Elizabeth Howe - Accused of Witchcraft

Accused of Witchcraft

The Perley family of Ipswich, Massachusetts, was among the chief accusers of Elizabeth Howe. They had a ten year old daughter they claimed was being afflicted by Howe. The child complained of being pricked by pins and sometimes fell into fits. In their testimony against Howe, on June 1, 1692, the Perelys quoted their daughter as saying, “I could never afflict a dog as Good Howe afflicts me.” At first the parents did not believe their daughter’s accusations. They took the child to several doctors who told them she was “under an evil hand”. Her condition continued for two or three years, until “she pined away to skin and bones and ended her sorrowful life”.

Elizabeth Howe was accused of afflicting several other girls within Salem Village. The identities of the girls Elizabeth Howe was accused of afflicting are recorded in the transcript of her examination:

1. Mercy Lewis was nineteen years old during the Salem trials. When her entire family was killed in an Indian attack she was sent to be a servant in the house of Thomas Putnam. Mercy Lewis acted as key player in the accusation of Elizabeth Howe, as well as many other individuals in Salem Village. Mercy Lewis was a major contributor of spectral evidence in the examination of Elizabeth Howe. She threw herself to the floor in a fit as soon as Howe entered the meeting house.
2. Mary Walcott played a significant role in the Salem trials, being one of the original girls to become “afflicted”. Her name not only appeared on the arrest warrant served to Elizabeth Howe but also appeared in one of two indictments. Interestingly, her cousin Ann Putnam was one of the most active accusers.
3. Ann Putnam was one of the “afflicted” girls. She was one of the most aggressive accusers, her name appearing over 400 times in court documents. Ann was twelve years old at the start of the trials. She accused nineteen people and saw eleven of them hanged. This is a significant amount when one considers the fact that only nineteen people total hanged because of the accusations against them. In 1706 Putnam retracted her actions; she was the only afflicted girl to do so.
4. Abigail Williams was eleven or twelve in 1692. She was one of the most well-known afflicted girls in the Salem witch trials. Her name appeared on the arrest warrant for Elizabeth Howe. She was the niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, reverend of Salem Village and was one of the first two girls to become “afflicted”.
5. Mary Warren was twenty-one when the trials began. She was employed as a servant in the house of John Proctor of Salem Village. Warren participated only a little in the “afflicted girls” accusations. Warren was eventually tried for being a witch herself, but escaped conviction by accusing her employer and his wife of “certain deeds, although she hesitated to call them a witch and a wizard”. This safely placed Mary Warren back on the accusing side of the line.