Martha Corey was an aged Christian professor, of eminently devout habits and principles.  It is, indeed, a strange fact, that, in her humble home, surrounded, as it then was, by a wilderness, this husbandman’s wife should have reached a height so above and beyond her age.  But it is proved conclusively by the depositions adduced against her, that her mind was wholly disenthralled from the errors of that period.  She utterly repudiated the doctrines of witchcraft, and expressed herself freely and fearlessly against them.  The prayer which this woman made “upon the ladder,” and which produced such an impression on those who heard it, was undoubtedly expressive of enlightened piety, worthy of being characterized as “eminent” in its sentiments, and in its demonstration of an innocent heart and life.

The following paper, in the handwriting of Mr. Parris, is among the court-files.  It has not the ordinary form of a deposition, but somehow was sworn to in Court:—­

“The morning after the examination of Goody Nurse, Sam.  Sibley met John Procter about Mr. Phillips’s, who called to said Sibley as he was going to said Phillips’s, and asked how the folks did at the village.  He answered, he heard they were very bad last night, but he had heard nothing this morning.  Procter replied, he was going to fetch home his jade; he left her there last night, and had rather given forty shillings than let her come up.  Said Sibley asked why he talked so.  Procter replied, if they were let alone so, we should all be devils and witches quickly; they should rather be had to the whipping-post; but he would fetch his jade home, and thrash the Devil out of her,—­and more to the like purpose, crying, ‘Hang them! hang them!’”

In another document, it is stated that Nathaniel Ingersoll and others heard John Procter tell Joseph Pope, “that, if he had John Indian in his custody, he would soon beat the Devil out of him.”

The declarations thus ascribed to John Procter show that his views of the subject were about right; and it will probably be generally conceded, that the treatment he proposed for Mary Warren and “John Indian,” if dealt out to the “afflicted children” generally at the outset, would have prevented all the mischief.  A sound thrashing all round, seasonably administered, would have reached the root of the matter; and the story which has now been concluded of Salem witchcraft would never have been told.

When the witchcraft tornado burst upon Andover, it prostrated every thing before it.  Accusers and accused were counted by scores, and under the panic of the hour the accused generally confessed.  But Andover was the first to recover its senses.  On the 12th of October, 1692, seven of its citizens addressed a memorial to the General Court in behalf of their wives and children, praying that they might be released on bond, “to remain as prisoners in their own houses, where they may be more tenderly cared for.”