When the Ghost Screams(21)

When caretakers lock the gate of the Common’s Central Burial Ground, they keep the living out but cannot keep the dead in. (Leslie Rule)

On October 27, 1659, authorities hanged Quakers Marmaduke Stevenson and William Robinson on the Common. Quaker Mary Dyer was next in line. As she stood with a noose around her neck, and the bodies of the others dangling before her, her son convinced the men to release her. They escorted her from the city and told her to stay away. Less than a year later, Mary returned. She was hanged on the Common on June 1, 1660.

Margaret Rule’s troubles began about three years later, on September 10, 1663.

She and her parents, from Cornwall, England, had come by ship to the new land and lived in north Boston. Her parents had a reputation as “sober and honest.” But Margaret was judged by her own actions when she “fell into odd fits” in public. Her friends carried her home, and nosy neighbors came by to peer at her.

Some suspected that Margaret’s affliction was caused by a “miserable woman,” who was once jailed for witchcraft. This woman claimed that she could cure people by chanting over them and the very night before had threatened Margaret.



This view from the Boston Common shows the Little Building (at left). Do those murdered on the Common visit the Little Building? (Leslie Rule)



When their family members were buried here two centuries ago, mourners could never have imagined the enormous buildings that today look down upon the Common and its graveyard. (Leslie Rule)

Investigators believed that Margaret was being “assaulted by eight cruel specters.” It was alleged that the “cursed specters” demanded that she put her hand on a thick, red book and vow to become a servant of the devil.

How in the world did anyone come to that conclusion?

Did Margaret say she saw eight specters?

What was wrong with the teenager?

Perhaps she had epilepsy. Perhaps she had an overactive imagination. Whatever the reason, Margaret was in serious trouble.

As I wandered through the Common, I wondered if Margaret had also walked the grounds. What did she think when she saw the enormous elm with its thick, reaching branches?

Had she been present for any of the executions? Did she have any idea that she could soon be swinging from the death tree, a rope around her frail, white neck?

I was about Margaret’s age when I found myself in a similar predicament. Though there was never any danger of hanging or incarceration, I, too, became known as a witch.



Trees grow near the spot where the magnificent death tree once reined. These trees carry the genes of the famous elm, just as I carry the genes of accused witch Margaret Rule, who narrowly escaped hanging from the elm’s cruel branches. (Leslie Rule)

I was attending Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, Washington, when I made a silly, flip comment about my nail polish. Another girl commented on the glitter-embedded polish, and I jokingly said, “Oh, I’m a witch. They turn this way every year around Halloween.”

Within two weeks, I could not walk down the hallway at school without someone putting a mock spell on me or shouting, “Witch!” To this day, there are people in my hometown who still believe the rumors that exploded from the stupid joke I made about my nails.

The experience gave me just a little taste of how fast a rumor can grow. Is that what happened to Margaret Rule?

According to archives, Margaret fasted for nine days. Yet she remained “fresh” and “lively” and “hearty.” When food was forced upon her, she gritted her teeth.

In addition to swearing that they had seen Margaret levitate, people said they had witnessed unseen hands force her mouth open and pour “something invisible” down her throat. Some alleged that they saw the substance spill on her neck. Margaret screamed as if “scalding brimstone” had been poured on her.

It was also said that Margaret looked sad, as she claimed that ghosts threatened to drown a young man in the neighborhood. It was later determined that at the exact time she made the prediction, a man had nearly drowned.



A plaque marks the ground where the elm grew until 1876. (Leslie Rule)

Cotton Mather, one of those who examined Margaret, noted that the specters surrounding her were identical to those seen surrounding the accused witches in Salem, months before. It has been written that if it had been up to Cotton Mather, Margaret and others would have been executed.



Centuries of weather have washed away the names of those buried here in the Central Burial Ground. (Leslie Rule)



Are the displaced dead displeased with their mass burial in the Central Burial Ground? (Leslie Rule)

But Robert Calef, a prominent Boston merchant, also studied Margaret. He stated that she was either faking or under a delusion. After a few trying weeks, Margaret began to feel normal again.