Sarah (Hawkes) Johnson (1671 - 1716)

Born 1 Jun 1671 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Wife of Francis Johnson — married 1 Feb 1693 in Andover, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 23 Dec 1716 at age 45 in Andover, Middlesex, Massachusetts

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Biography

Sarah (Hawkes) Johnson was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Hysteria

Sarah Hawkes, the daughter of Adam Hawkes and Sarah Hooper, was born 2 June 1671. On 1 February 1693[/4?] she married Francis Johnson.^[1] Her father died a short time after she was born and her mother married Samuel Wardwell.

Accused of Witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials along with her mother Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes Wardwell, half-sister Mercy Wardwell and step-father Samuel Wardwell. Samuel would be executed. ^[2]

Although she, her mother and step-sister remained in prison for a time, they were later released.

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.^[3]
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community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[4]
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.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999-2011, Vol III, G-H, page 255.
2. ↑ Witches of Massachusetts; Legends of America Website
3. ↑ “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.
4. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
5. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

• The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Scholars' Lab, University of Virginia Library, 2018) SWP No. 067.
• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-witches-h.html
• Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Generations Network, Inc., Provo, UT, USA, 2004)