TWO SAD CASES

If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent ~ Elizabeth Howe

Note: The two women written about in this post maintained their innocence until the end. They paid the ultimate price.

Sarah Averill Wildes

In our last post we wrote about Sarah Wildes Bishop and her husband Edward who were accused of witchcraft but were somehow able to jump jail and move on with their lives. Sarah's stepmother, Sarah Averill Wildes, wasn't so lucky.

In November of 1663, Sarah Averill married John Wildes, a widower with eight children. John and Sarah had only one child together, Ephraim Wildes, who would marry our aunt Mary Howlett (7A), daughter of our grandfather Samuel Howlett (7GGF), in 1689.

Research done on the men and women accused of witchcraft in 1692 has shown that few of these accusations were simply random. There was generally method to the madness. Sarah Averill Wilde's accusation was a result of the bad timing of her marriage and her past catching up with her.

In 1649, when Sarah was but twenty-two years old, she had been arrested for "too great intimacy with Thomas Wardwell." The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, 13 Nov, 1649, show a punishment only for Sarah: "Sarah Averill to be whipped for fornication."

Thomas Wardwell, twenty-five years Sarah's senior, just happened to be the father of Samuel Wardwell of Andover who married the sister-in-law of our uncle John Ballard (8U). Written about in our The Ballards, Your Typical New England Family post, Samuel Wardwell was executed for witchcraft. So Sarah's connection to the Wardwell family on both fronts must certainly have played a part in what transpired.

Fourteen years after her dalliance with Thomas Wardwell, Sarah was charged with the "only-pertains-to-the-lower-classes" crime of wearing a silk scarf. The General Court in Massachusetts had made clear its "utter detestation and dislike" that men or women of "mean condition, educations and callings should take upon them the garb of gentlemen." In other words, the poorer classes were severely restricted in their choice of clothing material. Silk for the riff-raff was strictly prohibited. That made two strikes against Sarah.

Sarah's third strike, and possibly her worst, was marrying John's Wilde only six months after his first wife, Pricilla Gould Wildes, had died. John's former in-laws were not pleased.

Relations between the Goulds and Wildes would only deteriorate over time, causing severe repercussions for Sarah in the future. John Wildes second son, John Wilde Jr., took his Gould relatives side regarding his step-mother. Before he was killed at Black Pointe at the end of King Philip's War in 1677, he told his Gould relatives that "he believed his mother wiles was a witch." That statement would come back to haunt Sarah fifteen years later when she was accused of witchcraft.

Note: Also killed at Black Pointe was our cousin James Richardson (1C10X) of Chelmsford who was a "dear friend" of the Natives there.

more fuel to the fire

The bad blood between John Wilde, Sr. and the Goulds only got worse in 1686 when Wilde was one of those responsible for the idictment of his brother-in-law, John Gould, for treason.

"The President of his Majesty's Territory & Dominion of New England...assembled, the 5th day of August, 1686, having received information upon the oaths of Isaac Cummings, John Wild , & John How of several treasonable and seditious words, spoken by John Gould of Topsfield, against our Soverign Lord the King, &c...."

Note: Accuser John Howe's brother was married to Elizabeth Jackson Howe, niece of the Reverend Dane, father-in-law to our Aunt Deliverance Dane (9A). Elizabeth was also accused of witchcraft. Her story follows.

Based on these oaths, John Gould was arrested, tried and found guilty. The Jurors "do upon their oaths present that John Gould, Sen. of Topsfield...by force and arms...being evilly attested against our most sacred Lord the King...intending to disturb the peace and common tranquillity at a Riotous Muster of armed men gathered together by him...did...maliciously, wickedly, seditously, treasonably speak and utter these... speeches following, viz: That he was under another Governmant, and had sworn to another Government, and did not know this government..."

Note: John Gould was protesting the succession of James II, a Catholic, to the throne of England after the death of his brother Charles II, a Protestant.

Gould was able to apologize for his behavior and the court showed him mercy: "Upon reading the petition of John Gould, and considering the poverty of his family, it is ordered, That upon the payment of 50 pounds in money, and charges of Prosecution the remainder of his fine be respited, and he be released of his imprisionment, he giving bonds for his good behavior..." While the case was resolved, the ill will between the Wildes and the Goulds had considerably worsened.

Shortly afterward, Mary Gould Reddington began to spread witchcraft stories about Sarah Averill Wildes. When John Wildes threatened to sue Mary’s husband, John Reddington, for slander, Mary denied her previous statements. Still, for Sarah Averill, the damage had already been done.

Sarah's arrest and examination

On April 21, 1692, John Putnam, father of "afflicted girl," Anne and close friend of the Gould family, filed a complaint of witchcraft against nine people. It was no suprise that Sarah Wilde's name ended up on that list. She was accused of afflicting Ann Putnam, Mary Walcott and Mercy Lewis. That very day a warrent was issued for her arrest. At the time Sarah was taken into custody, her son Ephraim, just happened to be constable of Topsfield. When he received the warrant for her arrest, Ephraim had the particularly agonizing duty of taking his own mother to the Salem jail.

On April 22, Sarah was examined with the "afflicted girls" present. Sarah proclaimed her innocence which caused the girls to fall into fits around her. The examiner then proceeded to put pressure on Sarah to confess, saying "Here is a clear evidence that [you have] been not only a Tormenter [but that] you have caused one to sign the book..." Sarah answered "I never saw the book in my life and I never saw these persons before....” At this, more "afflicted girls" fell into fits.

On May 13, 1692, 65-year-old Sarah was taken to the Boston Jail to await further trial. Prisoners were allowed to pay a fee of £1 for visitation rights with their family. There is no record of who was able to pay for this privledge. Perhaps Sarah's son Ephraim, as constable, was able to enter the jail to see her.

Sarah's trial

On June 30, Sarah was indicted for afflicting Mercy Lewis. At her trial, twelve people testified with various and sundry stories about how they had been afflicted by Sarah. Not surprisingly, most of these witnesses were friends and family of the Gould's. One unrelated witness was our uncle Humphrey Clarke (8U), son of the incorrigible tavern keeper of Topsfield, Grandpa Daniel Clarke (9GGF). The twenty-one-year-old Humphrey testified "that about a yere agoo I was asleep and about midnight the bed shook & I awaked and saw a woman stand by the bed side which when I well Looked semed to me to be goodwif wills which jumpid to the tother corner of the house & then I saw hir no more... Jurat in Curia (Sworn in Court)."

Only two people testified on Sarah's behalf, her husband John Wildes and her son Ephraim. On July 2nd, Ephraim testified:

"as for my mother I never saw aniey harm by har upon aniey sutch acout naither in word nor action as she is now acused for she hath awlwais instructed me well in the cristion religon and the wais of god ever sence I was abell to take instructions: and so I leve it all to this honred cort to consider of it..."

Note: Not all court recorders were created equal. The one taking Ephraim's testimony did not have a good command of the English language.

Two days later, Ephraim testified again, this time giving a rationalization as to why one of the witnesses against Sarah, Elizabeth Symonds, had spoken against his mother. Ephraim said that four years ago there was "som liklyhode" of his marrying one of the Symonds daughters. But then, he "had a hint" That Goody Symonds believed his mother had "don har wrong." After that, Ephraim said he left Goody Symonds house and "went no more" and ever since, "she bene veriey angriey with me and now she will reward mee."

Conviction and execution

The record of Sarah's conviction can't be found among the witchcraft trial papers, though she was indeed convicted. Two weeks after her trial ended, a warrant went out for the execution of five women. Sarah's name was included in the warrant.

It reads in part:

"To Georg: Corwine Gent'n High Sheriff of the County of Essex Greeting

Wheras Sarah Good...Rebecka Nurse...Susanna Martin...Elizabeth How...Sarah Wild...were Severaly arraigned...and pleading not guilty did for their Tryall put themselves on God & Thier Countrey whereupon they were Each of them found & brought in Guilty...and Sentence of death did then pass upon them...Execution whereof yet remains to be done: Those are Therefore...to will & Comand you that upon Tuesday next being the 19th day of [torn] July... you Safely conduct the sd [women] to place of Execution & there Cause them & Every of them to be hanged by the Neck untill they be dead...and hereof you are not to fail at your perill...

On July 19, 1692, Sarah Averill Wildes, after many protestations of her innocence, was executed by hanging in the town of Salem.

Sarah's stone embedded in the Witch Trial Memorial Wall

Elizabeth Jackson Howe

Elizabeth Jackson was only about four years old in 1639 when she settled with her parents in the town of Rowley with the Reverend Ezekiel Rogers and his flock. Others in that flock included our Grandma Constance Brigham Crosby (11GGM) and our Swan, Haseltine and Stickney families. Elizabeth's must have come from a rather poor family as records show that she worked as a maid in Reverend Roger's house when she was only seven years old.

Elizabeth, however, managed to marry well. In 1658, she married James Howe, a grandnephew of the Reverend Frances Dane of Andover. An episode concerning Elizabeth in Ipswich ten years before the trials may have been part of the reason Reverend Dane spoke out so vehemently against witchcraft accusors. James and Elizabeth Howe were living quietly in Ipswich in 1682 when a child in town started having fits. The child named Elizabeth Jackson Howe as the person making her ill. When questioned, however, the child refused to make a formal accusation. Still, the damage had been done and Elizabeth's reputation in the community went down the drain. She was refused admittance to the Ipswich church and her movements were constantly monitered.

Ten years later, in 1692, it would not have come as a great shock to anyone that two Salem men made made a complaint against Elizabeth for witchcraft. Ephraim Wildes, who had arrested his own mother a month before, was charged with the arrest.

Mural of Elizabeth Howe being arrested ~ artist: Alan Pearsall

Below is Ephraim's acknowledgement of apprehension:

"In obedience to this warant I have apprended Elizabeth How the wife of Jams how on the 29th of may 1692 and have brought her unto the house of Leftenant nathaniell Englesons acording too the warant as atested by mee Ephraim Wildes constabell for the town of Topsfeild dated May 31st 1692."

same old story

On May 31, Elizabeth was brought to the Ingersoll Tavern in Salem Village for the requisite examination where the "afflicted girls" carried out the requisite fits. During the examination Elizabeth was asked: "What say you to this charge? Here are them that charge you with witchcraft." Her answer: "If it was the last moment I was to live God knows I am innocent of anything of this nature."

Many of Elizabeth's neighbors would try to prove otherwise. Even before Elizabeth's trial began a month later, the Perley family was quick to get their digs in. John and Timothy Perley were brother's-in-law to our aunt Mary Howlett Perley (8A), daughter of one of Ipswich's founders, Thomas Howlett (8GGF). Samuel Perley deposed that:

"...We having a dauter about ten years of age being in a sorowful condition" who had been afflicted by Elizabeth "both day and night... ...being Pricked with Pins and sometimes faling doun into dredful fits." They went to several doctors and "thai: tould us that she was under an evil hand: two or three years constantli afirming to the last that this goode how that is now seised was the cause of her sorows and so Pined a wai to skin and bone and ended her sorowful life, and this we can atest upon oath..."

Timothy Perley deposed that their cows were not producing milk that his wife was "veri loving" with Goody Howe. When he asked her why "she tould me that she was afraide to doe other wise for then goode how would kil her..."

testimony of the Cummings family

Another of our relatives by marriage to testify against Elizabeth was Isaac Cummings of Topsfield. He married our cousin Alice Howlett (1C9X), granddaughter of Thomas Howlett. Alice received 100 acres of land in Ipswich from her grandfather's will which must have made a nice dowry for Isaac.

Note: Four years after Isaac's testimony in the witch trials, his wife Alice died. Only months later, Isaac married our aunt Frances Sherwin (7A) daughter of our immigrant grandparents John and Frances Loomis Sherwin. When Isaac married Frances, he was 33 and she just 2 months shy of her 16th birthday.

Isaac, with both his parents, testified that Elizabeth Howe had afflicted their horse which subequently died. All three maintained that the horse had been in "oth'r wayes horibly abused" by Elizabeth because the Cummings' had refused to lend the horse to her husband, James Howe.

Isaac's mother Mary Cummings also testified that she had been to "viset my naigbour sherins wife (our grandmother Francis Loomis Sherwin) and she told me that James how jun'r had bin thare to give her a viset and he did sharply talk to her asking her what hopes she hade of her salveation her answer was to him that she did bild her hopes upon sure rock Jesus christ...but she was the wors for it after wards...and she said also when she lay sick of the same sikness whareof she dyed that the said how (Howe) would come som times in to the roome to see her but she could not tell how to bare to se him nor that he should be in the hous..."

Grandma Frances died of her illness in 1691, about a year before the witch trials began. The death of a supposed afflicted person could never bode well for the accused.

The case against Elizabeth Howe was fierce. Twenty-one witnesses testified against her, including Frances Sherwin's husband, our grandfather John Sherwin and two of James Howe's brothers. In addition, six accused persons identified her as a fellow witch in their confessions. Elizabeth did, however, have some support in the community. Eleven people testified in her favor. The favorable testimonies, alas, did her no good.

conviction and execution

On July 19, a warrant was sent to Sheriff George Corwin with the names of five people to be executed that day, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Eliz. Howe, Susanna Martin & Sarah Wildes.

All the hoopla surrounding Elizabeth's arrest, conviction and trial wasn't the main factor in her conviction. All five people executed on July 19 had one thing in common: They had refused to confess to the crime of witchcraft. Elizabeth and her fellow non-confessors, including Sarah Averill Wildes, were "hanged by the Neck untill they be dead."

aftermath

Within months of the last accused witches being released in May of 1693, remorse settled over the Colony. Many people involved in the accusations and prosecutions publicly acknowledged the error of their ways and confessed to their abiding guilt. By 1697, when King William's War was just winding down and Massachusetts towns were coming back to some semblance of normalcy, the Colony decided it it was time to look back at what had happened. On 14 Jan 1697, the General Court ordered a day of fasting and soul searching for what was now recognized as the "Tragedy of Salem." At the same time, many petitions were sent out asking the Court to reinstate the good names of those who had been accused and, particularly, those who had been executed.

In 1711, the Colony went further and passed a bill that not only restored the rights and good names of the accused but also granted a £600 restitution to their heirs. It wasn't until 1957, however, that the State of Massachusetts made a formal apology for the events of 1692.

On July 19, 2017, the 325th anniversary of the day that Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wildes stood on the gallows, a memorial to the victims of Witch Trials was dedicated. The simple memorial, designed by landscape architect Martha Lyon, contains stones embedded with the names of all nineteen men and women who were executed during the course of the trials. The memorial has come to be called Proctor's Ledge.

And with that we bring to a close seventeenth century New England and its final mournful decade.