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(FORGERIES.) Purported 1692 death warrant of Susanna Martin from the Salem witch trials.
(FORGERIES.) Purported 1692 death warrant of Susanna Martin from the Salem witch trials. 1 folio leaf, 345 x 240 mm. With forged signatures of Cotton Mather, King Philip (by mark), John Winthrop and others; dampstaining, soiling, wear at folds (all apparently done artificially). "Salem, 10 June 1692" [1932?]
- Notes: This rather clumsy forgery purports to be a death warrant from the Salem witch trials. Several clues give it away, including the lack of ink fading in the supposedly dampstained areas, the odd purplish color of the ink, and most tellingly, the alleged signature of Wampanoag leader King Philip (d. 1676) on the document. Apparently several of these death warrants were created by a forger known as E. Newman Bradley, who peddled them to gullible collectors in the Midwest in 1932. One of these forgeries was donated to Creighton University in 1989 and created quite a stir until its true nature was exposed. See Bryan F. LeBeau, "The Carey Document: On the Trail of a Salem Death Warrant," Early America Review (Summer 1997). The present document was recently found among the archives of a Midwestern library, and could be considered interesting in its own right. We say it's a forgery--but what if we are wrong?
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June 5, 2008 10:30 AM EDT
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