In this episode, we dig into Friday, March 25, 1692, as tensions surge in Salem Village and beyond. We discuss John Procter’s furious confrontation with Samuel Sibley at Walter Phillips’ Tavern over Mary Warren’s fits and his harsh skepticism toward the afflicted girls. Back in the village, we cover Ann Putnam Jr.’s reported violent spectral assault—attributed to Rebecca Nurse—with witnesses claiming visible bite marks and chain impressions, alongside Edward Putnam’s deposition against Nurse. In Salem Town, we examine Betty Parris’s severe seizures at Captain Stephen Sewall’s home and her account of a dark figure offering temptation, as well as the advice that seemed to end her fits. We also explore Rev. Samuel Parris’s discovery of Mary Sibley’s role in the witch cake and the church repentance he orchestrated.
Transcript
March 25, 1692: John Procter and Samuel Parris Get Big Mad
Josh Hutchinson: Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily. I'm Josh Hutchinson.
Sarah Jack: This is Sarah Jack. Today, we are diving deep into the events of Friday, March 25th, 1692. It's a day packed with terrifying spectral attacks, shocking physical evidence, and bubbling frustrations among the villagers.
Josh Hutchinson: The day begins with some serious tension outside the village. Over at Walter Phillips' Tavern, right by the Cow House River, John Procter was on his way to Salem Village when he ran into Samuel Sibley. Procter asked how things were going at the village, and Sibley had grim news. Things were very bad last night.
Sarah Jack: Is this Mary Sibley's husband?
Josh Hutchinson: Yeah.
Sarah Jack: Witch cake husband.
Josh Hutchinson: Witch cake husband.
Sarah Jack: And this directly impacted Procter, because his own maid, Mary Warren, was among those having fits. She had actually stayed [00:01:00] overnight in the village after attending court. Procter was absolutely furious. He rudely declared that he was going to "fetch the jade" and that he would have "rather paid 40 pence than let her go in the first place."
Josh Hutchinson: Sibley was a bit surprised by this reaction, considering Mary was a witness, but Procter was having none of it. He warned that if the afflicted girls were allowed to continue their behavior, "we should all be devils in witches quickly." In his mind, the girls didn't need a court. He said they should rather be had to the whipping post.
Sarah Jack: His anger didn't stop there. John Procter viciously fumed about the afflicted shouting, "hang them! Hang them!" He told Sibley his plan was to bring his maid home and literally thresh the devil out of her. He even bragged that when Mary's Fitz had first started, he kept her busy at the spitting wheel and threatened to beat her if she tried having fits again, which worked perfectly until he had to leave for a day.[00:02:00]
Josh Hutchinson: It's a stark reminder that not everyone in the area was buying into the girls' claims, and some were becoming dangerously fed up. But while Procter was voicing his skepticism, things were getting violently physical back in Salem Village around 2:00 PM.
Sarah Jack: The young Ann Putnam Jr. was allegedly attacked by a specter, but this wasn't just a invisible pinching or biting. The apparition of Rebecca Nurse supposedly lashed Ann with a chain. She was struck six times within half an hour.
Josh Hutchinson: Her uncle, Edward Putnam, along with others witnessed actual bite marks and the physical impressions of chain links on the young girl's flesh. We also know that on this very day, Edward Putnam was formally deposed against Rebecca Nurse.
Sarah Jack: Let's shift our focus away from the village and look at Salem Town. Betty Parris, the young daughter of Reverend Parris, was staying at the home of Captain Stephen Sewall. She was having [00:03:00] seizures so terrible that the Sewalls actually feared she was going to die.
Josh Hutchinson: When she recovered enough from her fits to speak, Betty described being terrorized by the apparition of a great black man or a menacing dark shape. This entity was trying to bargain with her. He promised her that if she would be ruled by him, she could have absolutely anything she desired, and he would even take her to a golden city.
Sarah Jack: Is this the first time we've heard Betty recount what she was experiencing directly?
Josh Hutchinson: Yeah, this is the first we've heard from Betty. She hasn't done depositions. She had been in court early on, but we don't have any record of her saying anything in court.
Sarah Jack: Yeah, This is a classic depiction of demonic temptation,but
Sarah Jack: Minister Deodat Lawson reports that Mrs. Sewall stepped in with what he considered powerful advice. He said she explained to [00:04:00] Betty that that figure was the devil, that he was a liar from the beginning, and that Betty should tell him that exactly if he ever came back.
Josh Hutchinson: This apparently worked, because we don't hear about Betty having fits again and she's not involved anymore in the trials or giving any testimony.
Sarah Jack: I think it's interesting. If this is how it unfolded, here's Betty being given a defense instead of just panic. Oh, here's something in your tool belt you can use against the devil. Not just, oh, no, the devil's been here. You're harmed. I don't know.
Josh Hutchinson: She basically banishes this, you know, probably, you know, imagined figure that she's seeing. She's able to tell it off and eventually it apparently goes away, 'cause she's not involved. But the real reason that she gets better is she's [00:05:00] isolated from the other afflicted people, so she's not influenced by them, and she doesn't feel like she has to conform to that group's behavior anymore.
Josh Hutchinson: Back in Salem Village, Reverend Samuel Parris on this day finally uncovers who's responsible for the witch cake that was baked, the countermagic witch cake to identify the witch harming Betty and Abigail. He discovered it was Mary Sibley who was behind it, who's Samuel Sibley's wife, so we talked about him earlier, and now she's involved on March 25th as well. Parris brought her into his study and lectured her extensively, apparently, according to what he, he wrote in his own church record book. He rebuked her for her grand error of using diabolical means to find out the devil. [00:06:00] In Parris's eyes, even though his girls had been sick before, it was this witch cake charm that truly let all hell break loose in the community.
Sarah Jack: Parris records that he drafted a paper describing the entire witch cake incident, the terrible effects it had, and her repentance.
Sarah Jack: Yeah, so this document that Parris drafts, it's Mary Sibley's apology. He's the one writing it on her behalf, and he wants her to agree to it. So he gives her that opportunity. She cries, but she says yes, you can censure me in church, because that's what this is all about. He wants to publicly rebuke her behavior as a warning to the rest of his church that you don't play with the devil, because you're tempting him to come into the community and harm people.