Mary (Woodrow) Sibley (1660)

Born 21 Apr 1660 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Wife of Samuel Sibley — married 1686 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

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Biography

Mary (Woodrow) Sibley was involved in the Salem Witch Trials

Marriage

Samuel Sybly/Sibley married Mary Woodrow in Salem, Massachusetts Bay, by 1687.^[1]

One of the true witches in Salem. "After several children in the town of Salem had severe pains due to tortures of demons and could not answer when asked, 'Who is torturing you?' despite the entreaties of local and other clergy, the people became agitated.

One of the Reverend Parris' neighbors, Goody Mary Sibley (Mary Woodrow Sibley), who had knowledge of demonology which had been handed down in her family for generations, remembered a procedure which would empower an afflicted child to name the wizard or witch who was doing the torturing.^[2] Goody Sibley performed the rite without the knowledge of Reverend Parris. 'Make a cake of rye meal mixed with the children's water and put it in the hot ashes on the hearth. When it is baked, give it to the dog. If he eats, the children will name the torturer.' After all was done Goody Sibley came near being tried as a witch herself, the Sibley's were suspended from communion with the church for a time, but on March 11, 1692 it restored on confession that her purpose was innocent."

At the trials, she was said to be calm, but subsequently critics have accused her of everything from compromise to actually being a witch who foiled her potential adversaries by distracting their attention away from herself onto innocent persons. The children did name their 'torturer', but that is another story." ^{[3] [4]}

The final evaluation of the Salem Witch trials, has shown that it was more about the few "wealthy righteous" people of Salem Town destroying those who opposed them (financially) or were socially different. [See:"Salem Possessed", by: Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum.]

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. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21175/1374/426941324
2. ↑ “Samuel and Mary Sibley Home, Site Of.” Salem Witch Museum. Accessed March 9, 2020. https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/samuel-and-mary-sibley-home-site-of/.
3. ↑ Felt
4. ↑ Upham
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

• Felt, Joseph B. The Annals of Salem, From Its First Settlement (W.&S.B. Ives, 1827) Vol. 2, p. 476 [from the town records].
• Upham, Charles W. "Salem Witchcraft."
• Massachusetts (Colony). Quarterly Courts (Essex County). Records and files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. (Salem, Massachusetts: The Essex Institute, 1911-1925, 1975), Vol. II
• The Sibley Family in America, Vol 1, by James Scarborough Sibley.
• Ancestral File Number: HKTC-70
• Patch, Ira J., Extracts From Some The First Book of Births, Marriages and Death, of The City of Salem, Essex Institute Historical Collections (Salem, Massachusetts, 1862) Vol. 4, Page 43
• Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Biography of Mary Sibley, Witness in the Salem Witch Trials." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/mary-sibley-biography-3530329 (accessed January 12, 2020).
• Lewis, Jone Johnson. "The Role of Witch's Cake in Salem." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-witchs-cake-3528206 (accessed January 12, 2020).