What information does Mary Warren bring to the Proctors?

Mary Warren was the oldest of the afflicted girls in the Salem Witch Trials and testified against numerous accused witches before she was somewhen accused of witchcraft herself.

A lot of defoliation surrounds Mary Warren's case, partly because of her own vague and evasive statements during the witchcraft hysteria.

Mary Warren & the Salem Witch Trials:

Warren, the twenty-twelvemonth-old indentured servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor, began having fits in March of 1692, presently subsequently Betty Parris and the other affected girls' symptoms began.

John Proctor, who believed the afflicted girls were lying and pretending to be bugged, dismissed it every bit nonsense and threatened to beat Warren if she didn't behave.

According to the book The Salem Witch Trials: A Mean solar day-by-day Relate of a Community Under Siege, on April 2nd, Warren's fits stopped and she tacked a note on the local meetinghouse door asking for prayers of thanks for this evolution.

The next day, Reverend Samuel Parris read the notation to his congregation, who questioned Warren after the Sun service. At one bespeak during the questioning, Warren stated "the afflicted persons did but dissemble."

Although it'southward not exactly clear what she meant by this statement, the congregation took it to mean that the afflicted girls were lying nigh their symptoms. This activity may have turned the other affected girls against Warren or even acquired them to doubtable she had fallen in league with the Devil.

"There is a flock of yellowish birds above her head" Salem Witch Trials analogy by Howard Pyle published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine circa 1893

All the same as soon as Proctor left home on business shortly afterward, Warren's fits returned and she joined the ongoing witch trials as a witness, much to Proctor's dismay.

On April 4, several afflicted girls, Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam, Jr., as well as John Indian (Samuel Parris' retainer and Tituba'south husband), accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft.

The following calendar week, the same girls so accused John Proctor of the crime as well.

According to court records, although Warren was not one of the Proctor's original accusers, she willingly testified against both of them during their trials, stating that they made her sign the book of the Devil and their spirits tormented and tortured her:

"Mary Warrens Confession ag't Jo: Proctor & ux charges them personally to cause her to sign or brand a mark in in that location book and both of them committing acts of Witchcraft & existence so & personally threatened the [illegible] with tortures if she would not sign & since con [page torn] have of times afflicted & tormented her large in her confessions vide."

Like near critics of the witch trials, John Proctor's attitude fabricated him a prime target for the allegation of witchcraft and his criticism of the trials, as well equally his mistreatment of Warren, came back to haunt him during his trial.

One witness, Samuel Sibley testified that he had a conversation with Proctor on March 25 at Walter Phillip's tavern during which Proctor referred to Warren as a "jade" (an sometime-fashioned equivalent to the modernistic discussion "bitch") and stated he would rather accept paid money than let her to become involved in the trials.

Sibley testified that Proctor also said the afflicted girls should be whipped and hanged for lying and that he was on his manner to Salem hamlet center to retrieve Warren, who had spent the night in that location after Rebecca Nurse's exam, later on which he planned to bring her home and beat her, co-ordinate to court records:

"The morning after the examination of Goody Nurse. Sam Sibley met John Proctor virtually Mr Phillips w'o chosen to said Sibley as he was going to sd Phillips & asked how the folks did at the hamlet. He answered he heard they were very bad last night merely he had heard cypher this forenoon. Proctor replied he was going to fetch home his jade he left her there terminal night & had rather given 40d than allow her come up upwards. sd Sibley asked why he talked then. Proctor replied if they were let alone so we should all be Devils & witches quickly they should rather exist had to the whipping post simply he would fetch his jade habitation & thresh the Devil out of her & more to the like purpose, crying hang them, hang them. And also added that when she [Warren] was first taken with fits he kept her close to the [spinning] bike & threatened to thresh her, & and so she had no more fits till the next solar day he was gone along, & so she must have her fits over again firsooth &."

It was during Elizabeth Proctor'due south trial that the seed of suspicion was planted against Warren when Ann Putnam, Jr, and Abigail Williams testified that Warren helped Proctor'southward spirit try to brand them touch the Devil's book, according to the book The Salem Witch Trials: a Reference Guide:

"'She does not bring the volume to you, does she?' asked the magistrate.
'Yes, sir, often, and saith she hath made her maid gear up her paw to information technology.' (So now Mary Warren was suspected every bit well.)
'What would she have y'all do with it?'
'To write in information technology and I shall exist well.' said Abigail. She turned to Goody Proctor. 'Did you not tell me that your maid had written?'
'Dear child,' said Elizabeth Proctor. 'It is not so. At that place is another judgement, beloved child.' Lying was an even more serious matter earlier God than earlier the courts."

On Apr 18th, Ezekiel Cheever and John Putnam, Jr, accused Mary Warren, along with Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey and Abigail Hobbs of bewitching the afflicted girls.

Arrest warrants were issued and they were examined in court the next day. According to court records, Judge John Hathorne asked Warren how she came to be an accused witch:

"[Hathorne]:Mary Warren, Yous stand here charged with sundry acts of Witchcraft, what do you say for yourself, are you guilty, or non?
[Warren]: I am innocent.
[Hathorne]: Hath she hurt y'all (speaking to the sufferers)?
Some were impaired.
Betty Hubbard testified against her, & so Hubbard roughshod into a trigger-happy fit.
[Hathorne]: Y'all were a fiddling while agone an Afflicted person, now you are an Afflicter: How comes this to laissez passer?
[Warren]: I look up to God, & have it to exist a nifty Mercy of God.
[Hathorne]: What practice you take it to exist a great mercy to agonize others?'
Betty Hubbard testified that a footling subsequently this Mary was well, she the said Mary, said that the affected persons did but dissemble.
At present they were all but John Indian grievously afflicted, & Mrs Pope also, who was non afflicted before hitherto this solar day: & afterward a few moments John Indian roughshod into a violent fit besides.
Well here was one just now that was a tormentor in her apparition & she owns that she had made a league with the Devil.
Now Mary Warren fell into a fit, & some of the affected cried out that she was going to confess, but Goody Corey , & Procter, & his wife came in, in their apparition, & struck her down, & said she should tell nothing.
Mary Warren connected a good infinite in a fit, that she did neither see, nor hear, nor speak.
Afterwards she started up, & said I volition speak & cryed out, Oh! I am sorry for information technology, I am sorry for it, & wringed her easily, & roughshod a little while into a fit again & then came to speak, but immediately her Teeth were ready, & then she fell into a violent fit, & cryed out, Oh Lord assistance me, Oh practiced Lord save me!
And then afterward cryed again, I will tell, I will tell, & then fell into a expressionless fit once more.
And afterwards cryed, I will tell, they did, they did, they did, & then cruel into a fierce fit again.
Later a little recovery she cryed I volition tell, I volition tell, they brought me me to it; & then fell into a fit once more: which fits continuing, she was ordered to exist had out, & the next to be brought in, viz: Bridget Bishop
Some time afterwards she was chosen in again, only immediately taken with fits, for a while.
[Hathorne]: Have you signed the Devils book?
[Warren]: No.
[Hathorne]: Have you not touch it?
[Warren]: No.
So she fell into fits againe, & was sent forth for air.
Afterward a considerable infinite of fourth dimension she was brought in again, but could [not] give business relationship of things, past reason of fits, & so sent forth.
Mary Warren called in, afterwards in individual, before magistrates & Ministers.
She said, I shall not speak a word: merely I will speak Satan — She saith she will kill me: Oh! she saith, she owes me a spite, & will claw me off – Avoid Satan, for the name of God avoid And and then barbarous into fits again: & cryed will ye I volition prevent ye in the Name of God, —
[Hathorne]: Tell u.s., how far have you yielded?
A fit interrupts her again.
[Hathorne]: What did they say you should practise, & you should be well?
Then her lips were flake and so that she could not speak. so she was sent abroad
Note: That not one of the sufferers was affected during her exam after one time she began to confess, thom they were tormented earlier."

Some sources state that during her examination, Warren told the court the affected girls were lying.

Yet, these court records indicate that one of the afflicted girls, Elizabeth Hubbard, merely reiterated Warren's previous statements from the church on April tertiary that "the affected persons did simply dissemble."

At no point does Warren herself state the girls were lying during this examination nor does she practise so in her afterwards examinations.

Warren was examined by the judges a full of four times, twice in prison and twice in court.

She gave vague, indirect answers during her first examination just somewhen confessed to touching the Devil's book, although she explained that she was tricked into it by Elizabeth and John Proctor'due south spirits who told her it was a good book.

These statements saved her life, since witches who confessed were spared the capital punishment and released, but she may also take condemned the Proctors to death in the process. Warren was released from prison in June of 1692.

Later confessing, Warren began aggressively accusing others of witchcraft and testified as a witness in numerous cases, such as the trials of Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, John Alden, Mary Toothaker, George Jacobs, Sr, George Burroughs, Rebecca Eames, Wilmot Reed, Abigail Faulkner, Mary Lacey Sr, Ann Pudeator, Chore Tookey, Mary Easty, Abigail Soames, Ann Foster, Nathaniel Cary, Daniel Eames, Mary Bradbury, Elizabeth Cary, Samuel Wardwell and Alice Parker, whom Warren defendant of bewitching her mother to expiry and making her sister ill.

Of the people she testified against, eight were hanged, one was tortured to decease, one died in jail and the rest were either institute not guilty, pardoned or escaped.

Mary Warren Afterward the Trials:

It is not known what happened to Mary Warren after the Salem Witch Trials concluded. Reverend John Unhurt'southward book A Modest Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, written in 1697, mentions an anonymous affected girl who suffered from "diabolical manifestation" until her death and died a unmarried woman.

Since well-nigh of the afflicted girls were known to be married by 1697 and only 3 of the girls, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Warren, are unaccounted for in the records at the time, information technology is possible Unhurt was referring to Warren.

Warren appeared as a character in Arthur Miller'southward 1953 play The Crucible. In the play, Miller depicted Warren as an afflicted daughter who recants her previous confessions and testimony against the Proctors, although there is no record of her doing so during the trials (other than Warren'due south statement at the church in April that the "afflicted persons did merely dissemble.")

Mary Warren Historical Sites:

Quondam Site of John Proctor'due south Subcontract (rumored location of John Proctor's grave)
Address: Lowell Street, ane-tenth mile south of Prospect Street, Peabody, Mass. No access. Privately owned land.

Onetime Site of the Salem Village Meetinghouse
Address: Near corner of Hobart and Wood Street, Danvers, Mass. Historical mark on site.

Former Site of the Salem Courthouse
Address: Washington Street (about 100 feet south of Lynde Street), contrary the Masonic Temple, Salem, Mass. Memorial plaque located on Masonic Temple.

Sources:
"Examination of Mary Warren, April xix, 1692." The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Volume I: Verbatim Transcripts, University of Virginia; due north.d., salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/BoySalCombined?div_id=n135&term=Mary%20Warren&name=
Records of Salem Witchcraft: Copied from the Original Documents, Book one. West. Elliot Woodward, 1864.
Wilson, Lori Lee. The Salem Witch Trials. Lerner Publications Company, 1997.
Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects, Volume two. Wiggin and Lunt, 1876.
Goss, One thousand. David. The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide. Greenwood Printing, 2008.
Roach, Marilynne M. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-past-24-hour interval Chronicle Of A Community Under Siege. Taylor Trade Publishing, 2004.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. Viking Press, 1953.

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Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/mary-warren/

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