The Cover-Up of the Connecticut Witch Hysteria of 1647-63

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Witch hysteria took hold in Connecticut 45 years before Salem, Mass., began its own orgy of witch killing,

On May 26, 1647, Connecticut hanged its first citizen for witchcraft, a woman from Windsor named Alse Young. As in all the witch hysteria, she died on the basis of flimsy evidence. She went to the gallows on the site of the Old State House.

The Connecticut witch hysteria lasted at least more than a decade. It never received as much attention as the Salem witchcraft trials, partly because Connecticut officials swept the whole sad chapter under the rug. Connecticut, though, only executed half as many witches over 15 years, a much greater length of time.

In 1908, John M. Taylor wrote a book called The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697. “The true story of witchcraft in old Connecticut has never been told,” he wrote. “It has been hidden in the ancient records and in manuscripts in private collections, and those most conversant with the facts have not made them known, for one reason or another.” Perhaps Connecticut officials had the sense to be ashamed.

Connecticut Witch Hysteria

In 1642 Connecticut colony made witchcraft a capital crime. New Haven Colony followed in 1655, decreeing “If any person be a witch, he or she shall be put to death.”

Connecticut and New Haven colonies then executed nine women and two men as witches between 1647 and 1662 or 1663, according to Taylor. They were:

• Alse Young of Windsor, in 1647.
• Mary Johnson of Wethersfield, in 1648.
• joan and John Carrington of Wethersfield, in 1651.
• Goody Bassett of Stratford, in 1651.
• Goodwife Knapp of Fairfield, in 1653.
• Lydia Gilbert of Windsor, in 1654.
• Nathaniel Greensmith and Rebecca his wife, of Hartford, in 1662.
• Mary Sanford, of Hartford, iin 1662.
• Mary Barnes, of Farmington, 1662 or 1663.

A jury found Lydia Gilbert guilty of witchcraft because she caused the death of Henry Styles of Windsor, killed by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of Thomas Allyn.

Mary Barnes of Farmington was another unfortunate victim. She was hanged in Hartford in  1662 or 1663 for “having entertained familiarity with Satan, the grand enemy of God and mankind.”

The magistrates who tried Goodwife Knapp, a “just and high-minded old lady,” included the Rev. John Davenport, one of the founders of New Haven, and Roger Ludlow, deputy governor of Massachusetts and Connecticut. She received harsh treatment in prison and after her execution, as women searched her body for witch’s marks. They found none.

Mary Johnson, another sad case, confessed to witchcraft after she was tortured in prison. She gave birth to a son while she awaited execution. The child was indentured until he turned 21, and his mother gave his master £15 for his education.

The Hartford Witch Panic

The witch hysteria peaked during the “Hartford Witch Panic” in 1662. It started when a young Hartford girl died after claiming a neighbor tormented her.

Eight-year-old Elizabeth Kelly visited Goodwife Ayres, in March of 1662. The next day Ayres visited her home and shared a bowl of broth with her. Elizabeth then got sick, and for five days suffered intense stomach pains. The delusional girl screamed, “Father! Father! Help me, help me! Goodwife Ayres is upon me.”

Elizabeth cried that Goodwife Ayres choked her, kneeled on her belly, pinched her and tried to ‘break her bowels.’

A Guilford physician conducted an autopsy on the dead girl in what is believed to be the first postmortem in American history. Unfortunately, the physician knew very little about what he was looking at. He concluded the girl suffered unnatural harm.

Goodwife Ayres and her husband sensibly skipped town, but the Hartford court tried eight more people before the witch hysteria died down.

More Accusations

The Hartford witch panic subsided for a while, but resurfaced sporadically. In 1668, Katherine Harrison‘s neighbors accused her of breaking the Sabbath, fortune-telling, using black magic and appearing in spectral form. Harrison, a former servant, had married Wethersfield’s town crier and inherited his estate of a thousand pounds after he died. The jury found her guilty, but balked at condemning her to death. Jurors based their verdict on the spectral evidence of one witness. But since they believed the devil could trick people, they decided they needed testimony from two witnesses. They banished Harrison to New York.

In 1692, the year of the Salem witch trials, five people in Fairfield were accused and tried for witchcraft. One victim, Mercy Disborough, was convicted but given a reprieve. The court either found insufficient evidence against or acquitted the rest.

All told, Connecticut and New Haven courts tried 34 men and women for witchcraft. Some of the accused, like William and Goody Ayres of Hartford, fled to Rhode Island — the only colony that did not kill witches.

By 1715, the law making witchcraft a capital offense was off the books. But unlike Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia, Connecticut did not clear the names of the accused. Connecticut, in fact, didn’t even acknowledge it happened.

Covering up the Witch Hysteria

In 1799, historian Benjamin Trumbull wrote History of Connecticut. In the preface he explained he could find no records of witchcraft trials.

It may possibly be thought a great neglect, or matter of partiality, that no account is given of witchcraft in Connecticut. The only reason is, that after the most careful researches, no indictment of any person for that crime, nor any process relative to that affair can be found.

A hundred years later, another Trumbull — Jonathan — wrote an introduction to a reprint of the book. He had no doubt that Connecticut hanged people for witchcraft. The executions, though, stayed out of the official record.

“[T]he official records are as our author says, silent regarding the actual proceedings, and it is only by inference that it may be found from these records that the executions took place,” he wrote.  Colonial records, such as diaries, reveal evidence of the execution of witches, but only after careful study, he noted.

Should Connecticut Apologize?

The descendants of the Carringtons and Mary Barnes tried to bring the Connecticut witchcraft hysteria to light in the 21st century.

Mary Barnes’ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Bernice Telian, spent five years writing a book titled, “My Grandmother Mary Was Hanged. She was part of the effort to get Connecticut to clear the names of the 11 people unjustly executed for witchcraft. So was Patricia Borris, the great-granddaughter, 10 generations back, of the Carringtons. She believed the state’s refusal to apologize was a travesty of justice.

The state Legislature introduced bills to express regret in 2008 and 2009, but they died in committee. Then members of the Connecticut Wiccan and Pagan Network joined the cause. They pushed Gov. Dannel Malloy to issue a proclamation apologizing for the witch hysteria.

They then sent postcards to Malloy reading, “I am a Pagan/Witch and I vote. Clear the names of Connecticut’s eleven accused and executed witches.”

They finally succeeded. On May 26, 2023, Connecticut’s state Senate passed a resolution exonerating the accused witches and apologizing to their families. The House had already approved the measure.

In 2017, the town council of Windsor voted unanimously to clear the names of the two residents hanged for witchcraft, Alse Young and Lydia Gilbert. Watch a video of a ceremony in Windsor commemorating the victims of Connecticut’s witch trials here.

This story about the Connecticut witch hysteria was updated in 2025. Image of old Statehouse By Citizen Mira – user on Flickr.com – https://www.flickr.com/photos/citizenhelder/2545933449/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4410970.