action against the suspected witches, the Wescots would need their neighbors to be on their side.

Kate’s own descriptions of her bewitchment became more concrete as time passed. Approximately three weeks after she first became afflicted, she named Goody Clawson as the first woman; this didn’t surprise the Wescots, as they had fought with Goody Clawson some ten years earlier over a sale of flax, and Goody Clawson had held a grudge ever since. Further, it had been shortly after an altercation with her that the Wescots’ daughter, Joanna, had experienced her own fits.

After Goody Clawson, Kate then described a second woman, “a short and lame old woman” who “wore a homespun coat with a waistcoat underneath and a black cap,” which the Wescots recognized as Goody Miller (36).

While Daniel was away in Hartford on business, Kate saw a third woman, who had morphed from a cat. After Abigail believed Kate was in another fit and unable to hear her, she told Joseph Bishop that she believed Kate may have been describing Mercy Holbridge, in nearby Fairfield; just after, Kate awoke and asked the woman her name, then declared that it was Mercy Holbridge (first getting her name wrong). When Daniel returned, though, there were some discrepancies: Kate’s physical description of Holbridge had changed; further, when “Kate first spoke to the specter, she had not known where Compo was. Yet now she claimed to have been here” (39). (Kate later explained that she was taken there by Mercy, in secret, and on foot.) Mercy, like Goody Clawson, had previously quarreled with the Wescots, and Daniel had once given evidence against her.

Five weeks had passed, and Kate had named three women, so Daniel lodged a formal complaint; on 27 May 1692, he appeared with her for a preliminary court inquiry. The purpose of such a hearing was to determine if the accusations held weight, which would thereby allow a trial to move forward. The next day, Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disborough were brought before the court. Both claimed innocence. After Kate identified the two women, though, they were ordered to be jailed.

On 13 June, Daniel took Kate to the house of Jonathan Selleck, one of the magistrates at the inquiry and the wealthiest man in Stamford, for further questioning and examination. At this examination, Kate named several other women: “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” (44). She claimed that Goody Miller had continued to torment her, and that the others came only at night.

At a subsequent meeting, in the midst of another fit, Kate conversed with the previously unnamed women, naming them as Hannah and Mary Harvey; Hannah’s mother was Goody Staples, who had been accused of being a witch herself many years prior, and had won a slander suit as a result.