Bannister2009

MARY PARKER I was born in England during the mid 1600’s. My family moved several times during the early stages of their settlement in America, but resettled for the last time in Haverhill 1647. My family was apparently of some prominence. My father John possessed at least one hundred and sixty pounds, making him one of the wealthiest settlers in Haverhill. I married Nathan in 1657. Nathan married his first wife Susanna Short on November 20, 1648. Within the next three years, the couple relocated to Andover, where she soon after died on August 26, 1651. Andover's Vital Records listed the birth of our first son John in 1653. Nathan and I continued to have children for over twenty years after the birth of John Parker in 1653. I had four more sons: James in 1655, Robert in 1665, Peter in 1676, and a son Joseph. Nathan and I also had four daughters: Mary, born in 1660, Hannah in 1659, Elizabeth in 1663, and Sara in 1670. James died on June 29, 1677, killed in an Indian skirmish at Black Point. Robert died in 1688 at the age of 23. Hannah married John Tyler in 1682. Our daughter Elizabeth married John Farnum in 1684. I lived a good life and had good relations with the townspeople. I came to trial in Salem Massachusetts, suspected of witchcraft in September1692. During my examination I was asked, "How long have ye been in the snare of the devil?" I told them "I know nothing of it." Though many people confessed under the pressure of the court of Oyer and Terminer, but I assured the court that they had the wrong woman. "There is another woman of the same name in Andover," I told them. At the time, no one paid much attention and I was convicted and hanged by the end of the month. I was sort of old and married when my trial took place. It didn’t effect the trial at all. They were going to kill me either way. William Barker Jr. named me in his confession on September 1, 1692. He testified that "I went with him last Night to Afflict Martha Sprague." He elaborated that was baptized at 5 Mile pond," a common reference to a union made with the devil. My examination occurred the next day. At the examination, afflicted girls from both Salem and Andover fell into fits when my name was spoken. The girls included Mary Warren, Sarah Churchill, Hannah Post, Sara Bridges, and Mercy Wardwell. The records state that when I came before the justices, the girls were cured of their fits by my touch: the satisfactory result of the commonly used "touch test," signifying a witch's guilt. When I denied being the witch they were after, Martha Sprague, one of my accusers, quickly responded that is was for certain me, who had afflicted her. Sprague and Mary Lacy effectively fell into fits.