Salem Witch Trials Category

Question

I have hit upon this topic as an area of research interest to me since so many in the Dane extended family ended up involved in one way or another.  As such, I'm going to propose another category here, which I will create that will be something like [[Category: Witch Trial Participants of New England].  My direct ancestor,John Dane, was not an accused witch, but he was a juror.  I know there were also many other active participants who will have WikiTree profiles and who were strongly connected historically to the trials who will not fit into the Accused Witches category that we currently have.  

I know this was already discussed here: http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/38184/what-appropriate-category-identify-those-accused-witchcraft

Comments

At a certain little church in Holland when tourists are shown the grounds the guide informs the listeners that the pilgrims visited that very church but were disappointed to learn that setting fires in the town was illegal (even small little fires at the bottom of poles with wiggling girls attached), and that also drowning and hanging were forbidden except by the authorities.  And that is the reason the pilgrims left Holland to avoid this "religious" persecution of not being able to mete and dole their own brand of punishment as they saw fit to their own people.  But we all know how tourist  guides like to embellish history.  But that pretty much is the average European thinking of those early pilgrims which ended with the witch trials.

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Sounds good, my 9th Great Grandmother Elizabeth Hart was accused and arrested for witch craft, she was 72 years old and spent May of 1692 to December of 1692 in prisoned till her son finally was able to petition her release.

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In the end, we decided to continue to use the existing categories.  I bumped this topic up because I've done some more recent research.

Answer 1

There is already a category for Salem Witch Trials. See if this is what you need:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Salem_Witch_Trials

Another one:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Accused_Witches_of_New_England

Comments

Kyle your ancestor would fit in the first catagory in Paula's answer.

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Thank you, clearly my searching needs some work.  Yes, this is what I was looking for, so now I won't have to reinvent this wheel.

Answer 2

Hi Kyle

I set up the category a few months back for the Salem Witch Trials as Paula mentioned , but haven't had time to work on it.  One of my goals for the new year.

It is meant to include the accused, as well as their accusors, the judges, jurors any participants, etc. So our ancestor John Dane will fit right in.

Please check the links on that page as http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/swp?term=Elizabeth%20Brown&div_id=n92.9&chapter_id=n92 - has an abundance of the witch trial papers and includes of the accused and the related witch trial papers related to each case.  Reading some of them is both fascinating and appalling

I would caution however, much of that material is protected by copyright - so direct copying, cutting and pasting etc. would not be permitted. 

Comments

My main goal was to have a category to use.  Since I'm doing a lot of work on the Andover families of the Witch Trials era, I come across participants often, including last night (Ann Foster).  Most of the time I find that they have no category listings on their profiles, so my goal is going to be simply to add the category (or categories if they were among the accused).  I might do some work on the category page itself, but that's a secondary goal for me.

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Hi Kyle

This will be a good category for you to use.  Ann Foster is listed in the Salem WItch Trial Papers link as Ann Foster Died in Prison (SWP No. 59)  Chris

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I have been doing a good bit of work on profiles connected to the Salem/Andover versions of the Witch trials and will continue until I've connected up and categoriezed all the profiles that are already here.  

I am finding some folks who are missing, however.  I will list them all out here once I work my way through all the people on my list.

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Hi Kyle

This page has an alphabetical list of the accused in those trials.  At the end are other folders noted with names of jurors, accusers etc.

http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/swp?term=Elizabeth%20Brown&div_id=n92.9&chapter_id=n92

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I've been working off of the Wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_of_the_Salem_witch_trials

Answer 3

This category should be a little broader e.g. New England Witch Trials.  There were 44 trials in Connecticut of which 10 resulted in executions.  I don't know if there were any in Vermont, New Hampshire.

Comments

This category may fit into a broader category, which I understand is being developed and then it would be a subcategory in that group.  However, this one is specifically limited to Salem, Massachusetts.

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I had a Porterfield ancestor that was a juror in witch trial in Scotland in the early 1700s. It appears this was a larger and more widespread effort per this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_early_modern_Scotland. Is anyone researching this area of witch trials?

Update: My Porterfield connection was to the Paisley Witchcraft Trials of 1697.  I have updated the bio for Alexander Porterfield (1673-1743) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Porterfield-164 as he was involved as a commissioner.

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That there were others outside Salem is attested to by the trial, conviction and death sentance against my maternal 7th great-grandmother Mercy-Holbridge-2 and I have just added to her site a research paper I wrote about her case and that of two other women in Fairfield, Connecticut. Margie Bernard Tollas-4

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There is a broader category

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Accused_Witches_of_New_England

in which you could put your ancestor and within it you might want to make a subcategory for Connecticut  or for Fairfield.

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Thanks for your reply Chris. What I want to know is how to add Mercy Holbridge to the Accused Witches of New England? I can acces the site but don't know how to add to it. Thanks.

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Well, "Accused" witches isn't a particularly apt title since some of the "accused" were tried and executed and some not.  My great..great grandmother being one of those executed.  These categories seem to be growing without any though about how they are related.  Top category (most inclusive) would be Witches of the World, sub categories for Old World Witches, New World Witches, then New England Witches, Massachusetts Witches,  Connecticut Witches,  etc, etc.

Categories with no plan or structure just means they are temporarily useful to those who created them, but much less useful to anyone else since the logic of finding related material would be so obscure.

By the way, it would seem that the prosecutors in the American witch trials were pretty much a tight litle group themselves cutting accross the colony borders as needed..  Almost more interesting topic than the poor women that they prosecuted.  How about a category for "Witch Trial Inquisitors".

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Hi Margie

Click the Edit tab on her profile then:

Above == Biography == in her profile details either cut and paste or type the following.

[[Category:Accused_Witches_of_New_England]]

Then save the change.   That will add her to the category.

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Done & dusted! Thanks for your help!

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I agree the category 'Accused' Witches of New England is not necessarily the proper name as the sub category 'Salem Witch Trials' does included the  accused, their accusors, judges, witnesses, etc.  I'm not sure what the outcome - ie. executed or not has to do with the term 'accused'. 

It should probably be something like  Witch Trials in New England. 

As for you comments on more inclusive categories, such as Witches of the World, that may be of interest to other WikiTreers, and at some point someone may add such a category and then include the existing subcategories within it.  But there doesn't seem to be a strong reason to set up a worldwide category, and then many subcategories, unless there is specific interest in those separate units and someone to manage, organize and lead them on WikiTree. 

Just the Salem witch trials include some 93 accused and then an even  greater number of witnesses and other participants, which is  a large enough category to attempt to organize, particularly when someone might only have one or a few related profiles within it.

If a worldwide witch category is of great interest to you, it might be something you would want to pursue further here on WikiTree.

 

Answer 4

So after my first pass through, I'm pretty happy with the coverage we have so far.  However, there are still some glaring omissions, i.e., major participants in the events of the Salem Witch Trials who do not have profiles on WikiTree yet:

The "afflicted girls",  Elizabeth "Betty" Parris, her cousin Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, Ann Putnam and Elizabeth "Betty" Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon and Mary Warren all do not have profiles.  I suppose that's not too surprising.

Of the 19 who were convicted and hung, we're missing Sarah Good, John Willard, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator and Wilmot Redd.

I'm still working through the much longer list of those who were accused or imprisoned along the way or who were involved in other ways.

Comments

I'm a direct descendant of Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr. If their daughter, Ann, doesn't have a profile, I will get one added for her. I'm also a direct descendant of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death for not giving testimony against his wife, so I have ancestors on both sides.

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Yes, it's daughter Ann, sometimes referred to as "Ann Putnam Jr." who is missing.  

Giles Corey does have a profile, as does his wife Martha.

Answer 5

For those who may have ancestors that were involved in the Salem Witch  trials you may also want to see the free space page at:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Salem_Witch_Trials  which contains an alphabetical list of the accused and their file numbers of each trial, and the link to view those files.

It additionally lists other files on which can be accessed on that site that lists some of the accusers, judges,witnesses, etc. that are also useful in locating information on associated ancestors to add to profiles.

So if you have an ancestor that was in anyway involved it's a great place to find information. 

Thanks for all the interest.  Chris

Answer 6

This is a great category with amazing history.

FYI - I recently joined "Bloodlines of Salem" as a descendant member - http://www.bloodlinesofsalem.org/

Submitting a line for review is free. Membership is also free.

If you're interested in having your line reviewed, you might consider checking them out.

Comments

The link is dead, the society seems to have disbanded in 2018.

Answer 7

An update on this.  I'm back into the thick of researching the participants in the Salem Witch Trials and have succeeded in adding profiles for all of the major participants that I had previously mentioned were missing.  All of those convicted and executed are now on WikiTree, as are all the main accusers.  Some of these profiles are unconnected to the Tree, unfortunately, but I did the best I could with the resources available to me from my computer out here in California.  You can access all the profiles from the Salem Witch Trials freespace page: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Salem_Witch_Trials

Of course, in the process, I've come across Mary Beth Norton's excellent historical account of the trials, "In the Devil's Snare", which has provided fodder for more additions, so I'm by no means done with my work on this topic.

Comments

That was a lot of work!! Great space page!! I plan to spend more time reading the individual profiles.

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The Freespace page was set up by Abby Glann and Allison Andrus did a lot of work on it as well. My main contribution has been setting up profiles and then linking to them from the FreeSpace and Category pages.

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Thanks for pointing that out! I know both Abby and Alison have worker hard on this page!!  The attention to detail and obtaining court records is quite inspiring.