Research Guide To Some Materials on Witchcraft at the Connecticut State Library

The following is a bibliography of general materials on witchcraft available at the Connecticut State Library. While not exhaustive, it should help researchers formulate successful strategies for consulting materials dealing with witches and witchcraft.

Published Resources
Boyer, Paul S. and Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed; The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974 [CSL call number BF 1576 .B6].

Boyer, Paul S. and Nissenbaum, Stephen, comps. Salem-Village Witchcraft; a Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1972 [CSL call number BF 1575 .B68].

Burr, George Lincoln, ed. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706. New York: Scribners, 1914 [CSL call number BF 1573 .A2 B8].

Demos, John. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982 [CSL call number BF 1576 .D42 1982].

Drake, Samuel Gardner. The Witchcraft Delusion in New England. W. Elliott Woodward, 1866 [CSL call number SpecColl BF 1575 .D75 1866].

Gemmill, William Nelson. The Salem Witch Trials: a Chapter of New England History. Chicago: A. C. McGlurg & Co., 1924 [CSL call number BF 1576 .G4].

Godbeer, Richard. The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge University Press, 1992 [CSL call number BF 1576 .G63 1992].

Gragg, Larry. The Salem Witch Crisis. New York: Praeger, 1992 [CSL call number BF 1576 .G73 1992].

Hall, David D. Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England: A Documentary History, 1638-1682. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1991 [CSL call number BF 1575 .W62 1991].

Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman. Thesis, Yale University, 1980 [CSL call number BF 1573 .A2 N4 1980 Mfilm].

Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, MA: S. Perley, 1924 [CSL call number 74 .Sl P4].

Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1916 [CSL call number F 72 .E7 M42].

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1911- [CSL call number F 72 .E7 M44].

Salem Witchcraft: Comprising More Wonders of the Invisible World, Collected by Robert Calef, and Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather 1865 [CSL call number SpecColl BF 1573 .A3 F69 1865].

Stanley, Marion Lena. The Devil in Massachusetts; a Modern Inquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1949 [CSL call number BF 1576 .S8 1949].

Trask, Richard B. The Devil Hath Been Raised: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak. Danvers, MA: Danvers Historical Society, 1992 [CSL call number BF 1576 .T73 1992].

Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. Reprint New York: Ungar, 1959 [CSL call number BF 1576 .U56 1959].

Yool, George Malcolm. 1692 Witch Hunt: The Layman's Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1992 [CSL call number BF 1576 .Y66 1992].

A bibliography dealing more specifically with witchcraft in Connecticut may be found in The Literature of Connecticut History by Christopher and Bonnie B. Collier (Middletown,Connecticut: Connecticut Humanities Council, 1983), pp. 56-58 [CSL call number HistRef AS 36 .C8 A1 no. 6].

Archival Resources
The Samuel Wyllys Papers: Depositions on Cases of Witchcraft, Assault, Theft, etc. [Main Vault 974.6 fW97] is the most important primary source for information on Connecticut witchcraft cases. The main volume of this set consists of original Wyllys documents. The "supplement" to this collection consists of bound negative Photostatic copies of Wyllys documents held by the Annmary Brown Memorial Library in Providence, Rhode Island.

Because of staff and time constraints, the staff of the Connecticut State Library can not search this material for you; copies of the Rules and Procedures for Researchers Using Archival Records and Secured Collections Materials and a list of independent genealogical researchers are available. We can provide Photostats an estimated cost of $10.00 per page only if you provide specific page references. Pages copied from the supplement would be copied from negative pages (white on black) and the quality of reproduction may not be good. Please allow 4-6 weeks for receipt of Photostats.

Both Wyllys volumes have been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are available through LDS Family History Centers but again, the quality of the supplement may not be very high. As an alternative, you may wish to contact the Annmary Brown Memorial Library in Providence, Rhode Island.

Additional primary material on Connecticut witchcraft cases is found in the Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut. The original records are found in State Archives Record Group 1, Early General Records, vol. 55 (1650-1663) and vol. 56 (1663-1665). Again, the State Library staff does not search this material. Records to April 1663 were published in Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut, 1639-1663, Connecticut Historical Society Collections, vol. 22, Hartford, 1928 [CSL call number HistRef F 91 .C7]. References in brackets in this latter source refer to the page numbers of the original manuscript volume of Particular Court records.

Prepared by the History and Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library, 11-96.