Here is part of an email I got from a Hoag cousin. Can anyone comment? I thought Sarah and Martha Goodwin were both daughters of Richard Goodwin(b. 1658) but maybe not. Can anyone on the list verify or clarify? Thanks. Leslie > Leslie, > You really got me started, connecting Martha and Sarah Goodwin to the > Salem witch trials. I knew nothing about that before, and the story is > fascinationg. They actually predate the 1692 trials, and they came from > Boston,where their father, John Goodwin, was a member of South Church. > In 1688, Martha accused a laundry girl of stealing some linens. The > peoor girl's mother, Goody Glover, " cursed " the children, who proceeded > to have pains and fits. The oldest son, who was out working with his > father, plus the "suckling babe", both had no symptoms, but 13 year old > Martha put on a show worthy of "The Exorsist," and three younger sublings > followed suit. > Poor Goody - she was poor, female, old, uneducated, terrified, > stressed, Irish speakng, and Catholic.- it's hard to imagine that she ever > had a chance. She was hanged. The symptoms persisted until Martha had been > studied and prayed over for many months - and grew tired of exhibiting her > problems. > Cotton Mather, who was only in his twenties, wrote a book about this > called "Memorable Providence" and this book was in the tiny library of Rev. > Parris in Salem four years later when his daughter began some of the Slem > persecutions. It was like having a handbook. > I typed Cotton Mather Martha Goodwin on http://www.dogpile.com > The firt thing I came up with was Images of the Salem Witch Trials. > http://www.umkc.edu) It gave a good chronology, then at the end of that, > I hit Homepage, and they accually put Mather's "Memorable Providence" on > line. It's way too long to forward, but you can read it in fifteen minutes. > What a story - and such a sad result. > Do you think that this girl was the same as Martha Goodwin Hoag? This > one would have been born in 1675, her father was John Goodwin, and she was > living in Boston. Of course, that doesn't mean that shecouldn't be around > Amesbury/Newbury at some time. I wonder because somewhere I thought Sarah's > father was Richard Goodwin and she was born in Amesbury. I don't even have > notes on this, but I thought you would like to see the information that I > did pick up/ > I like the "profane Quaker" Hoag boys. I can see where they would turn > against a Puritan church which had condoned such madness. It speaks well > for the Quakers that they spoke out so early against such murderous > superstition.