Guided Tours:
Witchcraft Trials in Colonial Hartford
Friday, October 23, Saturday, October 24 & Thursday, October 29 | 6pm
Follow a costumed interpreter and listen to the stories of the witchcraft trials that reached a crisis point in Hartford in the 1660s. Hear the stories, gossip, and intrigue about the people involved, such as the “First Lady” of Hartford, Susannah Hooker, Rev. Thomas Hooker’s wife. Messages from the pulpit along with folk traditions and superstitions led to astounding accusations and trials that resulted in the deaths of innocent lives.
history
Witchcraft Accusations & Trials in Connecticut
The Ancient Burying Ground contains the gravestones or markers of fourteen men who had connections to the to witchcraft trials in 17th century Connecticut. Many were involved in the court proceedings as magistrates.
The Ancient Burying Ground is on the CT Haunted History Trail . . .
before salem … there was connecticut
Decades before the hysteria in Salem, MA, Connecticut was zealous in its persecution of accused “witches.” Puritans and immigrants from England brought their deep fear and superstitions of people, most likely women, who made a pact with the Devil. They could take the form of animals, fly through the night on broomsticks and danced at the “Sabats” at night. There are nearly 100 known cases in New England. Connecticut had nearly 50 cases and 11 people were executed on the charges of witchcraft.
history: witchcraft trials in connecticut
There was “one of Windsor,” famous words that were lost for hundreds of years. Her name was Alse (or Alice) Young of Windsor, the first person known to have been executed in North America on charges of witchcraft. She was hanged in May of 1647 in Hartford. Another seven women – and men – would be convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to be hanged in the Connecticut Colony by 1663. Trials for witchcraft resurfaced with a case in Fairfield in 1692. Those trials looked towards Salem as a cautionary tale of hysteria. Charges were eventually dropped, with one magistrate saying, “Those who will make witchcraft of such things will make hanging work apace.”
ancient burying ground connections
Jonathan Gilbert (1618-1682)
As marshal in Hartford, Jonathan Gilbert carried out the hangings of convicted witches Mary Sanford (1662), Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith, and Mary Barnes in 1663. Rebecca Greensmith had confessed in court to witchcraft and implicated her husband. Another alleged witch, Judith Varlet, jailed but never tried, detested Gilbert, threatening that, “if it lay in her power, she would do him mischief or what hurt she could….”
LOCATION: Gilbert has two, similar sized stones to the right of the Main Street Gatae in the Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, CT.
ancient burying ground connections
Governor John Haynes (1594-1654) & Rev. Joseph Haynes (1641-1679)
Connecticut Colony Governor John Haynes served as a magistrate in the witchcraft trials of John and Joanne Carrington in 1650. The couple were convicted and hanged in 1651.
Reverend Joseph Haynes (son of Gov. John Haynes), was pastor of the First Congregational Church in Wethersfield. He was a member of a prosecutorial tribunal of ministers established in 1662 led by the Rev. Samuel Stone to investigate charges of witchcraft. Rev. Haynes recorded the ravings of Ann Cole while allegedly possessed by a demon, during which Cole accused many people of witchcraft, including Rebecca Greensmith.
LOCATION: This tablestone is amongst the large assembly of tablestones to the south of the Founders Monument.
ancient burying ground connections
Rev. Thomas Hooker
Rev. Thomas Hooker is known as the “First Father” of colonial Hartford. Along with Rev. Samuel Stone, Hooker led a party of 100 people from the Boston area to establish Hartford in 1636. In 1618, while still in England, he was invited by Mrs. Joan Drake’s husband to help relieve his wife of “Satan’s windings and turnings.” He successfully conducted a “spiritual cure” of Mrs. Drake and left her house in 1621.
On June 20, 1647, twenty-four days after the first execution of Alice (or Alse) Young, Hooker preached a sermon in the Congregational Church of Windsor. The subject was “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men.” One line in this sermon likely resonated among his listeners having just experienced Alice’s trial and execution, “the sinner is like a living devil.” Thomas Hooker died shortly after delivering this sermon, on July 7, 1647.
LOCATION: Rev. Hooker has a memorial tablestone amongst the large assembly.
ancient burying ground connections
Rev. Samuel Stone (1602-1663)
Rev. Samuel Stone played a role in many events of the Hartford witchcraft hysteria. As a result of Reverend Stone’s ministerial guidance, at her trial in 1648 Mary Johnson of Wethersfield, confessed to “familiarity with the Devil,” the essence of witchcraft. She was found guilty (reportedly due to Stone’s “pastoral counseling”) and was “judged very Penitent” at her hanging.
In 1662 Rev. Stone led a panel of three other ministers who served as a prosecutorial tribunal to investigate charges of witchcraft. Reverend Stone described as “awful and amazing” the claims of Ann Cole, who accused multiple people in Hartford of being witches. Cole experienced violent physical fits and when allegedly possessed, she spoke gibberish and words in a Dutch accent.
LOCATION: Rev. Stone has a statue facing Main Street and a tablestone amongst the large assembly.
ancient burying ground connections
Wyllys Monument:
Samuel Wyllys (1631-1709)
Samuel Wyllys was a magistrate on the trials that convicted Elizabeth Garlick of witchcraft in 1658; Mary Sanford in 1662, and Rebecca and Nathaniel Greensmith and Mary Barnes trials in late 1662 and early 1663. All were executed. He was a magistrate for the trial in June 1665 in which Elizabeth Seager was convicted of witchcraft. However, after a year in prison, Seager’s verdict was overturned, and she was set free.
Samuel Wyllys saved many depositions of charges of witchcraft, which are the source of much of what is known today about those cases. The documents passed down in the Wyllys family for nearly two hundred years. Part of the collection was acquired by the Connecticut State Library early in the twentieth century, and the rest are at Brown University.
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