Centuries of June

INDICTMENT

Anno Regis et Reginae Willim et Mariae nunc: Anglia &c Quarto Essex ss. The jurors for our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen presents that Alice Bonham of Salem Village and Farms within the province of Massachusetts Bay in New-England, the sixteenth day of June, in the fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord and Lady William and Mary, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Queen, defenders of the faith etc., divers other days and times as well before as after, certain detestable arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries, wickedly and ferociously hath used, practiced & exercised, at and within the township of Salem in the county of Essex & aforesaid, in, upon, and against one Ann Putnam, Jnr. of Salem Village, single woman, the sixteenth of June, by which said wicked arts the said Ann Putnam was and is tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed, wasted, and is tormented, also for sundry other acts of witchcraft by the said Alice Bonham committed and done against the peace of our Sovereign Lord and Lady, the King and Queen, their crown & dignity and against the form of the statute in the case made and provided:

WITNESSES

Ann Putnam

Abigail Williams

Elizabeth Hubbard

Ann Putnam, Sr.

Three other indictments, concerning the other witnesses, were included, and folded next to these were four separate depositions.

DEPOSITION OF ANN PUTNAM JUNIOR

v. ALICE BONHAM

Ann Putnam, aged about eleven years, saith

I being in the home of Betty Parris did see Alice Bonham practice sorcerie with the Maid Tituba, that they did conjure with a green glass an infant child and the baby could be heard crying though she be dead. That Alice Bonham did make a poppet that came alive when charmed and that this doll, in the shape of a child, did come visit me in the night and torment me. And that the child’s mother, Alice Bonham, would also visit in the night to claim her little girl and did find the poppet in my bed and was angered and did afflict me with pains by sitting upon my chest and biting me on my arms and legs.

DEPOSITION OF ABIGAIL WILLIAMS

v. ALICE BONHAM

Abigail Williams, aged about eleven years, testifieth

That the shape of Alice Bonham does and hath visited in the night and brings a great book and asks me to sign my name in blood and when refused, does torture me with an iron needle pricking me about the legs, and another night did bring the poppet with her who does cry and torment me.

DEPOSITION OF ELIZABETH HUBBARD

v. ALICE BONHAM

Elizabeth Hubbard, aged about seventeen years, testifieth

Alice Bonham has entreated me to come to her home and to lie with her husband so that another child might be born and saith this child is owed the Devil. She also flies through the window in the shape of a yellow bird and bids me do the same to join the witches who do coven in the woods outside Salem Farms. Alice Bonham also makes claims upon me to follow the custom of the Papist and go to Mary-land and to abandon my masters here.

DEPOSITION OF ANN PUTNAM SENIOR

v. ALICE BONHAM

Ann Putnam, nee Carr, about age thirty-eight, saith

I woke one evening in May to see the shape of Alice Bonham covering my husband Thomas, baying as if a hound, and when I reached out to strike and drive her from the bed was met with form insubstantial, though he, too, cried out her name and beat the air with his fists. When I confronted her and Mr. Bonham outside Salem Village Church, she denied all and claimed she was a true Christian, though I know she once was a Papist. I later saw her shape in the shed, suckling a hogget, and the ewe bleat in the corner at the unnatural act, and Alice Bonham sung to the lamb as if it were her own child.

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