Parris, Samuel

Parris, Samuel, a Congregational minister, was born in London in 1653. He studied at Harvard University, but did not graduate, and engaged in mercantile labors. He became a successful merchant in Boston, but finally felt it his duty to enter the ministry. He was the pastor. of the church at Danvers, Mass., from 1689 to 1696. The Salem witchcraft commenced in his family in 1692. His daughter, and his niece, Abigail Williams, aged eleven, accused Tituba (a South American slave), living as a servant in the family, of bewitching them. Mr. Parris beat her, and compelled her to confess herself a witch. John, Tituba's husband, for his own safety, turned accuser of others. Nineteen were hung, and Gyles Cory pressed to death. The delusion lasted sixteen months. As Mr. Parris had been a zealous prosecutor, his Church in April, 1693, brought charges against him. He acknowledged his error, and was dismissed. After preaching two or three years at Stow, he removed to Concord, and preached six months in Dunstable in 1711. He died at Sudbury, Mass., Feb. 27. 1720. See Life of Parris, by S. P. Fowler, read to Essex Institute (1857, 8vo).