Witchcraft

Witchcraft in the olden days has been one of the most intriguing subjects of inquiry for both the serious scholar and the amateur. And there is perhaps no other field in which the professionals and the amateurs are so far apart in their approach and understanding. Professional historians are trained to perceive past events as they were perceived by people living at the time. Amateurs are more likely to look upon attitudes and behavior of past generations as quaint or cute or ignorant. Witches really lived for our seventeenth-century ancestors, and their presence made a real difference in their lives and actions. They were as real to them as germs are to us. The subject is treated in an excellent, fairly recent bibliography by Steven H. Keeney: "Witchcraft in Colonial Connecticut and Massachusetts: An Annotated Bibliography," in Bulletin of Bibliography and Magazine Notes 33(February-March, 1976)1:61 72. Keeney's annotations are lively and useful-- he pulls no punches when it comes to calling junk junk. There is much there not cited below, though we have listed the most significant works, including several not listed by Keeney.

The fullest Connecticut study is that of John M. Taylor, The Witchcraft Delusion in Connecticut 1647-1697(1908, reprinted by J. Edmund Edwards in Stratford 1969). Taylor discovered that the first witch ever hanged in New England was hanged in Connecticut--Alse Young in 1647 --but he focuses on Mercy Disborough of Fairfield (the Westport part), the subject of Connecticut' s most famous case. Taylor lists thirty-five names between 1647 and 1697 and two in the eighteenth century. Keeney considers Taylor's still the best study. William Holdsworth's dissertation pp. 386-407 has an excellent discussion of Connecticut witchcraft in which he makes a good case for the thesis that the early there (1647-1663) resulted from the many settlers who came from Essex in England where witch prosecutions were most numerous (p. 397-400).

1647-1663 Connecticut executed nine or eleven people for witchcraft - more than all the American colonies collectively before 1692!  P. 519.

Child, Frank Samuel. A Colonial Witch: Being a Study of the Black Art in the Colony of Connecticut. New York: Baker and Taylor, 1897. This work includes some fictional conversation, but Child had Taylor to rely on when he wrote it

"Connecticut Witches." New Haven Genealogical Magazine 4(1927):951-58. This article is the first to point out that Mary Johnson was found guilty of adultery, not witchcraft (See Holdsworth, below.) This is a nice bibliographic piece that critiques the published primary sources useful for a study of the topic. Substantively, the article deals only with Mary Johnson and Goodwife Bassett.

Cortesi, Lawrence. "Was Mercy in League with the Devil?" Connecticut Magazine 35(1972)8:26+. Mercy Disborough. A popular piece.

Hoadly, Charles J. "A Case of Witchcraft in Hartford." Connecticut Magazine 5(October, 1899)10. The case of Nathaniel Greensmith and his wife Rebecca, "a lewd, ignorant and considerably aged woman." They were condemned in 1662.

Holdsworth, William K. "Adultery or Witchcraft? A New Note on an Old Case in Connecticut" New England Quarterly 48(September, 1975):394-409. The author sorts out the versions of two trials and shows that there were two different Johnson women—Mary and Elizabeth-- and that the trial in 1650 condemned the latter to death for adultery, along with her correspondent, Thomas Newton. Apparently, however, neither was actually put to death. This is an important addition to the literature by the author of a mammoth dissertation on colonial Connecticut law and society. (See New Haven Genealogical Magazine below.) Perhaps the best most authoritative and up-to-date summary of Connecticut witchcraft is to be found in Holdsworth's dissertation (cited elsewhere), pp. 386-408, 519-28, 546-47.

Langdon; Carolyn S. "A Complaint Against Katherine Harrison, 1669." CHS Bulletin 34(January, 1969)1:18-25. This bold widow of Wethersfield was finally ordered out of town and lived out her days in Westchester County. The petition against her is printed in full along with a photograph of it

-"The Case of Lydia Gilbert" New England Galaxy 5(Winter, 1964):14-23. Charged with causing the death of Henry Stiles in 1654, Gilbert of Windsor was tried hut ultimately set free. This short piece includes a quick run through the most famous Connecticut witchcraft trials.

--"Connecticut Witchcraft--What was it?" CHS Bulletin 38(January, 1973)1: 23-29. An analysis of official charges against women who were found to be witches shows that a witch appeared most often as an "ill- tempered old woman plagued by younger superstitious neighbors." (p. 29)

Levermore, Charles Herbert, “Witchcraft in Connecticut, 1647-1697,” New Englander and Yale Review 8(1885):788-917. Levermore finds twenty-one indictments and eight executions. Condensed under the same title in New England Magazine, new series 6(July, 1982)5, but with a list of twelve indictments and nine executions.

Mackenzie, Ruth. “Connecticut Justice and Mercy.” Connecticut Bar Journal 39(December, 1965)4:558-73. Nothing new of substance, but the legal aspects are explored.

Marcus, Ronald. Elizabeth Crawson ... Thou Deservest to Dye. Stamford: Stamford Historical Society, 1976. A short pamphlet account of a woman tried to witchcraft in 1692. She was acquitted and lived to be eighty-three.  Happily?

Morgan, Forrest "Witchcraft in Connecticut” American Historical Magazine 1(May, 1906):216-18. A comment and a document.

Tomlinson, Richard G. Ibid. Witchcraft trials of Connecticut: the first comprehensive documented history of witchcraft trials in colonial, Connecticut. Hartford:, Bond Pr., 1978.