Witchcraft Accusations

Preliminary Version, Updated 1/2/2004

The list below contains the basic information for over 200 people who were accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New England. The plan for this project is for entries to link to a page of information about the individual and their case, but this is a long-term plan, and I am nowhere near ready to embark on it.

Please note that this index only lists people who were accused of witchcraft in some public record, and does not currently include information about their fate. Not everyone who was accused of witchcraft necessarily came to trial, was convicted, or even punished if found guilty, although at least 15% of the people listed here were executed.

This preliminary list was created from only two sources of transcriptions of primary sources, a core set to begin with, but not definitive, by any means:

• Boyer, Paul, and Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Salem Witchcraft Papers. DaCapo Press, New York: 1977.
• Hall, David D. Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England. Second Edition. Northeastern University Press, Boston: 1999.

Also note that one person listed in Boyer & Nissenbaum, "Jerson Toothaker," is dismissed: there was no such person! The original manuscript from which this "case" is assumed to be from is actually a statement by Mary Warren against Mary Ireson (spelled " Ierson" in some places) and a member of the Toothaker family. Capital I's and J's in 17th century handwriting were often formed exactly alike, and somewhere along the line, someone inexperienced with such conventions simply assumed that the "Jerson" written on the back was simply an unusual first name. Check the manuscript images for yourself. The handwriting of this document is archaic, even by 17th century standards, and the transcription of it in Boyer & Nissenbaum has other errors. This is a prime example of why it is important to at least check the manuscripts of primary sources and not trust derivative works blindly.

Return to 17th c. Index Page.
This page was last updated Feb. 15, 2009 by Margo Burns, margoburns@gmail.com