Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-04-24

tration or unconscious psychologIzing, by
great wave or surrounding atmosphere Of
fanatical superstitious delusion which
reigned for awhile in those places, and
which made the accused wretches really
feel that they had done the evil charged
upon them, and which their excited imag-
nations added to and broadened out INTO
the widest 0rotesq,Ger.e of monstrops fan
tastes and absurdities. The scene of the
Hartford hangings was on the commanding
summit near the head Of Vernon street, not
far from Trinity College ION that remark
able ridge or dixie Of trap-rock, naturally
placed for geographical marveD, on top Of
an infinitely newer free-stone formation-a
dixie which here sweeps down through q
considerable portion of Connecticut The
location was for more than a century there
after known as 'Gallows Hill" We do not
know that any other witches were hanged
worse, and to have been followed by more
executions, in Fairfield County-where it
was raging later, simultaneously with the
mania at Salem-in 1892.
In the Times of August 8, 1890, are sew
eral columns of an account Of Connecticut
witchcraft, written by William L. Stone In
the New York Commercial Advertiser, Of
which he was then the editor, and from
which paper the Times quoted it. It seems
to be only part of Stones long account
and it was obtained when he was editor of
the Connecticut Mirror, here In Hartford,
from tlme-stained bundle OF old manu-
scripts upon which he CHANGED to come in
looking over large lot of ancient papers
that had been brought to light from the old
garret of the Wyllis mansion. Wyllis was
the old Colonial Secretary, and naturally
would be in the way Of having charge of
in separ ate packet, labeled "Witchcraft
Trials" and that was what attracted
Colonel Stones attention and led him to
careful study Of the papers. What after
ward became of them we know not; but
the extracts so fully made by Stone are i'm
portant as throwing light on the part taken
by Connecticut in the history Of the witch
craft delusion. The indictments of one
Mercy Disborough from the Times of 1890,
Colonel Stone judged, was Of the custom
ary sort In witchcraft cases; testimony to
the mysterious and supernatural character
of the prosecutions and confusions wrought
upon sundry very innocent persons living in
that neighborhood. Mercy Disborough was
one of number of witches thereabout-two
of whom at least were indicted at the same
tine-in the only court of oyer and termi-
ner ever organized IN Connecticut, to wit !:
Mercy Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson.
Goody Clawson escaped conviction, but Mercy
Dlsborough, of Compo in the present town.
ship Of Westport), was not so lucky. Both
were bound, hand and foot, according to the
good old English custom, and pi; ched head
first into the water. The test was that if the
accused sank and drowned, it was prima
face case of innocence. If she floated, she
was clearly witch and must be executed
Mercy Disborough and Goody Clawson both
fioated like cork''-nor did one pious
servant of the Lord succeed in pressing the
former under, albeit he did dutifully and
stoutly try. The Clawson woman, however,
and we believe one or two other witches,
were acquitted; but Mercy Disborough was
not so easily let of. She had sorely afflicted
divers persons by supernatural pinchings,
prlcklngs and still worse punishments. But
therewas some hitch in the proceedings /:
there was another trial, and though she was
again convicted, it is pretty well ascertained
that for some occult reason she never was
executed. The Times says, editorially QS9Ol
that one whole family, named Godfrey, in
Fairfield County, were hanged for witch
craft and that one witch was burned in
Hartford-but this latter statement was an
error Witchcraft, a mixture of supersti-
tion, paganism and distorted Christianity
got its definite character from the old doc
trine of Satan, In the vain ponderings en-
the origin Of evil, the constitution of the
will, and such problems, the superstition of
the Middle Ages rose like foul exhalation
and swept over England and Germany. The
world was subject not to one God, but two
and 1.-THE Devil had power only second To
that OF God, and this power, which had en-
abled him to seduce Eve, qualified him to
lead astray her descendants. There was one
wizard to every hundred witches; so the
men oftener escaped accusation But what
frightful time it was-when any malicious
or half-psychologized woman could accuse
any other of her sex, and have her tried
land very likely convicted) of such mon
strous thingsl 1t seems astonishing that
convictions of wiuchcraft were reached in
England as late as Ireland executions In
Germany almost as late as the beginning of
this century