I am a direct descendant of Mary Towne Esty and always find the more I read about the trials and people involved, the more I learn. Thank you for an excellent article. Thanks, Stephen! I am a direct descendant of Susannah Martin, descending thru her daughter, Jane who married Samuel Hadley. I have often questioned, as surely many others have, what could cause educated persons such as judges and ministers to buy into such rot.
Susannah North, an ancestor on my fathers side of the family. Mary Foster Lacey Sr. I got conflicting information until someone helping me told me that is her full name to get her true hints on ancestry.
I will give details birth and date later. Her father is Richard North born died same as her mother born and died as her father.. Her grandparents -John North born died and Anna Hadell born died I will give much details soon as possible the dates of birth and death and the city where they were born and where they are buried. I have been told that I am related to the oldest woman in the witch trials. I do genealogy and would love to research her. Do you know her name? Also, did they mean the oldest victim in the witch trials or just the oldest person accused?
Hundreds of people were accused and arrested so that would be tough to figure out. My ancestor, Mehitabel Braybrooke Downing was one of the accused. Her name in the letter is Mehitabel Downing. I wrote a historical novel about her and just received a contract from a publisher. The book will be out in early The story that they went to New York is unverified as yet, but from researching Essex County deeds and tax lists, I can verify that they returned to Salem Village and lived there until Some of their children remained in Essex County, while some moved with them to Bristol County and elsewhere.
You have Ms. Sarah Wildes is a fore mother of mine and it disheartens me into rage that she is one of the witches that were killed. May the gods bless her soul for Eternal peace and harmony. Hi Nora. My 10 great grandmother was Sarah Wilde.
I would love any information or stories you have about this side of the family. Thank you!! Juleless yahoo. Judy Skidmore Cottrell, I just today read your comment on this post. I do apologize for not keeping up with the comments here. I began a blog about my family tree called bridges2yesteryear. I had found some very helpful sources: some on-line documents, some printed sources books and magazine articles , and microfilms of original records. I used on-line documents from the Salem Witch Trials, tax records, deeds, and a scholarly article by Dr.
David L. Enjoyable reading! My ancestral grandmother, Mary Prince of Gloucester along with her daughter and granddaughter were accused and arrested for witchcraft, then jailed in Ipswich. There were many women from Gloucester, MA arrested. None of my ancestors went to trial; but jail must have been cruel. Looking forward to more of your stories.
Hi, Francis Hutchins is my 10th great Aunt. She was accused but not tried and her name is listed. I would love any other info anyone might have about her. Hi every1, Ive recently found out im a descendent of Hannah Bromage of Haverhill! My name is Scott Bromage. Ive only found she was arrested or accused! Sarah died proclaiming her innocence as others had done as her husband and son watched helplessly.
Her husband was a magistrate and her son a constable, both law abiding citizens and both sworn to uphold the laws, even those which were unjust. Imagine how you might feel if you had to witness the execution of one of your loved ones …. Did they eat certain foods? Basically said, at first The very first accused were smart. Their life as pioused citizens consisted of work and church only.
Drs examined them could find nothing wrong so religion came to play. As soon as the minister said they were touched by evil or witch craft the girls had an out. They began flailing and acting like fools and accused their maid of witch craft. She was where the smart came in. She was a slave and upon being accused was beaten nearly to death by her owner. She finally confessed thinking it would save her, her owner said tell us who your coven is or die so she named 2 others and lived.
Forget a word in the lords prayer? Have land someone wanted? Get accused. It snow balled from little girls avoiding getting into trouble to panic and finally to greed. Poor little Dorcus hoar is the saddest. Months in a dungeon convicted of witchcraft as a toddler. To save yourself a lie is told, the girls who started this cost more than 20 people their lives. Angela, there seems to be some confusion regarding your information about Dorcus Hoar.
The subject of that episode was actress Jean Smart who is a descendant of Dorcus. At least half of the show was about Dorcus. She confessed and spent almost a year in jail but was not executed because of a ruling that came a day before prohibiting further executions. If you get a chance, try to watch that episode. It was fascinating. Found this fascinating.. Noticed on the list of those arrested was the name Elizabeth Cary.. Katherine Cary. Are they actually the same person? If the accused was indicted, they were not allowed a lawyer and they had to decide to plead guilty or not guilty with no legal counsel to guide them.
Another interesting fact about the witch trials is not everyone in Salem actually believed in witchcraft or supported the trials. There were many critics of the witch hunt, such as a local farmer John Proctor, who scoffed at the idea of witchcraft in Salem and called the young girls scam artists. Critics such as Proctor were quickly accused of witchcraft themselves, under the assumption that anyone who denied the existence of witches or defended the accused must be one of them, and were brought to trial.
The trials were held in the Salem courthouse, which was located in the center of Washington Street about feet south of Lynde Street, opposite of where the Masonic Temple now stands. The courthouse was torn down in but a plaque dedicated to the courthouse can still be seen today on the wall of the Masonic Temple on Washington Street. Bridget Bishop was the first person brought to trial. Bishop had been accused of witchcraft years before but was cleared of the crime.
Bridget Bishop was convicted at the end of her trial and sentenced to death. Five more people were hanged in July, one of which was Rebecca Nurse. Although many of the other accused women were unpopular social outcasts, Nurse was a pious, well-respected and well-loved member of the community.
When Nurse was first arrested, many members of the community signed a petition asking for her release. Her initial verdict was, in fact, not guilty, but upon hearing the verdict the afflicted girls began to have fits in the courtroom.
Judge Stoughton asked the jury to reconsider their verdict. A week later, the jury changed their minds and declared Nurse guilty. On July 23, John Proctor wrote to the clergy in Boston. He knew the clergy did not fully approve of the witch hunts. Proctor told them about the torture inflicted on the accused and asked that the trials be moved to Boston where he felt he would get a fair trial. The clergy later held a meeting, on August 1, to discuss the trials but were not able to help Proctor before his execution.
Another notable person who was accused of witchcraft was Captain John Alden Jr. Alden was accused of witchcraft by a child during a trip to Salem while he was on his way home to Boston from Canada. Alden spent 15 weeks in jail before friends helped break him out and he escaped to New York.
He was later exonerated. Yet another crucial moment during the Salem Witch Trials was the public torture and death of Giles Corey.
English law at the time dictated that anyone who refused to enter a plea could be tortured in an attempt to force a plea out of them. The torture consisted of laying the prisoner on the ground, naked, with a board placed on top of him. Heavy stones were loaded onto the board and the weight was gradually increased until the prison either entered a plea or died. In mid-September, Corey was tortured this way for three days in a field near Howard Street until he finally died on September His death was gruesome and cruel and strengthened the growing opposition to the Salem Witch Trials.
As the trials and executions continued, colonists began to doubt that so many people could actually be guilty of this crime. They feared many innocent people were being executed. Local clergymen began speaking out against the witch hunt and tried to persuade officials to stop the trials. Around the end of September, the use of spectral evidence was finally declared inadmissible, thus marking the beginning of the end of the Salem Witch Trials.
On September 22, eight people were hanged. These were the last hangings of the Salem Witch Trials. The 52 remaining people in jail were tried in a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature, the following winter. Now that spectral evidence was not allowed, most of the remaining prisoners were found not guilty or released due to a lack of real evidence.
Those who were found guilty were pardoned by Governor Phips. The governor released the last few prisoners the following May. The others were either found guilty but pardoned, found not guilty, were never indicted or simply evaded arrest or escaped from jail. Refused to enter a plea and tortured to death: Giles Corey September 19th, Escaped from Prison: John Alden Jr.
Edward Bishop Jr. Other victims include two dogs who were shot or killed after being suspected of witchcraft. The fact is, no accused witches were burned at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem was ruled by English law at the time, which only allowed death by burning to be used against men who committed high treason and only after they had been hanged, quartered and drawn.
As for why these victims were targeted in the first place, historians have noted that many of the accused were wealthy and held different religious beliefs than their accusers.
This, coupled with the fact that the accused also had their estates confiscated if they were convicted has led many historians to believe that religious feuds and property disputes played a big part in the witch trials. Daily chores, business matters and other activities were neglected during the chaos of the witch trials, causing many problems in the colony for years to come, according to the book The Witchcraft of Salem Village:.
The people had been so determined upon hunting out and destroying witches that they had neglected everything else. Planting, cultivating, the care of houses, barns, roads, fences, were all forgotten.
As a direct result, food became scarce and taxes higher. Farms were mortgaged or sold, first to pay prison fees, then to pay taxes; frequently they were abandoned. Salem Village began that slow decay which eventually erased its houses and walls, but never its name and memory. As the years went by, the colonists felt ashamed and remorseful for what had happened during the Salem Witch Trials. Since the witch trials ended, the colony also began to suffer many misfortunes such as droughts, crop failures, smallpox outbreaks and Native-American attacks and many began to wonder if God was punishing them for their mistake.
The Salem Witch Trials were the first full-on hunt for witches. This resulted in mass hysteria in the community. The Puritans led strict religious lives that as a result led them to suppress the people who broke their codes. Many influential people, Rev. Samuel Parris, for example, made the Trials even scarier for the people of Salem. The Term Paper on Salem Witchcraft Trials House People Browie Throughout history millions of people have been scorned, accused, arrested, tortured, put to trial and, persecuted as witches.
One would think that by the time the United States was colonized, these injustices on humanity would have come to an end, but that was not so. Unable to find anything physically wrong with them, it was suggested that they might have been bewitched. Soon afterward, two of the girls named 3 women who they claimed had bewitched them. Use this Salem Witch Trials or order a custom term paper, written exactly how you need it to be.
What remains most perplexing about the witch trials in Salem was the willingness The Salem Witch Trials Why do you hurt these children? I do not hurt them. I scorn it. Have you made no contract with the devil? The elite of Andover were caught off guard. Captain Osgood, Deacon Frye, and other pillars of the church urged their friends and family members to confess, believing the message preached by Thomas Barnard that confession was the way to eternal life. However, once numerous wives and children were in prison, the church pillars began to realize that they had been deceived by the fanaticism of their younger minister, Thomas Barnard.
Finally comprehending the full implications of the hysteria, they turned to their older minister, Reverend Frances Dane , and formed a resistance movement. Under his guidance, they started to take the strong steps required to free the imprisoned members of their families. During the course of the legal proceedings, more than 40 Andover citizens, mostly women, and children were formally accused of having made a covenant with the Devil.
Five more either pled guilty at arraignment or were convicted at trial. These included Mary Lacey Sr. Those who were not executed were later granted reprieves by Governor William Phips.
Unfortunately, Ann Foster died in prison before she could be released. Andover also holds the dubious distinction of having the most confessed witches , and the highest number of children arrested. Through the resistance led by the Reverend Frances Dane and the many petitions filed, public opinion eventually turned against the trials.
Andover led the campaign that brought the witch trials to an end. In , Andover was divided into two parishes, North and South.
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