Mercy Wilson

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 21 Aug 1717

Mercy married Simon Daby on 22 Jan 1738. Simon (son of John Daby and Hannah Butterick) was born on 27 Feb 1714 in Stow, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 18 Dec 1802 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts; was buried in Harvard Center Cemetery, Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. John Daby was born on 24 Mar 1741 in Harvard, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Notes:

Andover vital records consistently spell his surname "Willson."

Of their fourteen children, two (Mercy, eldest, and John, third) survived to adulthood. Two died in infancy; eight died in November 1738 of the "throat distemper" epidemic that swept Essex County from 1735 to 1740, and their two last children died in October 1747, ages six and eight.

John married Mercy Wright on 21 Jun 1716 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Mercy (daughter of John Wright and Mercy Wardwell) died on 14 Feb 1759 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a cooper.

Joseph married Sarah Lord on 24 Apr 1678 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of Robert Lord and Mary Waite) was born about 1658 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 21 May 1727 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Sarah Lord Wilson was arrested with several others after a 'touch test' in Andover on 7 Sep 1692 that was conducted under the auspices of the Rev. Thomas Barnard. Her 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, was likewise arrested. Both Sarah and her daughter, Sarah, spent several weeks imprisoned (hellishly). Sarah's son, John, married the granddaughter of Samuel Wardwell. The Sarahs were released on bond and escaped being hanged; however, she and her daughter endured the unpleasant nature of prison life. They appeared in the Superior Court of the Judicature at Ipswich and were cleared in May 1693." [John M. Switlik, citation details below]

John married Mercy Wardwell on 31 Aug 1697 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Mercy (daughter of Samuel Wardwell and Sarah Hooper) was born on 3 Oct 1673 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 16 Feb 1754 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Mary Wardwell. She, her parents, and her half-sister (Sarah Hawkes, her mother's daughter by her first husband) were accused of witchcraft in the course of the great insanity. Her father was convicted and hung on 22 Sep 1692. At a new court convened on 10 Jan 1693, she and her half-sister were acquitted, but her mother was convicted. Subsequently her mother was pardoned by Governor William Phips and thus escaped execution.

Notes:

Emigrated in 1635 and settled at Boston. He was a joiner. On 20 Nov 1637, he was one of the Boston men disarmed because of their support for Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright. Ironically, later he was Suffolk county deputy marshal and keeper of Boston's prison.

William married Patience Grindall on 6 Oct 1634 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. Patience died before 1659 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William Wilson was her second husband; she previously married at Boston, Lincolnshire, 28 Aug 1627, James Trustrome or Trustrum, who was buried there 31 Mar 1631.

Notes:

Emigrated in 1635. He was town clerk and clerk of the writs for Ipswich for many years. Deputy for Ipswich to the general court, 12 Mar 1638.

Robert Lord = Mary Waite
Robert Lord = Hannah Day
John Lord = Elizabeth Clarke
Thomas Lord = Elizabeth Clarke
Miriam Lord = Richard Manning
Elizabeth Clarke Manning = Nathaniel Hathorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Robert married Mary Waite on 11 Nov 1630 in Finchingfield, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a weaver.

Walter married Susanna Johnson on 26 Feb 1667 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Susanna (daughter of John Johnson and Susan) was born about 1648 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 3 Jun 1684 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a carpenter by trade, and enjoyed telling fortunes to the town youth of Andover. He probably practiced some form of folk magic. On 22 Sep 1692, at Salem, he became the last man in America to be hung for witchcraft.

From Wikipedia (accessed 3 May 2020):

Samuel Wardwell was a man accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692. He was executed by hanging on September 22, 1692, along with Alice Parker, Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Ann Pudeator, Mary Parker, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott.

Wardwell was born on May 16, 1643, to Thomas Wardwell and Elizabeth Woodruff in Boston, Massachusetts. His father had been a follower of John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson.

Samuel's wife, Sarah, controlled a one hundred and eighty-eight-acre estate, which she had inherited from her first husband, Adam Hawkes, upon his death. The Province of Massachusetts Bay passed a law which provided attainder for "conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits", which meant the loss of civil, inheritance, and property rights of those accused.

William Baker Jr., 14 years old, accused Samuel, Sarah, and their 19-year-old daughter Mercy Wardwell of witchcraft. All three confessed the very day they were interrogated.

Samuel was executed at Proctor's Ledge in Salem after retracting a "forced" confession. Eventually his widow, Sarah Wardwell, was reprieved and released. In 1712, after Sarah died, their son, Samuel Wardwell Jr., was left destitute and later sued the Colony, winning some compensation for the family's ordeals.

Samuel married Sarah Hooper on 9 Jan 1673 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of William Hooper and Elizabeth) was born on 7 Dec 1650 in Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died between 1703 and 19 Feb 1712 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 19 Feb 1712

Notes:

She, her husband, their daughter Mercy, and her daughter by her first marriage Sarah Hawkes, were accused of witchcraft in the course of the great insanity. Her husband was convicted and hung on 22 Sep 1692. At a new court convened on 10 Jan 1693, her daughters were both acquitted, but she was convicted. Subsequently she was pardoned by Governor William Phips and thus escaped execution.

She died in Andover some time after 1703, when (along with her son Samuel) she signed a petition for the lifting of attainder, and before 19 Feb 1712, when Samuel referred to her as deceased.

William married Alice. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Thomas Lechford's notebook of notarial records from early Boston, Massachusetts, first published in 1885 and reprinted by Picton Press in 1988, includes an 24 Oct 1638 indenture between, on the one hand, William and Patience Wilson of Boston, Massachusetts, and on the other John Tinker of the same, Tinker to sell certain property of theirs toward the paying thje debts of William Wilson's late father, also named William, and to bring Alice, mother of the younger William Wilson, to New England. There is no record that the latter actually happened, and the burial of an Alice Wilson is recorded on 9 Sep 1639 in Donington, Lincolnshire.

Samuel married Mary Ward. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Emigrated in 1635 on the James. First at Ipswich, then Andover in 1657. He was a shoemaker.

John married Susan before 1631. Susan was born about 1611; died on 12 Sep 1683 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was a shoemaker and an innkeeper. He emigrated in about 1634. First at Boston, where, with his brother William Wardwell, he was a follower of Anne Marbury Hutchinson. Both Wardwell brothers were consequently disarmed and left for Exeter in 1639 with the Rev. John Wheelwright. He and his brother were both signers of the Exeter Combination. In Exeter, he was sergeant of the train band, and was the only man in town allowed to sell alcoholic beverages.

From the fact that he first appears in the record upon admission to the Boston church on 9 Nov 1634, and his obvious association with Mrs. Hutchinson and the Rev. Wheeler, it seems very likely that he crossed the Atlantic in 1634 on the Griffin, on the same journey as William and Anne Marbury Hutchinson and their ten children.

According to Robert Charles Anderson (citation details below), he returned to Boston in 1646, dying there on 10 September of that year. According to Marjorie Wardwell Otten (citation details below), he died on that date in Exeter. It is certain that his death was recorded in the Boston records (NEHGR 9:166, Apr 1855), but that doesn't completely establish where he actually died.

Thomas married Elizabeth before 1632. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Often said, without proof, to have been Elizabeth Woodruff. Her maiden name and origins are in fact unknown.

Notes:

First appears at Reading, Massachusetts in 1645. Robert Charles Anderson has pointed out that, contrary to Savage and Pope, there is no particularly reason to suppose that this William Hooper was the same as the man of that name who appears on the passenger list of the James in 1635.

William married Elizabeth. Elizabeth died before 14 Dec 1664. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William Hooper called Capt. Thomas Marshall "brother", from which it has been supposed that she was a sister to Thomas Marshall.

Notes:

Described in the ODNB entry on his son Samuel Ward as "a man of 'more ancientry than estate'", and in the entry on his son Nathaniel as "lecturer successively of Haverhill, Writtle in Essex, and Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk".

John married Susan. Susan died after 1638. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]