The examination of Rebecca Nurse
On 24 March 1692, Rebecca Nurse, aged seventy, was examined on a charge of witchcraft in the Salem Village meeting house before a crowd.
A Salem Witchcraft Papers document dated 24 March 1691/2 records that an officer took Rebecca Nurse into custody at the house of a man named Ingersal. The History of Massachusetts blog says Salem residents were surprised by her arrest on 24 March 1692, since they thought her pious and upstanding.
The University of Virginia's Salem archive describes her as seventy years old and ailing. She stood for examination on 24 March 1692, accused of practicing witchcraft. Judge John Hathorne led the examination, with Judge Jonathan Corwin alongside him, in the Salem Village meeting house. A crowd from the village watched.
The archive records that several afflicted women fell into fits during the hearing and named Rebecca Nurse as the source of their suffering.
- SWP No. 94: Examination of Rebecca Nurse (Salem Witchcraft Papers), University of Virginia, Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
- Examination of Rebecca Nurse of Salem Village, Matt Madden, University of Virginia (2001)
- The Witchcraft Trial of Rebecca Nurse, History of Massachusetts blog