{"id":9155,"date":"2023-01-12T11:01:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T16:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/?p=9155"},"modified":"2023-01-12T11:01:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T16:01:43","slug":"defenders-of-the-accused-in-the-salem-witch-trials-1692-10-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/defenders-of-the-accused-in-the-salem-witch-trials-1692-10-18.html","title":{"rendered":"Defenders of the accused in the Salem Witch Trials 1692-10-18"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThe Salem Witch Trials took place all over Massachusetts colony.\r\nIn Andover, almost everyone accused confessed, but, according to a petition mentioned in a TV show:\r\n“from the information we have had and\r\nthe discourse some of us have had with the prisoners, we have reason\r\nto think that the extream urgency that was used with some of them by\r\ntheir friends and others who privately examined them, and the fear\r\nthey were then under, hath been an inducement to them to own such\r\nthings, as we cannott since find thay are conscious of;”\r\nI was familiar with that since some of my ancestors defended some of the accused,\r\nand more ancestors moved south after that nightmare.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Petition<\/a>\r\n
Petition and chart<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGretchen and I were watching\r\n\r\nSalem’s Lot<\/a>, Season 9, Episode 2, of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.\r\n

\r\nAn ancestor of guest Jeff Daniels signed a peition on behalf of their wives and daughters who had been accused of being witches.\r\nThis petition was\r\n\r\n from Andover, to the Massachusetts General Court,\r\nOctober 18, 1692.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Petition<\/a>\r\n
Petition of Twenty-six Andover Men on Behalf of Their Wives and Daughters 1692-10-18<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nI’ve been to Andover, because some of my ancestors came from there,\r\nbefore they moved to South Carolina after some of their relatives were\r\naccused of being witches.\r\n

\r\nJust below the name of Jeff Daniel’s ancestor, Thomas Chandler,\r\nis Christopher Osgood.\r\nBingo, that’s my ancestor’s brother.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Capt.<\/a>\r\n
Capt. Christopher Osgood<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCaptain Christopher Osgood was my\r\ngreat-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle.\r\nCapt. Christopher remained in Andover, and has descendants there to this day.\r\nThe show mentioned his daughter, “Mary Manston”.\r\nWe have her as Mary Osgood married John Marston.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Five<\/a>\r\n
Five generations<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nChristopher’s brother Thomas Osgood and family, including his son Thomas Osgood,\r\nmoved to South Carolina after that unpleasantness.\r\nI’m not sure which of his relatives was accused.\r\nAccording to The Salem Witch Museum, More About Welcome to Andovver<\/a>,\r\n“Altogether, 45 people from Andover were accused of witchcraft in 1692, more than any other Essex County town.”\r\nThe show kept referring to North Andover. However, according to the Museum,\r\n“In 1692, Andover consisted of present-day Andover, North Andover, and the part of Lawrence that is on the south side of the Merrimack River.”\r\n

\r\nAlso signing were Timothy Osgood, Samuel Osgoode, hooker Osgood, and John Osgood.\r\nI don’t know who Timothy, Samuel, or hooker Osgood were,\r\nprobably because I didn’t follow lines that stayed in Massachusetts.\r\n

\r\nBut John Osgood was an uncle of Capt. Christopher and Thomas Osgood.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[John<\/a>\r\n
John Osgood<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nChristopher signed two other petitions started by John Osgood<\/a>,\r\nand was involved in \r\nExaminations of Mary Lacey, Jr. , Mary Lacey, Sr. , Ann Foster , Richard Carrier , and Andrew Carrier<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nJohn Osgood was involved in or mentioned in fourteen<\/a>\r\npetitions, examinations, records, and other documents, including about restitution many years later.\r\nJohn Osgood did not see many of those, since he died in 1963.\r\n

\r\nChristopher Osgood and his wife Susannah Lord were among the group who\r\nsent her nephew Joseph Lord to Harvard to become a minister,\r\nafter which they went to South Carolina, where French Huguenots\r\nof a similar Calvinist persuasion were settling.\r\n

\r\nTwo of Christopher and Suwannah’s children married Way siblings,\r\nchildren of William Way, who had defended accused relatives in Dorchester, Mass.\r\nYes, that William Way was also my ancestor.\r\nAs were a bunch of other people who defended the accused.\r\nFor more about that, see\r\nQuarterman Family\r\nof Liberty County, Georgia\r\nand Relatives<\/a>,\r\nby Jane Quarterman Comer,\r\nDavid Leon Quarterman,\r\nStephen Patrick Quarterman,\r\nJohn Sinclair Quarterman.\r\nIt includes a chart of the accused whom William Way defended.\r\n

\r\nHere is a transcription of the Petition mentioned in the TV show.\r\nSalem Witch Trials, Documentary Archive and Transcription Project,\r\nSWP No. 167.2<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n(Petition of Twenty-six Andover Men on Behalf of Their Wives and Daughters )\r\n

\r\n[October 18, 1692]\r\n

\r\nTo his Excellency the Governour, and Councill, &\r\nRepresentatives, now Assembled at Boston. The Humble Address of the\r\nministers, and of some of the Inhabitants of Andover. We being\r\ndeeply sensible of the heavy judgment that the Righteous God hath\r\nbrought upon this place, thought it our duty (after our earnest\r\nprayers to the God of Heaven, to give us help from our trouble) to\r\nlay before this Honourable Assembly, our present distressed estate,\r\nand to crave a redress of our greivances. It is well known that many\r\npersons of this Town, have been accused of witchcraft, by some\r\ndistempered persons in these parts and upon complaint made have been\r\napprehended and committed to prison. Now though we would not appear\r\nas Advocates for any who shall be found guilty of so horrid a crime,\r\nbut we heartily desire that this place, and the whole land, may be\r\npurged from that great wickedness: yet if any of our #[freinds]\r\nfriends and neighbours have been misrepresented, as tis possible\r\nsome of them have been; wee would crave leave (if it might be\r\nwithout offence) to speak something in their behalf, haveing no\r\nother desighn therein, then that the truth may appear. We can truly\r\ngive this Testimony of the most of them belonging to this Town, that\r\nhave been accused, that they never gave the least occasion (as we\r\nhear of) to their neerest relations or most intimate acquaintance,\r\nto suspect them of witchcraft. Severall of the women that are\r\naccused were members of this church in full Communion, and had\r\nobtained a good report, for their blameless conversation, and their\r\nwalking as becometh woemen professing godliness. But whereas it may\r\nbe alledged, that the most of our people that have been apprehended\r\nfor witchcraft, have upon Examination confessed it. To which we\r\nAnswer that we have nothing to plead for those that freely and upon\r\nconviction own themselves guilty; but we apprehend the case of some\r\nof them to be otherwise. for from the information we have had and\r\nthe discourse some of us have had with the prisoners, we have reason\r\nto think that the extream urgency that was used with some of them by\r\ntheir friends and others who privately examined them, and the fear\r\nthey were then under, hath been an inducement to them to own such\r\nthings, as we cannott since find thay are conscious of; and the\r\ntruth of what we now declare, we judge will in time more plainly\r\nappear. And some of them have exprest to their neighbours that it\r\nhath been their great trouble, that they have wronged themselves and\r\nthe truth in their confessions.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWe are also very sensible of the disstressed condition of severall\r\npoor familyes, on whom this great trouble is fallen; some #[more] of\r\nour neighbors are like to be impoverished & ruin’d by the great\r\ncharge they are at to maintain such of their familyes as are in\r\nPrison, and by the fees that are demanded of them, whose case we\r\npray may be considered.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nOur troubles which hitherto have been great, we foresee are like to\r\ncontinue and increase, if other methods be not taken then as yet\r\nhave been, for there are more of our neighb’rs of good reputation\r\n& approved integrity, who are still accused, and complaints have\r\nbeen made against them, And we know not who can think himself safe,\r\nif the Accusations of children and others who are under a\r\nDiabolicall influence shall be received against persons of good\r\nfame.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWe thought meet also to Signifye that not only persons of good\r\ncreditt among our selves, but some Honorable & worthy men of\r\nother places, do suffer in their names by the acusations of\r\nafflicted people in this Town\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThus haveing given your Honors some account of our present troubles,\r\nwe crave pardon for our boldness in this Address, and humbly pray\r\nthis Honored Court to take into their serious consideration our low\r\nand distressed estate: And that the only wise God may bless yo’r\r\ncounsels & Endeavors for the welfare of his people, shall be the\r\nprayer of Your humble Petitioners\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nDated at Andov’r 18’th Oct. 1692.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
*Timothy Osgood\r\n
*Samuel Osgoode\r\n
*Samuel Martin\r\n
*William Chandler\r\n
*William abbutt\r\n
*Thomas Chandler\r\n
*Christopher osgood\r\n
*Ebenezer Barker\r\n
*Stephen Barnott\r\n
*Joseph Marble\r\n
*Ephraim Daviss\r\n
*Andrew peeters\r\n
*Walter Rice\r\n
*hooker osgood\r\n
*Francis Dane sen’r\r\n
*Thomas Barnard\r\n
*John Osgood\r\n
*Thomas Johnson\r\n
*Nathaniel Dane\r\n
*Hopestil Tiler\r\n
*Ephraim Steevens\r\n
*John Aslebee\r\n
*James Frie\r\n
*Joseph Willson\r\n
*Joseph Steevens\r\n
*Thomas Chandler Jun’r\r\n

\r\n( Mass. Archives Vol. 135 No. 61, Massachusetts State Archives,Boston, MA.)\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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