Watch Salem Witch Trials Daily
Show Notes
Historians view the Salem of 1692 as being comprised of 3 neighborhoods: Salem Town, Salem Farms, and Salem Village. What were these communities, and how did contention for independence contribute to the witch trials? In today’s Salem Witch Trials Daily, we explore the early history of these neighborhoods and name prominent residents and landholders.
Links
Select Salem Witch Trials Books:
- Bernard Rosenthal, ed., Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
- Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience
- Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
- Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Transcript
January 5, 2026 Salem Town and Salem Farms and Salem Village: A tale of 3 Salems
Sarah Jack: Why did Salem have three different Salems? How did that confusion help spark a witch hunt?
Josh Hutchinson: That's right. There really were three Salems. Of course, there was the town of Salem that encompassed all of it, but within that town, there were distinct communities. We tend to distinguish Salem Town, the port city, from Salem Farms and Salem Village, which were to the west of that in the interior of the country.
Sarah Jack: Much of the land in Salem Farms, which lay to the west of Salem Town, was granted to the elite men of the colony.
Josh Hutchinson: John Endicott, once governor of Naumkeag, the predecessor to Salem, and also future governor of Massachusetts Bay, owned more land in Salem Farms than anyone else.[00:01:00]
Josh Hutchinson: There were a lot of other prominent early landholders in the farms, including William Hathorne, father of witch judge John Hathorne, Richard Bellingham, future Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and John Winthrop's brother-in-law, Emmanuel Downing.
Sarah Jack: These men did not remain long in the community, however. Attracted to opportunities on Salem Peninsula
Sarah Jack: or Boston or London, they all either leased or sold their land, often dividing it into parcels for sale.
Josh Hutchinson: Soon, men who would play roles in the Salem Witch trials and men who had children or wives who played roles in the witch trials were established in Salem Village and the surrounding farms. This included men like John Putnam, the father of Sergeant Thomas Putnam, who was wife to one Ann Putnam and father to another.
Sarah Jack: Others who settled in Salem Village included Daniel Rea, Richard Hutchinson, and Bray Wilkins. John [00:02:00] Proctor leased Emmanuel Downing's land in 1666.
Josh Hutchinson: Francis Nurse, husband of future accused witch, Rebecca Nurse, rented a good portion of the Endicott farm in 1678. With these men and their families in place, the Salem Village of 1692 was taking shape.
Sarah Jack: In 1666, Salem Farms residents petitioned Salem for the right to have a minister of their own. Salem wasn't having it. A year later, men from Salem Farms asked to be exempted from night watch in the town, due to the great distances they had to travel from their homes. This proposal was rejected, as well.
Josh Hutchinson: Residents of another neighborhood split off from Salem to form the town of Beverly in 1668. This seems to have encouraged many of the Salem Villagers to push harder for independence from Salem Town.
Sarah Jack: In 1669, taxes were raised to fund a [00:03:00] new meetinghouse in the town. A group of 28 farmers balked at paying for a new meetinghouse in the town when they needed a meetinghouse of their own.
Josh Hutchinson: The farmers asked the general court to allow them to have their own minister. The General Court did not approve the request until October 8th, 1672, in an order which also empowered the village to elect a five-member village committee to raise taxes to hire the minister.
Sarah Jack: Then the village was at least recognized as a parish and allowed to have a minister, but not to form a church, meaning all the sacraments were still performed in the town church. Some who would attend the village meetinghouse remained members of the First Church of Salem and took communion there.
Josh Hutchinson: Joseph Hutchinson, who's my ninth great grandfather who lived close to the center of Salem Village, donated the land for the meetinghouse. Yes, [00:04:00] this is the infamous meetinghouse where the Salem Witch Trials examinations were held, where afflicted people flopped and wailed and screamed and writhed.
Sarah Jack: In December of 1672, the village voted to build a meetinghouse on the gifted land and set a budget of 40 pounds. The meetinghouse was built in the spring of 1673.
Josh Hutchinson: That year, the village hired its first minister, James Bayley. He served until 1679, when a group of villagers, including Bray Wilkins and Nathaniel Putnam, pressured him to resign. The next year, this faction won most of the seats on the village committee and forced him to step aside.
Sarah Jack: George Burroughs was the town's next minister. Hired in November of 1680, he had preached in Falmouth, Maine, now Portland, for several years until that town was destroyedin King Philip's War, and he was forced to relocate to Salisbury, Massachusetts.
Josh Hutchinson: Burroughs [00:05:00] left Salem Village in the spring of 1683, after the village committee voted to stop paying him. He returned to Maine.
Sarah Jack: It took a year for Salem Village to hire the next minister, Deodat Lawson, who was a controversial choice. One faction lobbied Salem Town in 1686 for permission to ordain him and form a church, while another petitioned Salem Town in 1687 not to ordain Lawson.
Josh Hutchinson: Supporters included Captain John Putnam and Sergeant Thomas Putnam, while opponents were led by Joseph Hutchinson, Daniel Andrew, Job Swinnerton, and Joseph Porter.
Sarah Jack: Joseph Hutchinson then fenced in the meetinghouse in a show of his disdain
Sarah Jack: for Mr. Lawson.
Sarah Jack: In February 1687, the Salem Town committee told the two factions that Lawson would not be ordained and urged his supporters to just shut up about ordination already.
Sarah Jack: Lawson left [00:06:00] Salem Village less than a year after the town committee's decision.
Josh Hutchinson: No new minister was hired until 1689. The previous November, villagers had opened discussions with Samuel Parris of Boston and formerly of Barbados.
Sarah Jack: He gave one sermon on November 25th, 1688, and the town voted him to be the next minister. After months ofnegotiations, Parris started to preach in the village in July, 1689.
Josh Hutchinson: He was ordained and the church was gathered on November 16th, 1689. This means all the covenanting members signed the contract that day and were able to then receive the sacraments.
Sarah Jack: The hiring of Samuel Parris would go on to have the tragic outcome we all know about. Preaching constantly about the ever-present devil, he led his community down a road better left untraveled, and fueled the [00:07:00] witch trials.
Josh Hutchinson: Thank you for enjoying Salem Witch Trials Daily with us. Tomorrow, we're going to break down the controversy surrounding Samuel Parris.
Sarah Jack: This video is part of a larger series of videos that make up the Salem Witch Trials YouTube course. For information on how to take advantage of the course, go to youtube.com/@aboutwitchhunts.
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