"As for Hawthorne's ties with the persecutions of the witches, they
too are based partly on his paternal ancestors, in particular on John
Hathorne (1641-1717), the third son of Major William and Anna Hathorne
and an important merchant in Salem. Like his father, he was valuable in civic
affairs. He was deputy to the General Court in 1683, an assistant to the Bay
Colony in 1684, a magistrate judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1702
a judge on the Superior Court. In addition, he was named commander-in-chief
against the Indians in 1696.
John Hathorne was also the famous 'witch judge' blamed by many, such as
Charles Upham
, for playing a major role in the witchcraft trials in Salem and Salem Village
in 1692. According to his descendant, John Hathorne, "inherited the persecuting
spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that
their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him. So deep a stain,
indeed, that his old dry bones, in the Charter
Street burial-ground, must still retain it, if they have not crumbled
utterly to dust." Even today tourists are told, as they pause by the burial
ground, that the witch-judge, John Hathorne, is buried there, and his slanted
slate
stone can still be seen.
John Hathorne is indeed buried there. He was appointed a magistrate of the
Court of Oyer and Terminer by Governor William Phips. The chief questioner
of the presumed witches, he always seemed to suppose them guilty. Nathaniel
Hawthorne's sister Elizabeth quoted cousin Ann Savage as saying that Charles
W. Upham had 'purposely and maliciously belittled' John Hathorne in his two-volume
study, Salem
Witchcraft. Hathorne's task was to query the victims about serious accusations
in a time when virtually all Christians believed in witchcraft. That he was
sometimes cruel in his questioning is true. When he and Justice Corwin were
examining Elizabeth Cary of Charlestown, she asked to be seated. He said that
she had 'strength enough' and left her standing. Captain Nicholas Cary thought
Hathorne and others were cruel to his wife and declared that he was 'extreamly
troubled at their Inhumane dealings,' and hoped '[T] hat God would take vengeance
on them.' This curse as well as Sarah Good's threat to Nicholas Noyes ['.
. . if you take away my Life, God will give you Blood to drink'] may have
been in Hawthorne's mind when he wrote in The
House of the Seven Gables of Matthew Maule's prophecy that Colonel Pyncheon, who had 'hunted [him] to
death for his spoil' would be 'given blood to drink' by God in retribution.
Chadwick Hanson believes that Hathorne was 'never more brutal nor more intolerant
than in the examination of Martha Cory,' another accused and subsequently
hanged witch" (37-38).(courtesy of University
of Missouri Press)
