Let’s begin by saying the name of each woman who was hanged this week.
Rebecca Nurse
Sarah Good
Sarah Wilds
Elizabeth How
Susannah Martin
These were real women. A beloved grandmother. A hot-tempered beggar. An aging beauty queen. A bewildered neighbor lady. An outspoken rebel. Is there someone in your life who could be described like this?
Rebecca Nurse’s story took center stage this month, and shows what a runaway train the trials were. She was a beloved grandmother, a long-time church member, and 39 people had signed a petition on her behalf. But she was tried and found guilty because she was too hard-of-hearing to answer a question. Then she was ex-communicated by the church. The Governor gave her a reprieve, but several days later an unidentified man talked him into revoking it. And then she was hanged.
The resistance continues to gather steam. Another judge has begun to feel troubled, and twelve people have spoken up for one of the women who was hanged. These join another judge and a deputy who quit, the 39 people supporting Rebecca Nurse, and a group of Puritan ministers asking the court to slow down and be careful.
Unfortunately the Governor is distracted by a more exciting matter: He’s preparing a large expedition of soldiers to fight in Maine, and he’s decided to lead the expedition himself. Making arrangements is taking all of his time and attention, so he’s letting his second-in-command, Chief Justice William Stoughton, manage the trial. He’s powerful, opinionated, and driven to roust and destroy every witch in Massachusetts. Now more than 70 people are in prison, three people have died there, and six have been hanged.
WHO’S BEEN HANGED FOR WITCHCRAFT:
- Bridget Bishop – an unruly and outspoken woman and the first to be executed. Hanged on June 10.
- Sarah Good – a beggar who smoked a pipe and had a terrible temper. Sarah was in prison with her 4-year-old daughter, Dorcas Good, who’s still in prison, and a 6-month-old baby, who died while there. Hanged on July 19.
- Elizabeth How – a pleasant woman who was bitterly suspected by a family who’s 10-year-old daughter died two years earlier. More than a dozen people testified or deposed in her defense. Hanged on July 19.
- Susannah Martin – a rebellious widow whom the Rev Cotton Mather called one of the most “impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world.” Hanged on July 19.
- Rebecca Nurse – a beloved 70-year-old grandmother who was well-loved throughout the community. 39 people signed a petition attesting to her upstanding character. Hanged on July 19.
- Sarah Wilds – a flamboyant older woman who was suspected of bewitching a man into marrying her. Hanged on July 19.
WHO’S BEEN TRIED AND SENTENCED:
(We’re between trials right now, though the local magistrates continue to hold examinations.)
WHO’S DIED IN PRISON:
- Mercy Good – the beggar Sarah Good’s 6-month-old baby, who died on May 26, probably of malnutrition.
- Sarah Osborne – a sickly woman who died on May 10, probably of typhus. She was one of the first to be arrested; a scandal-ridden woman who’d married her servant and was trying to take her sons’ inheritance.
- Roger Toothaker – a fortuneteller who died on June 16 of “natural causes,” according to the coroner’s jury.