Thomas Carrier (abt. 1626 - 1735)

Born about 1626 in Wales [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Martha (Allin) Carrier — married 7 May 1674 in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 16 May 1735 at about age 109 in Colchester, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

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This profile is part of the Carrier Name Study.

Biography

Name

Thomas Carrier: also known as Morgan

As interesting as Martha's story is, that of her husband, Thomas, is equally interesting. He was born as Thomas Morgan in Wales around 1626. Thomas belonged to the bodyguard of King Charles I, of England. It is not absolutely certain, but it was said that he killed the King when he was beheaded in 1648, whether he was the actual man to do the chopping, he definitely had something to do with the whole affair. Charles I, son of James I, was always in disagreement with Parliament, and actually dissolved them in 1629. Civil war resulted in 1642. In 1646, Charles surrendered to the Scottish army and was tried before the English Parliament in 1647. When Charles II gained power in 1660, he pardoned everyone except for the regicides and judges of Thomas I. So off to America under assumed names for all those involved with the murder of King Thomas I. No details are available as to why the name Carrier was chosen.

Thomas died in Colchester, Connecticut on 16 May 1735, 'about 108 or 109 y.'^[1] though many family members claimed his age was 113. The town records indicate that he was 7'4", and was well known for his quickness of foot. He would often walk to a mill 18 miles with a sack of corn to be ground on his shoulder, stopping only once during the trip to shift the bag. The New England Journal on June 9,1735 stated: "His head in his last years was not bald or his hair gray. Not many days before his death he traveled on foot six miles to see a sick friend, and the day before he died he was visiting his neighbors. His mind was alert until he died, when he fell asleep in his chair and never woke up."

Lowell (MA) Sun Newspaper - Tuesday March 16, 1999:

Billerica family's 323-year exile ends by Pierre Comtois, Sun Correspondent

BILLERICA - The Carrier family won redemption last night--although it came 323 years too late. The Board of Selectmen, seeking to undo a wrong committed by their predecessors during colonial times, voted last night to rescind the banishment of the entire Carrier family. In 1676, Thomas and Martha Carrier and family were told by selectmen to leave town forthwith or pay a surety of 20 shillings per week if they wanted to stay.

Selectman Edward Hurd, who's wife is a descendant from the family, said town records aren't clear but he believes that "a member of the family had the smallpox virus" and town officials didn't want them to be a burden on their neighbors. This immediate family moved to Andover, only to see Martha accused of witchcraft in the 1690's and sentenced to hang atop Gallows Hill in Salem.

Members of the family later moved to Colchester, CT, Hurd said, though some stayed behind in Billerica. In the early 1700's, said Hurd, the Massachusetts government apologized to Thomas Carrier for the hanging of his wife and paid him a settlement.

Last night was the town's turn to make good. Hurd asked his colleagues to rescind the banishment as an "appropriate gesture" to the Carrier family. It was unanimously approved.

When Thomas Carrier arrived in New England, he already had an unusual and historic past. According to Carrier family tradition, Thomas' exceptional physical ability led him to be chosen as one of the King of England's Royal Guard. Then in 1649, when King Charles I was put on trial and sentenced to death, it was Thomas who acted in the historic position as executioner of the King. Unfortunately for Carrier, Charles I's son, Charles II, would re-take the throne and gain control of the country. In May 1660, Charles II ordered the arrest of those responsible for his father's death. If Carrier was involved, the arrest orders could have been what motivated him to make the journey across the Atlantic. The Puritans of Massachusetts certainly did not approve of the repression of Charles I, but they also did not approve of regicide (the killing of a king). The facts of Carrier's actions may have found their way across the Atlantic.

Thomas Carrier's arrival in New England came about 1665, shortly after the arrest orders were sent out. His first stop was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but he would soon move on to the village of Billerica, Massachusetts. It seems that Carrier lived an unsettled life at first, moving three or four times between Billerica and Andover, Massachusetts. While in Andover in 1672, Thomas Carrier met Martha Allen, the daughter of Andrew and Faith (Ingalls) Allen, who was 20 years younger than himself. The couple was married in 1674 and after the birth of their second son they moved back to Billerica.

The couple settled in Billerica and their family grew. After what must have been a joyful time for the Carriers, now with three sons and two daughters, the tough times began in 1690. The next two Carrier children died from the common 17th century disease of smallpox. Although Boston had already been hit with several smallpox epidemics, the smaller villages had been spared. When Martha's father also died later that year, the Carriers moved back to Andover to live with Martha's mother.

They are noted in public records as receiving the standard, but ominous, warning from the Andover Selectmen to "move on." Unfortunately for the Carriers, they brought the smallpox virus with them to Andover and it quickly spread to Martha's family. Within two months of the arrival of the Carriers, nine people had died from the illness. The victims included Martha's two brothers, her sister-in-law and a nephew, all living in Martha's mother's house when the Carriers arrived. Suspicion about Martha began to surface. The fact that her husband and children had been stricken with smallpox, but none of them died, would have been interpreted as proof that Martha possessed special powers.

To make her situation worse, after the death of her two brothers Martha took charge of her father's estate. In colonial New England, the ownership of land by women was seriously frowned upon and considered improper behavior. She immediately ran into friction with her neighbors, threatening vengeance upon those she believed were cheating her or her husband. Martha was described as "a woman of a disposition not unlikely to make enemies; plain and outspoken in her speech, of remarkable strength of mind, a keen sense of justice, and a sharp tongue." Not far from Andover in Salem Village, the witchcraft hysteria was beginning to pick up momentum.

The troubles in Salem started when some impressionable young girls began listening to stories told by the minister's servant Tituba, a slave from Barbados, West Indies. Soon the minister's daughter, Elizabeth Parris, became ill and refused to eat. Other Salem girls began throwing fits, having strange dreams and making animal-like noises. Some of them developed spots that looked like pin pricks and teeth marks.

They were examined by Dr. William Griggs, who could not find any reason for the state of the girls and proclaimed, "The evil hand is upon them." When the girls were asked who was bewitching them, they named Tituba, an obvious pagan, and a couple old beggar women. As the women were dragged off to jail and put on trial, the girls' popularity rose and they became regarded as visionaries. The witch-hunt had begun.

Shortly thereafter in Andover, Joseph Ballard's wife came down with an illness that the normal herb remedies failed to cure. He suspected witchcraft and rode to Salem to enlist the help of the now prestigious Salem girls. The girls arrived in Andover with great ceremony and announced that Ballard's wife was indeed bewitched, naming Martha Carrier and others as witches. A warrant was signed for Martha's arrest on May 28, 1692, the first person in Andover to be charged with witchcraft. She was taken to jail and placed in chains to keep her spirit from roaming. Three days later, Martha underwent the "examination" that preceded witchcraft trials. During the examination, most accused witches made confessions to avoid the extreme penalty of death. Not Martha, she maintained her innocence in the face of the scrutiny.

She was then transported to the Salem Village Meeting House to face the notorious Salem girls. When Martha entered the Meeting House the girls fell to the floor writhing with cries of agony. After the elders read the indictment, naming Mary Wolcott of Salem as the victim, Martha responded with a plea of "not guilty." From the floor of the Meeting House the Salem girls responded, "I would see the souls of the 13 persons whom she murdered at Andover."

Martha was also confronted by five women and children from Salem who claimed to be suffering from her. Susannah Shelden claimed that her hands were tied together with a wheel band by Martha's specter. The magistrates asked, "Susannah, who hurts you?" Her response was clear, "Goody Carrier. She bites me, pinches me and tells me she would cut my throat if I did not sign her devil's book."

Witnesses in the court said they saw a "black man" whispering in Martha's ear as she stood at the bar in front of the magistrates. When they questioned her, "What black man did you see?" Martha replied sharply, "I saw no black man but your own presence." Pushed on by the confrontation Martha proclaimed, "You lie; I am wronged.... It is false and it is a shame for you to mind what these say, that are out of their wits!" Her defiance and confrontational attitude only helped confirm the magistrates' opinion of her guilt. The accusers persisted and Martha was formally indicted.

She was bound in chains and taken to jail to await further trial while more evidence could be found. Martha's two oldest sons, Andrew and Richard, and her seven and a half year old daughter, Sarah, were also put in jail as suspected witches. During their stay, the children confessed that they were witches and it was their mother that made them witches. Martha's two teenage sons had been hung by heir heels "until the blood was ready to come out of their noses," before they confessed to being involved with witchcraft. The magistrates didn't use the sons' confessions, but they did bring Martha's young daughter, Sarah, to testify against her mother. Sarah's confession came six days after Martha was already convicted and sentenced to death. Under the persuasive magistrates the children related time, place and occasion of their "evil" behavior. They told the examiners about journeys, meetings and "mischiefs by them performed, and were very credible in what they said." However, the sons' testimony was never heard in court, the magistrates feeling there was enough other evidence.

On August 2, 1692 a special court of Oyer and Terminer was held in Salem to deal with six accused witches, including Martha Carrier. When the witnesses were brought before the court the evidence against Martha was overwhelming. All of the past arguments Martha ever had were brought up and there were many fact which "looked greatly against her." Martha again pleaded not guilty, but the proceedings continued, "there was first brought in a considerable number of the bewitched persons, who not only made the court sensible of an horrid witchcraft committed upon them, but also deposed that it was Martha Carrier, or her shape, that grievously tormented them by biting, pricking, pinching and choking them. It was further disposed that while this Carrier was on her examination before the magistrates, the poor people were so tormented that everyone expected their death on the very spot, but that upon the binding of Carrier they were ceased.

Moreover, the looks of Carrier then laid the afflicted people for dead and her touch, if her eyes were at the same time off them, raised them again. Which things were also now seen upon her trial. And it was testified that upon mention of some having their necks twisted almost round by the shape of this Carrier, she replied, "It's no matter, though their necks had been twisted quite off." The witnesses then came individually before the magistrates. Martha's neighbor Phebe Chandler testified that she heard Martha's voice over her head as she walked across a field. She claimed that the voice told her she would be poisoned within two or three days. A few days later Chandler reports that her right hand and part of her face had become swollen and painful.

Another neighbor, Benjamin Abbott, testified that there were angry words between them concerning a land dispute. Shortly afterwards Abbott became ill with swelling in his foot and then with a pain in his side. The sore in his side was lanced by the local doctor and released "gallons of corruption." Abbott's pain grew worse and worse over six weeks, bringing him close to death. Mysteriously, as soon as Martha was put in jail, Abbott began to regain his health. The testimony continued with Andover resident John Rogers. He came before the court to state that "one of his cows which used to give a good mess of milk would give none... Carrier being a malicious woman."

Even Martha's own nephew, Allen Toothacker, stood in front of the magistrates and testified that he "lost three-year-old heifer, next a yearling, and then a cow and knew not any cause of ye deaths... but I always feared it hath been ye effect of my Aunt Carrier, her malice." Toothacker also stated that during a fight with Richard Carrier he was held on the ground by Martha's spirit.

The trial prompted the well known Boston cleric, Dr. Cotton Mather, to report, "This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was the person of whom the confession of the rest agreed that the devil had promised her, she should be the "Queen of Hell." On August 19, 1692, Martha was taken in the back of a cart to Gallows Hill in Salem. Jeering crowds lined the streets and gathered at the scaffold to witness the hanging of Martha and four men, also "convicted" witches. Screaming her innocence from the scaffold, Martha never gave up.

A report from the time describes the treatment of Martha and two of the men, including a Mr. Burroughs: "When he was cut down, he was dragged by a halter to a hole or grave between the rocks about two feet deep; his shirt and breeches were pulled off and an old pair of trousers of one of the executed put on his lower parts; he was so put in together with Willard and Carrier that one of his hands and his chin and a foot of one of them was left uncovered."

In May 1693, Governor Phips of Massachusetts returned from the Indian Wars and revoked all death sentences and released all those still held. The Governor also revoked the acceptance of "spectral evidence" in court, effectively ending the witch trials. Martha Carrier's name appeared on a 1711 list of sufferers whose legal representatives received compensation for imprisonment and death of relatives. The Carrier family received seven pounds, six shillings.

Belief in witchcraft was universal in the 17th century and was considered a major problem for the leaders of the time. The devil was an active force, constantly on hand to recruit new helpers in his fight against good Christians everywhere. In the Salem area, over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Within three months of Martha Carrier's arrest, in Andover alone, 40 warrants had been issued, naming members of some of the most prominent families in town. At one point every woman in Andover was blindfolded and led before the Salem girls to prove their innocence or guilt.

When Magistrate Dudley Bradstreet threw down his pen and declared he would sign no more warrants, he himself was accused of being a witch. He and his family had to escape the town, fearing for their lives. In Salem, the 23 people who were hung, tortured or died in jail. A testament to her courage, Martha Carrier was the only person, of all those accused, that maintained her innocence to the end, "I would rather die than confess a falsehood so filthy."

Thomas and his family remained in Andover for a few years after his wife's trial. The first record of the Carriers in the Connecticut area comes in 1701, when Thomas Carrier built a house and then opened a sawmill on the Jeremy River. Records indicate that Carrier owned almost all the land then called North Westchester, which would eventually become part of Marlborough near the point where New London, Hartford and Tolland Counties intersect. Later on Thomas' sons would join him in Connecticut. Land was taken in Richard's name in Westchester, New London Co. in 1703, and a little later Andrew was also granted a plot. Thomas, Jr. remained in Andover for a while longer, then joined his brothers and father in 1716 as a Colchester, New London Co. inhabitant.

Thomas became known as the "Tall Man," having reached an unusual 7' 4" tall, with his strength and agility his pride at 100 years old. The Carrier Genealogy reports that Thomas, about 80 years old when he moved to North Westchester, would frequently walk to a grist mill in Glastonbury, a distance of eighteen miles. He would carry a bag of corn on his shoulders, walking very fast and erect, stopping only once to shift his load. He would have his corn ground and then walk back.

Thomas Carrier died on May 18, 1735 at at what the Town records say was the age of 108 or 109. Some Carrier family members maintain he was actually 113 when he died. It was reported in the New England Journal on June 9, 1735 that, "His head, in his last years, not bald nor his hair grey. Not many days before his death he traveled on foot six miles to see a sick friend, and the day before he died he was visiting his neighbors. His mind was alert until he died, when he fell asleep in his chair and never woke up."

Thomas Carrier left five children, 39 grand children and 38 great grandchildren. Even after Thomas passed away his remnants would be shrouded in mystery. The original Carrier burial ground was not in a regular church cemetery, but located near Thomas' property on the Jeremy River. This small piece of land became lost and forgotten in the woods of Marlborough until construction on Rt. 2 in the1930s. While the local road crews were looking for gravel around town, they discovered the bodies buried in the Carrier plot located at the corner of South Main St. and Kellogg Rd.

The remains of the Carriers were reportedly taken to the Marlboro Cemetery, in Marlborough center, and given another burial. The monument which was erected is also a mystery, the names of Thomas' sons are repeated and seem confused. The town of Marlborough has no record of the movement of which body went where and who is responsible for erecting the monument. The fact that there are also at least two other people buried in the Carrier plot that were not moved only raises more questions. It is also strange that there are tombstones for Richard, Andrew and their wives in the Colchester Congregational Church Cemetery, even though Andrew is listed twice on the Marlborough monument. It was a hard life for Thomas Carrier and his family and they had the unfortunate luck of being at the center of some of their era's most horrifying episodes.

Thomas Carrier dyed May 16: A D 1735. aged about 108 or 109 years^[1]

Born 2: Mar 16, 1735

Marriage: May 07, 1674

Burial: Marlboro Cemetery, Marlborough, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Inscription: age 109 yrs, First Settler of Colchester, CT

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Colchester, Connecticut: "Deeds, 1703-1909; general index, 1703-1932". Catalog: Deeds, 1703-1909; general index, 1703-1932 Deeds, v. 3-4 1729-1750. Film number: 007833556 > image 258 of 458. FamilySearch Image: 3Q9M-CS3F-JQL2-M (accessed 15 March 2023).

• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCSH-V45 : 20 May 2022), Tho. Carrier Als Morgan, 7 Mar 1674; citing Marriage, Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004198966.
• Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Provo, UT, USA, The Generations Network, Inc., 2004)
• Bowen's Boston News-Letter and City Record (Abel Bown, Boston, May 6, 1826) Vol. 1

• Page 232: "Thomas Carrier, alias Morgan, a Welchman, became an inhabitant of Billerica about the year 1663. He was at first not accepted as an inhabitant, and a petition appears to have been preferred to the county court against his admission. He was, however, afterwards admitted; was married by General Gookin, May 7, 1664, to Martha Allen and had several children born here..."

• American Genealogical-Biographical Index, Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, CT, USA
• http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/u/t/Lynn-Sutherland-Fairfax/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1671.html
• Taintor, Charles Micaiell, Extracts from the Records of Colchester (Case, Lockwood & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1864) Page 7
• Find A Grave: Memorial #7174476
• The Carrier Genealogy 1986
• Remembering the Witch Hunt Victims by Laura Shapiro, Newsweek 1992