THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION IN COLONIAL CONNECTICUT: 1647-1697

BY JOHN M. TAYLOR, 1908

A RECORD OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CAME UNDER SUSPICION OR ACCUSATION OF WITCHCRAFT IN CONNECTICUT, AND WHAT BEFELL THEM.

Herein are written the names of all persons in anywise involved in the witchcraft delusion in Connecticut, with the consequences to them in indictments, trials, convictions, executions, or in banishment, exile, warnings, reprieves, or acquittals, so far as made known in any tradition, document, public or private record, to this time.

MARY JOHNSON. Windsor, 1647.

There is no documentary or other evidence to show that Mary Johnson was executed for witchcraft in Windsor in 1647.

No importance would have attached to this statement, which bears no date and does not give the name or sex of the condemned, had not Dr. Savage in his annotations of the Journal asserted that it was 'the first instance of the delusion in New England,' and without warrant added, 'Perhaps there was sense enough early in the colony to destroy the record.'

In all discussions of this matter, it has been assumed or conceded (in the absence of any positive proof), by such eminent critics and scholars as Drake, Fiske, Poole, Hoadley, Stiles, and others, that Winthrop's note was based on rumor or hearsay, or that it related to the later conviction and execution of a woman of the same name, next noted, and the errors as to person, time, and place might easily have been made.

MARY JOHNSON. Wethersfield, 1648.

This Mary Johnson left a definite record. It is written in broad lines in the dry-as-dust chronicles of the time. Cotton Mather embalmed the tragedy in his Magnalia.

'There was one Mary Johnson tryd at Hartford in this countrey, upon an indictment of 'familiarity with the devil,' and was found guilty thereof, chiefly upon her own confession.'

'And she dyd in a frame extreamly to the satisfaction of them that were spectators of it.'

At a session of the Particular Court held in Hartford, August 21, 1646, Mary Johnson for thievery was sentenced to be presently whipped, and to be brought forth a month hence at Wethersfield, and there whipped. The whipping post, even in those days, did not prove a means to repentance and reformation, since at a session of the same court, December 7, 1648, the jury found a bill of indictment against Mary Johnson, that by her own confession she was guilty of familiarity with the devil.

That she was condemned and executed seems certain (it being assumed that Mary and Elizabeth Johnson were one and the same person, both Christian names appearing in the record), since at a session of the General Court, May 21, 1650, the prison-keeper's charges for her imprisonment were allowed and ordered paid out of her estate.'

A pathetic incident attaches to this case. A child to this poor woman was “borne in the prison,” who was bound out until he became twenty-one years of age, to Nathaniel Rescew, to whom L15 were paid according to the mother's promise to him, he having engaged himself “to meinteine and well educate her sonne.”

ALSE YOUNG. Windsor, 1647.

'May 26. 47 Alse Young was hanged.' MATTHEW GRANT'S Diary.

'The first entry (the executions of Carrington and his wife being next mentioned) supplies the name of the 'One (blank) of Windsor arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch'—the first known execution for witchcraft in New England. I have found no mention elsewhere of this Alse Young.' J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL'S Observation on Grant's Entry.

'Who then was the 'witch' with whose execution Connecticut stepped into the dark shadow of persecution? She has been called Mary Johnson, but no Mary Johnson has been identified as this earliest victim. Whose is that pathetic figure shrinking in the twilight of that early record? We could think of her with no less kindly compassion could we give a name to the unhappy victim of the misread Word of God, who was led forth to a death stripped of dignity as of consolation: who to an ignorance and credulity, brought from an old world and not yet sifted out by the enlightenment and experience of a new, yielded up her perhaps miserable but unforfeited life. Here is the note which in all probability establishes the identity of the One of Windsor arraigned and executed as a witch—'May 26, 47 Alse Young was hanged.' 'One Blank' of Windsor (Courant Literary Section, 12, 3, 1904),

JOHN and JOAN CARRINGTON. Wethersfield, 1651.

They were indicted at a court held February 20, 1651, Governor John Haynes and Edward Hopkins being present, with other magistrates; and they were found guilty on March 6, 1651. Both were executed.

Particular Court . [Dr. Hoadley's note in this case: 'Mr. Trumbull (Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull) told me he had a record of execution in these cases. I suppose he referred to the diary of Matthew Grant.'] The entry of the execution appears in Grant's Diary, after the note as to Alse Young. One Blank of Windsor, TRUMBULL.

LYDIA GILBERT. Windsor, 1654.

October 3, 1651, Henry Stiles of Windsor was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Thomas Allyn, also of Windsor. An inquest was held, and Thomas was indicted in the following December. He plead guilty, and at the trial the jury found the fact to be 'homicide by misadventure.' Thomas was fined L20 for his 'sinful neglect and careless carriage,' and put under a bond of L10, for good behavior for a year. Records Particular Court.

But witchcraft was abroad, and its tools and emissaries more than two years afterwards fastened suspicion of this death by clear accident, on Lydia Gilbert, it being charged that 'thou hast of late years, or still dost give entertainment to Sathan ... and by his helpe hast killed the body of Henry Styles, besides other witchcrafts.' She was indicted and tried in September or November, 1654, and 'Ye party above mentioned is found guilty of witchcraft by ye jury.' Her fate is not written in any known record, but the late Honorable S.O. Griswold, a recognized authority on early colonial history in Windsor, says that as the result of a close examination of the record, 'I think the reasonable probability is that she was hanged.' Records Particular Court ; STILE'S History of Windsor .

GOODY BASSETT. Stratford, 1651. Executed.

'The Gouernor, Mr. Cullick, and Mr. Clarke are desired to goe downe to Stratford to keepe courte uppon the tryall of Goody Bassett for her life'—May, 1651. 'Because goodwife Bassett when she was condemned' (probably on her own confession, as in the Greensmith case). Colonial Records of Connecticut (1: 220); New Haven Colonial Records.

GOODWIFE KNAPP. Fairfield, 1653. Executed.

'After goodwife Knapp was executed, as soon as she was cut downe.' New Haven Colonial Records.

ELIZABETH GODMAN. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Elizabeth was released from prison September 4, 1655, with a reprimand and warning by the court. New Haven Town Records ; New Haven Colonial Records.

NICHOLAS BAYLEY and WIFE. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Nicholas and his wife, after several appearances in court on account of a suspicion of witchcraft, and for various other offenses—among them, lying and filthy speeches by the wife—were advised to remove from the colony. They took the advice.

WILLIAM MEAKER. New Haven, 1657. Accused acquitted.

Thomas Mullener was always in trouble. He was a chronic litigant. His many contentions are noted at length in the court records. Among other things he made up his mind that his pigs were bewitched, so 'he did cut of the tayle and eare of one and threw into the fire,' 'said it was a meanes used in England by some people to finde out witches,' and in the light of this porcine sacrifice he charged his neighbor William Meaker with the bewitching. Meaker promptly brought an action of defamation, but Mullener became involved in other controversies and 'miscarriages,' to the degree that he was advised to remove out of the place, and put under bonds for good behavior; and Meaker, probably feeling himself vindicated, dropped his suit. New Haven Colonial Records.

ELIZABETH GARLICK. Easthampton, 1658. Acquitted.

Records Particular Court; Colonial Records of Connecticut ; STILES' History of Windsor

NICHOLAS and MARGARET JENNINGS. Saybrook, 1661.

Jury disagreed.

The major part of the jury found Nicholas guilty, but the rest only strongly suspected him, and as to Margaret, some found her guilty, and the others suspected her to be guilty. It is probable that the Jennings were under inquiry when, at a session of the General Court at Hartford, June 15, 1659, it was recorded that “Mr. Willis is requested to goe downe to Sea Brook, to assist ye Maior in examininge the suspitions about witchery, and to act therin as may be requisite.” Records Particular Court (2: 160-3); Colonial Records of Connecticut.

1662-63 was a notable year in the history of witchcraft in Connecticut. It marked the last execution for the crime within the commonwealth, and thirty years before the outbreak at Salem.

NATHANIEL GREENSMITH and REBECCA his WIFE. Hartford, 1662. Both executed.

MARY SANFORD. Hartford, 1662. Convicted June 13, 1662. Executed.

Records Particular Court (2: 174-175); HOADLEY'S Record Witchcraft Trials.

ANDREW SANFORD. Hartford, 1662. No indictment.

Records Particular Court (2: 174-175); HOADLEY'S Record Witchcraft Trials.

JUDITH VARLETT (VARLETH). Hartford, 1662. Arrested; released.

It will be recalled that Rebecca Greensmith in her confession, among other things, said that Mrs. Judith Varlett told her that she (Varlett) 'was much troubled wth ye Marshall Jonath: Gilbert &cried, &she sayd if it lay in her power she would doe him a mischief, or what hurt shee could.'

Judith must have indulged in other indiscretions of association or of speech, since she soon fell under suspicion of witchcraft, and was put under arrest and imprisoned. But she had a powerful friend at court (who, despite his many contentions and intrigues, commanded the attention of the Connecticut authorities), in the person of her brother-in-law Peter Stuyvesant, then bearing the title and office of 'Captain General and Commander-in-Chief of Amsterdam In New Netherland, now called New York, and the Dutch West India Islands.' It was doubtless due to his intercession in a letter of October 13, 1662, that she was released.

MARY BARNES. Farmington, 1662. Convicted January 6.

Probably executed. Records Particular Court

WILLIAM AYRES and GOODY AYRES his Wife. Hartford, 1662. Arrested. Fled from the colony.

ELIZABETH SEAGER. Hartford, 1662.

Convicted; discharged.

Goody Seager probably deserved all that came to her in trials and punishment. She was one of the typical characters in the early communities upon whom distrust and dislike and suspicion inevitably fell. Exercising witch powers was one of her more reputable qualities. She was indicted for blasphemy, adultery, and witchcraft at various times, was convicted of adultery, and found guilty of witchcraft in June, 1665. She owed her escape from hanging to a finding of the Court of Assistants that the jury's verdict did not legally answer to the indictment, and she was set 'free from further suffering or imprisonment.' Records County Court ; Colonial Records of Connecticut ; Rhode Island Colonial Records.

JAMES WALKLEY. Hartford, 1662.

Arrested. Fled to Rhode Island.

KATHERINE HARRISON. Wethersfield, 1669.

Convicted; discharged.

NICHOLAS DESBOROUGH. Hartford, 1683. Suspicioned.

Desborough was a landowner in Hartford, having received a grant of fifty acres for his services in the Pequot war. He owes his enrollment in the hall of fame to Cotton Mather, who was so self-satisfied with his efforts in 'relating the wonders of the invisible world in preternatural occurrences' that in his pedantic exuberance he put in a learned sub-title: 'Miranda cano, sed sunt credenda' (The themes I sing are marvelous, yet true).

Desborough stands in place as the “fourth example.” No case more clearly illustrates the credulity that neutralized common sense in strong men. It was a case of abstraction, or theft, or mistaken thrift. A 'chest of cloaths' was missing. The owner, instead of going to law, found his remedy 'in things beyond the course of nature,' and he and his friends with “nimble hands” pelted Desborough's house, and himself when abroad, with stones, turves, and corncobs, and finally some of his property was burned by a fire 'in an unknown way kindled.' Is it not enough to note that Mather closes this wondrous tale of the spiritual molestations with the very human explanation that “upon the restoring of the cloaths, the trouble ceased'?

ELIZABETH CLAWSON. Fairfield, 1692.

Acquitted.

MARY and HANNAH HARVEY. Fairfield, 1692.

Jury found no bill.

GOODY MILLER. Fairfield, 1692.

Acquitted.

MARY STAPLIES. Fairfield, 1692.

Jury found no bill.

MERCY DISBOROUGH. Fairfield, 1692

Convicted; reprieved.

HUGH CROTIA. Stratford, 1693.

Jury found no bill.

WINIFRED BENHAM SENIOR and JUNIOR. Wallingford, 1697.

Acquitted.

They were mother and daughter (twelve or thirteen years old), tried at Hartford and acquitted in August, 1697; indicted on new complaints in October, 1697, but the jury returned on the bill, “Ignoramus.” Records Court of Assistants

SARAH SPENCER. Colchester, 1724.

Accused. Damages 1s.

Even a certificate of the minister as to her religion and virtue, could not free Sarah from a reputation as a witch. And when Elizabeth (and how many Connecticut witches bore that name) Ackley accused her of 'riding and pinching,' and James Ackley, her husband, made threats, Sarah sued them for a fortune in those days, L500 damages, and got judgment for L5, with costs. The Ackleys appealed, and at the trial the jury awarded Sarah damages of ls., and also stated that they found the Ackleys not insane—a clear demonstration that the mental condition of witchcraft accusers was taken account of in the later and saner times.

NORTON. Bristol, 1768.

Suspicioned. No record.

'On the mountain,' probably Fall mountain in Bristol, the antics of a young woman named Norton, who accused her aunt of putting a bridle on her and driving her through the air to witch meetings in Albany, caused a commotion among the virtuous people. Deacon Dutton's ox was torn apart by an invisible agent, and unseen hands brought new ailments to the residents there, pinched them and stuck red hot pins into them. Elder Wildman set out to exorcise the evil spirit, but became so terrorized that he called for help, and one of his posse of assistants was scared into convulsions. This case may be counted among the last, perhaps the last traditions of the strange delusion which aforetime filled the hills and valleys of Quohnectacut with its baleful light. Memorial History Hartford County .

ROLL OF NAMES

ALSE YOUNG 1647
MARY JOHNSON 1648
JOHN CARRINGTON 1650-51
JOAN CARRINGTON 1650-71
GOODY BASSETT 1651
GOODWIFE KNAPP 1653
LYDIA GILBERT 1654
ELIZABETH GODMAN 1655
NICHOLAS BAYLY 1655
GOODWIFE BAYLY 1655
WILLIAM MEAKER 1657
ELIZABETH GARLICK 1658
NICHOLAS JENNINGS 1661
MARGARET JENNINGS 1661
NATHANIEL GREENSMITH 1662
REBECCA GREENSMITH 1662
MARY SANFORD 1662
ANDREW SANFORD 1662
GOODY AYRES 1662
KATHERINE PALMER 1662
JUDITH VARLETT 1662
JAMES WALKLEY 1662
MARY BARNES 1662-63
ELIZABETH SEAGER 1666
KATHERINE HARRISON 1669
NICHOLAS DISBOROUGH 1683
MARY STAPLIES 1692
MERCY DISBOROUGH 1692
ELIZABETH CLAWSON 1692
MARY HARVEY 1692
HANNAH HARVEY 1692
GOODY MILLER 1692
HUGH CROTIA 1693
WINIFRED BENHAM, SENR. 1697
WINIFRED BENHAM, JUNR. 1697
SARAH SPENCER 1724
——NORTON 1768


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