Knapp, Elizabeth

Notes:

EXTRACT FROM COTTON MATHER'S "MAGNALIA"

"In the town of Groton one Elizbeth Knap (Oct., 1671) was taken after a strange manner, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, sometimes roaring with violent agitation, crying out 'Money! Money!' Her tongue would be for many hours together drawn like a semi-circle up to the roof of her mouth, so that no fingers applied to it could remove it. Six men were scarce able to hold her in some of her fits, but she would skip about the house yelling and howling and looking hideously. On Dec. 17,her tongue being drawn out of her mouth to an extraordinary length, a daemon began manifestly to speak to her; for many words were distinctly uttered, wherein are the labial letters, without any motion of her lips at all; words also were uttered from her throat, sometimes when her mouth was wholly shut, and sometimes when her mouth was wide open, but no organs of speech were used therein. The chief things that the daemon spoke were horrid railings against the godly minister of the town; but sometimes, likewise, she belched out most nefandous blasphemies against the God of heaven. And one thing about this young woman was yet more particularly remarkable: she cry'd out in her fits that a certain woman in the neighborhood appeared unto her, and was the only cause of her affliction. This woman prayed with and for her, and thus brought her to her senses."

She was bewitched in 1671.

Family/Spouse: Philbrick, Ephraim. Ephraim was born in Groton, Middlesex Co., MA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]