Mary (Knowlton) Abbe (abt. 1654 - aft. 1715)

Born about Jan 1654 in Chebacco, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Wife of Samuel Abbe — married 12 Oct 1672 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Wife of Abraham (Mitchel) Mitchell — married 27 Apr 1699 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut

Descendants

Died after 10 Nov 1715 after about age 61 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut Colony

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Birth and Early Life

Mary (Knowlton) Abbe was a witchcraft accuser in the Salem Witch Trials

Mary was born about Jan 1654, the daughter of William Knowlton, bricklayer, and Elizabeth his wife of Chebacco, Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony. While there is no birth record for Mary, we have the statement of her uncle Deacon Thomas Knowlton. When Mary's father passed away, probably suddenly, in June or July of 1655, William's brother Thomas was appointed to administer his estate. Deacon Thomas is on the record in the probate file stating the Mary was "about one and one-half years old" when her father died.

About 1648 Mary's father William sold the family home and property in the town of Ipswich and moved the family out to the wilds of Chebacco. In 1648 Chebacco was a very sparsely populated, wild and beautiful area quite remote from the town of Ipswich linked only by one bad road. We can pinpoint the location of the William Knowlton farmstead pretty accurately from the description in the Deed dated January 14, 1656 when Deacon Thomas Knowlton, as administrator of the estate of his brother, and Widow Elizabeth Knowlton sold the property to their Chebacco neighbor Edward Harraden. The property is described as bounded by the property of Harraden on the west, John West on the east and "Chebacco River on the north". Today the former William Knowlton farmstead is still wild and beautiful. It's within the boundaries of the 2900 acre Parker River National Wildlife Refuge near the town of Essex, MA.

It was here on the Chebacco farmstead that Mary was born probably in late 1653 or early 1654 the youngest child, and only girl with six older brothers. When her father died the family moved back into town, the farm was sold and Mary ended up in the care and custody of her uncle Thomas and his wife. According to the statement of Deacon Thomas in the probate file, Elizabeth was no longer able to care for Mary. There are no details given but Thomas' statements suggest that Elizabeth was either in ill health or perhaps mentally distraught after the death of her husband.

It is from Deacon Thomas' statement in his brother's probate file that we know Thomas and his wife Susannah cared for Mary until her marriage to Samuel Abbe. In addition, since the identity of Mary's mother Elizabeth and Thomas' wife Susannah are both unknown, it suggests they could be related, perhaps sisters. But there is no proof and is just speculation.

Mary found her way into the 1670 court records of Essex County when she was 16 years old. "Laurence Clenton, for attempting to abase Mary Knoulton, was sentenced to be severely whipped with twenty stripes well laid on, to pay costs to Thomas Knoulton". No testimony records survived, just the sentence. But Laurence Clenton, known as a notorious woman chaser around Ipswich, had obviously gone too far.

Marriage

Mary married Samuel Abbe on 12 Oct 1672, at Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts.

She married 2nd, April 27, 1699, Abraham Mitchell and had by him a son, Daniel, who was born and died December 10, 1700. Mary Mitchell, formerly Mary Abby, was dismissed from the Salem Village Church to Windham, Conn., September 14, 1701.^[1]

They had the following children:

• Mary Abbe, b. in Wenham about 1674; m. Isaac Goodale (originally stated as unmarried)
• Samuel Abbe, b. in Wenham about 1676; m. Hannah Silsby.
• Thomas Abbe, b. in Wenham about 1679, bapt. there 1680; d. in Windham, Conn., April 1, 1700; probably not m. In a deed of 1722, William Slate, Jonathan Ormsby, Sarah Abbe, Ebenezer Abbe, Jonathan Abbe, John and Samuel Abbe speak of "our loving brother Thomas Abbe deceased."
• Elizabeth Abbe, b. in Wenham about 1681; m. William Slate.
• Ebenezer Abbe, b. July 31, 1683; m. Mary Allen.
• Mercy Abbe, b. March 1, 1684-5, bapt. in Wenham before 1689; m; in Windham, Conn., June 8, 1703, Jonathan Ormsby of Windham. Child: Ichabod, b. April 15, 1704, recorded in Windham.
• Sarah Abbe, b. July 4, 1686; m. John Fowler of Lebanon. She was bapt. in Wenham before 1688.
• Hepsibah Abbe, b. Feb. 14, 1689; m. Samuel Palmer.
• Abigail Abbe, b. Nov. 19, 1690; May 10, 1710, as recorded at Rehoboth, Mass., Joseph Ormsby of Rehoboth, b. July 8, 1684.
• John Abbe, b. June 4, 1692; m. Hannah -.
• Benjamin Abbe, b. June 4, 1694; m. Mary Tryon.
• Jonathan Abbe, b. about 1696; m. Mary Johnson.

^[2]

The English Origin of the Knowlton Family

From the time the Knowlton brothers John, Thomas and Mary's father William first appeared in Ipswich of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1639), they left many records but nothing that would give any clue to the origin of the family in England. So, for over 100 years, descendants relied on the account given by the Rev. Charles Stocking in his genealogy of the Knowltons. The Rev. Stocking gave the Knowlton brothers an origin in Kent, England with vague ties to a manor there and a Captain William Knowlton who died in Nova Scotia. But no records were ever found in Kent. At least one Knowlton descendant went so far as to hire a professional English genealogist. But nothing could be found. Robert Charles Anderson, in The Great Migration, referred to an “apparently imaginary Capt. William Knowlton” and called Stocking's account “muddled and fantastic”.

New research in 2016 proved that Anderson was right. The Knowlton brothers were not from Kent at all but were from Uxbridge, a town west of London and they were not the sons of a William Knowlton but the sons of Robert Knowlton and his wife Mary. See Mary's father William's profile page for more of the details.

Early Life in Massachusetts Prior to the Salem Witch Trials

Samuel and Mary Abbe were sixteenth and seventeenth in "the Record of Communicants" of the Congregational Church in Wenham, kept by its pastor, Joseph Gerrish, starting 13 January 1674. They are preceded in the list by John and Mary Nolton (Knowlton), who are 14th and 15th. Samuel and Elizabeth Nolton were 40th and 41st; Mary Abbe was 53d; John Abbe Sr., 66th (See NEHGR 62:35ff).

In 1689, Samuel and Mary participated in the establishment of a church in Salem Village (now Danvers). The following year, 22 March 1690, Samuel took the freeman's oath in Salem Village, together with Henry and Benjamin Wilkins, sons of Bray (NEHGR 3:348). Mary Abbe, Samuel's wife, entered into convenant with the Church in Salem Village, Samuel Parris, pastor, on 12 May 1690 (NEHGR 11:131). A map of the village, published in the first volume of Upham's Witchcraft in Salem, shows the location of Samuel's house in 1692 -- number 114 on a plot in the south-west part, east of Bald Hill, within the 500 acres laid out to Robert Goodale in 1652 and its subsequent additions.

Salem Witch Trials

Samuel Abbe and his wife, Mary, were witnesses in a witch trial in Salem in 1692 against Sarah Snow, a woman of vicious temper who had lived in their home for a time but was dismissed on account of her disagreeable ways. She vowed vengeance upon them and when several of their cows and hogs were taken sick, the blame was laid to her as a witch.^[3]

The Abbe's had taken William and Sarah Good into their home about three years previously, "out of charity, they being poor" and "desititue of a house." But Sarah was "of so Turbulent a Spirit, Spiteful and so Maliciously bent" that they Abbes were forced, after about six months,to expel her and her husband from the house "for Quietness' sake." The expulsion, apparently did not improved Sarah's disposition: ever thereafter, testified the Abbes, she behaved "very crossly and maliciously" toward them, calling their children vile names and often threatening them. The following winter, Samuel began to loose cattle "after an unusual manner, in a drooping condition, and yet they would eat." Within two years, he lost seventeen head this way, besides sheep and hogs:"And both [Samuel and Mary] do believe they died by witchcraft." To substantiate this belief, Samuel observed: "Just that very day that the said Sarah Good was taken up, we, your deponents, had a cow that could not rise alone, but ... after she was taken up, the said cow was well and could rise so well as if she had ailed nothing." The warrant for Sarah Good was issued at Salem, 29 February 1692.^[4]

Warrant for Sarah Good was given at Salem, February 29, 1691-2, in response to complaints of Sarah Vibber, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, and Jno. Vibber. Among the many depositions in witness to her malign practices were those of Samuel Abbey and wife.^[5][6]

Life After the Salem Witch Trials

On 3 April 3 1697, for £130, Samuel and Mary sold Zachariah White of Lynn all their property in Salem, consisting of a dwelling house, two orchards and seventeen acres ^[7]

They settled in Windham, Connecticut following Samuel's brother John who had already located there from Wenham, Massachusetts. Samuel and Mary were not in Windham long when Samuel passed away after which Mary married Abraham Mitchell in April of 1699. In July 1699 Abraham Mitchell was granted administration of her late husband's estate.

There is no record of Mary's passing but on November 10, 1715 Mary Mitchell and her brothers Thomas and William signed statements appointing their "cuzen" (nephew) John Knowlton administrator de bonis of their father William's estate. It had been discovered that there were some rights to the commons that had never been distributed under the original probate of William's estate years before.

Historical Notes

Cleveland Abbe, the author of the Abbe Genealogy, is a descendant of Mary and Samuel through their son Ebenezer. But collecting information on the history of his family was only his hobby. Professor Abbe was a university educated scientist and much celebrated meteorologist who is considered the father of the National Weather Service.

Windham Abbe or Enfield Abbe? In times past, when strangers got to talking and found out they shared Abbe descent, that's the next question they would ask. Are you a Windham or an Enfield? Windham Abbe if you descend from Samuel and Mary and Samuel's brother John or Enfield if you descend from Samuel's brother Thomas, one of the original settlers of Enfield, CT.

Sources

1. ↑ Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 10.
2. ↑ Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 8.
3. ↑ Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 9.
4. ↑ Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 9.
5. ↑ Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 9.
6. ↑ Records of Salem Witchcraft, copied from the original documents, Vol. 2, pp. 41-2, old series.
7. ↑ bounded by the properties of Anthony Needham, John Walcott, Isaac and Samuel Goodale, Abraham Smith, Abel Gardner, and Joseph Flint), the six acre lot on Norrice's Brook, and the two acre lot they had bought from James Stimpson.

See also:

• Cleveland Abbe and Mary Josephine Genung, Abbe-Abbey genealogy, in memory of John Abbe and his descendants (New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1916), 8.
• Charles Henry Wright Stocking. The history and genealogy of the Knowltons of England and America; New York : Knickerbocker Press, 1897, p. 21. Stocking ID 14.
• Records of Salem Witchcraft, copied from the original documents, Volume 1, pages 24 and 25.
• Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, Essex County, Probate Case No. 16099, The Estate of William Knowlton. Only 9 pages survive of William Knowlton's probate file. Those 9 images can be seen by using the link to Mary Knowlton's profile on Ancestry below.
• The Great Migration, Robert Charles Anderson, Volume 5, Pages 265-266.
• Essex County, Massachusetts, Quarterly Court Records, Volume 8, Page 408. Copy of Deed dated Jan. 14, 1655/6 from Thomas Knowlton of Ipswich, shoemaker and Elizabeth Knowlton to Edward Haraden entered into the court record.
• Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)
• Essex County, Massachusetts Depositions, Volume 4, Page 269 Knoulton vs. Clenton
• Ancestry.com, Tree, Mary Knowlton: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/89316435/person/79004541767/facts
• Jacobus, Donald Lines. The Granberry Family and Allied Families (E.F. Waterman, Hartford, Conn., 1945) Page 139