Estate / Collection: The Victor Gulotta Collection

[SALEM WITCH TRIALS]

FISKE, THOMAS. Autograph document signed. Wenham: 23 September 1693. An autograph document in the hand of Thomas Fiske and signed “Tho: Fiske town Clerk,” the document a true copy taken from the Town Book of Records providing the text of a resolution of a town meeting at Wenham on 20 April 1692 in which “30 acres of land to be laid for Goodman Hobbs joining to the house where he dwell to be for his use till the Towns do cause to dispose of it some other way…” 3 ½ x 6 inches (16 x 8.5 cm); framed with a reproduction of an illustration depicting the trial of Rebecca Nurse. Provenance: James Cummins Bookseller.

Thomas Fiske (1630-1707) came to Massachusetts shortly after his birth in 1630. A prominent citizen, he was town recorder for Wenham from 1686 and given his standing was appointed to the jury that heard the case of Rebecca Nurse, accused of witchcraft, in June of 1692. Rebecca Nurse was an unlikely person to face persecution: she was a 71-year-old married woman with children and well-respected within the community with a reputation for piety. Nurse’s family originated in Salem but settled in nearby Topsfield. On March 23, 1692, a warrant was issued for her arrest based upon accusations made by Ann Putnam, Jr., Ann Putnam, Sr, and Abigail Williams of Salem, as well as another who claimed to have seen Nurse’s spirit tormenting Ann Putnam, Sr.

An example of the testimony against Rebecca Nurse follows: “The Deposition of Ann Putnam… saith that on the first day of June 1692 the Apperishtion of Rebekah Nurs did again fall upon me and almost choak me and she toald me that now she was come out of prision she had power to afflet me and that now she could for she tould me she had kiled benjamine Holton and John fuller and Rebekah Shepard: and she also toald me that she and her sister Cloyes and Ed: Bhishop wife of of Salem village had kiled young Jno putnams Child because yong Jno putnam had said that it was no wonder they were witches for their mother was so before them and because they could not aveng themselves on him they did kill his child…”

Nurse’s trial received some measure of public outcry and a petition on her behalf was signed by 39 citizens. Initially found not guilty, David Goss’ The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide describes what happened next:

“When Thomas Fiske, the jury foreman, announced the verdict the afflicted children raised such an outcry that Chief Justice William Stoughton asked Fiske to reconsider. Stoughton suggested that perhaps the jury had not heard Rebecca make an incriminating statement when another prisoner was brought in to testify against her. When Fiske later questioned Rebecca as to the exact meaning of her statement, she would not reply. This lack of a response, probably due to Rebecca’s partial deafness, was unexpected. Fiske waited briefly, then returned to the jury, and soon came back with a verdict of guilty. Stoughton sentenced her to be executed on July 19, 1692.”

The incriminating statement that Nurse had made was that another accused witch, Deliverance Hobbs, was "of her company," likely meaning that they were standing trial together rather than that they had both made a pact with the devil as it was perceived. Governor Phips reviewed Nurse’s case personally but ordered the execution. The current document signed by Fiske, just months following these events, mentions a “Goodman Hobbs,” possibly William Hobbs, husband of Deliverance with whom Rebecca Nurse was accused. The execution of Rebecca Nurse, a pious and well-respected woman, signaled the beginning of the end of the Salem Witch Trials as the local citizenry began to question the accusations, and soon thereafter spectral evidence was rendered inadmissible by Governor Phips.

In 1697, Thomas Fiske signed an apology for his role on the jury that condemned Rebecca Nurse: “we justly fear that we were sadly deluded and mistaken — for which we are much disquieted and distressed in our minds, and do therefore humbly beg forgiveness…” The present document presents a rare opportunity to possess the contemporaneous signature of the troubled jury foreman.

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