For people living in the 1600s and 1700s, the idea of encounters with all manner of spirits was accepted by pretty much everyone. Abraham Holmes, a well-regarded lawyer in Rochester, writes in his memoirs that, “Doubtless most of the stories which are told about witches and apparitions are ideal only and exist only in the imagination, but there is no argument against the existence of those beings”. He goes on to mention many instances of either himself or other respected community members who saw strange apparitions that vanished into thin air or who suffered some ill brought on by spectral beings.
He tells of one old woman believed to have cause broken bones and dislocated joints to neighbors who refused to help her in some way. These misfortunes, he concludes, “could not be accounted for on any principal than witchcraft.” Bethiah Church, who ran the family tavern in Rochester, liked to entertain with wondrous tales of witchcraft, in which she believed. Another tale that appeared in a compilation of folktales, “The Narrow Land” told of a witch, Deb Burden, who lived in Rochester, and was said to have put a curse on the daughter of Thankful Haskell. The girl fell ill after sweeping under Burden’s chair and recovered after her father whipped Miss Burden when he came upon her in his garden. The big problem with this story is that there is no record of any Deb Burden or Deborah Borden ever living in Rochester at that time.
However, even with all these stories of witches, devils, and spectral apparitions, the citizens of Rochester did not take part in the “witch hysteria” that occurred in other towns in Massachusetts. Indeed, Southeastern Massachusetts has few tales of witchcraft. Given that, it’s interesting to note that Rochester does have two locations tied to the supernatural. The best known is Witch Rock at the corner of New Bedford and Vaughan Hill Roads.
This large rock contains many cracks and crevices, and one legend claims that on nights when the moon is bright, witches peer out from these ancient openings. The explanation most often given for the rock’s name is that sometime after the first settlers arrived, a meeting was arranged with the area Native Americans. It was to take place at the rock on a moonlit night. As they approached, they saw witches flying out of the cracks and fled the area in terror.
Another rock off of New Bedford Road also claims a connection to an evil spirit. In a pine grove in the woods near a cedar swamp is Devil’s Rock. It gains its name from what appear to be footprints that go all the way to the top of the large rock and, of course, the explanation for the embedded marks is that the Devil left them there.
Happy Halloween and be careful out there.
By Connie Eshbach
