Today In Salem: Yesterday was the Sabbath, a day of sermons and prayer. It’s only today that people are waking up to the news: the wealthy Philip English and his wife Mary have escaped from jail and are racing away to parts unknown.
By running, Philip and Mary have forfeited a £4,000 bond. But they’ve also left behind an enormous estate, and the Sheriff wastes no time seizing it. In addition to the usual furniture, clothing, and household goods, he confiscates a wine cellar; hundreds of bushels of wheat, rum, and molasses; a warehouse full of lumber, grain, and fishing supplies; and seven fishing boats floating in the harbor, all worth about £1,200.
Seventeen years after the Trials, Phillip will petition the government for recompense, but it will take the courts another nine years after that to grant him only £200.
I Phillip English Whas Imprisoned togather With My Whife in salem Prison and then Carred to Boston Prison, and thare Lay Nine Weeks from Whance Whe Made our Escape in Which time besides our Charge in flying had the Estate heare aftor Menechened Loast and Tacking a Whay
500 butchells of Vorginiy Whet
203 butchells of Engen Corn
3 pipes of Whine
2 hogsheds of Suger
4 hoggheds of Melases
… [more] …
58 thousands of Bords or More
10 thousands of Staves
2000 of Clabbords
28 thousands of Shingells
… [more] …
The foregoing is a true Account of What I had Seized tacking away Lost and Embezeld whilst I was a prisoner in the yeare 1692 & whilst on my flight for my life besides a Considerable quantity of household goods & other things which I Cannot Exactly give a pertickolar Acco off for all which I Never Reseved any other or further satisfacon for them Then Sixty Pounds 3s payd Me by the Administrators of George Corwine Late Sherife desesd and the Estate was so seisd & Tackin away Chiefly by the Sherife and his under offisers not withstanding I had given fore thousand pound Bond with Surety att Boston *philip English
LEARN MORE: Why was the Sheriff allowed to seize people’s property?
The Sheriff in Salem was obeying the law by seizing property, though he could have been kinder or less gleeful about it.
For a few months during the witchcraft trials, the Court was required to follow the laws of England, not the laws that had evolved in the colonies. English Common Law said that when a felon escaped or was convicted, all of their personal goods (except land) were forfeited to the king. In Salem, a lot of the property the Sheriff seized was actually sent to England, or sold, with the money being sent. A lot of it was also used to maintain the jails and support the prisoners. But there was no inventory of the items, and no one to monitor the Sheriff as he confiscated them. So there was (and is) speculation that he may have personally profited from it.
Only felons who owned property were in a position to lose it. But it was complicated by gender and marital status.
When a man was convicted, he lost everything. If he was married, then his wife also lost everything, because anything she “owned” was actually owned by her husband. (This is why the Sheriff had the wedding ring worn by George Jacobs Sr.’s wife in his pocket.)
When a married woman was convicted, nothing happened, because legally she couldn’t own anything. Everything belonged to her innocent husband. (This is why there are no forfeiture stories about Rebecca Nurse, Martha Carrier, or other married women.)
When a widow was convicted, her property was taken because, in the absence of a husband, she actually did own it. (This is what happened to Mary Parker.)
When anyone escaped, their property was taken, even if they weren’t convicted yet. (This is why the Sheriff raided the estate of the wealthy Philip English.)