| She was accused on Monday, May 23, 1692 of "sundry acts of Witchcraft
committed on the bodys of Mary Warren, Abigaile Williams and Eliz Hubbard."27
She was accused along with Benjamin Procter and Mary Derich. A warrant
for her arrest was issued and she was arrested that day. The following day
was set aside for examinations and the proceedings were recorded by Nathaniel Cary
of Charlestown. He and Mrs. Cary had come to observe and to face Mrs. Cary's
accuser, Abigail Williams. He writes of the prisoners, one of whom surely
was Sarah Pease:
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The Prisoners were called in one by one, and as they came in were cried out of,
etc. The prisoner was placed about 7 or 8 foot from the Justices, and the Accusers
between the Justices and them; the Prisoner was ordered to stand right before
the Justices, with an Officer appointed to hold each hand, least they should therewith
afflict them, and the Prisoners Eyes must be constantly on the Justices; for if
they look'd on the afflicted, they would either fall into their Fits, or cry out
of being hurt by them; after Examination of the Prisoners, who it was afflicted
these Girls, etc., they were put upon saying the Lords Prayer, as a tryal of their
guilt; after the afflicted seem'd to be out of their Fits, they would look steadfastly
on some one person, and frequently not speak; and then the Justices said they were
struck dumb, and after a little time would speak again; then the Justices
said to the Accusers, "which of you will go and touch the Prisoner at the Bar?"
then the most couragious would adventure, but before they made three steps would
ordinarily fall down as in a Fit; the Justices ordered that they should
be taken up and carried to the Prisoner, that she might touch them; and as soon
as they were touched by the accused, the Justices would say, they are well, before
I could discern any alteration...28
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| Sufficient evidence must have been found against Sarah because she was sent to Salem
jail on May 25th, 1692.
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27 Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed (New York, DaCapo,
1977), p 639, 655-5 (sic).
28 George L. Burr., ed., Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706
(New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1914; reprind ed., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1946),
p. 350. (Ed: No direct reference to Sarah Pease, but the narrative is that of May 24, 1692. Online at Archive.org.) |