Schiff - The Witches: Salem, 1692

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BAYLEY, JAMES, Salem villages first minister, 1673 to 1679. Thomas Putnams brother-in-law; writhing, yelping Ann Putnam Jr.s uncle.

BURROUGHS, GEORGE, forty-two, Bayleys beguiling, independent-minded successor in the village pulpit, 1679 to 1683. Departs abruptly; in 1692 a minister on the Maine frontier. Father of seven; combative and controlling.

LAWSON, DEODAT, Burroughss mannerly, smooth-talking successor, village minister from 1684 to 1688.

PARRIS, SAMUEL, thirty-nine, the beleaguered clergyman at the center of the diabolical invasion. Father and uncle of the first bewitched girls; master of the first confessed witch; in the Salem pulpit from 1688 to 1696. Avid, unyielding, tactless.

The Parris family : ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, eleven, a fair-haired niece who interrupts sermons and catapults herself, barking, across rooms. BETTY PARRIS, nine, the sole Parris child to suffer symptoms of enchantment; never attends a trial. TWO ADDITIONAL CHILDREN , a ten-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter; unafflicted and lost to history. TITUBA, a kindly longtime Indian slave, the first to glimpse a diabolical pact and report a flight through the air. JOHN INDIAN , another slave, repeatedly bewitched. Understood to be Titubas husband. ELIZABETH , the ministers Boston-born wife. About forty-four, afflicted late in the summer.

CHEEVER, EZEKIEL, thirty-seven, tailor and farmer, sometime court reporter and accuser.

GRIGGS, WILLIAM, seventy-one, doctor and village newcomer, a Putnam intimate.

HUTCHINSON, BENJAMIN, early twenties, adopted son of tavern owner Nathaniel Ingersoll. Valiantly, blindly impales specters on his pitchfork and rapier.

INGERSOLL, HANNAH, about sixty, the tavern owners wife and a parsonage neighbor.

INGERSOLL, NATHANIEL, sixty, militia lieutenant, early village deacon, owner of the tavern in which accusations, hearings, judicial conferences, spectral stabbings, and much speculation takes place. A Putnam and Parris confidant.

NURSE, FRANCIS, seventy-four. Worldly-wise, steadfast husband of accused witch Rebecca Nurse. Displeased with his minister well before the crisis.

POPE, BATHSHUA, forty, a bewitched, sermon-interrupting matron. Lobs a shoe at a defendant; levitates in court.

PUTNAM, THOMAS, forty-year-old militia sergeant and veteran of King Philips War. Court recorder, parish clerk, stout Parris supporter. Lives with four witchcraft victims; presses first charges and initiates nearly half the rest.

PUTNAM, EDWARD, thirty-eight, Thomass younger brother, a church deacon. Cosigns first witchcraft accusations.

SIBLEY, MARY, a pregnant, concerned thirty-two-year-old parsonage neighbor. Suggests and supervises witch-cake baking in the Parris household.

WALCOTT, JONATHAN , fifty-three. A village militia captain and Putnam brother-in-law; Marys father.

BIBBER, SARAH, a quarrelsome, meddlesome thirty-six-year-old village matron. Stabbed by pins in the courtroom.

CHURCHILL, SARAH, about twenty, a refugee and servant in the Jacobs household. Tries unsuccessfully to recant. Distantly related to Mary Walcott.

HOBBS, ABIGAIL, a headstrong, unruly Topsfield fourteen-year-old, earlier a servant in Maine. Second to confess to witchcraft; an accuser thereafter. Sends both parents to prison.

HUBBARD, ELIZABETH, sixteen, an orphan and a servant in the household of her uncle, Dr. Griggs. Among the five most frequent accusers.

LEWIS, MERCY, nineteen; a two-time refugee and orphan. Previously a Burroughs servant in Maine; in 1692 a Putnam servant in Salem. Reliably identifies invisible attackers and offers most detailed testimony; known as a visionary girl.

PUTNAM, ANN, Jr., twelve, the eldest of six siblings. Can predict events and recall others that predate her birth. Sole accuser living at home with two parents.

PUTNAM, ANN, Sr., Ann Jr.s pregnant, pious mother, about thirty. Incapacitated by ghosts and witches. Entranced; at one juncture carried bodily from the courtroom.

SHELDEN, SUSANNAH, an eighteen-year-old, two-time Maine refugee. Witnessed Indian atrocities; recently buried her father. Tends to reveal murders.

WALCOTT, MARY, sixteen, daughter of a village militia captain, living with her Putnam cousins. Also an Ingersoll niece. Charges at least seventy with witchcraft, far more than any other accuser.