Background Image

Susanna North Martin

13th Jul 2022 in

Copied from WikiTree

Susanna North is my 9th great-grandmother on my mother's side - my direct relations to Susanna North Martin are in bold text:

  1. George Martin - Susanna North
  2. Ezekiel Worthen - Hanna Martin
  3. Joseph Hoyt - Dorothy Worthen
  4. Jeremiah Flanders - Mehitable Hoyt
  5. Jeremiah Flanders Jr. - Mary Barnard
  6. Nathaniel Flanders - Judith Tewkesbury
  7. John Flanders - Mehitible McClure
  8. Edward Kent Flanders - Lydia Flynn
  9. Lawrence J. Ackley - Avis Lydia Flanders
  10. Kent Lawrence Ackley - Alma Gustava Garlie
  11. Melville Kissam Duryee - Margery Ann Ackley (my parents)

Biography, Susanna North

Susannah Martin reading her Bible in the Salem jail.

Notables Project
Susanna (North) Martin is Notable.

Susannah North was baptized on 30 September, 1621 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, the daughter of Richard North and Johane Bartram.[1].

Along with her father, by 1641, she was an immigrant from Olney, Buckinghamshire, England to Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay.[2]

She married George Martin on August 11, 1646, as his 2nd wife, in Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay.[1] [3][4][5]

Susanna (North) Martin was executed for witchcraft in Salem

Hanged as a witch, she died on 19 Jul 1692 at Proctor's Ledge, Gallows Hill, Salem, Massachusetts Bay.[1][6]

Children of George Martin and Susanna North (Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay)

  1. Richard Martin, b, 29 Jun 1647; m. Mary Hoyt, aft. 15 Mar 1670; d. abt. 11 Mar 1729, Amesbury
  2. George Martin b. 21 Oct 1648; d. bef. 19 Jan 1684
  3. John Martin, b. 26 Jan 1651; m. Mary Weed, 1675; d. 6 Oct 1693, Amesbury
  4. Hester Martyn, b. 7 Apr 1653; m. John Jameson, 15 Mar 1669, Amesbury; d. 1695, Amesbury
  5. Jane Martin, b. 2 Nov 1656; m. Samuel Hadley, 11 Aug 1676, Amesbury; d. aft. 24 Feb 1704, Amesbury
  6. Abigail Martin, b. 10 Sep 1659, m. James Hadlock, 3 Dec 1679, Salem; d. 2 Jul 1716, Amesbury
  7. William Martin, b. 11 Dec 1662; m. Mary Stone, 1697, Amesbury
  8. Samuel Martyn, b. 29 Sep 1667; d. bef. 1684 in Amesbury

*Note: Hannah Martin, my 8th great-grandmother, is not listed here, she was born before the marriage of George and Susanna. I have questions out to various places to find out what can be done.

Her Prior Reputation

Although George and Susannah were frequently involved with the Essex County Court as early as 1647, these more significant cases likely relate to later witchcraft persecution:

  1. 1669, William Sargent, Jr. accused Susannah of witchcraft. In response, George Martin sued him for slander, adding two counts for saying, (1) Susannah killed her newborn infant, and (2) Martin’s son was a bastard and the other an imp.[7] While a later court dismissed the witchcraft charge, it found Sargent guilty of unproven accusations of " fornication and infanticide.” The court awarded George and Susannah "a white wampam peague or the eighth part of a penny damage.”[8]
  2. Later in 1669, Susannah lost on a charge by Christopher Bartlett that she called him a liar and a thief.[9]
  3. More seriously and still in1669, their son Richard was sentenced to be whipped “for abusing his father,” involving an axe.[10]
  4. In 1671, George, Susannah, and her sister. Mary Jones, engaged in lengthy litigation over the estate of their father, Richard North, and, by 1674, their inheritance was lost when the court found against them.[11]

Her Remarkable Neatness, "She scorned to have a drabbled tail."

“A short and active woman, wearing a hood and scarf, plump and well developed in her figure, of remarkable personal neatness,” Upham further describes her as speaking “her mind freely” with “strength of expression” and “more wit than her neighbors.”[12] The Reverend Dr. Cotton Mather, however, cursed her as “one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures of this world.”[13]

The Indictment

On April 30, 1692, Jonathan Walcot and Thomas Putnam made a complaint of witchcraft against George Burroughs and four others, including Susannah Martin, for afflicting Mary Walcot, Marcy Lewis, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Elizabeth Hubert and Susanah Sheldon. John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin issued a warrant for Susannah's arrest.

Orlando Bagly, Constable of Amesbury, arrested her 30 Apr 1692 and returned the warrant executed 2 May 1692.[14] He transported her to Salem where judges, Hathorne and Corwin, examined her the same day. As she entered the court, Mercy Lewes and Ann Putnam fell into fits. Susannah showed her contempt by laughIng loudly. When asked why she laughed, she answered, "Well I may at such folly."

She was subjected to further examination by the obviously biased judges. John Indian and Sarah Bibber had now joined the "afflicted" group to provide further fits and visions of her spectre, sitting upon a courthouse beam or accompanied by a "black man" whispering in her ear.

Susannah denied the "afflicted" were bewitched, labeled them liars, and reaffirmed her own innocence and commitment to the "word of God."

Samuel Parris, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and Thomas Putnam further deposed and witnessed against Susannah, and at the end of the day, the judges sent her to Boston Prison.[15]

Boston Gaol

“In that cold, dark, and damp place, the stench of unwashed bodies, chamber pots, rotting food, vomit, and dead vermin would have made conditions almost unimaginable. Inmates were infested with fleas as well as lice that often carried deadly ‘jail fever’ or typhus. As if this was not bad enough, prisoners were manacled and chained, and had to reimburse the jailer for their room and board.”[16]

More Indignities

Along with others accused, she was stripped naked and her body searched for the incriminating “witch’s teat.” This court-appointed deputation found her body free of “abnormal excrescences,” but observed her breasts "In the morning search appeared to us very full, the nipples fresh and starting, now at this searching all lank and pendant," implying she had fed her “familiar”[17] between searches.

Her Trial

On June 26, 1692 her trial began. "Even though she proclaimed her innocence, the jury had plenty of evidence. At least nine of her neighbors had made the trip to Salem to relate the damage she had done them over the years, from drowning their oxen to flinging cats through second-story windows to gnaw at their throats."[18] Even her personal neatness was taken as a proof of devotion to the devil.

Her neighbors, ten in all, testified to her many deeds of witchcraft:[15]

  1. John Allen, flew over a bridge, enchanted and drowned his oxen.
  2. John Atkinson, bewitched a cow so it broke its ropes and ran away
  3. Bernard Peach, (1) entered his bedroom and lay upon him two hours so he couldn’t move until he bit her fingers, disappeared leaving drops of blood, but no footsteps in the the snow, (2) he struck her spectre with a stick and made her disappear, later rumored she had a broken head
  4. Robert Downer, a cat came in his window, and clawed his throat in his bed, only prayer made it fly out the window
  5. John Kimball, (1) caused his cow to die, (2) caused a puppy to attack him and disappear into the ground, another larger puppy attacked which nearly killed him before he prayed and it vanished
  6. William Brown, bewitched his wife and made her insane
  7. Sarah Atkinson, walked from Amesbury to Newbury in bad weather and entered her house completely neat and dry.
  8. John Pressey, (1) became bewildered in a field at night, saw a light, struck at it 40 times with a stick, and nearly fell into a pit, then saw Susannah Martin nearby, (2) she said he would never have more than two cows, and for twenty years he never had more than two
  9. Jarvis Ring, troubled him in his bed at night and bit his finger
  10. Joseph Ring, carried by daemons to witches meeting for two years

These testimonies are recounted in depth on pages 138 to 148 of "The Wonders of the Invisible World" by the father and son, Rev. Dr. Increase Mather, President of Harvard College, and Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, Pastor of Boston North Church.[19]

Execution

"The court met again on Wednesday, the 29th of June; and, after trial, sentenced to death Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How, Susannah Martin, and Rebecca Nurse, who were all executed on the 19th of July."[20][21]

Where was she buried?

Tradition and speculation offers at least two alternatives. First, the victims were buried on the site of execution. In 1700, Joseph Calef recounted a gruesome eye-witness account of the burial of George Burroughs and other victims, “...when he was cut down, he was dragged by the Halter to a Hole, or Grave, between the Rocks, about two Foot deep...together with Willard and Carryer, one of his Hands and his Chin, and a Foot of one of them left uncovered.”[22] This burial, however, seems discounted by recent research, which shows the shallow soil lacking indications of human remains.[23] The second popular alternative is that the families removed the bodies at night and buried them in secret locations. While, there appears to be no credible documentary evidence of either possibility, surreptitious removal of the bodies by family seems more likely.

Memorial by John Greenleaf Whittier, a Descendant

Let Goody Martin rest in peace, I never knew her harm a fly,
And witch or not — God knows — not I.
I know who swore her life away;
And as God lives, I'd not condemn
An Indian dog on word of them.[24]

Susannah Martin House Marker, Amesbury, Massachusetts

"Here stood the house of Susannah Martin. An honest, hardworking, Christian woman. Accused as a witch, tried and executed at Salem, July 19, 1692. A martyr of superstition."[25]

Massachusetts Remediation

  1. 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.[26]
  2. 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead [For Susannah Martin, no compensation because survivors did not petition][26]
  3. 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.[27]
  4. 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.[28]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Greene, Richard L. The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/12963/70/0
  2. Great Migration Newsletter, V.1-20.(Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1567/rd/21167/23/426828965
  3. “Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 : Salisbury (Mass.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Topsfield, Mass., Topsfield historical society, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofsa00sali/page/415/mode/1up/search/Martyn.
  4. Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Online($) at Ancestry.com
  5. U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Online($) at Ancestry.com
  6. “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/268/mode/1up.
  7. “Imp.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 10, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imp.
  8. “Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts : Essex County (Mass.). Quarterly Courts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Salem, Mass. : Essex Institute, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/recordsfilesofqu04esse/page/129/mode/1up.
  9. “Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts : Essex County (Mass.). Quarterly Courts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Salem, Mass. : Essex Institute, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/recordsfilesofqu04esse/page/184/mode/1up/search/Martyn.
  10. “Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts : Essex County (Mass.). Quarterly Courts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Salem, Mass. : Essex Institute, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/recordsfilesofqu04esse/page/186/mode/1up.
  11. “Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts : Essex County (Mass.). Quarterly Courts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Salem, Mass. : Essex Institute, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/recordsfilesofqu05esse/page/297/mode/1up.
  12. “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/145/mode/1up.
  13. “The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of ... : Cotton Mather , Increase Mather : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. J.R. Smith, January 1, 1862. https://archive.org/details/wondersinvisibl04mathgoog/page/n175/mode/1up/search/Martin.
  14. Essex County Court Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 1, no. 171. Warrant: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca/large/ecca1171r.jpg Return signed by Orlando Bagley: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/archives/ecca/large/ecca1171v.jpg
  15. 15.0 15.1 The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 092) Susannah Martin
  16. Baker, Emerson W. Storm of Witchcraft. New York, NY: Oxford Univ Press, 2016. p. 23.
  17. “Familiar.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 21, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiar.
  18. Diane E. Foulds. Death in Salem: The Private Lives behind the 1692 Witch Hunt (Kindle Locations 743-745). Kindle Edition.
  19. “The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of ... : Cotton Mather , Increase Mather : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. J.R. Smith, January 1, 1862. https://archive.org/details/wondersinvisibl04mathgoog/page/n165/mode/1up/search/Martin.
  20. “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/268.
  21. The old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts ; with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton. Accessed February 28, 2020. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924025963772#page/n254/mode/1up.
  22. “More Wonders of the Invisible World: or, The Wonders of the Invisible World, Display'd in Five Parts. Part I. An Account of the Sufferings of Margaret Rule, Written by the Reverend Mr. C.M. P. II. Several Letters to the Author, &c. And His Reply Relating to Witchcraft. P. III. The Differences between the Inhabitants of Salem Village, and Mr. Parris Their Minister, in New-England. P. IV. Letters of a Gentleman Uninterested, Endeavouring to Prove the Received Opinions about Witchcraft to Be Orthodox. With Short Essays to Their Answers. P. V. A Short Historical Accout [!] of Matters of Fact in That Affair. To Which Is Added, a Postscript Relating to a Book Entitled, The Life of Sir William Phips : Calef, Robert, 1648-1719 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. London, Printed for Nath. Hillar... and Joseph Collyer..., January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/morewondersofinv1700cale/page/104/mode/1up.
  23. Baker, Emerson W. “The Gallows Hill Project.” Emerson W. Baker - UpcomingTalks. Accessed February 28, 2020. http://w3.salemstate.edu/~ebaker/Gallows_Hill.
  24. “The Poetical Works Of John Greenleaf Whittier : Oxford University Press London : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.182965/page/n83/mode/1up.
  25. “Susannah Martin House Marker.” Salem Witch Museum. Accessed February 28, 2020. https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/susannah-martin-house-marker/.
  26. 26.0 26.1 “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. Vol 2, page 480.
  27. https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
  28. “Chapter 122.” Session Law - Acts of 2001 Chapter 122. Accessed February 29, 2020. https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122.

See also:

  • Wikipedia: Susannah Martin
  • Wikidata: Item Q7648730, en:Wikipedia help.gif
  • Find A Grave: Memorial #8292, Burying Point Cemetery, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts.
  • Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive. Accessed February 29, 2020. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html.
  • Entries from Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt Linked to Digital Facsimile Images. Accessed February 29, 2020. http://www.17thc.us/primarysources/records.php.
  • Godbeer, R. (1992). The devil's dominion: Magic and religion in early New England. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
  • Greene, David L. "Salem Witches III: Susanna Martin," The American Genealogist, v. 58, 1982, no. 4, pages 193-204.
  • The English Origins Of Richard North And His Daughter, Susanna (North) Martin, Executed For Witchcraft In 1692, The American Genealogist, 68:65-70 [1993]
  • Greene, David L. "George Martin Of Ipswich," The American Genealogist, 56:155-159 [1980]
  • Karlsen, C. F. (1987). The devil in the shape of a woman: Witchcraft in colonial New England. New York: Norton.
  • Robinson, E. A. (1991). The devil discovered: Salem witchcraft 1692. New York: Hippocrene Books.
  • Merrill, J. (1880). History of Amesbury: Including the first seventeen years of Salisbury, to the separation in 1654, and Merrimac, from its incorporation in 1876. Haverhill [Mass.: F.P. Stiles.
  • Pulsifer, S. F. N. (1967). Witch's breed: The Peirce-Nichols family of Salem. Cambridge, Mass: Dresser, Chapman & Grimes.
  • Susannah Martin, Accused Witch from Salisbury," History of Massachusetts
  • “Massachusetts Clears 5 From Salem Witch Trials.” The New York Times. The New York Times, November 2, 2001. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/us/massachusetts-clears-5-from-salem-witch-trials.html.
  • Salem Witchcraft : Frederick Ungar Publishing, New York 1v.1 p. 427, v.2 pp. 145, 268
  • Pendery, Joyce S., Descendants of George and Margery Wathen of Salem, Massachusetts, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2000) Vol. 154, Page 342-3.
  • "She had been successfully defended against earlier accusations of witchcraft in 1660 and 1669 by her husband, but his death [in 1686] made her vulnerable to renewed accusations in 1692. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem, "The Witch's Daughter," about Goody Martin, her [step-]daughter Hannah, and her son-in-law Ezekiel Worthen."
  • The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1895) Page 62-7.
  • The Poem "The Witch's Daughter" was originally published in The National Era in 1857.

Add new comment