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write?
    [A]: Yes. Once I made a mark in the book and made it with red like blood.
    [Q]: Did he get it out of your body?
    [A]: He said he must get it out the next time he come again. He give me a pin tied in a stick to do it with, but he no let me blood with it as yet but intended another time when he come again.
    [Q]: Did you see any other marks in his book?
    [A]: Yes, a great many. Some marks red, some yellow. He opened his book. A great many marks in it.
    [Q]: Did he tell you the names of them?
    [A]: Yes, of two, no more: Good and Osburn, and he say they make them marks in that book and he showed them me.
    [Q]: How many marks do you think there was?
    [A]: Nine. 14
    [Q]: Did they write their names?
    [A]: They made marks. Goody Good said she made her mark, but Goody Osburn would not tell. She was cross to me.
    [Q]: When did Good tell you she set her hand to the book?
    [A]: The same day I came hither to prison.
    [Q]: Did you see the man that morning?
    [A]: Yes, a little in the morning and he tell me, tell nothing. If I did he would cut my head off.
    [Q]: Tell us, Tr[torn] how many women did use to come when you rode abroad?
    [A]: Four of them: these two, Osburn and Good, and those two strangers.
    [Q]: You say that there was nine. Did he tell you who they were?
    [A]: No. He no let me see but he tell me I should see them the next time.
    [Q]: What sights did you see?
    [A]: I see a man, a dog, a hog and two cats, a black and red, and the strange monster was Osburn’s that I mentioned before. This was the hairy imp. The man would give it to me, but I would not have it.
    [Q]: Did he show you in the book which was Osburn’s and which was Good’s mark?
    [A]: Yes. I see their marks.
    [Q]: But did he tell the names of the others?
    [A]: No, sir.
    [Q]: And what did he say to you when you made your mark?
    [A]: He said serve me and always serve me. The man with the two women came from Boston.
    [Q]: How many times did you go to Boston?
    [A]: I was going and [illegible]en came back again. I was never at Boston.
    [Q]: Who came back with you again?
    [A]: The man came back with me and the women go away. I was not willing to go.
    [Q]: How far did you go? To what town?
    [A]: I never went to any town. I see no trees, no town.
    [Q]: Did he tell you where the nine lived?
    [A]: Yes. Some in Boston and some here in this town, but he would not tell me who they were. 15

THE SUSPICION OF MARTHA CORY, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1692
    Martha Cory was the wife of Giles Cory and was the first woman accused whose accusation might be termed atypical. She was a full church member at a time when church membership was tantamount to social rank and respect, and meant probable membership in the elect who would advance to heaven. She was married, and not in a scandalous or volatile way. She was moneyed. Once Tituba’s confession planted the seed of the idea that there was a conspiracy in town, suspicion was then free to spread to members of the community who might otherwise have been thought to be above reproach.
    Most striking in Martha Cory’s examination was her incredulity that this was really happening to her. In the course of her examination, she claimed that the children were “distracted,” that is, crazy. She laughed during the proceedings. She did not claim to know whether there were or were not witches “in the country.” The magistrates, in turn, pointed to Tituba’s confession as evidence that witches were around, privileging the word of a slave woman over that of a churchwoman.
    Martha Cory had publicly suspected that the afflicted girls were lying from the beginning, but her doubt, rather than being heard as a voice of reason within the community, would have been taken by doctrinaire Puritans as an error of faith. To doubt the existence of witches or the Devil was to go against the truth as laid out in the Bible. It was Martha Cory’s very skepticism that made her worthy of suspicion and led to her eventual hanging.
    Martha Cory’s Examination 1 21