DOCSLIB.ORG

Cotton Mathers's Wonders of the Invisible World: an Authoritative Edition

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cotton Mathers's Wonders of the Invisible World: an Authoritative Edition Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 1-12-2005 Cotton Mathers's Wonders of the Invisible World: An Authoritative Edition Paul Melvin Wise Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Wise, Paul Melvin, "Cotton Mathers's Wonders of the Invisible World: An Authoritative Edition." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2005. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COTTON MATHER’S WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD: AN AUTHORITATIVE EDITION by PAUL M. WISE Under the direction of Reiner Smolinski ABSTRACT In Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather applies both his views on witchcraft and his millennial calculations to events at Salem in 1692. Although this infamous treatise served as the official chronicle and apologia of the 1692 witch trials, and excerpts from Wonders of the Invisible World are widely anthologized, no annotated critical edition of the entire work has appeared since the nineteenth century. This present edition seeks to remedy this lacuna in modern scholarship, presenting Mather’s seventeenth-century text next to an integrated theory of the natural causes of the Salem witch panic. The likely causes of Salem’s bewitchment, viewed alongside Mather’s implausible explanations, expose his disingenuousness in writing about Salem. Chapter one of my introduction posits the probability that a group of conspirators, led by the Rev. Samuel Parris, deliberately orchestrated the “witchcraft” and that a plant, the thorn apple, used in Algonquian initiation rites, caused the initial symptoms of bewitchment (41-193). Chapter two shows that key spectral evidence presented in court records, some recorded by Mather in Wonders, appears to have been generated by phenomena known in folklore as the “hag,” suffocating nightmares formerly thought to be witch visitations, resulting from what is today termed sleep paralysis (219-314). Deliberate dosing with the thorn apple plant, phenomena associated with “hagging,” and life-saving confessions thus account for most of the spectral evidence generated at Salem. Chapter three focuses extensively on Mather’s text as a deceptive rewriting of the Salem court records and related documents on witchcraft that Mather synopsized (324- 461). The final section posits a “Scythian” or Eurasian connection between Swedish and Salem witchcraft (409-61). Similarities in shamanic practices witnessed among respective indigenous populations of Lapland, Eurasia, Asia, and New England, including the veneration of deer, the use of drumming and hallucinogenic plants to induce trance, and the handing down of family totems, caused Satan’s ongoing involvement in both the visible and invisible worlds to appear more than theoretical to influential seventeenth- century writers like José Acosta, Johannes Scheffer, Nicholas Fuller, Joseph Mede, Anthony Horneck, inducing Mather to include a lengthy abstract of a Swedish account in Wonders. INDEX WORDS: Cotton Mather, Salem, witchcraft, folklore, folk magic, Paul Wise, Doctor of Philosophy, Georgia State University, Sweden, Swedish witchcraft, Lapland, Algonquian Indians, Native Americans, Samuel Parris, jimson weed, thorn apple, datura stramonium, hag, hagging, Old Hag, Mara, initiation ceremonies, poisoning, nightmares, huskanaw, Wonders of the Invisible World, fly-agaric mushroom, deer, reindeer, Sami, shamanism, drums COTTON MATHER’S WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD: AN AUTHORITATIVE EDITION By PAUL WISE A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2005 Copyright by Paul Melvin Wise 2005 COTTON MATHER’S WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD: AN AUTHORITATIVE EDITION By PAUL WISE Major Professor: Reiner Smolinski Committee: John A. Burrison Thomas L. McHaney Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2005 iv DEDICATION To my wife, Sandy, my daughter, Kendra, my parents, Melvin and Emily Wise, my sister, Melanie, and my brother James; and to my friends, Christopher Dean Watts, Marylou Kuestemeyer, and Gilbert and Georgette Fürbringer v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my wife, Sandra, whose support, encouragement, prodding, input, and, ultimately, patience helped me to complete this dissertation. I also wish to thank my daughter, Kendra, for her encouragement, suggestions, insight, and sacrifice during my time in graduate school and while writing this dissertation. I want to thank my parents, Melvin and Emily Wise, for first exposing me to religious and literary studies and travel and for being there when I needed them. I wish to thank my sister, Melanie, for her kindness, encouragement, and support. I wish to thank Christopher Dean Watts, more than time and space will allow, for his friendship and intellectual camaraderie over most of my life and for our many discussions concerning this dissertation and related topics. I want to thank my dissertation chair, Reiner Smolinski, for his direction, confidence, suggestions, information, prophetic insight, sound judgment, encouragement, and understanding. I cannot imagine a better director than he has been. I also wish to thank Dr. John A. Burrison, whose class in material folk culture taught me to think three- dimensionally and in directions essential to this dissertation. He has been a great inspiration. I wish to thank both Dr. Burrison and Dr. Thomas L. McHaney for their careful reading of my dissertation and for their valuable comments and suggestions. Thanks also to the director of my MA thesis, Dr. Victor A. Kramer, for his guidance, support, and friendship. I want to thank Dr. Kathy Hassall, Director of the Writing Program at the University for North Florida, for her profound humanity, kindness, and understanding and for allowing me to teach while working on this dissertation. I wish to acknowledge my colleague, Dr. Leslie Kaplan, Assistant Director of the Writing Program vi at the University of North Florida, for suggesting David Hufford’s work, which ended up influencing much in this dissertation. I also with to thank Dr. David J. Hufford and Dr. Beverly Butcher and for sending me the most recent of Dr. Hufford’s work on the phenomena linked to sleep paralysis and nightmares. I also want to thank Dr. Patrick Harding, lecturer at the University of Sheffield, for steering me toward useful information on the use of the fly-agaric mushroom among the Inari Sami of Lapland. My gratitude goes to Dr. Marta Werner—recurrent muse—for her deep and clear perceptiveness, articulate voice, lasting friendship, and encouragement. I wish to thank the reference department at the University of North Florida, especially Sarah Phillips, Jim Alderman, and Barbara Tuck for their assistance in locating materials and making them available to me. I also wish to thank the Interlibrary Loan Department at the University of North Florida, especially Alisa Craddock, for the considerable work done in acquiring materials for my research. Finally, I wish to thank everyone I have ever known or met who has inspired me to initiate and finish this project. Ubi sunt: Where are you? vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Preface 1 Chapter 1: Light on Salem 41 I. Mixed Motives 43 II. A Means to the End 100 III. The Seeds of Opportunity and the Harvest 163 Notes to Chapter 1 194 Chapter 2: “Between sleepeing & wakeing”: Writing the Night-mare into the Invisible World 219 Notes to Chapter 2 315 Chapter 3: Cotton Mather’s Manipulation of His Sources in The Wonders of the Invisible World 324 I. Jurat in Curia: Cotton Mather’s Manipulation of the Salem Court Papers 331 II. Cotton Mather’s “Rearrangement” of the Witchcraft Guidelines of William Perkins, John Gaule, and Richard Bernard 377 III. Cotton Mather’s Retelling of A Trial of Witches at the Assizes at Bury St. Edmunds 389 IV. Cotton Mather’s Abridgment of Anthony Horneck’s Account of What Happened in the Kingdom of Sweden in the Years 1669, 1670 and Upwards 409 Notes to Chapter 3 462 A Note on the Text 468 Text of The Wonders of the Invisible World 471 viii Notes to The Wonders of the Invisible World 658 Appendix 1: Emendations 778 Appendix 2. Title Pages to the Seventeenth-Century Editions of Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World 781 Comprehensive Bibliography 785 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 A Huskanaw Pen 124 Figure 1.2 The Thorn apple 144 Figure 1.3 Pecos River Cave Painting of Anthropomorphic Figure in Veneration of an Animal-Plant-Spirit 161 Figure 2.1 Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (Description of the Northern Peoples). Rome, 1555. 180. 296 Figure 3.1. Veneration of an Anthropomorphic Reindeer God 422 Figure 3.2. Scandinavian Distribution of Datura Stramonium (Spikklubba) 430 Figure. 3.3. Entering Ecstatic Trance by Way of Drumbeat in Lapland 431 Figure. 3.4. Animal, Religious, and Other Figures on Lapland Drums 440 1 Preface The witch panic at Salem in 1692 was not just the result of a miasma of circumstances coincidentally falling into place but something that was also consciously and deliberately kindled, fueled, and manipulated. A main difference between Salem and previous New England witch trials was in its virulence, magnitude, and scope. It was, as the Reverend John Hale of Beverley put it, “a dark dispensation by the Lord, letting loose upon us the Devil Anno. 1691. & 92. as we never experienced before” (Modest Enquiry [ix]). The Salem episode is in relation to other New England witch trials analogous to the difference between a fire that occurs naturally from a lightning strike followed by the rainstorm that puts it out and an inferno set deliberately in several places on a windy day in dry season to inflict maximum damage.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Discourse of Spirits in Enlightenment Bristol
    7 Beyond the witch trials Public infidelity and private belief? Public infidelity and private belief? The discourse of spirits in Enlightenment Bristol Jonathan Barry Recent work on the history of witchcraft and magic has identified three themes or approaches as of particular importance in our understanding of a subject which, although it has been centre stage since the publication of Religion and the Decline of Magic in 1971, has continued to trouble historians. The first problem, acknowledged as ‘the most baffling aspect of this difficult subject’ by Thomas himself, is that of ‘decline’: by rendering early modern witchcraft beliefs intelligible, historians have highlighted the issue of why and how far they ceased to have meaning (or function), and many have regarded this as the least satisfactory feature of Thomas’s account.1 The great interest now being displayed in the culture of the long eighteenth century, including its occult aspects, has rendered this theme of pressing concern.2 The second issue concerns the need for case studies. It is broadly agreed that witchcraft must be studied as a conjunctural phenomenon, operating at a whole series of levels and affected by the interplay of a variety of institu- tions, interests and languages. While these can all be analysed separately, it is equally crucial to study their interrelationship and this, for the moment at least, is best done in specific settings where the evidence survives to allow a full reconstruction of the development and resolution of a witchcraft episode.3 Third, historians have become particularly interested in witchcraft as a linguistic phenomenon and one imbedded in narrative.
    [Show full text]
  • Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White</H1>
    Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. Contact Mike Lough AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE WITH PORTRAITS VOLUME I page 1 / 895 NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1905 Copyright, 1904, 1905, by THE CENTURY CO. ---- Published March, 1905 THE DE VINNE PRESS TO MY OLD STUDENTS THIS RECORD OF MY LIFE IS INSCRIBED WITH MOST KINDLY RECOLLECTIONS AND BEST WISHES TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I--ENVIRONMENT AND EDUCATION CHAPTER I. BOYHOOD IN CENTRAL NEW YORK--1832-1850 The ``Military Tract'' of New York. A settlement on the headwaters of the Susquehanna. Arrival of my grandfathers and page 2 / 895 grandmothers. Growth of the new settlement. First recollections of it. General character of my environment. My father and mother. Cortland Academy. Its twofold effect upon me. First schooling. Methods in primary studies. Physical education. Removal to Syracuse. The Syracuse Academy. Joseph Allen and Professor Root; their influence; moral side of the education thus obtained. General education outside the school. Removal to a ``classical school''; a catastrophe. James W. Hoyt and his influence. My early love for classical studies. Discovery of Scott's novels. ``The Gallery of British Artists.'' Effect of sundry conventions, public meetings, and lectures. Am sent to Geneva College; treatment of faculty by students. A ``Second Adventist'' meeting; Howell and Clark; my first meeting with Judge Folger. Philosophy of student dissipation at that place and time.
    [Show full text]
  • Primary Source #3 From: the Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729
    Primary Source #3 From: The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729 (Selected excerpts from Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 5, Series 5, 1878, pages 358 - 464.) April 11th 1692. Went to Salem, where, in the Meeting-house, the persons accused of Witchcraft were examined; was a very great Assembly; ëtwas awfull to see how the afflicted persons were agitated. Mr. Noyes prayíd at the beginning, and Mr. Higginson concluded. [In the margin], VÊ, VÊ, VÊ, Witchcraft. … July 30, 1692. Mrs. Cary makes her escape out of Cambridge ñPrison, who was Committed for Witchcraft. … Augt. 19th 1692. … This day [in the margin, Dolefull! Witchcraft] George Burrough, John Willard, Jno Procter, Martha Carrier and George Jacobs were executed at Salem, a very great number of Spectators being present. Mr. Cotton Mather was there, Mr. Sims, Hale, Noyes, Chiever, &c. All of them said they were innocent, Carrier and all. Mr. Mather says they all died by a Righteous Sentence. Mr. Burrough by his Speech, Prayer, protestation of his Innocence, did much move unthinking persons, which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being executed. Augt. 25. Fast at the old [First] Church, respecting the Witchcraft, Drought, &c. Monday, Sept. 19, 1692. About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was pressíd to death for standing Mute; much pains was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt. Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance: but all in vain. Sept. 20. Now I hear from Salem that about 18 years agoe, he was suspected to have stampd and pressíd a man to death, but was cleared.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comprehensive Look at the Salem Witch Mania of 1692 Ashley Layhew
    The Devil’s in the Details: A Comprehensive Look at the Salem Witch Mania of 1692 __________ Ashley Layhew Nine-year-old Betty Parris began to convulse, seize, and scream gibber- ish in the winter of 1692. The doctor pronounced her bewitched when he could find no medical reason for her actions. Five other girls began ex- hibiting the same symptoms: auditory and visual hallucinations, fevers, nausea, diarrhea, epileptic fits, screaming, complaints of being bitten, poked, pinched, and slapped, as well as coma-like states and catatonic states. Beseeching their Creator to ease the suffering of the “afflicted,” the Puritans of Salem Village held a day of fasting and prayer. A relative of Betty’s father, Samuel Parris, suggested a folk cure, in which the urine of the afflicted girls was taken and made into a cake. The villagers fed the cake to a dog, as dogs were believed to be the evil helpers of witches. This did not work, however, and the girls were pressed to name the peo- ple who were hurting them.1 The girls accused Tituba, a Caribbean slave who worked in the home of Parris, of being the culprit. They also accused two other women: Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. The girls, all between the ages of nine and sixteen, began to accuse their neighbors of bewitching them, saying that three women came to them and used their “spectres” to hurt them. The girls would scream, cry, and mimic the behaviors of the accused when they had to face them in court. They named many more over the course of the next eight months; the “bewitched” youth accused a total of one hundred and forty four individuals of being witches, with thirty sev- en of those executed following a trial.
    [Show full text]
  • Salem Witch Trials Describe Darkest Era in American History
    Salem Witch Trials describe darkest era in American history Vida Bikales & The Barn Players By Bob Evans Arthur Miller’s tragic, gloomy, Gothic-inspired tale of witchcraft, lechery, murder, and blind religious justice–with a huge dose of ignorance– spelled the darkest days of American history when New England towns succumbed to a frenzied idea that witches walked among them, thereby creating public executions of persons accused of contracting with the devil. The most famous American trials befell the town of Salem, Massachusetts, immortalized in Miller’s “The Crucible,” now playing at The Barn Playhouse in Mission, Kansas. Troubling, dark and dismal from the opening scenes, “The Crucible” only spirals deeper and darker with each scene as the story of adolescent girls pretend to summon evil spirits, dance naked, and drink chicken blood to cast spells on innocent townsfolk, causing the hangings of 19 “guilty” witches in their small town. Only decades after Miller’s work played world stages did the State of Massachusetts amend their judgments and pardon those accused and murdered as witches. Vida Bikales & The Barn Players “The Crucible” at The Barn carves the story into the hearts of the audience so thoroughly and completely. Do not expect levity in this show because there is none. Miller researched the actual Salem court records and used much of the testimony verbatim in crafting his play. Even with the focus on one particular family, the devastation created continues to create shivers when viewed. Luckily, Salem preserved their historic blunder and some cells that held the accused remain intact. Some chains remain attached to walls, and “The Crucible” and other such plays continue there for tourists who visit America’s most horrid injustices.
    [Show full text]
  • Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature
    Bernadette Filotas PAGAN SURVIVALS, SUPERSTITIONS AND POPULAR CULTURES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL PASTORAL LITERATURE Is medieval pastoral literature an accurate reflection of actual beliefs and practices in the early medieval West or simply of literary conventions in- herited by clerical writers? How and to what extent did Christianity and traditional pre-Christian beliefs and practices come into conflict, influence each other, and merge in popular culture? This comprehensive study examines early medieval popular culture as it appears in ecclesiastical and secular law, sermons, penitentials and other pastoral works – a selective, skewed, but still illuminating record of the be- liefs and practices of ordinary Christians. Concentrating on the five cen- turies from c. 500 to c. 1000, Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature presents the evidence for folk religious beliefs and piety, attitudes to nature and death, festivals, magic, drinking and alimentary customs. As such it provides a precious glimpse of the mu- tual adaptation of Christianity and traditional cultures at an important period of cultural and religious transition. Studies and Texts 151 Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature by Bernadette Filotas Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Filotas, Bernadette, 1941- Pagan survivals, superstitions and popular cultures in early medieval pastoral literature / by Bernadette Filotas.
    [Show full text]
  • Goodbye Consett
    GOODBYE CONSETT Excerpts from STORIES FROM A SONGWRITERS LIFE by Steve Thompson Cover image: Mark Mylchreest. Proof reading: Jim Harle (who still calls me Stevie). © 2020 Steve Thompson. All rights reserved. FOREWORD INTO THE UNKOWN By Trev Teasdel (Poet, author and historian) We almost thought of giving in Searching for that distant dream” Steve Thompson, Journey’s End. For a working-class man born in Consett, County Durham, UK apprenticed to the steel industry, with expectations only of the inevitable, Steve Thompson has managed to weld together, over 50 years, an amazing career as hit songwriter, musician, rock band leader, record producer, ideas man, raconteur, radio producer, community media mogul, workshop leader and much more. The world is full of unsung heroes, the people behind the scenes who pull the strings, spark ideas, write the material for others to sing and while Steve may be one of them, his songs at least have been well sung by some of the top artists in show business, and he’s worked alongside some of the top producers of the time. This is what this book is about – those songs that will be familiar to you even if you never knew who wrote them, the stories that lie behind them; the highs and lows, told with honesty, clarity and humour. There’s nothing highfalutin about Steve Thompson, he’s pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, achieved his dream, despite setbacks, and through it remains humble (if a little boastful – as you will see!), a staunchly people’s man with a wicked sense of humour (and I do mean wicked!).
    [Show full text]
  • The Literature of .Witchcraft in New England. by Justin Winsor
    1895.] Literature of Witchcraft in Neio England. 351 THE LITERATURE OF .WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND. BY JUSTIN WINSOR. THE sporadic and epidemic manifestations of .witchcraft during the seventeenth century in New England were bnt symptoms of a belief in satanic agencies, world-wide and pervading all ages. As a psychological symptom, it has created a large number of treatises, learned or emotional, some confidently adhering to the belief, others corrective or sternly critical. Lecky, who has touched the subject in his History of Rationalism, gives high praise to the learn- ing and ability of Maury's Histoire de la Magie (Paris, 1860). The retrospections of the Commentaries of Black- stone, the records (1661) of the Tryal of Witches at the Assizes for the County of Suffolk, March, 1664, before Sir Matthew Hale (London, 1682), (which Cotton Mather summarized in his Wonders of the Invisible World), and T. Glanvil's Sadducismus triumphans, or full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions (London, 1681,)—a book on which the Mathers feasted—show how thoroughly perverse public opinion was in England in tl^e days when colonial New England looked thither for guid- ance. The commonness of the frenzy is. shown in such books as W. H. D. Adams's Historical sketches of magic and loitehcraft in England and Scotland (London, 1889). Michael Dalton's Country Justice (1619, etc.,) was the authority for the English practice in such trials. Dr. Haven, in his Eeport to the American Antiquarian Society (April 24, 1874), says of Dalton's book : "The tests, the manner of examination, the nature of the evidence, the 25 352 American Antiquarian Soeiety.
    [Show full text]
  • This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from Explore Bristol Research
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: O Lynn, Aidan Anthony Title: Ghosts of War and Spirits of Place Spectral Belief in Early Modern England and Protestant Germany General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Ghosts of Place and Spirits of War: Spectral Belief in Early Modern England and Protestant Germany Aidan Anthony O’Lynn A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts School of History August 2018 Word Count: 79950 i Abstract This thesis focuses on themes of place and war in the development of ghostlore in Early Modern Protestant Germany and England.
    [Show full text]
  • A General History of the Burr Family, 1902
    historyAoftheBurrfamily general Todd BurrCharles A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE BURR FAMILY WITH A GENEALOGICAL RECORD FROM 1193 TO 1902 BY CHARLES BURR TODD AUTHOB OF "LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOBL BARLOW," " STORY OF THB CITY OF NEW YORK," "STORY OF WASHINGTON,'' ETC. "tyc mis deserves to be remembered by posterity, vebo treasures up and preserves tbe bistort of bis ancestors."— Edmund Burkb. FOURTH EDITION PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY <f(jt Jtnuhtrboclur $«88 NEW YORK 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1878 BY CHARLES BURR TODD COPYRIGHT, 190a »Y CHARLES BURR TODD JUN 19 1941 89. / - CONTENTS Preface . ...... Preface to the Fourth Edition The Name . ...... Introduction ...... The Burres of England ..... The Author's Researches in England . PART I HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL Jehue Burr ....... Jehue Burr, Jr. ...... Major John Burr ...... Judge Peter Burr ...... Col. John Burr ...... Col. Andrew Burr ...... Rev. Aaron Burr ...... Thaddeus Burr ...... Col. Aaron Burr ...... Theodosia Burr Alston ..... PART II GENEALOGY Fairfield Branch . ..... The Gould Family ...... Hartford Branch ...... Dorchester Branch ..... New Jersey Branch ..... Appendices ....... Index ........ iii PART I. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. HERE are people in our time who treat the inquiries of the genealogist with indifference, and even with contempt. His researches seem to them a waste of time and energy. Interest in ancestors, love of family and kindred, those subtle questions of race, origin, even of life itself, which they involve, are quite beyond their com prehension. They live only in the present, care nothing for the past and little for the future; for " he who cares not whence he cometh, cares not whither he goeth." When such persons are approached with questions of ancestry, they retire to their stronghold of apathy; and the querist learns, without diffi culty, that whether their ancestors were vile or illustrious, virtuous or vicious, or whether, indeed, they ever had any, is to them a matter of supreme indifference.
    [Show full text]
  • THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED HISTORY of WITCHCRAFT and MAGIC OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL 11/11/16, Spi
    OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL 11/11/16, SPi THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL 11/11/16, SPi The historians who contributed to The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic are all distinguished authorities in their field. They are: OWEN DAVIES, University of Hertfordshire WILLEM DE BLÉCOURT, Huizinga Institute/Meertens Institute, Amsterdam PETER MAXWELL-STUART, University of St Andrews SOPHIE PAGE, University College London JAMES SHARPE, University of York RITA VOLTMER, University of Trier ROBERT J. WALLIS, Richmond University CHARLES ZIKA, University of Melbourne OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL 11/11/16, SPi THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC Edited by Owen Davies 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL 11/11/16, SPi 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Oxford University Press 2017 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2017 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate
    [Show full text]
  • The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, by 1
    The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by 1 The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by Margaret Alice Murray This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Witch-cult in Western Europe A Study in Anthropology Author: Margaret Alice Murray Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20411] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE *** Produced by Michael Ciesielski, Irma Špehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE WITCH-CULT IN WESTERN EUROPE A Study in Anthropology BY MARGARET ALICE MURRAY The Witch-cult in Western Europe, by 2 OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1921 Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY PREFACE The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that I have not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but have confined myself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs I have had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe. The New England records are unfortunately not published in extenso; this is the more unfortunate as the extracts already given to the public occasionally throw light on some of the English practices.
    [Show full text]