Andover Bewitched: A Voice of Logic
Was everyone in Andover swept up in the witch trials? Who was Reverend Francis Dane?
What was it like to deny the hysteria? This week, I’ll continue our series on Andover’s 1692 witch trials with a post about Revered Francis Dane, a man who remained rational in the face of the witch trials fervor. If you missed my first post introducing the story of the 1692 witch trials, check it out here!
Francis Dane started his career as Andover’s second pastor with several decades with a successful and happy settlement. Before the witch trials began, however, controversy over his salary and his tenure as pastor set the town against him. During the witch trials, he was the subject of suspicion and several of his family members were accused. He maintained his air of rationality, speaking and writing against spectral evidence and urging his community to stay logical and avoid the fervor of the trials. Though he could not completely contain the town’s hysteria, his letters and petitions show his insistence on peace during an incredibly difficult time.
Who was Reverend Francis Dane?
He was born and baptized in 1615, in Bishop’s Stortford, which is in Hertfordshire, England. Dane attended the University of Cambridge at King’s College with financial assistance, and graduated in 1633.1
Three years later, Francis Dane emigrated to Massachusetts with his parents. The Danes ultimately landed in the newly settled Andover in 1648, and Francis Dane became Andover’s second pastor in 1649. He succeeded Reverend John Woodbridge, who returned to England.
For several decades, Francis Dane was celebrated pastor, successful in his work and without notable problems in the town. He married three times as he was made a widower twice, and he had six children, many of whom continued to live in Andover. Dane lived on present-day Court Street, not far from the parsonage.2
Unfortunately, all did not stay well for the Reverend Dane.
At this time, a town’s pastor was both a spiritual and moral guide. The pastor would work with and for the town’s administration. He was usually the most educated person around and would serve for most – if not all – of his life.
When Reverend Dane asked to step down from his post at age 65, the town was not happy. The town was afraid: who would be their religious leader, if not Reverend Dane? Plus, Dane refused to give up his extensive land and his salary, paid for by town taxes.3
Enter Thomas Barnard. Harvard-educated and only thirty-four years old, Barnard was hired to assist Reverend Dane. Since the town could not afford to increase their taxes, the two men split the usual salary, with Barnard receiving fifty pounds a year, and Dane thirty. Both men stayed on as pastors, which was excessive for such a small town.
Between the town’s frustration with Reverend Dane for his stepping down, and Dane’s outspoken fight against the hysteria of the trials, his family ended up being a target during the spread of accusations.
How was Reverend Dane involved in the witch trials?
Over the course of the witch trial hysteria, twenty-eight relatives of Reverend Dane were accused of witchcraft, including two of his daughters, Abigail Faulkner and Elizabeth Johnson. The tiff with the town over his salary might have been part of the reason for the town’s anger against his family, but it could have been about his defense of an accused man during an earlier witch trial, or his distant familial connection to Martha Carrier, the first accused witch.
Whatever the cause, even Dane himself was accused. Several supposed victims claimed that a ghostly apparition of him had appeared to them. However, these accusations were recanted, and Dane was never brought to trial.4
How did Andover try to slow the pace of the witchcraft hysteria?
On October 18, 1692, Reverend Dane signed a petition which was to be sent to the governor in Boston. In the letter, the twenty-six Andover townsmen wrote to ask for a “redress of their grievances,” for assistance in calming the town and easing the fervor of accusations. The letter explains:
“Our troubles which hitherto have been great, we foresee are like to continue and increase, if other methods be not taken as yet have been, for there are more of our neighbors of good reputation and approved integrity who are still accused, and complaints have been made against them. And we know not who can think himself safe if the accusations of children and others who are under a Diabolical influence shall be received against persons of good fame.”5
Even Reverend Thomas Barnard signed the petition, as the town feared the continued growth and strength of the witchcraft accusations. In this letter, the townsfolk describe the way that even those in good standing with the church and with secure reputations were accused. They worry that no one will be safe if the basic principles of innocence can be ignored in favor of a fear-mongering witchcraft campaign.
What did Reverend Dane have to say about the witch trials?
In his account of the trials in 1693, Reverend Dane wrote blisteringly about the harm that the fervor caused the town.
“As for any other persons, I had no suspicion of them, and had Charity been put on, the Devil would not have had such an advantage against us, and I believe many innocent persons have been accused and imprisoned.”6
Though nowadays, “spectral evidence,” or the evidence of recounted dreams, would not stand in a court of law, during the witch trials, it was central to many cases. The courts believed that witnesses’ descriptions of apparitions were legitimate evidence, on par with physical marks or other less subjective evidence. Reverend Dane, perhaps ahead of his time, went on to talk about the problem with spectral evidence:
“Conceit of spectr[al] evidence as an infallible mark did too fair prevail with us, hence we so easily parted with our neighbours of honest and good report and members in full Communion, hence we so easily parted with our children, when we knew nothing in their lives, nor any of our neighbors to suspect them and thus things were hurried on, hence such strange breachings in families…” 7
For Reverend Dane, what was most wrong about the witch trials was the accusation of people based on unfounded suspicion. Most of the people brought to trial had never shown any reason to suspect them of being in league with the Devil. If anyone could be accused, without prior
It was Dane’s continued insistence on the sin of the witch trials and his push for kindness that encouraged the town to finally set the hysteria to rest. While much of the town was swept up in the chaos of the hysteria, Dane was extra courageous to be able to speak out and stay strong in his resolutions.
Thank you for such a warm welcome to History Buzz! I can’t wait to keep exploring this topic and sharing with you all. If you have any questions, or if you’re curious about any aspects of the trials, leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.
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— Toni
Samuel Elliot Morrison, The Founding of Harvard College, 374.
Juliet Haines Mofford, Andover Massachusetts: Historical Selections From Four Centuries, 21.
Read part one and part two of the letter via the University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Collection, or transcribed in Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, Massachusetts.
Ibid.