Today in Salem: Chief Justice Stoughton holds a candle under a block of red wax and lets it melt, dripping it onto the death warrant he’s just signed. He waits until the wax is warmly pliable, then presses his metal seal into it, hard.
He could have put his seal next to his signature, on the bottom of the document. Instead he’s chosen the middle of the wide blank margin, where no one can miss the red stain or his intent. Bridget Bishop is guilty of witchcraft, and it’s Stoughton’s duty to extinguish that evil.
The Tenth day of this instant month of June between the houres of Eight and twelve in the afternoon of the same day You [are commanded to] safely conduct the s’d Bridgett Bishop alias Olliver from their Maj’ties Gaol in Salem afores’d to the place of Execution and there cause her to be hanged by the neck untill she be de[ad] …
And this shall be [your] Sufficient Warrant Given under my hand & Seal at Boston.
Stoughton is already shuffling through other papers when the Sheriff appears. He hands him the warrant, but looks up only briefly. He’s a busy man.
LEARN MORE: See Bridget Bishop’s original death warrant.
A scan of Bridget Bishop’s death warrant, with transcription, can be seen at http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n13.html#n13.22.