Sarah and Samuel Shattuck

Sarah and Samuel Shattuck

-Samuel was a dyer of cloth and a shopkeeper.

-The Shattucks were Quakers.

-The original testimony was given by Samuel.

-In 1661, Samuel’s father, also named Samuel, had brought to Massachusetts King Charles II’s order that revoked the death penalty for repeat Quaker proselytizers.

-This followed an episode in 1658 where Samuel Shattuck (our Samuel’s father) saved the life of a Quaker named Christopher Holder.

-The Quakers were called “The Society of Friends”

-Goody Bishop (Then Oliver) began frequenting the Shattuck’s house in 1680, apparently using a “smooth flattering manner” on odd trivial errands just at the time that Samuel Junior “was taken in a very drooping condition”.

-Samuel Junior was 3 or 4 years old at the time.

-Bridget brought a pair of sleeves to dye, and later, a few scraps of lace so short they appeared useless.

-She paid two pence for the job which disappeared from a locked box, though Samuel’s assistant, Henry Williams, vowed he put it safely away.

-Samuel Jr. began to have seizures, his face contorting, gasping for air. He mostly cried between episodes until he cried himself to sleep.

-Samuel Sr. said “his understanding decayed…ever since he has been stupefied and void of reason.”

-Samuel Jr. was about 16 at the time of the trial, and still suffered the violent convulsions.

-He also exhibited bizarre symptoms like teetering back and forth across a plank, seemingly unable to step off safely even though the board was on the ground.

-Another Quaker, Naomi Maule, wife of Thomas Maule testified that Goody Bishop had caused one of their children to die.

-After Bridget’s examination, trial and execution, in September of 1692, Samuel Shattuck Sr. also testified against Alice Parker of Salem. He thought that after Bridget’s initial damage to his son, Parker made it worse when she came to call. The boy became sicker and sicker, as she visited “fawn[ing] upon [his] wife with very smooth words.” The doctors said his limbs and vitals were twisted, his neck and eyes turned awry.

– Quakers spoke in “Plain Speech” using thee and thou instead of you.