Mary Perkins b. Bef 3 Sep 1615 d. 20 Dec 1700 Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts: NH genealogy

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Bef 1615 - 1700 (> 85 years)

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Name Mary Perkins [1, 2]

Birth Bef 3 Sep 1615 [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Baptism 3 Sep 1615 Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Gender Female

Death 20 Dec 1700 Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts [3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9]

Siblings 3 siblings

+	1. John Perkins , b. Bef 14 Sep 1609 d. 14 Dec 1686, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 77 years) ▻ Elizabeth , m. Bef 1636
+	2. Elizabeth Perkins , b. Bef 25 Mar 1611 d. Bef 18 Sep 1670 (Age < 59 years) ▻ William Sargent
+	3. Mary Perkins , b. Bef 3 Sep 1615 d. 20 Dec 1700, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 85 years) ▻ Capt. Thomas Bradbury , m. Abt 1636
+	4. Jacob Perkins , b. Bef 12 Jul 1624 d. 27 Jan 1700, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 75 years) ▻ Elizabeth , m. Abt 1648

Person ID I35244 Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of JDM

Last Modified 25 May 2021

Father	John Perkins, b. Bef 23 Dec 1583 d. Between 28 Mar 1654 and 26 Sep 1654, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 70 years)
Mother	Judith Gater, b. Bef 19 Mar 1589 d. Aft 26 Sep 1654 (Age > 65 years)
Marriage	8 Oct 1608	St. John the Baptist, Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England [6, 10, 11]
Family ID	F9093	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Capt. Thomas Bradbury, b. Bef 28 Feb 1611 d. 16 Mar 1695, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age > 84 years)

Marriage Abt 1636 [3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14]

Children

+	1. Mary Bradbury, b. 17 Mar 1643, Salisbury, Merrimack, New Hampshire d. 29 May 1724 (Age 81 years)

Family ID F20705 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 25 May 2021

Notes

She was accused of witchcraft in 1692, put on trial, and despite much testimony to her good character, convicted. For reasons lost to history, however, she was never executed, and she lived another eight years.

From Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Volume 2 (citation details below):

Mrs. Bradbury in her old age was tried for witchcraft and convicted July 28, 1692. The evidence in her defense is a fine testimonial to a worthy life. Her husband's testimony was: "We have been married fifty-five years, and she has been a loving and faithful wife unto me unto this day. She hath been wonderful laborious, diligent and industrious in her place and employment about the bringing up of our family which have been eleven children and four grandchildren. She was both prudent and provident, of a cheerful spirit, liberal and charitable. She being now very aged and weak, and grieved under afiflictions, may not be able to speak much for herself, not being so free of speech as some others might be. I hope her life and conversation among her neighbors has been such as gives a better or more real testimony than can be expressed by words." One hundred and eighteen of her friends signed a statement commending her good character: "she was a lover of the ministry in all appearance, and a diligent attender upon God's holy ordinances, being of a courteous and peaceable disposition and carriage, neither did any of us (some of whom have lived in the town with her above fifty years) ever hear or know that she had any difference or falling out with any of her neighbors, man woman or child, but was always ready to do for them what lay in her power, night and day, though with hazard of her health and other danger."

Rev. James Allen, her pastor, said: "I having lived nine years at Salisbury, in the work of the ministry and now four years in the office of pastor, to my best notice and observation of Mrs. Bradbury, she hath lived according to the rules of the Gospel amongst us; was a constant attender upon the ministry of the word, and all the ordinances of the gospel full of works of charity and mercy to the sick and poor; neither have I seen or heard anything of her unbecoming the profession of the gospel." The evidence against her was as scant as it was nonsensical. Mrs. Bradbury was defended by Major Robert Pike. She was convicted with four others who were hanged in September, 1692. Mrs. Bradbury's execution was postponed, why we know not, but the delusion passed and her life was spared.

Sources

[S5807] The Cilley Pages by Mark Cilley, at cilley.net, via the Wayback Machine at archive.org.
[S5819] Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts ed. William Richard Cutter. Volume 2. New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1908.
[S5811] Robert Charles Anderson and John B. Threlfall, "Ancestor Table for Thomas Bradbury of Agementicus and Salisbury (1611-1665)." The American Genealogist 55:1, 1979.
[S5817] Marshall K. Kirk, posthumously edited by Martin E. Hollick, "A Probable Royal Descent for Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 161:27, 2007.
[S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008.
[S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England,1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.
[S5861] The Ancestry of Thomas Bradbury (1611-1695) and His Wife Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (1615-1700) of Salisbury, Massachusetts by John Brooks Threlfall. 2nd edition. Madison, Wisconsin, 1995.
[S5810] Mary Lovering Holman, "The Bradbury Family." The American Genealogist 18:220, 1941; 19:36, 1942., date only.
[S5818] Bradbury Memorial: Records of Some of the Descendants of Thomas Bradbury of Agamenticus (York) in 1634 andof Salisbury, Mass., in 1638, compiled from the collections of John Merrill Bradbury by William Berry Lapham. Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston & Company, 1890., date only.
[S2005] The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes 1759-1820 of Topsfield, Massachusetts by Walter Goodwin Davis. Portland, Maine: The Anthoensen Press, 1959., says "October 9, 1608".
[S5861] The Ancestry of Thomas Bradbury (1611-1695) and His Wife Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (1615-1700) of Salisbury, Massachusetts by John Brooks Threlfall. 2nd edition. Madison, Wisconsin, 1995., says "9 Oc. 1608".
[S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England,1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011., "By 1637".
[S5810] Mary Lovering Holman, "The Bradbury Family." The American Genealogist 18:220, 1941; 19:36, 1942.
[S5818] Bradbury Memorial: Records of Some of the Descendants of Thomas Bradbury of Agamenticus (York) in 1634 andof Salisbury, Mass., in 1638, compiled from the collections of John Merrill Bradbury by William Berry Lapham. Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston & Company, 1890.