Margaret (Jacobs) Foster (1675 - 1717)

Born 26 Nov 1675 in Old Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony (present day Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, USA)

Ancestors

Wife of John Foster — married 30 Nov 1699 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 22 Mar 1717 at age 41 in Billerica, Province of Massachusetts Bay (present day Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA)

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Biography

Margaret (Jacobs) Foster was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

George Jacobs' granddaughter, Margaret herself confessed to witchcraft and accused her grandfather among others who had already been accused in order, she wrote, "to save my life and to have my liberty." ^[1] Only after Jacobs’s death sentence was pronounced in court did Margaret have a change of heart and write to the magistrates to retract her testimony and her own confession as a witch. The result of this reversal was that Margaret was moved from the cell of the confessed witches and back to the cell of those awaiting trials and executions. She explained to her grandfather her feelings of regret for the part she had played in condemning him, and he forgave her.

Massachusetts Remediation

1. 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.^[2]
2. 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead
3. 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[3]
4. 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ "Recantation of Margaret Jacobs" The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Number 80 : Verbatim Transcipts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 / Edited and with an Introduction and Index by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum / Revised, Corrected, and Augmented by Benjamin C. Ray and Tara S. Wood. The University of Virginia, 2002. Web. 19 May 2015.
2. ↑ “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17845/17845-h/salem2-htm.html#Page_ii.480.
3. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
4. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

• Source: "George Jacobs, Sr. Executed, August 19, 1692." The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Volume 2 : Verbatim Transcipts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 / Edited and with an Introduction and Index by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum / Revised, Corrected, and Augmented by Benjamin C. Ray and Tara S. Wood. The University of Virginia, 2002. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/BoySal2R?div_id=n78>.
• Source: S6 Record ID Number: MH:S6 User ID: 52618F0FAFAEA25D278E7D1D9772E111 UPD 26 FEB 2012 13:01:47 GMT-6 Title: Johnson Web Site Text: MyHeritage.com family tree CONT Family site: Johnson Web Site CONT Family tree: 559603-2 Media: 559603-2 Type: Smart Matching Record ID Number: MH:SC125 Page: Margaret Foster (born Jacobs) Event: Smart Matching Role: 2000806 Data: Date: 26 FEB 2012 Text: Added by confirming a Smart Match Quality or Certainty of Data: 3
• Source: Margeret Jacobs in the Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850
  • Source Information: Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
  • Original data: With some noted exceptions all marriage records in this collection can be found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and may be available through Family History Centers throughout the United States. See table below for information listed.
• Source: Margerett Jacobs in the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
  • Source Information: Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
  • Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).
• Source: S3 Record ID Number: MH:S3 User ID: 52618F0FAFA0825CF78E7D1D9772E111 UPD 24 FEB 2012 11:41:35 GMT-6 Title: Johnson Web Site Text: MyHeritage.com family tree CONT Family site: Johnson Web Site CONT Family tree: 559603-3 Media: 559603-3 Type: Smart Matching Record ID Number: MH:SC124 Page: Margaret Foster (born Jacobs) Event: Smart Matching Role: 3000051 Data: Date: 24 FEB 2012 Text: Added by confirming a Smart Match Quality or Certainty of Data: 3

Notes

Note N68Notes

From the Foster Genealogy 5998. JOHN FOSTER (Samuel. John). b. Salem, Mass., Nov. 30, 1678; m.,Nov. 30, 1699, by Rev. Joseph Green, Margaret Jacobs, dau. of George and Rebecca (Frost). John, the father, and wife Margaret were members of the first church at Chebacco (now Essex) and his decease in 1763 is noted intheir records; will proved 17 Oct, 1763. Margaret, the mother, died prior to December 20, 1758, the date of his will in which she is not mentioned. Whoever, while studying the early history of his family, finds them located in or near Salem, is led to query what part, if any, of his ancestors had in that terrible fallacy, witchcraft. John Foster, born 1678, son of Samuel Foster, and Sarah (Steward) married Margaret Jacobs; her father, George Jacobs, born in Danvers, was arrested May10, 1692; tried and condemned with four others Aug. 5, and were executed Aug. 19. The mother, Rebecca, and daughter, Margaret, were imprisoned on same charge.

Record ID Number: MH:N68

PRIN MH:I538