Sarah (Solart) Good (abt. 1653 - 1692)

Born about 1653 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Wife of Daniel Poole — married about 1682 in Massachusetts Bay

Wife of William Good — married after 1686 in Massachusetts Bay

Died 19 Jul 1692 at about age 39 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

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Biography

Sarah (Solart) Good was executed for witchcraft in witch trials

Sarah Solart was born to prosperous innkeeper John Solart and his wife Elizabeth, about 1653. ^[1]

Sarah's father committed suicide when Sarah was a young woman: “Report of a jury of inquest... appointed upon the sudden death of John Soolart of Wenham, found him accessory to his own death by drowning himself....”^[2]

Sarah married Daniel Poole in 1682, ^[3] an indentured servant, who died in 1686 and left her mired in debt.

Sarah next married William Good, but the couple lost their property in lawsuits related to her first husband's debts. By the time of the witchcraft outbreak, they were homeless, poverty-stricken, and dependent on others for sustenance.”^[1] “Known as a pipe-smoking, muttering beggar, Good would go door-to-door with her 4-year-old daughter Dorothy in tow.”^[4]

Sarah died on 19 Jul 1692^[5]

Children of William Good and Sarah Solart

1. Dorothy Good, b. about 1687, Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay
2. Mercy Good, b. 1692, d. 1692, Boston, Massachusetts Bay.

Salem Witch Trials

Sarah (Solart) Good was executed for witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

On 29 Feb 1692, “Mrs Joseph Hutcheson, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, Edward Putnam and Thomas Preston...made Complaint...against Sarah Good...for suspition of Witchcraft...and...much Injury donne to Elizabeth "Betty" Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard all of Salem Village”^[6] An easy target, she was among the first to be accused.

On 1 Mar 1692, Colonel John Hathorne and Captain Jonathan Corwin examined her at Salem.^[5] At this time, her husband bizarrely testified, “She is an enemy to all good" and she "was a witch or would be one very quickly."^[7] After a second examination on 5 Mar 1692, where her husband again testified, “william Good saith that the night before his s'd wife was Examined he saw a wart or tett a little belowe her Right shoulder which he never saw before...^{[6] [5]} They sent her to the jail in Boston on 7 Mar 1692.^[5] On 29 May 1692, the Boston jailer submitted his bill,“against the country,” for “chains for Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, 14 shillings...^[5]

And on 29 Jun 1692, her daughter testified, “she had three birds one black, one yellow & that these birds hurt the Children...” ^[6]

She was described as “a forlorn, friendless, and forsaken creature, broken down by wretchedness of conditions and ill-repute.”^[5]

Her hanging was delayed because she was pregnant when arrested. She gave birth in jail to a daughter, Mercy, but the infant died there before her execution.^[8]

Sarah Good never confessed her guilt, even as her four year old daughter, Dorothy, was also accused and jailed.^[5]

After testimony against her by “William Allen, John Hughes, Samuell Brabrooke, Mary walkut, mercy Lewis, Sarah Vibber’ Abig'll Williams, Elizabeth Hubberd, Ann Putman, Tittube indian, Richard Patch,” and other Salem neighbors, she was indicted on 28 Jun 1692 for “afflicting Sarah Bibber, Elizabeth Hubbart, and Ann Puttnam.”

Chief Justice William Stoughton signed her Warrant for Execution,^[6] and she was hanged on 19 Jul 1692 at Proctor's Ledge, Gallows Hill, Salem, Massachusetts Bay. ^[5]

On the ladder, still remorseless and unyielding, she scorned Reverend Nicholas Noyes’s exhortations to confess and proclaimed,

You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink!^[5][9]

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.^[10]
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 [For Sarah Good, £30]^[10]
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.^[11]
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.^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} “The Devil in the Shape of a Woman : Carol F. Karlsen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Norton, January 1, 1998. https://archive.org/details/devilinshapeofwo00karl_0/page/269.
2. ↑ “Salem-Village Witchcraft; a Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England : Boyer, Paul S., Compiler : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Belmont, Calif., Wadsworth Pub. Co, January 1, 1972. https://archive.org/details/salemvillagewitc0000boye/page/139.
3. ↑ Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. Online($) at Ancestry.com.
4. ↑ “Solart-Woodward House.” Salem Witch Museum. Accessed January 25, 2020. https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/solart-woodward-house/.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8} “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. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/n3. pps. 13, 29, 30, 32, 268, 269, 480.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3} The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 063) Sarah Good
7. ↑ “The Salem Witch Trials : a Reference Guide : Goss, K. David, 1952- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, January 1, 1970. p. 92. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchtrials0000goss.
8. ↑ Wikipedia Entry for Sarah Good
9. ↑ “Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 : Burr, George Lincoln, 1857-1938 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/narrativeswitch03burrgoog/page/n383/mode/1up/search/Sarah good.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} “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.
11. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
12. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

See also:

• FindaGrave Memorial #6567
• Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Sarah Good Biography." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/sarah-good-biography-3530339 (accessed January 12, 2020).
• User, Super. "Records Of The Trial And Execution Of Sarah Good, 1692." Famous Trials. Accessed June 13, 2020. https://famous-trials.com/salem/2054-asa-good.