Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Susanna North

Female Bef 1621 - 1692  (> 70 years)


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  • Name Susanna North 
    Birth Bef 30 Sep 1621  Olney, Buckinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Baptism 30 Sep 1621  Olney, Buckinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Female 
    Death 19 Jul 1692  Gallows Hill, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3, 4
    Person ID I5796  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 7 Jul 2018 

    Father Richard North,   b. Bef 1590, Olney, Buckinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Mar 1667, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 77 years) 
    Mother Joan Bartram   d. Aft 30 Sep 1621 
    Marriage 29 Nov 1610  Olney, Buckinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Family ID F3314  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family George Martin,   b. Abt 1618   d. Between 15 Mar 1686 and 15 Apr 1686, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 68 years) 
    Marriage 11 Aug 1646  Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3, 4, 5
    Children 
    +1. Abigail Martin,   b. 10 Sep 1659, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aft 2 Jul 1716 (Age > 57 years)
    Family ID F3303  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 7 Jul 2018 

  • Notes 
    • From Bonnie Johnson, Susanna North Martin:

      During the first 23 years of her marriage, Susanna's name appears twice in public records. In 1647 or 48 she was fined 20 shillings for an unnamed offense and in 1667 her husband George objected to her seat placement in the meeting house. Perhaps he felt it was below her station.

      From Wikipedia:

      In 1669, Susannah was first formally accused of witchcraft by William Sargent, Jr. In turn, George Martin sued Sargent for two counts of slander against Susannah, one for accusing her of being a witch, and another for claiming one of her sons was a bastard and another was her "imp". Martin withdrew the second count, but the Court upheld the accusation of witchcraft. A higher court later dismissed the witchcraft charges.

      From Bonnie Johnson, op. cit.:

      George [Martin] was awarded (in what appears to be a public insult) the amount of "a white wampam peague (colonial currency) or the eighth part of a penny damage" by the magistrates.

      From Kate Murphy, Susannah Martin:

      At the same time as the first accusations of witchcraft Susannah and her husband were involved in a series of legal battles over her inheritance. In [1667] her father, Richard North, died leaving two daughters, a granddaughter and his second wife to share his sizable estate. To the surprise of Susannah and her sister, they received only a tiny portion while the bulk of the estate passed to his second wife, who died soon after her husband. Susannah's stepmother left the majority of North's estate to his granddaughter, continuing the exclusion of Susannah and her sister. From 1671 to 1674 Susannah's husband and her sister pursued a series of appeals, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful.

      From Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, Susannah Martin: Accused Witch from Salisbury:

      [W]ith the death of her husband in 1686, Susannah was left a poor, defenseless widow. When she was accused of witchcraft for the final time in 1692, she had no one to come to her rescue.

      According to Susannah's arrest warrant, she was accused by the afflicted Salem village girls: Mary Walcott, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., and Mercy Lewis.

      Since they lived in different villages, it is not known how these girls knew Susannah, but it is possible they heard about her bad reputation from others and made the decision to accuse her.

      After her arrest in Amesbury on May 2, Susannah was brought to Salem where she was questioned by Judge John Hathorne and Judge Corwin and twice underwent a humiliating physical examination in an effort to find a witch's teet that prosecutors believed witches used to feed their familiars.

      No such mark was found but the examiner did make a note that "in the morning her nipples were found to be full as if the milk would come," but later in the day "her breasts were slack, as if milk had already been given to someone or something."

      From Kate Murphy, op. cit.:

      During the course of her examination and trial 15 of Martin's neighbors accused her of afflicting them through her specter, by pinching them or causing their farm animals to die. The Reverend Cotton Mather believed her to be "one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked Creatures in the World." Brave and outspoken, Martin refused to allow her accusers to shake her convictions. Standing in the courtroom, confronted by girls seemingly writhing from "afflictions" they blamed on her, Martin maintained that she only "desire[d] to lead my self according to the word of God." Asked what she then made of the afflicted girls, she courageously suggested that they might be the ones under the devil's influence, reminding the judges that, "He [the devil] that appeared in the sam[e] shape a glorifyed saint can appear in any ones shape." Her vehement denials made no difference; the court only took her defiance as proof of her reprobate character.

      See also the testimony against her by William Brown (1615-1706) and Jarvis Ring (1658-1728).

      From Bonnie Johnson, op. cit.:

      On Tuesday, July 19, 1692 Susanna Martin, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Wilde, and Elizabeth Howe were taken from their cells, put into a cart, and driven to Proctor's Ledge. While Rebecca Nurse prayed, Rev. Nicholas Noyes exhorted Sarah Good to confess saying, "You are a witch, and you know you are a witch." She replied, calling him a liar and saying that she was no more a witch than he was a wizard and...if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink." Tradition says that Rev. Noyes died of an internal hemorrhage, bleeding profusely from the mouth.

      From David L. Greene, "Salem Witches III: Susanna Martin", citation details below:

      In 1711, the General Court granted compensation to many of the victims or their heirs, but Susanna's children made no application to the authorities and they received nothing. Susanna was not among those whose attainder was lifted.

      From John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Witch's Daughter":

      "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."

  • Sources 
    1. [S2136] David L. Greene, "The English Origin of Richard North and His Daughter, Susanna2 (North) Martin, Executed for Witchcraft in 1692." The American Genealogist 68:65, April 1993.

    2. [S160] Wikipedia.

    3. [S619] David L. Greene, "Salem Witches III: Susanna Martin." The American Genealogist 58:193, October 1982; 59:11, January 1983.

    4. [S1409] Stone-Gregg Genealogy: The Ancestors and Descendants of Galen Luther Stone and His Wife Carrie Morton Gregg by Alicia Crane Williams. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1987.

    5. [S526] The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, With Some Related Families of Adjoining Towns and of York County, Maine, by David W. Hoyt. Providence, Rhode Island, 1897-1916., date only.