lockhart

Bridget Bishop I was born sometime between 1632 & 1637. I was married to Goodman Wasslebee, he died and I was widowed. After this I married again to Thomas Oliver. During this marriage I was tried for witch craft in 1670 I was found innocent and let go. Shortly after this Oliver died too. So I was widowed again. People described me as poor and old friendless women. People wondered about me all the time for things like my husbands dieing and the way I dressed and other things people accused me of. I dressed in black capes in such. I was marred a third time to Edward Bishop. He was a sawyer. I had been to the court house many times. For fighting with my husbands. Some of the things people said and accused me of were. At one time I had employed two men to take down to take down the cellar wall of my house. They said the found dolls, and

puppets in the holes in the wall. They said they had pins in them mean it was black magic. Some other people liked to say was that late at night I would entertain guest at my house. We would drink and play the forbidden game of shovel bored. And that I was being the mistress of two thriving taverns in town.  My sister's husband claimed that "she sat up all night conversing with the Devil" and that "the Devil came bodily into her."  Gray had said that I appeared and disappeared one night in his home. Sarah Shattuck also said that when I came would come to see them and their oldest child was healthy prior to my coming around and that he would get worse and worse each time I came around.  The local dyer also had evidence that I was supposable practicing [|witchcraft.] He related that I had, at one time, brought him several small pieces of lace which were so minute that they could not have been used on any //human // attire, hinting that they could have only been useful for clothing a witch's doll. Other of The dyer's proof was that a few years previously his son had been ill and near death. A passing stranger told him that the boy had been bewitched. The stranger advised that the boy be taken tome. Once there, the sick boy was to scratch my face. This was a well-known way of breaking a witch's spell. All of this was used in my second trial to accuse me of being a witch. I had been accused by so many people. I was the very first person to be found guilty for being a witch. Some of the people that accused me I had never even met. My trial lasted 8 days because of all the supposable evidence against me. On June 10th as crowds gathered to watch, I was taken to Gallows Hill. Sheriff George Corwin was the one that would hang me. I showed no remorse up there. I never said I was a witch it’s just what they believed. I still pleaded innocent. Her death didn’t go unnoticed more than a month passed before any one else would be excused. One of the judges Nathaniel Saltonstall became dissatisfied with the courts methods. He resigned.  Her husband married Elizabeth cash which was one of the women who accused Bridget. Several of those women who had testified against her, in deathbed confessions claimed that their accusations were "deluted by the Devil."
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