Rev. Samuel Parris, organizer of the Salem Witch Trials

He was the Rev. involved in the salem witch trials.

http://everything2.com/title/Salem+Witch+Trials

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Parris- source of profile picture

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Parris-42

Samuel Parris (abt. 1653 - 1720)

Rev. Samuel Parris

Born about 1653 in London, England

Son of Thomas (Parris) Parrys and Abigail (Unknown) Parris

Brother of John Parris, Thomas Parris, Elizabeth Parris and Alexander (Parris) Pearis Esq.

Husband of Elizabeth (Eldred) Parris — married 1680 [location unknown]

Husband of Dorothy (Noyes) Parris — married about 1698 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Father of Elizabeth (Parris) Barron, Dorothy (Parris) Brown, Samuel Parris Jr. and Mary (Parris) Bent

Died 27 Feb 1720 at about age 67 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Parris-42 created 19 Aug 2011 | Last modified 27 Oct 2022

Biography

Samuel Parris was involved in the Salem Witch Trials

Samuel Parris is Notable.
Family origins: Samuel's family had properties in England, Ireland and Barbados. Samuel's father is believed to be Thomas Parris of London, Brother to John Parris of Barbados. Samuel has one brother that we know about, John Parris (1648-) who was a minister in Ugborogh England.[1][2][3] Samuel's family had properties in England, Ireland and Barbados which were divided after the deaths of Samuel's unmarried Uncle John and his father Thomas.[1][4][5]

The best date we have for Samuel Parris birth is 1653 in London, England.[6][7]. Samuel first appears in the records of the First Church of Boston in 1672[8]. He attended Harvard College, but left before graduation to manage his family plantation in Barbados from 1673 to 1680. About 1680, he married his first wife Elizabeth Eldridge who died while Samuel was Minister in Salem[2]. In 1682, then at the First Church of Boston, he became Freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony[9]. About 1683, he became the minister at Stow -- some twenty miles west of Boston -- but was replaced by 1685[10]; in 1689, he began preaching at Salem Village (Present day Danvers, Massachusetts)[11] and was ordained there on 15 November 1689[6](Note: the Danvers Church Records begin on 19 November 1689[11])

A synopsis of Samuel's Sermons, including those that led to the Salem Witch Trials, given at the Salem Village Church can be found in the NEGHS Register[12][13] And in a book by Bejamin Ray[14]

By June 1696, he was forced out by the villagers who held him responsible for the 1692 Witch Trials.[6] Samuel once again accepted the minister's position in Stow on 29 November 1697[15]. In 1699, he married his second wife Dorothy Noyes[16][6]. Replaced at Stow by the Rev. John Eveleth at the end of 1699[17], Samuel is next found in Watertown in 1700, Concord in 1705, Dunstable in 1711, and finally Sudbury. He mostly engaged in retail trade and teaching after Stow, but is known to have preached some.[7]

Samuel died on 27 Feb 1720 in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony[18][19][6]; there is a tradition that he was buried at Stow, in the burying-ground near the town's Lower Common[20], but a mid-1980s search there failed to locate any marked grave[21]; while a burial at Wayland is also claimed on Find A Grave[22], there is no image of a gravestone, the claim is not sourced, and it may represent confusion with the burial there of his likenamed grandson[23][24].

Savage says that Samuel's Father Thomas and Uncle John are mentioned in his will[7], but only the reference to Uncle John's Plantation, to which Samuel must still have had a claim, is visible. Samuel bequeaths his part of this plantation to his sons. Samuel mentions his Daughters Elizabeth Barron, Dorithy Brown, and Mary Parris, and sons Noyes and Samuel. Samuel bequeaths his Indian woman, Violet, daughter of Tituba to his son Samuel.[25][26] Hopestill Brown Jr. is assigned guardianship over Samuel's younger children: Mary and Samuel.[27]

Children of Samuel Parris and Elizabeth Eldridge

Thomas Parris, b. 25 Oct 1681, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony[28][6]
Elizabeth Parris, b. 28 Nov 1682, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony[29]; m. Benjamin Barnard (Barron); d. 28 Nov 1682, Rumford (now Concord), New Hampshire
Susannah Parrris, b. 9 Jan 1687, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony[30][6

Children of Samuel Parris and Dorothy Noyes

Noyes Parris, b. 22 Aug 1699, Newton, Massachusetts Bay Colony; graduated Harvard College, 1721[31][7][1]

Dorothy Parris, b. 28 Aug 1700, Newton, Massachusetts Bay Colony[32]; m. 29 Nov 1718, Hopestill Brown Jr., Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Samuel Parris, Jr. , b. 9 Jan 1702, Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony[33]; bapt. 1 Mar 1703; m. 28 Nov 1760, Abigail Fisk, Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Mary Parris, b. 20 Oct 1703, Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colony[34]; m. 18 Apr 1727, [Bent-153|Peter Bent], Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony; d. 17 Jun 1774, Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Salem Witchcraft Trials

As noted above, Samuel was Salem Village Minister during the Salem Witch Trials. He brought the slave Tituba to Salem from Barbados, who was a key figure in the witchcraft accusations. Samuel's daughter Elizabeth "Betty" Parris and niece Abigail Williams were the first accusers.[6] Charles Wentworth Upham, in Salem Witchcraft, 1836 offers many details and opinions about Samuel's Role in the Salem Witch Trials.[35] J.W. Hanson, in his "History of the Town of Danvers" also casts blame on Samuel for the Witch Trials.[36] John Clark RIdpath Summarizes the trials in great detail casting blame on Cotton Mather and Governor William Stoughton as well as Samuel.[37][38] And Robert Calef, More Wonders of the Invisible World, 1700, goes on to further analyze the events in Salem Village and Samuel's role[39] .

Sources

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Tilson genealogy from Edmond Tilson at Plymouth, N.E., 1638 to 1911; with brief sketches of the family in England back to 1066. Also brief account of Waterman, Murdock, Bartlett [and other] families, allied with the parents of the author : Tilson, Mercer Vernon, 1837- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1970, January 01). Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/tilsongenealogyf00byutils/page/541/mode...
↑ 2.0 2.1 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11611/6/23539633
↑ Essex Institute. “Essex Institute Historical Collections.” Google Books. Essex Institute Press. Accessed June 14, 2020. https://books.google.com/books?id=OxgRAAAAYAAJ.
↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11611/6/23539633
↑ Essex Institute. “Essex Institute Historical Collections.” Google Books. Essex Institute Press. Accessed June 14, 2020. https://books.google.com/books?id=OxgRAAAAYAAJ.
↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Wikipedia: Samuel Parris
↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1862)
↑ “Boston, MA: Church Records, 1630-1895” The Records of the Churches of Boston. CD_ROM. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008 .) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB31/i/7625/77/22233817
↑ Massachusetts: Miscellaneous Census Substitutes, 1630-1788, 1840, 1890 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013. From records supplied by Ancestry.com) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB509/rd/13684/10447/242328686
↑ History of Stow, by Ethel B. Childs, Stow, MA : Historical Society Publishing Co., 1983, p. 8
↑ 11.0 11.1 Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21075/131/1429268928
↑ Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21076/127/45652539
↑ Society, New England Historic-Genealogical. “New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 12.” Google Books. New England Historic-Genealogical Society. Accessed June 14, 2020. https://books.google.com/books?id=fMMMAAAAYAAJ.
↑ Ray, Benjamin C. "Satan's War against the Covenant in Salem Village, 1692." The New England Quarterly 80, no. 1 (2007): 69-95. Accessed June 16, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/20474511.Copy.
↑ Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21076/63/45652475
↑ Torrey, Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
↑ History of Stow, by Ethel B. Childs, as above, p. 10
↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7806/320/142141185
↑ "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH1C-SXK : 14 February 2020), Samuel Parris, 1720.
↑ History of Stow, by Ethel B. Childs, as above, p. 10 [citing a claim in the earlier History of Stow, by Mrs. Preston Crowell, 1933]
↑ Search carried out by Stow native and Salem trials researcher Christopher Childs
↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/129372519/samuel-parris : accessed 08 April 2022), memorial page for Rev Samuel Parris (1653–17 Feb 1720), Find A Grave: Memorial #129372519, citing North Cemetery, Wayland, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Lela Parris Koch (contributor 47311410).
↑ Grandson's grave located at Wayland mid-1980s by Christopher Childs
↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52193908/samuel-parris : accessed 08 April 2022), memorial page for Samuel Parris (13 Mar 1734–27 Jul 1742), Find A Grave: Memorial #52193908, citing North Cemetery, Wayland, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Bill Boyington (contributor 46800933).
↑ Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991Online at Ancestry.com
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB536/i/14465/16951-co2/38352543
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB536/i/14465/16952-co1/263959775
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHM7-TPY : 15 January 2020), Samuel Parris in entry for Thomas Parris, 1681.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCWK-JM6 : 14 January 2020), Samuel Parris in entry for Elizabeth Parris, 1682.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHM4-987 : 15 January 2020), Samuel Parris in entry for Susanna Parris, 1687.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCGH-22T : 15 January 2020), Samuel Paris in entry for Noyce Paris, 1699.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCGH-6XW : 15 January 2020), Samuel Paris in entry for Dorathy Paris, 1700.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F465-R45 : 10 November 2020), Samuel Paris, 9 Jan 1702; citing Birth, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009514.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQ6W-8FH : 15 January 2020), Samll. Parris in entry for Mary Parris, 1703.
↑ "Salem Witchcraft : With an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming." January 01, 1970. Accessed June 15, 2020. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw01upha_0/page/314/mode/....
↑ “History of the Town of Danvers, from Its Early Settlement to the Year 1848 : Hanson, J. W. (John Wesley), 1823-1901 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Danvers, The author, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofdd00hans/page/174/mode/1....
↑ “History of the United States Volume I : John Clark RIdpath : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1894. https://archive.org/details/historyunitedst00ridpgoog/page/n196/mod....
↑ “Genealogy of the Burroughs Family : Burroughs, L. A. (Lewis Amos), b. 1820 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Garrettsville, O. : The Peirce Printing Co., January 1, 1894. https://archive.org/details/genealogyofburro00burr/page/4/mode/2up?.... .pps 4-7
↑ “More Wonders of the Invisible World"; Calef, Robert, 1648-1719 : Internet Archive. London, Printed for Nath. Hillar... and Joseph Collyer..., January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/morewondersofinv1700cale/page/64/mode/1....
See also:

These are of genealogical interest:
The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 : Hudson, Alfred Sereno, 1839-1907 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. (1968, January 01). Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://archive.org/details/historyofsudbury00huds_0/page/274/mode/1up
These are short histories of the Witch Trials
Find A Grave: Memorial #129372519
“Case Files Referencing Samuel Parris.” Case files referencing Samuel Parris - New Salem - Pelican. Accessed March 1, 2020. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/tag/parris_samuel.html.
Ancestors of Elizabeth Phipps Soiero Rev. Samuel Parris. Accessed June 14, 2020. http://tiggernut.com/Soiero/525.html.
User, S. (n.d.). Samuel Parris. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://famous-trials.com/salem/2047-asa-par
Mason, Robin. “Tituba, Indian Servant of Mr. Samuel Parris,” October 19, 2019. https://www.witchesmassbay.com/2019/03/01/tituba-indian-servant-of-....
Mary Beth Norton. "In the Devil's Snare". Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Dec 18, 2007. (Available at library or Amazon.) (Accessed 22 Oct 2022) Internet Archive
I could not find these:
Genealogy of the Parris Family in Scotland and England Abbreviation: Parris genealogy Author: James Wendell-Howie Parris IV Publication: 1957
"The Origin of the Family of Parris(h), of the Barbadoes and of Massachusetts, in the Seventeenth Century": Correction; vol. 113; July 1959; p. 240-241
Bent Family in America Abbreviation: Bent Family in America Author: Bent, Allen H. Publication: David Clapp & Son, Boston MA, 1900

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Parris

He was born in London, England, the son of cloth merchant Thomas Parris. His family was one of modest financial success and religious nonconformity, not unusual for this time in London.[2] He emigrated to Boston in the early 1660s, where he attended Harvard University at his father's behest. When his father died in 1673, Samuel left Harvard to take up his inheritance in Barbados, where he maintained a sugar plantation and bought two Carib slaves to tend his household, one by the name of Tituba Indian and the other John Indian.

Tituba, slave of Rev. Samuel Parris profile for Tituba

John, slave of Rev. Samuel Parris profile for John

The events that led to the Salem witch trials began when his daughter Betty Parris, and her cousin Abigail Williams, accused the family's slave Tituba, and Sarah Good of witchcraft. In February 1692, Betty Parris began having "fits" that the doctor and other ministers could not explain. It soon spread to include her cousin, Abigail Williams, among others. The hysteria and trials lasted sixteen months, concluding in May 1693.

His church brought charges against him for his part in the trials, leading him to apologize for his error. However, despite the intense dislike of the villagers, Parris stayed on for another four years after the panic had run its course. In 1697, he accepted another preaching position in Stow, and eventually moved on to Concord and Dunstable before his death in the town of Sudbury on February 27, 1720

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2711/whatever-happened-to-...

One judge, Judge Samuel Sewall, admitted he'd done wrong, but others, such as the presiding justice, deputy governor William Stoughton, remained stubbornly unrepentant. Members of the jury said they'd been unable to "withstand the mysterious delusion of the power of darkness and prince of the air." In other words, the devil made them do it. Though largely uncontrite, parson Samuel Parris, a driving force behind the witch hunt, did receive some punishment when the town, cash-strapped and feeling a little used, decided not to pay his salary. His congregation largely abandoned him, and he was finally paid about 80 pounds (roughly $24,000 now) to get lost.

References

Samuel Parris in wikipedia

• Fowler, Samuel P. (1857). An Account of the Life and Character of the Rev. Samuel Parris, of Salem Village. Salem: William Ives and George W. Pease, Printers. Archive.Org