April 28, 2023

Salem Witch Trials

Susanna Martin

Earlier this spring we hosted a lecture discussing the witch hunts in Connecticut by Walt Woodward, CT State Historian emeritus.  On Sunday, May 7, 2023, we will continue our theme of witch trial programming by again welcoming the Delvena Theatre Company to town.

Did you enjoy the Trial of Lizzie Borden program last spring? They you won't want to miss Delvena Theatre Company's Salem Witch Hysteria. This time the setting is Salem, Massachusetts 1692, a year in which 168 men and women were accused of practicing witchcraft. This Musing introduces us to Susanna Martin one of the many accused and unfortunately, one of the twenty who in the end were executed.

We hope to see you!

Susanna (North) Martin

(abt. 1621 - 1692)

Susanna North (alternate spelling Susannah) was born in England and relocated with her family to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Susanna went on to marry a widowed blacksmith named George Martin, thus becoming Susanna (North) Martin, and in total the couple had eight children. By 1692, Susanna was around 70 years old and living in Amesbury when she was accused of witchcraft for the third time. The two previous accusations were dropped after her husband, George, defended her. In one case, he went so far as to sue her accuser for slander. This time however, she was a poor widow, without her defender.

Susanna is described by author Charles W. Upham in his1867 book Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, as "a short active woman, wearing a hood and scarf, plump and well developed in her figure, of remarkable personal neatness."  By all reports, she was out spoken and had a rather bad reputation for conflict with her neighbors.  All of this made her a prime target.  Susanna was arrested on a warrant dated April 30,1692 and less than three months later on July 19th she was hanged on Proctor’s Ledge at Gallows Hill.

Her Arrest, Trial, and Execution

At her June trial, several of Susanna's neighbors made the approx. 20 mile trip from Amesbury to Salem to testify against her. Among the many grievances that were voiced some dating back many years, were claims that she had caused one neighbor's oxen to drown themselves, and driven another neighbor mad. It was claimed that she had bitten a man’s hand and her specter had stalked people. Susanna didn't help her cause by laughing at the accusations and antics of some of her accusers and responding to her interrogator, “I have led a most virtuous and holy life.”

Read the original court documents related to the trial and subsequent execution of Susanna Martin, including a Warrant for Apprehension, Officers Return, the Indictments, several Witness Testimonies and Depositions, and the Examination of Susanna by the Rev. Samuel Paris.

Her Legacy: A Memorial,

“Here stood the house of Susannah Martin. An honest, hardworking Christian woman accused of being a witch and executed at Salem, July 19, 1692. She will be missed! A Martyr of Superstition. T.I.A. 1894”

a Poem,

In 1857, the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was a direct descendant of Susanna Martin, honored Susanna in a poem titled

The Witch’s Daughter:

“Let Goody Martin rest in peace, I never knew her harm a fly,
And witch or not – God knows – not I?
I know who swore her life away;
And as God lives, I’d not condemn
An Indian dog on word of them.”

“The Witch’s Daughter" is an early version of of a 1874 poem “Mabel Martin” and consisted of what was later to be Parts II-V. The story is a fictional account of the marriage of Ezekiel Worthen and Hannah Martin (Handen and Mabel in the poem).  Hannah Martin was the step-daughter of Susanna Martin.  Read the complete poem "Mabel Martin: A Harvest Idyll".

Daguerreotype of John Greenleaf Whittier, c. 1855-60

Image courtesy of Boston Public Library/Wikimedia Commons

and a Highway

 Susan Herman states on her website John Greenleaf Whittier: Essex County's Famous Son, that "According to the late Frances Dowd, local historian and member of the Whittier Home, the real reason behind the hanging [of Susanna] was a land grab. Ironically most of the land was taken by Eminent Domain for I-495."

"It is thought that when the Amesbury-Salisbury section of Route 495 was completed in 1967, it likely covered the location of the George and Susannah Martin homestead. In September of 2022, Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts signed an act to rename part of Interstate 495 the Susannah North Martin Highway." (Salem Witch Museum website)

Explore previous Musings from Main that focused on women convicted of witchcraft including the first person hanged for witchcraft in New England, Asle Young of Windsor, and Katherine Harrison of Wethersfield, whose trial provoked a major revision of Connecticut trial law. 

Visit www.WoodMemorialLibrary.org

for program details and to pre-register.

Sources used for this Musing are listed below.

• Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice, The Witchcraft Trial of Susannah Martin, February 14, 2012, History of Massachucetts Blog, accessed April 28, 2023.
•  Herman, Susan, John Greenleaf Whittier: Essex County's Famous Son, accessed April 28, 2023.
  
• Salem Witchcraft Papers No. 092, Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project website, accessed April 28, 2023.
• Professor Linder, Douglas O., The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: An Account, Famous Trials website,  accessed April 28, 2023.
• Upham, Charles W., Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II,

  Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York, 1857, vol. II Part 3 Witchcraft at Salem Village, pg. 145, accessed April 28, 2023.

• Susannah Martin House Marker page, Salem Witch Museum website, accessed April 28, 2023.
  
• The Project Gutenberg eBook of Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, by Charles Upham

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