THE QUEEN OF HELL

I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits ~ Martha Carrier

Andover in the line of fire

Over forty people from Andover, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft, the most of any New England town. The next closest was Salem with thirty accused. Together, these two towns accounted for almost half of all accusations. About a quarter of those accused in Andover were condemned to death but, in the end, only three were executed. Most, however, were imprisoned for months.

We had many families living in Andover at the time of the witch trials and their stories intertwined over the course of the proceedings.

Major players in Andover:

Joseph Ballard ~ 8GGF ~ an accusor

Elizabeth Phelps Ballard ~ 8GGM ~ afflicted

Sarah Phelps ~ 1C9X, niece of Elizabeth Phelps Ballard ~ one of the afflicted girls

Roger Toothaker ~ 8U ~ accused

Mary Allen Toothaker ~ wife of Roger Toothaker ~ accused

Martha Toothaker Emerson ~ 1C9X, daughter of Roger and Mary Toothaker ~ accused

Margaret Toothaker ~ 1C9X , daughter of Roger and Mary Toothaker ~ accused

Allen Toothaker ~ 1C9X, son of Roger and Mary Toothaker ~ an accusor

Martha Allen Carrier ~ sister-in-law of our uncle, Roger Toothaker ~ accused & executed

Richard, Thomas, Andrew and Sarah Carrier ~ children of Martha Allen Carrier ~ all accused

Elizabeth Emerson ~ cousin of Martha Toothaker Emerson's husband ~ accused and executed

Deliverance Haseltine Dane ~ 9A ~ accused

Elizabeth Dane Johnson ~ sister-in-law of our aunt, Deliverance Dane ~ accused

Abigail Dane Faulkner ~ sister-in-law of our aunt, Deliverance Dane ~ accused, senteced to death, reprieved at the last minute

Timothy Swan ~ 1C10X ~ afflicted

Robert Swan ~ 11U ~ an accusor

We begin these woeful stories with Martha Allen Carrier.

the first accused

The very first woman accused of witchcraft in Andover was Martha's Allen Carrier. She was sister to Mary Allen who married our uncle, Roger Toothaker (8U). A series of circumstances in Martha's rather tragic life ultimately led to her wretched death.

Martha and her sister Mary were born into a well-to-do Andover family. Mary married our uncle Roger in 1665 and, about five years, Martha moved to Billerica to live with her sister and brother-in-law. While in Billerica, Martha met Thomas Carrier, an indentured servant who was twenty years her senior and well below her station. In spite of these differences, the two began a relationship. A few months later, Martha found herself pregnant without benefit of wedlock.

Note: Martha and Mary's mother was Faith Ingalls whose brother was a direct descendant of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame.

Martha and Thomas were married just two months before their son Richard was born in July of 1674. The Billerica townspeople, however, were none too pleased with the couple. In 1676, the Carriers were told by selectmen they needed to either leave Billerica or pay a surety of 20 shillings per week. Whether or not the Carriers paid the surety isn't known but they managed to remain in Billerica where four more children were born to them over the next ten years.

in Andover

It's possible that Billerica finally found a way to get rid of the Carriers because, in 1689 when Martha's last child, Hannah, was born, the the family was in Andover, living with Martha's mother and brothers. By this time, Martha had gained quite a reputation as an outspoken, argmentative woman, not a respected trait in their Puritan world. To make matters much worse, in 1690, only two years before the witch furor, Martha and two of her children contracted the dreaded smallpox. The following notice, sent to Martha's brothers, makes it clear that the Carriers were definitely personae non gratae.

“To...Andrew Allen and John Allen, Neighbors and friends – We the subscribers of Andover have been informed that your sister Carrier and some of her children are smitten with that contagious disease the small-pox and some have been so inconsiderate as to think that the care of them belongs to the select men of Andover which does not, for they took care when first they came to town to warn them out again and have attended the law therein: and shall only take care that they do not spread the distemper with wicked carelessness which we are afraid they have already done: you had best take what care you can about them, nature and religion requiring of it. We hope we have done faithfully in this information and are your friends and servants. Dated 14th Oct. 1690...”

The next month the family was essetially quarantined and warned "not to go near any house so as to endanger them by sd infection nor to come to the public meeting..."

Seven members of Martha’s family and six other people from Andover died from the smallpox outbreak. The Carriers were, naturally, believed to be the cause of the epidemic and the subesequent deaths. This would bode ill for Martha when the ruckus began in late May of 1692.

let the accusations begin

While Martha may have been the first accused witch in Andover, she wasn't the first of her extended family to be arrested for witchcraft. That honor went to her brother-in-law, our uncle Roger Toothaker of Billerica. Roger was arrested on May 18, 1692. His story will be told in a future post. But the fact that her brother-in-law, who dabbled in the "dark art" of folk-healing, had been arrested certainly didn't help Martha's case. Some believe that Martha was accused of witchcraft because she was a niece of the Reverend Francis Dane of Andover, who condemned the witch hunts and trials. At that time, over one-third of the Andover accused were related to the good reverend or his wife in some way.

Note: Our Aunt Deliverance Haseltine Dane (9A), also accused of witchcraft, was a daughter-in-law of Francis Dane.

As we look at the particulars of Martha's case, we can see how easy it was for things to spiral out of control. On May 28, a complaint of witchcraft was levied against Martha by two Salem men. One of these men was John Walcott, father of "afflicted girl" Mary Walcott. These two Salem men were responsible for the arrests of nine people, seven women and two men. Among these nine were Martha Carrier, her sister Mary Allen Toothaker, wife of Uncle Roger, and the Toothaker's daughter Martha Toothaker Emerson. The two men "...made Complaint...for sundry acts of Witchcraft by them and Every one of them Committed on the Bodys of Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, Marcy Lewis, Ann putnam (all "afflicted girls") and Others...to the hurt and Injury of theire bodys therefore Craves Justice."

Note: Named in the same complaint was Sarah Rist, the second wife of our grandfather George Davis. After Grandpa George's death, she married Nicholas Rist. Her story will be told in a future post.

arrest and examination

The day of the complaint, a warrant was issued for Martha's arrest. Our uncle John Ballard (8U) was constable of Andover at the time. He arrested Martha on May 31.

Below is John Ballard's Officer's Return on the back of Martha's warrant stating that he had apprehended "the w'tin named person..."

Martha was immediately taken to the Salem jail where she went through an obligatory "examination." These examinations were conducted with the afflicted victims present and careful records were kept as to what was said. Below is part of Martha's first examination.

partial transcription:

"Abigail Williams w'o hurts you? Goody Carrier of Andover. Eliz: Hubbard who hurts you? Goody Carrier. Susan:Sheldon who hurts you? Goody Carrier, she bites me, pinches me, & tells me she would cut my throat, if I did not signe her book."

Ann Putnam complained of "a pin stuck in her."

Then Susan Sheldon "cryed out in a Trance I wonder what you could murder. 13. persons?

Immediatly afterward Mary Walcott "testifyed the same that there lay.13. Ghosts."

Note: The "ghosts" refer to the thirteen people in Andover who had died of smallpox two years earlier. Martha had been blamed for these deaths.

Later "all the afflicted fell into most intollerable out-cries & agonies."

Martha Carrier replied, "It is a shamefull thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits. Do you not see them?"

The examination ended with: "The Tortures of the afflicted was so great that there was no enduring of it, so that she (Martha Carrier) was ordered away & to be bound hand & foot with all expedition... the afflicted in the mean while almost killed to the great trouble of all spectators Magistrates & others...As soon as she was well bound they all had strange & sodain (sudden) ease."

indictments

Martha's examination, plainly, proved to be extremely damning. While she languished in jail, the Court took its own sweet time. Finally on July 1st, just two indictments were handed down against Martha, one for afflicting Mary Walcott, the other for Elizabeth Hubbard. This was rather surpising, given the number of people she was accused of afflicting. Below is a copy of one the indictments:

It reads in part:

"...as after, certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcrafts and Sorceries, Wickedly and feloniously hath Used. Practised. and Exercised, at and within the Towneship of Salem in the County of Essex afores'd in, Upon, and against, one Mary Walcott...by which said wicked Arts the said Mary Walcott was and is Tortured, Afflicted, Pined, Consumed wasted & Tormented ag't the Peace of our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen..."

arrest of Martha's children

Throughout all of it, Martha continued to profess her innocence. Then, three weeks after Martha's indictments on July 21, John Ballard recieved a warrant for the arrest of her two oldest sons, Richard, 18 and Andrew, 15. A short time later, Martha's two younger children, Thomas 10 and Sarah, 8, were thrown into the jail as well. A possible reason for these four arrests could have been to prod poor Martha into confessing her sins.

Richard and Andrew were examined on the day they were brought in. There were no confessions from either of them that day. The next day, the two boys were examined along with Mary Lacy, who was accused of afflicting our grandmother, Elizabeth Ballard (8GGM). As was the usual practice, a number of afflicted girls were brought in for the procedings. During Richard and Andrew's examination "...The afflicted persons were (so) Grevously tormented that Richa'd and Andrew were Carried out to another Cambbre (chamber) and there feet & hands bound..."

After his punishiment, young Richard was brought back for more questioning and he immediatley caved. When the examiners accused him of being "Verry Obstinate," Richard confessed that he had been a witch for five weeks and that he had afflicted three people in the village. One was our Grandma Elizabeth Ballard, a convenient choice since Richard had certainly heard her name when being interrogated with Mary Lacy. He also confessed to afflicting our cousin Timothy Swan (1C10X), a pariah in Andover who, it seems, everyone wanted to harm in some way. Richard also implicated his brother Andrew who then also confessed to afflicting Timothy Swan. Both said their mother, Martha Carrier, had drawn them into the practice of witchcraft.

After his confession Richard "would take the afflicted persons by the hand w'th out hurting of them & asked forgiveness..."

Note: Grandma Elizabeth died of her illness five days after Richard's confession. Timothy Swan died in early February 1693. Over the course of the whole sad witchcraft affair, no less than seventeen people admitted to afflicting Timothy. His story will be in a future post.

The truth about exactly how and why Richard and Andrew decided to confess was made clear by a document written by a fellow prisoner. John Proctor, an accused witch who would later be hanged along with Martha, was in the same prison cell with Martha's sons. One day after Richard and Andrew Carrier's confession, Proctor wrote a petition to the Boston magistrates complaining about the treatment towards himself and the four people with him in the Salem jail:

"...we are all Innocent Persons. Here are five Persons who have lately confessed themselves to be Witches... which we know to be Lies. Two of the 5 are Youngmen (Richard and Andrew Carrier), who would not confess anything till they tyed them Neck and Heels till the Blood was ready to come out of their Noses, and 'tis credibly believed and reported this was the occasion of making them confess that they never did, by reason they said one had been a Witch a Month, and another five Weeks, and that their Mother had made them so, who has been confined here this nine Weeks."

Proctor went on to plead for a transfer from the Salem jail:

"My son William Procter, when he was examin'd, because he would not confess that he was Guilty, when he was Innocent, they tyed him Neck and Heels till the Blood gushed out at his Nose, and would have kept him so 24 Hours, if one more Merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound. These actions are very like the Popish Cruelties...If it cannot be granted that we can have our Trials at Boston, we humbly beg that you would endeavour to have these Magistrates changed, and others in their rooms, begging also and beseeching you would be pleased to be here, if not all, some of you at our Trials, hoping thereby you may be the means of saving the sheeding our Innocent Bloods, desiring your Prayers to the Lord in our behalf, we rest your Poor Afflicted Servants..."

Note: A month before Proctor's letter was written, our uncle Roger Toothaker died in his prison cell. There has been speculation by the Witch Museum that he died of mistreatment while kept there.

The accused witches were considered dangerous. As such, they were kept in cells away from the other inmates. These were "perpetually dark, bitterly cold and...damp..."

summons

On July 30th, a Summons for Witnesses was sent out to John Ballard who was commanded to "Warn & give Notice unto..." nine people who were to "personaly appear at the Court... on Tuesday next...to testifye the truth to the best of their knowledge..." concerning the charges levied against Martha Carrier.

Uncle John Ballard wrote on the reverse of the summons, "In obedenc to this writ I have timely warned the persons hose names are herein writen and every one of them this 1 day of august 1692 By mee John Ballard constable of Andover

testimony

A tremendous amount of testimony was brought against Martha Carrier at her trial on August 2. Eleven-year-old Phebe Chandler said she encountered Carrier’s threatening specter in the meeting house, and heard Carrier’s disembodied voice while running an errand for her mother. After these events, Phebe became ill.

Andrew Foster testified that Martha caused his maid to have a "fitt: which twisted her nick almost round of." Mary Lacy claimed that Martha attended witch meetings and was promised the title “Queen in Hell” by the Devil. Benjamin Abbot said that after an argument with Martha over a boundary line, she cursed him. Shortly afterward, he became ill with sores and swelling feet and several of his cattle died.

Worst of all, however, was testimony by Martha's own family. Her nephew Allen Toothaker (1C9X) testified that after a fight with his cousin Richard Carrier he "saw Martha Carrier goe of (off) from mÿ brest, butt when I was Rissen up I saw non of her." He said he was wounded in the fight and his aunt "tould me I Would Never be Cured..." And finally Allen swore that "afore she was Aprehended I Could thrust in my Wound a knitting Nedle four Inches deep but, since she have been Taken I am thorowly healed..."

Martha's children Sarah and Thomas Carrier confessed that their mother, rather than the Devil, had baptized them. Sarah said that her mother came to her from the jail and brought a spear for her to afflict our cousin Sarah Phelps (1C9X) and Ann Putnam. Thomas testified that his mother "hearlded by a talking yellow bird, tore off his clothes dunked him in the Shawsheen River...and ordered him to afflict Walcott, Putnam and Phelps." Both Sarah and Richard Carrier stated during the trial that that Martha made them become witches to haunt others at her direction.

The esteemed Reverend Cotton Mather asked that Martha's trial be "fully transcribed." He believed that her case was the strongest example for the use of "spectral evidence," which came to be highly regarded in future trials.

According to the Salem Witch Museum "Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream at the time the accused person’s physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the courts during the Salem Witch Trials. The evidence was accepted on the basis that the devil and his minions were powerful enough to send their spirits, or specters, to pure, religious people in order to lead them astray."

conviction and hanging

Unlike most of the others accused of witchcraft, Martha professed her innocence until the end. Most probably it would have gone far better for her had she confessed. The Puritan sense of justice preferred a confession as proof of guilt. It soon became evident that those who confessed suffered only a prison term, while those who did not were hanged.

On August 5, 1692, the jury found Martha Carrier guilty of witchcraft. She was sentenced to death. On August 9, she was marched to the scaffold along with John Proctor, the man who had written in his petition about the torture of her two sons. Right before her death, Martha shouted that she would never confess to a "falsehood so filthy."

Cotton Mather observed the hanging. Two months after Sarah's death, Mather published his book Wonders of the Invisible World with Martha as a focal piece. He wrote:

“Memorandum. This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was the person, of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children among the rest, agreed, that the Devil had promised her, she should be Queen of Hell”

Below is the cover of Mather's book about the "Tryals of Several Witches, Lately Executed in New England."

aftermath

Convicted witches were not allowed to be buried in town graveyards, so it is not known where Martha's remains lie. All of her children were soon released from jail, except for Richard who was indicted in January, 1693 for afflicting our cousin Timothy Swan. Richard was probably released in May of 1693 when all of the accused remaining in jail were reprieved by Governor William Phips.

Slowly the horror of what had happened during the witch hysteria became clear to the Massachussets Bay Colony. In 1999, Billerica’s Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to rescind the 1676 banishment of the Carrier family. In 1702, the Court deemed the Salem trials unlawful. Then, in 1711, a bill was passed that restored the rights and good names of those accused. Families were allowed to file for restitution of the costs incurred while their loved ones were imprisoned.

Thomas Carrier petitioned for restitution on behalf of his executed wife and for the expenses incurred during his children’s incarceration. On October 17, 1711, nearly twenty years after her death, Martha Carrier’s name was cleared of all charges.

Below is the Martha Carrier memorial stone which was placed at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Salem, Mass. The memorial stones were placed in 1992 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the trials.