Category: Genealogy

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Dorothy Good had a little mark on her finger, perhaps a flea bite, that she attributed to a little snake her mother had given her. Instead of a sweet memory between Sarah Good and her child exploring the outdoor world, it prodded outcries of witchcraft.

Dorothy was only four years old. Her mother Sarah had been locked up in prison for witchcraft for weeks. And Dorothy was too young to understand some people considered her own words were tantamount to a confession of having an animal familiar, and would later judge her mother of a capital crime. Dorothy spent eight and a half months in jail before Samuel Ray paid a 50-pound recognizance bond for her release. She never faced trial, but losing her mother and the nightmare of those dark times had a profound effect on her mental health. In his 1710 petition for restitution, her father William Good declared that Dorothy, “being chained in the dungeon was so hardly used and terrified that she has ever since been very chargeable having little or no reason to govern herself.”

By 1699, William Good, his second wife Elizabeth, and daughter Dorothy were living with Lieut. Benjamin Putnam (1664-1715), who was compensated by the town for their expenses. By 1708, when she was of age, Dorothy’s name was recorded separately in the Salem Town Records, though she continued to live with the Putnams at least through 2 January 1716. Dorothy reappeared on record 5 September 1720, when she was “warned out of this town.” She didn’t leave. Instead, Dorothy lived in several villager households and occasionally in the House of Correction partway through 1738.

Rambling About

Dorothy Good disappears from the Salem records after 1738, though she turns up in the Bristol county, Massachusetts, court records the same year: “To the Constables of Swansey [Swansea]… Whereas Dorothy Good late of Beverly hath come to dwell in said Swansey the sixth day of July last … warn the abovesaid Dorothy Good to depart this town … August 23d, 1738.” (Some of her aunts and cousins lived in Beverly.)

Based on the records, it also appears Dorothy had three children. In the fall of 1720, the town paid Nathaniel Putnam “for 11 weeks keeping & nursing Dor[othy] Good … & child.” In November 1722, Benjamin Gillingham, late master of ye House of Correction, claimed 18 weeks for “keeping of Doro Good & for sireing.” Salem selectmen paid the town of Concord because in June 1725, Dorothy “strayed hence & lay’d in there of a bastard child.” In March 1727, Jonathan Batchelder agreed “to keep Doro Good at his house … and keep Doro Good from straying and rambling about as formerly.”

In August 1761, a newspaper article published by the New London News and picked up by other papers, including the New York Mercury, Boston News-Letter, Boston Evening Post, and New Hampshire Gazette reported: “Dorothy Good, a transient, vagrant person, was found dead in a bog meadow near New London last Friday [7 August 1761]…. As decent a burial was given her as the circumstances would admit.”

The uncommon name and the description fit Dorothy Good. Plus, the death notice was picked up by numerous newspapers in New England, suggesting a sort of notoriety beyond her poverty. With almost no doubt, this was the end of Dorothy Good, the poor little girl imprisoned for witchcraft in 1692.

Missed a post? Sarah Good’s families: Part 1 Sarah Solart | Part 2 Sarah Poole | Part 3 Sarah Good | Part 4 William Good | Part 5 Dorothy Good

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William Good's petition for restitution.

William Good first appears in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, in 1672, when he was warned for not living under family government. This didn’t mean William had a tendency of wandering away from his home and family like Roger Toothaker (1634-1692). The Puritans had a neighborhood watch system whereby single men and women were prohibited from living alone in case they got into ungodly mischief. William was an “able-bodied man” who paid his minister’s rate, bought gunpowder, and then in December 1675 he joined Capt. Mossely’s military company in Dedham. Some time after he returned, in 1677, Chelmsford selectmen provided William with four acres of land to build a house and to follow his trade, expecting him to settle down and become a good citizen. He apparently did not, for in December 1682, he was living in Andover.

Several years later, William married the widow Sarah (Solart) Poole. It’s likely that he knew of Sarah’s 40-pound inheritance due from her father’s estate (but not her dead husband’s debts) before they married. After all, Sarah clearly suffered from melancholia and grief, being known for living in barns and outhouses, suffering from “extreme foolishness or incomposure of mind,” and incapable of taking care of herself—all strong reasons why not to wed! In late March 1686, William Good of Salem Village, weaver, sold his wife Sarah’s inherited land to Freeborn Balch. By 1692, he’s called a laborer, but William didn’t make enough money to secure his small family with food, shelter, and other essentials. Between the stresses of survival, the seeming lack of her own relatives’ compassion and support, hunger and probable mental illness, Sarah Good was a cantankerous woman. In December 1691, she gave birth to her second child, which made her situation more dire.

In February 1692, when asked to name the witches who caused their strange afflictions, the minister’s nine-year-old daughter Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams pointed at Sarah Good. She must have been scary, unkempt—an outsider who was ungracious when receiving alms and belligerent when denied much-needed support. William quickly turned against her when he told the magistrates “he was afraid that she either was a witch or would be one very quickly.” Sarah Good was executed for witchcraft on 19 July 1692.

On 7 June 1693, William Good married Elizabeth Drinker, daughter of John and Elizabeth Drinker of Beverly. They had a son born 18 January 1695/6 in Salem Village, who died young.

Supporting the Goods

The selectmen paid local residents to house, feed, and clothe a destitute person or family. By 21 November 1699, William Good and his family were receiving help (again) from the town. On that date, Benjamin Putnam received £3 for the relief of William Good and family for the upcoming winter.

In 1712, the Massachusetts Bay Colony answered petitions to pay reparations to the victims or their families for expenses related to the Salem witch trials. William Good petitioned for “the damage sustained by him in the year 1692 by reason of the sufferings of his family upon the account of supposed witchcraft”: for his wife Sarah who was imprisoned and executed; a suckling child who died in prison; and daughter Dorothy who was imprisoned (RSWH, 871). Although William did not specify a specific amount—since he no doubt did not pay any jail fees (food, blankets, shackles, confinement)—his caretaker, Benjamin Putnam, received £30 on William’s behalf. The amount was higher than many others; it may have taken into account William’s situation and his long-term dependency on public funds.

William died before 20 November 1714, on which date the Salem selectmen gave “to our neighbors of the village 20 shillings towards Wm Good’s funeral.” His widow Elizabeth died, age 73, on 3 January 1728/9. The selectmen made a final payment to David Judd for keeping and caring for Elizabeth Good until her death.

updated 27 May 2024

Missed a post? Sarah Good’s families: Part 1 Sarah Solart | Part 2 Sarah Poole | Part 3 Sarah Good | Part 4 William Good | Part 5 Dorothy Good

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Deposition of Ann Putnam Jr. against Sarah Good

On 30 March 1672, William Good of Chelmsford was “warned for living from family government” (Middlesex Co.: Abstracts of Court Records 1643-1674, 2:144). Besides married people who deserted their spouses, this charge was given to single men and women of marriageable age who were not allowed to live alone because they could be tempted into unclean acts or ungodly behavior. That same year, Good’s minister’s rate was 1s 8d, and he owned no animals (Waters, History of Chelmsford, 617).

On 1 September 1674, Good was one of “Chelmsford’s able-bodied men” who purchased 1s 6d of gunpowder (Waters, 89). During King Philip’s War, he was recorded in Dedham as part of Capt. Mossely’s Company on 9 December 1675 (NEHGR 8:242). On 26 February 1677[/8?], the town of Chelmsford gave him 4 acres of land “to build a house on it to follow his trade” (Waters, 578). In 1682 and 1683, however, Good appears in the Andover Tax and Record Book.

Woo the widow?

The selectmen of Salem failed to secure widow Sarah (Solarte) Poole’s inheritance being held by her stepfather Ezekiel Woodward in Wenham, as demanded by the Essex County Court in June 1685. The skeptic in me wonders if that money may have been the incentive for bachelor William Good to meet Sarah. The couple married sometime after that court date but before 30 March 1686, when Good and his wife were sued for debt by John Cromwell—for Sarah and her late husband Daniel Poole’s November 1682 spending spree (his suit, her two petticoats, and yards of cloth).

The Court seized three acres in Thorndike’s meadow recently acquired from Woodward to satisfy judgment. Four months later, William Good sold what appears to be the last bit of Sarah’s inheritance, one and three-quarters of an acre of meadow in Wenham to Freeborn Balch for 5 pounds (EQC 9:579-580; Boyer & Nissenbaum’s SV Witchcraft 139-147).

About 1689, Sarah and William Good, “being destitute of a house to live in…they being poor,” boarded with Samuel and Mary Abbey in Salem Village until Sarah became “so turbulent a spirit, spiteful, and so maliciously bent” that the Abbeys turned them out of their house. Afterwards, Sarah behaved “very crossly and maliciously to them and their children, calling their children vile names and have threatened them often” (RSWH 423). Sarah also begged door to door, and was known for cursing and muttering, especially when she went away empty-handed.

On 29 February 1692, 38-year-old Sarah Good was one of the first to be charged with witchcraft that year. She was executed in Salem on 19 July 1692.

William and Sarah Good had the following children:

  • Dorothy Good, born about 1687/8; died in New London, Connecticut, 7 August 1761. She was arrested for witchcraft 24 March 1692 and released 10 December 1692 upon recognizance paid by Samuel Ray.
  • [female] Good, born in Salem Village 10 December 1691. As a suckling child, she was imprisoned with her mother Sarah and died before 2 June 1692 in Boston prison. (She was not born in prison and her first name is not recorded.)

William Good married second, Chebacco/Ipswich 7 June 1693, Elizabeth Drinker (1654-1729). He died shortly before 20 November 1714 when the Salem selectmen paid Salem Village 20 shillings for his funeral.

Continue to Part 4. Missed a post? Sarah Good’s families: Part 1 Sarah Solart | Part 2 Sarah Poole | Part 3 Sarah Good | Part 4 William Good | Part 5 Dorothy Good

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After her father John died in June 1672, several events happened that affected Sarah Solarte’s life and her future. In December 1672, her mother Elizabeth became Ezekiel Woodward’s second wife. Her brother John, who had been in England, died by early 1675. Mother Elizabeth died on 3 February 1677/8, followed by 20-year-old brother Joseph in the fall of 1678. In 1679, stepfather Ezekiel married his third wife, Sarah. Woodward continued to live at the Solarte family’s inn and he still held onto their inheritances.  

Sarah meets her match

On 27 June 1661, the Salem court bound six-year-old Daniel Poole* as an apprentice to John Rowden of Salem, planter, for fourteen and a half years (EQC 2:311). After his term was over, Daniel continued to live with the Rowdens, who had no children of their own. Daniel even pledged to take care of Rowden’s wife after John’s death. In his will, dated 21 April 1682, John Rowden gave most of his estate to “Daniel Poole who hath been brought up by me from his childhood being mine by adoption and given me by his natural parents” (EQC 9:127).

By the fall of 1682, the courtship between Sarah Solarte and Daniel Poole was in full swing. On 1 November 1682, the couple went on a spending spree, charging—on John Cromwell of Salem’s account—kersey, canvas, serge, and other materials, plus a suit of clothes for him and two petticoats for her. For Sarah, it must have been a thrill to have someone lavish attention and gifts on her.

Perhaps in expectation of upcoming nuptials for sister Sarah, the Solarte sisters (and husbands) asked the Court on 30 November 1682 to divide their dead brother Joseph’s share of their father’s estate. Also filed but undated was another petition that must have been written for the March 1683 court held in Ipswich, based on the line: “your honors have declared at the last court at Salem that his portion shall be divided amongst us.” This second document more forcefully claimed, “Ezekiel Woodward that married with our mother did refuse to enter into any obligation to pay our portions.” In fact, “our sister Sarah the wife of Daniel Poole, she is now 28 years of age and she is yet without her portion.” At issue was the need for a legal instrument to require Woodward to comply to the ruling on the earlier case.

From these two petitions, we know Sarah Solarte married Daniel Poole after 30 November 1682 and before the Court convened on 27 March 1683.

Sarah’s sorrows

On 12 October 1683, John Rowden wrote a second will. This time he left his estate to Nathaniel Felton Sr. of Salem, who was to keep and provide for wife Mary Rowden (EQC 9:127). The change was made because, by that date, Daniel Poole had died. To confirm it, in the next action against Ezekiel Woodward in November 1683, Sarah is referred to as the widow of Daniel Poole.

The loss was too much for Sarah. After Daniel’s death, “Sarah disposed of his whole estate, viz., a horse, two cows, and all his moveables.” John Price, speaking for the selectmen of Salem to the Court, declared Sarah Poole, widow, formerly of Wenham, “was not capable of governing herself, but either through extreme foolishness or incomposure of mind, exposed herself to hazard and suffering, lodging in barns and outhouses, without anything to relieve her necessities. Being informed that there was an estate of 40 pounds belonging to her in Wenham, they requested that someone be appointed to take care of the estate and also have charge of her person that she be kept in good order, for they thought that the town should not be charged with it, so long as she had an estate of her own.”

In response, “the Court considering the motion of the selectmen of the town of Salem relating to Sarah Poole, widow, finding that she not capable of providing for herself or improving what belonged to her, ordered the selectmen to dispose of her both for employment and maintenance and also to take into their hands what belongs to her in Wenham or elsewhere and sell or otherwise dispose of it for her use” (EQC 9:486-487).

Instead of being a dependent of her stepfather Ezekiel Woodward in Wenham or living with a sibling, Sarah became a ward of Salem.

Sarah and Daniel had no children.

*Daniel Poole may be the son of William Poole. At the general town meeting in Salem on 1 March 1655/6, a William Poole petitioned to become a resident but he was denied (Salem Town Records 1:156). Other men named Poole do not seem to fit, including the well-to-do John Poole of Lynn, though an unrecorded man is possible too.

Continue to Part 3. Missed a post? Sarah Good’s families: Part 1 Sarah Solart | Part 2 Sarah Poole | Part 3 Sarah Good | Part 4 William Good | Part 5 Dorothy Good

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Witch Trials Memorials, Salem, Mass.

On 29 February 1691/2, two warrants signed by magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin put into motion the Salem witch trials. Sarah Good was on one warrant, while Sarah Osborne and Tituba were on the other. The three women had one thing in common: villagers questioned their belief in the Puritan faith. Sarah Good, the beggar, insulted “the godly” who gifted her with alms. Sarah Osborne, bedridden for 14 months, skipped religious services. Tituba, the Indian servant of Rev. Samuel Parris, probably came from Barbados so who knew what islanders believed. However, their stories ended three different ways: Sarah Osborne died in the Boston jail on 10 May 1692; Sarah Good was hanged for witchcraft 19 July 1692; and Tituba was released from jail sometime after the 9 May 1693 grand jury declined to convict her for covenanting with the devil.

Several notable items in the Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt include: William Good saying he feared his wife was a witch due to her bad carriage to him; Sarah’s siblings neither testifying for or against her; and Samuel and Mary Abbey testifying that the Good family lived with them because they were “destitute of a house to dwell in” but it didn’t last long because Sarah was “so turbulent a spirit, spiteful, and so maliciously bent” that the Abbeys had to kick the family out (p. 423).

By studying her birth family and two marriages, we learn much about Sarah’s temperament before she was accused of witchcraft, and what may have led her to being one of the first accused.

Solarte family

Sometimes called “Frenchman,” Sarah’s father John Solarte purchased a house and 10 acres of land in Wenham in 1652, where he became an ordinary keeper. It was a lucrative business. In the spring of 1672, however, John declared his will before two men because “I being often troubled with fainting fits and do apprehend I have not long to live.” On 24 June 1672, John drowned—by suicide, according to a jury of inquest. His estate was worth 500 pounds, and was divided 165 pounds to the widow; 84 pounds to son John; two daughters already had their shares; and 42 pounds to each of the other six children—including Sarah.

Widow Elizabeth Solarte married six months later to widower Ezekiel Woodward (1625-1699), who took up the ordinary license and held onto his stepchildren’s inheritance even after his wife Elizabeth died and he had remarried.

John Solarte, born say 1625, died in Wenham 24 June 1672 (recorded as “John Soolard, Frenchman”). He married about 1650 to Elizabeth (–), who was born say 1630 and died in Wenham 3 February 1677/8. Elizabeth married second, Wenham 20 December 1672, Ezekiel Woodward (1625-1699). He married first, about 1650, Ann Beamsley (1633-1671), and third, in 1679, to Sarah, widow of Nathaniel Piper.

John and Elizabeth (–) Solarte’s children were:

  • Mary Solarte, d. bef. 30 November 1682 when husband claimed her portion of father’s estate for her heirs; m. Beverly May 1666 John Edwards (c. 1644-1697), son of Rice Edwards.
  • Elizabeth Solarte m. c. 1672 Joseph Lovett (b. 1650), son of John and Mary Lovett. Lived in Beverly.
  • Sarah Solarte b. c. 1654; d. Salem 19 July 1692 hanged as a witch; m1. 1682 Daniel Poole; m2. William Good.
  • John Solarte, mariner, d. betw. 26 Sept. 1672 (will, EPR 25862) and 1 Sept. 1675 (wife’s remarriage) m. bef. Sept. 1672 Sarah Cocke (1655-1739). Lived in England.
  • Hannah Solarte, b. 1658; d. Lexington 12 April 1722; m. c. 1681 John Trask of Beverly (d. 1735).
  • Joseph Solarte, b. c. 1658, d. bef. 3 March 1679 (inventory, Early EPR 3:294), unmarried. In November 1682, his siblings petitioned the court for their shares of his estate.
  • Martha Solarte, b. Wenham 25 Aug. 1659; m. c. 1680 Thomas Kilham (1654-1725), son of Corp. Daniel Kilham (d. 1700) and Mary Safford.
  • Abigail Solarte, b. Wenham 15 Aug. 1664; d. 1741-1742; m. Beverly 10 Nov. 1681 Mordecai Larcom (1658-1717), son of Mordecai Larcom (d. 1713) and Elizabeth.
  • Bethia Solarte, b. Wenham 28 Feb. 1666, d. Wenham 4 Aug. 1729; m. Beverly 21 April 1684 John Herrick of Beverly (b. 1662), son of Ephraim Herrick (1638-1693) and Mary Cross.

Continue to Part 2. Missed a post? Sarah Good’s families: Part 1 Sarah Solart | Part 2 Sarah Poole | Part 3 Sarah Good | Part 4 William Good | Part 5 Dorothy Good

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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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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

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Charter Street Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, photo by Frank Cousins

With the new Welcome Center now open inside the circa 1665 Samuel Pickman house and after the major restoration work on headstones, box tombs, and landscaping at the Charter Street Cemetery, let’s look back at this historic burying ground through the eyes of Frank Cousins (1851-1925).

In 1868, Cousins opened a general store at 170-174 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Besides the necessities of local Salemites, his shop carried photo postcards and other knickknacks for tourists. At first, he bought other photographers’ images, but then he became interested in photography and sold his own images. (He also was interested in the colonial architecture of Salem and wrote a book about it.)

The Old Burying Point (or Charter Street Cemetery) was first used in 1637, though the earliest surviving gravestone dates to 1673.

Just inside the Charter Street gate.
In the center of this photo, you can see the box tomb of Governor Simon Bradstreet (1604-1697). He was acting governor at the beginning of the witch accusations until May 1692, when Rev. Increase Mather returned from London with the new Massachusetts charter and the new governor, William Phips.
The plaque on Governor Simon Bradstreet’s box tomb.
At the time of Nathaniel Mather’s death at age 19 in 1688, his father Rev. Increase Mather (1639-1723) was in London lobbying the king for the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter. Increase first visited his son’s grave while in Salem for the 1692 witch trials.
At two years old, Samuel Shattock (1678-1695) suffered from fits and catatonia. By 1692, his health issues were unresolved. During the Salem witch trials, people said he was bewitched. His parents, Samuel and Sarah Shattock, testified against accused witch Bridget Bishop.
Mary Corey was the second wife of accused witch Giles Corey. In 1678, she was charged with cursing & swearing, being drunk, and using abusive speech. She died in 1684, aged 63 years. Giles and his third wife Martha were executed as witches in 1692, Giles by peine forte et dure (stone weight torture) and Martha by hanging.
This dual headstone, featuring a death head and an urn, is for William Hollingsworth (1655-1688) and his mother Eleanor (1630-1689). Eleanor’s daughter Mary married the prosperous merchant Philip English (1651-1736) in 1675. Mary and Philip English were arrested for witchcraft in 1692. They escaped from the Boston jail and returned home after the trials were over.
This is my favorite Frank Cousins’ image from Charter Street Cemetery, and not because it’s the gravestone for Col. John Hathorne (1641-1717). This stone was encased in cement after being seriously damaged many years ago. (I’d guess the damage happened in the 1930s, based on a postcard.) Hathorne was the magistrate who handled the early arrests of accused witches and depositions of their accusers. He also became a judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692.

No convicted witches executed at Proctor’s Ledge in 1692 are buried at Charter Street Cemetery. Their remains were taken from the shallow graves near the gallows and buried in secret by their family and friends. Their burial locations remain unknown. Requiescat in pace.

Digital Commonwealth features 2,669 images of the Frank Cousins Collection of Glass Plate Negatives 1890-1920, courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. The original negatives are located at PEM’s Phillips Library in Rowley, Massachusetts.

Read more: If these stones could speak

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Court record from the witchcraft prosecution of Eunice Cole in 1673. Massachusetts Archives Collection, Vol. 135, No. 9

Court record from the witchcraft prosecution of Eunice Cole in 1673

(Massachusetts Archives Collection, Vol. 135, No. 9)

We know very little about Eunice (—) Cole’s background and her life in England. By 1636, she was married to William Cole, who was 20 to 30 years older than she was. The couple was childless and apparently had no relatives in New England. Yet more than three hundred years after she died, Eunice is still remembered in Hampton, New Hampshire, and her difficult life can be traced in numerous court records.

In 1636, William Cole and his wife Eunice sailed to Boston as servants of Matthew Craddock, a wealthy merchant of London who had properties in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Once they landed, however, the couple did not work on Craddock’s properties and neglected to pay £10 for their ship passage. By 16 November 1637, Craddock’s agent was demanding payment, though they had no money to pay the debt. Even the town of Boston was cautious about helping the aged carpenter, giving him “two acres only for his present planting” at Mount Wollaston.

There, William and Eunice Cole met Rev. John Wheelwright, who shortly afterward was disenfranchised and banished from the colony. The Coles followed him. In April 1638, William witnessed an Indian deed between Wheelwright and Wehanownowit. He signed the Exeter Combination the following year.

In June 1640, William Cole received a grant in Hampton for a town lot and upland. It seemed like William and Eunice Cole’s fortunes were improving.

But in 1645, Eunice was brought to court for her “slanderous speeches” against her neighbors. Sitting in the stocks didn’t improve her behavior. In 1647, William Cole offered to “rescue [steal] goods out of the hands of William Fuller, the constable,” and he and his wife were charged with biting the constable’s hands. To top it off, Eunice had some choice words to say about Fuller. Eunice made several court appearances in 1648, 1651, and 1654 for unstated charges.

In 1656, Eunice was accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in Boston, but not convicted. Witchcraft was a capital crime, punishable by hanging, and in June of that year, widow Anne Hibbens was executed for witchcraft in Boston. Eunice was in prison so long that her husband William pleaded for her release in 1659. In 1660, Eunice was in court again for unseemly speeches and was whipped by Hampton constable John Huggins. From prison in 1662, Eunice asked to be released to take care of her 88-year-old husband as only a wife could do. She remained locked up, unable to pay her prison fees.

Meanwhile, William Cole was in dire straits. In 1657, Craddock’s estate made another demand for payment on the 10-pound bond. On 3 November 1659, William asked the General Court for relief. Instead, the court demanded the town of Hampton take over his estate and support him. Aged and very sickly, on 26 May 1662, William wrote his will, in which he gave his house, land, cattle, household stuff, and whatever remained to Thomas Webster upon condition of keeping him comfortable during his life—and then he promptly expired. The inventory totaled £59.14.0, with the five-acre house lot and the house upon it worth £20. To Eunice, he left only her clothes. The Norfolk county court set aside the will, and after debts were paid, half went to Thomas Webster and the other half went to the selectmen of Hampton for Eunice’s support.

Without a home to return to, in 1670, the town of Hampton erected a hut for Eunice Cole, and the townspeople took turns supplying her food and fuel. In a short time, old fears and stories returned of Eunice hurting or killing people and livestock, being a shape-shifter, having conversations with the devil, and trying to steal children. After gathering testimonies, in 1673 the jury decided Eunice was not legally guilty of witchcraft but strongly suspected her of familiarity with the devil. On 7 September 1680, again the court “vehemently” suspected Eunice of being a witch but without “full proof.” They ordered her imprisoned, with a lock on her leg.

Eunice returned to Hampton only to die, alone in her hut, in October 1680.

Sources

AmericanAncestors.org (vital records, court records, etc.)

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England by John Putnam Demos (chapter 10)

Marked: The Witchcraft Persecution of Goodwife Unise Cole 1656-1680 by Cheryl Lassiter (“creative nonfiction”; p. 169 for record images of Eunice Cole’s death)

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PRESS RELEASE

Celebrate genealogy and ancestral connections to Salem, Massachusetts, during a weekend of lectures, tours, and research

November 8, 2019, Salem, MA. Residents and visitors are invited to celebrate their ancestral and immigrant connections to Salem, Massachusetts, during the first annual Salem Ancestry Days celebration, which will be held May 1-4, 2020. The weekend will feature lectures, tours, research opportunities, and information on the people who connect us all to Salem.

Whether one is considering the Salem Witch Trials, author Nathaniel Hawthorne, abolitionist Charlotte Forten, navigator Nathaniel Bowditch, architect Samuel McIntire, or one of the families that left their mark on Salem’s maritime history, there are remarkable connections to be made to the people who created the Salem story. Event organizers also hope connections are made to the native persons, the Naumkeag, who lived on the land prior to the arrival of Roger Conant and the Dorchester Company, and the enslaved or indentured persons who were not in Salem by choice.

In the early 20th century the Great Salem Fire changed the landscape of downtown Salem and gave rise to new neighborhoods of French Canadian, Polish, and eastern European immigrants. Today Salem is home to communities of Latinx and Hispanic heritage that can and should be celebrated through Salem Ancestry Days.

For centuries, Salem has been a destination for emigrants, immigrants, and travelers. The community is a landing point and a starting point for families who are starting their American journey or changing their family’s trajectory. Through collaboration with the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Essex National Heritage Commission, American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the City of Salem, the Ancestry Days celebration intends to be a gathering point for descendants of Salem’s families as well as a research opportunity for people who want to learn more about their family history.

Events and programs will be shared on Salem Ancestry Days in early 2020.

About Salem: Salem, Massachusetts, is a destination recognized around the world for its rich history, which includes the tragic Salem Witch Trials of 1692, the glorious maritime era that left its indelible mark on Salem through architecture, museums, and artifacts, and for its month-long celebration of Halloween.

About Destination Salem: As the destination marketing organization for the City of Salem, Destination Salem cooperatively markets Salem as one of Massachusetts’ best destinations for families, couples, domestic, and international travelers who are seeking an authentic New England experience, cultural enrichment, American history, fine dining, unique shopping, and fun. For more information, visit Salem.org.