By Alicia Bertrand, M.A.
September 10, 2021
In my blood, there are two women who were legally murdered by local judges, religious leaders, and townspeople in Massachusetts in the 1600s. They were accused, tried, and hanged for witchcraft. When one uses modern rationale, one of these women, Alice Lake,[1] suffered from grief. The second, Susannah Martin (née North), was a headstrong elderly woman who refused to bow to societal pressures. The stories of these women are meant to educate the reader by giving micro examples of persons that were killed in the United States for witchcraft, serve as a historical account of how womens’ history has largely been written by men, and how sometimes a modern gaze is necessary to understand women’s’ lives from the past. The following article outlines the backgrounds of these two women, who accused them of witchcraft, the issues that amateur genealogical research has caused when documentation does not exist, how they died, and what contemporary commentators (mostly men) said about them, and their lives at the time.
Alice Lake (née unknown), 10th great-grandmother
Before the story of Alice begins, I must give the reader a quick background on cyclical footnoting, as I believe it plagues the research and previous writing found on the internet about her. As mentioned in my article, “In my Blood: Vikings and a Mythical Giant,” cyclical footnoting is when amateur researchers or writers on the internet find an incorrect “fact” and cite it. Then someone else reads it, takes it as fact, and cites it again, in a cycle of inaccuracies. Modern internet writers discuss Alice Lake’s life with numerous cyclical footnotes. I have listed my main issues below.
Issue 1: The acceptance of Reverend John Hale’s description of Alice’s “confession” in his Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft in 1702
Reverend John Hale wrote on Alice Lake’s case approximately 50 years after she was executed. He was not an eye witness to her trial. Yet, he wrote of her confession: “…upon the day of her execution Mr. Thompson Minister at Brantry, and J.P. her former Master took pains with her to bring her to repentance, And she utterly denyed her guilt of Witchcraft: yet justifyed God for bringing her to that punishment: for she had when a single woman played the harlot, and being with Child used means to destroy the fruit of her body to conceal her sin and shame, and although she did not effect it, yet she was a Murderer in the sight of God for her endeavours, and shewed great penitency for that sin; but owned nothing of the crime laid to her charge.”[2] [sic]. Therefore, he claimed that Alice had premarital sex and attempted to, or succeeded in, aborting the pregnancy. His usage of the words “although she did not affect it” makes it seem as though the abortion was an attempt. It is confusing and the only mention in any contemporary source in which her sexuality is brought up. As a Reverend, and a man, who wrote about a woman decades after her death, readers today should take his words with a grain of salt, yet internet writers and bloggers repeat his words as factual evidence.[3]
He was an eyewitness and perpetrator of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. K. David Goss explains that “Reverend Hale was among the foremost ministers intent upon seeking out and eliminating the witches responsible. As the episodes expanded and intensified, Hale was called upon to testify against members of his congregation and he became more deeply involved in the proceedings.”[4] As a man, a reverend, and a second-hand account, why should we believe what he wrote about Alice? If it was true that she did attempt an abortion, there is no record of the child to prove its existence.
Issue 2: Alice’s maiden name
Wikitree[5] and FindaGrave.com[6], as well as numerous amateur family tree creators proliferate the inaccurate usage of Ireod as Alice’s maiden last name. Without any citation, Daniel Allen Hearn states that her maiden name was Lee.[7] No primary documentation has been found to determine her real maiden name. Please stop cycling through these inaccuracies!
Issue 3: Alice’s Date of Death
There is little documentation that survives in Dorchester from the 1600s. Among these lost records are the trial records and death certificate for Alice Lake’s trial and execution. Online sources claim her death anywhere between June 5, 1648 to 1651.[8] In Witchcraft in the American Colonies, Frederick C. Drake states her date of execution as 1650, however, Drake sites a source that could be incorrect as well.[9] Without a death certificate, Will, probate, burial document, or any other Dorchester legal record in a historian’s hands, we may never know her true date of execution.
The Facts We Do Have
There is no documentation regarding Alice’s date of birth or place of birth. She may have been born in England and married Henry there. There is no known record of Henry and Alice’s marriage.
In about 1642, Alice gave birth to her first child with Henry, Elizabeth Lake, my 9th great-grandmother. Thomas Lake was born in about 1644, David was born in about 1646, and then there is some contention regarding whether there was a Daniel born in about 1647, and then an unnamed baby that died within days in 1648, or whether Daniel existed at all.[10] The baby born in 1648 is the reason for Alice’s witchcraft accusation.
Alice was accused of witchcraft after she told friends that her recently deceased baby appeared to her in a dream. Those friends told the local church leaders, and they believed that the only way that was possible was if it was the Devil. There are no court records or other primary evidence of the accusation, trial, or execution. However, Nathaniel Mather (brother of Increase Mather,[11] and uncle to the well-known Salem witch trial influencer Cotton Mather)[12] is one primary source that can be more believable, since he wrote in a letter to Cotton inquiring why he left Alice out from his book Remarkable Providence in 1684.[13] Here is a quote from the Mather Papers transcribed by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1868:
Nathaniel Mather to Increase Mather:
“Why did you not put the story of Mrs. Hibbons witchcrafts, & the discovery thereof, as also of H. Lake’s wife, of Dorchester, whom, as I have heard, the devill drew in by appearing to her in the likenes, & acting the part of a child of hers then lately dead, on whom her heart was much set…[sic]”[14]
Mather’s account of a mother in grief is much more realistic than Hale’s account of her confessing to premarital sex and abortion, a story he would have only heard as a child at the time of her execution. Regardless of the reason for the accusation against Alice, her trial was a sham, and her execution was murder.
There are numerous online sources that gather their facts from Charles Henry Pope’s 1901 The pioneers of Massachusetts, a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents.[15] He notes two men named Thomas Lake, but only one is Henry’s brother. I have noticed certain amateur family tree researchers online who have entered in the wrong Thomas Lake to their family tree, and thus also include the incorrect parents for Henry and Thomas Lake.[16] The correct Thomas Lake was a Deacon in Dorchester. He married a woman named Alice and they had no children.[17] He died on October 27, 1678.[18] Sources written centuries after the event occurred have numerous inaccuracies. In 1901, Pope incorrectly wrote that Thomas Lake left “a piece of plate for the Lord’s table.”[19] The primary source, Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, states that “…five pounds laid out in plate and given to the Lords’ table, for the use of service thereof with mine and my wife’s name engraved thereon.”[20] A completely different meaning from what Pope noted. This is one example of why historians have to be critical of secondary source material.
When Henry Lake fled Dorchester after Alice’s execution, the Lake children were dispersed among the townspeople.
- Elizabeth, Alice and Henry’s first born, was only 9-10-years-old when she was placed with a family in town. When she was 26-years-old, she married Thomas Butts in Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island.[21] She had a number of children, and is my 9th great-grandmother. She died in 1702.
- Thomas Lake, Alice and Henry’s eldest son, went to live with Henry’s brother, Thomas Lake, as an apprentice. In 1676, Thomas was a soldier under Capt. Benjamin Church in the King Philip’s War. He married Sarah Peate and had a number of children. He died in 1715.
- Daniel, Alice and Henry’s third child, only lived a few years after being put into the care of another family in town, and died at 8-years-old in 1653.
- David, Alice and Henry’s fourth child, married Sarah Earle in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1677. He served as a soldier under Capt. Benjamin Church in the King Philip’s War alongside his brother Thomas.[22] He married the widow of Thomas Cornell, who I am also related to. They had a number of children, and he died in 1709.
As of 1651, it was noted that Henry held property in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.[23] All of Henry and Alice’s adult living children moved to that area of Rhode Island. There is no evidence that any of the children reunited with their father or each other.
Alice Lake was a victim of religious fervor. Her story is hidden within the loss of records, something that plagues women’s history in general. Puritanical New England in the 17th century was a dangerous place for women. As the Salem Witch Trials in 1692-93 occurred about 40 years after her death, Alice Lake deserves to be honoured and remembered not only by those of us with her blood in our veins, but by historians of American history, persecution, and women’s history, etc. She lives on in numerous inaccurate internet stories, but will hopefully find some peace in her own truth.
Susannah Martin (nee North), 9th great-grandmother
Susannah’s story is one that should serve as an example of how older women in Puritan New England were chastised for showing independence and strength. The testimonies against her were not only ridiculous, but an insult against a woman who worked hard to maintain a homestead with her husband and raised eight children. There is no clear reason why so many people accused the 70-year-old woman, however, she fought and lost an estate battle for her father’s wealth. Did neighbours want money they believed she would receive? Did her neighbours’ early accusations cause Salem villagers to hear about her 27 miles away? Let’s dig in to the life and accusations against Susannah Martin. Some of the accusers from her village had accusations that stem from underlying issues such as rejection and negative attitudes. Unlike Alice Lake, we have numerous documents regarding Susannah’s trial and witness testimony.
Background
Susannah North was born on September 30, 1621 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England to Richard North and Joan Bartram. Her mother Joan died while Susannah was young, and Richard married a woman named Ursula Scott. In 1639, Richard North and his family immigrated to New England and settled in Salisbury, Massachusetts.[24]
At 24-years-old, Susannah married widower George Martin on August 11, 1646.[25] Over the years, they had 8 children: Richard (1647), George (1648), Abigail (1649), John (1651), Esther (1653), Jane (1656), William (1662), and Samuel (1667). George already had a child named Hannah (1644) with his first wife.
In 1654, the Martin family moved to Amesbury, Massachusetts. A plaque in the Amesbury-Golgotha Burying Ground notes George Martin as one of the first settlers of Amesbury. It was in here where everything turned sour for the couple.
Early Accusations
The Martin’s neighbour, William Sargent, was involved in numerous court cases. He was sued, and sued back, men across the village.[26] On April 13, 1669, George sued William Sargent for slander in Sargent’s first known accusation against Susannah for being a witch. George formally fought the allegations for her. George also sued William’s eldest son, 26-year-old Thomas Sargent, for slander on April 8, 1669. Thomas said that George Jr. was a bastard, and that Richard Martin was Susannah’s “imp”.[27] The charge against Thomas was withdrawn. These were not words of idle gossip in the late 1600s. These were dangerous accusations to throw around against one’s neighbours.
On June 30 1692, Robert Downer and Mary Andrews testified that several years prior, they had taken Susannah to court for witchcraft after she had threatened Downer by saying a she devil will come for him. That evening, a cat entered Downer’s bedroom window, lay across his throat and fled only when Downer prayed.[28]
In November 1686, George Martin died. Susannah was now 65-years-old. It is unclear whether their youngest son, Samuel, still lived with his parents at the time. He was 19-years-old when his father died. If so, there is no documentation within the trial notes that Samuel attempted to defend his mother in the accusations of witchcraft that were to come.
1692 Accusations
The accusations that culminated in Susannah’s hanging were not from the Sargent family. In 1692, at the age of 71, she was accused of being a witch by several residents of Salem Village, 27 miles south of Amesbury (where Susannah lived). She did not know the Salem accusers. On April 30, 1692, a warrant for Susannah’s arrest named Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, Marcy Lewis, and Ann Putnam of Salem as Susannah’s accusers.[29]
On May 2, 1692, we can see Susannah’s steadfast and independent manner in Puritan Boston by way of how she reacts to the witnesses. As soon as Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, and Ann Putnam threw themselves into “fits” on the floor when they laid eyes upon Susannah Martin in the courtroom. Susannah laughed. The examiner asked what she laughed at, and she said “Well I may at such folly.”[30] Mary Walcot threw herself into a fit and Susannah laughed again. When the examiner asked her whether she thought these people were bewitched, Susannah said “No. I do not think they are.”[31] Clearly, Susannah was the only logical person in the courtroom.
17-year-old Elizabeth Hubbard testified that prior to entering the courtroom, she had seen apparitions of Susannah, and upon seeing her in the court room, all it took was a glance from her to cause Hubbard to be struck down to the floor and she felt as though she was being choked. She also testified that she saw the apparition of Susannah choke the other Salem girls, Abigail, Mercy, Ann, and Mary.[32]
19-year-old Mercy Lewis testified that she had also seen apparitions of Susannah, but that when she saw her in the court room, she was pinched and bite immediately by unseen hands and teeth. Her glance caused Mercy to choke and fall to the floor. Mercy also mentioned Susannah telling her to write her name “in her book”.[33] 17-year-old Mary Walcott had almost the exact same testimony.[34] 36-year-old Sarah Bibber testified the same story as the Salem girls.[35]
On June 29, 1692, Susannah was indicted for “…certaine Detestable arts, called witchcrafts & Sorceries wickedly and feloniously hath used Practised & Exercised at and within the Townership of Salem in the County of Essex [sic]” against numerous persons.[36] William Brown testified in court that his wife Elizabeth met Susannah in Salisbury, Mass. and was frightened by Susannah’s ability to disappear and appear before her. She told her husband that she felt as though birds were pecking or pricking her legs, and felt as though an egg was in her throat and claimed it was Susannah “choking” her.[37] Another man, John Pressy, testified that when he was 29-years-old, he walked by the Martin household in a field and saw a strange light dart back and forth. As he could hold it in his hand, he claimed the image of Susannah Martin appeared within the light.[38] Pressy claimed that as he arrived to his doorstep, his wife could not get him to speak, and he scared his family by his strange movements. The story of what happened spread throughout town, and Mary Pressy testified that back when it happened, 24-years-prior, Susannah had “…reviled them with many foule words saying wee had took a fals oathe and sayd that we shoold never prosper [sic].”[39] Perhaps Susannah was angry that her neighbours lied under oath and damaged her reputation? I would be.
Another accusation came from Bernard Peach, of Salisbury, regarding an event that occurred 6-7 years prior. Peach testified that Susannah had come “up toward this deponents face but turned back to his feet and took hold of them & drew up his body into a heape & Lay upon him about an hour & half or 2: hours in all w’ch taim this deponent coold not stir nor speake but feelling himself begining to be loosined or Lightned: he begining to strive he put out his hand a mong the clothes and took hold of her hand and brought it up to his mouth and bitt three of the fingers (as he Judg) to the breaking of the bones [sic].”[40] Seriously. A 64-year-old woman, even if she was a witch, chose to fold Peach up onto himself, make him mute and paralyzed, but then somehow allowed him to grab her hand and bite her fingers? Did people not think that a witch who could harm girls from afar, would not need to sit on a man she has pretzeled up on the floor? Not only is the story absurd for the time, but also makes no sense when supposedly Susannah was strong enough to attack and choke persons from miles away.
Peach also testified that one day he and his landlord Osgood refused to give George Martin meat off of their slaughtered ox, and the next day his best cow acted very strangely and when the cow went off for the day it returned extremely ill and died that night. Thus, he believed that Susannah caused the cow’s death in revenge for not giving meat to her husband.[41]
Jarvis Ring, from Salisbury, also accused Susannah of what sounds like sleep paralysis to current day readers. Ring testified that “…seven or eight years ago he had ben several times aflicted in the night time by som body or som thing coming up upon him when he was in bed and did sorely afflict him by Lying upon him and he coold neither move nor speake while it was upon him but somtimes made akind of noyse that folks did hear him & com up to him and as soon as any body came it woold be gon.”[42]
John Kembale accused Susannah of witchcraft after he had been insulted by her when she did not want him to buy one of her puppies. After he argued with Susannah about which dog he wanted and she rejected him from buying any of the puppies. Later that day he tripped over some tree stumps while carrying an axe, thus, he believed Susannah had caused his tripping and possible harm.[43]
Joseph Merrill, in his History of Amesbury described Susannah as such: “The idea of snatching this hardworking, honest woman from her home to be tried for her life by those who never knew her, and witnesses who were prejudiced against her….is almost too much for belief. …Allowed no counsel, she was her own lawyer, and her answers are remarkable for independence and clearness. She showed herself to be a woman of more than ordinary talent and resolution…The mental anguish and suffering of the two and a half months while she lay in Salem jail, previous to her execution, is beyond our power of description, and we leave the subject with the reader to draw his own conclusions.”[44]
On July 19, 1692, Susannah was found guilty of witchcraft and hanged, alongside four other women hanged for witchcraft at Proctor’s Ledge in Salem: Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah Wildes.[45] All were placed in a shallow unmarked grave in Salem, Massachusetts.
The infamous Puritan minister and “witch hunter” Cotton Mather wrote about Susannah in his The Wonders of the Invisible World in which he stated that Susannah “was one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked Creatures in the World…[sic].”[46] He also noted that she refused to confess, and some of her last words in the trial, and her “Chief plea” was “That she had led the most virtuous and holy life.”[47]
A memorial of benches has been erected for each of the nineteen individuals hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.[48] Below is a photo of Susannah’s bench.
The below marker, situated where the Martin home previously sat, states what most of us would consider Susannah today: a “martyr of superstition.”[49]
Conclusion
Susannah Martin and Alice Lake were both victims of Puritan religious fervor and fear. Regardless of age, both women prove that social norms regarding mental health, estate issues, independence, and other issues women deal with to this day, were weaponized in New England Puritan communities. Superstition and gossip caused the deaths of numerous men, women, and children in Massachusetts in the 1600s. We can still learn a lesson from the urge to point a finger at ones’ neighbour. There is enough chaos in this world. Put down the symbolic pitchforks and think about the lives that history has lost to idiotic, childish, and outlandish accusations such as those you have read about today. Witches, Wiccans, and voodoo practitioners can legally practice their religious or cultural activities in North America. We’ve come a long way since the 1600s, but we all still have a lot to learn about body politics, women’s issues, and other topics these women faced. When you celebrate Halloween this year, dress up as a witch…and tell people Alice and Susannah sent you.
If you would like to know if you have any witches in your family tree, please contact me for a free consultation and review my pricing page here. You can email me at alicia@ancestrybyalicia.ca
Please feel free to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss any of my future articles on genealogical and historical topics, and share to your socials if you think your friends would enjoy it as well.
The information in this article is current to September 10, 2021. The information contained in this article is of a historical nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular living individual. Although I intend to provide accurate and timely information, I cannot guarantee the information within is accurate as of the date it is received/read/downloaded/or accessed, nor that it will continue to be accurate or updated in the future. No one should act upon the information within without appropriate professional advice (genealogical services are offered by myself and many others online) and after a thorough examination of the particular situation that may arise.
Footnotes
[1] Maiden name unknown. Certain genealogical sources claim it is Ireod, however there is no evidence towards this being a fact. The issue with cyclical footnoting is evident in researching witchcraft and alleged witches.
[2] Rev. John Hale, A Modest Inquiry into The Nature of Witchcraft, (Boston: B. Green and J. Allen, 1702), p. 409.
[3] There are so many to source, so I will include just a few: https://clmroots.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-witch-in-family.html; https://www.archivespublichistory.org/?tag=alice-lake; https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/33452582/person/19895443390/media/5cbadf15-1360-445f-a7dc-c6c9139d8251; http://www.alicemariebeard.com/genealogy/maternal/lake.htm; http://mountainstatescollector.com/witches-not-scary-those-who-prosecuted-them-were/; etc.
[4] K. David Goss, The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide, (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008), pg. 107.
[5] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ireod-1
[6] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114857953/alice-lake
[7] Daniel Allen Hearn, Legal Executions in New England: A Comprehensive Reference, 1623-1960 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1999), pg. 17-18.
[8] One source on Ancestry.com that specifies 1651 includes the footnote “Original information from surviving legal records from the towns and villages in question and appearing in Godbeer, Richard, comp. The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England: Appendices A & B. [Information taken from Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak. 3 vols. New York, NY: 1977.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1992.”; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114857953/alice-lake
[9] Drake, Frederick C. “Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-62.” <i>American Quarterly</i>, vol. 20, no. 4, 1968, pp. 694–725. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/2711403. Accessed 15 Aug. 2021, pg. 699.
[10] Lake Little Compton Families Vol I, pg. 391.
[11] https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100139997
[12] http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/c_mather.html
[13] Thomas Prince, The Mather papers, Ser. 4, Vol. 8A, (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1868), pg. 58. <https://archive.org/details/matherpapers48prin/page/58/mode/2up>
[14] Spelling kept accurate to how it appears in the text. Ibid.
[15] Charles Henry Pope, The pioneers of Massachusetts, a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents, (Boston, C.H. Pope, 1900), pg. 275.
[16] In order to not embarrass the individuals who have done this I will not note them, but hopefully one day they find this article and correct their tree.
[17] Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America, Ancestry.ca [database on-line], pg. 315.
[18] Pope, pg. 275.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Suffolk County (Massachusetts) Probate Records, 1636-1899; Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Suffolk County)
[21] Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, MD, USA; Volume Title: New England Marriages Prior to 1700, pg. 129; The American Genealogist, Vol. 19, pg. 130.
[22] Benjamin Church, The History of King Philip’s War, Issue 2, Part 1, (Boston: John Kimball Wiggin, 1865), pg. 32.
[23] Lake Little Compton Families Vol I, pg. 391.
[24] https://www.ancestry.ca/mediaui-viewer/tree/25273914/person/1949787969/media/218a7032-721a-4a80-bccd-6385ef841113?_phsrc=hgn3844&_phstart=successSource
[25] https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/59757532/person/260180768716/facts
[26] https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mainegenie/SARGENT.htm
[27] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1636-1686, Vol. IV, pg. 129, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/Essex/vol4/images/essex129.html
[28] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.22: Robert Downer Mary Andrews, & Moses Pike v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[29] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.1: Warrant for the apprehension of Susannah Martin, & Officer’s Return,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[30] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.3: Examination of Susannah Martin, Written by the Rev. Samuel Paris,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[31] Ibid.
[32] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.25: Deposition of Elizabeth Hubbard v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[33] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.26: Deposition of Mercy Lewis v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[34] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.28: Deposition of Mary Walcott v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[35] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.31: Deposition of Sarah Bibber v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[36] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.5: Indictment No. 1 of Susannah Martin, for Affllicting Mary Walcott,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[37] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.9: Deposition William Brown v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[38] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.10: Testimony of John Pressy v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[39] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.11: Deposition of John Pressy and Mary Pressy v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[40] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.12: Deposition of Bernard Peach v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[41] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.18: Deposition of Bernard Peach v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[42] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.13: Testimony of Jarvis Ring v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[43] Benjamin Ray and The University of Virginia, “SWP No. 92.17: Deposition of John Kembale v. Susannah Martin,” Essex County Court Archives, Salem — Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171, http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html
[44] Joseph Merrill, History of Amesbury: Including the First Seventeen Years of Salisbury, to the Separation in 1654…, (Haverhill: Press of F. P. Stiles, 1880), pg. 125-126,
[45] Sarah Pruitt, “5 Notable Women Hanged in the Salem Witch Trials”, History.com, October 18, 2018, <https://www.history.com/news/notable-women-executed-salem-witch-trials>
[46] Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World, (Boston: Raven in the Poultry, 1693), pg. 76.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Salem Witch Museum, Proctor’s Ledge, <https://salemwitchmuseum.com/proctors-ledge/>
[49] Salem Witch Museum, Susannah Martin House Marker, <https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/susannah-martin-house-marker/>
© 2021 Ancestry by Alicia
Ancestry by Alicia 
One thought on “In My Blood: Witches of Massachusetts”