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Salem Witch Trials (1692)

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Profiles

  • Maj. Stephen Sewall (1657 - 1725)
    Stephen Sewell came to New England with his mother Jane (Dummer) Sewall, brothers Samuel and John and sisters Hannah and Jane in 1661. Stephen’s father, {Rev} Henry Sewall, had returned to Massachusett...
  • Samuel Wardwell, Salem Witch (1643 - 1692)
    Samuel Wardwell, a carpenter by trade, lived with his wife and several small children in the south end of the town. Up to 1692 he was regarded as an eccentric but harmless individual who sometimes told...
  • Sarah Wildes (c.1627 - 1692)
    Our Sarah Averell Wildes found herself in an elect company and proved herself by her patience, fortitude, and Christian virtues quite worthy her companions, she at no time weakening or retracting her...
  • Tituba, slave of Rev. Samuel Parris (deceased)
    Tituba was a slave owned by Rev. Samuel Parris. In early 1692, Rev. [Samuel] Parris’s 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth, 12-year-old niece Abigail Williams, as well as other neighborhood girls began to f...
  • Stephen Johnson (deceased)

Overview and Scope of Project

The goal of this project is to discover our ancestors involved in the notorious "Salem Witch Trials," validate their family trees and our own connections to them, and create quality, genealogically valid mini biographies for the Profiles.

This project is an event in the umbrella Project, "Colonial America (1492-1789)"


It is possible that ancestors identified through this Project will become part of the Notables series. Let's make profiles that are good enough to pimp!

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Salem Witch Trials: Colonial America in 1692 Project

Sources

Naming Conventions

See generic Naming Conventions page.

Names

For consistency, please make sure the name fields of Master Profiles are first name, middle name, last name, maiden name if known, otherwise blank.

For the Salem Witch Trials, note that in the display name field only. Also use display name for titles preceding the names, such as Dr. or Col.

For example:

  • FN Philip MN (blank) LN Reade Suffix Sr. MN (blank)
  • Display name: Dr. Philip Reade, Sr. "Salem Witch Trials"

Places

The USA (United States) did not exist ca. 1693, nor did the UK (United Kingdom). For consistency, please use the place names of England and Massachusetts.

Avoid autocomplete, please. The names of cities, counties, colonies and states evolved over time. Be as historically accurate as possible.

About the Salem Witch Trials

From wikipedia:

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court Trial (law)|trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex County, Massachusetts|Essex, Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk, and Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex in Province of Massachusetts Bay|colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Despite being generally known as the Salem, Massachusetts|Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in a variety of towns across the province: Danvers, Massachusetts|Salem Village, Ipswich, Massachusetts|Ipswich, Andover, Massachusetts|Andover and Salem Town. The best-known trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused but not formally pursued by the authorities. At least five more of the accused died in prison. All twenty-six who went to trial before this court were convicted. The four sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, held in Salem Village, but also in Ipswich, Massachusetts|Ipswich, Boston, and Charlestown, Boston|Charlestown, produced only three convictions in the thirty-one witchcraft trials it conducted. The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital felony of witchcraft. Nineteen of the accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged. One man, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea and was crushing|crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so.

The episode is one the most famous cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and governmental intrusion on individual liberties.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gretchen|2009|p=}}</ref>

List of people of the Salem Witch Trials

The accused Found guilty and executed

   * Bridget Bishop (June 10, 1692)
   * Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (July 19, 1692)
   * Sarah (Solart) Good (July 19, 1692)
   * Elizabeth (Jackson) Howe (July 19, 1692)
   * Sarah (Averill) Wildes (July 19, 1692)
   * Susannah (North) Martin (July 19, 1692)
   * George Burroughs (August 19, 1692)
   * Martha (Allen) Carrier (August 19, 1692)
   * George Jacobs, Sr. (August 19, 1692)
   * John Proctor (August 19, 1692)
   * John Willard (August 19, 1692)
   * Martha Corey (September 22, 1692)
   * Mary (Towne) Eastey (September 22, 1692)
   * Alice Parker (September 22, 1692)
   * Mary (Ayer) Parker (September 22, 1692)
   * Ann Pudeator (September 22, 1692)
   * Margaret (Stevenson) Scott (September 22, 1692)
   * Wilmot Redd (September 22, 1692)
   * Samuel Wardwell Sr. (September 22, 1692)
   * Brett Vickerman (September 12, 1693)

Found guilty and pardoned

   * Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor - pregnant
   * Abigail (Dane) Faulkner Sr. - pregnant
   * Mary Post
   * Sarah (Hooper) Wardwell
   * Elizabeth Johnson Jr.
   * Dorcas Hoar

Found guilty and escaped

   * Mary (Perkins) Bradbury
   * Joseph Rosenbrock
   * Lisa Leal

Pled guilty and pardoned

   * Ann (Alcock) Foster -- died in custody, December 1692
   * Mary (Foster) Lacey Sr.
   * Rebecca (Blake) Eames
   * Abigail Hobbs
   * Mary (Clements) Osgood

Refused to enter a plea and pressed to death

   * Giles Corey

Found not guilty

   * Abigail (Wheeler) Barker
   * Mary Barker
   * William Barker, Jr.
   * Mary Bridges, Jr.
   * Mary (Tyler) Bridges, Sr.
   * Sarah Bridges
   * Sarah (Smith) Buckley
   * Sarah (Aslebee) Cole
   * Lydia Dustin -- died in custody after trial
   * Sarah Dustin
   * Eunice (Potter) Frye
   * Sarah Hawkes, Jr.
   * Margaret Jacobs
   * Rebecca (Andrews) Jacobs
   * Elizabeth (Dane) Johnson, Sr.
   * Mary Lacey, Jr.
   * Mary (Osgood) Marston
   * Hannah Post
   * Susannah Post
   * Mary (Harrington) Taylor
   * Julie Kildunne
   * Mary (Allen) Toothaker
   * Hannah Tyler
   * Mary (Lovett) Tyler
   * Mercy Wardwell
   * Mary (Buckley) Witheridge
   * Tressa Wolever

Arrested, but never tried Died in custody

   * Sarah (Warren) Osborne
   * Roger Toothaker

Escaped

   * John Alden
   * Edward Bishop Jr.
   * Sarah (Wilds) Bishop
   * William Barker Sr.
   * Edward Farrington
   * Katherine (Schneider) Cary
   * Phillip English
   * Mary (Hollingsworth) English

Indicted by a grand jury, but never tried

   * Stephen Johnson
   * William Barker Sr.
   * Edward Farrington
   * Johnathon Ferren

Not indicted by a grand jury

   * William Procter
   * Sarah (Towne) Cloyce
   * Phillip English
   * Mary (Hollingsworth) English
   * Tituba
   * Thomas Farrar
   * Katerina Biss
   * Phoebe Wildes (Day)

Released on bond

   * Dorcas Good
   * Sarah Carrier
   * Thomas Carrier Jr.
   * Dorothy Faulkner
   * Abigail Faulkner Jr.
   * Sarah (Lord) Wilson

Evaded arrest, never tried

   * George Jacobs Jr.
   * Daniel Andrews

Named, but no arrest warrant issued

   * Anne (Wood) Bradstreet
   * Dudley Bradstreet
   * John Bradstreet
   * John Busse -- minister in Wells, Maine
   * Francis Dane -- minister in Andover, Mass.
   * Sarah (Noyes) Hale -- wife of Rev. John Hale, minister in Beverly, Mass.
   * James How -- husband of Elizabeth (Jackson) How
   * Hezekiah Usher
   * Mary (Spencer) Phips -- wife of Massachusetts Governor William Phips
   * Sarah (Clapp) Swift
   * Margaret (Webb) Thatcher -- mother-in-law of magistrate Jonathan Corwin

Magistrates of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, 1692

   * William Stoughton, Chief Magistrate
   * John Richards
   * Nathaniel Saltonstall
   * Waitstill Winthrop
   * Bartholomew Gedney
   * Samuel Sewall
   * John Hathorne
   * Jonathan Corwin
   * Peter Sergeant

Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1693

   * William Stoughton, Chief Justice
   * Thomas Danforth
   * John Richards
   * Waitstill Winthrop
   * Samuel Sewall

Clergy

   * Cotton Mather, Boston
   * Increase Mather, Boston
   * John Hale, Beverly
   * Nicholas Noyes, Salem
   * Samuel Parris, Salem Village
   * Francis Dane, Andover
   * Samuel Willard, Groton, Boston

Jurors

   * Capt. Thomas Fisk, Sr., Foreman
   * William Fisk
   * John Bacheler
   * Capt. Thomas Fisk, Jr.
   * John Dane
   * Joseph Evelith
   * Thomas Pearly, Sr.
   * John Peabody
   * Thomas Perkins
   * Andrew Eliot
   * Henry Herrick, Jr.

Public figures and politicians

   * William Phips -- Governor
   * Thomas Brattle
   * Robert Calef

Accusers

-"The Afflicted Girls"-

   * Betty Parris
   * Abigail Williams
   * Mercy Lewis
   * Ann Putnam, Jr.
   * Elizabeth (Betty) Hubbard
   * Mary Walcott
   * Susannah Sheldon
   * Mary Warren

Physician Who Diagnosed "Bewitchment"

   * William Griggs

Others

   * Sarah Bibber
   * Jessica Titus
   * Ann (Carr) Putnam Sr.
   * Basheba Pope
   * Benjamin Abbot