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Document Linked To Salem Witch Trials Recovered
 

Monday, December 18, 2000

A stolen historic document signed by two key figures in the Salem witch trials has been returned to its proper place in the custody of Massachusetts officials after an absence of more than 60 years.

"With this document gone, there was a hole in a colorful period in American history,'' said Suffolk County Register of Probate Richard Iannella.

The 1697 will of Samuel Shrimpton, a Boston merchant, does not relate directly to the witch trials, but is signed by two men - William Stoughton and Isaac Addington - who played key roles in that dark period of Bay State history.

Stoughton was the chief judge in the 1692 trials, and Addington was a member of the grand jury that indicted the 20 people who were put to death. Addington went on to become the first register of probate in Boston.

Iannella realized the will was missing earlier this year after he saw a description of it on the Internet site of an Indianapolis auction house, which sold the document to a Georgia resident for $1,100.

An FBI agent contacted Steven Nowlin of the History Makers auction house in Indianapolis and convinced him that the will was the property of Massachusetts even if it made its way into his hands in the most legitimate fashion.

``Like other Salem witch trial documents, it was probably stolen at some point and then made its way into public commerce,'' Nowlin said.

Nowlin said his Georgia client ``was not happy'' about relinquishing the will, but complied and received a full refund.

Nowlin then returned the will to the auction house where he bought it - Swann Galleries in New York City - and received a refund of the $625 he had paid for it in 1992.

Andrew Ansorge of Swann Galleries said his firm was pleased to assist in returning the will to the Massachusetts State Archives.

``We feel, in many respects, custodial about historical documents,'' Ansorge said. ``We can't always know where an item comes from. But we're always anxious to help get the piece to its proper owner.''

Iannella said the will was described on the Internet auction site as: ``Document signed `Wm. Stoughton' and `Isaac Addington' (Colonial secretary), 8 inches by 6 inches, dated February 17, 1697, province of the Mass. Bay in New England (Boston).''

Iannella said he checked the state archives at Columbia Point and learned that the Shimpton will had been listed as missing in 1940. It had been stored at the old Suffolk Probate Court in Pemberton Square.

Nowlin said he initially balked at returning the will to Massachusetts because he said courts have ruled in other cases governmental agencies do not have a right to reclaim documents that have been discarded for one reason or another.

But Iannella said the probate documents remain the property of the court forever. He said he has no idea who initially swiped it from the courthouse. He only knows that Swann Galleries bought it from a Long Island, N.Y., man.

"All I was looking for was to get it back to where it belongs,'' Iannella said. ``It fills a hole in American history here relating to the Salem witch trials.''

He said the document will be displayed for a while at his office on the third floor of the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse before being sent to Columbia Point for safe keeping.