Abigail (Martin) Safford (1676 - 1768)

Born 29 Mar 1676 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Wife of John Safford — married about 28 Jun 1702 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 20 Mar 1768 at age 91 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut

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Biography

Abigail (Martin) Safford was a witchcraft accuser in the Salem Witch Trials

Abigail Martin was born on 29 Mar 1676 in Andover, Massachusetts Bay, the daughter of Samuel and Abigail Martin.^[1]

She married John Sanford on 28 Jun 1702 in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay.^[2]

She died on 20 Mar 1768 in Connecticut.^[3]

On 15 Sep 1692, she deposed against Samuel Wardwell in the Salem Witch Trials.^[4]

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.^[5]
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community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[6]
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.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/7646/266/141263706
2. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-98JB : 29 November 2018), John Safford and Abigaill Martin, 28 Jun 1702; citing Marriage, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009714.
3. ↑ "Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772-1934," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F768-TY3 : 9 February 2018), Abigail Safford, 20 Mar 1768; citing , reference ; FHL microfilm 3,196.
4. ↑ Deposition of Abigail Martin and John Bridges v. Samuel Wardwell (transcript), Salem Witchcraft Papers, SWP No. 133.8, September 15, 1692
5. ↑ “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.
6. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
7. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

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