Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,075 pages of information about Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II.

Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,075 pages of information about Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II.
a part of the boundary between Salem and Reading in 1666 is in the State House; of which an exact tracing was kindly furnished by Mr. H.J.  Coolidge, of the Secretary of State’s office.  It gives two of the sides of the Governor Bellingham grant, No.  IV., in such a manner as to afford the means of projecting it with entire certainty, and fixing its locality.  There are no other plots of original or early grants or farms on this territory; but, starting from the Bishop and Bellingham grants thus laid out in their respective places, by a collation of deeds of conveyance and partition on record, with the aid of portions of the primitive stone-walls still remaining, and measurements resting on permanent objects, the entire region has been reduced to a demarkation comprehending the whole area.  The locations of then-existing roads have been obtained from the returns of laying-out committees, and other evidence in the records and files.  The construction of the map, in all its details, is the result of the researches and labors of W.P.  Upham.

The death-warrant is a photograph by E.R.  Perkins, of Salem.  The original, among the papers on file in the office of the clerk of the courts of Essex County, having always been regarded as a great curiosity, has been subjected to constant handling, and become much obscured by dilapidation.  The letters, and in some instances entire words, at the end of the lines, are worn off.  To preserve it, if possible, from further injury, it has been pasted on cloth.  Owing to this circumstance, and the yellowish hue to which the paper has faded, it does not take favorably by photograph; but the exactness of imitation, which can only thus be obtained with absolute certainty, is more important than any other consideration.  Only so much as contains the body of the warrant, the sheriff’s return, and the seal, are given.  The tattered margins are avoided, as they reveal the cloth, and impair the antique aspect of the document.  The original is slowly disintegrating and wasting away, notwithstanding the efforts to preserve it; and its appearance, as seen to-day, can only be perpetuated in photograph.  The warrant is reduced about one-third, and the return one-half.

The Townsend Bishop house and the outlines of Witch Hill are from sketches by O.W.H.  Upham.  The English house is from a drawing made on the spot by J.R.  Penniman of Boston, in 1822, a few years before its demolition, for the use of which I am indebted to James Kimball, Esq., of Salem.  The view of Salem Village and of the Jacobs’ house are reduced, by O.W.H.  Upham, from photographs by E.R.  Perkins.

The map and other engravings, including the autographs, were all delineated by O.W.H.  Upham.

[Illustration:  [map]]

INDEX TO THE MAP.

DWELLINGS IN 1692.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.