Wicked Puritans of Essex County

In early seventeenth-century Massachusetts, Essex County was home to large populations of Puritans in budding towns such as Salem, Ipswich, Lynn, Andover and Haverhill.  These purportedly straight-laced, God-fearing men and women had ventured to the new World to purify their church from within, and their methods were not always peaceful.  A number of sinful, impious and deadly individuals who broke the Puritan mold have long been forgotten – until now.  Local historian Tom Juergens shines a new light on the Puritan era with a collection of sordid stories that reveals ugly truths behind whippings, brandings and mutilations.