In 1648, Margaret Jones, a midwife, became the primary person in Massachusetts — the second in New England — to be executed for witchcraft, a long time before the infamous Salem witch trials.
Nearly 4 centuries later, the state and region are still working to come back to grips with the scope of its witch trial legacy.
The latest effort comes from a gaggle dedicated to clearing the names of all those accused, arrested or indicted for witchcraft in Massachusetts, whether or not the accusations led to hanging.
The Massachusetts Witch-Hunt Justice Project, made up of history buffs and descendants, is hoping to steer the state to take a fuller reckoning of its early history, based on Josh Hutchinson, the group’s leader.
Hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft in what would grow to be the Commonwealth of Massachusetts between 1638 and 1693. Most escaped execution.
While much attention has focused on clearing the names of those put to death in Salem, most of those caught up in witch trials throughout the 1600s have largely been ignored, including five women hanged for witchcraft in Boston between 1648 and 1688.
“It’s necessary that we correct the injustices of the past,” said Hutchinson, who noted he counts each accusers and victims amongst his ancestors. “We’d like an apology for all the accused or indicted or arrested.”
For now, the group has been collecting signatures for a petition but hopes to take their case to the Statehouse.
Among those accused of witchcraft in Boston was Ann Hibbins, sister-in-law to Massachusetts Gov. Richard Bellingham, who was executed in 1656. A personality based on Hibbins would later appear in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” published in 1850.
Another accused Boston witch, often called Goodwife Ann Glover or Goody Glover, was hanged in the town in 1688. A plaque dedicated to her is situated on the front of a Catholic church in the town’s North End neighborhood, describing her as “the primary Catholic martyr in Massachusetts.” It’s one among the few physical reminders of the town’s witch trial history.
The witch justice group helped successfully spearhead an identical effort in Connecticut, home of the primary person executed for witchcraft within the American colonies in 1647 — Alse Young. The last witchcraft trial in Connecticut happened in 1697 and ended with the costs being dismissed.
Connecticut state senators in May voted by 34-1 to absolve 12 ladies and men convicted of witchcraft — 11 of whom were executed — greater than 370 years ago and apologize for the “miscarriage of justice” that occurred over a dark 15-year-period of the state’s colonial history.
The resolution, which lists the nine women and two men who were executed and the one woman who was convicted and given a reprieve, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 121-30. Because it’s a resolution, it doesn’t require the governor’s signature.
For many, the distant events in Boston, Salem and beyond are each fascinating and private. That includes David Allen Lambert, chief genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Lambert counts his tenth great grandmother — Mary Perkins Bradbury — among the many accused who was imagined to be hanged in 1692 in Salem but escaped execution.
“We can’t change history but perhaps we are able to send the accused an apology,” he said. “It sort of closes the chapter in a way.”
Massachusetts has already made efforts to come back to terms with its history of witch trials — proceedings that allowed “spectral evidence” during which victims could testify that the accused harmed them in a dream or vision.
That effort began almost immediately when Samuel Sewall, a judge within the 1692-1693 Salem witch trials, issued a public confession in a Boston church five years later, taking “the blame and shame of” the trials and asking for forgiveness.
In 1711, colonial leaders passed a bill clearing the names of some convicted in Salem.
In 1957, the state Legislature issued a sort of apology for Ann Pudeator and others who “were indicted, tried, found guilty, sentenced to death and executed” in 1692 for witchcraft. The resolution declared the Salem trials “shocking, and the results of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil locally.”
In 2001, acting Gov. Jane Swift signed a bill exonerating five women executed in the course of the witch trials in Salem.
In 2017, Salem unveiled a memorial for the victims. The ceremony got here 325 years to the day when Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Wildes were hanged at a site in Salem often called Proctor’s Ledge. Nineteen were hanged in the course of the Salem witch trials while a twentieth victim was pressed to death.
In 2022, lawmakers exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the peak of the Salem witch trials. Johnson is believed to be the last accused Salem witch to have her conviction put aside.
Other states have worked to confront similar histories.
In Pownal, Vermont, a town that borders Massachusetts and New York, a dedication ceremony was held last month for a historical marker recognizing the survivor of Vermont’s only recorded witch trial. Widow Krieger was said to have escaped drowning within the Hoosic River when tried as a witch in 1785, based on the Legends and Lore marker.
Accusers believed witches floated but Krieger sank and was saved, the marker states.
The Sept. 16 dedication ceremony included a witches’ walk, during which people dressed as witches walked across a bridge to the marker site along the Hoosic River.
“I’m sure Widow Krieger would have been quite completely happy to hitch our witches’ walk today in defiance of those that feel they’ve the precise to accuse someone they feel looks different, acts different or has a personality that they could find odd, of being a witch,” said Joyce Held, a member of the Pownal Historical Society, which worked with the Bennington Museum to get the marker.
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AP reporter Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont, contributed.
