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About John Carrington, Sr., of Wethersfield
"John Carrington thou art indited by the name of John Carrington of Wethersfield—carpenter—, that not hauing the feare of God before thine eyes thou hast interteined ffamilliarity with Sattan the great enemye of God and mankinde and by his helpe hast done workes aboue the course of nature for wch both according to the lawe of God and the established lawe of this Commonwealth thou deseruest to dye."
Record Particular Court, 2: 17, 1650-51.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12288/12288-h/12288-h.htm
John and wife Joan are listed as executed in the Wethersfield, Connecticut witch trials in 1651.
The origin of John Carrington is unknown. Birth date of ca 1610 is a guess, based on historical facts surrounding his family and trial (daughter Rebecca could have been born as early as 1644).
The execution of John Carrington and his wife was the second known execution for witchcraft in New England.
Source: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/a/r/Donna-Carpenter-In...
Includes Notes for John Carrington Sr.: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
- Subject: John Carrington-Witchcraft
- From: Rita Bryant
From an article titled "When CT Hanged Witches"
It is difficult to find family records of people hung for witchcraft and it seems like some of the records have been concealed. In all, 33 persons are known to have been accused of witchcraft during the latter half of the 17th century when the
witchcraft delusion swept CT, 11 of these believed to have been executed.
John Carrington, A Wethersfield carpenter, and his (second) wife, Joan, were convicted of "familiarity with Satan and works above the course of Nature" and were hanged at Hartford in 1651. Their executions were also noted in Grant's diary. John settled in Wethersfield prior to 1643 and his homestead was on the east side of Sandy Lane, just south of Thomas Standish.
It is likely that Carrington was of a somewhat lawless nature, for in March 1648 he was fined 10 pounds for bartering a gun with an Indian." (This is from an article in CT Nutmegger and History of Wethersfield.)
Indictment: "John Carrington, thou art indicted by the name of John Carrington of Wethersfield, carpenter, that not having the fear of God before thine eyes thoe hast Intertained familiarity with Satan, the great enemy of God and Mankind; and by his help ahs done works above the course of nature for ? both according to the laws of God and the established laws of this common wealth thou deservest to Dye. The Jury finds this Inditem against John Carrington the 6th of March 1650-1. The same court, time, and place, found an Indictment also agains Joanne Carrington, wife of John Carrington, with the same verdict." March 1652 Court Record. There was presented to this court and inventory of John Carrington's estate which is ordered to be filed but not recorded. The estate presented being 23 pounds, and the debts specified therein owing by the estate is summed up 13 pounds. (From History of Wethersfield.)
The execution of Carrington and his wife was the second known execution for witchcraft in New England. They were indicted at a court held Feb. 20 1651, Gov. John Haynes and Edward Hopkins being present among other magistrates. They were found guilty on March 6, 1651. Both were executed. (This from "Withcraft Delusion".)
John Carrington in Wethersfield From Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, by John Putnam Demos (Oxford Press, NY), 1982. pp348-349
Less than three years after the trial of Mary Johnson, Wethersfield produced a second witchcraft case. The accused were a married couple, John and Joan Carrington by name. Charged with having "entertained familiarity with Satan, the great enemy of God and mankind, and by his help...done works about the course of nature," the Carringtons were convicted in March 1651 and sentenced to death. In the absence of explicit documentation, their execution cannot be proven - but seems highly probable all the same. In March 1653 probate was filed on John Carrington's estate. The inventory came to [23 pounds 11 shillings], and debts reduced this total by almost half.
As in the Johnson case, there is no way to recover a picture of the supposeed "victims" - if any. However, John Carrington did leave a thin trail of evidence which permits partial reconstruction of his earlier life. He arrived in Boston, from England, aboard a ship called the "Susan and Ellen", during the summer of 1635; he was accompanied by a wife named Mary. There is no trace of his movements between that time and August 1643, when a deed of sale locates him in Wethersfield. In June 1644 he was defendant in a civil action before the "particular Court" at Hartford, and in 1650 the same court fined him ten pounds for bartering a gun with an Indian.
Meanwhile he was active in a modest way at Wethersfield, buing land by private transaction in 1647, and receiving a small grant from the town in 1649. The legal records identify him as a carpenter. In December another resident of Wethersfield, one Edward Veir, took sick and died, leaving a will which made several references to John Carrington and a third party named Thomas Kirkham. Apparently Carrington, Kirkham, and Veir had recently completed a deal for "peas and wheat," and then may have been growing corn together as well. Veir was concerned that his friends not "lose anything" as a result of his death; he also asked that they be paid for making his coffin. Veir was unmarried, and his properties were relatively few; Kirkham appears (from other sources) to have stayed poor throughout a long residence in Wethersfield; and Carrington's own inventor was among the smallest in the whole range of early Connecticut probates. Hence the picture suggested here is one of close collaboration among three of the most humble members of the community. At the time of their arrival in Boston John and Mary Carrington were both recorded as being thirty-three years old. No children were listed as traveling with them. However, there is reason to believe that they subsequently produced at least one son - namely, a second John Carrington, later of Farmington, Connecticut. No specific birth-date can be assigned to this child, though 1640 seems a reasonable (if approximate) supposition. It is clear, in any event, that Mary Carrington died at some point in this sequence, and that her husband was remarried to a woman variously called Joan or Joanna. For it was Joan Carrington who stood indicted with John in 1651. In sum, the "witches" in this case were a married couple of roughly middle age. (John was forty-nine at the time of his trial; his wife, most likely, was also in her forties). John was in his second marriage (and possibly Joan was, too). John had been a resident in Wethersfield for at least eight years, certainly long enough to establish a "reputation". His economic position was quite lowly - likewise, no doubt, his social status. (He never held any offices in Wethersfield). Perhaps his only distinction was his alleged ability to "do works above the course of nature". And that was an unlucky distinction indeed. After the trial of the Carringtons, Wethersfield remained free of witchcraft, or at least of witchcraft proceedings, for more than a decade.
[these paragraphs have many source notations which can be explored when reading the book]
- Witch Society for descendants of colonial witches http://rosemary-e-bachelor.suite101.com/qualifying-ancestors-for-wi...
- http://www.jeaniesgenealogy.com/2019/01/connecticut-witches-joan-an...
- Great Migration 1634-1635, C-F. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F, by Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001
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John Carrington, Sr., of Wethersfield's Timeline
| 1610 |
1610
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England (United Kingdom)
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| 1640 |
1640
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Simsbury Center, Connecticut Colony
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| 1650 |
1650
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Waterbury, New Haven Colony
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| 1651 |
March 6, 1651
Age 41
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Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, Colonial British America
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| ???? |
Connecticut, USA
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Connecticut, United States
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