Today in Salem: Just over the Town border, the long Wooleston River splits into three tributaries and points like the Devil’s pitchfork straight at Salem Village. At the sharp point of one tine sits a tavern, where the harsh John Proctor has just walked in.
Proctor settles at a table with a younger man named Sam. It was Sam’s wife who’d convinced Tituba to make a witch-cake last month. And his niece is Mary Walcott, the latest girl to claim affliction by showing bite marks on her arms. Sam also lives just a stone’s throw from the Meeting House, and another throw from Ingersoll’s Ordinary. In short, Sam sees and knows everything.
Already impatient, Proctor asks a single question: What condition were the girls in last night? They had testified at yesterday’s examination and stayed overnight at Ingersoll’s, where Sam would have noticed them. Sam shakes his head and says they were in a bad way, including Proctor’s maid, Mary Warren.
Proctor slams his mug onto the wooden table. He’s on his way now to fetch the little bitch, Proctor says rudely, and beat the devil out of her if he needs to. As for the other girls, hang them!
Sam sucks in his cheeks. Hang them? Including Sam’s niece?
Meanwhile Sam’s wife is crying in Rev Parris’s study. He’s just found out about her role in making the witch-cake, and is lecturing her at length about using “diabolical means.” He writes an explanation of what happened, followed by her confession and apology. The entire congregation will hear it read this Sabbath Day.
Today in Salem: The minister brings the candle closer and asks the teenage girl to show him her wrist. There, in the flickering light, he can see fresh teeth marks. Now he motions to Nathaniel Ingersoll, the tavern’s owner, to come look.
Ingersoll leans down so close that the minister has to pull the candle back. But they agree: she’s been bitten, just now when she’d screamed. It’s Mary Walcott’s first spectral injury, and now she joins her friends in being afflicted. She is 17, the militia captain’s daughter, and cousin to the girls’ leader Ann Putnam.
Across the street at the parsonage, Rev Parris and his wife are looking at each other with fresh alarm as their niece, the 11-year-old tomboy Abigail Williams, flaps her arms furiously and shouts “whish, whish, whish,” as if she’s flying through the house. She screams at the specter of the beloved Rebecca Nurse, then flings herself into the fireplace and throws burning sticks into the room.
Meanwhile, after days of accusations against the gospel woman Martha Corey, the magistrates order the sheriff to bring her to Ingersoll’s Ordinary for a hearing in two days. This will be the second time the Village has gathered to examine an accused witch.
WHO was Nathaniel Ingersoll?
Age about 60. One of two deacons in the church, and a Lieutenant in the militia. Nathaniel was known to be unfailingly honest, fair, and generous. He donated land for the Meeting House. After his father’s death, Nathaniel, 11, went to live with his father’s friend Governor Endecott on a 300-acre country estate, where he apprenticed for several years. There he learned to run his own farm and home, and when he was only 19 he married a young woman and moved on to his own land. The Ingersolls had one daughter, who died young. But their neighbor had several sons, and offered to let the Ingersolls adopt one of them and raise him as their own.
The Endecott Pear Tree is America’s oldest cultivated tree, planted between 1632-1649.
The Ingersoll Ordinary is still standing, though much of the building has been renovated or added to since. The original part of the building was built around 1670. Case files: Nathaniel Ingersoll
Side note: Governor John Endecott was the longest-serving Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony: he was the 1st, 10th, 13th, 15th, and 17th governor. He planted a pear tree sometime between 1632 and 1649, which is still standing. It’s America’s oldest cultivated tree.
WHO was Mary Walcott?
Age 17, she was one of the “core accusers.” Compared to the others, she was unusual in that she had a stable home life. She was not a servant, nor an orphan, and hadn’t been traumatized by the wars in Maine.
She was, however, cousin to Ann Putnam, the girls’ leader. Ann was 12, and her family servant was 18. Mary, age 17, undoubtedly spent a good amount of time with them, and witnessed or heard about their torments.
Mary may have been the first girl to fake affliction. In mid-March, when only one hearing had taken place, a minister was invited to Salem Village to witness the afflictions for himself. One of the first people he met was Mary Walcott, who, during a pleasant conversation, suddenly screamed that she’d been bitten by a specter. Sure enough, the minister could see teeth marks on Mary’s arm.
After the trials, Mary married twice and had at least 10 known children. She died in her mid-70s.
Side notes: Mary’s father was the captain of the village militia. Her aunt was the neighbor who’d suggested a witch-cake to Tituba. Case files: Mary Walcott
