Reading from New England Legends and Folklore
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
the story of Philip English and his wife is quite as well worthy a romance as the house in which they lived. We can, moreover, answer for its strict truth. During the time of the witchcraft delusion at the village, the victims were nearly every case people in the humblest walk of life. Philip English of Salem was the first person of superior station to be a tainted by this persecution, which, like a wolf that is maddened by the taste of blood, began to grow bolder in pursuit of its victims. Philip English had emigrated to America from the island of Jersey, having found a home in the family of Mr William Hollingsworth. Ah, wealthy inhabitant of Salem. He formed the acquaintance of Mr Hollingsworth on Lee Child Susanna, who, as is evident from her history besides having received from her father and education superior to the usual requirements of that day, possessed rare endowments of mind and person. The acquaintance ripened into mutual affection, and in due time, Philip English married the daughter of his friend and patron. He, too, became in time a rich and eminent merchant. In April 16 92 the terrible accusation felt like a thunderbolt upon this happy home. The wife and mother was the first victim to the credulity or malignant e of her neighbors. In the night the officer entered her bedchamber, read his fatal warrant and then surrounded the house with guards intending to carry her to prison. In the morning Mrs English, she gave herself up for lost with supreme heroism. However, she gathered her stricken family together in the morning to it's usual devotions, gave directions for the education of her Children, clasped them to her bosom, kissed them and then commending them and herself to God bade them farewell. She was then taken by the sheriff before the sitting Magistrates Hathorn and Kerwin, who committed her to Salem jail as a witch. Her firmness is memorable. Ah, little later, her husband was also accused by a poor, bedridden creature. He concealed himself for a time, but at length he came forward, gave himself up and demanded the privilege of sharing his wife's fate. The two were in your did in the same dungeon to await the solemn farce of a trial. The prison being crowded to overflowing English and his wife were through the intercession of friends removed to the jail in Boston, where for six weeks they endured the dismal prospect of dying together upon the scaffold.