Wichita eagle., 1889-03-28

the delusion ever gained a foothold In Con-
necticut; and the reports of executions in
Connecticut have not only been denied. but
have remained to all but close students
very doubtful matter at most. But we sus-
pect, says the Hartford Times, that this is
an erroneous view of the subject, and that
Connecticut was really not SO very much
freer from the horrible superstition than
her sister colony of Massachusetts bay. A
good many old women were popularity &C
cused of a criminal Familiarity with
Satan," and some of them certainly were
tried for that sin-and, if the truth must be
told, there was more than one execution for
wltchcraft in Connecticut. But the Con-
necticut delusion, though it seems to have
been earlier than the similar misfortune in
Massachusetts, never did reach such shock
ing proportions, nor go to such extremes as
that There were two executions here in
Hartford in or about 1868 of two women,
Greensmith and Barnes, convicted of
witchcraft. The former, we think, made
an extraordinary confession after she
had been convicted of the truth of her
Familiarity with the devil" as the GUS
tomary charge IN such cases was worded.
Her confession-which is not fit for print
showed at least a robust and most fertile
and peculiar Imagination. 1t is one of the
strange features of that witchcratt mania,
here and in Massachusetts, that so many Of
the persons who were convicted were ready
TO confess the truth of the charge made
against them. 1t must have been an Illus
tration of unconscious psychologizing, by
great wave or surrounding atmospher re 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 mag
nations added to and broadened out INTO
the widest grotesqtcrie of INDUSTRIOUS fam
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
considerable portion Of Connecticut The
location was for more than century there
after known as "Gallows Hill" We do not
know that any other witches were hanged
there; the delusion seems to have been
worse, and to have been followed by more
executions, in Fairfield County-where it
WAS slulUiA3ASSUSAy WIZ VIC
mania st Salenl-in 1922.
In the Times of August S. $780, are sew
sral 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. 1t seems
TO be only part of Stones long account,
and it was obtained when he was editor of
- so -. ~, N,-4
from a tlme-stained bundle OF old manu-
scripts upon which he CHANGED 10 come in
looking over a large lot of ancient papers
that had been brought TO light from the old
garrett of the Wyllis mansion. Wyllis was
the old Colonial Secretary, and naturally
would be in the way of having charge Of
such cid papers as these, which were
in a separ ate packet, labeled "Witchcrsft
Trails" and that was what attracted
Colonel Stones attention and led him 10
careful study of the papers. What after
ward became of them we know not; but
the extracts so fully made by Stone are IN
portant as throwing light onthe part taken
by Connecticut IN the history of the witch
craft delusion The indictments of one
Mercy Disborough from the Times of 1870,
Colonel Stone Judged, was of the custom
airy sort IN witchcraft cases; testimony TO
the mysterious and supernatural character
of the prosecutions and confuslons wrought
upon sundry very innocent persons living II
that neighborhood. Mercy Disborough was
one of a mum Der Of witches thereabout-two
of whom at least were indicted at the same
time-in the only court of oyer and termi-
ner ever organized IN Connecticut. to wit:
Mercy Disborough and Elizabeth Clawson.
Goody Clswson escaped conviction. but Mercy
Disborough, of Compo (in the present town
ship of Westportl, was not so lucky. Both
were bound, hand and feet, accordin 2 to the
good old English custom, and pitched head
first into the water. The test was that if the
accused sank and drowned IL WAS nrinaa