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Six Loyalist Houses

A Loyalist House was likely to be seized and sold when the American Revolution broke out. Many colonies passed laws that let them confiscate the property of known Loyalists, criminalizing dissent against the war and raising revenue for the war effort.

Many Loyalists fled to Canada or England. The British government compensated some for their loss, but tried to pressure the United States into giving restitution. Under the Jay Treaty of 1794, the U.S. agreed to ‘advise’ the states to return Loyalist property. Some families are still trying to get their property back.

Connecticut took a more lenient approach than the other New England states in confiscating Loyalist houses. It waited until four other states had passed confiscation laws. Local officials also dragged their feet in identifying Loyalist properties.

Vermont, on the other hand, eagerly seized Loyalist property in order to pay for the Green Mountain Boys.

Here, then, are stories of six Loyalist houses and their fate during the American Revolution.

Henry Whitfield House

A Loyalist house in Connecticut, owned by Joseph Pynchon on the eve of the Revolution.

When Joseph Pynchon purchased the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford, Conn., he was supposedly seeking a relaxing summer retreat. His timing was not good.

The Whitfield House, built in 1639, has the distinction of being the oldest house still standing in Connecticut.

The structure was built by Henry Whitfield, one of Guilford’s founders, before there was even a town in Guilford. Its stone walls helped it serve as a garrison for townspeople. It would later become an investment property for a wealthy English landlord who rented it to tenant farmers. Pynchon bought the house in November of 1772.

Originally from Springfield, Mass., Pynchon inherited substantial wealth. He had Loyalist political sympathies. He also joined the Sandimonians in New Haven, an obscure religious group that originated in Scotland. Not only was he a Loyalist, the Sandimonians were pacifists, giving Pynchon’s Patriot-leaning neighbors two reasons to be suspicious of him.

Fearing persecution, Pynchon sold the Guilford house just a week before the Declaration of Independence was signed, and he spent much of the war in exile under British protection. He returned to Connecticut when the danger cleared and Loyalists were allowed to reestablish ties to their homeland. Among Pynchon’s descendants was Thomas Pynchon, one-time president of Trinity College, and novelist Thomas Pynchon.

As for his summer house, today it has left the family that bought it from Pynchon and is now a museum.

248 Old Whitfield St, Guilford, CT 06437

William Pepperrell House

The William Pepperrell House, Maine’s most prominent Loyalist house.

William Pepperrell led the Siege of Louisbourg during King George’s War in 1745, but his house in Kittery, Maine, predates that heroic maneuver by 63 years.

Pepperrell was the son of William Pepperrell, a fisherman who had lived and prospered on the Isles of Shoals before moving to the mainland in 1680. The senior Pepperrell married the daughter of John Bray, a wealthy shipwright, and went into business with his father-in-law. Soon Pepperrell was one of the richest men in New England and owned most of Kittery Point.

The junior William Pepperrell was born in the house in 1696. He joined his father in business and continued the family’s rise by marrying the granddaughter of Samuel Sewall, one of the Salem witch trials judges.

Pepperrell joined the Massachusetts militia and rose to colonel. It was he who assembled volunteer soldiers for capturing the Fortress at Louisbourg, trained them and financed the expedition. After the fortress fell, King George II awarded him a baronetcy.

Pepperrell served as acting governor of Massachusetts in 1757 and died two years later. His grandson, born William Pepperrell Sparhawk, inherited the house after agreeing to change his name to William Pepperrell. The third William Pepperrell remained loyal to the English king on the eve of the American Revolution. He fled to England with his wife, who died of smallpox on the way in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pepperrell died in London.

Massachusetts deemed the house Loyalist property and put it up for auction. In 1790 the house was purchased by Col. Samuel Smallcorn, and Daniel Frisbee bought some of the property. In 1973 the Pepperrell House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned.

94 Pepperrell Rd. (Rte. 103), Kittery, Maine

Isaac Royall House

Isaac Royall House.

The Isaac Royall House in Medford, Mass., is one of the few houses in New England that still has slave quarters. The Royalls had the largest number of enslaved people in New England during the 18^th century.

Inside the house is a tea box, said to be among the batch thrown into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party.

Puritan leader John Winthrop built the first house on the property along the Mystic River in 1637. It became Charlestown and later Medford. A second house on the property was purchased with 504 acres in 1732 by Isaac Royall, a rum distiller and slave trader from Antigua. He brought 27 slaves with him to Massachusetts. Royall enlarged and remodeled the house between 1733 and 1737, then died in 1739.

Isaac Royall, Jr., inherited the house on his father’s death. He and his family were Loyalists who boarded a ship in Boston as British soldiers marched to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. They sailed to Nova Scotia and then to England, never returning.

Gen. John Stark then made the house his headquarters. His wife Molly supposedly watched British troop movements from the roof, and George Washington interrogated British soldiers inside.

In 1806, the estate was returned to Isaac Royall’s heirs. They then sold it and gave part of the proceeds to Harvard, which used it to found Harvard Law School. The Daughters of the American Revolution bought the house in 1908 and turned it into a Loyalist house museum.

The Isaac Royall House opens for tours on summer weekends.

In Stratford, Conn., the Judson House, home to the local historical society, also has former slave quarters. They’re in the basement and part of tours through the home.

15 George St., Medford, Mass.

Mark Wentworth House

The Mark Wentworth House.

Henry Appleton, a merchant, built the Mark Wentworth House in Portsmouth, N.H., in 1763. He sold it the next year to Mark Hunking Wentworth, brother of Royal Gov. Benning Wentworth.

Mark Wentworth’s son John was born in 1737 and attended Harvard with John Adams, with whom he formed a close friendship. John Wentworth II, however, remained loyal to the king.

In 1763, John Wentworth went to London on family business. Uncle Benning had been busy selling land grants in Vermont, but the Lords of Trade awarded the province to New York. They were on the verge of recalling Benning Wentworth when John II intervened, so they gave him the governorship.

John Wentworth returned to New Hampshire amidst pomp and ceremony in 1767. Then he moved into his father’s house, where he complained about its small rooms.

Wentworth served as a popular and able governor until resistance hardened to King George III. When a mob pointed a cannon at his front door in June 1775, John Wentworth and his family fled to the safety of Fort William and Mary. He sailed to Boston about a month later and sent his family on to England. On Evacuation Day he left for Halifax.

The New Hampshire government seized the Loyalist house, but saved the furniture and portraits for the family. In 1797 the house was sold, but 13 years later Ebenezer Wentworth bought it back. In 1911 Dr. Charles Wentworth and his sister Susan converted the house into a nursing home. It now houses Wentworth Senior Living.

346 Pleasant St., Portsmouth, N.H.

Lucas-Johnston House

The Lucas-Johnston Loyalist house.

Tucked among Newport, R.I.’s many historic homes is the Lucas-Johnston house. Augustus Lucas originally owned it. He arrived in Newport from France around 1700 and grew wealthy trading in slaves. Lucas’ grandson Augustus Johnston gave the house greater renown when he lived in it. Johnston, a British official, accepted a position as Newport’s stamp agent – in charge of administering the Stamp Act.

As in Massachusetts, Rhode Island agitators protested vehemently against the Stamp Act. Johnston was hanged in effigy, and a mob drove him from his home into hiding until he agreed not to serve as stamp agent. In July of 1776 Johnston again ran into difficulty when he refused to swear allegiance to the revolutionary cause. For that, he was imprisoned for a time.

When the British held Newport during the early days of the war, Johnston served in various capacities in the city. When the British left, Johnston left with them. His house was confiscated. He spent a good part of his life arguing for compensation for his losses due to both the Stamp Act riot and the American Revolution.

Today the Lucas-Johnston House is privately owned.

40 Division St., Newport, R.I.

Marsh Tavern

The Equinox Hotel.

In July 1777 Vermont’s Col. William Marsh made a difficult decision. When the American Revolution broke out, Marsh had joined forces with the Green Mountain Boys. But he decided to switch sides and support the Loyalist cause.

Marsh came to Vermont from Connecticut via New York and settled in Manchester around 1765.

When war broke out he joined the Green Mountain Boys with the rank of colonel. But by 1777 he had grown uneasy by the way the Patriots harassed Loyalist Vermonters, and that prompted him to join forces with British General John Burgoyne.

Following Burgoyne’s defeat in Saratoga, the American military let Marsh return to visit family in Dorset, Vt. before his exile to Canada. During the war he acted as a diplomatic adviser and spy handler for the British. He actively lobbied to have Vermont switch sides and join with Britain.

The Vermont government confiscated and sold Marsh’s Manchester property. Marsh always retained hope that he could recover some of his property, but it did not happen. His name lives on, however, at the Equinox Golf Resort and Spa in Manchester where visitors can dine in the historic Marsh Tavern.

3567 Main St, Manchester, Vt.

Images: Lucas Johnston House By Swampyank at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20434670; Equinox Hotel By Rolf Müller (User:Rolfmueller) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1352242. This story was updated in 2023.

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The Candlemas Massacre and the Salem Witch Trials

One week after two girls in Salem, Mass., begun having strange fits, the Candlemas Massacre wiped out the village of York in the District of Maine.

On a snowy night, a French and Indian war party traveled on snowshoes to the village outskirts and waited until just before dawn. Then they killed or captured about 150 people and burned almost all of their houses.

The Candlemas Massacre took place in the midst of King William’s War, one of the French and Indian wars fought intermittently in North America from 1689 to 1763.

The massacre would have an impact on subsequent events, including the Salem witch trials. It would also influence the next French and Indian War, known as Dummer’s War or Father Rales’ War.

Sorrowfull Tideings

The Rev. George Burroughs in nearby Wells described the Candlemas Massacre: ‘Pillours of Smoke, the rageing of the mercyless flames, the insultations of the heathen enemy, shooting, hacking… & dragging away others.’

He concluded with an accusation that foreshadowed the Salem witch trials:

The ‘Sorrowfull tideings’ from York, wrote Burroughs, showed ‘God is still manifesting his displeasure against this Land.’

Salem witch trial

York, Maine

English colonists had settled Maine under a charter granted to Fernando Gorges. York was successively known as Bristol, Agamenticus and, in 1642, as Gorgeana. Gorges died 10 years later. Massachusetts Bay Colony then absorbed Maine and renamed the settlement York.

Massachusetts officials wanted to push Maine’s boundaries beyond Casco Bay. However, New France – now Canada – claimed Maine too.

Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin

Gov. Edmund Andros in 1686 ordered a raid on the home of Baron Saint-Castin, a Frenchman who founded Castine, Maine. Saint-Castin retaliated by destroying the English fort at Pemaquid in 1689.

In 1692, Madocawando, sachem in the Penobscot band of Wabanakis, led the Candlemas Massacre. He had a reputation for his courage, his hatred of the English and his son-in-law – Baron Saint-Castin.

Early Warnings

The Candlemas Massacre didn’t take York by complete surprise.

Shubael Dummer, founder of York’s First Parish Congregational Church, resisted warnings to leave the village because of the dangerous unrest.

Wrote Cotton Mather,

Though solicited with many temptations to leave his place, when the clouds grew thick and dark in the Indian hostilities, and was like to break upon it, he chose, rather, with a paternal affection to stay amongst those who had been so many of them converted and edified by his ministry.

The residents of York may also have seen paper money, the first in North America, issued by Massachusetts to pay for the war with the French and Indians.

The Candlemas Massacre

Plaque marking the spot where the attackers left their snowshoes

On Jan. 24, 1692, Madocawando and French missionary Louis Pierre Thury led as many as 300 French and Wabanaki on snowshoes from Canada to York. Before dawn, they piled their snowshoes next to a large rock and crept into town. (A plaque marks the spot today.)

“The Inhabitants were in their unguarded Houses, here and there scattered, Quiet and Secure,” according to a contemporary account. Taking the houses one by one, the warriors killed the inhabitants and livestock, captured others and burned most of the buildings.

Indians shot Shubael Dummer at his own front door while he tried to escape on his horse. They stripped him of his clothes and mutilated his body. Then they captured his wife, Lydia, and their small son and forced them to march through the snow to Quebec.

“On the next Lord’s Day a full welted savage, purposely to deride the ministerial character of Mr. Dummer, put on his garments, and then stalked about in the presence of the distressed captives some of whom belonged to his church, to aggravate their feelings,” according to historian William Williamson.

Aftermath

When Indians burst into the Moulton house, four-year-old Jeremiah had hidden under the bed. Amid screaming and scuffling the Indians buried a hatchet in his mother’s head, then tomahawked his father. Jeremiah watched as the Indians scalped his parents. After they left he stayed under the bed until the house caught fire. He then ran from the house toward a group of men who turned out to be Indians. They tied him up along with the others.

Capt. John Floyd with a small group of militiamen rushed to the scene of the Candlemas Massacre from Portsmouth, N.H. They discovered about 18 houses burned, the remainder rifled and the dead lying about. The attackers left standing the gaol, the meeting house and the garrison.

Floyd and his men buried 48 people in a mass grave along with an unrecorded number of small children.

The Old Gaol in York

The captives were taken to Canada, where some were ransomed by Capt. John Alden Jr., son of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Plymouth Colony. The Indians set Lydia Dummer free, but separated her from her son. She traveled to Quebec three times to find him, but never saw or heard from him again.

Jeremiah Moulton

Jeremiah Moulton reappeared during Dummer’s War, named after Shubael Dummer’s nephew William, acting governor of Massachusetts. Some called it Father Rale’s War, after Father Sébastien Rale who led an alliance of Wabanaki Indians on the side of New France.

In 1724, Moulton led 200 men to the Wabanaki settlement of Norridgewock to kill Father Sebastian Rale and slaughter the Indians. The Englishmen succeeded in killing Rale and 80 Abenakis, including two dozen women and children.

Moulton returned to York and became sheriff. In 1719 he rebuilt the gaol with timbers left from the one that was left standing. Today it still stands, the last known public building of the colonial era.

Later in 1692, John Alden and John Floyd were accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials because of their involvement with the Candlemas Massacre. Both managed to escape execution.

This story was updated in 2022.

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The Crucible, or How Arthur Miller Got the Salem Witch Trials Wrong

Arthur Miller ostensibly wrote his classic drama The Crucible about the Salem witch trials of 1692, but he aimed it at Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for Communists.

Arthur Miller in 1966

The play deals with a teenager who falls in love with a man who rejects her. In revenge, she instigates a frenzy of bloodlust in Salem, Mass. Miller likened the Salem witch trials to McCarthy’s accusations that Communists infiltrated the government. McCarthy falsely claimed more than 200 government employees belonged to the Communist Party.

McCarthy’s hearings created a sensation. As a result of them, Hollywood blacklisted hundreds of actors and writers with leftist leanings. Many never recovered their careers.

Arthur Miller, in testimony before McCarthy’s committee, refused to name the names of writers he knew who may have had Communist leanings. For that, Congress found him guilty of contempt, and the State Department refused to grant him a passport. Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

Miller’s troubles with Joseph McCarthy made international news, partly because of his wife — actress Marilyn Monroe.

Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe at their wedding celebration.

The Crucible

The Crucible premiered on Broadway on Jan. 22, 1953 with E.G. Marshall, Madeleine Sherwood and Beatrice Straight. Critics gave hostile reviews and Miller didn’t like the production. The next year The Crucible won critical acclaim in a new production.

Today it is considered a classic and one of Arthur Miller’s most popular plays.

Miller had traveled to Salem from his home in Roxbury, Conn., to research the witch trials, though he admitted the play wasn’t historically accurate.

Margo Burns, in her blog post Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Fact & Fiction (or Picky, Picky, Picky…), catalogs all the historical inaccuracies in the play.

For starters, Arthur Miller even got some of his facts wrong in describing how he wrote the play.

Fact or Fiction?

The playwright wrote in the New Yorker magazine that the character of Abigail Williams inspired The Crucible. Abigail, a former servant to Elizabeth and John Procter, accused them of witchcraft. Miller wrote that her apparent desire to convict Elizabeth and save John made the play conceivable for him. He speculated that John had bedded Abigail.

Something in particular jumped out at him during his research:

He had read that teenager Abigail Williams had tried to strike Elizabeth Procter, but when her hand came near her, ‘it opened, whereas it was made up into a fist before, and came down exceeding lightly as it drew near to said Procter, and at length, with open and extended fingers, touched Procter’s hood very lightly. Immediately Abigail cried out her fingers, her fingers, her fingers burned….’

Only … Abigail never worked as a maidservant in the Procter household.

Miller also wrote in his autobiography Timebends that he saw in Salem “several framed etchings of the witchcraft trials, apparently made by an artist who must have witnessed them.”

There are no drawings by witnesses to the witch trial.

Miller was also struck by a story about two college boys who went to watch the Salem witch trials. “Both boys burst out laughing at some absurd testimony: they were promptly jailed, and faced possible hanging,” he wrote.

Never happened.

Some More Inaccuracies

Abigail tells Betty, “Your Mama’s dead and buried!” But Betty Parris’ mother was very much alive in 1692.

Tituba also never led any wild dancing in the woods, and Rev. Parris never stumbled upon them.

Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, the first two afflicted girls, did not fall into a sleep from which they could not awaken. They had violent fits.

Rev. Parris claims in the play he graduated from Harvard, but he actually dropped out.

The judges in the play The Crucible are Thomas Danforth and John Hathorne (Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ancestor). The screenplay added Samuel Sewall, the only judge to apologize for his role in the killings. The real judges, in addition to Danforth and Hathorne, were William Stoughton, John Richards, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Wait Winthrop, Bartholomew Gedney, Samuel Sewall, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin and Peter Sergeant.

For more historical inaccuracies in The Crucible, click here.

Arthur Miller died on Feb. 10, 2005.

Photos: The Crucible By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13204918; Arthur Miller By Koch, Eric / Anefo – [1] Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989, Nummer toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer 919-6131, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29287493.

This story about The Crucible was updated in 2022.

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In 1685 Massachusetts Legalized Christmas, to Samuel Sewall’s Dismay

In 1685, a tolerant wind blew briefly through England when James II ascended to the throne. He ordered greater freedom for Roman Catholics and people of other faiths. In his colonies, he ordered the reform of discriminatory laws. Massachusetts legalized Christmas

Samuel Sewall was not pleased.

Samuel Sewall — Puritan, judge, businessman, printer — left voluminous diaries that document his undying dislike of the Christmas celebration. Puritans viewed the celebration as obnoxious and sacrilegious.

Samuel Sewall was not happy when Massachusetts legalized Christmas

Massachusetts complied with the king’s wishes for liberal reform by annulling two laws on the books. The first was a death penalty statute for Quakers returning to the colony after banishment. The second outlawed the “keeping of Christmas.”

Further rubbing salt in the wound, Samuel Sewall had to oversee printing of the new laws. After Massachusetts legalized Christmas, Sewall happily noted in his diary that the holiday in 1685 was less popular than ever despite the new laws.

Massachusetts Legalized Christmas, but…

Dec. 25. Friday. Carts come to Town and Shops open as is usual. Some somehow observe the day; but are vexed I believe that the Body of the People profane it, and blessed be God no Authority yet to compel them to keep it. A great Snow fell last night so this day and night very cold.

Several days later, Samuel Sewall wrote his cousin agreed with him: [there] was less Christmas-keeping than last year, fewer Shops Shut up.

Twelve years later, Sewall continued his anti-Christmas crusade. On Dec. 25, 1697, he wrote: Snowy day: Shops are open, and Carts and sleds come to Town with Wood … as formerly, save what abatement may be allowed on account of the weather. This morning we read in course the 14, 15, and 16 Psalms . . . I took occasion to dehort mine from Christmas-keeping, and charged them to forbear.

Snubbed

Sewall’s Grinch-like view of Christmas did cost him politically. In 1698, Samuel Sewall noted the lieutenant governor invited most of the legislature to his home for dinner on Christmas. However, he “knew nothing of it,” uninvited most likely because he so hated the celebration.

In 1722, Samuel Sewall hinted he might soften his position. He had changed his mind before, having years earlier apologized for his role in the Salem witch trials. He accepted both “blame and shame” for serving as one of the judges at the trials.

By then, Gov. Samuel Shute had appointed Samuel Sewall as chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature.

In the end, Samuel Sewall held fast on Christmas. His diary tells of his tug-of-war with Shute and the General Court over whether the body should adjourn for a Christmas holiday:

Dec. 19. His Excellency took me aside to the Southeast Window of the Council Chamber, to speak to me about adjourning the General Court to Monday next because of Christmas. I told his Excellency I would consider of it.

Put It to a Vote

Dec. 20. I invited Dr. [Cotton] Mather to Dine with me, not knowing that he preached. After Diner I consulted with him about the Adjournment of the Court. We agreed, that it would be expedient to take a vote of the Council and Representatives for it.

So Samuel Sewall made the suggestion to the governor.

Friday, Dec 21. The Governor took me to the window again looking eastward, next Mrs. Phillips’s, and spoke to me again about adjourning the Court to next Wednesday. I spoke against it; and propounded that the Governor would take a Vote for it; that he would hold the Balance even between the Church and us. His Excellency went to the Board again, and said much for this adjourning; All kept Christmas but we; I suggested King James I to Mr. Dudley, how he boasted what a pure church he had; and they did not keep Yule nor Pasch (Easter).

Mr. Dudley asked if the Scots kept Christmas. His Excellency protested, he believed they did not. Governor said they adjourned for the Commencement and Artillery. But then it is by agreement. Col. Taylor spoke so loud and boisterously for adjourning that it was hard for any to put in a word; Col. Townsend seconded me, and Col. Partridge; because this would prolong the Sessions.

The Debate Rages Even After Massachusetts Legalized Christmas

Where Samuel Sewall and the Governor’s Council argued about adjourning for Christmas.

Sewall argued that the Puritans had come a long way for their freedom to worship, and now the Church of England had its freedom. But, he argued, the Anglicans insisted on putting down the Puritans.

Mr. Davenport stood up and gave it as his opinion that it would not be convenient for the Governor to be present in Court that day; and therefore was for adjourning. But the Governor is often absent; and yet the Council and Representatives go on. Now the Governor has told us, that he would go away for a week; and then returned and if he liked what we had done, He would Consent to it. The Governor mentioned how it would appear to have votes passed on December 25. But his Excellency need not have been present nor signed any bill that day. I said the dissenters came a great way for their Liberties and now the church had theirs, yet they could not be contented, except they might tread all others down…

Saturday Dec. 22. About a quarter of an hour before 12 the Governor adjourned the Court to Wednesday morning at 10 o’clock and sent Mr. Secretary into the House of Deputies to do it there.

Victory in Defeat

Sewall had lost the battle over the General Court, but he happily noted in his diary on the 25th that many people didn’t keep Christmas:

Tuesday, Dec. 25 …. The Shops were open, and carts came to town with wood, hoop-poles, hay, etc. as at other Times. Being a pleasant day, the street was filled with carts and horses.

This story about Samuel Sewall and Christmas was updated in 2022.

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The Salem Witch Trials, or Still Raking It In After All These Years

People still can’t seem to get enough of the Salem witch trials, which remain a mainstay of popular culture more than three centuries after they started.

“Witchcraft at Salem Village,” in Pioneers in the Settlement of America, Vol. 1, by William A. Crafts

Writers and artists used the Salem witch trials to show why government persecutes the innocent, how the ignorant masses are manipulated or why people get caught up in hysteria. Or sometimes they just used the trials to entertain.

For more than a century, tourists to Salem, The Witch City, have been buying witch souvenirs and visiting witch houses.

A Salem gift shop

Why the continued fascination with the Salem witch trials? One reason is that a lot of people have ancestors involved in the hysteria. In addition to the 20 people tried and executed, magistrates indicted 200 people for witchcraft. The scope of the hysteria led to a multitude of descendants.

Salem Witch Trials in Literature

In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller visited Salem, Mass. He said he felt like the only person interested in the witch trials. He got that so wrong.

Almost as soon as the Salem witch hysteria subsided, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony tried to justify killing 20 people. The Rev. Cotton Mather explained the devil used witchcraft to persecute the Puritan settlers. Five years after the trials, Judge Samuel Sewall wrote a confession apologizing for his role in them.

In 1820, Maine writer John Neal wrote the novel Rachel Dyer, one of the first about the trials.

In the two centuries since, hundreds if not thousands of plays, long poems and novels have grappled with the Salem witch trials.

Today, Amazon.com lists more than 600 available titles about the witch trials. They range from the erotic adventures of the Salem Snack Witch Trials to the scholarly Salem Possessed. The Social Origin of Witchcraft.. And they include the historical romance Salem’s Daughter, featuring the ravishingly beautiful Bristol Adams.

The trials turned up in two Harry Potter novels. And they appear on recordings, in television programs (yes, Bewitched!), in comic books, in video games and in cartoons (Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost).In 2002,Kirstie Alley and Shirley MacLaine starred in the film, The Salem Witch Trials.

Even Spider-Man tangled with the witch trials after he traveled to Salem to battle his nemesis Dr. Doom, who had help from Cotton Mather.

Descendants

Salem Witch House

In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne published a short story, Young Goodman Brown, set during the witch trials. Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was a judge in the trials. Hawthorne added the ‘w’ to distance himself from his ancestor.

In 2008, the black metal band Ceremonial Castings recorded an album called Salem 1692. Two members of the band are also direct descendants of Hathorne. And Neil Peterson, bass guitarist for the band Curious Yello, is a descendent of Alice Parker, hanged as a witch.

A 1993 Disney film, Hocus Pocus, starred Sarah Jessica Parker as a witch hanged in Salem but returned in the 20th century. Parker later found out her 10th great-grandmother, Esther Elwell, was arrested for witchcraft but never tried.

Similarly, actor Tom Felton plays Draco Malfoy in the film adaptations of the Harry Potter novels. He is related to John Proctor, who was hanged after his trial.

Still Deadly After All These Years

Stories about the Salem witch trials spawned spin-offs on top of spin-offs.

In the 1930s, horror writer H.P. Lovecraft set many of his stories in Arkham, Mass., a fictional town founded by Salem witch trial refugees. His story The Dreams in the Witch House later became a play, two novels by Graham Masterton, a cable television show and a British horror film, Curse of the Crimson Altar.

In his play The Crucible, Miller used the Salem witch trials as an allegory for the persecution of alleged Communists by the House Un-American Affairs Committee. Miller himself was cited in contempt of Congress for refusing to name people he thought belonged to the Communist Party.

The Crucible was made into an opera and two films, one adapted by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Art and Tchotchkes

During the colonial revival, photographs of the houses of the trials’ main players became popular reproductions. Rebecca Nurse, a respected grandmother hanged as a witch, lived in the house pictured below. It illustrated the 1892 book, Witchcraft Illustrated by Henrietta D. Kimball.

Today, the Rebecca Nurse Homestead is one of Salem’s many historic attractions that people can visit in the summer (for a fee, of course).

Also throughout the 19^th century, many artists illustrated the witch trials in paintings and in books.

“Witchcraft at Salem Village,” pictured at the top of the story, is one of the most famous depictions of the Salem witch trials.

Today, the Witch City attracts wiccan gatherings, Halloween celebrants and tourists to its creepy and comical witch museums. History lovers can also see the long-running playlet, Cry Innocent . Or they can take historic walking tours describing what happened and where.

In 1890, a Salem jeweler named Daniel Low began selling souvenir sterling “Witch” spoons to tourists.

Available through TeePublic.

Tourists can still buy witch spoons and other affordable mementos of the witch hysteria. They have a broad selection of shot glasses, refrigerator magnets, floating witch pens, Christmas tree ornaments, T-shirts, bumper stickers, tote bags and hoodies.

Photos: Salem Witch House By SalemPuritan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37921126; Rebecca Nurse house CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17061487

This story about the Salem witch trials was updated in 2023.

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Samuel Sewall – The Witch Trials Judge Who Couldn’t Get a Date

Samuel Sewall is best known as one of the nine judges who condemned witches to death in the Salem witch trials of 1692 – an act for which he later apologized. His detailed diary records many of the actions and thoughts of a life that spanned 77 years from 1652 to 1730.

Some of the more humorous entries – at least from an onlooker’s perspective – describe his troubles getting remarried as a widower.

Not So Lovelorn — At First

Samuel Sewall

Samuel Sewall was profoundly lucky in love as a young man. In 1676 he married Hannah Hull, a young woman very much in love with him.. Hull was the daughter of John Hull, the first mint master of Massachusetts—a position that made Hull very wealthy.

With his wealthy family connections Sewall, a lawyer, easily rose in power and stature. By 1717, however, when Hannah died, the old man was viewed as less of a catch by the women of Massachusetts.

Indeed, Samuel Sewall notes in February of 1717 that following his wife’s burial, “This morning wondering in my mind whether to live a single or a married life.” And in his diary in July of 1718 he writes that “twas hard to know whether to marry again or no; whom to marry …”

But there was pressure to be married in those times. One of the Mathers sent Sewall a tract: Marah Spoken To: A Brief Essay to do Good Unto the Widow. Expectations were that Sewall would not only remarry, but that he would find a respectable match. And among the women of Sewall’s day, there were many matchmakers.

Sewall fended them off with humor: “… They that put to sea should be careful how they put to sea again, especially in wintertime.”

Mrs. Denison

Nevertheless, Samuel Sewall did decide to put to sea once again. His first efforts at finding a match led him to a Mrs. Denison of Roxbury. Sewall had handled her husband’s affairs, including drawing up his will, and he knew of her financial conditions. She was a shrewd lady herself, about 15 years younger than Sewall, and apparently felt Sewall was no bargain.

Sewall writes of visiting Mrs. Denison and eating curds with her. He notes: “I gave her two cases with a knife and fork in each, one with turtle-shell tacking, the other with ivory handles.”

By now, Sewall’s friends expected marriage, but the lady broke it off – offering to return all his gifts. His diary notes that in November 30 of 1718 she did apparently have a change of heart. Visiting him with her cousin, “she asked pardon if she offended me. She seemed inclined the match should not break off, since I had kept her company so long.”

But Samuel Sewall had moved on. In 1719 he successfully courted and married Abigail (Melyen) Woodmansey Tilley. This marriage lasted only a couple months, however, before Abigail died.

Catherine Winthrop

Unbowed by this second death, Samuel Sewall again pushed forward with his romantic endeavors. He next set his sights on a member of the Winthrop clan – Catherine Winthrop, widow of Wait Winthrop. At their first meeting in October of 1720, Catherine dealt rather coyly with Sewall. She kept him waiting and then she informed him that she would never move from her home and needed to take care of her grown children.

He tried to feel her out about her answer if he proposed marriage. Her reply: “She could not answer until she was asked.” Samuuel Sewall left her with a book, The Fountain Opened, and proposed to visit again in a week.

Later, Sewall notes: “I visited Madam Winthrop who treated me with a great deal of courtesy; wine, marmalade.”

A series of future visits found Catherine Winthrop treating Samuel Sewall well, solicitously sending her servant Juno to walk him home with a lantern to light the way. But she also took aim at some of Sewall’s personal shortcomings. He should keep a coach, she prodded, and suggested he might do well to buy himself a wig.

No Juno for Samuel Sewall

Just weeks into his courtship, Samuel Sewall found things growing colder. During a tedious evening on October 21, Sewall asked when they might make their courtship public, and Catherine said it would probably never be made public. Sewall rose to leave around 11 o’clock. “She offered not to help me. I prayed that Juno might light me home. She opened the shutter and said was pretty light abroad; Juno was weary and gone to bed. So I came home by starlight as well I could.”

On November 4, Samuel Sewall offered Catherine Winthrop a gift. “I asked Madam what fashion necklace I should present her with. She said none at all.”

On November 7, Sewall made one final attempt. “I told her I loved her, and was so fond as to think she loved me.” As the fire died out, Sewall noted, Madam Winthrop made no effort to revive it, or to suggest she had any affection for him. While colonial women didn’t have to marry any suitor who asked, they were expected to be polite – a sometimes painfully slow process to discourage an unwelcome suitor.

Samuel Sewall, Happy At Last

Samuel Sewall next made a brief attempt at courting a Mrs. Ruggles. Perhaps aware of his reputation for persistence, she cut him off short and allowed him no opportunity to come visiting.

Finally in 1722, 63-year-old Samuel Sewall successfully found one last wife, Mary Shrimpton Gibbs, a widow in her mid-50s. He found happiness with her for the last eight years of his life. She then outlived him by 16 years.

This story about the romantic adventures of Samuel Sewall was updated in 2023. If you’re interested in the life of this notable Puritan, you may want to read about his apology for his role in the Salem witch trials here or his experience of the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 here.

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