Welcome to a collection of ten intriguing letters that found their way into a 17th‑century advice column, offering a window into the everyday dilemmas and curiosities of Londoners in 1690.

Why These Intriguing Letters Matter

These letters reveal that many of the worries people had three centuries ago sound astonishingly familiar today. From love and hair color to mysterious dogs, the human mind has long been preoccupied with the same questions.

10 Young Men Back Then Had Similar Concerns To Those Of Today

A red‑haired gentleman confesses his hopeless crush on a lady who despises his fiery locks. He hopes to temporarily disguise his hair so she won’t reject him after marriage.

Q. It is my misfortune to be red‑haired. I love a lady who has the greatest aversion imaginable to that colored hair. I love her to distraction and have sufficient hope of obtaining her were this obstacle removed.

I don’t expect a perfect alteration of the hair. I only beg you would direct me in such a method as may make it brown for 15 or 16 days so that neither sweat nor rain will efface it, and then to repeat it again, for if she discovers it at any time after marriage, her aversion will be equally fatal to me.

A. We fancy it can’t be impossible to have your hair stained or dyed by a skillful painter with ingredients so strong as it would never out till that crop were off the ground. For the rest of the hair, since it will be every day peeping out and in a little while your head will be like a bullfinch’s, of two colors, in which case we know no remedy but to repeat the operation.

9 Cure For Hearing Voices

A gentleman claims he constantly hears disembodied voices, each threatening him, and seeks a remedy.

Q. There is a gentleman who has for a long time been possessed with a fancy that people are continually talking to him with an audible voice, sometimes one, sometimes another, who threaten to destroy him one way or another.

Now, gentlemen, your opinion is desired, whether it be possible for persons to discourse with him at a great distance and in such manner as not to be heard by some friends near him who have the sense of hearing quick enough? Whence this fancy proceeds, and what means are proper to cure and remove it?

A. We have heard a great many plausible stories of men conversing with spirits, but we neither see how it can be performed nor can positively prove the contrary.

Yet are most apt to believe the notion proceeds from some distempers in the brain and is nothing else but the effect of a melancholy fancy which is often caused by the indisposition of the body and sometimes by want for agreeable conversation. But however it comes, the best way to remove it is by taking physic (medicine), walking abroad, and frequenting agreeable company.

8 A Clairvoyant Dog

A family notices their dog’s eerie behavior—howling and pointing toward a church—just before the death of a relative, suggesting a supernatural knack.

Q. I desire your opinion of the following relation: My father had a dog which he kept a great many years, in which time I had two brothers and one sister that died, and it was observed that this dog always the day before they died, went about [90 meters (300 ft)] from the house and laid his nose toward the church where they are all buried and howled in a strange, hideous manner for an hour or more at a time, and when my father died, he did the same.

Now it seems as if this dog had some prophetic knowledge in these matters. Gentlemen, your opinion would much oblige.

A. We can’t tell what to make of hundreds of such instances as these, some of which we ourselves are assured are true. All we can say is, there must be something in it not natural since what power in nature has a dog more than any other creature to foresee (or rather foresmell) such accidents.

7 Not The Best Husband

A married man, whose wife is gravely ill, wonders whether he may pray for her soul’s release so he can seek happiness elsewhere.

Q. I’m a married man, but having a very ill wife, have been parted from her for some years, and design never to live with her more. Now I desire your advice whether I may pray to God to take her to himself, that I may endeavor to make myself happy in another.

A. Sure if she’s fit for heaven, she’s fit for you; and if she were as good while you lived with her as she is now, how came you to part? It would yet be handsomer to submit to God’s will and wait with patience, or rather pray that he’d convert her, than take her away in such a condition.

6 Or The Best Wife

A husband complains that his wife, posing as a widow, runs a tavern, drinks heavily, hurls insults, and siphons off household funds, leaving him in financial peril.

Q. I have been married (God help me) to a pretended widow who keeps a public house for five years. She drinks herself very plentifully and extremely abuses me when she’s drunk, nor can I excuse her when she’s sober, which does not often happen.

She gives me very scurrilous language—rascal, cuckold—and this before all the company that comes to her house. I can’t call it mine for I must confess it is she that wears the breeches.

She takes all the money that’s spent in the house and won’t allow me one penny. She has already conveyed several hundred pounds out of the house, which she’ll give me no account of, but declares she’ll run me in debt as much as possible, on purpose, that I may rot and starve in a Gaol (O loving spouse). For charity, I beg your advice how, if possible, I may reduce her to a better mind.

A. Alas! If one-half of this be true, thou art in a very woeful pickle and require the charitable assistance of all well‑disposed husbands. We’ll be short in our advice—for mending your good spouse, we think it is impossible unless as we mend an old coat with a new one.

Your way, therefore, is to get three or four lusty, honest fellows into the house with ye, take your dearly beloved and mew her up in some garret till you have sold off house and household stuff, and retire somewhere or other into the country that she may not find ye (as you value your nose, ears, and all the rest of your movables) and there make much of yourself at a safer distance from her, since she has, it seems, feathered her nest so well already that there’s no fear of so good a creatures wanting.

5 Google Didn’t Exist Back Then

A debate over whether the River Thames freezes from the bottom up leads to a scientific explanation about heat and water density.

Q. I have maintained an argument with a certain gentleman against the vulgar opinion that the Thames first freezes at the bottom. I could not by all the arguments I brought from philosophy or right reason convince him to the contrary. Pray, gentlemen, let us hear your opinion in this case as soon as possible.

A. All experience shows that water never freezes in the bottom ’till all above it be froze, for the causes of freezing is the nitrosity [sic] of the air. Fishes retire to the deepest places in wintertime to avoid the cold, and every swimmer will tell you that water exposed to the air is always different in its temperature from that which is deeper.

4 The Simplest Things Weren’t Well Understood

A query about why some men lack facial hair, answered with a theory involving heat and bodily moisture.

Q. What’s the reason that some men have no beards?

A. A want of heat and a due disposition of nature. So where there is not heat enough to open the pores for the [growth] of hair, that humidity and moisture which is the natural cause of hair retires to other parts of the body more adapt [sic] and better prepared for expulsion.

3 A Frightening Time To Live

A servant, after being robbed, seeks a sorceress’s help; a mysterious woman shows him the thief’s shape, causing him to die of fright.

Q. I have a certain knowledge of a thing that happened not long ago—a gentleman having been robbed, suspected a servant of his, who being innocent suspected another, and to clear himself, he went to a sorceress.

As he was going, he was met by a female who addressed him thus: I know whether you are going, come along with me, and I will show you who has robbed your master of his money.

The servant went with her, and she showed him the shape of the thief, with which he was so surprised that he died of the fright in three or four days. What is your opinion of this?

A. We answer that it was either the Devil himself, who is never idle in such cases unless restrained by an overruling power, or at least some witch of the Devil who received both intelligence and power for the young man’s unhappy information. As to his death by a fright, it is ordinary.

2 Simple Pleasures Were Questioned

A 19‑year‑old wonders if dancing is sinful, fearing it stems from pagan rites and could weaken piety.

Q. I’m about 19 years old and have often been desired by my friends to learn to dance. But I somewhat question the lawfulness of it and would fain know your opinion.

For I take it to be an institution of the pagans, who upon the days of their sacrifices did dance before the altars of their gods. Besides, it weakens piety, occasions ill thoughts, and seems a breach of the Seventh Commandment. I desire a speedy answer.

A. Dancing seems in some sort natural. It is difficult not to leap for joy, and the whole body seems to follow the motion of the spirits and blood. We might as well say feeling, too, were a sin.

For the weakening piety, it must be by occasioning ill thoughts or wasting time, neither of which are necessary effects of it, any more than of courtship to one you intend to make your wife.

But if you find they are, you must forbear public dancing, and yet may still be privately instructed by a master at your own chamber, there being a time for recreation as well as study and business.

1 A Timeless Question

The ultimate query: what is love? The answer blends friendship, desire, and honor into a balanced definition.

Q. What’s love?

A. Love, and you’ll know. We’ll give you the best description we can of that passion, which we have some reason to know. ‘Tis a mixture of friendship and desire, bounded by the rules of honor and virtue.

There must be friendship in it, which may be called the spirit or soul of love, as desire the material part, and honor, if you please, that which binds both together and makes the vital union. Love being a medium between pure friendship and perfect desire; ’tis warm enough to keep friendship from an ague, but not so furiously hot as to set all on fire.

Great Britain has long been a playground for the paranormal, and the 17th century was especially ripe with uncanny occurrences. Here are 10 bizarre supernatural stories that emerged from the islands during that era, each more astonishing than the last.

10. The Ghost Of Dunty Porteous

Sometime in the late 1600s, a miller called Dunty Porteous found himself locked away in Sir Alexander Jardine’s tower in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on suspicion of arson. One day Jardine had to dash to Edinburgh on urgent business and completely forgot his prisoner.

When Jardine finally returned, he discovered Porteous had starved to death in his cell. The dead miller’s spirit erupted from the walls, screaming about his endless hunger. To end the nightly torment, Jardine summoned an exorcist; the rite succeeded, imprisoning the ghost in the dungeon—but only while a particular Bible remained on the premises.

Eventually that Bible fell to pieces and was sent to Edinburgh for rebinding. With the holy book gone, the spirit broke free, prowling the Jardine family’s new home and attacking them in their sleep. As soon as the original Bible was restored to the tower, the haunting ceased.

9. The Coffin Of Robert Baty

Robert Baty, a young Englishman, was adamant that he be laid to rest in his ancestors’ vault at the church of Arthuret. On 12 August 1680, at just 23 years old, he drowned by accident and was instead interred in the ordinary churchyard.

The night after his funeral, Robert appeared in a vivid dream to his sister Mary, furious that his burial site was wrong and vowing to haunt those responsible until he was moved to the family vault. The following morning his coffin was discovered dug up outside his grave, though his body remained untouched and the casket was perfectly preserved.

After the coffin mysteriously resurfaced twice more, Mary finally relayed the dream to the family. At last the corpse was transferred to the intended vault, where it stayed undisturbed for good.

8. The Powers Of Dr. John Lambe

Known infamously as “the Duke’s Devil,” Dr. John Lambe was a dubious magician who served as adviser to George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham. Lambe’s shady reputation earned him a pardon for the rape of a little girl, and he met a violent end at the hands of a mob a few months before his patron was assassinated.

One of his most talked‑about tricks involved two guests, Barbor and Sands, who were invited to drink at his home. While they chatted about sorcery, Lambe conjured a tree out of thin air, then summoned three tiny men with axes to fell it. After the dwarfs chopped it down and carried the timber away, Barbor secretly pocketed a stray chip.

That night, every door and window in Barbor’s house slammed open and shut on its own. He confessed to his wife about the stolen chip, and after she forced him to toss it outside, the house finally fell silent.

7. The Ghost Of Dorothy Durant

In 1665, a bright 16‑year‑old schoolboy named Bligh became suddenly withdrawn and depressed. He confided to his brother that a specter was haunting him, and twice each day while walking to and from school through a field in Launceston, the ghost of a late neighbour, Dorothy Durant, would silently trail him.

Bligh’s family scoffed at his tale, but his headmaster, Mr Ruddle, gave the boy a hearing. The next morning, walking together through the field, Ruddle saw Durant glide past them. He would encounter her several more times thereafter.

One late July morning, Ruddle tried to converse with the apparition. Though her voice was faint and her words garbled, they managed a fifteen‑minute dialogue. That evening Durant’s ghost met Ruddle on his way home, exchanged a few words, and vanished forever.

6. The Merideth Children

In January 1675, the four Merideth children of Bristol fell into violent convulsions. Initially they complained of sharp pains in their heads and sides, then their limbs began to twitch, and the siblings would burst into simultaneous laughter or tears for an hour at a time.

Witnesses claimed the youngsters could crawl across the floor like cats, and one observer swore they perched on ceilings and walls as if they were spiders. One daughter asserted she could foresee the future, while another habitually vomited tiny pins. Strangely, the fits only occurred during daylight; at night the children slept peacefully.

No physician could explain the phenomenon. Ministers prayed over the family daily, and the fits persisted for months. By May the episodes inexplicably ceased, and the children returned to normal health.

5. Ann Jefferies And Her Fairies

In 1645, Ann Jefferies, a 19‑year‑old servant for the Pitt family in Cornwall, claimed to have seen six tiny fairies dancing in her master’s garden. The sight terrified her so profoundly that she collapsed on the spot.

For months she suffered debilitating fits and became too weak to stand. During this period she developed a reputation as a healer, saying the invisible fairies constantly accompanied her, feeding her with mysterious “fairy food” that granted her extraordinary powers.

Her growing fame attracted the attention of local magistrates and clergymen, who accused the fairies of being demonic. Jefferies was briefly imprisoned, but eventually released, married, and lived to an old age.

4. The Poltergeist Of Isabel Heriot

Isabel Heriot served as a domestic worker for a minister in Ormiston, Scotland, until the minister dismissed her for showing little interest in religion. In the winter of 1680 she fell ill and died, after which her ghost began appearing near the minister’s residence.

A few nights later, stones began hurling themselves at the house from nowhere, a barrage that continued for eight or nine weeks, sometimes striking the minister’s servants. Objects shifted mysteriously, and strange noises echoed through the rooms.

When the poltergeist activity finally ended, a witness—who had seen the apparition earlier—spotted Heriot gathering stones in the minister’s yard. Before fleeing in terror, the spirit declared the Devil wanted her to destroy her former master.

3. The Doppelganger Of Mary Goffe

On 3 June 1691, Mary Goffe lay on her deathbed at her father’s home in West Malling, England. She begged her husband for a horse so she could reach her children, who were nine miles away in Rochester, but she was too weak to leave the bed.

At 1 a.m. her breathing halted, yet she entered a trance‑like state. Simultaneously, in Rochester, the children’s nurse was startled to see Mary appear in the older daughter’s bedroom. For fifteen minutes Mary stood silently beside the nurse, while the younger daughter slept.

When the clock struck two, Mary left the Rochester house, returned to West Malling, and emerged from her trance. Before dying that day, she told her mother she had visited her children in sleep. The nurse reported the incident to neighbours, who corroborated the story.

2. The Demon Of Spreyton

In November 1682, a servant named Francis Fey encountered the ghost of his master’s deceased father in a field near Spreyton, England. The apparition asked Fey to settle an unfinished matter concerning the will, which he dutifully completed before heading home the next day.

On his return to Spreyton, Fey faced another spectre: the ghost of his master’s dead stepmother, later dubbed “the Demon of Spreyton.” She knocked him off his horse and seemed intent on making his life a living nightmare.

Her torments ranged from strangling him with his own handkerchiefs to ripping his wigs, flinging him into the air, animating his shoelaces, and even sending a bird wielding a stone to batter his head.

1. The Ghost Of Anne Walker

William Walker, a wealthy widower residing in Lumley, England, employed a relative named Anne as his housekeeper. Their closeness sparked gossip, and when Anne became pregnant, villagers whispered about the possible father.

In March 1632, William sent Anne away to let the scandal fade, first placing her with an aunt and then supposedly moving her to Durham. Two weeks later, a miller named James Graham in Lumley encountered a drenched, blood‑covered woman who claimed to be Anne and that she was dead.

Anne explained that William had hired a man named Mark Sharp to murder her with a pickaxe and dump her corpse in a coal‑mine pool. She begged Graham to inform the authorities. Though hesitant at first, Graham finally reported the murder after Anne reappeared, swearing to haunt him forever.

The authorities searched the mine, found Anne’s body exactly where she said, and arrested both Sharp and Walker. Sharp confessed, and both men were hanged in November.

Between February 1692 and May 1693, colonial Massachusetts became a theater of madness, where false accusations from a handful of young girls sparked a frenzy that claimed twenty innocent lives. In this roundup we unveil 10 astonishing tragic details that shed fresh, unsettling light on this dark chapter of American history.

10 astonishing tragic Insights Into Salem

10 The Afflicted Orphans

Many of the chief accusers were girls who entered the world without parents, left to fend for themselves in a society that offered little hope or support. Their orphaned status meant they were socially invisible, a circumstance some scholars argue fueled the dramatic claims of possession that would soon grip the community.

Historian Carol Karlsen, author of The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, argues that the bleak economic outlook for these girls pushed them to stage vivid “possession” episodes, hoping to draw the colony’s attention to their desperate circumstances.

Karlsen further suggests that these performances may have been a coping mechanism, allowing the girls to channel their oppression into a public spectacle that finally earned them a modicum of respect and acknowledgment within the rigid Puritan world.

9 How Do You Plead?

As the accusation tally swelled, it became clear that a confession could buy a sliver of mercy, whereas insisting on innocence often led to brutal interrogations – some even involved dunking the accused in ponds to test whether they could float by supernatural means.

Contrary to popular myth, burning at the stake was rare; the predominant method of execution was hanging. In a frantic three‑month span in 1692, nineteen men and women were marched to Gallows Hill, the stark slope near Salem Village, for the rope.

Those who survived the trial without conviction languished in prison for months. A especially harrowing case was that of Giles Corey, who, after five months behind bars, was subjected to pressing – a torturous ordeal where heavy stones were stacked upon his chest until he died. Three days later his wife met the same fate on the gallows.

8 The House Below The Hill

It wasn’t until January 2016 that researchers finally pinpointed the execution site on Gallows Hill, tucked against a modern Walgreens. A team from the University of Virginia set out to locate the mysterious “house below the hill,” the spot Rebecca Eames claimed she saw the hangings from.

Their investigation revealed that Eames was actually referring to a dwelling on Boston Street, the main artery leading to the courthouse. By cross‑referencing historic transport routes and modern topography, the scholars zeroed in on the likely path prisoners took to their deaths.

Ground‑penetrating radar showed the victims were hoisted from a tree rather than a constructed gallows, as no wooden framework was detected. The city of Salem is now working to establish a memorial at the site, ensuring the memory of those lives endures.

7 The Burials

The condemned were often denied dignified burials, their bodies tossed into shallow ditches. Yet, under the cover of night, desperate relatives would return to Gallows Hill to exhume loved ones and lay them to rest elsewhere, a practice that included the famed John Proctor.

Rebecca Nurse, a frail 71‑year‑old hanged on July 19, 1692, was secretly retrieved by her children and hidden in an unmarked family grave. Nearly two centuries later, in 1885, her descendants erected a modest memorial in the Danvers family cemetery, honoring her memory.

These clandestine reburials illustrate the profound grief and defiance of families who refused to let the state’s cruelty erase their ancestors’ dignity.

6 America’s First Witch Trial

While Salem dominates the popular imagination, the very first American witch trial occurred fifty years earlier in Hartford, Connecticut, where Alse Young was publicly hanged for witchcraft. Within a short period, five more residents met the same fate.

In 1662 alone, seven trials led to four executions, with some accused being bound and tossed into water to see if they would float – a primitive “swim test” for sorcery.

The hysteria ignited after the sudden death of eight‑year‑old Elizabeth Kelly. Her parents claimed she fell ill the night after returning home with neighbor Goodwife Ayres, insisting she was possessed. Over the next half‑century, Connecticut saw 46 prosecutions and at least 11 executions, ending its final witch trial in 1697.

5 Remorse

By late 1692, public confidence in the witch hunts began to crumble as many of the accused were upstanding, devout Puritans, contradicting the notion that true believers could be witches. By 1693, twelve jurors publicly apologized for their erroneous verdicts.

Four years later, the General Court ordered a day of fasting and soul‑searching. In 1702, the court declared the trials unlawful, and by 1711, monetary compensation was awarded to the heirs of the condemned, accompanied by legislation restoring their good names.

It would take another two and a half centuries before Massachusetts issued an official apology in 1957, acknowledging the grave injustice inflicted upon those victims.

4 The Tragic Case Of Mr. Jacobs

One of the most heartrending stories involves 70‑year‑old George Jacobs Sr., who was denounced by his own granddaughter. During his trial, Jacobs laughed at the magistrates, incredulous that the village could be so quick to brand him a witch.

His defiant stance only attracted more accusers, especially after he publicly ridiculed the afflicted girls. Desperate, Jacobs attempted to save himself by confessing, but the court ignored his plea, finding him guilty and hanging him on August 19, 1692 – making him one of the first men executed for witchcraft in Salem.

Jacobs’ remains were recovered from Gallows Hill and initially interred on family land. In 1864, descendants unearthed a tall, arthritic, toothless skeleton, and during the 300th‑anniversary commemorations in 1992, his bones were respectfully re‑buried on August 2.

3 The Western Section Of The Village

The exact cause of the Salem hysteria remains debated, but many scholars point to ergot fungus – a toxic mold that contaminates rye, the staple grain of Salem Village. Ergotism, caused by ergot alkaloids, can trigger severe muscle spasms, hallucinations, skin crawling sensations, delusions, and vomiting.

These symptoms match the frantic, bizarre behaviors recorded in the Salem case files. Moreover, ergot thrives in damp, rainy springs and summers – precisely the climate of the western part of Salem Village where the majority of the afflicted girls lived.

This theory suggests that a natural, poisonous outbreak may have masqueraded as supernatural possession, fueling the community’s panic and accusations.

2 The Ipswich Jail

As the Salem prisons overflowed, many detainees were transferred to other facilities. In the spring of 1692, Sarah Good and her four‑year‑old daughter Dorothy were sent to the Ipswich jail. Shortly after, Sarah gave birth to a second daughter, Mercy.

Tragically, the infant died amid the harsh conditions, and on July 19, Sarah herself was hanged. Dorothy, never formally charged, remained incarcerated for nine months until her father could secure a bond and provide sustenance.

Historical accounts claim that the prolonged imprisonment drove Dorothy to madness. After the trials concluded and the accused were freed, lingering rumors suggested the spirits of the tormented remained at the jail, with prisoners reportedly hearing screams and witnessing apparitions. The jail was eventually demolished, later becoming a farm and then a school, yet eerie noises and sightings persisted for years.

1 A Martyr’s Death

George Burroughs, a Harvard‑educated minister, arrived in Salem Village in 1680 as one of its first Puritan clergymen. Four years earlier, he had fled his previous home in Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) after Native American attacks.

Burroughs survived several massacres, and his connections to Native peoples and alleged ties to the devil aroused suspicion among villagers, who labeled him a witch ringleader. On May 4, 1692, soldiers dragged him from his home in Wells, Maine, and imprisoned him.

During his execution, Burroughs was paraded through Salem streets to the gallows. In a final, courageous act, he declared his innocence and recited the Lord’s Prayer with composure, moving onlookers to tears as they pleaded—unsuccessfully—to halt his death.

Scholars now view Burroughs as the sole individual executed primarily for his religious beliefs rather than the fevered imaginations of the Massachusetts colonists.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.