Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Dæmons in no Humane Shape

"But in respect of general infamy, no Report more terrible hath come to Notice, than of what Goodwife Doten, Relict of John Doten of Duxbury in the Old Colonie, brought out of the Woods near Candlemas of 1683. She affirmed, & her good neighbors likewise, that it had been borne that which was neither Beast nor Man, but like to a monstrous Bat with humane Face. The witch-child was burnt by Order of the High-Sheriff on the 5th of June in the Year 1684."

Overview

This chapbook, published around 1695, is an impassioned denunciation of Richard Billington, late of New Jerusalem, as a witch and practitioner of black magic. Portions of this short work were reproduced by Rev. Phillips to bolster his claims of endemic witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Among other accusations leveled against Billington (his name being shortened to “Goodman B.” in the 1801 edition of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan) was that he studied evil books, had called up demons from Hell, studied black magic with an Indian “wonderworker” named Misquamacus, and raised up a “place of Dagon” just outside of New Jerusalem, a place still called Billington’s Wood. While Billington has vanished from New Jerusalem — supposedly carried off into the sky by one of his demonic servants — the anonymous author warns that he may yet return. The work concludes with a catalog of other “proofs” of supernatural activity in New England, including supernatural visions, deformed births, voices heard in the wilderness, strange stones, etc. Rev. Phillips includes much of this chapbook in his own book, in some places attributed to it, in others, simply added into the text.

Physical Descriptions:

A crudely printed Octavo (6 1/2” x 9 3/4”) chapbook, of paper, pages roughly cut. There are twenty-four pages with six amateurish woodcut illustrations. Even for the era, in which word spellings were inconsistent at best, the text has been prepared without much care or regularity. The iron gall ink used has led to some damage to the paper, even in the best preserved copies. The woodcuts especially have that tell-tale reddish edging to them, common to poorly prepared ink of that type, which almost looks like blood. No author is named nor is there a printer’s mark or other indication of the press of origin.
Like other chapbooks, this work was sold unbound though later owners might bind it, either individually or together with other works.

Contents

Quick Skim

This short work denounces Richard Billington, late of New Jerusalem, as a witch, alleging he had been engaged in certain Satanic rituals on the land near his farm with the aid of unspecified “evill books” and the instruction of a certain Indian “wonderworker”. Billington is said to have erected a ring of standing stones, “a place of Dagon,” and conjured at least one demon, a beast called Ossadagowah which was thought responsible for at least seven deaths in the vicinity of the Billington homestead northwest of New Jerusalem.
Billington vanished soon after the local authorities made plans to try him for witchcraft. His disappearance was later confirmed by a band of Wampanoag Indians who ventured into New Jerusalem to warn the authorities that they had imprisoned the monster raised up by Billington but that the site, a mound erected where his ring of stones had stood, should not be disturbed.
The remainder of the chapbook records assorted weird happenings in the Missituk Valley and beyond though the connection, if any, between these events and Billington’s activities is uncertain. The items range from strange lights along the Missituk River and inexplicable storms to monstrous births, unusual carven stones, and other signs of apparent significance to the author.

Thorough Reading

A short and impassioned attack on Richard Billington, formerly of New Jerusalem, Massachusetts, denouncing him as a witch and murderer, this chapbook lays out the unnamed author’s case against the supposed warlock. Billington is accused of engaging in black magic on his estate outside New Jerusalem, resulting in the death of at least seven people. Billington, an unrepentant agent of Lucifer himself, is accused of the following crimes, among others:

• Worshiping Satan and signing his book.
• Raising up a ring of stones for the purpose of conducting a witch’s Sabbath and performing diabolic sacrifice in the manner of the Druids (including an unattributed quotation from Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico).
• Studying black magic under several Native shamans; Misquamacus is named, as is Quamis, though the latter is described as his apprentice rather than son.
• Frequenting suspicious locations in the region, including trips to the hills at the headwaters of the Missituk and the meadow-covered hill north of New Jerusalem.
• Conjuring forth a demonic servant called Ossadagowah, said to be the son of Sadogowah. The former is said to be a deformed toad with a bearded face, while the second is a furry toad that sleeps in a deep cavern until it wakes on Judgment Day. Until that day this Sadogowah served as a Satanic emissary, teaching men the secrets of witchcraft. The author claims that the disappearances near Billington’s farm were caused by Ossadagowah, as Billington was unable to control the Satanic beast.
• The author also alleges that Billington had bribed unnamed local authorities to shield him from the attention of the sheriff, though this protection had its limits.

The discussion of Billington concludes with a description of the growing cloud of suspicion that eventually led to talk of charges being leveled against the sorcerer. Before the authorities could act he had disappeared. Several months later a band of Wampanoags apparently arrived at the site of Billington’s estate and pulled down the stone circle, afterwards reporting to the Lieutenant Governor, then in Salem, that they captured and trapped the demon using ancient rites known only to the Indians. The band’s leader, the shaman Misquamacus, claimed that Billington had been carried up into the sky by the monsters he had called forth from Hell. He also warned the Englishmen to avoid the spot of Billington’s stones, lest they disturb the wards he placed there. A final cautious note mentions that rumors were rampant in New Jerusalem that Billington had been seen as part of the throng that called for the death of Hekeziah Massey as well as other suspect locales about the region, though the author doubts the accuracy of these reports.
The author’s purpose in writing this chapbook is not wholly clear—Billington and his servants were long gone from the area and, if Misquamacus’ claims were accurate, the horrors he had unleased had been contained. There is one reference to Billington’s heirs and wishing to prevent them from taking up residence in the family home, as well as ensure they could not carry on their ancestor’s occult practices. It is also possible the intent was to record Misquamacus’ warnings for posterity. Several passages mention the dispute between Reverend Mather and Robert Calef and it may have been written in support of Mather against Calef ’s denunciation of the witch trials.
A second concluding section of the chapbook is a list of supernatural events in New Jerusalem and the greater Missituk Valley and beyond. Abnormal births, ghostly apparitions, unearthly voices emanating from caverns, unexplained disappearances, weird stones and inscriptions, and all manner of what modern writers might dub ‘Forteana’ is presented without noting source or presenting evidence beyond rumor.

Research:

Additional research can uncover more information about particular topics of interest relating to this work.

The Chapbook

Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Dæmons of No Humane Shape is a little known example of 17th century Colonial American chap-books, cheaply printed short works, usually no longer than twenty-four pages (or roughly what one large sheet of paper could be cut down into).
Based on contextual hints, investigators who thoroughly read this work can reasonably determine the date of the events described as well as the likely date when this work was written. Success suggests Billington’s arrival in what would become New Jerusalem in 1651 and his disappearance in 1680; the work was likely compiled around 1695, a few years after the Witch Trials of 1692 though portions appear to have been written earlier.
The author describes himself as “a sinner and unworthy of Christ’s redemption” but also seems to be fluent in Latin and a witness to at least three of the bodies discovered on or near Billington’s property. Scholars have surmised that the author was one Alijah Hoadley, a minister in Salem and later New Jerusalem who resided near to Billington’s property and was one of three men named in a testimony against Richard Billington for “witchcraft and murder”.
The identity of the chapbook’s printer has been hypothesized by scholars based on the similarity in the types used to set the title page (in particular a crack in the capital ‘E’) with the press of Bartholomew Green, of Boston, suggesting a date of printing as either 1695 or 1696, though it is not listed among the works generally attributed to his press. Diligent researchers may discover diaries mentioning a social connection between Mr. Green and the Hoadley family of New Jerusalem, suggesting once possible cause for this omission.

Alijah Hoadley

One of New Jerusalem’s earliest settlers, Reverend Alijah (sometimes listed as Elijah) Hoadley is mentioned in the standard reference works with other figures of New Jerusalem’s foundation. He moved to the area that would become New Jerusalem around 1655 from Salem, and before that Dorchester, where he was born in 1639. When Hoadley was a young man he frequently ministered to the more remote corners of what was then called Salem’s Missituk Plantation. After New Jerusalem was established he served at the Congregational Church in New Jerusalem until 1690. Hoadley was a god-fearing man who firmly believed in the reality of witches and witchcraft and was deeply distrustful of Papists, Indians, and foreigners. A vocal supporter of Mather and critic of Calef, even after many others dismissed the witch trials as a mistake, he continued to warn against those he referred to as “agents of the Great Deceiver abroad in New England”. He died in 1701 and is buried in New Jerusalem’s Old Wooded Graveyard.
Though of no particular importance to this particular work, the Reverend’s grandson, Alijah Hoadley, a Congregational minister, is the man who is known (at least to a few students of history) for his curious disappearance from the ill-rumored village of Pequoiag (later Athol) in north-central Massachusetts.

Richard Billington

Richard Billington is listed as having emigrated from Boscastle, England to Boston in 1651—“Richard Bilington, a gentleman 23 years of age” is listed as a passenger on the Ellin and Mary, but no one by that name and approximate description appears on the county tax rolls or other documents. Only a scant few records mention Billington after his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony before his purchase of a substantial plot along the Missituk River west of what was then called the Salem Missituk Plantation. Billington appeared to be independently wealthy and generally avoided society, retaining a few servants, mostly Indians, to tend to the house he built on his estate. The allegations of strange activities and unexplained murders near his home are corroborated by what few records remain from that era.
Most accounts described him as private and extremely wealthy. He apparently wed, as a son claimed his property in 1697, nearly two decades after his disappearance. Dark rumors surrounded the subsequent Billingtons until the last of the line decamped for Europe in the first quarter of the 19th century. A century later a British heir of Billington reclaimed the estate, but after a series of unexplained disappearances, he too vanished. The property, locally referred to as Billington’s Woods, has long been shunned, and few pass near the centuries-old forest without feeling a sense of dread.

Misqaumacus

Mentioned only in a scant few sources, Misquamacus is an enigmatic figure. Several early writers claim to have met him, but the widely separated dates and locations suggest that the name was a title rather than a single person. Nevertheless, most of the early histories of New Jerusalem (and the wider region) mention him as an important spiritual leader in the Missituk Valley, first appearing in the written record in 1631, as a shaman and “magician”. He is one of those who advocated against fighting the English in the lead up to King Philip’s War in 1675 despite his open rejection of John Eliot’s “Praying Indian” movement.
He and a mixed band of Wampanoags, Narragansett, and Misqats met with Lieutenant Governor Bradford in Salem in 1682, a most unusual encounter considering the extreme privations of the war and the mass enslavement and deportation of Native Americans in the aftermath of the conflict. The two had apparently crossed paths in the aftermath of the Great Swamp Fight during the war, the shaman apparently tending to the wounded Major’s eye. The content of their conversation is only reported in Of Evill Sorceries…
Sometimes Misquamacus is mentioned to be traveling with his son, named Quamis, also apparently a shaman. The son bore a striking resemblance to his father, and it is possible the two were mistaken for each other.
The shaman’s fate is unclear. He is said to have resided alone in the ruins of the Praying Indian village of Tawawog in the years after King Philip’s War, but there was no trace of him when the area, later called Mayotteville, was reoccupied by settlers from Bolton in 1725.

Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-English Canaan

Any investigation of this chapbook will uncover references to it in relation to Rev. Phillips’ better known Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan, noting that portions of it were incorporated in Phillips’ book. Portions of Of Evill Sorceries Done in New-England of Dæmons in no Humane Shape are reprinted in Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan. The selections from Of Evill Sorceries… reprinted in Rev. Ward Philips’ compendium of New England witchcraft and horror does not reproduce the chapbook in full in either the 1727 edition or the 1801 reprint.
1727—The bulk of the original chapbook’s text is reproduced in a lengthy quotation, though all the proper names, save Billington’s, are replaced with initials. The passage is introduced as further proof of Rev. Phillps’ accusations of endemic witchcraft in Massachusetts, citing it as the work of “a concerned minister of New Jerusalem”. Another section from the chapbook discussing Sadogowah and Ossadawgowah has been inserted into a catalog of “Devils” worshiped by the Indians. Finally the chapbook’s catalog of monstrous births and other supernatural signs is appended to another chapter of the book without attribution.
1801—The original text is almost entirely presented in summary form, preserving the basic narrative of Billington’s unnatural interests and connection to Misquamacus but bowdlerizing the lurid details of his crimes and identifying him only as a “Goodman B”. The list of prodigies and horrors is again included, this time misattributed to Rev. Phillips.

Availability:

Copies of this work can be found at the following locations:
Missituk University’s Orne Library has three copies, though only one is fully intact. The first copy is part of the Ward Philips papers (and as such is in the restricted stacks), which was donated to the library as part of his bequest. There are a few small notes in the text, mainly setting off the parts of the chapbook that were later quoted in Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan.
The second copy, consisting of 18 pages of text held together by a thoroughly broken binding, show signs of serious water damage. It was recovered from the remains of the Bickford house on Walnut Street, which had been abandoned for many years and was badly damaged in the Gale of 1869. This version, inexplicably dated 1720 in ink inside the front cover by some 19th century librarian, was filed away as part of the American History collection and appears in the catalog but requires a request to be removed from storage due to its fragile state.
The last copy at Missituk was found among the papers of Ambrose Dewart in 1924. Unlike the other copies discussed, this one is a handwritten manuscript, writer unknown. Unfortunately only the final few pages are legible, the rest of the manuscript having suffered significant damage in a fire; careful restoration might uncover much of the earlier text. The work remains uncatalogued as it was included in a box of miscellaneous personal papers that has yet to be properly entered into the collection. If a copy of the work is asked after, it is possible that a librarian might recall seeing it among those papers or that a less scrupulous staff member might be willing to remove it from the Dewart bequest and pass it along for the right price.
The Kester Library in Salem has a fragmentary copy, consisting of only the first ten pages, with the blank parts of most pages having been used for practicing writing (badly) the Greek alphabet. A cribbed pencil note on the cover cryptically comments “J. Orne, #147”.
Harvard University’s Widener Library is in possession of a nearly pristine copy, donated to the University from the papers of Dr. Aaron Hollis (class of 1744), as part of a lot given after the devastating fire of January 1764. This copy bears only a few minor mildew spots as well as the note “Boston—Mr. Fields. August 1719.”
Boston’s Zion Research Library has a copy, but it does not appear in the catalogue. It was bound together with three other chapbooks in English on witchcraft (a version of the Faust legend, a copy of The Lancashire Witches, and a pamphlet denouncing astrology and other divinatory practices entitled A Treatise on the Diabolical Origins of Magical Rites with Proof from Scripture). The whole thing is entitled Witchcraft Miscellaneous and will be difficult to be uncovered.
The text is complete, albeit dog-eared. Anyone reading this version may recognize that certain words scribbled in pencil across the bottom of a page are part of the notorious Dho Chant, though the spell is far from complete. Fortunately, the library is willing to ship books to reputable scholars; anyone with appropriate academic credentials or employed by an academic institution will be able to obtain it with minimal fuss.
Copies rarely become available from select rare book dealers, mostly in New England, but the odds of a copy being held in stock at any particular time are quite low. Fewer than one copy appears on the open market in any given year, though if a bookseller is engaged to search for an available copy this can be at least somewhat expedited.
Outside of New England copies might possibly be discovered in private hands or in only the largest, most extensive collections. Known copies are held at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal (with marginal annotations in a French cipher), the Thomas Welton Stanford Library at Stanford University (a torn fragment), and the Main Library of the University College, London (purchased at auction at the request of one of the lecturers). Those seeking a copy would do better to locate the 1727 or 1801 editions of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan which excerpts and summarizes the content of the chapbook.

Quotes

"‘Tis sayd, one Richard Billington, being instruct’d partly by evill Books, & partly by an antient Wonder-Worker among the Indian Savages, so fell away from goode Christian Practise that he not only lay’d claim to Imortality in the Flesh, but sett up in the Woods a Place of Dagon, namely great Ring of Stones, inside which he say’d Prayer to the Divell, & sung certain Rites of Magick abominable by Scripture."
"Their head Man Misquamacus… came shortly into the town and tolt Major Bradford some strang Things; namely, that Billington had done worse Evill than cou’d be well repair’d, & that he wast no doubt eat up by what he had call’d out of the Sky. That there was no Way to send back that Thing he had summon’d, so the Wampanaug wise Men had caught & prison’d it where the Ring of Stones had been."
"It had the Name Ossadawgowah, which signifys the child of Sadogowah; the last a frightfull Spirit spoke of by old Men as coming down from the Stars & being formerly worshipt in Lands to the North. The Wampanaugs, & Nansets & Nahiggansets, knew how to draw it out the Sky, but never did so because of the exceeding great Evilness of it. They knew also how to catch & prison it, tho’ they cou’d not send it back whence it came. It was however declar’d, that the old Tribes of Lamah, who dwelt under the Great Bear & were antiently destroy’d for the Wickedness, knew how to manage It in all Ways."

Purpose

Skimming this work takes only a few minutes and costs no Sanity. A thorough reading of the booklet takes 8 hours and costs 0/1d3 points of Sanity; readers gain +1 to Cthulhu Mythos. There are no spells, but readers may gain some insight into the spells Contact Tsathoggua, Summon/Bind Child of Tsathoggua, and Elder Sign.

Type

Manuscript, Historical

Medium

Paper

Authoring Date

around 1695