Salem Witch Trial Document Auctioned on Internet

BOSTON (Reuters) - A missing 1697 document signed by two judges who presided over the Salem witch trials may have been stolen and sold to the highest bidder on the Internet, the Boston Herald reported on Wednesday.

An original will, signed by chief justice William Stoughton and judge Isaac Addington, was auctioned off by an Indiana company three years ago, the Herald quoted Suffolk County Register of Probate Richard Iannella as saying.

Iannella said he discovered just last week the document was missing while he was researching Addington, who along with Stoughton, served on the Salem witch trial grand jury. As a result of the trials, 19 people were hanged and one man was crushed to death.

After finding a description of the will's auction on the Internet, Iannella checked the files at the Massachusetts state archives and found it missing, he told the Herald.

Another probate document with both men's signatures was sold at the same time, Iannella said.

"It's the first time we went into these very early records," he told the Herald. "My worst fear is this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Dealer Jim Smith, the owner of Remember When in Wells, Maine, said government documents are sometimes tossed out or stolen by employees and work their way legitimately into private hands.

The will, sold by History Makers auction house in Indianapolis, belonged to Samuel Shrimpton, a Massachusetts landowner and merchant, who died in Boston in 1703, the Herald reported.

Steve Nowlin, owner of History Makers, told the Herald he bought the will and other documents from New York's Swann Galleries Auctioneers and Appraisers in 1992. He declined to say how much he was paid for the documents, the Herald reported.

"I would not want to be selling anything that was stolen," Nowlin told the Herald.

July 26, 2000, Reuters

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