Deodat lawson biography

Deodat Lawson was a.
Deodat Lawson.
Deodat Lawson was a British American minister in Salem Village from 1684 to 1688 and is famous for a 10-page pamphlet describing the witchcraft accusations during the Salem Witch Trials in the early spring of 1692.

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Deodat Lawson

British-American minister

Deodat Lawson was a British American minister in Salem Village from 1684 to 1688 and is famous for a 10-page pamphlet describing the witchcraft accusations during the Salem Witch Trials in the early spring of 1692. The pamphlet was billed as "collected by Deodat Lawson" and printed within the year in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life and education

Deodat Lawson was born in Norfolk, England. His mother died within a few weeks of his birth.^[1] He likely received an education near his birthplace. One historian compliments Lawson's fine handwriting.^[2] The work attributed to Lawson displays great erudition but there is no record of his having attended Cambridge, Oxford, or Trinity College.^[3]^[4] It is possible Lawson attended one of the semi-clandestine dissenting academies.

By 1671, Lawson had travelled to Martha's Vineyard in the New England Colonies.^[5] The diarist Samuel Sewall first records him coming to Boston in 1681.^[6] He was a minister in Salem Village begin

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The Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692 is one of the most notorious incidents of colonial American history. Historian Richard B. Trask has re-examined, newly transcribed and arranged in chronological order all the legal, ecclesiastical and other surviving sources relating to the beginnings of the witchcraft hysteria during March 1692. Also included is the important witchcraft sermon, Christ's Fidelity, delivered in March by Rev. Deodat Lawson and reprinted here for the first time since its 1704 publication.

The important characters of the witch outbreak come alive to the reader, who learns what they said and did, and how this local incident evolved into the largest "witch hunt" in American history. Cases represented include those of Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, Tituba, Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse. To help the reader capture an inclusive picture of 1692, the author begins with a helpful introduction, and appends sections dealing with the population of the 1692 village, biographies of the 67 chief characters, excerpts from English witchcraft volumes used by the Salem inquisitors,

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Foundation of Salem Village Parsonage

Members of the Salem Village parsonage household:

Samuel and Elizabeth Parris’s middle child Elizabeth was known to all as Betty Parris. Her behavior in the winter of 1692 greatly alarmed her parents. The 9-year-old became absentminded, stared off into space, and made animal noises. Whatever afflicted her appeared to be contagious. Soon, her cousin Abigail showed similar symptoms and over time, the afflicted throughout Essex County would number more than seventy people.

By mid-February, the condition of Betty and Abigail had worsened, despite attempts to cure them with home remedies. A local physician, Dr. Griggs, the uncle of 17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard who would soon become afflicted herself, could not find a medical reason for their maladies and declared them “under an Evil Hand.” Prayer did not cure the girls. It was determined that the girls were bewitched. Other “worthy gentlemen of Salem” agreed with the diagnosis.

Reverend Parris was sufficiently worried about his daughter by mid-March that he asked h