51 



as they had dealt by former ministers. arris replied he was 

 willing to ease them, but then he desired, that one of them 

 would take the six pounds annually, and furnish him with 80 

 cords of wood, to which proposal he found none of them willing 

 to consent. He then told them, if he did accept the six pounds, 

 it might in time be insufficient to purchase six cords of wood. 

 In reply to the fears of Parris in regard to the rise of the price 

 of wood, he say's, I had a general answer from many that at 

 4 shillings per cord, I should be supplied during my life among 

 them. He continues, after much urging, I replied I would try 

 them for one year. Mr. Parris says, "touching his 7th pro- 

 vision, nothing at the time was said or objected against contri- 

 butions by papers, for it had been their former usual way, but 

 only against those, that dwelled Avithin their bounds, they urg- 

 ing that some did not live within their bounds, yet they were 

 constant hearers, and therefore it was meet to have their help. 



In fine, after much agitation here, it was agreed on my part 

 and theirs, that such out persons had liberty to please them- 

 selves, in paying to the minister or the meeting house. And so 

 I left them, fully acquiescing with my aforsaid conditions, not 

 doubting but that they had truly entered it on the records, as I 

 took for granted, nor heard any thing otherwise, till after my 

 ordination a good while, in another public meeting of ye village ; 

 when another vote, recorded and read, vastly different from the 

 agreement, as above said — which I then openly did, and still 

 must deny, to be any contract of mine." 



We have now presented Mr. Parris's account, of the transac- 

 tions between himself and the people of Salem Village, in re- 

 gard to his settlement. This was drawn up by him, and used 

 upon his trial before the Court of Common Pleas at Ipswich in 

 1696-7. We have been thus particular in relation to the settle- 

 ment of Mr. Parris at Salem Village, it being one of the causes, 

 which led to the most bitter parochial quarrel, that ever existed 

 in New-England, and in the opinion of some persons, was the 

 chief or primary cause of that w^orld-wide famous delusion, the 

 Salem Witchcraft. 



Salem Village, now embraced in the parish of Rev. Dr. Mil- 

 ton P. Braman, in Dan vers, Massachusetts, was, on the 19tli 

 of November, 1689 (when the Rev. Samuel Parris entered upon 

 his duties there as a Pastor and Teacher,) a small hamlet or 

 village, inhabited principally by farmers, but embracing within 

 its limits, much adjoining territory, extending its lines to Wills 

 Hill, now Middleton, there being many families who at- 

 tended worship at Salem Village. The number of rateable 

 polls in the parish were 100. It appears, from the records, 



