Free Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Richard Godbeer Page A

“that I would be such a fool as to hang alone?”
    Joseph declared that this amounted to an admission of guilt. Goody Disborough was, after all, suggesting that she knew other witches and could incriminate them, which meant that she herself was a witch. Mercy made no response. Perhaps she realized that she had made a tactical blunder and was now determined to keep quiet; perhaps she was too angry to say anything else. In any case, Joseph and Benjamin felt sure that the magistrates would be interested to hear about the accused woman’s outburst and so they each submitted a deposition reporting the incident.
    Thomas Halliberch, Mercy Disborough’s jailkeeper, was completely baffled by some of her remarks. Mercy told him one morning that she had suffered terrible torments throughout the night. He replied that it must be the Devil, to which Mercy answered that she believed it was and that she had called on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for protection. The Devil told her that she had damned her soul and she feared as much, but hoped it was not so. “I put my trust in the Lord Jesus,” Mercy declared. “If he has deceived me, I would not have others trust him. I believe that there’s divination in all my troubles.”
    The jailkeeper wondered what his prisoner meant by this. Did she believe, or want him to believe, that she herself was bewitched? That she was trying to ward off evil forces? If she was not a witch, why was the Devil appearing to her? Did he want her to become a witch? Why was Mercy Disborough worried that she had damned herself? What did she mean by declaring that Christ might have deceived her? Was she trying to shift blame for giving way to the Devil’s advances away from herself? Was she already a witch and trying to explain away a conversation with Satan that she feared others might have heard? Her words were highly suspicious, the jailor concluded, and so he relayed them to the court.

    After reviewing the dozens of depositions against Elizabeth Clawson and Mercy Disborough, the magistrates decided to accept the Grand Jury’s recommendation that they both be tried for witchcraft. Indictments were accordingly drawn up and issued: 
Elizabeth Clawson, wife of Stephen Clawson of Stamford in the county of Fairfield in the colony of Connecticut, thou art here indicted by the name of Elizabeth Clawson that, not having the fear of God before thine eyes, thou hast had familiarity with Satan, the grand enemy of God and man, and that by his instigation and help thou hast in a preternatural way afflicted and done harm to the bodies and estates of sundry of their Majesties’ subjects or to some of them contrary to the peace of our sovereign Lord the King and Queen, their crown and dignity, and that on the 25th April in the 4th year of their Majesties’ reign and at sundry other times, for which by the law of God and the law of the colony thou deservest to die.
Mercy Disborough, wife of Thomas Disborough of Compo in Fairfield, thou art here indicted by the name of Mercy Disborough that, not having the fear of God before thine eyes, thou hast had familiarity with Satan, the grand enemy of God and man, and that by his instigation and help thou hast in a preternatural way afflicted and done harm to the bodies and estates of sundry of their Majesties’ subjects or to some of them contrary to the peace of ye sovereign Lord the King and Queen, their crown and dignity, and that on the 25th April in the 4th year of their Majesties’ reign and at sundry other times, for which by the law of God and the laws of this colony thou deservest to die.
    Both defendants again declared themselves innocent. Both were committed to trial. If found guilty, both would be hanged. Whether or not that happened would depend in large part on the depositions given by neighbors in Stamford and Compo. Impressive though these depositions were in their sheer quantity, the magistrates and jurymen would need to pay close attention to the actual