Examination of Mary Warren

On 19 April 1692 Mary Warren, until then one of the afflicted accusers at Salem Village, was examined as an accused person herself.

The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive at the University of Virginia holds the record of an examination at Salem Village dated 19 April 1692. A magistrate put it to Mary Warren that she had been an afflicted person a little while before and was now an afflicter, and asked how that had come about. Wikipedia says she was formally accused on 18 April 1692, and that under questioning she continued to have fits and confessed under duress. It adds that she began to accuse others, including the Proctors.

The record describes what was said at the examination. Warren said Giles Cory had told her in apparition on the previous night that the magistrates were heading to the farms to fetch more witches who would torment her. She said that when he was in prison she charged him with coming into her room and afflicting her. The record says that when Cory was told to look at her, she fell into a fit again the moment he looked toward her.

The record also describes her in a fit for a good while, unable to see, hear or speak. Some of the afflicted cried out that she was about to confess, and said Goody Korey and the Proctors had come in apparition and struck her down. Wikipedia records that Bridget Bishop was examined the same day, on a charge of bewitching five young women.