Nicholas Noyes
Rev. Nicholas Noyes II (December 22, 1647 at Newbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony – December 13, 1717 at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony) was a colonial minister during the time of the Salem witch trials. He was the second minister, called the "Teacher", to Rev. John Higginson. During the Salem witch trials, Rev. Noyes served as the official minister of the trials.[1]
Biography
Rev. Nicholas Noyes II was the son of Rev. Nicholas Noyes and Mary Cutting Noyes, grandson of the Rev. William Noyes, and nephew of Rev. James Noyes. He graduated at Harvard in 1667, and, after preaching thirteen years in Haddam, Connecticut, he moved in 1683 to Salem, where he was minister until his death in Salem.[2] He spent time as the chaplain with troops in Connecticut during King Philip's War in 1675–76.[3]
Before the execution of Sarah Good on July 19, 1692, Noyes asked her to confess. According to legend, she yelled to him: "I'm no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink", although this sentence does not appear in any of contemporary reports of the execution.[4] There is also a legend that, twenty-five years later, Noyes died from choking on his own blood.[5]
On September 22, 1692, Noyes had officiated as clergyman at the final hangings of those accused of witchcraft. It is reported that he turned toward the suspended bodies of the victims and said, "What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there."[6]
On November 14, 1692, 17-year-old Mary Herrick accused Noyes's cousin, Sarah Noyes Hale (wife of John Hale, daughter of Reverend James Noyes, granddaughter of Rev. William Noyes, and great grandmother of renowned patriot Nathan Hale), and the ghost of executed Mary Eastey of afflicting her, but unsurprisingly Sarah Noyes Hale was never formally charged or arrested.[7] A later commentator on the trials, Charles Upham suggests that this accusation was one that helped turn public opinion to end the prosecutions, and spurred John Hale's willingness to reconsider his support of the trials.[8]
Some sources claim Noyes later retracted his opinions on the witch trials, and publicly confessed his error,[2] but an entirely unflattering portrait of Noyes as an active persecutor of the accused witches in the examinations prior to their trials is presented by Frances Hill in her book, A Delusion of Satan. A 1703 petition to clear the names of the accused witches, signed by Essex County ministers, did not include Noyes' name. In 1712, the excommunications of Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey were reversed by the Salem Church "... as a result of pressure from Samuel Nurse rather from any remorse on the part of Nicholas Noyes."[9]
Noyes published Election Sermon (1698), and, later (1715), a poem on the death of Joseph Green, [who?] as well as some verses prefixed to Cotton Mather's Magnalia.[2]
Upon Noyes' death in 1717, an elegy was prepared by Reverend Samuel Phillips of Andover.
References
- ^ David Lindsay, PhD., Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Amongst the Pilgrims (St. Martins Press, New York, 2002) p. 205
- ^ a b c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Noyes, James" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ David Lindsay, PhD., Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Amongst the Pilgrims (St. Martins Press, New York, 2002), p. 163
- ^ Ray, Benjamin C. (2015). Satan and Salem: The Witch-Hunt Crisis of 1692. University of Virginia Press. p. 174. ISBN 9780813937083. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- ^ Rosenthal, Bernard (1995). Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. Cambridge University Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780521558204. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- ^ Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706
- ^ No. 709: Statement of John Hale & Joseph Gerrish v. Mary Herrick, Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, p. 703, Bernard Rosenthal, Ed. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009).
- ^ Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, 1969 (1867), Vol. II, pp. 345–46.
- ^ A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials (1995) by Frances Hill, pp. 205-06. Doubleday, New York.
Further reading
- Upham, Charles (1980). Salem Witchcraft. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 2 vv, v.1 pp. 117, 271, 299, v.2 pp. 43, 48, 55, 89, 170, 172, 184, 245, 253, 269, 290, 292, 314, 365, 485, 550.
- v
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court officials
- Jonathan Corwin
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- Thomas Barnard
- George Burroughs (convicted of witchcraft and hanged)
- Francis Dane
- John Hale
- John Higginson
- Deodat Lawson
- Cotton Mather
- Increase Mather
- William Milbourne
- Nicholas Noyes
- Samuel Parris
- Edward Payson
- Samuel Phillips
- Samuel Willard
and public figures
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- Daniel Wycom or Wicom or Wycombe
- Frances Wycom or Wycome or Wycombe
- Arthur Abbot
- Nehemiah Abbot Jr.
- John Alden
- Abigail Barker
- Katerina Biss
- Edward Bishop
- Edward Bishop III
- Mary Black
- Anne Bradstreet
- Dudley Bradstreet
- John Bradstreet
- Mary Bridges Sr.
- Sarah Bridges
- Sarah Buckley
- John Busse (or Buss)
- Andrew Carrier
- Richard Carrier
- Sarah Carrier
- Thomas Carrier Jr.
- Bethiah Carter Jr.
- Bethiah Carter Sr.
- Rachel Clinton
- Sarah Cloyce
- Elizabeth Colson
- Mary Colson
- Francis Dane
- Phoebe Day
- Elizabeth Dicer
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- Ann Dolliver
- Mehitable Downing
- Mary Dyer
- Daniel and Lydia Eames
- Rebecca Blake Eames
- Esther Elwell
- Martha Emerson
- Joseph Emons
- Thomas Farrar Sr.
- Abigail Faulkner Jr.
- Abigail Faulkner Sr.
- Dorothy Faulkner
- Elizabeth Fosdick
- Eunice Frye
- Dorothy Good
- Mary Green
- Sarah Noyes Hale (wife of John Hale)
- Elizabeth Hutchinson Hart
- Margaret Hawkes
- Sarah Hawkes Jr.
- Dorcas Hoar
- Deliverance Hobbs
- William Hobbs
- Elizabeth Johnson Sr.
- Stephen Johnson
- Rebecca Jacobs
- Jane Lilly (or Lillie)
- Mary Marston
- Sarah Morey
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- Robert and Sarah Pease
- Joan Penney (or Penny)
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- Mary Toothaker
- Hannah Tyler
- Mary Lovett Tyler
- Hezekiah Usher II
- Rachel Vinson
- Mary Whittredge (or Witheridge)
- Sarah Wilson Jr.
- Sarah Wilson Sr.
- Edward Wooland
accused others
- Mary Barker
- William Barker Jr.
- William Barker Sr.
- Sarah Bibber
- Mary Bridges Jr.
- Sarah Churchwell
- Deliverance Dane
- Rebecca Eames
- Abigail Hobbs
- Margaret Jacobs
- Mary Lacey Jr.
- Mary Lacey Sr.
- Joanna Tyler
- Martha Tyler
- Mercy Wardwell
- Sarah Wardwell
- Mary Warren
- Candy
- Tituba
- Bridget Bishop
- George Burroughs
- Martha Carrier
- Martha Corey
- Mary Eastey
- Sarah Good
- Elizabeth Howe
- George Jacobs Sr.
- Susannah Martin
- Rebecca Nurse
- Alice Parker
- Mary Ayer Parker
- John Proctor
- Ann Pudeator
- Wilmot Redd
- Margaret Scott
- Samuel Wardwell
- Sarah Wildes
- John Willard
- John Durrant
- Lydia Dustin
- Ann Foster
- Mercy, infant child of Sarah Good
- Sarah Osborne
- Infant child of Elizabeth Scargen
- Roger Toothaker
otherwise fled
- John Alden
- Daniel Andrew
- Mary Bradbury
- Elizabeth Cary
- Phillip and Mary English
- Edward Farrington
- Mary Green
- George Jacobs Jr.
- Ephraim Stevens