{"product_id":"2940014928212","title":"House Of John Procter, Witchcraft Martyr, 1692","description":"HOUSE OF JOHN PROCTER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWITCHCRAFT MARTYR, 1692.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[A paper read by William P. Upham at a meeting of the Peabody\u003cbr\u003eHistorical Society at the Needham house, West Peabody, September 2nd.,\u003cbr\u003e1903.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is now nearly forty years since I assisted my father, the late\u003cbr\u003eCharles W. Upham, in the preparation of his work on Salem Village and\u003cbr\u003ethe Witchcraft tragedy of 1692, by collecting what information could\u003cbr\u003ebe obtained from the records as to the people and their homes in\u003cbr\u003ethat locality. In doing this I was enabled to construct a map showing\u003cbr\u003ethe bounds of the grants and farms at that time. On that map is\u003cbr\u003erepresented quite accurately the Downing Farm, so called, owned, in\u003cbr\u003e1638, by Emanuel Downing, father of Sir George Downing, and occupied\u003cbr\u003eas tenant, in 1692, by John Procter, the victim of the witchcraft\u003cbr\u003edelusion. When I made the map I knew that John Procter at his death\u003cbr\u003eowned, as appears by the inventory of his estate, fifteen acres of\u003cbr\u003eland in Salem, but I was not able then to locate it with exactness.\u003cbr\u003eLately, in making a more complete study of the records relating to the\u003cbr\u003eDowning farm and the surrounding lands I have learned the exact\u003cbr\u003esituation of the fifteen acre lot owned by him, and also that he had a\u003cbr\u003ehouse upon it as early as 1682 and until his death in 1692. It appears\u003cbr\u003ethat this lot is the place where he was buried, according to the\u003cbr\u003efamily tradition, although the knowledge as to its being once owned by\u003cbr\u003ehim seems to have passed out of the neighborhood for more than a\u003cbr\u003ecentury.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis lot is indicated, on the accompanying map of the locality which I\u003cbr\u003ehave drawn for the purpose, by heavy dark lines. It was on the north\u003cbr\u003eside of Lowell Street in West Peabody, just west of the westernmost\u003cbr\u003eline of the Downing Farm and about one hundred and fifty rods east\u003cbr\u003efrom the place of this meeting, which is the Needham homestead on the\u003cbr\u003eNewburyport Turnpike, or Newbury Street as it is now called, marked on\u003cbr\u003ethe map as then, in 1692, the home of Anthony Needham, Junior.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe discovery that this was John Procter's land called to mind a\u003cbr\u003econversation I had with Mrs. Jacobs, an aged lady who lived in the old\u003cbr\u003eJacobs house, now the Wyman place, and of which I made the following\u003cbr\u003ememorandum about thirty years ago:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mrs. Jacobs (Munroe) says that it was always said that Procters were\u003cbr\u003eburied near the bars as you go into the Philip H. Saunders place. Mr.\u003cbr\u003eJames Marsh says he always heard that John Procter, of witch time, was\u003cbr\u003eburied there.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon inquiring lately of Mrs. Osborn, the librarian of the Peabody\u003cbr\u003eHistorical Society, as to what was the family tradition, I learned\u003cbr\u003ethat it was said by Mrs. Hannah B. Mansfield, of Danvers, that John\u003cbr\u003eProcter was buried \"opposite to the Colcord\" (now the Wyman) \"pasture,\u003cbr\u003eamongst the rocks.\" In answer to an inquiry by Mrs. Osborn, Mrs.\u003cbr\u003eMansfield wrote to her as follows:--\"A great aunt took me, when a\u003cbr\u003elittle girl, with her to a spot in a rocky hill where she picked\u003cbr\u003eblackberries, and said there was the place 'among birch trees and\u003cbr\u003erocks where our ancestor of witchcraft notoriety was buried.' It was\u003cbr\u003eon the north side of Lowell Street in what was then called the Marsh\u003cbr\u003epasture nearly opposite the Jacobs farm which is on the south side of\u003cbr\u003eLowell Street.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Marsh pasture from which Mrs. Mansfield's aunt pointed out the\u003cbr\u003e\"birch trees and rocks\" near by where John Procter was buried was, no\u003cbr\u003edoubt, the pasture conveyed by James Marsh to Philip H. Saunders, 11\u003cbr\u003eJune, 1863, and then described as \"thirteen acres known by the name of\u003cbr\u003eBates Pasture.\" I do not know of any other place near there that would\u003cbr\u003ebe called the Marsh pasture at the time Mrs. Mansfield mentions. This\u003cbr\u003ethirteen acre pasture was conveyed by Ezekiel Marsh to John Marsh, 15\u003cbr\u003eOct., 1819, having been devised to him by his father Ezekiel Marsh. It\u003cbr\u003ehad a way leading to it from Lowell Street over the eastern end of the\u003cbr\u003eJohn Procter lot as shown on my map. This way is still used as well as\u003cbr\u003ethe bars opening into it on Lowell Street a few rods east of the\u003cbr\u003ewesterly way leading southerly to the Jacobs, or Wyman, place. These\u003cbr\u003eare the \"bars as you go into the Philip H. Saunders place\" mentioned\u003cbr\u003eby Mrs. Jacobs as stated above, unless we suppose the expression to\u003cbr\u003emean bars leading from the John Procter lot where the way enters the\u003cbr\u003ePhilip H. Saunders place, or Marsh pasture, as Mrs. Mansfield calls\u003cbr\u003eit. Perhaps the latter locality is the most probable since it is high\u003cbr\u003erocky ground; but which bars were meant is uncertain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Daniel H. Felton, who has an intimate knowledge of the history of\u003cbr\u003eall the lands about Felton's Hill, and is himself a descendant of John\u003cbr\u003eProcter, informs me that Mrs. Hannah B. Mansfield some years since\u003cbr\u003erelated to him","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074145730800,"sku":"2940014928212","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014928212_p0.jpg?v=1763617093","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014928212","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}