Yes, this is a year node; feel free to skip down past all of the quotes if you want to.
When there has been a Murder committed, an Apparition of
the slain Party, accusing of any Man, altho' such Apparitions have oftner
spoke true than false, is not enough to Convict the Man as guilty of that
Murder; but yet it is a sufficient occasion for Magistrates to make a particular
Enquiry, whether such a Man have afforded any ground for such an Accusation.
- Cotton Mather
Men serve God in their Duty: He never intended that all
Persons Guilty of Capital Crimes should be discovered and punished by men
in this Life, though they never be so curious in searching after iniquity.
It is therefore exceeding necessary that that in such a day as this men
be informed what is evidence, and what is not.
- Increase Mather
The stop put to the first methodof proceedings hath dissipated
the blak cloud that threatened this Province with destruccion; for whereas
this disolusion of the Devill did spread and its dismall effects touched
the lives and estates of many of their Ma'ties Subjects and the reputation
of some of the principall persons here, and indeed unhappily clogged and
interrupted their Ma'ties affairs which hath been a great vexation to me.
-Governor Phips, in a letter to the Earl of Nottingham
"We were in a way to have cleared the land of witches. . .
. Who is it that obstructs the course of justice I know not. The Lord be
merciful to the country."
-Stoughton
Finally, a passage I have lifted from The Old Bachelor, admittedly removing it from its convoluted context (subtle tactics of adultery):
It must be a very superstitious country where
such zeal passes for true devotion. I doubt it will be
damned by all our Protestant husbands for flat idolatry.
Born in 1693:
Died in 1693:
Events of 1693:
-
John Dryden publishes A Discourse Concerning the Original
and Progress of Satire.
-
William Congreve's first play, The Old Bachelor, premeires
at Drury Lane, and it is an amazing success, reveiving glowing reviews
from Dryden.
-
William III recharters the English East India
Company, allowing more people in and increasing its capital.
-
The College of William and Mary is established at Middle Plantation, Virginia.
-
German explorer Englebert Kaempfer brings the first Japanese books
to Europe.
-
A fire destroys much of Istanbul.
-
In Massachusetts, the mess caused by the previous year's witch hysteria is sorted out:
-
Chief Justice William Stoughton orders the execution of all of the suspected
witches who were exempted because they were pregnant. Governor Sir
William Phips, who had dissolved the court in October, contermands this
order and Stoughton resigns.
-
Most of the remaining prisoners are acquitted and released by the end of
January.
-
In April, a Captain John Aldin is tried for witchcraft in Boston, with
Stoughton presiding. He is acquitted, however.
-
A final victim is claimed as Lydia Dustin dies in prison, in March.
-
The two remaining prisoners are released in May. Samuel Parris sells
Tituba.
-
Increase Mather publishes Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil
Spirits, denouncing the use of spectral evidence, but otherwise
an apologia for the trials. A baby step, but a step nonetheless.
-
His son Cotton Mather publishes his best-known work, The Wonders
of the Invisible World, Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches
Lately Excecuted in New-England, stating that the trials were just,
but that spectral evidence was not reliable.
-
King William's War/War of the League of Augsburg/Nine Years' War,
whatever you call it, goes well for Louis XIV's forces.
-
A French army captures and destroys Heidelberg.
-
Crops fail again and France braces for famine.
-
The Dutch capture Pondicherry from the French.
-
Count Frontenac begins a series of campaigns against the Iroquois Alliance.
-
(June 17) The French fleet under Comte de Tourville defeats the Anglo-Dutch
fleet (led by Vice-Admiral Sir George Rooke and Rear-Admiral van der Goes)
off Lagos, on the southern coast of Portugal, scattering the
convoy of 400 supply ships they are guarding.
-
(July 29) The Duke of Luxembourg defeats the Allied forces led by William
III at the Battle of Neerwinden
-
(October 4) In the south, Marshal Catinat defeats the Savoyard army at
the Battle of Marsaglia.
1692 - 1693 - 1694
How They Were Made - 17th Century