Episode 17 Transcript- Colonial New York in the 1690's Witch Craft Hysteria

[Amanda] Hello my pretty listeners! It’s the weekend before Halloween and I have another spooky themed episode for you. Today we’re going back to the 1600’s to explore colonial New York and the impact they had on the Witch Trial Hysteria that was spreading through the neighboring colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Hold on to your brooms everybody! I’m Amanda, and you’re listening to New York’s Dark Side. 

[Intro Music]

[Amanda] What’s up everyone? How’s it going with the veil thinning? The other day my husband and I had a little bit of an experience. We were in the kitchen of our house at the bar where I record the video for this show, and I noticed a very sudden strong citrus/flower perfume smell. I thought I was going crazy which honestly wouldn’t be that surprising but then Jared also picked up the scent. It came as suddenly as it went but I started walking towards the kitchen sink and picked it up again, almost like it was walking away from us. I think we were visited, I’m not sure by who. My husband might be more skeptical, but I’m going with my version. Whoever it was seemed lovely, and I really liked the scent so if you’re still around my friend, feel free to come back. 

[Amanda] Just a couple quick notes before we get to the content. I’m working on going back and updating the first couple of episodes for some better audio quality. I just did that with the Willowbrook episode. Since I’ve been fortunate enough to upgrade some equipment and have learned a lot about editing the audio now that we’re what… seventeen episodes in? I just wanted to mention that in case anyone went back and realized it sounded different. The content is all the same, but the audio quality is much better. My other announcement is that I’ve launched on patreon, so feel free to join me over there. I’ll link it in the show notes for the episode and put it out on our social medias. I’ve just got the one tier for now. In exchange for your generous donations in support of the show, you’ll get exclusive access to the fan community, posts from me with sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, and some more fun fan club only content. Thanks for considering joining. Okay enough business!

[Amanda] For today’s episode, we’re talking about Colonial New York’s role in the Massachusetts and Connecticut witch trials. I’m very excited for this coverage. I’ve honestly been looking forward to it since I started the podcast. I feel like this theme is honestly going to tie in nicely to what I have planned for November, because today we’re going to touch on some dirty politicians and we’re going into the November voting season, so it just seems appropriate.

[Amanda] When I first started looking into witch trials in New York state, I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest. I knew a bit about the Salem Witch trials but hadn’t heard anything about them occurring in New York. So, I was surprised and honestly glad to find that at least in the late 1600’s New York was actually a haven for some refugees from other colonies who were fleeing from their accusers. Some of my best bitches are witches. Like seriously. They even have a shop called Witchy and Bitchy Conjurations that you can find either locally if you’re listening from the Southern Tier region of New York at Shops of 607 in Johnson City or online through their Etsy shop. Both will be linked in the show notes, and I’ll share out on the social medias. Love to Jess and Nicole! 

[Amanda] We’re going to start with the tale of Philip and Mary English. Philip came to Salem Massachussetts in 1670 after emigrating from the Isle of Jersey at the age of 19. It was there that he met and later married Mary Hollingsworth, who was the daughter of wealthy merchants named William and Eleanor Hollingsworth. It’s important to note here that the 1600’s were a very different time, where women were expected to be subordinate to men. Eleanor Hollingsworth, Mary’s mother, actually had been a property owner, she owned a boarding house and pub named the Blue Anchor Tavern which she ran independently while her husband William was away at sea. The business was good and made a good profit, helping to grow the family wealth. This placed both Eleanor and Mary in positions of power, which made the other colonists extremely uneasy. When William Hollingsworth was lost at sea, Eleanor was made his power of attorney and was able to pay off his debts and owned the Blue Anchor Tavern outright which was very unusual for the times. Eleanor was said to be a very strong and aggressive woman. At one point a neighbor, Goodwife Dicer, accused Eleanor of being a “black mouthed whore” and a “black mouthed witch”. Eleanor responded by taking Goody Dicer to court and Goody Dicer was ordered to pay a fine for slandering Eleanor’s name. According to one source, Eleanor’s also rumored to be one of the possible models for Hester Prynne, the lead character of Nathaniel Hawthrone’s The Scarlett Letter. Eleanor was accused of witchcraft in 1685 and would in 1689 would die before her name was cleared. Mary Hollingsworth English would inherit the Blue Anchor Tavern along with the wharf, a prosperous estate, brewing equipment, a dictionary, needlepoint chairs, and an unnamed “Indian servant” whom was valued at 25 pounds.

Mary and Philip married in 1675. Their descendents would say that Philip had a deep respect for Mary’s strong head for business. They built their lives in a beautiful home with a view of the harbor on Essex Street in Salem where they would raise their two daughters. Philip developed an extremely profitable trading company consisting of twenty-one ships, fourteen lots, and a wharf. He grew to be in the top 1% of wealth in Salem by trading fish for produce from the tropics and goods from Europe. And while it sounds like the American dream being realized, the rising political tensions of the time were about to bring things crashing down for Philip and Mary. 

[Amanda] In 1689, the colonies of North America got involved in an extension of the War of the Grand Alliance being waged by King William the III of Great Britian against France under King Louis the XIV. The colonies of New England and Canada were divided in their support for their mother countries and with their allies with the Native Americans which sparked the King Williams War or sometimes you’ll hear it referred to as the Second Indian War. While I’m not going to go down the whole rabbit hole of talking about the details of the war, it’s important to bring up because the tensions of the war were the driving force for the outcomes of this story. 

[Amanda] Philip English was a French immigrant, as I mentioned earlier he was born on the Island of Jersey to French hugonauts parents, but he was now living in among the English colonists, and this likely led to some of the resentments that fueled the accusations. On March 8th, 1692, Philip English was elected to a Salem Town Selectman position, defeating a rival colonist for the position. Philip English, while prospering greatly in his business, had a reputation within the colony due to having a flair for tax evasion and for being quick to file suit against anyone that owed him a debt. It’s likely that a combination of the rising political tensions between the French and English colonists, along with the resentments that Philip had been building between himself and his neighbors led to the accusations against both Philip and Mary. Just before midnight on April 18, 1692, a warrant was filed for Mary English on the charge of witchcraft. Sheriff George Corwin and his deputies came to the home of Philip and Mary, entered Mary’s bedroom, and ordered her to come with them. Mary however, was not having it, and instructed the Sheriff to go the fuck away and come back for her in the morning, and went back to sleep. Badass Mary English, taking after her mom. Sheriff Corwin complied, and had his deputies guard the house to make sure she didn’t escape and left. Mary got up the following morning, got herself around, ate some breakfast, and then allowed them to take her to a room at the Cat and Wheel Tavern near the Salem meetinghouse. 

[Amanda] Two days later on April 20th, a warrant was issued for Philip English on the charge of witchcraft after Thomas Putnam and Captain Jonathan Walcott made accusations against him. Philip was aware this accusation was coming and hid in a secret room of the house before fleeing to Boston. On April 22, Mary English would appear at the Salem Meeting House before a large crowd to address the accusations against her. A colonist named Susannah Sheldon, who was one of the core witchcraft accusers in Salem, would claim that she had seen Mary’s apparition before her, and that Mary had been accompanied by a black man sporting a tall hat. Another colonist, Abigail Williams, would also report that she had seen the specter of George Jacobs, and he told her that he had recruited Mary as a witch. This would ensure that Mary remained imprisoned. She stayed at the tavern for a few more weeks before being transferred to a Boston Jail on May 12, 1692, to await trial. Susannah Sheldon would also lay accusations against Philip English on April 24th, stating that he “stepped over his pew and pinched her” afflicting her “in a very sad manner”. 

[Amanda] A second warrant was issued for Philip’s arrest on the accusation of witchcraft on May 6th, 1692. This time officers would search the house of one of his friends George Hollard. Philip was actually in the house, but they didn’t find him because he hid under a pile of dirty laundry. On May 17, Susannah Sheldon would also report to authorities that Philip came to her with a black man and a woman with his Devil’s book and tried to force her to sign it, telling her if she didn’t he would cut her throat. She had also been visited by a specter that told her that Philip had murdered him and drowned him in the sea, and that Philip knew that the specter had come to her and told her not to tell anyone of the murder or he would cut her legs off, kill the governor and ten folks in Boston over the next six days. Philip became concerned that his continued escape was actually hurting Mary’s case, so he returned to Salem on May 30th and turned himself in. He would be questioned the next day by Judge Jonathan Corwin and sent to the Boston jail due to the overcrowding of the Salem jail. The Boston jail actually allowed you to bail out for the day as long as you promised to return at night and due to their wealth, Philip and Mary would do this often. 

[Amanda] Another witness would come forward against Philip English on August 8, 1692 named William Beale. Beale and Philip had a history, because Philip had filed a lawsuit against him back in 1690 over two tracts of land. Beale would report that Philip had come to him and offered him a bribe to provide favorable testimony of him in the witchcraft case. When he was speaking with a friend about the lawsuit, his nose began gushing an extraordinary amount of blood, which he believed was due to Philip’s witchcraft. He would also claim to see a shadowy figure, and after this he learned that his son James was sick with smallpox and would die shortly after this. His other son George had died a few months earlier in the same house due to smallpox and had complained of feeling like he was being constantly choked. 

[Amanda] The couple was due to return to Salem on August 21, 1692 to face trial, however a Boston Minister Joshua Mooley convinced them to flee. He based his service that Sunday on a passage from Matthew 10:23 stating “if they persecute you in one city, flee to another”. He would later visit them in jail that evening telling them that he had arranged for them to slip out of the colony. Philip and Mary were slightly reluctant to leave, as they had two teenage daughters, but they took the minister’s advice and left Boston by carriage to New York. Their daughters would remain in Boston staying with friends. Philip and Mary received updates regarding the witchcraft hysteria and Philip would even arrange for shiploads of food to be sent there to help with the food scarcity Salem encountered due to drought and lost time in the fields due to everything going on with the witch trials. 

[Amanda] Another couple would also flee Salem to New York and they were Elizabeth and Nathanial Cary. They had married in July of 1984 and settled in Charlestown where they built their family. Elizabeth would be accused of witchcraft by some of the same players we’ve already met- Thomas Putnam and another man named Benjamin Hutchinson, claiming that Elizabeth had afflicted Mary Walcott, Abigail Williams, and Mercy Lewis with her witchcraft. The accusations came in on May 28, 1692. On May 29th, she was examined, and they completed what was called the touch test on her. This is just… fucking bizarre. The idea behind the touch test is that a witch afflicts someone by coming in contact with them. These afflicted girls had been in contact at some point with Elizabeth Cary and she needed to touch them to see if it cured their affliction. Their affliction was they were falling into fits, and they were there at the proceeding carrying on and doing whatever. She touched them and nothing changed, they continued to have these fits. This marked her as guilty, if they had been cured of their ailments and stopped crying, carrying on, fainting, or whatever she would have been found innocent. So Elizabeth was sent to the Boston Jail. The following day, Nathanial Cary would be accused of witchcraft, but nothing came of that accusation. Nathanial was able to successfully get Elizabeth moved from Boston to the jail in Cambridge which was closer to their home. He tried to get her moved to their own district knowing that she would not get a fair trial in Salem because he knew what was up but wasn’t able to do that. Running out of options, he helped her escape from the Cambridge prison, and they fled to Rhode Island and then later to New York. 

[Amanda] During this time, Massachusetts wasn’t the only colony dealing with witchcraft hysteria. So was Connecticut. At the end of April 1962, the servant of Daniel and Abigail Wescott of Stamford, Connecticut began to have fits. Katherine Branch, or Kate as she was also known, was a seventeen-year-old orphan who had come to live with the Wescott as their servant. Daniel was a prominent figure in the colony, he had recently been elected to his second term as one of Stamford’s representatives to the colonial assembly and he was also a sergeant in the town militia. This gave them a higher status than many of their neighbors in the town and allowed them to go by Mister and Mistress rather than Goodman and Goodwife. On the first day that Kate was plagued by fits, she had been sent by Abigail to go collect herbs but came back empty handed. She came back to the house and promptly fell on the floor, crying, screaming, and contorting. She stayed that way for hours. One thing that is of an interesting note is that this is not the first time that the Wescott had dealt with something like this. Their daughter Joanna had been tormented by fits when she was younger. For weeks she had been having fits in the night, screaming that she was being tormented by someone entering her room during the night and seeing creatures that would hide but there was never anything there. This went on for weeks to the point where Joanna would not go to bed in their home and the Wescott’s would take her to a neighbor’s where she would calm and go to sleep. They eventually sent her to stay with a friend who lived in another town for a few months until the night terrors stopped, and Joanna was able to come home. 

[Amanda] What was not entirely clear from my research was whether Kate had been living with the Wescott’s during that time, but she likely would have heard about the events from either the Wescott’s themselves or from someone within the town. Regardless, the Wescott’s had been concerned at the time that Joanna was undergoing all these fits that she had potentially been bewitched. Even though Connecticut and Massachusetts were not close, it was also likely that Kate would have heard about the witch trials going on in Salem. What was clear was that the colonists in Connecticut took a bit of a different approach with Kate than the people of Salem. First, the Wescots reached out to a midwife named Goodwife Sarah Bates. Goody Bates didn’t have formalized training, but she had been tending to the townspeople for many years and had learned a lot through observation and treating various ailments. While Goody Bates knew that sometimes even experienced doctors would conclude that someone was bewitched, she thought to try to rule out a medical ailment first. The first day she examined Kate, she advised the Wescots to try burning feathers under Kate’s nose which was a common treatment for fainting fits. The next morning Daniel Wescot would fetch Goody Bates and tell her that while the feathers had initially seemed to help, Kate was now in a stupor, lying senseless and speechless. So Goody again went to the Wescots home and she found Kate as he had described. Abigail demanded that Kate be bled. Goody Bates was hesitant, but she agreed after Abigail continued to insist. As Goody Bates went to start the bloodletting with Kate’s foot, Kate immediately freaked out, breaking away from them and yelling that she would “not be blooded”. When they asked her why, she said that it would hurt. They reassured her and she did allow for them to blood her, but Sarah Bates was suspicious at this point. After she had been blooded for a little while, the fits started again, and Kate was again laying and screaming. It was at this point that Abigail started to say that Kate was bewitched. 

[Amanda] Things started to escalate from there. Kate started to tell people that during her fits she saw cats that would talk to her and would tell her they were going to kill her. Daniel Wescot reached out to Stamford’s minister, John Bishop who had studied at Oxford University in 1632 and had then been one of the first waves of Puritan settlers to New England, having served as Stamford’s minister for 50 years. After examining Kate, John Bishop was convinced that she was bewitched, which was enough to convince Daniel Wescot. The neighbors, however, were not so easy to sway. As time continued to go on Kate would start to see women with the cats but the description she would give of them initially was hazy. Daniel Wescot decided the next best course of action was to start to have the neighbors come to the house so they could see Kate’s fits and help watch over her to make sure she didn’t injure herself so that he and Abigail could get a break. Some of the neighbors would report seeing supernatural occurrences like balls of light when Kate was in the midst of a fit. Other neighbors were convinced she was faking it. 

[Amanda] Kate would eventually name the first witch that she said was afflicting her as being Goodwife Elizabeth Clawson, a woman in her early sixties who lived in Stamford that many people in town had suspected of being a witch. Like Philip and Mary English however, the Wescots had a past issue with Goody Clawson and had gotten into quite the argument with her about a decade before this over the weight of flax she had sold them. There had been an ongoing grudge between the Wescots and Goody Clawson ever since, especially between Abigail and Goody Clawson, like to the point that once when Abigail Wescot would walk by Goody Clawson’s house, Goody Clawson threw stones at her. In fact, the Wescots had believed that Goody Clawson had been behind Joanna’s “bewitching” because it was not long after their argument that she had begun to have her fits. 

[Amanda] A short time after naming Goody Clawson, Kate saw a second specter that she described as a short and lame old woman with a hunched back. While Kate never named this specter, the Wescots decided that it had to have been the only woman in town that matched the description that she gave, and they named her as Goodwife Miller, who they had never quarreled with but they were convinced it was her. Several neighbors would later report that when they were watching her, they also heard her name Goody Miller, though sometimes she would call her “Goody Crump” or “Goody Hipsod”. Two neighbors, Abraham Finch and David Selleck would report that during one of her fits Kate cried out “Goody Miller, hold up your arm higher that the black dog may suck you better. Now I’m sure you are a witch for you’ve got a long teat under your arm”. This sealed Goody Miller’s fate as being a witch. 

[Amanda] Not long after this Kate would report seeing cats again and during one fit one of the cats turned into a woman. She would describe to Abigail that the woman was tall and had pretty thick lips. That was really all the information that Kate could provide about the woman other than she wore woolen homespun cloth of the best quality. Kate then appeared to go into one of her stupors at this point and Abigail said to the neighbor who was with her she knew of a woman named Mercy Holbridge who had previously been suspected of witchcraft and had thick lips. Kate at this time appeared to startle awake and said she could see the woman again and Kate began to question the specter about her name, announcing that it was Mercy Holbridge and that she lived in Compo. Compo was a village just outside of Fairfield. Mercy had married and her name was now Mercy Disborough. 

[Amanda] On May 27, 1692, Daniel Wescot would file a formal complaint on behalf of Katherine Branch accusing Goody Miller, Goody Clawson, and Goody Disborough of witchcraft. The following day Goody Clawson and Goody Disborough would appear in court and were questions, both professing their innocence. Kate was in the courtroom while they were being questioned and had one of her fits, due to this the magistrates placed both women under arrest. Goody Disborough would be sent to the county jail in Fairfield and Goody Clawson was put under house arrest for a couple of weeks before being sent to Fairfield county jail as well. Goody Miller would flee to New York once she became aware that she had been named by Kate as one of the witches. She had two brothers who lived in Bedford, New York, which was part of Westchester County at the time. One of them was Abram Ambler, who was a magistrate and the other was Joseph Theale who was Bedford’s chief military officer and a justice of the peace. Bedford was about ten miles from Stamford and had been part of Connecticut’s jurisdiction until 1683 when the boundary agreement switched Bedford to being under New York’s jurisdiction, so now Connecticut had no jurisdiction over what would happen to Goody Miller. Daniel Wescot did visit Bedford and tried to get the magistrates to send Goody Miller back to Stamford for interrogation, but her brother refused stating that he knew what would happen if she returned to Connecticut. 

[Amanda] So this is where the politics comes into play. Another Bedford Magistrate, Judge John Pell, told Daniel Wescot that he would arrange for Goody Miller to return to Connecticut, but Goody Miller’s brother intervened. He then told Daniel Wescot he would discuss the matter with New York’s Attorney General James Graham. James Graham had resumed his post as Attorney General in May of 1691, before that he had left the post and was fighting during that battles that would lead to the overthrowing of the Dominion of New England. He had actually be held captive by revolutionaries, forced to share a very small cell with another man, that would end up flooding when it rained and had no heat. He was not a fan of Massachusetts or of Connecticut because both colonies had declined to get involved in the conflict so he refused to send Goody Miller back to Connecticut. The Governor of New York at the time, Benjamin Fletcher, was also no fan of either Massachusetts or Connecticut. Nathanial Cary who we talked about a while ago would describe Benjamin Fletcher as being very courteous to them, and he had refused to send them back to Massachusetts as well. It very likely that the reason that New York didn’t get involved in the witchcraft hysteria that was plaguing the neighboring colonies was because of everything going on with the King Williams War. They were aware of what was going on in Massachusetts and Connecticut but their northern colony of Schenectady had been destroyed recently by French Canadian raiders. They were very concerned that Albany was going to be the next colony to fall. They had reached out to both Massachusetts and Connecticut who both refused to send aid. 

[Amanda] Eventually the witchcraft hysteria would all calm down for Massachusetts and Connecticut. So what happened to all of our refugees. Interestingly, there’s no record of what happened to Goody Miller. We have no idea how long she stayed in New York, or if she ever stood trial. The attorney general John Graham had responded back to Connecticut that he was most definitely not sending Goody Miller back to Connecticut with the Puritans who had imprisoned him, so that was a big fuck you. In 1695, the towns of Bedford and Rye would end up overtaken by militia and end up back under the jurisdiction of Connecticut but there’s no record even then if she was there, if she ever stood trial, or if she was acquitted. 

[Amanda] At the end of June 1692, Kate would end up stating that she saw four more specters. One was a woman from New York named Mary Glover, another woman was from Boston that Kate said was named Goody Abison, and finally a girl and her mother that Kate said were from Stamford but Kate didn’t know their names. She would also claim that Goody Miller was relentlessly tormenting her. There was a Mary Glover that had been accused of witchcraft back in 1688, but she lived in Boston and was hung the same year she was accused, which led to some continued suspicion that maybe someone was feeding Kate information. There was talk around town because Daniel Wescot had boasted to some of the neighbors that he could control Kate’s convulsions and she would do it on his command. They were also suspicious that maybe the Wescots were influencing who she accused. 

[Amanda] Goody Clawson and Goody Disborogh of Connecticut would stand trial. There was much debate for both with the jury having a hard time figuring out whether or not to find them guilty or not. Goody Clawson would end up being found innocent. Goody Disborogh was found guilty but later acquitted. 

[Amanda] Nathanial and Elizabeth Cary who had fled to New York would eventually end up returning to Charlestown after the witch frenzy had come to an end. Elizabeth would live until the age of 72, passing away in August of 1722. Nathanial would live another eight years, dying in Charlestown in July of 1730.

[Amanda] Philip and Mary English would return to Salem in 1693 to find that much of their property had been taken by Sheriff Corwin. In 1694, shortly after giving birth to a son, Mary died of consumption. Philipp resumed working in the shipping business and promptly started trying to retrieve his property, which he did finally get a settlement of 532 pounds in 1711. It’s also rumored that when Sheriff Corwin died of a heart attack, Philip English took revenge by stealing his body from the family’s cellar in order to gain more of his property back from the family, but it’s unclear if this rumor is in fact true. He would end up dying in 1736.