Six items: two books, Salem Witchcraft: An Account of Salem Village, Volumes 1 and 2 by Charles W. Upham. Boston: Wiggin and Lunt, 1867. Hardcover, 5.75 x 8.5, 469 pages and 553 pages. Tipped into page 281 of the first volume is a DS, one page, 6 x 5, December 24, 1694. In part: “John Bullock of Salem in the county of Essex in New England, Inn-keeper, did…sell & make over to Mr. Jonathn. Putman & Mr. John Putman & my self a parcell Meadow being about 10 Acres…I do therefore hereby authorize & fully impower my…co-partners…to act…as fully as if I my self were personally present.” Signed at the conclusion by Samuel Parris and co-signed by Nathaniel Ingersoll and John Putman, Jr. Accompanied by a difficult-to-decipher DS, one page, 6.25 x 4.25, March 15, 1681, likely a receipt signed by John Burton, Thomas Putnam, and Thomas Flint.
Also accompanied by a 14.75 x 11.5 re-creation, dated 1866, of a 1692 map of Salem Village that shows the locations of major landmarks, farms, land grants, physical features, and the dwellings of prominent and important residents in Salem during 1692. The map is affixed to a linen backing; and an 8-page handwritten document entitled “Index to the Dwellings in 1692 Epham’s Salem Witchcraft.” The document, written in 1867, details who owned specific buildings in Salem and which were still standing nearly two centuries later. In overall very good condition with scattered creasing, folds, and toning, an area of staining to the Parris page, rough right edge to the receipt, and wear with a partially separate back cover to one volume.
Salem minister, mayor and US Congressman, Upham is known as one of the first historians to delve into the murky waters of the history of Salem Village and the tragedy of the 1692 witch trials. He is also cited as one of the only historians to have utilized such documents as the seventeenth century Salem Village parish records and the Essex County and probate records. Although many more in-depth accounts have since been published, Upham’s effort paved the way, giving future researchers the tools they needed to further dissect and analyze cultural phenomena and events that Upham only touched upon, including land ownership and the bitter rivalry between the Putnam and the Porter families.
This DS, signed by the Village minister, Reverend Samuel Parris, was written only a year after the infamous trials of 1692. Originally invited to preach in the Village church by John Putnam in 1689, Parris entered into an already quarrelsome community that had already seen the coming and going of three ministers. Through harsh, power-hungry behavior, Parris exacerbated an already inflamed situation. In the desolate winter of 1692, Parris’ own daughter, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Parris, was the first to fall ill with inexplicable symptoms. Fingers were quickly pointed at the Parris’s Indian slave, Tituba, calling attention to her background in voodoo. Parris himself ran with the allegations, blazing forth a murderous hysteria that eventually claimed the lives of over 20 people between February, 1692 and May, 1693. Perhaps an attempt to procure land and secure his hold on the Village, this land agreement marks the time of Parris’s ultimate fall, which lead to his eventual break from the community in 1697, leaving behind him what would be seen as Massachusetts’ darkest, most horrific days. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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