Pioneer Valley - History - First Settlement - Witchcraft and The New World's First Banned Book

Witchcraft and The New World's First Banned Book

In 1645, 46 years before the Salem witch trials, Springfield experienced America's first accusations of witchcraft when Mary Parsons accused a widow named Marshfield, who had moved from Windsor to Springfield, with witchcraft - an offense then punishable by death. For this, Mary Parsons was found guilty of slander. In 1651, Mary Parsons was accused of witchcraft - specifically "divers devilish practices by witchcraft, to the hurt of Martha and Rebeckah Moxon," two daughters of Springfield's first minister - and also of murdering her own child. In turn, Mary Parsons then accused her own husband, Hugh Parsons, of witchcraft. At America's first witch trial, both Mary and Hugh Parsons were found not guilty of witchcraft for want of satisfactory evidence; however, Mary was found guilty of murdering her own child. For this, she was sentenced to death, but died in prison in 1651, before receiving her death sentence.

In 1650, WIlliam Pynchon became infamous for writing the New World's first banned book. In 1649, Pynchon found time to write a book, The Meritous Price of Our Redemption, a theological study that was published in London in 1650. Several copies made it back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its capital, Boston, which, this time reacted with rage to Pynchon rather than with support. For his critical attitude toward Massachusetts' Calvinist Puritanism, Pynchon was accused of heresy, and his book was burned on the Boston Common. Only 4 copies survived. By declaration of the Massachusetts General Court, in 1650, The Meritous Price of Our Redemption became the first-ever banned book in the New World. Officially the first work ever to be "banned in Boston", in 1651, Pynchon was accused of heresy in Boston – ironically, at exactly the same meeting of the Massachusetts General Court where Springfielder Mary Parsons was sentenced to death in America's first witch trial. Standing to lose all of his land-holdings – the largest in the Connecticut River Valley – William Pynchon transferred ownership to his son, John, and then, in 1652, moved back to England with his friend, the Reverend Moxon.

William's son, John Pynchon, and his brother-in-law, Elizur Holyoke, quickly took on the settlement's leadership roles. They began moving Springfield away from the diminishing fur trade into agricultural pursuits, and also founded several new towns, including Northampton, Massachusetts.

Read more about this topic:  Pioneer Valley, History, First Settlement

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