11. A Witchcraft Trial
(1730)[19]
Burlington, Oct. 12.—Saturday last at Mount Holly, about
eight miles from this place, nearly three hundred people were gathered
together to see an experiment or two tried on some persons accused of
witchcraft. It seems the accused had been charged with making their
neighbor's sheep dance in an uncommon manner, and with causing
hogs to speak, and sing psalms, &c. to the great terror and
amazement of the king's good and peaceable subjects in this province.
The accusers were very positive that if the accused were
weighed in scales against a Bible, the Bible would prove too heavy for
them; or that, if they were bound and put into the river, they would
swim. The said accused, desirous to make their innocence appear,
voluntarily offered to undergo the said trials, if two of the most violent
of their accusers would be tried
with them. Accordingly the time and place were agreed on, and
advertised about the country.[20]
The accusers were one man and one woman, and the accused
the same. When the parties met, and the people got together, a grand
consultation was held, before they proceeded to trial. In this it was
agreed to use the scales first; and a committee of men were appointed
to search the men, and a committee of women to search the women, to
see if they had anything of weight about them, particularly pins.
After the scrutiny was over, a huge great Bible belonging to
the justice of the place was provided, and a lane through the populace
was made from the
justice's house to the scales. These were fixed on a gallows erected for
that purpose opposite to the house, that the justice's wife and the rest of
the ladies might see the trial without coming amongst the mob.
Then came out of the house a grave tall man carrying the Holy
Writ before the supposed wizard, &c. (as solemnly as the sword-bearer of London before the Lord Mayor). The wizard was first put in
the scale, and over him was read a chapter out of the books of Moses,
and then the Bible was put in the other scale (which being kept down
before), was immediately let go. To the great surprise of the spectators,
flesh and bones came down plump, and outweighed that great good
book by abundance.
After the same manner the others were served, and their lumps
of mortality severally were too heavy for Moses and all the prophets
and apostles. This being over, the accusers and the rest of the mob, not
satisfied with this experiment, would have the trial by water.
Accordingly a most solemn procession was made to the millpond;
where both accused and accusers were bound hand and foot, and
severally placed in the water, lengthways, from the side of a barge or
flat. They had for security only a rope about the middle of each, which
was held by some in the flat.
The accuser man being thin and spare, with some difficulty
began to sink at last; but the rest, every one of them, swam very light
upon the water. A sailor in the flat jumped out upon the back of the
man accused, thinking to drive him down to the bottom; but the person
bound, without any help, came up some time before the other.
The woman accuser, being told that she did not sink, wished to
be ducked a second time; when she swam
again as light as before. Upon this she declared, that she believed the
accused had bewitched her to make her so light, and that she would be
ducked again a hundred times until the devil were ducked out of her.
The accused man, being surprised at his own swimming, was
not so confident of his innocence as before, but said, "If I am a witch, it
is more than I know." The more thinking part of the spectators were of
opinion, that any person so bound and placed in the water (unless they
were mere skin and bones) would swim till their breath was gone, and
their lungs filled with water.
[[19]]
This piece is supposed to have been written by
Benjamin Franklin.
[[20]]
The belief in witchcraft was a terrible delusion,
often leading to such shameful acts as are described. Sometimes
witches were hung on evidence which now would carry no
weight.
