Witch Hunt

23/05/2025

https://connecticutwitchtrials.org/connecticut-witch-trial-victims-memorial-message-wall/

On this page, visitors can leave respectful messages in memory of the victims of the Connecticut Witch Trials.

22/05/2025

22/05/2025

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIz3vKHO9eBrUZu7xnQKKxH7n3eLBSvMI&si=CN4FGtczd1l9dbcB

Special episode series presented by Dr. Richard Raiswell on his specialized research on the devil, witchcraft and witch hunts.

22/05/2025

The Witch of Berkeley

The woman has two surviving, adult children. One's now a monk, the other one's a nun. She lives alone. There's no mention of a husband, any male relative or anything like that. She's older. She's probably in her forties, maybe fifties, that sort of age. And she's clearly a solitary figure. And, she has, of all things, a pet raven. We are told in this story that she's accustomed to using demons to work sorcery, but it isn't really clear what she used to do with it. The text just says that she used sorcery to fuel her greed and her lust, but she's very, very poor. She's alone. And obviously she's not conjuring up piles of wealth or anything like that. She, you'd think she could do a bit better for herself if she was doing that.

But nevertheless, the story goes on. The raven tells her one day that she's about to die. So she calls her kids, the monk and the nun, and she admits to them that she's practiced the demonic arts for much of her life, but she hoped that the piety of her two children would maybe benefit her soul so she could still be saved, perhaps. And what she tells them is, she says, when I die, sew my body into the skin of a deer. Then put that into a stone coffin, seal the coffin with lead, bind it with iron chains. Then she says to the kids, arrange for a chorus of monks to sing Psalms and say masses for her for 50 days and nights afterwards. And if demons are not able to take her body away after three days, then the kids get to bury it.

So the kids do all of this for dear old mom. The monks sing away. And through the first two nights, demons try to break in and take her body away, but they can't get past all the chains and the seal and so on. But on the third day, the story goes, a huge demon smashed his way into the church where she was, where her body was, called the woman in the tomb, telling her to get up. The demon breaks the chains, and drags the woman off on a black horse covered with iron spikes. Wow. And her wretched cries apparently could be heard for four miles as they rode away. That's it. That's the story.

21/05/2025

DAY 4 of REMEMBERING ALICE 'ALSE' YOUNG, New England's first witch trial victim to hang.
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF A 1647 EPIDEMIC: Distribution, Patterns and Frequency in Windsor, Connecticut
Epidemiology helps to explain why Alice ‘Alse’ Young was accused of witchcraft in the spring of 1647. As explained in the previous post, the first influenza epidemic documented in colonial New England happened in the year of 1647. Alice Young lived with her husband at their home lot on Backer Row.

The distribution, pattern and frequency of this epidemic disease serve as the most likely keys to explain the witchcraft accusations against Young. The Matthew Grant Diary, mentioned in Day 2 of this remembrance series, has critical vital statistics pertaining to the deaths in Windsor in 1647. The death rate that year was more than four times the death rate of the previous year: 27 deaths in 1647 compared to 6 deaths in 1646 listed in the records.

Most of these deaths were distributed among the children of Windsor with the highest prevalence among them on Backer Row. The disease struck the vulnerable of all classes including two children of the minister John Warham (Hepsiba and Samuel), a child of the town doctor, Bray Rossiter (Timothy), children of town magistrates (Phelps), and more. Other families with at least two deaths were the Haywards and “2 children dyed” of Samuel Ponds. The elderly wife of a John Porter fell to the disease as well.

But the most devastation took place in the household of Thomas and Ann Thornton who lived on Backer Row. The Thorntons lost four children during 1647, who ranged in age from two to thirteen. Matthew Grant names three of these children (Thomas, Priscilla, and Ann). A fourth child (Samuel) disappears from the records after the year 1647. ALICE YOUNG WAS THE FAMILY’S NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR. HER ONE CHILD LIVED THROUGH THE EPIDEMIC. There were other children that died on Backer Row too. Sara Sension lived there and perished. Another deceased mentioned, “a Hoyte child” could have also resided there depending which Hoyt the writer of the record was referring to.

While the vitals statistics of mortality in 1647 do not name influenza specifically as the cause of death, in listing the names, Matthew Grant frequently points out that they are children. Children are the most common victims of most types of influenza. (Children are still hospitalized and die from this disease today). Of note, there are others listed that I also recognize were children from historical data that he does not qualify as such. On many occasions there was more than one death in the family also suggesting that the probable cause was due to the epidemic.

The main point from the post today is that Alice Young’s placement in Windsor on Backer Row, a small street in the heart of the epidemic, with the highest cluster of deaths at her next-door neighbor’s house, could have given suspicious people pause. Lacking understanding of science, steeped in religiosity and fear, people may have scapegoated her as the cause of these deaths through witchcraft because of her proximity to them. Of course, there were probably other factors which are hard to evaluate due to lack of records. Please enjoy the image of the map I pieced together of the residents of Backer Row in 1647 with the help of Dr. Yunliang Meng. This is a copyrighted image from my novel One of Windsor but may be used for educational purposes with acknowledgement.

Join me again tomorrow as we explore how the historical records pertaining to the Thornton family, the one so devastated by the epidemic of 1647 and the neighbor of Alice Young, may give us some more clues about this significant witch trial case.

21/05/2025

How do we know what happened during the Salem witch trials?

It is the end of the school year and we have been getting many questions from students finishing up academic projects, including questions about the Salem witch trials primary source material.

Our website includes many resources for learners of all ages, including a primary source guide. If you are a student, educator, parent (or history lover!) looking for resources about the Salem witch trials, make sure you check out our website: https://salemwitchmuseum.com/student-resources

21/05/2025

The Evolution of Diabolical Witchcraft Belief, Part 2

https://witchhuntshow.com/2025/05/20/the-evolution-of-diabolical-witchcraft-belief-part-2/

21/05/2025

The Evolution of Diabolical Witchcraft Belief, Part 1

This week, two new podcast episodes feature Professor Richard Raiswell discussing the evolution of witchcraft beliefs. The two-part series delves into the 15th-century connections between demonology and witch persecution, elaborating on how theological ideas about Satan fueled witch hunts. Both epis...

21/05/2025

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