The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut Part 14

At a session of the Particular Court held in Hartford, August 21, 1646, Mary Johnson for thievery was sentenced to be presently whipped, and to be brought forth a month hence at Wethersfield, and there whipped. The whipping post, even in those days, did not prove a means to repentance and reformation, since at a session of the same court, December 7, 1648, the jury found a bill of indictment against Mary Johnson, that by her own confession she was guilty of familiarity with the devil.

That she was condemned and executed seems certain (it being a.s.sumed that Mary and Elizabeth Johnson were one and the same person, both Christian names appearing in the record), since at a session of the General Court, May 21, 1650, the prison-keeper's charges for her imprisonment were allowed and ordered paid "out of her estate."

A pathetic incident attaches to this case. A child to this poor woman was "borne in the prison," who was bound out until he became twenty-one years of age, to Nathaniel Rescew, to whom 15 were paid according to the mother's promise to him, he having engaged himself "to meinteine and well educate her sonne." _Colonial Records of Connecticut_ (I,143: 171: 209-22-26-32).

THE FIRST EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND

_A secret long kept made known--Winthrop's journal entry probably correct--Tradition and surmise make place for historical certainty--The evidence of an eyewitness--A notable service._

ALSE YOUNG. Windsor, 1647.

"May 26. 47 Alse Young was hanged." MATTHEW GRANT'S _Diary_.

"The first entry (the executions of Carrington and his wife being next mentioned) supplies the name of the 'One (blank) of Windsor arraigned and executed at Hartford for a witch'--the first known execution for witchcraft in New England. I have found no mention elsewhere of this Alse Young." J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL'S _Observation on Grant's Entry_.

"Who then was the 'witch' with whose execution Connecticut stepped into the dark shadow of persecution? She has been called Mary Johnson, but no Mary Johnson has been identified as this earliest victim. Whose is that pathetic figure shrinking in the twilight of that early record? We could think of her with no less kindly compa.s.sion could we give a name to the unhappy victim of the misread Word of G.o.d, who was led forth to a death stripped of dignity as of consolation: who to an ignorance and credulity, brought from an old world and not yet sifted out by the enlightenment and experience of a new, yielded up her perhaps miserable but unforfeited life. Here is the note which in all probability establishes the ident.i.ty of the One of Windsor arraigned and executed as a witch--'May 26, 47 Alse Young was hanged.'" _"One Blank" of Windsor_ (Courant Literary Section, 12, 3, 1904), ANNIE ELIOT TRUMBULL.

Matthew Grant came over with the Dorchester men from the Bay Colony in 1635, and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, where he lived until his death there in 1683.

He was a land surveyor, and the town clerk, a close observer of men and their public and private affairs, and kept a careful record of current events in a "crabbed, eccentric but by no means entirely illegible hand"

during the long years of his sojourn in the "Lord's Waste."

It has been surmised for several years--but without confirmation--and credited by the highest authorities in Connecticut colonial history, and known only to one of them, that Grant's ma.n.u.script diary contained the significant historical note as to the fate of Alse Young. It waited two centuries and more for its true interpreter, as did Wolcott's cipher notes of Hooker's famous sermon, and there it is, "not made on the decorous pages which memorize the saints," Brookes, Hooker, Warham, Reyner, Hanford, and Huit, "but scrawled on the inside of the cover, where it might be the sinner might escape detection."

In the publication of Grant's note Miss Trumbull has rendered a great service in the settlement of a disputed question, in the correction of errors, in fixing the priority of the outbreak between Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut; and in the new light shining through this revelation stands Alse, glorified with the qualities of youth, of gentleness, of innocence; and the story of her going to the unholy sacrifice on that fateful May morning more than two and a half centuries ago is told with exquisite tenderness and pathos.

Confirmation of the truth of Grant's entry is given by the scholarly historian of Windsor, Dr. Stiles, who says in his history of that ancient town:

"We know that a John Youngs, [?] bought land in Windsor of William Hubbard in 1641--which he sold in 1649--and thereafter disappears from record. He may have been the husband or father of 'Achsah'[?] the witch; if so, it would be most natural that he and his family should leave Windsor." STILES' _History of Windsor_ (pp. 444-450).

JOHN and JOAN CARRINGTON. Wethersfield, 1651.

They were indicted at a court held February 20, 1651, Governor John Haynes and Edward Hopkins being present, with other magistrates; and they were found guilty on March 6, 1651. Both were executed. _Records Particular Court_ (2: 17). [Dr. Hoadley's note in this case: "Mr.

Trumbull (Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull) told me he had a record of execution in these cases. I suppose he referred to the diary of Matthew Grant."]

The entry of the execution appears in Grant's _Diary_, after the note as to Alse Young. _One Blank of Windsor_, TRUMBULL.

LYDIA GILBERT. Windsor, 1654.

October 3, 1651, Henry Stiles of Windsor was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Thomas Allyn, also of Windsor. An inquest was held, and Thomas was indicted in the following December. He plead guilty, and at the trial the jury found the fact to be "homicide by misadventure." Thomas was fined 20 for his "sinful neglect and careless carriage," and put under a bond of 10, for good behavior for a year. _Records Particular Court_ (2: 29-57).

But witchcraft was abroad, and its tools and emissaries more than two years afterwards fastened suspicion of this death by clear accident, on Lydia Gilbert, it being charged that "thou hast of late years, or still dost give entertainment to Sathan ... and by his helpe hast killed the body of Henry Styles, besides other witchcrafts."

She was indicted and tried in September or November, 1654, and "Ye party above mentioned is found guilty of witchcraft by ye jury." Her fate is not written in any known record, but the late Honorable S.O. Griswold, a recognized authority on early colonial history in Windsor, says that as the result of a close examination of the record, "I think the reasonable probability is that she was hanged." _Records Particular Court_ (2: 51); STILE'S _History of Windsor_ (pp. 169, 444-450).

GOODY Ba.s.sETT. Stratford, 1651. Executed.

"The Gouernor, Mr. Cullick, and Mr. Clarke are desired to goe downe to Stratford to keepe courte uppon the tryall of Goody Ba.s.sett for her life"--May, 1651. "Because goodwife Ba.s.sett when she was condemned"

(probably on her own confession, as in the Greensmith case). _Colonial Records of Connecticut_ (1: 220); _New Haven Colonial Records_ (2: 77-88).

GOODWIFE KNAPP. Fairfield, 1653. Executed.

"After goodwife Knapp was executed, as soon as she was cut downe." _New Haven Colonial Records_ (1: 81).

Full account in previous chapter.

ELIZABETH G.o.dMAN. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Elizabeth was released from prison September 4, 1655, with a reprimand and warning by the court. _New Haven Town Records_ (2: 174, 179); _New Haven Colonial Records_ (2: 29, 151).

Account in previous chapter.

NICHOLAS BAYLEY and WIFE. New Haven, 1655. Acquitted.

Nicholas and his wife, after several appearances in court on account of a suspicion of witchcraft, and for various other offenses--among them, lying and filthy speeches by the wife--were advised to remove from the colony. They took the advice.

WILLIAM MEAKER. New Haven, 1657. Accused acquitted.

Thomas Mullener was always in trouble. He was a chronic litigant. His many contentions are noted at length in the court records. Among other things he made up his mind that his pigs were bewitched, so "he did cut of the tayle and eare of one and threw into the fire," "said it was a meanes used in England by some people to finde out witches," and in the light of this porcine sacrifice he charged his neighbor William Meaker with the bewitching. Meaker promptly brought an action of defamation, but Mullener became involved in other controversies and "miscarriages,"

to the degree that he was advised to remove out of the place, and put under bonds for good behavior; and Meaker, probably feeling himself vindicated, dropped his suit. _New Haven Colonial Records_ (2: 224).

ELIZABETH GARLICK. Easthampton, 1658. Acquitted.

_Records Particular Court_ (2 :113); _Colonial Records of Connecticut_ (1: 573); STILES' _History of Windsor_ (p. 735).

Account in previous chapter.

NICHOLAS and MARGARET JENNINGS. Saybrook, 1661.

Jury disagreed.

The major part of the jury found Nicholas guilty, but the rest only strongly suspected him, and as to Margaret, some found her guilty, and the others suspected her to be guilty. It is probable that the Jennings were under inquiry when, at a session of the General Court at Hartford, June 15, 1659, it was recorded that "Mr. Willis is requested to goe downe to Sea Brook, to a.s.sist ye Maior in examininge the suspitions about witchery, and to act therin as may be requisite." _Records Particular Court_ (2: 160-3); _Colonial Records of Connecticut_ (1: 338).

1662-63 was a notable year in the history of witchcraft in Connecticut.

It marked the last execution for the crime within the commonwealth, and thirty years before the outbreak at Salem.

NATHANIEL GREENSMITH and REBECCA his WIFE. Hartford, 1662. Both executed.

Account in previous chapter. _Records Particular Court_ (2: 182); _Memorial History Hartford County_ (1: 274); _Connecticut Magazine_ (November 1899, pp. 557-561).