![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Williams and Indian were sent out of the room so that Parris could continue his work. Walcott kept knitting while observing all of the turmoil. Goodman Proctor, they said, was even sitting in one of the magistrate’s laps. As Reverend Parris struggled to update his notes on the day’s events, Williams and Indian created a wild scene and claimed that the specters of John Proctor and Sarah Cloyse were in the room. One of the oddest reports of an accuser’s behavior took place the next day, on April 12, when Mary Walcott sat calmly knitting while Abigail Williams and John Indian shouted and writhed after the examination of John Proctor, who had also been jailed when he spoke out against the proceedings during his wife’s examination the previous day. She had seizures during Cloyce’s examination and then claimed that the specter of Proctor followed her home, all the way from the Ship Tavern in Salem Town to the edge of the village. A week later, on April 11, Proctor and Cloyce were examined in Salem Town. The complaints were sworn by Captain Walcott and his uncle, Nathaniel Ingersoll, who owned the ordinary in Salem Village, located next door to the south of the parsonage. On April 4, complaints were filed against Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce for tormenting Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, and John Indian. Not all supernatural sightings were dark. Interestingly, along with visions of witches and demons, some of the afflicted, Walcott among them, also claimed to see “a white man” and glorious light. She was a core member of a group of accusers that now included 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr., 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard and Mercy Lewis, and even some adult accusers, including Ann Putnam Sr., Goodwife Pope, Goodwife Bibber, and John Indian. Throughout the spring, Walcott continued to see visions and have fits during examinations of numerous accused witches. ![]() She was able to show Lawson teeth marks on her arm. After a pleasant conversation, Walcott suddenly screamed and claimed to have been bitten by a specter. When former Salem Village minister Deodat Lawson was invited back to town to witness the afflictions for himself, one of the first people he met was Walcott at Ingersoll’s ordinary, where Lawson was lodging. Walcott played a key role in March, one that historian Frances Hill suggests may have been the first example of fraudulent behavior. She would remain an active accuser until the trials were over in May of 1693. Mary Walcott became afflicted by early March and was a principle accuser during the trials, along with her step-cousin Ann Putnam Jr. Two years later, her father married Thomas Putnam’s sister Deliverance, making Captain Walcott the brother-in-law of Thomas Putnam, and Thomas and Ann Putnam Mary’s step-uncle and aunt. Perhaps because she was Putnam’s niece-by-marriage she spent time there, but the records lead us to believe she lived at the Walcott home, near the parsonage and Ingersoll’s ordinary.) She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott, who was the commander of the Salem Village militia. The source of this information is unclear. (Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum state in Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft that Mary lived in the Thomas Putnam home. Mary Walcott lived next to the parsonage, a short distance to the north of the minister’s property. ![]()
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