Salem Witch Case Study

Perhaps Mary Easty’s warrant had not come as a surprise; the notion that sin ran through lineage was a popular belief among Puritans, and had affected many others before it afflicted Mary Easty and her sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyse. It was Rebecca who was the first sister to be accused of witchcraft, followed shortly by Mary whose warrant for arrest came not even a full month after she petitioned for her sister and rebuked the claims of the “Afflicted” girls. While chiefly accused by Mercy Lewis, a girl whose claims were bolstered by the testimonies of the influential Putnam family, Easty was also accused by several other parties of maleficium and appearing as a specter that threatened, choked, pinched and poked its captive audience. …show more content…
Although neither Easty nor her son had any suits filed against them in any Essex County Court cases, Isaac served as a witness in the dispute over a stolen mare between Salem native and grand juror Henry Bartholomew and his brother, John Towne, in 1660. Isaac and his other brother Francis Nurse, husband of Rebecca Nurse, defended John Towne against testimonies by Salem villagers such as John Putnam. No criminal or civil charges were filed against the Easty family, who kept an indentured servant in 1658 and lived in good economic and social standing among the people of Topsfield. No records of any large financial debts were warranted against the Easty, Nurse, and Cloyse families, and prior to the 1692 Salem Witch Trials no negative claims were made against them. Although during the trials she was accused of vaguely threatening Samuel Smith, Mary Easty’s character was defended by John and Mary Arnold and Thomas and Elizabeth Fosse during her trial and was described as bearing no “ill behavior” and acting very “sobere and civelle,” traits identifiable in the simple fact that her final testimony was written for the sake of the others and not her