George Burroughs: Confederate of the Devil
By Pat Higgins
Check out Maine Stories' Ann Mitton Brackett: Needlewoman to the Rescue for another story from 1676 in which Ann Brackett saved her family from Indian captivity with a needle and thread. There was another hero at the fall of Casco that August. The Reverend George Burroughs rounded up his little congregation and led them to safety. As you will see, in this continuation of the Reverend Burroughs' story, he became quite famous or perhaps infamous in later life.
For many reasons not the least of which was religion, Puritan Massachusetts staged a hostile take over of the Province of Maine between 1652 and 1658. One of Massachusetts' edicts was that Maine communities engage Congregational ministers; religious freedom was a thing of the future. Maine was a wild and bawdy place and not totally aligned with Puritan beliefs. Couple this with the dangers of living on the frontier fringe, and it would be difficult for primitive Maine communities to find and support ministers for their little flocks of sinners. In 1674, George Burroughs, native of Scituate and 1670 graduate of Harvard (but not an ordained minister), took up the call to preach at George Cleeves' little settlement on Casco Neck. Burroughs was granted 200 acres on the neck. His meeting house was near the site of the present day Portland Company on the south side of the peninsular. No record survives of his preaching abilities, but his life shows him to be a strong, energetic and generous man.
Burroughs proved a good leader for Casco. In August 1676 when war parties terrorized Casco, Burroughs pulled his little congregation together and evacuated them to the safer and more defensible Cushings Island (known at the time as James Andrews Island). Once there he organized the defense and what little provisioning of the destitute party could be arranged. According to 19th century historians (Goold and Moulton among others) Burroughs led his flock in putting up a stone breastwork on the north side of the island which was still visible two centuries later. Behind the wall was a fresh water spring. On the shore below a wall of beach stone was constructed to form a tidal pool for the enclosure of a fresh supply of fish and lobster. However, Burroughs' most important contribution, a letter to Henry Jocelyn at Black Point pleading for help, is one of the few surviving primary records of the attack and fall of Casco. Certainly without Burroughs' leadership the Casco settlers would have fared far worse.
It is difficult at this late date to follow the course of Burroughs career. The record is obscure; sometimes information suspiciously repeats itself but with a twist in date or location. It appears that Burroughs returned to Casco with other settlers after the Peace of Casco was signed in 1678. Records indicate that he returned 150 acres of his original grant to the town to encourage resettlement. This was a gift; Burroughs was not paid or compensated for this generous return. Later he sold or traded further acreage in order to move his home closer to his church, but whether he actually lived there himself in this interim is uncertain.
"Salem Village might be safer from Indians, but its own dangers were to prove, at least for George Burroughs, deadlier." - Frances Hill
In 1680 Burroughs made a fatal mistake; he took up the call to a church in Salem Village. He was not unknown in Salem; many of the 1676 evacuees from Casco sought safety in Salem and never returned to Maine. By the same token, surely Burroughs knew he was stepping into a hotbed of dissent; Salem was split into two factions. The trouble began when Salem's town fathers opened land in the western part of town (now Danvers) for settlement thus creating Salem Farms or as it was later called "Salem Village". The people who settled there, largely allied with the Putnam family, soon became unhappy with the leadership and residents of Salem Town. Not least in their complaints was the distance to the town's church. They refused to pay the tithe that would build a new church in Salem Town and laid plans for their own church. Salem Town refused to release the Village to establish a separate community as was happening in many towns around them. Furthermore, all were not in agreement within Salem Village itself. By the time Burroughs arrived, Salem Village had already worn out one minister with their bickering and machinations.
Burroughs was hired at a salary of sixty pounds per year, one third to be paid with money and the other two thirds in provisions and fuel. This soon became the crux of Burroughs' deteriorating relationship with Salem Village. Members of the village again refused to pay tithe, and soon the Burroughs family did not have enough food or fuel to survive. Burroughs apparently believed that you get what you pay for, and he refused to preach unless paid. All of his best efforts to support his parishioners were not enough; he became entangled in petty controversy. Disaster soon followed, Burroughs' wife died, an event which would come back to haunt him later.
When Burroughs left Salem he was owed 35 pounds against which he himself owed various debts including the funeral costs for his wife. During the course of his short stay, Burroughs offended local leading citizens John and Thomas Putnam by refusing to preach. They attempted but failed to have him legally retained in Salem.The General Court upheld Burroughs and reprimanded the parish. Next the Putnams had him arrested for defaulting on his payments. Many local people came to Burroughs defense but this did little to curtail the wrath and bullying of the Putnam family. The family's enmity would come back to haunt Burroughs later as the Putnams were certainly the leading accusers in his coming ordeal.
"He had removed from Salem Village in ill terms" - Cotton Mather
In 1683 Burroughs again uprooted his family and returned eastward to Casco. He must have been in dire financial distress after his Salem difficulties. Casco was happy to welcome him back. The town allowed Richard Powsland 1p 10 0 to fetch the Burroughs family with Anthony Brackett covering 5 s of the minister's passage. That he was a respected religious leader in Maine and even Massachusetts is evident in the few surviving records that mention his name. In 1685, according to his diary, Judge Sewall, who would later preside at the witchcraft trials, entertained Burroughs at dinner in his Boston home. The following year Burroughs was invited to preach before the General Assembly at York. It would appear that, despite the Salem fiasco, the minister experienced no loss of respect elsewhere.
Economic and congregational worries were not the only problems besetting Burroughs. By returning to Maine, he moved back to an uneasy frontier in which relations with the native population had deteriorated beyond repair. In the decade between Burroughs' return to Casco and his trial at Salem, war again broke out. English settlements to the east were driven back. Burroughs himself moved to the church at Black Point perhaps as early as 1686, and by 1688 he had moved further west to Wells. Although no record of explanation survives, Burroughs surely moved his family to safer locations for protection against French and Indian attack. This is not inconsistent with the apprehensive movements of most English settlers in Maine at the time; by 1690 there were no settlements east of Wells. The times were harrowing. Despite a tentative and very temporary peace made at Wells in 1691, any attempted settlement or travel by land was extremely dangerous.
And finally George Burroughs was forced to face an enemy that few Mainers of his times confronted - accusation of witchcraft. Although many early Mainers were hell raisers, the charge of, literally, consorting with the devil was almost unheard of. Massachusetts, on the other hand, was quite obsessed.
Ever after known as Witchtrott
The witchcraft hysteria provided the Putnams with an opportunity to consolidate power and extract revenge on those who offended their family. Ten years was not enough time to ameliorate their disagreement with Burroughs. On April 30, 1692, the Putnam's accused George Burroughs of witchcraft and arranged for his arrest and return to Salem. The most vehement witness against him would be Thomas Putnam's daughter Ann, one of the afflicted girls whose performances condemned many witches. It was her vision that led to Burroughs' arrest. As her father wrote to the local magistrates, "She had seen the apparition of a minister of God who tortured her and tried to force her to write in his book. When she asked him his name he told her that it was George Burroughs ... he was above a witch for he was a conjurer." Whether Ann Putnam was directly instructed in her accusations by her father and uncle or was the product of a longterm family hatred is still much debated. Truly, the Putnams were a very persistent family with which to be reckoned.
Burroughs' trip from Wells to Massachusetts in early May 1692 is legendary. Marshall John Partridge who was sent from Salem to bring Burroughs in for suspicion of "confederacy with the devil in oppressing of sundry about Salem, as they relate." Partridge was so frightened that he would not go alone, and one or two others were sent with him to help serve the warrant. Burroughs was taken from his dinner and led off with Partridge riding beside him and the other(s) riding behind. Perhaps one of the best accounts of the return trip can be found in Bourne's History of Wells and Kennebunk (the asides are mine) and reads as follows: "The fears of these men were excited to a high degree by the appalling dangers that beset their journey (the Indian enemy); and instead of taking the road which led through York, and over the ferry at the mouth of the Piscataqua, they concluded to take a more retired path through the woods, and across the river at Quampegan (Berwick). Other thoughts which added to these fears (oops!), came over them. They were believers in witchcraft, and were now the close companions of one who was in league with the devil, who might, at any moment exercise his power upon them." All the horror movies ever made have got to be conjurered up at this point. The self-righteous arm of the law is about to enter the deep dark woods while escorting a prisoner that they believe to be the most dangerous man in America. Something must happen!
Bourne continues: "Finally, when entering the woods, they become so wrought up that nothing is beyond their imaginations. It was now growing dark, and very soon a black cloud shut out the sky, so that almost total darkness prevailed. A frightful storm began to rage. But still the horses and their riders must wend their way through the forests. The thunders of heaven came down with stunning peals, and a crash more terrible than any they had heard seemed now to rend earth and sky. A lofty pine was shivered above their heads, and its fragments thrown over them. For some minutes they were utterly blinded. 'And now they felt their horses borne along with the rapidity of the wind. The spell of the wizard had indeed called the fiends to his aid, who were now bearing them onwards in their arms. Yet, strange as it may seem, their horses never broke into a gallop, and the motion beneath them was that of the same uniform trot in which they had been before moving. Yet on, they went. They seemed coursing with the lightening.' They felt that horse and rider were lifted from the ground and were trotting through air." Sarah Orne Jewett, in the history of her hometown of Berwick, added that "the lightening flashed blue and awful gleams about Burroughs. My old Professor William Jordan thought this was perhaps an (unfortunate for Burroughs) natural effect like St. Elmo's Fire? Burroughs ended the journey calmly enough, but his escort was wrung out by the horror of the ride. Certainly Burroughs' fate was sealed when his escort spread this alarming story of their trip. Nobody gave a thought to why the forces of evil did not rescue a conjuror as important as Burroughs was later reported to be. In fact, it soon become evident that nobody is really thinking much at all.
The location of Burroughs' supernatural ride in South Berwick was ever after known as Witchtrott Hill and Witchtrott Road. This way to Quampeagan is shorter by half, claims Jewett, than the old coastal road that winds through every cove. Still, she implies that the longer road was for a long time considered the more reasonable choice considering the haunted circumstances.
Doleful Witchcraft - Judge Sewell 1692
The Massachusetts jails were filled with the condemned and with people charged with witchcraft when Sir William Phipps arrived in Boston in May 1692 with his appointment as governor of Massachusetts and the new colonial charter in hand. He was a practical man and not impressed with the goings on, but needed to consolidate his power. On May 27th he actually set up the Court of Oyer and Terminer (examine and decide) perhaps with some hope of regulating the trials in some regimented and legal manner. Seven magistrates presided over the court including the aforementioned Judge Samuel Sewell. All sorts of evidence and testimony were acceptable including witchmarks on the body of the accused, confessions bullied and extracted from frightened suspects and "spectral evidence". The last was highly controversial and was based on the supposition that the devil could take on the "specter" (body or representation) of an innocent person or that a witch could appear in spectral form and attack an innocent party. Even Cotton Mather did not support spectral evidence in the long run; he cautioned the judges not to "lay more stress upon pure specter testimony than it will bear". Above all else, the trials were driven by a group of afflicted girls whose extreme behavior is now synonymous with the predatory word "witchhunt".
Burroughs was imprisoned in Boston for nine weeks before being brought up to Salem for trial in the Court of Oyer and Terminer on August 5, 1692 on four indictments, one each, of afflicting Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mercy Lewis and Ann Putnam. A physical examination (for witchmarks) on May 9th turned up "nothing upon ye body of ye above sayd burroughs but wt is naturall", but other evidence was damning. More than thirty depositions were taken during the time leading up to August 5th and were read out at the trial. Probably because they were frightened to death, several convicted witches also condemned Burroughs in their confessions; some fabricated very detailed stories. He was named as the leader of the witches in New England; the devil had promised Burroughs that he would be the King of Hell. The witches' statements were confirmed by various statements of the afflicted girls, who said Burroughs "was above a wizard; for he was a conjurar". He told them so himself in spectral visits.
Punctuation was provided throughout all the proceedings from the beginning in May to the end in August by the bewitched girls. They were vexed, bitten, "Racked and allmost choaked"; they fell into "tedious fits" and were "knockt down" by a mere look from George Burroughs. At one point "the Bewitched were so tortured that Authority ordered them to be taken away some of them." Their performances alone put Burroughs in jeopardy. While the witch confessions appeared to indicate guilt and complicity on Burroughs' part, the actions of the afflicted girls lent a certain frenzy that drove home the verdict.
Not the least of George Burroughs' problems were his physical attributes and appearance. Burroughs was a small dark man, and his coloring and stature were frequently referred to by those giving testimony. He was called the "lettell black menester" or the "a Iittle black heard man ... in blackish aparill ". This equated quite easily in the colonial mind with a common name for the devil - the Black Man.
Coupled with descriptions of Burroughs' slight stature was testimony of his great strength as if a man so small could not perform such feats without the help of the devil. Depositions from Mainers, Samuel Webber and Thomas Greenslett, indicate he was very strong. At Black Point, according to one deposition, Burroughs was seen to "lift a gunn of six foot Barrell or thereabouts putting the fore finger of his right hand into the musell of sd gunn and that he held it out att arms end only wth thatt finger". Several testified that he was able to "Take up a full barrll of molasses wth butt two fingers of one of his hands in the bung and carry itt from ye stage head to the door att the end of the stage wth out letting itt downe" or carry a similar barrel from a canoe to shore with two fingers in the bung hole. When questioned on these feats Burroughs replied that he took the gun before the lock and rested it against his chest. Furthermore, he claimed there was an Indian there in these cases who could also perform the same stunts. Nobody remembered the Indian; some said it must have been the Black Man or the devil in spectral form. In the eyes of the colonists Indians and the devil were an easy association. Enough people testified about the gun (including Capt. Putnam) that it must have been a well-known feat of strength that Burroughs performed frequently for an audience; only a Capt. Wormwood confirmed that Burroughs grasped the gun at the lock and braced it against his chest. Not withstanding that these guns were very heavy, just the logistic of holding something that long out at arms length with just a finger in the barrel would be quite impossible.
Much of the evidence was presented to the court in the form of depositions taken earlier and read before the court. Some were even taken after the execution to further bolster up the court's decision. Although many depositions were hearsay or second hand accounts, they were accepted as readily as the spectral evidence. Both witches and afflicted gave accounts of spectral visits from the minister in which he tried to "perswad poor creatures to give their souls to the devill" by signing the Devil's book. Really damning depositions regarding spectral visitations were made by Mercy Lewis and Ann Putnam.
Mercy Lewis became orphaned in an Indian raid at Falmouth and was briefly taken in by Burroughs then went to Salem in the employ of Thomas Putnam. She accused Burroughs of numerous spectral visits in which he attempted to make her sign the book and join the coven. In a description that seems suspiciously Biblical, Lewis gave one of the most oft repeated accounts of a spectral visit, "mr Burroughs carried me up to an exceeding high mountain and shewed me all the Kingdoms of the earth and tould me that he would give them all to me if I would writ in his book, and if I would not he would thro me down and brake my neck : but I tould him they ware non of his to give and I would not writ if he throde me down on 100 pichforks." Lewis had great dramatic appeal; she was forced to stop reading her deposition and leave the court for a few moments under the onslaught of Burroughs' spectral attacks.
Burroughs treatment of his wives became a recurrent theme during the trial. Many, but especially the Putnams, testified that he treated his spouses cruelly and kept them in "a strange kind of slavery." Mercy Lewis, Susannah Sheldon, Mary Walcott, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam all swore that they had been visited by the ghosts of Burroughs' two deceased wives. Although George Burroughs was accused of the murders of both wives (and incidentally two of his own children), none of the girls gave the same versions of the murders. No matter! Sheldon said "the first hee smouthered and the second he choaked"; Wolcott claimed the first died in childbirth because she was not allowed out of a cold and drafty kitchen. The most graphic visitation by the murdered wives was given by Ann Putnam.
"Oh, dreadfull, dreadfull" - Ann Putnam
On May the 3rd, Ann Putnam took up the refrain of the murdered wives in her deposition. Thomas Putnam and Edward Putnam further corroborated the story by swearing that they heard Ann's side of the conversation with the spectral Burroughs. Once started Ann Putnam went on to accuse the minister of numerous deaths. At 12 years old, Ann Putnam may not have been a partner in the family attack on Burroughs; whether she was coached by the Putnam men or only frightened to action by innuendo and overheard conversation can't be established at this date. Both the Lewis and Putnam girls bear much of the responsibility for Burroughs conviction; but certainly the elder Putnams were also responsible and in all likelihood were the masterminds of his downfall. Ann Putnam's deposition, as follows, bears repeating:
"At evening I saw the Apperishtion of Mr George Burroughs who greviously tortored me and urged me to writ in his book which I refused then he tould me that his Two first wives would appear to me presently and tell me a grat many lyes but I should not believe them, then Immediately appeared to me the forme of Two women in winding sheats and napkins about their heads, att which I was gratly affrighted, and they turned their faces towards Mr Burroughs and looked very red and angury and tould him that he had been a cruell man to them, and that their blood did crie for vengance against him : and also tould him that they should be cloathed with white Robes in heaven, when he should be cast into hell, and immediately he vanished away, and as soon as he was gon the Two women turned their faces towards me and looked as pail as a white wall : and tould me that they were Mr Burroughs Two first wives and that he had murthered them : and one tould me that she was his first wife and he stabed her under the left Arme and put a peace of sealing wax on the wound and she pulled aside the winding sheat, and shewed me the place and also tould me that she was in the house Mr parish now lived wr it was don, and the other tould me that Mr Burrough and that wife which he hath now kiled hir in the vessell as she was coming to see hir friends because they would have one another : and they both charged me that I should tell these things to the Magistrates before Mr Burroughs face and if he did not own them they did not know but they should appere their : thes moring. also Mis Lawson and hir daughter Ann appeared to me whom I knew, and tould me that Mr Burroughs murthered them, this morning also appered to me another woman in a winding sheat and tould me that she was goodman ffullers first wife and Mr Burroughs kiled hir because there was sum differance between hir husband and him".
George Burroughs' own testimony did not help his cause. He not only admitted that his Casco home had a problem with toads, a sure connection with the supernatural, but also that he had fundamental religious differences with the Puritan faith. One source claims he was more of a Calvinist in his outlook. Only one of his children was baptized. He could not remember the last time he had partaken of the Lord's supper even though he had ample opportunity on a number of occasions. However, Deliverance Hobbs, a confessed witch, claimed in graphic detail that Burroughs had administered a blood red sacrament to his coven. When asked to respond to the various testimonies of the afflicted girls, Burroughs responded that "it was an amazing and humiliating providence but he understood nothing of it" . Furthermore, he made a dangerous admission, he denied the very existence of the Salem coven and said that he believed "signing a compact with the Devil did not enable a Devil to torment other people at a distance." In a view point quite to the contrary of his Salem accusers, Burroughs argued the opinions of 17th century philosopher Thomas Ady who wrote in his anti-witchcraft book 'A Candle in the Dark', "The grand error of these latter ages is ascribing power to witches, and by foolish imagination of menÕs brains, without grounds by the scriptures, wrongful killings of the innocent under the name of witches." Ady seems particularly modern and obvious today, but his philosophy did Burroughs little good in 1692.
His lack of understanding of what was happening to him did not protect him; Burroughs was soon convicted of witchcraft and condemned. He was the only minister of God tried and convicted of witchcraft at Salem. The crowd at the trial was large and fully expecting a conviction. The court needed a ringleader to justify what was happening in Salem; George Burroughs was the perfect scapegoat.
"A righteous sentence" - Cotton Mather
There was no long stay on deathrow; no chance for appeal. Burroughs was executed on the 19th of August along with John Willard, John Proctor, Martha Carrier and George Jacobs before a large crowd. Under the title Doleful Witchcraft, Sewell recorded in his diary that Cotton Mather along with Messrs. Sims (later Parson Symmes?) Hall (Parson Hale of Beverly?), Noyes, Chiever &c. were present. Not all, it would soon appear, were thoroughly convinced of the guilt of the convicted witches.
The condemned were carried in an open cart through Salem to Gallows Hill. 18th century historian Robert Calef who may actually have been present at the executions provided this description of what happened next. "When he was upon the ladder he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious expressions as were to the admiration of all present. His prayer (which he concluded by repeating the Lord's prayer) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness, and such (at least seeming) fervency of spirit as was very affecting and drew tears from many (so that it seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the execution)." The recitation of the Lord's Prayer without hesitation or error was, of course, a feat impossible for a wizard to perform.
The crowd might nearly have been swayed in Burroughs' favor. Before anything could be done, Cotton Mather stepped forward to say that "Burroughs was no ordained minister" and that "the Devil has often been transformed into an angel of light", in other words, no man could make such a prayer as that except if the devil helped him. Sewell describes any would-be Burroughs supporters as "unthinking", presumably of the bigger and evil picture, and he further records Mather as saying it was "a righteous sentence". In the end, there was no last minute rescue; Burroughs and his miserable fellow 'witches' were hung.
It is known that some of the executed were buried in a common grave and probably not gently laid to rest. A few accounts (particularly Calef) claim, and this is somewhat disputed, that after the hanging Burroughs' body was cut down, dragged by the halter, and thus becoming partially disrobed was dressed in the trousers of one of the executed. His body was thrown in a two foot deep hole between the rocks, and left with Willard and Carrier, partially buried. Calef claims "that one of his hands and his chin, and a foot of one of them, was left uncovered". No wonder people are frightened by graveyards. These unhappy circumstance were not the case for George Jacobs who was also executed with Burroughs that day. His body was removed from Gallows Hill by family members and buried with respect on his farm. No one was there to perform this service for George Burroughs. His third wife had left him taking with her their common child but abandoning his six children by previous marriages.
"It must fall!" - Governor Sir William Phipps 1692
A number of Salem families eventually found their way to Maine, and descendants here have connections to condemned witches George Burroughs, Rebecca Nurse and George Jacobs, among others. But perhaps a more responsible connection to the end of the witch trial hysteria comes from Maine's own Sir William Phipps, the new governor of Massachusetts and therefore also Maine.
It remains to be seen whether he could have acted sooner, but by October Phipps lost patience with events; he must have been in a temper. Judge Sewell records the following encounter in his diary. "October 29, 1692, Mr Russel asked whether the Court of Oyer and Terminer should sit, expressing some fear of inconvenience by its fall. Governor said it must fall." Less vehemently, Cotton Mather says of Phipps, "When he had well canvassed a cause, which perhaps would have puzzled the wisdom of the wisest men on earth to have managed without an error in their administrations, he thought if it would be an error at all, it would be safest to put a stop to all future prosecutions." The condemned were reprieved and then pardoned; the accused were released. Phipps didn't seem much puzzled at all by the complexities of the issues, perhaps because his wife was under suspicion for freeing an old woman accused of witchcraft from jail while Phipps was away in Maine. The wolves were closing in on her.
The tide had completely turned against the witchcraft hysteria by 1697. Many witnesses recanted their statements. The General Court declared January 14, 1697 to be a fast day for whatever might have gone amiss in "the late tragedy". Judge Sewell acknowledged his errors in a statement he wrote and had read in meeting on the fast day. Even Cotton Mather, the man most identified with the pursuit of witchcraft, said, "If a drop of innocent blood should be shed in the prosecution of the witchcrafts among us, how unhappy we are!" Some admissions of error came a bit later; Ann Putnam, a ringleader of the afflicted girls, did not recant her role in the witch trials until 1706. In a meeting before the Salem Village Church, Putnam said she desired "to be humbled before God for that sad and humbling experience". She was, however, still unwilling to take complete responsibility for her actions; she stated that the deaths of innocent people were caused "due to a great delusion of Satan."
In 1711, some restitution was made to the families of the executed. The Burroughs family received fifty pounds. Although Americans find the Salem Witch Trials to be a most fascinating and supernatural incident in our history, there can be no denial that the real evil was not the devil but a tolerance and embracement of a horrifying fanaticism. Unhappily, George Burroughs and many others were immortalized but their lives were quite literally destroyed. Fifty pounds doesn't cover the sadness and frustration of his end.
Sources: Bourne, Edward Emerson. The History of Wells and Kennebunk from the earliest settlement to the year 1820, at which time Kennebunk was set off, and incorporated with biographical sketches. Reprint. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1983.
"George Burroughs". Famous American Trials: Salem Witchcraft Trials: 1692. http://www.law.umks.edu/faculty/projects/Ftrials/salem/SAL_BBUR.HTM .
Goold, William. Portland in the Past With Historical Notes of Old Falmouth. 1886 edition. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997.
Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Old Town of Berwick. http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/una/berwick.htm .
Karson, Anastasia. Revenge in the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria: The Putnam Family and George Burroughs. http://beta.loyno.edu/history/journal/1998-9/Karson.htm .
Moulton, Augustus. Portland By the Sea. Augusta, ME: Katahdin Publishing Co., 1926.
Nevins, Winfield. "Stories of Salem." New England Magazine. New Series Volume 5, September 1891 - February 1892. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa .
Willis, William. The History of Portland. Somersworth, NH: New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1972.
Woodward, W. Elliot. "George Burroughs". Records of Salem Witchcraft. 1865. http://history.hanover.edu/texts/salem/gburroughs.html .
c2001 Pat Higgins