Mary Easty was one of the accused and executed victims of the Salem Witch Trials. She was one of the only accused to be arrested twice, as she was let go after her first appearance.
Upon her second arrest and actual conviction, she wrote a letter to the magistrate, where she begged for the lives of the other accused. At her hanging, she spoke with much eloquence to her family.
Family and Life
Mary Easty was born in England and was one of eight children. Among her sisters would be two others who would be accused of witchcraft: Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyce.
Her family moved to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640, where she would marry Isaac Easty, who was a farmer and a barrel-maker. The couple went on to have eleven children
She, along with her sister, was a respected member of the community.
Accusation and Trial
Just like Martha Corey and her sister, her accusation surprised the Salem community.
The accusers had picked up some new tricks and put them to use. Just as they did in Martha's trial when Easty clasped her hands to make a point, Mercy Lewis imitated the gesture and claimed to be unable to release her hands until Easty released her own.
The accusers were obviously evolving in their acting and able to control the judge and jury with much more dramatic accusations.
When Mary Easty inclined her head, the afflicted girls accused her of trying to break their necks. Mercy Lewis even went so far as to say that Mary's spirit had climbed into her bed and laid hands on her breasts.
Despite these absurd accusations and the fact that a judge and jury were ignorant enough to believe them, Mary stood firm and delivered an eloquent defense.
The magistrate's John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin asked her how far she had complied with Satan, to which she replied, "Sir, I never complied with Satan but prayed against him all my days; I have no compliance with Satan, in this ... I will say it, if it is my last time, I am clear of this sin."
This response caused Hathorne to question her guilt, and he went so far as to ask the girls if they were positive it was Mary Easty that was afflicting them.
On May 18, after two months of being in prison, Mary Easty was released from prison. Her freedom was short-lived, as Mercy Lewis claimed that Easty's spirit was afflicting her again, and the other girls supported this claim as well. A second warrant was then issued for her arrest. This would be the last time she would see freedom.
When she was put into prison, Lewis stopped her fits. Mary Easty was then tried and condemned to death on September 9, 1692.
Mary then gathered her family and gave parting words that were described as "as serious, religious, distinct, and affectionate as could be expressed, drawing tears from the eyes of almost all present." She was hanged on September 22, alongside Martha Corey, Ann Pudeator, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott, and Samuel Wardwell.
While on the gallows, she spent her last words praying for an end to the witch hunts. Mary had consistently put others ahead of her and had petitioned the judge on behalf of the others who were accused and had little regard for her own life. She wanted the end of what she rightly believed to be false accusations through the use of spectral evidence and superstitions that were killing innocent people.
Cotton Mather declared these eight to be "eight firebrands of Hell," an accusation he would later be embarrassed, he said.
Mary Easty's last petition to the court would be published. It was one of the most moving documents in Early American history:
The humble petition of Mary Eastick unto His Excellencyes S'r W'm Phipps to the honour'd Judge and Bench now Sitting in Judicature in Salem and the Reverend ministers humbly sheweth
That whereas your poor and humble petition[er] being condemned to die Doe humbly begg of you to take it into your Judicious and pious considerations that your Poor and humble petitioner knowing my own Innocencye Blised be the Lord for it and seeing plainly the wiles and subtility of my accusers by my Selfe can not but Judge charitably of others that are going the same way of my selfe if the Lord stepps not mightily in i was confined a whole month upon the same account that I am condemned now for and then cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honours know and in two dayes time I was cryed out upon by them and have been confined and now am condemned to die the Lord above knows my Innocence then and Likewise does now as att the great day will be know to men and Angells, I Petition to your honours not for my own life for I know I must die and my appointed time is sett but the Lord he knowes it is that if it be possible no more Innocent blood may be shed which undoubtidly cannot be Avoyded In the way and course you goe in I question not but your honours does to the uttmost of your Powers in the discovery and detecting of witchcraft and witches and would not be gulty of Innocent blood for the world but by my own Innocency I know you are in this great work if it be his blessed you that no more Innocent blood be shed I would humbly begg of you that your honors would be plesed to examine theis Afflicted Persons strictly and keep them apart some time and Likewise to try some of these confesing wichis I being confident there is severall of them has belyed themselves and others as will appeare if not in this wor[l]d I am sure in the world to come whither I am now agoing and I Question not but youle see and alteration of thes things they my selfe and others having made a League with the Divel we cannot confesse I know and the Lord knowes as will shortly appeare they belye me and so I Question not but they doe others the Lord above who is the Searcher of all hearts knows that as I shall answer att the Tribunall seat that I know not the least thinge of witchcraft therfore I cannot I dare not belye my own soule I beg your honers not to deny this my humble petition from a poor dying Innocent person and I Question not but the Lord will give a blesing to yor endevers.
In November, after Easty had been put to death, Mary Herrick gave testimony about Easty. Herrick testified that she was visited by Easty's ghost, who told her she had been put to death wrongfully and was innocent of witchcraft and that she had come to vindicate her cause.
Easty's family was compensated with 20 pounds from the government in 1711 for her wrongful execution.
Her husband Isaac lived until June 11, 1712
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