A tale of two witches

For Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on the Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692, in which teenage girls of Salem, Massachusetts began displaying fits and accusing neighbors- mainly older women- of causing their torment.

Many of my ancestors and their relatives were somehow involved in this strange and tragic part of American colonial history, though I'll only focus here on my two known direct ancestors who were convicted of witchcraft.

Mary (PERKINS) BRADBURY, 3 Sep 1615 - 20 Dec 1700, 9th great-grandmother.

Mary was born to John PERKINS and Elizabeth GATER in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England. In 1631, she and her parents came to Massachusetts on the Lyon, and in 1636, she married Thomas BRADBURY, a prominent citizen of Salisbury.

She was 77 years old when she was accused of witchcraft in the summer of 1692. Among the charges brought against her were:

"Certaine Detestable arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries Wickedly Mallitiously and felloniously hath used practiced and Exercised At and in the Township of Andivor in the County of Essex aforesaid in upon & against one Timothy Swann of Andivor In the County aforesaid Husbandman -- by which said Wicked Acts the said Timothy Swann upon the 26th day of July Aforesaid and divers other days & times both before and after was and is Tortured Afflicted Consumed Pined Wasted and Tormented..."

She was also claimed to have cast spells on ships and assumed animal shapes.

Many neighbors, some of them other direct ancestors of mine, petitoned on her behalf in vain. She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, but was never actually executed. It is popularly believed that Mary's husband Thomas bribed her jailer and they escaped to Maine until the hysteria died down.

She lived for another eight years, and died of natural causes.

Susannah (NORTH) MARTIN, 30 Sep 1621 - 19 Jul 1692, 10th great-grandmother.

Susannah was born in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England to Richard NORTH and Joan BARTRAM. She married blacksmith George MARTIN, a widower, and together they had eight children.

Apparently Susannah was no stranger to legal trouble: she was first formally accused of witchcraft in 1669 by another direct ancestor of mine, William SARGENT; Susannah's husband George then sued Sargent for slander (one count for the charge of witchcraft against her, and the other for claiming that one of her sons was a bastard and the other was her "imp"). The witchcraft charges were dropped.

Susannah Martin reading her Bible in prison

George MARTIN died in 1686, leaving Susannah an impoverished widow by the time she was accused again of witchcraft in the summer of 1692:

"To the Marshall of the County of Essex or his lawful Deputies or to the Constable of Amesbury: You are in their Majesties names hereby required forthwith or as soon as may be to apprehend and bring Susanna Mertin of Amesbury in þ county of Esses Widdow at þ house of Lt. Nathaniel Ingersolls in Salem village in order to her examination Relating to high suspicion of sundry acts of Witchcraft donne or committed by her upon þ bodies of Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, and Mercy Lewis of Salem village or farms whereby great hurt and damage hath been donne to þ bodies of said persons.... etc"

Orlando BAGLEY, the constable of Amesbury who arrested Susannah, was my 8th great-grandfather:

According to the testimony of Puritan minister Cotton Mather, who was present at the trial, Susannah laughed when one of her accusers, Mercy Lewis, went into a fit in her presence. When the outraged magistrate said, "What! You laugh at this?", she answered, "Well, I may at such folly."

I would guess that this probably didn't help her case, because she was convicted and hanged on 19 Jul 1692.

Susannah's spinning wheel

By the fall of 1692, the witchcraft epidemic died down, and some of those who accused or were responsible for convictions publicly apologized. Samuel SEWALL, Salem witch trial magistrate and brother of my 9th great-grandmother Jane (SEWALL) GERRISH, devoted the rest of his life to repentance and became one of the earliest anti-slavery abolitionists.

Other siblings of direct ancestors who were involved in the Salem Witch Trials were victim Mary (CLEMENTS) OSGOOD, Judge John HATHORNE, clerk of the court Stephen SEWALL (brother of the aforementioned Samuel), and accuser Timothy SWAN.

Line from Mary PERKINS: Mary PERKINS - Mary BRADBURY - Jacob STANYAN - Mary STANYAN - Jacob WEBSTER - Mary WEBSTER - William WINSLOW - James WINSLOW - Bessie WINSLOW - Dorothy PALMER - S. HOWES - Me.

Line from Susannah NORTH: Susannah NORTH - Abigail MARTIN - Sarah HADLOCK - James GEORGE - Micah GEORGE - Elizabeth GEORGE - Mary WEBSTER - William WINSLOW - James WINSLOW - Bessie WINSLOW - Dorothy PALMER - S. HOWES - Me.

Witch

Recently I discovered that my 9th great-grandmother, Mary (Perkins) Bradbury, was convicted of witchcraft. I had already had her entered into my family tree, but hadn't known this tidbit about her until I stumbled across it on the internet.

Mary was born September 3, 1615 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England to John and Judith (Gater) Perkins. She and her family came to Massachusetts on the "Lyon" in 1631 and settled in Essex County. Mary married Thomas Bradbury, a prominent and well-respected citizen of Salisbury, in May of 1636.

She was 77 years old when she was accused during the Salem witch trial hysteria of 1692. Among the charges were:

"Certaine Detestable arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries Wickedly Mallitiously and felloniously hath used practiced and Exercised At and in the Township of Andivor in the County of Essex aforesaid in upon & against one Timothy Swann of Andivor In the County aforesaid Husbandman -- by which said Wicked Acts the said Timothy Swann upon the 26th day of July Aforesaid and divers other days & times both before and after was and is Tortured Afflicted Consumed Pined Wasted and Tormented..."

She was also claimed to have cast spells on ships and assumed animal shapes.

Her accuser, Timothy Swan (March 12, 1662 - February 2, 1693) was the brother of my 9th great-grandmother, Elizabeth Swan. He apparently accused others as well.

Many neighbors testified to Mary Bradbury's innocence and good Christian character, including other direct ancestors of mine-- my 8th great-grandfather Morris Tucker, his son Benony, and their wives were among those who petitioned on her behalf. In spite of this, Mary was convicted and sentenced to execution by hanging.

The neighbors' efforts did succeed in delaying the execution, which for some reason was never carried out. Either she was exonerated, or, as some stories claim, she and her husband paid off her jailer and escaped to Maine until the witchcraft epidemic passed. She died of natural causes just a few years later.

Personally, I think the exoneration version is more believable; it's unlikely that someone would risk returning to a town where a death sentence had been passed on them, for one thing. For another, her accuser died, making it possible that some evidence-- an admittance of false witness, perhaps-- cleared her.

Some of her more famous descendants include two writers-- science fiction author Ray Bradbury and 19th century Trancendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.