August 31, 2007
-
The Mary Goffe Case
Mary, the wife of John Goffe, of Rochester, being flicked with a long illness, removed to her father's house at West Mulling, which is about nine miles distance from her own. There she died June the 4th, this year, 1691.
The day before her departure she grew very impatiently desirous to see her children, whom she had left at home to the care of a nurse. She prayed her husband to hire a horse, for she must go home and die with the children. When they persuaded her to the contrary, telling her she was not fit to be taken out of her bed, nor able to sit on horseback, she entreated them, however, to try. "If I cannot sit," said she, "I will lie all along upon the horse; for I must go to see my poor babes."
A minister who lives in town was with her at ten o'clock that night, to whom she expressed good hopes in the mercies of God, and a willingness to die: "But,” said she, "it is my misery that I cannot see my children." Between one and two o'clock in the morning she fell into a trance. One widow Turner, who watched with her that night, says that her eyes were open and fixed and jaw fallen. She put her hand upon her mouth and nostrils, but could perceive no breath. She thought her to be in a fit; and doubted whether she was dead or alive.
The next morning this dying woman told her mother she had been at home with her children. "That is impossible," said the mother, "for you have been in bed all the while," "Yes," Replied the other, "but I was with them last night when I was asleep."
The nurse at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms, and says she will take her oath on it before a magistrate, and receive the sacrament upon it. That a little before two o’clock that morning she saw the likeness of the said Mary Goffe came out of the next chamber. (where the elder child lay in a bed by itself,) the door being left open, and stood by her bedside for about a quarter of an hour; the younger child was there lying by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth went but she said nothing. The nurse moreover, says that she was perfectly awake; it was then daylight, being the longest day of the year. She sat up in her bed and looked steadfastly upon the apparition. In that time she heard the bridge-clock strike two, and in a while after said, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what art thou?"
Thereupon the appearance removed, and went away; she slipped on her clothes and followed, but what became of it she cannot tell. Then, and not before, she began to be grievously affrighted, and went out of doors and walked upon the wharf (the house is just on the river-side) for some hours, only going in now and then to look at the children. At five-a-clock she went to a neighbor's house, and knocked at the door; but they would not rise. At six she went again; then they rose, and let her in. She related to them all that had passed: They would persuade her she was mistaken or dreamt. But she confidently affirmed, "If ever I saw her in all my life, I saw her this night.
One of those to whom she made the relation (Mary the wife of John Sweet) had a messenger come from Mulling that forenoon, to let her know her neighbor Goffe was dying, and desired to speak with her. She went over the same day, and found her just departing. The mother, among other discourse, related to her how much her daughter had longed to see the children, and said that she had seen them. This brought to Mrs. Sweet's mind what the nurse had told her that morning; for till then she had not thought to mention it, but disguised it, rather, as the woman's disturbed imagination.
The substance of this I had related to me by John Carpenter, the father of the deceased, the next day after her burial. July the second, I fully discoursed the matter with the nurse and two neighbors to whose house she went that morning. Two days after, I had it from the mother, the minister that was with her in the evening, and the woman who sat up with her that last night. They all agree in the same story and every one helps to strengthen the other's testimony. They appear to be sober, intelligent persons, far enough off from designing to impose a cheat upon the world, or to manage a lie; and what temptation they could lie under for so doing, I cannot conceive.
