In June of , the special Court of Oyer to hear and Terminer to decide sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and was hanged on June Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days before the court was disbanded by Governor William Phipps in October of that year.
This belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture their victims had sealed the fates of those tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
The new court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In effect, the Salem Witch Trials were over. Historians and sociologists have examined this most complex episode in our history so that we may understand the issues of that era and view subsequent events with heightened awareness. Sage, Upham, William P. House of John Proctor: Witchcraft Martyr, Press of C. Shepard, Salem, Essex Institute, Very, very fascinating.
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. In addition, the harsh realities of life in the rural Puritan community of Salem Village present-day Danvers, Massachusetts at the time included the after-effects of a British war with France in the American colonies in , a recent smallpox epidemic, fears of attacks from neighboring Native American tribes and a longstanding rivalry with the more affluent community of Salem Town present-day Salem.
In January , 9-year-old Elizabeth Betty Parris and year-old Abigail Williams the daughter and niece of Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village began having fits, including violent contortions and uncontrollable outbursts of screaming. After a local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed bewitchment, other young girls in the community began to exhibit similar symptoms, including Ann Putnam Jr.
The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing.
Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans.
As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse—both regarded as upstanding members of church and community—and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good. In May , the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer to hear and Terminer to decide on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties.
Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town.
Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. Though the respected minister Cotton Mather had warned of the dubious value of spectral evidence or testimony about dreams and visions , his concerns went largely unheeded during the Salem witch trials.
Amid waning public support for the trials, Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer in October and mandated that its successor disregard spectral evidence. Her execution occurred on Tuesday July 19, According to local tradition, when Good stood at the gallows prepared to die she was asked once more by Rev.
Nicholas Noyes, assistant minister in the Salem church, to confess and thus save her immortal soul. Far from confessing, Good is said to have screamed, "You're a liar! I'm no more a witch than you are a wizard!
If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink! The way in which Good has been portrayed in literature is worth mentioning because it sheds light upon how the Salem Witch Trials have been popularly imagined and how the accused witches were and are viewed today. Good is always depicted as an old hag with white hair and wrinkled skin. She is often said to be sixty or seventy years of age by the same writers who clearly state that she was pregnant and had a six-year-old daughter.
Even accounts from Salem Villagers and magistrates at the time refer to her as an old nuisance, hag, and bed-ridden. How did such a misconception arise? Perhaps her hard life did have such a physical effect on Good that she did appear extremely aged.
0コメント