(thing) by Gorgonzola Sat May 19 2001 at 17:57:20

Dramatis Personae


It's time to name names.   If a play were to be written about the Salem Witch Trials, it would have to include the following people:

The accusers:

The enablers:
  • William Griggs, physician to the Parris household, who suggested that the girls' afflicitons were of supernatural origin.
  • Mary Sibley, a Parris neighbor.  She suggested a "witch-cake" be baked as a counter-magic to whatever was afflicting Betty. This cake contained Betty's urine and was fed to a dog.
  • Tituba, a Barbadian slave in the Parris household, who had regaled Betty Parris and her friends with tales of voodoo and spirits from her home.  She was the one to bake the "witch cake". Tituba was tried, and confessed to being a witch. Tituba's spectacular confession named four others as witches, touching off Salem's blood frenzy.
  • Sir William Phips, governor of Massachussetts Bay Colony, who arrived on May 14 to find his jail brimming with accused witches.  He created a special court "of Oyer and Terminer" on May 27 to speed up the process of examining and disposing of the witches.  When, in October 1692, it was suggested that Lady Mary Phips might be a witch, Sir William halted the proceedings, and issued various orders releasing batches of accused witches from prison, the last in May, 1693.
  • Increase Mather, a Puritan preacher, whose theories about witchcraft (especially about witches fornicating with demons) created the mindset that the town of Salem was in constant peril from witches.  Although he protested the use of certain types of evidence (especially so-called "spectral evidence") in the witch trials, he refused to denounce the judges, who were his close friends.  When it appeared his wife was to be accused of witchcraft, Increase Mather published a treatise, Cases of Conscience, one of the first works to address the appropriateness of criminal evidence.
  • Cotton Mather, his son, who had written Memorable Providences about a specific case of suspected witchcraft in Boston that resembled the girls' affliction.  Mather also objected to the feebleness of the evidence but also stood idly by.
  • Stephen Sewall, Clerk of the Court
  • Thomas Newton, attourney general for the court until July 26.
  • Anthony Checkley replaced Newton as Attourney General.
  • George Corwin, Sherriff of Essex County, who presumably performed the arrests.
The judges: Namers of names:
  • Tituba herself was not executed because of the financial harm it would cause to her owner, Samuel Parris.  After thirteen months in jail, an unknown person paid for her release and bought Tituba and her husband.
  • Mary Warren, a servant of local tavern owner John Proctor.
  • Abigail Hobbs, local ne'er do-well, who confessed and gleefuly denounced people she didn't like as witches, including her parents.
  • Deliverance Hobbs, Abigail's mother, who confessed and denounced minister George Burroughs, and was eventually released.
The victims:
  • Sarah Osborn, died in prison May 10.
  • Bridget Bishop, who had the gall to outlive two husbands, and run two of Salem's taverns, hanged June 10.
  • Roger Toothaker, another Salem physician, who refused to support his family, forcing them to reeceive aid from Salem Town. Died in prison June 16.
  • Sarah Good, a beggar hauled in as one of the usual suspects, then named as a witch by Tituba. She miscarried the child she was carrying, allowing her to be hanged July 19.
  • Elizabeth Howe, hanged July 19.
  • Susannah Martin, previously accused as a witch, who may have used her reputation to make neighbors do what she wanted, hanged July 19.
  • Rebecca Nurse, local goodwife, whose family was disliked by the Putnams. The jury found her not guilty, but Stoughton bullied them into changing their verdict. Hanged July 19.
  • Sara Wildes, Hanged July 19.
  • Dorcas Good, Sarah's four-year-old daughter, imprisoned and later bullied into denouncing her mother.
  • George Burroughs, a local minister accused as the wizard in charge of the entire coven. On August 17, he flawlessly recited the Lord's Prayer from the gallows, but they still hanged him.  It was at this point that most people in Massachussetts realized that things were out of control.
  • Martha Carrier, Roger Toothaker's sister-in-law, hanged August 19.
  • George Jacobs, Sr., over eighty years old, hanged August 19.
  • John Proctor, who publicly denounced the proccedings, and wrote a letter to Increase Mather describing the tortures used to extract confessions, hanged August 19.
  • John Willard, hanged August 19.
  • Giles Corey, eighty-odd years old, pressed to death by stones on September 19 for refusing to enter a plea. His courage strengthened public oppositionto the whole fiasco.
  • Martha Corey, hanged on September 22.
  • Mary Easty, Rebecca Nurse's sister, arrested and released early, but rearrested and hanged September 22, 1692.  A certain Mary Herrick testified in November that Easty's ghost had come to her and proclaimed her innocence.
  • Alice Parker, hanged September 22.
  • Mary Parker, hanged September 22.
  • Ann Pudeator had nursed her husband's previous wife before she died. She scolded her neighbors for letting their cattle run through her garden. The Sherriff found several pots of various sizes in her house when he arrested her. These were assumed to contain witches' brews, although Ann claimed they contained soap. Ann was hanged September 22.
  • Wilmott Redd, hanged September 22.
  • Margaret Scott, hanged September 22.
  • Samuel Wardwell, hanged September 22.
  • Ann Foster, died in prison December 3.
  • Lyndia Dustin, died in prison March 10, 1693.
Others imprisoned (please notice that if one person was accused, their entire family was frequently imprisoned):
  • Nehemiah Abbott
  • Nehemiah Abbott, Jr.
  • Capt. John Alden
  • Daniel Andrew
  • Abigail Barker
  • Mary Barker
  • William Barker, Sr.
  • William Barker, Jr.
  • Sarah Basset
  • Edward Bishop,
  • Sarah Bishop - Salem Village
  • Mary Black - Salem Village
  • Mary Bradbury
  • Mary Bridges
  • Sarah Bridges
  • Hannah Bromage - Andover -- July 30 (examination)
  • Sarah Buckley - Salem Village --  May 14
  • Candy (slave)
  • Hannah Carrell,
  • Andrew Carrier, son of Martha Carrier
  • Richard Carrier, son of Martha Carrier
  • Sarah Carrier, daugher o
  • Thomas Carrier
  • Bethia Carter
  • Elizabeth Cary
  • Mary Clarke
  • Rachel Clenton
  • Sarah Cloyse
  • Sarah Cole (I)
  • Sarah Cole (II)
  • Elizabeth Colson
  • Deliverance Dan
  • Mary DeRich
  • Rebecca Dike
  • Elizabeth Dicer
  • Ann Doliver
  • Joseph Draper
  • Sarah Dustin
  • Rebecca Eames
  • Esther Elwell
  • Martha Emerson
  • Joseph Emons
  • Phillip English
  • Mary English
  • Thomas Farrer, Sr.
  • Edward Farrington
  • Abigail Faulkner, Sr.
  • Abigail Faulkner, Jr,
  • Dorothy Faulkner
  • Captain John Flood
  • Elizabeth Fosdick
  • Elizabeth Fosdick (Jr.?)
  • Ann Foster
  • Nicholas Frost
  • Eunice Frye
  • Mary Green
  • Elizabeth Hart
  • Sarah Hawkes
  • Margaret Hawkes
  • Dorcas Hoar
  • Abigail Hobbs
  • Deliverance Hobbs
  • William Hobbs, Abigail's father, who always maintained his innocence.  Released in December, 1692.
  • Elizabeth How
  • John Howard
  • Francis Hutchens
  • Mary Ireson
  • John Jackson, Sr.
  • John Jackson, Jr.
  • George Jacobs, Jr.
  • Margaret Jacobs
  • Rebecca Jacobs
  • Abigail Johnson.
  • Elizabeth Johnson, Sr.
  • Elizabeth Johnson, Jr.
  • Rebecca Johnson
  • Stephen Johnson
  • Mary Lacey, Sr.
  • Mary Lacey, Jr.
  • John Lee
  • Jane Lilly
  • Mary Marston
  • Susanna Martin
  • Mary Morey
  • Sarah Morrill
  • Mary Osgood
  • Elizabeth Paine
  • Alice Parker
  • Mary Parker
  • Sarah Pearse
  • Joan Pease
  • Hannah Post
  • Mary Post
  • Susanna Post
  • Margaret Prince
  • Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor's wife, tried and condemned, but never executed because she was pregnant.
  • John Proctor
  • Benjamin Proctor
  • Sarah Proctor
  • William Proctor
  • Abigail Roe
  • Wilmot Reed
  • Sarah Rice
  • Susanna Roots
  • Henry Salter
  • John Sawdy
  • Margaret Scott
  • Ann Sears
  • Abigail Soames
  • Martha Sparks
  • Tituba Indian
  • Jerson Toothaker
  • Mary Toothaker, Roger Toohaker's wife. After much coercion, she claimed that she had formed a pact with the Devil to protect herself from Indians (who burned her house two days after the confession).
  • Margaret Toothaker, their daughter
  • Job Tookey
  • Hannah Tyler
  • Martha Tyler
  • Mercy Wardwell
  • Samuel Wardwell
  • Sarah Wardwell
  • Sarah Wilds
  • Ruth Wilford
  • John Willard
  • Sarah Wilson, Sr.
  • Sarah Wilson, Jr.
  • Mary Withridge
Source: The excellent site "Famous American Trials: Salem Witch Trials" at http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALEM.HTM.  Of special note is An Account of Events in Salem
by Douglas Linder.

The 1692 Salem Witch Trials: Documents and Participants at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/

The full list of accused was found at http://www.dreamscape.com/ncarrier/martha/, citing as a source:
From Salem-Village Witchcraft: a Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England.  Paul Boyer & Stephen
Nissenbaum, eds., pp. 376-378.

http://members.tripod.com/~ErikLund/deaths.html contained a useful list of death dates.

Various genealogical sites tell other peoples' stories.

I like it! 6 C!s