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A Witch in the Family

The sixty-seven-year-old impoverished widow of George Martin, Susannah North Martin of Amesbury, was hanged as a witch on July 19, 1692 on the basis of the testimony of the accusing circle of girls of Salem Village and other neighbors. Although she maintained her innocence to the end, a previous history of witchcraft accusations and the momentum of Salem's accusations carried her to the gallows. Susannah Martin figures in historian Carol Karlsen's account of the Salem outbreak as an example of a woman who was easily targeted as a threat to the orderly transmission of property down the paternal line because of Martin's role in an ongoing court dispute over her father's will.  Women were not supposed to step outside of their assigned roles. 

 

There are 23 depositions/testimonies at the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project (http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html), University of Virginia Library,  related to Susannah Martin.  Here is the deposition of Ann Putnam as a sample.

 

May 2, 1692

 


Transcript: The Deposistion of Ann putnam jun'r who testifieth and saith sume time in April 1692 there appered to me the Apperishtion of an old short woman that toald me hir name was martin and that she came from Amsbery who did Immediatly afflect me urging me to writ in hir book but on the 2: may 1692 being the day of hir examination susana martin did most greviously afflect me dureing the time of her examination for when she did but look personaly upon she would strike me down or almost choak and severall times senc the Apperishtion of susannah martin. has most greviously afflected me by pinching me & on the [the] day of hir examination I saw the Apperishtion

There is an historical marker at the site of Susannah Martin’s home in Amesbury.  Susannah was the second wife of the 9th great-grandfather of my husband, Dennis James.     

Historical Marker, Amesbury, MA

References 

Brown, David C. (1984). A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692, D. C. Brown.

Hill, Frances (2000). The Salem Witch Trials Reader. De Capo Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com

Karlsen, Carol F. (1987). The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial America, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

University of Virginia Library and Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, (http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html), Accessed 22 AUG 2020.

 

  

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