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And their could be other, more personal reasons for the accusations. For instance, John Westgate's testimony includes a tale of how Mary Parker came to a tavern and chastised her husband for drinking. When John Westgate called her unseemly for coming to the tavern, as he himself testified, "she came up to me and called me rogue and bid me mind my owne busines…." Late 17th century men were not accustomed to being spoken to in this manner, especially by a woman. A public scolding from a woman could have embarrassed John Westgate to the point of holding a grudge; and later when he was frightened by a wild hog, fell and injured himself, it was easy for him to blame the woman he hated.
Mary Parker seems to be an extremely opinionated and outspoken woman, two traits that are greatly admired and valuable in the modern world. Unfortunately, Mary Parker lived in the 1600's when such admirable qualities were not only frowned upon, but openly repressed throughout society. When Mary Parker went to the tavern and scolded her husband for drinking, according to 17th century...
When she told another man to shut up and mind his own business, she flaunted normal customs. She undoubtedly ruffled other people's feathers in the community by her open disregard for the customs of the day, especially the custom that women should be quiet and obey their husbands. As the one person who was a general annoyance in the community, disrespecting customs and insulting other people, Mary Parker generated a great deal of animosity from others. This animosity culminated in her execution on September 22, 1692, after being found guilty of witchcraft.
References
The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Volume 2: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents
of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692. Edited by Paul Boyer, and Stephen
Nissenbaum. / Revised, Corrected, and Augmented by Benjamin C. Ray and Tara
S. Wood." Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Web. 26 Sept.
2011. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/BoySal2R-div_id=n98
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