Rev. Samuel Parris
Written By Dabney E. Edwards

Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature
An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia
Spring Semester 2001

Samuel Parris was born in London, England in 1653. He is known to history for his crucial role in the events of Salem Village in 1692. His unstable financial background, his harsh preaching, and self-seeking purposes in Salem Village created social conflict and an insecure family situation. The "affliction" of his middle daughter, Betty Parris, and his live-in niece, Abigail Williams, started the accusations of innocent persons in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In addition to his family's affliction, he was personally involved in the witch-hunt. The role the Rev. Samuel Parris played in the trials contributed to the conviction of 19 innocent victims in 1692.

Parris moved with his family from England to Barbados in the 1650's, where his father and uncle owned successful sugar plantations. His father sent him to Harvard College in Boston to begin his education. Upon his father's death, he left Harvard before graduating to attend to his newly inherited plantation in Barbados. There he worked as a middleman and merchant in Bridgetown. In 1680 he moved back to Boston with two slaves, John Indian and Tituba, and married Elizabeth Eldridge, a fellow member of Boston's First Church. Together they had three children, Thomas, in 1681, Elizabeth (Betty) thirteen months later, and Susanna five years later.

After his father's death, Parris inherited his father's land in Barbados, while his older brother inherited the family land in England and Ireland. The supposed bitterness of Parris over the land distribution started Samuel on a life long quest for security. Land ownership became important to Parris. The need to ensure his families safety led to his accusations of others for witchcraft for the afflictions in his community. Yet in a statement to his congregation, Parris chose to take no responsibility for the "fortune-telling" actions of his own daughter and niece that led to the suspicions of witch-craft in the community. Instead, he focused on the "diabolical" activity of Mary Sibley, a neighbor, who had told John Indian to make a "witchcake" from the girls' urine and feed it to a dog. This procedure was supposed to reveal the names of the witches attacking Betty Parris, Abby Williams, and Mary Sibley's own niece, Mary Walcott. Thus, Parris shifted focus from his family's involvement to Sibley for starting the witch-hunt, pointing to her action as the cause: "since which apparitions had been plenty,and exceeding much mischief hath followed."

Parris enjoyed modest prosperity as a merchant in Boston. He then began his ministerial career by speaking as a substitute pastor. Finally, he got his own church in Salem Village in July 1689. With the help of his supported in the Village, he tried to take over ownership of the parsonage, generally held by the church, not the minister. In addition, he raised his salary from 35 pounds to 40 pounds. The newly elected Village Committee, however, became dissatisfied with Parris and refused payment of his salary and denied firewood in 1691-1692. This conflict contributed to his lifelong quest for "temporal security".

Salem village was divided, and he sided with the farmers trying to gain independence from merchant dominated Salem Town. He left notes for 52 sermons between 1689 and 1694 in which he mingled his "personal failures and the villagers' frustrations and transformed them into a cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan". What separates Salem Village from the other New England communities lies within the preaching of Parris. He preached on the forces that threatened both family and the church. His words gave rise to the suspicion that everyone could be an agent of the devil. Parris' concern for his church and self resulted in stimulating concern about the presence of Satan in Salem. His sermons affected everyone, even down to his own household.

In 1691, Betty and Abigail Williams began to play with fortune telling to find their future husbands occupations. Charles Upham later attributed the teaching of fortune telling in the household to Tituba, Rev. Parris's slave. But more recent scholarship questions this claim, as historical sources give no indication that Tituba played any role in the girls' fortune telling episode. Nevertheless, the girls became "afflicted" and Parris sought to rectify the situation. Dr. William Griggs pronounced their affliction to be the result of witchcraft. Parris began by organizing prayer meetings and days of fasting to help alleviate Betty's symptoms, which only became worse with time. He turned to Tituba, and according to Tituba's court testimony, he "beat her" into confessing the afflictions and naming other witches. He felt the weight of his family's affliction and sought to alleviate their pain.

On February 29, Parris and several other men in town, including Thomas Putnam, whose daughter Ann was also afflicted, his brother Edward, Joseph Hutchinson, and Thomas Preston, a son-in-law of Rebecca Nurse and Francis Nurse, went to the courts to file complaints. The complaints read that Tituba, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborn all performed witch-craft against the girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, and Elizabeth Hubbard. This started the trials, only to cease after the deaths of 19 individuals.

Parris fueled the witch-hunt in many ways. From the pulpit, Parris spread the idea of witchcraft and demonic activity to the townspeople. From his sermons, the townspeople turned towards one another and the accusations added up as they considered Parris's sermons on the Devil. He was one of ten members of the clergy involved in the trials. To protect his position in the church and his family, Parris continued to make accusations and believe the socially marginal actors that were apparently afflicted by these "witches". To remove blame from his household, Parris sent his daughter Betty away to live with Salem merchant Stephen Sewell. There, she did not experience the ailments any longer. Parris did allowed Abigail Williams to stay in his household and continue to make accusations and contributing to the trials, though.

Parris's own role in the trials consists in serving as an occasional court recorder and in testifying against several of the accused "witches". As a recorder, he made special note of the "noyses by the afflicted & many speakers". He points to Martha Cory, Susanna Martin, Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, Tituba, and Willard, accusing them of witchcraft. His name appears in over 22 different court cases during the trials. He escorted Abigail Williams to the court and brought forth many of the accusations on behalf of the afflicted. He justified his participation in the witch-hunt as an effort to drive Satan out of Salem. His part in the events, though, crucially affected the outcome of many lives. The extent to which his family was involved, according to Gragg, "it is not surprising that Parris accepted the evidence from the afflicted and the confessors uncritically". After all, his daughter and niece were afflicted, two of his slaves confessed to witch-craft and accused others, and his wife also became a target of witchcraft. This, on top of securing his position within the church, led to the involvement of Parris.

At the end of the episode, Parris deflects responsibility from himself to anyone he can identify. The town split along two factions, pro-Parris and anti-Parris. The issue of conflict stemmed from the ownership of the parsonage and later his support for the trials once they were over. He blames the divided village on Satan. Parris sought to reconcile the church in several ways, while maintaining that the Devil has influenced his opponents. He begins by asking the congregation for forgiveness of Mary Sibley, who first made the witch cake that his own daughter knew about and encouraged. Finally, in November 1694, Parris publicly admits that his own household tampered with witchcraft and "he himself had been as gullible as Sual at Endor". He also preached a sermon of apology called the "Meditations for Peace". Here ends Parris's role in witch craft phenomenon.

According to the biography by Gragg, Parris' most consistent concern was that to gain a sense of security. This included personal assurance of salvation, gaining a sense of community with fellow Christians, enhanced status in society, and the need achieve financial security for himself and his family. His most sustained effort in his life was the drive to diminish material uncertainty. These reasons help explain his behavior in 1692, his drive to protect himself and his family and ensure his position in society that would allow him to achieve all of those goals.

The accusers included dissenters from the trials, families of the accused or the executed witches. Among the leaders were Daniel Andrews, the Nurses and the Porters, as evident in the anti-Parris petitions. He fought back against the petitions to remove him from the pulpit. Although Parris's opponents organized their opposition, approximately three-fourths of those that signed a petition favored Parris. After a struggle to get his salary money and seize the parsonage, he realized that he would not succeed. The minority that opposed him forced the strong willed minister to leave the village despite his backing within the church.

Parris's quest for security is also evident in the rest of his life. He remained pastor in Salem but still unpaid by the committee. The village still blamed Parris for his role in the trials and blamed him for the deaths of many innocent people. John Tarbell, the Rebecca Nurse family, Daniel Andrews (one of the accused), and Joseph Putnam, petitioned committees to remove Parris as minister, naming him the "instrument of our miseries". The Parris opponents cited it on the grounds that he was unfit to be a minister after working with the Devil in 1692. In return for the parsonage deed, the village paid Parris, and he left to begin his new life in elsewhere in 1697.

The rest of Parris's life consisted of preaching and teaching around New England. He first moved to Stowe, and then to Concord and Sudbury, where his wife had inherited a farm. In 1720, Samuel Parris died. His legacy remains in his role during the Salem Witch Trials, a "Machiavellian in pursuit of ascendancy over the villagers." Gragg maintains that Parris played a decisive role but cannot be blamed for the witch-hunt. Nevertheless, his sermons contributed to the atmosphere that made the hunt possible, and he assisted the goals of trials in every possible way through his own witchcraft accusations and the writing of court records.

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