6 IN THE MATTER OF The nineteenth- century illustrator Howard Pyle depicted a woman arrested for witch- craft as an old hag. AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY/MANUSCRIPTS NEW YORK STATE NEW YORK archives • FALL 2005 7 Goody Garlick BY GEORGE DEWAN Witch-hunting was not limited to Salem, Massachusetts in the nascent America of the seventeenth century. In the early spring of 1658, tain—in early February, and asked Betty how she on the far eastern end of 1657/8 (see sidebar). Across did,” Mary Gardiner said later. Long Island, a married woman the street from the burial “She put out her hand. ‘Oh, of about fifty named Elizabeth ground, a sixteen-year-old mother.’ And she cried and I Garlick was accused of being mother, Elizabeth Gardiner cried and she said, ‘Mother, a witch. Thus did the wave of Howell, lay feverish and deliri- I am bewitched.’ I asked her social and religious upheaval ous in her bed, having just that had been festering in given up her infant daughter New England—and would to an attendant after nursing. In the space of three weeks, thirteen witnesses Ilater reach its apogee with Elizabeth, also known as multiple hangings in Salem, Betty, crooned a psalm after testified. The justices got an earful, and much of Massachusetts—spill over her child, then suddenly stiff- into the isolated village of ened and shrieked, “A witch! what they heard was bad news for Goody Garlick. Easthampton (now East A witch! Now you are come Hampton). to torture me because I spoke It was a time of discontent two or three words against who she saw, and she said, for Easthampton’s thirty-four you! In the morning you will ‘Goody Garlick in the further The British did not give up families, strung out along come fawning.” corner and a black thing in the older Julian calendar for opposite sides of Main Street Elizabeth’s father, Lion the hither corner, both at the today’s Gregorian calendar near the burial ground and Gardiner, the community’s feet of the bed.’” until 1752. Under the Julian the Presbyterian Church. The founder and the most impor- By Sunday evening, just one calendar, the new year began village was only ten years old, tant man in town, was duly day later, Elizabeth Gardiner on March 25, not January and its residents were still summoned from his residence Howell was dead. Her death 1. Thus when Elizabeth struggling among themselves across the street. “What did set in motion a series of events Gardiner Howell died in to create a sense of community. you see?” Gardiner asked his that consumed Easthampton February, the year was still Whispering, innuendo, and daughter. for the remainder of that 1657 (commonly written backbiting were common, “A black thing at the bed’s spring: charges of witchcraft 1657/8 O.S., or Old Style), and charges of slander were feet,” shrieked Elizabeth, leveled at Goodwife Elizabeth and the trial of Elizabeth adjudicated regularly. Given stretching forth her hands as Garlick, a three-week hearing Garlick three months later the temper of the times, if to strike at what she saw. before three local judges, and was in 1658. Because of this what happened to the wife of The next day, Elizabeth’s a witchcraft trial in Hartford, time discrepancy, some Joshua Garlick was predictable. mother, Mary Gardiner, who Connecticut. writers have mistakenly had herself been sick in bed, concluded that Goody A Sudden Death was well enough to cross the Neighbor Against Neighbor Garlick was held in custody The trouble began on a street. “I went there and Elizabeth Garlick and her hus- for more than a year. Friday—the date is not cer- presently went to her bed band, Joshua, lived just down www.nysarchives.org 8 John Mulford, John Hand, Garlick visited her home: and Thomas Baker. In the “Goody Garlick said ‘The space of three weeks, thirteen child is not well, for it witnesses testified. The justices groaneth,’ and Goody Davis got an earful, and much said her heart did rise, and of what they heard was bad Goody Davis said when she news for Goody Garlick. took the child from Goody Neighbor after neighbor had Garlick she said she saw their say: tales of black cats death in the face of it and the showing up at odd times, of child sickened presently upon children getting sick and it and lay five days and five dying, and of strange and nights and never opened the unexplained things happening eyes nor cried ‘til it died.” out on Gardiner’s Island. It Thomas Talmadge, who was implied that Goody was also secretary for the BETTMAN/CORBIS Garlick had a hand in all of hearing, told the judges of an Connecticut the street from Elizabeth them: a child that was “taken event one day when he was Governor John Winthrop, shown Gardiner Howell and her away in a strange manner,” at the house of Goody Davis: here arriving in husband, merchant Arthur a man who turned up dead, “She [was] there speaking to New England in Howell. Joshua Garlick was a a fat and lusty sow and her me about some accidents that 1630 aboard the farmer who had once worked piglets that died soon after had fallen out among them Arabella, presided for Lion Gardiner on his nearby birth, an ox with a broken leg. at the Island as concerning over Goody island, originally called the Goodwife Simons said the death of her child in what Garlick’s trial for Isle of Wight but later renamed that she was with Elizabeth manner it was taken away witchcraft. Gardiner’s Island. “Goody” and her husband Arthur on and of an ox that had his leg was a shortened form of the second day of Elizabeth’s broke and having reference in “Goodwife,” and was used illness when the sick woman her speech concerning Goody for many of the women on asked them to “‘Send for Garlick as if she were a witch.” Goody Garlick! Send for Jeremiah Vaile, who lived Goody Garlick!…I could tear next door to the Garlicks and “Discontented people in East Hampton who her in pieces! She is a double- who had once worked for tongued woman! Did you not Lion Gardiner, claimed that had come to this isolated extension of New see her last night stand by the Gardiner had challenged bed side ready to pull me in Davis’ story that Goody Garlick England culture looking for a fresh start and pieces? And she pricked me had caused the death of some possible bettering of their lives had, in with pins.’” Davis’ child. Vaile testified that Gardiner said that their ambition, turned on each other.” Witch…or Scapegoat? “Goody Davis had taken an Richard Stratton “said that Indian child to nurse and for he heard Goody Davis say lucre of a little wampum had Main Street: Goodwife and that her child died strangely merely starved her own child.” Goodman were not names, at the Island and she thought The name Goody Davis but terms of address for a it was bewitched and she said keeps coming up in the testi- married person who was not she did not know of anyone mony––and if ever there was of high rank—similar to Mr. on the Island that could do it anyone who was a community or Mrs.—but also not of the unless it were Goody Garlick.” leader in whispering, innuendo, lower class. Goody Birdsall related that and backbiting, it was she. On February 19, the hearing Goody Davis had once told Oddly enough, she did not began before village justices her of the day that Goody testify, but when reading the NEW YORK archives • FALL 2005 9 transcripts it becomes clear this commonwealth thou THE ARCHIVES CONNECTION that much of the accusatory, deserveth to die.” he beauty of the Goody Garlick’s hearing are available hearsay testimony against There is apparently no Garlick story, from a to the public in the “Records Garlick heard by the justices record of testimony or T historian’s standpoint, is that of the Town of East originated in the mind of arguments made by either we are able to re-create Hampton, Long Island, Davis. Why she focused her side. The judgment was terse: conversations and anecdotes Suffolk Co., N.Y., With bile on Garlick is uncertain. “The jury doth not find involving fairly common Other Ancient Documents Elizabeth the wife of Joshua people—although Lion of Historic Value.” A micro- Brief Trial, Terse Verdict Garlick guilty according to the Gardiner was by no means film copy of these documents In the end, however, Goody indictment.” This verdict was a commoner—from a tiny is available at the Long Garlick stood accused, and the hardly pro forma. At least community in mid-seven- Island Collection of the three Easthampton justices four hangings for witchcraft teenth-century Long Island. East Hampton Library. The sent the case to Hartford, had taken place in Connecticut Credit for this goes first to fairly sparse information on Connecticut to the Court of before the Goody Garlick case. the original Easthampton Garlick’s trial can be found Magistrates for a jury trial on community leaders, who on pages 188–189 of the the charge of witchcraft. An Execution Averted must have brought with them “Connecticut Historical Although all of Long Island It is Salem, Massachusetts in from New England (and Society Collections, Volume had originally been claimed 1692 that we remember for from the Old World) a XXII: Records of the by the Dutch as part of witchcraft trials in America.