Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2016

First Recorded witchcraft Confession and top 10 Salem witchcraft trials "So-called witches were forced to admit confessing to being involved in witchcraft"

Mary Johnson Photo credit: witchcraftandwitches.com


Update today 19/05/2020 

While nowhere near as famous as the Salem witchcraft trials that took place in 1692, the great Connecticut witchcraft panic, which lasted intermittently from 1647 until 1697, set a precedent in American history. Of course, these trials presaged the later series of events in Salem. But the manner in which the trials came to an end opened the door for more rational and logical examinations of supposed supernatural phenomena.


10
The First Recorded Confession


In the mid-17th century, a single witness was all it took to get someone tried for witchcraft. Sometimes, all that was needed was one accusation from a prominent member of society. In 1648, Mary Johnson was tortured into confessing that she was involved in witchcraft. Two years earlier, Johnson, a servant, was accused of theft. 


Mary Black Arrest Warrant image wikipedia

A local minister named Samuel Stone believed that Johnson was guilty of much more, so he whipped her until she said that she had trafficked with the Devil. In particular, Johnson claimed that she had conspired with the Devil to complete her household chores, sleep with several men, and even kill a child.


Samuel Stone Sr. photo: wikitree.com

 In December 1648, Johnson was executed for these crimes. While in prison awaiting her trial, Johnson gave birth to a son who was quickly indentured as a servant to Nathaniel Rescew. The boy would remain under Rescew’s tutelage until he turned 21.



The First To Die

It is widely believed that Mary Johnson was the first accused witch to die in Connecticut (if not America). However, a woman named Alse (Alice) Young is the rightful holder of this ignominious title. On May 26, 1647, Young was hanged at Meeting House Square in Hartford (the site of today’s Old State House) following her brief trial. Little is known about Young.

Mary Johnston - Wikipedia

Old State House Hartford Connecticut photo: wikimedia.org

It is believed that she was born in England around 1600. Her husband was a man named John Young, who settled in the town of Windsor sometime between 1630 and 1640. It likely that Young was executed for the crime of making herbal folk remedies for her fellow settlers. Alice Young Beamon, Young’s daughter, would later be accused of witchcraft while living in Springfield, Massachusetts.


8
The Peculiar Town Of Wethersfield
Photo credit: connecticuthistory.org


During the early 1650s, several individuals were hanged for supposedly practicing witchcraft throughout Connecticut. The convicted included:


John and Joan Carrington (both executed in 1651), 

Goodwife Bassett and Goodwife Knapp (executed in 1651 and 1653, respectively), 
Mary “Goody” Paine Bassett (1620-1651) - Find A Grave Memorial


Lydia Gilbert (executed in 1654), Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith,
Lydia Gilbert – History of American Women
Nathaniel and Rebecca Greensmith – Hartford, Connecticut Witches Legends of America

Mary Sanford and Mary Barnes (all hanged in 1662).

Although some of these individuals came from places like Hartford, Fairfield, and Windsor, some came from or had connections to the town of Wethersfield. A later “witch,”  Katherine Harrison, was a medical practitioner in Wethersfield. 


More on Connecticut's Witch Trials | You're History!

Because of this fact and because Wethersfield was the hometown of Mary Johnson, the term “Wethersfield witches” has been used by historians and amateur scribes alike. Interestingly, the Carringtons and Johnson, all of whom were from Wethersfield, were active members of their community prior to the allegations levied against them.In colonial America, many accused witches were neither fringe members of their community nor easily classifiable as “outcasts” or “misfits.” This was certainly the case in Wethersfield.




The Great Hartford Panic
Photo credit: damnedct.com

Between 1662 and 1663, the city of Hartford fell under the spell of an intense anti-witchcraft hysteria. Beginning in March 1662

Anne Cole found widespread support from her community when she accused Rebecca Greensmith and Elizabeth Seager of using magic to torment her. 


Nathaniel and Rebecca Greensmith – Hartford, Connecticut Witches Legends of America

When an eight-year-old Elizabeth Kelly died after suffering prolonged stomach pains, her parents accused a woman named Goody Ayres of strangling their daughter through the use of black magic. Many of the stories from Hartford were incredibly bizarre.


 One woman claimed that Satan had caused her to speak with a Dutch accent, while one eyewitness claimed that she saw her neighbors transform into large black hounds during the nighttime. All told, three accused witches were executed.


Hartford Witch Trials of 1662 Learn Religions



The Saga Of Katherine Harrison
A Modern Witch Trial photo credit: city-journal.org

As previously mentioned, Katherine Harrison was a practicing physician in Wethersfield at the time that she was accused of being a witch. Harrison was accused of practicing astrology and using her spectral familiars (including a black dog and a calf’s head) to visit the houses of her neighbors on moonlit nights. Harrison was formally indicted in May 1669




Amazingly, despite being accused of witchcraft by approximately 30 witnesses, Harrison was acquitted after a jury could not reach a verdict. She returned to Wethersfield, but several residents signed a petition urging that she be sent back to prison. Finally, in May 1670, Harrison was once again released from prison after the colonial governor and several clergymen challenged the evidentiary standards used in Harrison’s case


5
The Importance Of John Winthrop Jr.
John Winthrop, often known as "John Winthrop, Junior" or "the Younger", was the eldest son of John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Mary Forth, his first wife. His father left the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the spring of 1630, and John stayed behind to care for his stepmother, Margaret (Tyndal) Winthrop, and the Winthrop children, as well as his father's businesses. He was governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1657, and from 1659 to 1676. photo: wikipedia.org

Also known as John Winthrop the Younger, Winthrop was the son of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Prior to becoming the governor of the Connecticut Colony, the younger Winthrop had been educated in England and had traveled extensively in Europe. According to one historian, Winthrop learned alchemy in Europe and practiced folk magic for much of his life. 


John Winthrop Jr. (1606-1676) Connecticut History

As such, Governor Winthrop knew firsthand how difficult practicing “natural magic” could be. As governor, Winthrop began to question the flimsy evidentiary standards of his colony’s witchcraft trials. In particular, Winthrop grew to question the legitimacy of “spectral evidence,” or eyewitness claims about being “tormented” by spirits or seeing spectral familiars.


4
New Standards Emerge


Because of Governor Winthrop’s hesitancy to accept “spectral evidence,” he played a major role in the two acquittals of Katherine Harrison. Indeed, following the conclusion of the Hartford panic in 1663, Winthrop, along with several magistrates and clergymen, established new guidelines for future witchcraft trials.First and foremost, Winthrop clearly defined what constituted diabolism. Winthrop believed that only pacts, or sealed contracts made with the Devil, made someone a witch. 


New-York Historical Society

Pact in Backwards Latin photo: wikipedia.org

Crop failures or sudden deaths did not necessarily mean that witchcraft was afoot. More importantly, Winthrop decreed that for a witchcraft trial to proceed, two people had to see a witch’s specter at the same time. This ruling drastically reduced the number of witchcraft panics for almost three decades.



Witch Hunting Moves To Massachusetts
Photo credit: legendsofamerica.com
The standards set by Connecticut held for many years. In 1688, however, a new witchcraft panic gripped Boston, the largest and most important city in Puritan America. Following the death of Winthrop in 1676, New England lost the greatest champion of a rational approach to the supernatural.Winthrop was replaced by Increase Mather, a Harvard-trained theologian and the author of “Remarkable Providences.” Mather believed strongly in the existence of witches. 


Massachusetts Puritans Quote of the Day

Although he accepted many of the dictates established by Winthrop and the Connecticut magistrates, he nevertheless oversaw the execution of Goodwife (“Goody”) Ann Glover. Ann Glover and her daughter worked as housekeepers for the family of John Goodwin. Following a dispute over some missing laundry, the Goodwin children began acting strangely.

A local doctor diagnosed them as being bewitched. Soon enough, Glover, an Irish Catholic who probably only spoke Gaelic, was accused of being a witch. Mather himself deduced that the Goodwin children were bewitched. Glover was hanged in November 1688. She would be the last “witch” to be hanged in Boston.



The Stamford Panic Of 1692
Photo credit: stamfordadvocate.com

During the same year as the Salem witchcraft trials, a servant named Katherine Branch mysteriously fell ill. For weeks, she suffered convulsions and mused wildly about her affliction. At one point, Branch began telling people that a cat often spoke to her about possessing the finer things in life. 

Branch also said that this cat would sometimes transform into a woman. Following a flurry of accusations, two women—Elizabeth Clawson of Stamford and Mercy Disborough of Fairfield—were formally accused


Case of Elizabeth Clawson (Elizabeth Clauson). Testimony of Sary Connecticut State Library

Fortunately, many people were suspicious of Branch’s story. Following a series of experiments (including dunking the accused witches in a Fairfield pond), both Clawson and Disborough were ultimately acquitted.




The Last In Line


photo: pinterest


While Sarah Spencer and an unknown individual named Norton were the last accused witches in the history of Connecticut (they were accused in 1724 and 1768, respectively), Winifred Benham and Winifred Benham Jr. were the last two accused witches of the 17th century. 


Almost five years after the conclusion of the witchcraft panic in Salem, the Benhams of Wallingford (some documents say that they were from New Haven) were tried for making a pact with the Devil to gain the power of transformation. 


A Modest Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft" by John Hale Pinterest

Similarly, both Benhams were accused of using their spirits to inflict bodily harm on their neighbors.Luckily, both Benhams were acquitted. It’s likely that early criticisms of the proceedings in Salem helped to save these two women from the gallows.



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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Listverse . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Strange text written on an Egyptian papyrus. It contains a magical invocation used by ancient Christians

A Greek papyrus dating back some 1,500 years from an ancient Egyptian city refers to Jesus' Last Supper and manna from heaven.
A small Egyptian papyrus discovered John Rylands library Research Institute of the University of Manchester, it contains one of the oldest "chants" which dates from the early Christian period.

Roberta Mazza stated that the document, which was worn as an amulet, containing a reference to the Last Supper and the "manna fallen from heaven".

It is among the few evidence which shows how the magic was used by Christians in Egypt.

Papyrus, which has existed for 1,500 years, contains fragments of Psalms and the Gospel of Matthew.

Here is the translation of the text:

The translated text on the papyrus reads:

"Fear you all who rule over the earth.

Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God.

For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies.

Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord's immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins."

People of the time believed such passages had magical powers, Mazza told Live Science. Supporting that idea, creases can be seen on the fragment, Mazza said, suggesting the papyrus was folded into a rectangular packet measuring 3 by 10.5 centimeters (1.2 by 4.1 inches), and either placed into a box at home or worn around a person's neck.

Mazza says that when Christians believed that these texts have magical powers. She says the papyrus had been packed into a box of just 3/10 cm and was worn on the neck or kept in the house for magical protection.

Religious texts were written on the back of a document that was used to pay a fee for grain. Papyrus belonged to a tax collector Tertembuthis village, located near the town now called El-Ashmunein.

Interestingly, the person who wrote the text copied him but wrote him personally, because there are many grammar and spelling mistakes, Mazza added.

Papyrus is proof that Egyptians Christians of the past have long kept pagan magical practices while wearing and using amulets.


However, even now some Christians carry their images of saints who have written on various prayers behind you good luck.


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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Live Science . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length

Saturday, September 17, 2016

The story of the last witch ( Enriqueta Martí 1913 ) killed at least 40 children and drink their blood. More than that using human fat, blood, hair and bones of victims to make magic potions.



The police could not ever find out her secrets.

The early twentieth century, Barcelona was not just the city where you wanted to live. The number of inhabitants increased enormously compared to earlier periods and most of newcomers found their shelter in El Chino (now El Raval) neighborhood center at that time considered pornography throughout Europe. Sexual slavery, rape and disappearances were common and the most vulnerable victims were children.

Nobody would have imagined then that there is a downright macabre reason for little ones without missing ever be found.


At that time, Enriqueta Martí, a woman comes from a province known for witchcraft in Cataluña, Barcelona becomes apparent. At night, she prostitution and begging during the day, requiring them children they met on the streets to do the same.

Angelita was one of the girls that Spanish police were able to rescue them from the hands Enriqueta Martí (Photo: murderpedia.org)

Enriqueta Martí was born in Sant Feliu de Llobregat in 1868. As a young woman, Enriqueta Martí moved from her hometown to Barcelona where she worked as a maidservant and nanny; she soon turned to prostitution. In 1895 she married a painter named Juan Pujaló, but the marriage failed. According to Pujaló, Martí's affairs with other men, her character, and her continuous visits to houses of ill repute caused the separation. The pair reconciled and separated approximately six times. At the time of Martí's detention in 1912, the couple had been separated for five years, and had not had children.




When she was caught in 1912, the woman testified that selling children for pedophiles, but did not name any of its clients. At that time, Enriqueta said he forced a teenage girl 17 years into prostitution in a brothel Street ,, Sabadell and that helped "many girls to have an abortion. Although never recognized that he killed somebody, newspapers at the time an accused abducted and killed about 40 children in the El Raval district.



Enriqueta has not been judged for crimes they never committed. It was, however, arrested and spent almost 1 year and 3 months in prison. Cops have not found secrets ever since the afternoon of May 12, 1913 was killed by her cell mates. Soon, it was buried secretly in a mass grave in Cementerio del Sudoeste.

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