5/21/65 [
3129]'s letter:
California
Mrs. Gladys Davis Turner
Secretary of A.R.E.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Dear Mrs. Turner:
Thank you for your answer to my question as well as for your
expression of interest in my attempt to verify a portion of
my Life Reading. I shall here review as briefly as I can
the portions involving the name Robert Calvert - which I
must continue to judge INCORRECT.
The pertinent paragraphs are "Before this the entity was in
the land of the present sojourn, rather than nativity; during
those periods when there was much questioning as to the
spiritual or mystical and spiritual forces and the working
of disincarnate forces in the experience of peoples - as to
whether they were possessed or allowing themselves to become
as tools for unruly, unseemly forces.
"Then in the name of Robert Calvert, the entity made for many
questionings, and acted in the capacity as a judge in the
tenets of the very orthodox relations of church, of state,
of peoples."
I was living in Boston at the time of the reading although I
had grown up in Indiana; therefore, I interpreted "the land
of the present sojourn" to mean either Boston or New England.
Although no dates were given, the description of events
taking place could fit no other period so exactly as that
in which the Salem witchcraft trials took place.
I could not recall having known too much or being too
interested either in that episode in particular or American
history in general although for years I had felt a peculiar
satisfaction in all the older sections of downtown Boston.
Beyond a flicker of memory which might show itself as
interest, I had only a trust in the mystic cycle of 144
years from birth to birth to guide me.
My birthdate being 1901, the first subtraction of 144 brought
me to 1757, much too late for the Salem or Boston fracas, and
the second subtraction took me to 1613, much too early.
The next paragraph of the reading, which should have brought
more light, seemed to confuse matters hopelessly: "Then
in the name as Robert Calvert, the entity made for many
questionings, and acted in the capacity as a judge in the
tenets of the very orthodox relations of church, of state,
of peoples."
For a matter of months, I searched the records for a Robert
Calvert who fitted the description. The only representatives
of that name in the New World were associated with Maryland,
not Massachusetts. There was no Robert among them, and the
line did not extend beyond the originals themselves, they
being unmarried or having no heirs.
For years, the question was held in abeyance. Hearing of
a new book by Marion Starkey, THE DEVIL IN MASSACHUSETTS,
bearing on the subject, I was interested in the possibility
of enlightenment so I made haste to read a copy.
The index revealed no Robert Calvert; but it did show a
Robert Calef, whose character and activity fitted exactly
with the details presented in the reading.
He was a Boston merchant rather deprecatingly referred to as
a weaver who most assuredly "made for many questionings, and
acted in the capacity of a judge."
He seems to have been one of the few sane heads in the
place, and weaver or cloth merchant though he was, he did
not hesitate to make his own observations and draw his own
conclusions. Nor did he hesitate to question repeatedly the
decisions, theology, and reasoning of the Mathers, Cotton
and Increase; and when they failed to give him satisfaction,
appealing to the clergy at large. He followed Cotton
Mather's WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD with a book of
his own, MORE WONDERS, which was five times reprinted
and is today recognized as the work of a mature and
fair-intentioned individual possessed of an orderly mind.
I shall forgo inordinate praise although I am inclined to
it, for Father Increase, as President of Harvard, burned
this man's book in Harvard Yard and son Cotton called him "a
sort of Sadducee in this town." And to have called the true
infantile and fanatic character of these two divines to the
fore is in itself a mead of praise and a modicum of comfort.
But the man's name was not Robert Calvert. It was Robert
Calef.
He was born in England in 1648 (?) (only 35 years out from
the 1613 date expected). He came to Boston sometime before
1688 with his family. Two of his eight children were born
after his coming to Boston, his eldest son being in 1692 a
physician in Ipswich.
In addition to his business and his meddling (justifiable) in
the witchcraft matter, Calef was from 1692-1710 a constable,
hayward, and fenceviewer, a surveyor of highways, a clerk
of the market, an overseer of the poor, an assessor, and a
tithing-man!
He retired to his own property in Roxbury, Massachusetts,
where he died and was buried in the old burial ground
opposite his home, April 13, 1719, aged 71.
Robert Calef seemed to have lived and died consistent with
his own integrity - a thoroughgoing Puritan and as dogged as
John Bull himself.
The discrepancy of the name is easily accounted for as an
error in transcription since the shorthand symbols are quite
similar and substituting a familiar name for one unfamiliar
would seem natural enough. I believe no one would hesitate
to say that Robert Calef was the man whose record was
referred to.
It might be harder, however, for another to see the
connection between what Cayce says of the virtues and
vices appertaining to Calef which still show in the
present personality. But I feel they are there. The exact
explanation of anything is as important to me as ever.
Although today not even as successful as a weaver, cloth
merchant, and being wholly inexperienced as a surveyor,
hayward, constable, or overseer of the poor, I still will
take issue with anyone so far as keeping the "record"
straight. And I want to get it down on paper, too, in just
the way I see it - step by step - even at the expense of
seeming tedious and pettish.
Furthermore, I'm still unregenerate and a trifle
stiff-necked: I'm a libertine in Puritan garb - and the
Mathers and I are still at odds. Maybe they were right and
I am a sort of Sadducee. "Hence those influences in the
present in which the entity finds that he almost attains,
and yet there is an influence or a force apparently outside
or beyond the control of the entity... For as the entity
measured to others, so the entity finds the meeting of
itself in the present."
Maybe I'm presumptuous and overhasty in feeling this settled
- but I'm proud of Robert Calef - he's just the kind of man
not only that I should have liked to be but the kind I still
want to go on being for some time to come.
Sincerely, [
3129]
ROBERT CALEF (1648?-1719)
Boston merchant (cloth) or a weaver who came to America
sometime before 1688.
He was the father of eight children, at least two of whom
were born after his coming to Boston.
His wife's name was Mary.
Calef was in 1692 constable
in 1694 hayward and fenceviewer
in 1697 surveyor of highways
in 1698 a clerk of the market
in
1702-4 overseer of the poor
in 1707 assessor
in 1710 a tithing man
In 1707, he bought property in Roxbury. He died and was
buried in the old burial ground opposite his home. A stone
testifies: "Here lyes buried the body of Mr. Robert Calef,
aged seventy-one years, died April the thirteenth, 1719."
His eldest son was in 1692 a physician in Ipswich.
Calef was a friend of Thomas Brattle of Cambridge and his
brother of Boston.
He wrote MORE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD in 1697. It was
printed in 1700.* It was burned publicly in Harvard Yard.
He questioned the procedure of the Salem Witchcraft, calling
in question the definitions of the Mathers. Increase Mather
(1639-1723) the president of Harvard.
Cotton Mather (1669-1728) son of above - pastor of North
Church. Called Calef "a sort of Sadducee in this town."
"Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases" 1648-1706 G. L. Burr
(Scribner's, 1914)
* [The copy I have is of a reprinting in 1823.]
Edgar Cayce Readings © 1971, 1993, 1994, 1995 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation