The Carey Document



The Carey Document, as it shall hereafter be titled, appears to be a death 
warrant for one Martha Carey, dated Salem, Massachusetts, June 10, 1692. In 
brief, it reports that the Court of Oyer and Terminer, meeting in the Salem 
Village Meeting House, having heard the testimony of diverse people, found 
Carey guilty of the crime of "heresy mencionide." It charges her with having 
aided and abetted witches; caused aches and pains to her kin and kindred; 
killed some forty-five odd fowl and several swine in and about Danvers 
Village; put "the devil's curse upon the Parris maidens" and Goody Laurence, 
causing them much sickness and misery; eaten broken glass; set fire to 
(illegible)'s fodder stack in Antwerp Village; stuck pins into her 
(illegible); and "butt the wench Tituba of the friendly tribe of King 
Philip's people with an axe." The warrant notes that Carey refused to speak 
at the trial, and that she possessed a devil's teat on her left leg. 

The warrant orders Sheriff George Corwin to confine Martha Carey in chains 
to the Salem jail until July 19, 1692, whereupon, "at the hour of high sun," 
she was to be executed. It concludes: "Thou shalt give her the black bonnet 
and safely conveigh [her] ... to Execution Hill in Salem and place her on 
the gallows." She was to be hanged by the neck until dead, "may God forgive 
her wicked soul." 

The document bears what resembles an official seal and some fifteen 
signatures beneath the warrant plus another sixteen signatures, mostly 
illegible, on the reverse side. Among the former group appears Increase and 
Cotton Mather, Robert Calef, William Stoughton, Jonathan Corwin, Samuel 
Sewall, John Winthrop, and Governor William Phips, as well as the mark of 
Philip, presumably (noting the text) the Indian Chief, King Philip. 
Accompanying the names on the reverse side are two notes. In the first, 
dated June 10th, William Stoughton, Chief Justice of the Court of Oyer and 
Terminer, orders George Corwin to execute Martha Carey on July 19th. In the 
second, Corwin reports that it was done, as ordered. 

Accompanying the Carey Document is what purports to be a museum access card 
from the Boston University Museum dated 1871. In it, curator William F. 
Warren notes that it is a very rare, original document -- "valuable ... for 
educational purposes" -- and that it had been "pronounced genuine" by the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. He adds that the document "bears the 
famous mark of Indian King Philip," of which only seven were known, as well 
as signatures of Mather, Stoughton, Winthrop, Sewall and others.

A photograph of the Carey Document:
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