Mary Esty's Specter Allegedly Torments Mercy Lewis: May 19, 1692

Prison Lane and a Lingering Accusation: Mercy Lewis Targets Mary EstyWe trace a tense morning on May 19, 1692, as guards breakfast at Ingersoll’s Tavern, collect prisoners from the Salem Village watch house, and escort John Willard, Elizabeth Hart, Roger Toothaker, and Thomas Farrar Sr. by cart and horseback to Boston Prison on Prison Lane (today’s Court Street). We set the grim destination in stark relief with John Dunton’s 1686 description of the Boston jail—a filthy, hellish place where minds and jailers gnaw at the living—where Sarah Osborne died and where Toothaker’s fate soon looms. Meanwhile, Mercy Lewis, now at Constable John Putnam Jr.’s home amid the Putnams’ afflictions, insists she’s tormented by the specter of Mary Esty, newly released after a month in jail, the only accused witch freed before the Court of Oyer and Terminer begins.00:00 Welcome and Date00:13 Prisoners to Boston Jail00:40 Inside the Boston Prison01:19 Mercy Lewis Relocates01:36 Mary Esty Haunts Again01:55 Release and Trials Ahead02:19 Tomorrow’s Dramatic Tease