Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II | Page 2

to be preserved in perpetuam rei memoriam. The evidence
of witnesses was prepared in writing, beforehand, to be used at the
trials; they to be present at the time, to meet further inquiry, if living
within ten miles, and not unavoidably prevented. In a capital case, the
presence of the witness, as well as his written testimony, was
absolutely required. These depositions were lodged in the files, and
constitute the most valuable materials of history. In our day, the
statements of witnesses ordinarily live only in the memory of persons
present at the trials, and are soon lost in oblivion. In cases attracting
unusual interest, stenographers are employed to furnish them to the
press. There were no newspaper reporters or "court calendars" in the
early colonial times; but these depositions more than supply their place.
Given in, as they were, in all sorts of cases,--of wills, contracts,
boundaries and encroachments, assault and battery, slander, larceny,
&c., they let us into the interior, the very inmost recesses, of life and
society in all their forms. The extent to which, by the aid of WILLIAM
P. UPHAM, Esq., of Salem, I have drawn from this source is apparent
at every page.
A word is necessary to be said relating to the originals of the
documents that belong to the witchcraft proceedings. They were
probably all deposited at the time in the clerk's office of Essex County.
A considerable number of them were, from some cause, transferred to
the State archives, and have been carefully preserved. Of the residue, a
very large proportion have been abstracted from time to time by
unauthorized hands, and many, it is feared, destroyed or otherwise lost.
Two very valuable parcels have found their way into the libraries of the

Massachusetts Historical Society and the Essex Institute, where they
are faithfully secured. A few others have come to light among papers in
the possession of individuals. It is to be hoped, that, if any more should
be found, they will be lodged in some public institution; so that, if
thought best, they may all be collected, arranged, and placed beyond
wear, tear, and loss, in the perpetual custody of type.
The papers remaining in the office of the clerk of this county were
transcribed into a volume a few years since; the copyist supplying,
conjecturally, headings to the several documents. Although he executed
his work in an elegant manner, and succeeded in giving correctly many
documents hard to be deciphered, such errors, owing to the condition of
the papers, occurred in arranging them, transcribing their contents, and
framing their headings, that I have had to resort to the originals
throughout.
As the object of this work is to give to the reader of the present day an
intelligible view of a transaction of the past, and not to illustrate any
thing else than the said transaction, no attempt has been made to
preserve the orthography of that period. Most of the original papers
were written without any expectation that they would ever be submitted
to inspection in print; many of them by plain country people, without
skill in the structure of sentences, or regard to spelling; which, in truth,
was then quite unsettled. It is no uncommon thing to find the same
word spelled differently in the same document. It is very questionable
whether it is expedient or just to perpetuate blemishes, often the result
of haste or carelessness, arising from mere inadvertence. In some
instances, where the interest of the passage seemed to require it, the
antique style is preserved. In no case is a word changed or the structure
altered; but the now received spelling is generally adopted, and the
punctuation made to express the original sense.
It is indeed necessary, in what claims to be an exact reprint of an old
work, to imitate its orthography precisely, even at the expense of
difficulty in apprehending at once the meaning, and of perpetuating
errors of carelessness and ignorance. Such modern reproductions are
valuable, and have an interest of their own. They deserve the favor of

all who desire to examine critically, and in the most authentic form,
publications of which the original copies are rare, and the earliest
editions exhausted. The enlightened and enterprising publishers who
are thus providing facsimiles of old books and important documents of
past ages ought to be encouraged and rewarded by a generous public.
But the present work does not belong to that class, or make any
pretensions of that kind.
My thanks are especially due to the Hon. ASAHEL HUNTINGTON,
clerk of the courts in Essex County, for his kindness in facilitating the
use of the materials in his office; to the Hon. OLIVER WARNER,
secretary of the Commonwealth, and the officers of his department; and
to STEPHEN N. GIFFORD, Esq., clerk