Cotton Mather: Investigated cases of witchcraft in Salem and Boston and orders execution of George Burroughs for witchcraft.
Witchcraft in Boston
Cotton Mather was a strong believer in witchcraft and in 1688, prior to the Salem Witch Trials, investigated the bizarre behavior of four of John Goodwin's children in Boston. The Goodwin children had suddenly begun complaining of pains as well as crying out. It was Mather's conclusion that the children were the victims of witchcraft. It was decided that the person who had cast the spell, or spells, upon the children was an Irish washerwoman named Mary Glover. Mather presented his findings in one of his most well known writings, Memorable Providences. Because of this experience Mather vowed that he would never from that time on have any patience with anyone who denied that there were witches or devils.
Mather's Early Years
Cotton Mather, born February 12, 1663, at Boston, Massachusetts, was an American Congregational minister. He was the son of Increase Mather and the grandson of Richard Mather and John Cotton. In his youth, a speech impediment at first led him away from following in his father's footsteps and becoming a minister. Instead, Mather studied to become a physician. However, after graduating from Harvard College in 1678, and overcoming his handicap, he decided to study theology.
In 1685 he became his father's colleague at the Second or Old North Church in Boston.
Salem Witch Trials
During the Witch Trials three of the appointed judges were friends of Mather, as well as members of his own church. To John Richards, one of the three, Mather wrote a letter, urging the judges to consider spectral evidence, that is visions of witches and devils by the afflicted.
Included in this letter was his statement that he considered the confessions of witches the best evidence that could be had. On this point, he should have also included, concerning the Salem Witch Trials, that confessions to practicing witchcraft that were extracted by torture should also be used as evidence.
Burroughs Executed for Witchcraft
Mather was so entirely convinced of the practice of witchcraft that at the Salem execution of ex-minister George Burroughs for witchcraft he insisted that the man's hanging be continued when many in the watching crowd shouted for the execution to be stopped.
Mather the Author
Cotton Mather authored 444 published works, 406 of these separate works still exist today. In Late Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, he sanctioned the Salem Witch Trials persecutions. His Wonders of the Invisible World gives accounts of some of the Salem witchcraft cases.
Because of his writings dealing with science, and his friendship with certain persons of note and position, Mather was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1713. He was highly effective in 1721 in promoting the inoculation against smallpox. He survived his father, Increase Mather, by little more than four years, dying at Boston on February 13, 1728.
Sources:
Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 15. Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation, 1968.
Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995.
Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. De Capo Press, 1995.
