John Durrant (abt. 1650 - 1692)

Born about 1650 in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Husband of Susannah (Dutton) Holden — married 16 Nov 1670 (to 27 Aug 1684) in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 27 Oct 1692 at about age 42 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile manager: b Paulson [send private message]

Biography

John Durrant was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

• John Durrant was born about 1650 at Billerica, Massachusetts Bay.
• On 16 Nov 1670, he married Susannah Dutton at Billerica, Massachusetts Bay^{[1][2][3][4][5]}
• Tough life on this frontier w constant threat from Indians and recurring sickness due to meager food supplies (stolen by Indians?). One story suggests that illness left families open to quack doctors who (perhaps) employed what could have been perceived as superstitious treatments... leading to accusations of witchcraft. Wife Susannah was accused but released. John was less fortunate. He was imprisoned under suspicion of witchcraft.

Witchcraft OK, so there are writings from the time about John Durant in general and John Durrant of the witch trials. But it is evident in the very same record they present that in 1659 John was given a land grant...; ... married 1670, Nov. 16, Susan Dutton, dau. of Thomas, 1, who became his neighbor, on the east, in 1669... "John Durrant. Sen., dyed in prison, at Cambridge," 1692, Oct. 27. The date suggests Fanner's probable conjecture, that the charge against him was witchcraft.^[6] and then lists John Durrant's children:

-John 2, b. 1672. July 31.

-Thomas, 3, b. 1674-5, Jan. 7.

-Ahiijail, b. 1681, Sept. 24.

-Ilehitahle, b". 1687. April 20.

• Which John Durrant is this?

"DURRANT. 1. John, [now commonly Durant or Duren,] received a grant. 1659, Nov. His house-lot was '"twenty acres of land, more or less, lying on the north of the township, and on the west of y country road that leads to Chelmsford..."

• THIS John was b. 1650 - 9 yrs-old in 1659.

No one's giving land to 9 yr-old sons of settlers. Which means there's another, older John Durrant, resident of Billerica.

• Presume resident John Durrant b. abt 1623, England? Not on 1630 Wintrop or 1635 passenger lists. Still looking all other ports of entry.
• John Durrant, hubby of Susana Dutton, died on 27 Oct 1692, imprisoned in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay (why Cambridge?), “incarcerated for witchcraft.”^{[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}. Two records call him John Durrant Sr and note that he died in a Cambridge prison^[15][16]

Children with Susanna:

1. John Durrant m. Elizabeth Jaquith
2. Thomas Durrant m. Sarah Jaquith
3. Abigail Durrant m. Abraham Ireland
4. Mehitable Durant m. Thomas Skinner

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.^[17]
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.^[18]
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.^[19]

Research Notes

• No one's going to book a 9 yr-old boy, alone, on a ship to New World.

- No dad Durrant found on manifests. Perhaps an apprenticeship, an indenture?

Search this: John Durrant, Birth 1624 • England; Death ABT. 1700 * Not on any Winthrup Ships, so...

• John Durrant (1650-1692) – Though no legal documents remain for Mr. Durrant, he was known to have lived in Billerica at the time of the witchcraft trials and died in the Cambridge prison on October 27, 1692. On November 16, 1670, John Durrant married his neighbor, Susanna Dutton, the daughter of Thomas Dutton. Just months after his wife, Susannah, died on August 27, 1684, he married a widow named Ruth Hooper on November 10, 1684. Ruth’s step-daughter was Sarah Hooper Hawkes Wardwell, of Andover, who was accused of witchcraft in August, 1692. Sarah’s husband was Samuel Wardwell, Sr., who was hanged for witchcraft on September 22, 1692. Sarah and Samuel’s daughter, Mercy Wardwell was also accused of witchcraft. Because of the timing and family ties to other alleged “witches”, historians believe that John Durrant was imprisoned for the charge of witchcraft^[20]

• Although there is no testimony to such, it is the belief of many that John Durrant and Rebecca Chamberlain were victims of the Salem witch hunts. Both died in the prison in Cambridge, John Durrant in October 1692, and Rebecca Chamberlain in September 1692^[21]

• In the History of Middlesex County (Boston, 1885), Samuel Adams Drake writes “Rebecca, the wife of William Chamberlain and John Durrant, both of Billerica, died in prison in Cambridge where they were incarcerated for witchcraft.” Rev. Henry Hazen, in the History of Billerica (1883), states that Rebecca Chamberlain “died in prison at Cambridge, 1692, Sept. 26, possibly charged with witchcraft.” And of John Durrant, Hazen states that he “dyed in prison, at Cambridge, 1692, Oct. 27. The date suggests Farmer’s [An Historical Memoir of Billerica by John Farmer] probable conjecture that the charge against him was witchcraft.”^[22][23][24]

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/21174/483/426884311
2. ↑ Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Vol. I Online at: Ancestry.com
3. ↑ "Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850" from Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0769338 & 0901881 [no digital record]
4. ↑ http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Middlesex/Billerica/aMarriagesD.shtml
5. ↑ http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Middlesex/Billerica/Images/Billerica_M249.shtml
6. ↑ "History of Billerica, Massachussets" by the Rev. Henry A. Hazen, A. M., Member of the New England Historic, Genealogical, Society
7. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/7660/356/141919763
8. ↑ “History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905, Ed : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Boston, Estes and Lauriat, January 1, 1880. https://archive.org/details/historymiddlese01drakgoog/page/n267/mode/2up/search/durant.
9. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7660/356/141919763
10. ↑ Slaughter, John. Vital Records of Billerica, MA - Deaths. Accessed January 14, 2020. http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Middlesex/Billerica/aDeathsD.shtml.
11. ↑ “A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of ... : James Savage, John Farmer, Orrando Perry Dexter : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Little, Brown and company, January 1, 1860. https://archive.org/details/agenealogicaldi01dextgoog/page/n92/mode/2up/search/durant.
12. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Proctor_(Salem_witch_trials)
13. ↑ http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Middlesex/Billerica/aDeathsD.shtml
14. ↑ http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Middlesex/Billerica/Images/Billerica_D356.shtml
15. ↑ no digitized image
16. ↑ "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 for John Durant from own and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook ; via Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011 Ancestry link to digitized image
17. ↑ “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.
18. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
19. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122
20. ↑ https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-witches-d/
21. ↑ https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-witchtrialtowns/
22. ↑ https://billericalibrary.org/local-history/collections/witchcraft/
23. ↑ https://billericalibrary.org/local-history/collections/witchcraft/
24. ↑ https://www.geni.com/people/John-Durrant-Salem-Witch/6000000000550061898

See also:

• familysearch.org : modified 29 November 2016, 21:33, entry for John Durrant Jr contributed by various users [1].
• Notes and Errata, The American Genealogist (1949) Vol. 25.
• “Witchcraft in Billerica.” Billerica Public Library. Accessed January 14, 2020. https://billericalibrary.org/local-history/collections/witchcraft/.
• Hazen, Henry Allen. "History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical register" (A. Williams and Co., Boston, 1883); p. 43