Salem Witch Accuser Elizabeth "Betty" Parris

Betty Parris, ten-year-old daughter of Samuel Parris, whose strange behavior beginning in February, 1692 started everything off.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Parris

Elizabeth "Betty" Parris (November 28, 1682 – March 21, 1760) was one of the accusers during the Salem witch trials. In the winter of 1691–1692, Betty, the nine-year-old daughter[1] of the Salem, Massachusetts' Reverend Samuel Parris (1653–1720) and his wife Elizabeth,[2] was the first to claim illness due to being "bewitched". Her contortions, convulsions and outbursts of gibberish at first baffled everyone, especially when other girls began to show similar symptoms. Shortly after her illness the Salem witch trials began, with the girls accusing neighbors of witchcraft

http://www.worldsstrangest.com/neatorama/famous-trials-the-witches-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Parris

Biography

Betty (Parris) Barron was a witchcraft accuser in the Salem Witch Trials
Elizabeth was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris and his first wife Elizabeth. [1][2][3]

Betty was the first to claim illness due to being bewitched during the Salem Witch Trials. With her cousin, Abigail Williams, Betty began to experiment with fortune telling, which at the time was a game. But by January 1692, Betty was exhibiting several symptoms such as screaming wildly and barking like a dog. A local physician, William Griggs was summoned, and diagnosed Elizabeth as afflicted by an "evil hand." The community, in trying to find the perpetrators, arrested Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and the Parris family's slave Tituba. Tituba confessed and in 1693 was sold to someone willing to pay her jail costs, but Sarah Good was convicted and hung, and Sarah Osborne died in prison.

On 13 Jun 1709, she married Benjamin Barron (Barnes) in Wayland, [4]

They had four children together. Betty died in Concord, New Hampshire on March 21, 1760. [5]

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Parris-288

Parris-288 created 14 Jun 2015 | Last modified 17 Jan 2023 | Last tracked change:
17 Jan 2023

Elizabeth (Parris) Barron (1682 - 1760)

Elizabeth (Betty) Barron formerly Parris

Born 28 Nov 1682 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Daughter of Samuel Parris and Elizabeth (Eldred) Parris

Sister of Dorothy (Parris) Brown [half], Samuel Parris Jr. [half] and Mary (Parris) Bent [half]

Wife of Benjamin Barron — married 13 Jan 1709 in Wayland, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Mother of Mary Ann (Barron) Wooten

Died 21 Mar 1760 at age 77 in Rumford, New Hampshire (now Concord)

07:16: Stephanie Stults added Mary Ann (Barron) Wooten (1717-) as child of Elizabeth (Parris) Barron (1682-1760). [Thank Stephanie for this]

Sources

↑ Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 Online at: Ancestry.com
↑ Early Generations of the Founders of Old Dunstable, Thirty Families; Ezra S. Stearns; George E Littlefield, Boston, 1911; page 58
↑ “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/3.
↑ Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 Online at: Ancestry.com
↑ Witches of Massachusetts, Legends of America website
See also:

The Salem Witchcraft Papers; Verbatim Transcriptions of the Court Records In three volumes; Edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum; Da Capo Press: New York, 1977.; Many mentions of Elizabeth Parris in the transcripts
Wikipedia Entry for Elizabeth "Betty" Parris
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Biography of Elizabeth Parris, Accuser in the Salem Witch Trials." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/elizabeth-betty-parris-biography-3530319 (accessed January 12, 2020).