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Curious what plants were well-known by the 17th-century Massachusetts Bay colonists, I delved into Michael Brown’s new book, Medieval Plants and Their Uses. Planting and harvesting were essential to the survival of communities. Besides food and medicinal purposes, though, could plants have been involved in the Salem witch trials? After all, one widely debunked hypothesis claimed ergot poisoning could have caused the witch hunt.

According to Brown, during wet weather a parasite caused fungus to grow on rye. Since grains were processed at the local mill, ergot poisoning could spread far and wide. Ergot-related mass casualties occurred in continental Europe but notably not in England, where wheat was the popular grain.

Also known as St. Anthony’s Fire, ergot poisoning could cause “hallucinations, convulsions, erratic behavior, or gangrene; death was common.” While some of these symptoms were apparent in the Salem courthouse in 1692, their underlying causes could be many different health issues. Plus, not every local household or family member displayed symptoms—which would happen if they shared bread—so it’s unlikely that ergot poisoning was a cause of the witch-hunt.

Planting the colony

From the start of the Great Migration, ships came from England with plant cuttings and seeds to grow crops and herbs for food, flavorings, and medicines. Recipes were passed down and shared, like making tansy tea for worms; using vinegar, salt, and honey for cleaning and sterilizing a wound; and eating dandelions to encourage urine flow.

Living on Will’s Hill, the tightknit Wilkins clan may not have been privy to the diuretic dandelion remedy. Patriarch Bray Wilkins reported “my water was sodainly stopt, & I had no benefit of nature, but was like a man on a rack” and accused his grandson-in-law John Willard—an outsider—of causing his bladder issue and his grandson Daniel Wilkins’ death. When a “skillful” woman’s remedies didn’t work, she asked Bray if any “evil persons” did him damage. He said he was “sore afraid they had.” Afflicted accuser Mercy Lewis even said she saw John Willard on his grandfather Bray’s belly. Bray later claimed it was not him “but the testimony of the afflicted persons and the jury … that would take away [John Willard’s] life if any thing did, & within about 1/4 hour after this I was taken in the sorest distress & misery my water being turned into real blood, or of a bloody colour & the old pain returned excessively as before which continued for about 24 hours together” (RSWH 528). It’s clear Bray’s urine retention was a real illness, such as an enlarged prostate, and not a witch’s curse. Yet John Willard was executed for witchcraft on 19 August 1692.

Brown also covers plants with religious associations and magical powers. For instance, Rev. John Hale could have put calendula under his pillow to reveal in dreams that Dorcas Hoar was stealing from him. Saint John’s wort could have expelled the demons from Rev. Samuel Parris’ home while mugwort could have kept ghosts and evil spirits away.

Besides offering insight into historic diets and medical remedies, this book covers common, everyday usage of plants for housekeeping, laundry, animal health care, beauty treatments, and even aphrodisiacs. Well illustrated with photos, Medieval Plants and Their Uses concludes with a few original medieval recipes, a list of plants (their medical and/or practical uses, name variants), and suggested reading.

Brown provides an accessible and fascinating insight into the uses of medieval plants.

Prerelease book provided by NetGalley and Pen & Sword Books Ltd. for review consideration.

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When you visit Salem, Massachusetts, you discover the city has many modern witchcraft shops, especially in the tourist areas of Essex Street and the wharf. It’s odd because the 20 people executed in 1692 for the capital crime of witchcraft were not, in fact, witches.

In Teaching Witchcraft: A Guide for Students and Teachers of Wicca, Miles Batty says witchcraft is not Devil worship or Satanism. Yet that’s what they were convicted of in 1692, even the stoutest of Puritans. The convicted witches were accused of harming people and animals, signing the devil’s book, or even trying to overthrow the Puritan church.

In contrast, present-day witches follow a rule to harm none. They celebrate seasonal changes, nature, the moon and stars, the god and goddess, and/or pre-Christian deities. Despite the blend of pagan ideology, Batty explains, their practices were not passed down through the centuries. Modern witchcraft began in the late 19th century, was influenced in the 1920s by the (largely discredited) works of Margaret Murray, expanded through the teachings of Gerald Gardner, and captured the imagination of the 1960s. Today’s witch has nothing in common with the accused witches of 1692.

Batty provides an interesting overview of the development from pre-historic to monotheistic religions, followed by intentional acts to wipe out Pagans, Druids, heretics, magicians, wisewomen, and witches. What the conquerors couldn’t destroy, they converted for the own use (altars, relics) or absorbed (festivals and celebrations).

A collection of folkways, a lifestyle & philosophy

The second half of Teaching Witchcraft is more like a manual, providing the basics for incorporating different elements into a personal practice, either as part of a group or as an individual. Although designed for classroom or personal study, the book works well for curious readers like me who want to understand Wiccan beliefs, the cornerstones of magick, the meaning of rituals. Interspersed with charts and drawings, the book serves as a guide to the Wheel of the Year, the sabbats and esbats, moon cycles, signs and symbols, stones and crystals, amulets and talismans, auras and chakras.

Teaching Witchcraft is set up as lessons, each one ending with a series of questions and recommended reading. It closes with final exams and teacher resources.

The book is a solid introduction to modern witchcraft, whether you’re on that path or wondering what all those witches do in Salem.

Prerelease book provided by NetGalley and Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. for review consideration.

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In January 2023, the Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library returned 527 Salem witch trials (SWT) documents to the Judicial Archives at the Massachusetts State Archives facility in Boston.

Established in 1692 after the dismissal of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature heard the final witch trials in Salem. However, the court papers apparently did not depart with the judges. Over the years, some SWT documents ended up at other repositories or in private collections, though the majority stayed in Salem. Due to lack of storage space in the old Superior Court building on Federal Street, in December 1980 the SWT documents were temporarily reposited with the Essex Institute (EI) at Plummer Hall. The SWT papers remained in the custody of EI’s Phillips Library after the Essex Institute merged with the Peabody Museum of Salem in 1992 to form the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). In 2018, the Phillips Library collections moved to Rowley.

Once in its new location, the Phillips Library team digitized all of the SWT documents in its possession before the transfer. In addition to the 527 SWT documents owned by the Commonwealth, PEM digitized 31 SWT papers that had been donated to the Essex Institute.

Access to the original documents from the Judicial Archives is limited. Years ago, I was able to get access to my ancestor’s 1721 probate only because the microfilm was missing a few pages. With the digital scans online, few valid reasons exist for being able to touch the fragile originals. And it’s not likely that being a descendant will give you access, since millions of people can say the same!

Related links

Salem Witch Trials Collection, Phillips Library Digital Collection, Peabody Essex Museum (images of SJC/PEM documents)

Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt by Bernard Rosenthal, et al. (book, transcription of all known documents, totaling 977)

Judicial Archives at the Massachusetts State Archives, 220 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, Massachusetts

The Phillips Library reading room, 306 Newburyport Turnpike, Rowley, Massachusetts

SWT holdings from various archives (2002)

Treasures of the Salem court house

Why go to Rowley? Salem’s PEM research library of course

press release: Peabody Essex Museum and Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Announce Return of Historic Salem Witch Trial Documents, 12 January 2023

By Posted on Posted in Genealogy, History Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

For almost 10 years, Thomas Carrier lived unobtrusively in Billerica, Massachusetts. And then he met Martha—and his life dramatically changed.

In May 1674, 47-year-old “Thomas Carrier, vulgarly called Thomas Morgan, of Billerikey” confessed to fornication with Martha Allen, daughter of Andrew Allen of Andover, in the Middlesex Court. Old Mrs. Johnson, midwife of Woburn, admitted she examined Martha, while Elizabeth Chamberlain, George Chamberlain, and John Drinker served as witnesses. The couple married and their first child Richard was born two months later.

Settling into married life was a struggle though. Before Richard’s second birthday, “the [Billerica] selectman ordered the constable to give notice to Thomas Carrier, alias Morgan, Welchman, that the town was not willing he should abide here, as an inhabitant, and that he forthwith depart with his family, or give such security as shall be to the content of the selectmen on peril of 20 shillings per week, while he abide without leave, first had and obtained, which is according to the ancient town order amongst us.” The Carriers remained in town.

In the fall of 1677, their prospects improved. Thomas and his man were assigned to cut brush in the southeast part of Billerica. The following February, he took the oath of fidelity to the government of Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1679, Thomas paid the third highest taxes (9 shillings) in Billerica after Captain Jonathan Danforth (9 s. 10 d.) and Job Lane (13 s.).

Their family grew. With two teenage boys (Richard, b. 1674; Andrew, b. 1677), three children under 9 (Thomas, b. 1682; Sarah, b. 1684; Hannah, b. 1689), and one infant buried (Jane, b. 1680), life was hard. Thomas didn’t have any relatives in Massachusetts Bay. Martha’s sister Mary, who also lived in Billerica, had “many things amiss in [her] family,” according to the selectmen, and her husband, Dr. Roger Toothaker, had a habit of wandering off and forgetting about his family. Plus Martha’s parents, Andrew and Faith (Ingalls) Allen of Andover, were getting older.

The Carriers moved to Andover in the summer or early fall of 1690. Although Martha grew up in the town, the Andover selectmen “took care when [the Carriers] first came to town to warn them out again and have attended the law therein.” (A “warning out” gave notice that the town would not be held liable for their support, even if the family remained in town.)

By mid-October Martha “and some of her children [were] smitten with that contagious disease, the smallpox.” In a notice dated 14 October 1690 and sent to Samuel Holt, Andrew Allen, and John Allen, the selectmen wanted to make sure the Carriers “do not spread the distemper with wicked carelessness, which we are afraid they have already done: You had best take what care you can about them, nature and religion requiring it.”

On 4 November 1690, the selectmen wrote to Walter Wright, constable: “Whereas it has pleased God to visit those of the widow Allen’s family which she hath taken into her house with that contagious disease the smallpox, it being as we think part of our duty to prevent the spreading of said distemper we therefore require you in their Majesties’ names to warn said family not to go near any house so as to endanger them by said infection nor to come to the public meeting till they may come with safety to others: but what they want let them acquaint you with: which provide for them out of their own estates.”

The Carriers survived smallpox. Unfortunately, Martha’s Allen-Ingalls family was not so lucky. All 10 people who died of the disease in Andover* were related to Martha:

  • 24 Oct. 1690: Andrew Allen Sr., Martha’s father
  • 26 Nov. 1690: Andrew Allen Jr., Martha’s brother
  • 26 Nov. 1690: John Allen, Martha’s brother
  • 9 Dec. 1690: Francis Ingalls, Martha’s cousin
  • 13 Dec. 1690: James Holt, Martha’s sister Hannah’s son
  • 14 Dec. 1690: James Holt, Martha’s sister Hannah’s husband
  • 18 Dec. 1690: Thomas Allen, Martha’s brother Andrew’s son
  • 22 Dec. 1690: Sarah (Holt) Marks, sister of Martha’s two Holt brothers-in-law
  • 25 Dec. 1690: Mercy (Peters) Allen, Martha’s brother John’s widow
  • 15 Jan. 1690/1: Stephen Osgood, Martha’s uncle Henry Ingalls’ brother-in-law

The townspeople may have wondered how Martha could survive smallpox when it killed her father, two brothers, two nephews, and five close relations. They may not have known the virus spread through coughing or sneezing as well as touching clothing or bedding that comes in contact with the sores. Nursing the sick—as “nature and religion” required—put the entire household at risk. But that’s what families do.

Fortunately, by isolating the Carriers and their kin, the selectmen kept smallpox from spreading throughout Andover. Yet it’s clear they blamed Martha Carrier for bringing the deadly disease to Andover. Records, however, show the three smallpox deaths in Billerica happened late in December 1690, months after the Carriers left. Two of those deaths were the brother and niece of John Rogers’ first wife, Mary Shedd (1647-1688).

Not surprisingly, when rumors of witchcraft swirled in Andover, people looked suspiciously at Martha Carrier.

In 1692, John Rogers of Billerica deposed against Martha Carrier, claiming seven years prior his three cows went missing or stopped providing milk. Why? He said, “Martha Carrier was the occasion of those ill accidents by means of witchcraft, [she] being a very malicious woman.” He didn’t mention smallpox.

On 19 August 1692, Martha (Allen) Carrier was executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. She was not a witch.

*A few other deaths may be attributed to smallpox but are not labeled as such in the Andover vital records. No data exists for how many Andover residents had smallpox and survived.

For more about Martha (Allen) Carrier, I highly recommend the historical novel The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent.

Notes:

See also: Smallpox in Massachusetts Bay 1689-1692 (my blog at Genealogy Ink)

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On 28 July 2022, Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was officially exonerated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the crime of witchcraft.

During the Salem witch trials, Andover neighbors and afflicted accusers claimed 22-year-old Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was a witch. At her examinations on August 10-11, 1692, Elizabeth confessed to signing the Devil’s book, participating in a mock sacrament, and afflicting numerous people. On 5 January 1693, the grand jury indicted her for afflicting Ann Putnam Jr. Elizabeth was convicted of witchcraft less than a week later. Fortunately, Governor William Phips gave a temporary reprieve to several condemned witches, including Elizabeth, shortly before their execution date (RSWH, pp. 541, 543-544, 771-772, 811).

However, those convicted of a capital crime lost their civil rights and liberties. On 13 September 1710, Francis Johnson petitioned for restitution for his sister Elizabeth Johnson Jr. He also submitted a claim for 3 pounds for providing Elizabeth with provisions during her six-month imprisonment. His request was noted but ignored.

In 1711, a Reversal of Attainder nullified all witch trial judgments against George Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs, John Willard, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth How, Mary Easty, Sarah Wildes, Abigail Hobbs,* Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Martha Carrier, Abigail Faulkner,* Ann Foster,* Rebecca Eames,* Mary Post,* Mary Lacy,* Mary Bradbury,* and Dorcas Hoar.*

Omitted from the 1711 act, on 19 February 1711/2, Elizabeth petitioned on her own behalf for a reversal of attainder and for restitution. No action was taken. When Elizabeth Johnson Jr. died on 3 January 1746/7, the weight of her conviction remained (RSWH, pp. 875-876, 887-888, 901).

In the 20th century, six more victims of the Salem witch trials were vindicated. Finally, in the 21st century, students from the North Andover Middle School took on Elizabeth Johnson Jr.’s case and she finally was acquitted of witchcraft.

Resolve relative to the indictment, trial, conviction, and execution† of Ann Pudeator, Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, and Elizabeth Johnson Jr. for “Witchcraft” in the Year Sixteen Hundred and Ninety-Two.

Whereas, Ann Pudeator, Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, and Elizabeth Johnson Jr. were indicted, tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed† in the year sixteen hundred and ninety-two for “Witchcraft”; and

Whereas, The above named may have been illegally tried, convicted, and sentenced by a possibly illegal court of Oyer and Terminer created by the then governor of the Province without authority under the Province Charter of Massachusetts Bay; and

Whereas, Although there was a public repentance by Judge Sewall, one of the judges of the so-called “Witchcraft Court,” and by all the members of the “Witchcraft” jury, and a public Fast Day proclaimed and observed in repentance for the proceedings, but no other action taken in regard to them; and

Whereas, The General Court of Massachusetts is informed that certain descendants‡ of Ann Pudeator, Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, and Elizabeth Johnson Jr. are still distressed by the record of said proceedings; therefore be it

Resolved, That in order to alleviate such distress and although the facts of such proceedings cannot be obliterated, the General Court of Massachusetts declares its belief that such proceedings, even if lawful under the Province Charter and the law of Massachusetts as it then was, were, and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings, even if then legally conducted, have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings; and be it further

Resolved, That the passage of this resolve shall not bestow on the Commonwealth or any of its subdivisions, or on any person any right which did not exist prior to said passage, shall not authorize any suit or other proceeding nor deprive any party to a suit or other proceeding of any defense which he hitherto had, shall not affect in any way whatever the title to or rights in any real or personal property, nor shall it require or permit the remission of any penalty, fine, or forfeiture hitherto imposed or incurred.

Resolve of 1957, chapter 146 (approved 28 August 1957) as rewritten after amendments on 31 October 2001 and 28 July 2022 incorporated.

For related stories on Elizabeth Johnson Jr., see:

Footnotes:
RSWH: Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt by Bernard Rosenthal et al.
* not executed
† Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was found guilty but not executed for the crime of witchcraft.
‡ Elizabeth Johnson Jr. had no descendants and remained unmarried during her long life.

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Want to learn more about Charter Street Cemetery? Pick up If These Stones Could Speak: The History and People of the Old Salem Burying Point by Daniel Fury. Learn about the people who lived and died in Salem. Black-and-white grave photographs accompany profiles of some of the dead, along with their gravestone inscriptions.

Compiled from many sources and checked against extant gravestones and vital records, the burial index is the most comprehensive list yet. To help you find your way around the burying ground, the book is divided into family groups and sections, with maps included. And if you’re unfamiliar with the symbols, terminology, and funeral practices of early Salem inhabitants, Daniel added helpful information on those topics too.

While none of the victims executed during the Salem witch trials are buried at Old Salem Burying Point, their memory lingers there. Behind the Samuel Pickman House, now the Charter Street Cemetery Welcome Center, the 1992 Salem Witch Trials Memorial features stone benches engraved with each victim’s name and death date. Every time I visit, I whisper their names as I follow the path. Near Bridget Bishop’s stone, you’ll find an entrance into the cemetery.

Besides an overview of the witch trials and the memorial, the book provides biographies of the 20 witch-hunt victims executed and those who perished in jail as well.

A resident of Salem, author Daniel Fury is a proprietor of Black Cat Tours and a founding member of Friends of the Downtown Salem Historic Cemeteries.

Read more: Salem’s Old Burying Point: Old photos by Frank Cousins

By Posted on Posted in History Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

While researching Thomas Danforth (1623-1699), I discovered Paige’s History of Cambridge and Hutchinson’s Witchcraft Delusion of 1692 quoted from Samuel Sewall’s Diary on Danforth’s illness, death, and burial. Sewall visited Danforth on 28 October 1699 and recorded in his diary that Elizabeth (Danforth) Foxcroft informed Sewall that her father “was much indisposed the 22 inst., which was the beginning of his sickness.” Danforth was “much troubled with the Palsie”—which caused paralysis and involuntary tremors. Two entries later in his diary, Sewall wrote:

“Lord’s Day, Novr. 5, Tho. Danforth Esq. dies about 3 post merid. [p.m.] of a fever. Has been a magistrate 40 years. Was a very good husbandman, and a very good Christian, and a good Councilor: was about 76 years old.”

“…Sixth day, Nov. 10, 1699. Mr. Danforth is entombed about 1/4 of an hour before 4 p.m. Very fair and pleasant day; much company. Bearers on the right side Lt. Governor, Mr. Russell, Sewall; left side, Mr. W. Winthrop, Mr. Cook, Col. Phillips. I helped lift the corpse into the tomb, carrying the feet. Had cake and cheese at the house. Col. Hathorne, Mr. Corwin, Bro. Sewall were there from Salem. Councilors had rings, ministers gloves, Mr. Mather and Brattle scarfs and rings: so had the bearers.”

Both books ended their quotes with the list of mourning gifts the family gave to honored guests and casket bearers. But wait. Where was Danforth buried? Even though Danforth lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I searched Boston’s Historic Burying Grounds Initiative database first. Ten Danforths were listed, but not the Thomas who died in 1699. So I tried the Find a Grave database, narrowing down the search to Cambridge. Still nothing.

But what if Sewall said something more in his diary? And he did!

The entry continued: “Cambridge Burying Place is handsomely fenced in with boards, which has not been done above a month or six weeks.”

Thanks to Samuel Sewall’s diary, we know where Hon. Thomas Danforth’s mortal remains lie. While it doesn’t explicitly say which tomb Danforth is in, and none are labeled with his name, he’s definitely buried in an unmarked tomb at Old Burying Ground in Cambridge. His wife and possibly other family members may be buried there too. I added a memorial for Danforth at Find a Grave, not knowing one already existed with an “unknown location.” The duplicate listings were merged into Memorial 240442382.

Danforth and the Salem witch trials

As deputy governor, Thomas Danforth observed the examinations of accused witches Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce at a meeting of the Court of Assistants in Salem in April 1692. Local magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, handled the questioning, while Rev. Samuel Parris transcribed the session.* This experience no doubt led to Danforth’s disapproval of the judicial proceedings.

In a letter dated 8 October 1692, Thomas Brattle, an outspoken opponent of the witch trials, wrote: “But although the chief judge, and some of the other judges, be very zealous in these proceedings, yet this you may take for a truth, that there are several about the Bay, men for understanding, judgment, and piety, inferior to few, if any, in [New England], that do utterly condemn the said proceedings, and do freely deliver their judgment in the case to be this, viz., that these methods will utterly ruin and undo poor N. E. I shall nominate some of these to you, viz., the Hon. Simon Bradstreet Esq.; the Hon. Thomas Danforth Esq.; the Rev. Mr. Increase Mather, and the Rev. Mr. Samuel Willard….”

With the Court of Oyer and Terminer disbanded, Tuesday, 6 December 1692—“a very dark cold day,” Sewall reports—was “the day appointed for choosing of Judges.” William Stoughton was unanimously chosen Chief Justice of the new Superior Court of Judicature with 15 votes, while Thomas Danforth received 12 votes, and John Richards, Waitstill Winthrop, and Sewall received 7 votes each. Only 15 Assistants were present. Apparently, Danforth didn’t want anything to do with the witch trials, which would be a significant focus of the new court with so many accused witches still in jail. Two days later, Sewall’s diary says, “Mr. Danforth is invited to dinner, and after pressed to accept his place.” After Lecture on Thursday, December 22, Stoughton, Richards, Winthrop, and Sewall received their commissions as Judges and took their oaths. Danforth, having been “pressed,” later joined them on the bench.

The Salem witch trials started again in January 1693. Of the 56 indictments for witchcraft, true bills were found against 26 but only three were found guilty—Elizabeth Johnson Jr., Sarah Wardwell, and Mary Post. Without the use of spectral evidence in court and possibly because of Danforth’s influence, the court quickly brought the trials to an end. Then, Governor Phips issued pardons for the three convicted women as well as others convicted from the previous court.

Thomas Danforth remained on the supreme court until his death in 1699. On November 7 of that year, Sewall wrote, “Mr. Stoughton, in his speech to the Grand Jury, takes great notice of Judge Danforth’s death. Saith he was a lover of religion and religious men; the oldest servant the country ever had; zealous against vice; and if had any detractors; yet was so much on the other as to erect him a monument among this people.” Then there was a sharp reminder from the Puritan minister, Mr. Willard, who “in his prayer mentioned God’s displeasure in his removal; and desired the Judges might act on the bench as those who must shortly go to give their account.”

Salem’s End

Thomas Danforth is also known for giving 800 acres of land to families who wanted to escape Salem and memories of the witch trials. Previously known as Danforth’s Farms, the town was incorporated in 1700 as Framingham, Massachusetts, named after Framlingham, Suffolk, England, where Danforth was baptized in 1623. The section where the Salem refugees lived is still known as Salem End.

*This line has been edited from the original post. Based on several 19th-century authors, I had written: “Rev. Samuel Parris was in charge of the interrogations that day, and Danforth recorded the session.” After Marilynne K. Roach commented, and I replied back, I went back to the books and revised my thinking. See Comments, below, for more details.

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Examination of Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

By Tony Fels

On July 28, 2022, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts formally exonerated the last innocent victim of the infamous 17th-century Salem witch hunt. Elizabeth Johnson Jr., known to her contemporaries as Betty, was a 22-year-old resident of Andover, Massachusetts, when she got swept up in the frenzy of accusations, judicial examinations, jailings, trials, and executions that convulsed the communities of Essex County in 1692. All of the witch hunt’s other victims had already been exonerated by previous legislation. For some, the process began shortly after the trials ended. By 1711, 14 of the 20 who were executed at Salem had had their names cleared and their legal rights restored. A 1957 state law added one more name, and the act’s 2001 amendment added the remaining five executed suspects. 

But Betty Johnson fell into a different category of victims. She was one of 11 individuals who had been convicted of witchcraft but, for a variety of reasons, never executed. Betty’s trial occurred in January 1693, at the first proceedings of a new court established to take the place of the original but now discredited witchcraft court and to dispense with the remaining witchcraft accusations. Just three individuals were convicted under the revised rules of this later court, but the governor granted them last-minute reprieves, and they were soon pardoned and released along with those convicted by the earlier court who were still alive. In subsequent years, two of the three witchcraft suspects convicted in January 1693, along with the other eight convicted by the earlier court, had their names cleared and their legal rights restored. Despite petitioning herself to the Massachusetts legislature for legal restitution in 1712 (paralleling a claim filed two years earlier by her brother, Francis, for monetary compensation for her six months spent in jail), Betty Johnson, alone among all those convicted at Salem, never did receive such a simple declaration of justice—until now.

Confessions of witchcraft

What larger lessons does Betty Johnson’s story hold for understanding the Salem witch hunt? The most interesting one for me stems from the fact that Johnson had confessed. Over the course of roughly a year, the panic yielded over 150 suspects who were formally accused of witchcraft, fully one-third of whom confessed to the crime, some before they were even arrested. Since it is well established that nobody in eastern Massachusetts at that time was practicing witchcraft in any meaningful sense of the term (attempting to harness supernatural power to harm others), the question arises why so many of these individuals falsely admitted to committing a felony that carried the death penalty.

In Betty’s case, her two statements of confession were made back to back on August 10 and 11, 1692, the first to the local Andover justice of the peace, Dudley Bradstreet, and the second to an examining board led by John Hathorne, the Salem town magistrate who sat on the colony’s special witchcraft court and who was one of the prime movers in the witch hunt. What is most striking about Betty’s confessions is how stereotypical they are. She simply drew from the known lore about witchcraft, including being baptized by Satan, who appeared to her in the form of two black cats, in order “to pull down the kingdom of Christ and to set up the Devil’s kingdom,” taking these common notions on herself as if she were an avid follower. She claimed she had hurt a number of her neighbors by having her invisible specter sit on one’s stomach, by pinching or sticking pins in cloth likenesses of several others, and by invisibly attacking yet another with a spear made of iron or wood (though she wasn’t sure which). She said she had a “familiar” (left undescribed but typically thought to be an invisible animal) who nourished itself by sucking on her knuckle and at two other places, one behind her arm, that examining women corroborated by noting two little red specks on her body.

Throughout her confession, Betty cited as her criminal accomplices individuals who had already been named as suspects, including her relative Martha Carrier, the most prominent of the Andover suspects, a woman long believed to be a witch by many of her neighbors, and George Burroughs, the former minister from Salem village, who was widely regarded during the panic to be the witches’ ringleader. Carrier and Burroughs were both tried and convicted in early August, just one week before Betty’s confession, and both were executed on August 19, a little more than a week after Betty turned herself in.

Reasons for a false confession

Why did she take this step of falsely accusing herself? Although Betty came from a prominent Andover family—she was the granddaughter of the town’s elder minister, Francis Dane—the extended Dane family, itself part of the larger and more significantly targeted Ingalls clan, had already been attacked by the young and middle-aged people who began accusing their Andover neighbors of witchcraft starting in mid-July. Even more directly, Betty’s confession was preceded (on the same day, August 10) by those of two of Martha Carrier’s children, 8-year-old Sarah and 10-year-old Thomas, both of whom implicated Betty Johnson as a member of the witches’ “company.” 

Most likely, Betty knew that she would be named by her second cousins, the Carrier children. All three may have thought, in the context of accusations that were wildly whipping around their community, that by confessing they might increase the chances of being treated with leniency. This was not an unreasonable assumption, since the Puritans valued repentance, even as they also showed determination to rid their communities of those they believed had allowed the Devil to grant them the power to practice witchcraft. Twenty were executed before the witch hunt effectively came to an end in mid-October, but significantly none of these 20 came from the ranks of those who had confessed, even though this association was probably not discernible until mid-July and, even so, could never be guaranteed.

Confessions also tended to deflect blame. In Betty’s case, she made clear that it was the 42-year-old Martha Carrier who had “persuaded her to be a witch.” Carrier, Betty said, had also “threatened to tear [her] in pieces,” if she didn’t do as she was told. Betty probably hoped that this aspect of her statements would also be protective, even though she must have equally known that confessions were regarded as the highest form of legal proof of actual witchcraft.

The role of Puritanism

Beneath all these likely strategic motives, however, lies the fact that members of the Puritan communities of early Massachusetts could readily convince themselves that in some way or other, perhaps at a moment of weakness, they really had allowed Satan into their lives. A form of strict Calvinism, Anglo-American Puritanism held out virtually impossible standards of piety for its followers to live up to. Puritans sought to live in the truest, loving fellowship of Christ but one in which even a stray thought to get back at someone for a perceived grievance or to fail to carry out one’s dutiful role as husband, wife, parent, or child might occasion deep anguish. 

There is no explicit sign of such religious self-doubt in Betty’s own confessions, but other confessions during the witch hunt were filled with such self-recriminations. Fourteen-year-old Abigail Hobbs, for example, began her witchcraft confession with the admission, “I have been very wicked. I hope I shall be better if God will help me.” Collateral evidence suggests that Hobbs was referring to having been disobedient to her parents, lying out in the woods at night, pretending to baptize her mother, and not caring what anybody said to her.

When Abigail (Dane) Faulkner, Betty’s aunt, confessed at the end of August, she acknowledged that all the accusations made against her kinsfolk had led her to “look with the evil eye” on those doing the accusing, “consent that they should be afflicted,” and “kn[o]w not but that the Devil might take that advantage,” even as she asserted that it was he, not her, who had done the afflicting. In one of the saddest examples of self-recrimination leading to a witchcraft confession (though this episode was not part of the Salem events), Mary Parsons of Springfield, Massachusetts, imagined that she had entered into a pact with the Devil so she could see her deceased child again.

As the power and momentum of the Salem panic began to recede, many of those who had confessed to the crime of witchcraft recanted their earlier confessions. While there is no remaining record of Betty taking this step, as there is for a number of the Andover confessors, we do know that she pleaded not guilty at her January trial, proof that she no longer held to her confession of August 10-11. The people of Essex County were coming back to their senses. Historical records suggest that Betty did well in her later years, apparently successfully selling lands in 1709 and 1716 that she had inherited from her father and living until the age of 77. By that time—the 1740s—Puritanism itself was well on its way toward softening its spiritual message through on the one hand the rise of evangelical piety and on the other hand the emergence of the Enlightenment’s rational faith that would soon become Unitarianism.

updated 31 August 2022

To learn how middle school students pushed for Betty Johnson’s exoneration, see also: Civics in action: Exonerating Elizabeth Johnson Jr. and Last witch’s conviction. For the legal case, see: Last convicted Salem witch exonerated.

Tony Fels is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of San Francisco, where he taught for 29 years. At USF he taught, among other courses, American religious history and historical methods, the latter of which centered on the historiography of the Salem witch hunt. His book, Switching Sides: How a Generation of Historians Lost Sympathy for the Victims of the Salem Witch Hunt, was reviewed on Witches of Massachusetts Bay. For more about Tony Fels, go to https://www.tonyfels.com/.

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On 26 May 2022, the Massachusetts State Senate passed Amendment 842, part of the process to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the last convicted witch from the Salem witch trials. Now it will go to a conference committee made of senators and representatives who will create a compromise budget.

Twitter, 26 May 2022

Watch: The Last Witch: A Documentary 330 Years in the Making

Watch: Diana DiZoglio’s Senate Floor Speech on the Exoneration of Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

Read previous post: Civics in action: Exonerating Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

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Rev. John Higginson grave in Salem, Massachusetts

While Massachusetts Bay ministers were lamenting the lack of devotion to the Puritan ideal and dwindling numbers of covenanted members in the late 17th century, everyday people were struggling with forces beyond their control. Between 1645 and 1715, the Little Ice Age was wreaking havoc in the North Atlantic region, which already was one of the most climatically unstable areas in the world. Bitter cold winters and hot summers not only impacted farming but fishing as well. Two of the biggest exports in Mass Bay were wood and codfish. Crop failures and early frosts, unexpected livestock deaths, and smallpox ravaged many communities. On top of that, political instability without a charter, high taxes, and inflation cut deep at every economic level.

Also struggling to survive from territory loss, famine, and cultural clashes, the Wabanaki attacked villages on the edges of the frontier. They sometimes teamed up with the French, who had a different motive but the same agenda to banish the English settlers. The seas weren’t safe either, with prowling pirate ships ready to attack fully loaded vessels.

One family’s story

In 1629, John Higginson (1616-1708) arrived in Salem on the Talbot with his parents. John grew up to become a minister like his father and married a minister’s daughter in Guilford, Connecticut. In 1659, his family decided to sail from Connecticut to England, but bad weather caused the vessel to shelter at Salem, where his father had first built a congregation. Perhaps it was fate when the town asked him to preach there for a year. He never left, though his sons ventured to Barbados, England, Arabia, and the East Indies.

While his son Nathaniel flourished in the employ of the East India Company (living in London and Fort St. George, Madras, India), his family in Salem struggled. Letters could take a year or longer to find their intended recipients if they arrived at all, but we’re fortunate some of the Higginson letters survived.

Rev. John Higginson was not of the upper echelon of society—like Samuel Sewall who married the mint master’s daughter—but he made a comfortable living. With the arrival of Sir Edmund Andros and his new government in 1686, however, political instability and economic factors infringed upon Mass Bay lives, including Higginson’s. In one letter to son Nathaniel, he writes about his ministerial salary: “almost 500 pounds of arrears [are] due to me from the town since 1686 and I saw no hope of receiving it” in his lifetime.

Higginson letters

“The French and Indian war, with other calamities, have greatly impoverished, diminished, and brought low New England,” Rev. Higginson writes to son Nathaniel in India. As a father, he’s concerned about his son Col. John Higginson, who lives in Salem:

“By his singular prudence and industry, [John] had attained a competent estate; but by the misery of these times, he has met with great losses, by the French, &c.; and so put out of his way as to be disenabled from making any use of the fishing trade; and been worsted in his estate, I believe, above a thousand pounds: and yet he is a Major and a Justice of the Peace, and the show of public occasions lies much upon him.”

Col. John Higginson writes to his brother in 1697:

“In the year 1689, when the war first broke out, I had obtained a comfortable estate, being as much concerned in the fishing trade as most of my neighbors. But since that time, I have met with considerable losses; and trade has been much decayed. Of 60-odd fishing catches belonging to this town but about six are left. I believe that no town in this Province has suffered more by the war than Salem.”

And in 1699:

“The late war with France and the Indians, which held almost 10 years, has greatly impoverished this town; by which means my Father’s salary has been much abated…. The war has also damnified me, not only by losses, but by being put out of a way. I have had a pretty large family of my own, and relations; and the several places I have held in civil and military concerns, have taken up much of my time, and not been advantageous to my estate…. The marrying and settling my children has much abated my quick stock; though I have an estate in house and land, &c.”

Several times Nathaniel sends money to his family in Salem, but it doesn’t always arrive. In 1695, for example, “the ship being taken, the money was lost.” Col. John explains:

“At this time, there are many men in our gaol for piracy; namely, Captain Kidd, who went from England with a ship and commission to take pirates, but turned pirate himself, and robbed many ships in the East Indies, and thence came into the West Indies, and there disposed of much of his wealth; and at last came into these parts with some of his stolen goods; who was here seized, and some of his men, and goods, who are in irons, and wait for a trial. And there was one [Joseph] Bradish, a Cambridge man, who sailed in an interloper bound for India, who, in some parts of the East Indies, took an opportunity, when the captains and some of the officers were onshore, to run away with the ship, and came upon our coast, and sunk their ship at Block Island, and brought much wealth ashore with them; but Bradish, and one of his men, broke prison and run away against the Indians; but it is supposed that he will be taken again.”

In the end it’s all about survival

What’s curious about these letters is that there’s no mention of witchcraft or the devil among them in Salem, even though Rev. John Higginson’s daughter Ann Dolliver was accused in 1692. Unlike his colleague Rev. Nicholas Noyes (1647-1717), with whom he shared the pulpit in Salem, Rev. John Higginson had little involvement in the Salem witch trials. His mentions of Ann are all about survival, like what provisions he made for her (since she was abandoned by her husband and “crazed in her understanding”) and her three children, who were apprenticed to learn trades “whereby they may get a livelihood when grown up.”

Read more “Higginson Letters” from Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, series 3, Vol. 7, pp. 196-222.