Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

100 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
she was in league with the Evil One.
Her husband was a very worthy man, admitted to the
church at his own house on the day preceding his death ;
died June 15, 1755, leaving a small estate and seven children,
four under seventeen, to be provided for by their
mother. She spun and wove for those who were able to
pay for her services, managed her small farm, working
thereon with her own hands,* kept several cows, and thus
was able to bring up her children respectably.
A question here arises which covers the whole ground
respecting the popular belief in witchcraft. It is difficult
perhaps satisfactorily to explain this phase in the popular
mind. Fifty years before the time of Liza Towerhill, the
intelligent and the ignorant alike believed in the existence
of witches. The Bible taught that there witches in olden
times ; and the laws of Old and New England recognized
witchcraft as an existing evil, the practice whereof was criminal
and punishable with death. Eespecting the meaning of
the words "being possessed with devils," and "witches"
in the Scriptures, our ancestors had vague and uncertain
notions. The imaginations of the ignorant and the superstitious,
perhaps aided by the malice of the wicked, gave
form and substance to those vague notions, and they became
visible forms to their eyes, more frequently in that of a cat
than any other animal. That such transformations actually
occurred was believed by very many ; and not a few held that
the hanging of witches was a religious duty. We may regret
that such was the popular delusion, or we may laugh
at the simplicity of those who believed in such vageries ; yet
five generations have since passed, and time has not entirely
eradicated from the popular mind a belief in the existence of
apparitions and witches.
*A man now living informs me that when a small boy, he went with
his father to assist Liza in breaking np a piece of new ground. At that
time she must have been over seventy-iive years of age, yet she performed
the most laborious part of the operation—holding down the plough.
During the operation the plough was suddenly brought up against a
stump, and the concussion threw her over it. She suffered no inconvenience
by the accident, and continued to work till the job was completed.
All admit that she was not a weak-minded woman, aud this
anecdote shows that she was also physically strong.