> Susanna Martin married my ancestor George Martin and raised their baby daughter. I'm from Jackson, Calif. and my father Married into the Raggio family and from a toddler I was always assured that the Raggio's kept a good witch on their Ranch, who did healing, and they didn't mind witches at all. A lot of familiar names from Salem show up around Jackson in the 1800s. Carol in Reno

Katie: We all appreciate your asking people to correspond with you privately. Yours is, though, the most sophisticated request for information from a high school student for a term paper on the Salem Witch trials that I have seen. Usually such requests are about "The Crucible", which has so little historical validity it's sickening, the students making the requests have never done enough very basic reading to realize it, and they typically ask idiotic questions wildly at variance with reality, that they would have discovered that quickly if they had gone to the library and picked up a book. Practically any book. Your subject is more complicated, though, than you realize it is. It is easy to think that the Salem witch trials must had some impact on the public consciousness. Actually, they directly grew out of contradictions and problems within the Puritan faith and of social change that was already changing the way the Puritans thought. The people who brought the charges were actively resisting the changes. Salem Village was populated mostly by small farmers whose livlihood was threatened by the development of a capitalist economy and of world trade in Salem Town, next door. They also thought in extremely traditional ways, and some people, such as John Willard, but he was simply the most obvious example, were charged with witchcraft because they handled land or came upon money in ways other than the traditional ways of the feudal society that very much still existed to that point. John Willard was a land speculator; others had sold land, inherited land or money by other than the accepted way, etc. The villagers of Salem did not understand any part of the developing Capitalist economy or the new ways of thinking and thought it was Satanic. Puritanism held that anything different from the right way of thinking was Satanic. Salem Village was born of the differences in economic status and interests between the farmers on the outskirts and the merchants of Salem Town. The conflict focused on the church partly because the church was born of a long dispute with Salem Town over whether the people of the village had to support and attend the distant church in Salem Town! Moreover, there was considerable uncertainty and anxiety on all fronts; the government of the colony had had some problems with structure and stability and English willingness to invest in and support the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Salem Village always seemed to be fighting for its survival with surrounding towns such as Topsfield. The small farmers of the village appeared to think they were fighting the entire world for their survival. The village church itself suffered from not only the town's factionalism, which made life for a short succession of ministers very hard, but the Puritan intellectual climate, ie, its inherent liberalism fostered differences in ideas and debate but such was not tolerated; Rev. George Burroughs was driven from town partly for the "heresy" of not believing in infant baptism, which was one of the main controversies within the Puritan movement at the time. On a political level, both the right to vote and the right to hold public office were once restricted to the Puritan church, but as a prosperous merchant class developed the merchants took care of this situation. Understand, they didn't simply have to join the Puritans' church, everyone was required to belong to it and they pretty much did. To be full-fledged members, people had to convince the church's inner circle that they were among a very small and select number of people who God had elected at the beginning of time to save; ie, that they were in a state of grace. Into all of this came Rev. Parris, and a member of the once powerful but economically and politically disenfranchised Putnam family. The Putnams' fate really was an example of the changing economic structure and its impact; their fortunes and their political power had both fallen to the new economic order and the rise to power of the merchants of the town. A sister of the deceased wife of a former minister who had fallen victim to the town's factionalism married into the Putnam family. Puritan theology really played havoc with the mental health with anyone who was at all serious, scrupulous or high-strung of temperament; one problem that Puritanism was starting to deal with at that time is that all over New England, the most devout and moral adults of the community, often members of the minister's family, were refusing to come to church or to take communion because they could not convince themselves, let alone feel capaple of convincing the church's inner circle, that they were in a state of grace! Younger Puritans were very prone to the sort of fits of anxiety and demonic possession that the Salem girls experienced. I myself went through something like this as a teenager. From exposure to Fundamentalist thinking, of course. And I have manic depression, which it took a very long time to have correctly diagnosed. But something similar ran in the family of this woman who married into the Putnam family. Both Anne Putnam Sr and her daughter were obsessed, high-strung, and unstable, and Anne Sr's sister had also been very high-strung and chronically in poor physical and mental health. Putnam genealogists write that such a tendency ran in the Carr family. The tendency to mood and anxiety disorders is very strongly genetic. In fact, I became interested in my Salem ancestors because I wanted to know if the witch trials were an account of ancestors of mine with problems similar to my own. The Putnams themselves were probably not entirely mentally stable; they never forgot any slight or any fight they had lost. Many people charged in the witch trials were people who had won battles with the Putnams over this and that over the years. Both husband of Anne Putnam and Rev. Parris, I believe, had a history of violence toward spouses and children, as well as far too severe a personality to have been mentally healthy, and both as I recall are known to have employed violence to keep servants and children testifying against their enemies at the witch trials. Parris was previously an unsuccessful merchant before turning to the ministry, he came from a family of somewhat successful merchants and traders. He was a very self-serving man, and he tried to get the Salem Village congregation to give him permanent title to the rectory where he lived with his family while serving as minister of Salem Village. No way he was entitled to it, but the Putnams sensed an ally, and they supported him. I don't remember the outcome, but of course some of the people charged in the witch trials had done little except oppose Parris's bid to get permanent title to that property! There was a third level to the "witch conspiracy"; Dr. Griggs. His servant, actually a niece, was one of the afflicted girls. He targeted people who were threats to his exclusive status and power, particularly women in the village who served as folk healers and midwives, something women had done since time beyond memory, and such women were targets of witchcraft accusations right through the medieval period. The grounds, they did things that were legitmately the role of an assortment of men! There is valid and legitimate disagreement about what was going on with the girls, but I think they were atleast initially driven crazy by their elders' shenagans. I think they tended to target people their parents disliked out of the same anxiety that drove them to think they were possessed by the devil. Remember that to these people, one way of thinking and acting was right and any other was Satanic. As an adolescent, I quite well knew better than all of this on an intellectual level, but on an emotional one I was simply scared and depressed right out of my mind. I have seen the effect that severe anxiety can have on the mind of an adolescent. The change from a Puritan society to a liberal one was a long time happening. It can best be seen in my own ancestry in the Tuttles of Connecticut rather than the people of Salem Village. The Tuttles were a family of substantial means who produced several generations of seriously insane family members, and an entire clan of Puritan clergy. These clergy were on the forefront of the movement to keep Puritanism as it originally was. One in particular, REverend Jonathan Edwards, led a revivalist movement during the 19th century. Rev. Edwards taught Puritanism as it originally was, a feudal religion marked by a capricious, moody, arbitrary, angry and vengeful God. Puritanism was simply a Calvinist sect; they taught that God selected a handful of people who would be saved at the beginning of time, not because of anything at all about those people, what they deserved, what the all-knowing God knew at the beginning of time they would come to deserve, etc., but simply because it pleased God to do so. This was a theology, born in the late middle ages, far more ferociously feudal than Roman Catholicism which kind of benignly taught people to accept their lot and do their best. Calvinism depicted God as a feudal warlord with the manic depressive temperament most successful feudal warlords have always had, and people's place in the cosmos, not to mention on earth, was foreordained for all time, people had to accept their lot, and they could do nothing to change it. People who DID change their lot, in Salem Village, incurred charges of witchcraft! Puritanism like all Calvinist sects had a variety of half-put-together answers to the critical questions of what did one do to be one of the saved and how did one know one was saved, and it came down to a mixture of "know in one's HEART that one was saved", and their degree of success in life, which was taken for a sign of God's favor, while poverty and disease obviously were signs of God's disfavor. You can learn something about it by researching Jonathan Edwards, both on the web and in the library. The best sources on Calvinism are biographies of Calvin himself (the man fully realized that a serious anxiety disorder affected his faith), and under German and Dutch Reformed on the web, also Old School and Primitive Baptists. This entire way of thinking literally succumbed to the development of a Capitalist society. In prosperous 18th century New England, people felt as if they made their own fates both in Heaven and on earth, and they changed to thinking that people brought about their salvation by choices that they made. That of course was Roman Catholic thinking, but the Congregationalists and Baptists, both outgrowths of Calvinistic religion, had forgotten that, and therefore they developed new, liberal churches, such as the Unitarian/ Universalist church (which began by teaching simply that God originally intended to save everyone). The witch trials were actually part of the death throes of Puritanism, but not in the sense that the death throes of Puritanism happened in a few years or a couple of decades. I think it did kind of bring to people a sense of having gone too far. It was not the first witchhunt of its kind, and it pretty much was the last. Also, not long after the trials there was a large-scale exodus from the Salem environs by people who decided they had simply had enough of having their lives dictated by the Puritan authorities. My ancestors were among them. Of course, the struggle for power against Puritan authorities was going on on more than one front and the witch trials had been to a good degree about it. On the politics and the social context of the witch trials, several people have recently posted bibliographies of very good sources available at most public libraries to this list. We've also recently done alot of discussion on it. Noone has done the equivalent with sources on the psychological aspects of the situation, but I now have my sources well organized and will post this information tomorrow. Yours, Dora ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

[email protected] wrote: > Subject: > > SALEM-WITCH-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 122 > > Today's Topics: > #1 [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edw ["Dora Smith" <[email protected]] > #2 [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edw ["Dora Smith" <[email protected]] > #3 Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L]NURSE & HOULTON ["Steven P. Fulk" <[email protected]] > #4 Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and [[email protected]] > > Administrivia: > To unsubscribe from SALEM-WITCH-D, send a message to > > [email protected] > > that contains in the body of the message the command > > unsubscribe > > and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software > requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. > > ______________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edward > Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 20:49:26 EDT > From: "Dora Smith" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > > I'd be interested in any evidence about earlier charges of witchcraft > against Rebecca Nurse, too. I do believe, though, that there were charges > once made against her mother. I think I may have posted something about it > to this list at some point during the earlier discussion. I don't believe I > tracked down the specifics, just took it for more of the process of how > charges like this came to be made. > > Also, as I recall, Rebecca Nurse was a Towne from Topsfield (I think I have > the name of the place right) and/or her father sided with the Putnams on > something, but were the Putnam and Towne families closely allied enough for > long enough for Rebecca to have been targeted for such charges before? > Certainly she does not seem to have been a target for such charges > previously. > > One thing that bears on this is my previous notion that Rebecca Nurse had > some role among her community, kin or neighbors as a nurse, healer, or > midwife. It could have been an informal role. After re-reading everything I > could get my hands on about her I decided I had her mixed up with one or two > other people who were charged because they were healers and midwives. But > that is the other likely reason why anyone might have made such an > accusation against her before. > > I also recall something about a neighbor's pig getting into her garden. She > yelled vigorously at the neighbors. They testified against her at the trial. > Not sure if she bewitched the pig, or the neighbors. When was that, and did > anything come of it before the trial? > > Yours, > Dora > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > > ______________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edward > Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 20:53:07 EDT > From: "Dora Smith" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > > My actual question about the proportion of Putnam and Porter signatures on > that petition is would the Putnams and Porters have been this involved in a > different accusation against Rebecca Nurse. Ie, were they close enough to > her or her family in some way that they would have been that involved in a > charge that was before 1692, or would the length and nature of her father's > whichever he did to alienate the people who became the pro-Parris faction > have been likely to bring the entire Putnam clan to Rebecca's rescue like > this on an earlier charge? > > Yours, > Dora > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > > ______________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L]NURSE & HOULTON > Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 21:25:45 -0400 > From: "Steven P. Fulk" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > > I believe it was Benjamin HOULTON, son of Joseph HOULTON & Sarah INGERSOLL > (niece of the innkeeper, Nathaniel INGERSOLL), who was involved in the pig > incident. Wasn't this right, listers? And he died rather suddenly 17 Sep > 1689 (notice this is just a couple of years before the witchcraft > accusations...) In fact his son, my ancestor, Benjamin HOULTON (jr.) was > born postumously to the widow Sarah. Seems to me that he was one of the > ghostly accusers in one of the trial documents .. the girls said that his > ghost came to them and accused (Rebecca NURSE?) of witchcraft in his death. > Please correct me if I've gotten this confused with someone else! > > ---Speaking of Benjamin & Sarah HOULTON, oes anyone happen to have dates & > ancestors for Sarah, the widow of Benjamin HOULTON (sr.)?? I know she > eventually (1706) married Benjamin PUTNAM, s/o Nathaniel PUTNAM & Elizabeth > HUTCHINSON, but I don't have her birth, death, or parents. > > Thanks :) > > Dori > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dora Smith <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, September 02, 1999 8:52 PM > Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edward > > >I'd be interested in any evidence about earlier charges of witchcraft > >against Rebecca Nurse, too. I do believe, though, that there were charges > >once made against her mother. I think I may have posted something about it > >to this list at some point during the earlier discussion. I don't believe I > >tracked down the specifics, just took it for more of the process of how > >charges like this came to be made. > > > >Also, as I recall, Rebecca Nurse was a Towne from Topsfield (I think I have > >the name of the place right) and/or her father sided with the Putnams on > >something, but were the Putnam and Towne families closely allied enough for > >long enough for Rebecca to have been targeted for such charges before? > >Certainly she does not seem to have been a target for such charges > >previously. > > > >One thing that bears on this is my previous notion that Rebecca Nurse had > >some role among her community, kin or neighbors as a nurse, healer, or > >midwife. It could have been an informal role. After re-reading everything I > >could get my hands on about her I decided I had her mixed up with one or > two > >other people who were charged because they were healers and midwives. But > >that is the other likely reason why anyone might have made such an > >accusation against her before. > > > >I also recall something about a neighbor's pig getting into her garden. She > >yelled vigorously at the neighbors. They testified against her at the > trial. > >Not sure if she bewitched the pig, or the neighbors. When was that, and did > >anything come of it before the trial? > > > >Yours, > >Dora > > > >______________________________________________________ > >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > > > > > > ______________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edward > Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 00:56:29 EDT > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > As I understand the charges against Rebecca NURSE, they resulted froma land > squabble a few years prior to the hysteria of 1692 between some of the > PUTNAMs and the TOWNE/NURSE family. There were some in the community who > couldn't let the old settlement stand. I am sure this is just one of the > elements that went into the charges against Rebecca NURSE. > > Katrina unsubscribe

Is there a list or record of the persons sentenced in the Witch Trials by Judge Samuel Sewall? What was the name of the judge that sentenced Rebecca Towne? There is a odd twist to the Witch Trials in my family through my dads parents Lloyd and Sylvia Fenimore. Hannah Fessenden married John Sewall and was the sister Lloyds sixth grandfather Nicholas Fessenden. Rebecca Town was Sylvia's 7th great grandmother. Martin Fenimore Castle Rock, WA

Hi, I'm doing my term paper on the Salem witch trails, and how it changed Puritanism in early American life. If anyone knowledgeable on the subject would let me do any interview with them in a private chat room, I would really appreciate it. Please contact me at my e-mail address [email protected] thank-you katie

>There were other reasons to hold a grudge against Rebecca. Her husband >Francis was involved in several legal disputes through the years I believe. >Specifically related to the property on which they lived which had >previously been owned by Townsend Bishop (relation to Edward?). This is interesting that Townsend BISHOP appears. According to Savage, Townsend was a freeman of Salem in 1635 and had only Leah (b. 1637) and John (b. 1642). Had he a son, Edward, he probably would have been too young for Bridget. In my BISHOP research, I have seen no indications of Edward/1 being related to the other BISHOPs in Salem however I have not done much work on the BISHOPs before their arrival in MA. Kathy Buffington Willett [email protected]

There were other reasons to hold a grudge against Rebecca. Her husband Francis was involved in several legal disputes through the years I believe. Specifically related to the property on which they lived which had previously been owned by Townsend Bishop (relation to Edward?). It appears that Francis arrived in the area as a teenager and somehow a few years later was able to purchase the valuable property - some wondered just how that happened. Stephanie Shenandoah Valley, VA [email protected] http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/w/a/l/Stephanie-J-Walker/index.html Currently collecting/sharing these surnames BARTHOLOMEW (<1800, NY), CLAYES/CLOYES, CUPPERNALL, CURTIS (CT), FAIRBANKS, GENT/JENT, PARKHILL, PEPPER, PHIPPS, THOMPSON (VT, CT), WALKER (MA,NY), WATSON (MA) **************************************************************** "Listen to the footsteps that echo behind when you walk alone." *****************************************************************

Was this the Topsfield border controversy, or a private squabble? Dora -- As I understand the charges against Rebecca NURSE, they resulted froma land squabble a few years prior to the hysteria of 1692 between some of the PUTNAMs and the TOWNE/NURSE family. There were some in the community who couldn't let the old settlement stand. I am sure this is just one of the elements that went into the charges against Rebecca NURSE. Katrina ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

I believe it was Benjamin HOULTON, son of Joseph HOULTON & Sarah INGERSOLL (niece of the innkeeper, Nathaniel INGERSOLL), who was involved in the pig incident. Wasn't this right, listers? And he died rather suddenly 17 Sep 1689 (notice this is just a couple of years before the witchcraft accusations...) In fact his son, my ancestor, Benjamin HOULTON (jr.) was born postumously to the widow Sarah. Seems to me that he was one of the ghostly accusers in one of the trial documents .. the girls said that his ghost came to them and accused (Rebecca NURSE?) of witchcraft in his death. Please correct me if I've gotten this confused with someone else! ---Speaking of Benjamin & Sarah HOULTON, oes anyone happen to have dates & ancestors for Sarah, the widow of Benjamin HOULTON (sr.)?? I know she eventually (1706) married Benjamin PUTNAM, s/o Nathaniel PUTNAM & Elizabeth HUTCHINSON, but I don't have her birth, death, or parents. Thanks :) Dori -----Original Message----- From: Dora Smith <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, September 02, 1999 8:52 PM Subject: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Re: Hannah and Edward >I'd be interested in any evidence about earlier charges of witchcraft >against Rebecca Nurse, too. I do believe, though, that there were charges >once made against her mother. I think I may have posted something about it >to this list at some point during the earlier discussion. I don't believe I >tracked down the specifics, just took it for more of the process of how >charges like this came to be made. > >Also, as I recall, Rebecca Nurse was a Towne from Topsfield (I think I have >the name of the place right) and/or her father sided with the Putnams on >something, but were the Putnam and Towne families closely allied enough for >long enough for Rebecca to have been targeted for such charges before? >Certainly she does not seem to have been a target for such charges >previously. > >One thing that bears on this is my previous notion that Rebecca Nurse had >some role among her community, kin or neighbors as a nurse, healer, or >midwife. It could have been an informal role. After re-reading everything I >could get my hands on about her I decided I had her mixed up with one or two >other people who were charged because they were healers and midwives. But >that is the other likely reason why anyone might have made such an >accusation against her before. > >I also recall something about a neighbor's pig getting into her garden. She >yelled vigorously at the neighbors. They testified against her at the trial. >Not sure if she bewitched the pig, or the neighbors. When was that, and did >anything come of it before the trial? > >Yours, >Dora > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > >

As I understand the charges against Rebecca NURSE, they resulted froma land squabble a few years prior to the hysteria of 1692 between some of the PUTNAMs and the TOWNE/NURSE family. There were some in the community who couldn't let the old settlement stand. I am sure this is just one of the elements that went into the charges against Rebecca NURSE. Katrina

My actual question about the proportion of Putnam and Porter signatures on that petition is would the Putnams and Porters have been this involved in a different accusation against Rebecca Nurse. Ie, were they close enough to her or her family in some way that they would have been that involved in a charge that was before 1692, or would the length and nature of her father's whichever he did to alienate the people who became the pro-Parris faction have been likely to bring the entire Putnam clan to Rebecca's rescue like this on an earlier charge? Yours, Dora ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

I'd be interested in any evidence about earlier charges of witchcraft against Rebecca Nurse, too. I do believe, though, that there were charges once made against her mother. I think I may have posted something about it to this list at some point during the earlier discussion. I don't believe I tracked down the specifics, just took it for more of the process of how charges like this came to be made. Also, as I recall, Rebecca Nurse was a Towne from Topsfield (I think I have the name of the place right) and/or her father sided with the Putnams on something, but were the Putnam and Towne families closely allied enough for long enough for Rebecca to have been targeted for such charges before? Certainly she does not seem to have been a target for such charges previously. One thing that bears on this is my previous notion that Rebecca Nurse had some role among her community, kin or neighbors as a nurse, healer, or midwife. It could have been an informal role. After re-reading everything I could get my hands on about her I decided I had her mixed up with one or two other people who were charged because they were healers and midwives. But that is the other likely reason why anyone might have made such an accusation against her before. I also recall something about a neighbor's pig getting into her garden. She yelled vigorously at the neighbors. They testified against her at the trial. Not sure if she bewitched the pig, or the neighbors. When was that, and did anything come of it before the trial? Yours, Dora ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

Before writing to David Greene, I re-read the correction. The first time, I missed a couple of things. Also, that correction was a bit hard to follow. I think I can paraphrase alot more clearly than it was originally written how the omission came about. The typist is the author of the correction. (You have to read carefully a few times to put that together, too.) Ill health aside, he explains that he had advised David Greene to shorten or omit a long section about the 17th century Edward Bishop's of Beverly which he originally included to help figure out who was Edward Bishop the Sawyer. Apparently, something of that sort was done. In the process, now I'm not clear on whether the typist or David Greene actually did the editing if the typist's ill health has something to do with it, the part about Edward Sr and Hannah Bishop both signing a 1692 petition for Rebecca Nurse got omitted, too. However, while the typist doesn't very specifically identify this petition, he does give an exact source for it: Salem Witchcraft Papers 2:592. I went to the on-line Salem Witchcraft Papers, found a petition for Rebecca Nurse in the papers on her case, and the names do include "Edward Beshop Sr" followed immediately by "Hanah Beshop". Also, there appears to have never been any date on the petition, and there may have been only one petition. I don't think this is the first I've heard about a petition and am a little surprised to find the Bishop's signatures on THE petition given how quiet they were in regard to the case otherwise, but most of the signatures are those of a LOT of Putnam's, and the Porters who were allied with them, so this probably is THE petition for Rebecca Nurse. The fact that the two Bishop signatures are nearly the only relatively obscure people who signed this petition and the only people from the Bass River who signed this petition does raise the rather interesting question of why they signed it, particularly as as nearly as I can tell they had no other involvement with the trials at all while Raymonds, Balches, Herrick's, in short, all of their immediate neighbors, were testifying like crazy - though of course they were testifying mostly against Sarah Bishop. Which would seem to make them poor choices for people who signed the petition? Or was Edward Bishop Sr mixed up in the politics of this in ways I have not yet heard? This is pretty persuasive evidence that Edward's wife Hannah was still alive and married to him and therefore Bridgette Bishop must have been married to someone else. I am interested in the report that someone else made to this list today, though, about the quality of the signatures. If she does find her copy of the petition, I would be interested in a zerox copy of them. (or scanned). If it turned out that Bridget Bishop never was married to Edward Bishop Sr, I would still be descended from Edward Jr's sister Hannah (who was married to my ancestor William Raymond by 1692 - I checked). I still even qualify for the Black Sheep Society. I also have all sorts of collateral connections, some close, to Elizabeth Balch (wife of an ancestor's sibling), John Willard (sibling or cousin of an ancestor), Cotton Mather and Rev. Noyes (son of an ancestor's brother) - and of course I'm a direct descendant of William Raymond Jr. I'm going to see if I can get the rest of that "long excursus on the Edward Bishop's of Salem and Beverly" though; there could be more information on both Edward Bishop Sr, and his family, and on the identity of Bridgette's husband. Yours, Dora ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

>From "Salem Village Witchcraft A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England" edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum We whose names are hereunto subscribed being desired by Goodman Nurse to declare what we know concerning his wife's conversation for time past, we can testify to all whom it may concern, that we have known her for many years and according to our observation her life and conversation was according to her profession, and we never hadany cause or grounds to suspect her of any such thing as she is now accused of. Israel Porter Elizabeth Porter Edward Beshep, sen. Hana Beshep Joshua Rea Sara Rea Sarah Leach John Putnam, sen. Rebeckh Putnam Joseph Hucheson, sen Leda (Lydia) Hucheson Joseph Holten, sen Sarah Holten Benjamin Putnam Sarah Putnam Job Swinerton Esther Swinerton Joseph Herrick, sen. Samuel Sibley Hephzibah Rea Daniell Andrew Sara Andrew Jonathan Putnam Lydia Putnam Walter Phillips, senior Nathaniel Felton, Sen. Margaret Phillips Taitha (Tabitha?)Phillips Joseph Houlton, Junior Samuel Endecott Elizabeth Buxtston Samuel Aborn, senr. Isaack Cooke Elisabeth Cooke William Osborne Hannah Osborne Daniell Rea Sarah Putnam Joseph Putnam Stephanie Shenandoah Valley, VA [email protected] http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/w/a/l/Stephanie-J-Walker/index.html Currently collecting/sharing these surnames BARTHOLOMEW (<1800, NY), CLAYES/CLOYES, CUPPERNALL, CURTIS (CT), FAIRBANKS, GENT/JENT, PARKHILL, PEPPER, PHIPPS, THOMPSON (VT, CT), WALKER (MA,NY), WATSON (MA) **************************************************************** "Listen to the footsteps that echo behind when you walk alone." *****************************************************************

As the article in TAG mentions, the petition for Rebecca NURSE where Hannah and Edward's signatures appear is in Vol. 2, pg. 592 of Boyer and Nissenbaum's _The Salem Witchcraft Papers_ . I thought I had a copy of the actual document but if I did, I can't find it. I can only find the printed copy from the book. From this, it appears that it would have been in 1692 but I don't know about any past accusations of Rebecca NURSE nor have I verified that the others on the petition were alive in 1692. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone finds proof that this petition was not signed in 1692. Kathy Buffington Willett [email protected]

I got this posting twice.....as I have others also. Wonder why. Anyway, thank you for the response. I have read that the Putnam family was split in terms of defending and accusing Rebecca Nurse.

Thank you for your response to my question. I am also descended from their son, Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr line through their son Seth who married Ruth Whipple. I will look for websites that have information on the trials.

There were PUTNAM accusors and defenders in the witch hysteria of 1692. I am descended from both PUTNAM and NOURSE (NURSE)...how ever your family spells it. Katrina

Regarding correct spelling: Spelling was not an issue before Social Security. I have seen a name spelled 3 ways in the same document. Katrina

Here is another link, http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/witch.html Alan Adrianson, a descendant of Susanna (North) Martin