Hannah (Montague) Willard (1694 - bef. 1725)

Born 28 May 1694 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 5 Jun 1725 before age 31 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut

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Biography

Hannah Montague was born May 28, 1694 to her parents John Montague and Hannah Smith in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA. She was their third daughter named Hannah; the previous two lived only a year each.

She married her husband, Josiah Willard, around 1711.

This story is commonly told about Hannah: It was sometimes thought that Hannah was "possessed" - that she was indeed a witch. Perhaps she feigned her action in sport, or it may be she was the subject of some nervous disorder. But the story goes that when afflicted, she would call on her brother Samuel for help. He would at once arm himself with a great broadsword, enter the room where Hannah was, and when his sister had pointed out the locality of the tormenting spirits - to him invisible - would cut and slash for very life. And then Hannah - the wicked tease - noting her brother's troubled air, would say "No, not there, but there! there! ah, there they are in that corner, grinning and chattering at your blunder."^[1]

She died before June 5, 1725 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

Sources

1. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial# 64539354

• Willard Genealogy Authors; Ch.H. Pope, J. Willard, Ch. Wilkes Walker, The Willard Family Association; Publishers, Murray and Emery Company, Cambridge 1915.
• Savage, James, and O. P. Dexter. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came before May, 1692, on the Basis of the Farmer's Register. Baltimore: Genealogical, 1965. Print.