George MARTIN (1618 – 1686) was Alex’s  10th Great Grandfather; one of 2,048 in this generation of the Shaw line.

George Martin – Coat of Arms

George Martin was born in 1618 in Romsey, Hampshire, England.  His parents were not Christopher Martin and Marie Prower, Mayflower Pilgrims who died the first winter.  Christopher Martin, Mary Martin and her son Solomon came to America on the Mayflower, but all died during the first winter in Plymouth Colony, during 1620-21   He immigrated circa 1639 to Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts as a servant to Samuel Winsely.  He married Hannah [__?__] before 1643.  After Hannah died in 1646,  he married Susanna NORTH 11 Aug 1646 in Salisbury, Essex, Mass.  George died in 23 Nov 1686 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts.

Over half the first settlers names on this memorial are our ancestors.  They are: Richard Currier, Orlando BAGLEY Sr., John Bailey, William BARNES, Thomas Barnard, Henry Blaisdell, Philip Challis, Anthony COLBY,  John COLBY, Edward Cottle, Jarret Haddon, John HOYT, William Huntington, Thomas Macy, George MARTIN, Valentine Rowell, William SARGENT and John Weed.

Cradle Belonging to Susannah North Martin — Macy/Colby house  – According to the plaque inside  the cradle was given to the Anthony Colbys  (See link above)  by their good friend, Susannah North Martin, the famous witch of Salem

Susanna North (Wikipedia) was baptized 30 Sep 1621 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.  Her parents were Richard NORTH and Joan BARTRAM. Ursula [__?__] was her step-mother.   Susannah was executed for witchcraft on 19 Jul 1692 in Salem, Essex, Mass.

Susanna Martin Memorial – Plaque reads: “Here stood the house of Susanna Martin. An honest, hardworking, Christian woman. Accused as a witch, tried and executed at Salem, July 19, 1692. A martyr of superstition.”

Lone Tree Hill, a famous historical site, bore a tablet on its westerly side marking the site of George and Susannah’s home. The boulder which marked their homestead has been moved to make room for a highway, and it can be found on the map where the highway crosses Martin Road. The marker lies nearby.  George was one of the largest landowners in Amesbury. The inscription on the marker reads: “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”

Child of George and Hannah

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Children of  George and Susanna:

George  was a proprietor between 1642 and 1664. He purchased Job Cole’s land rights in East Salisbury circa 1643. He took the oath of fidelity in 1646.

His line of services seemed to be in laying out land and roads and bounding lots. He was one of the earliest pioneers in this Western Territory, having crossed the Powow River in1649 at which time he bought half of a twenty-acre lot of Thomas Macy adjoining that river. Here he built his house and lived till the 11th, 12th month, m1650 (February 11th, 1651) when he sold his farm to Philip Challis. George now removed a short distance to the farm he bought from Anthony Saddler, also on the Powow River. This place he sold to Richard Currier in 1660 and removed to the West side of Ring’s Hill on the Old Hunt’s Lane, where he lived till his death. In 1667 the town ordered a Bridge near his house, and the road across the swamp may yet be seen and the brook over which the bridge was laid.

George Martin was one of the fifteen “humble immortals” who, in 1653, stoutly and successfully maintained for the first time the right of petition for the subjects of the English crown.  Lt. Robert Pike (son-in-law of Joseph MOYCE), of Salisbury, an influential citizen, had denounced a law passed by the General Court, for which he was convicted, fined and disfranchised by the General Court.  Lt. Pike, a prominent town official and later a member of the General Court, denounced the law forbidding to preach if not Ordained. Which law was aimed at Joseph PEASLEE and Thomas Macy, believers in the Baptist Doctrine, with Quaker tendencies. The autocratic General Court resented this and Lieutenant Pike was fined over thirteen pounds and bound to good behavior.   This punishment caused many citizens of Salisbury and the surrounding towns to petition for a revocation of the sentence.  This offended the Court still more, and the signers were called upon to give “a reason for their unjust request”.  Out of the seventy-five who signed, the above mentioned fifteen alone refused to recede or apologize, and they were required to give bonds and to “answer for their offense before the County Court”.  Their cases were never called to trial, and they thus, by their firm stand, laid the foundation for these rights, which are now granted in all the civilized world.

Last will & testament of George Martin of Amesbury, MA:

November 23, 1686

In ye name of God Amen
I George Martin of ye town of Amsbury in ye County of Essex being through Gods goodness of prfect memory & understanding, doe make this my last will & testament in mannr as followeth
Imprimis I commend my spirit to God whoe gave it, & and my body to ye dust decently to be buried (at ye chardges of my executr, whome I shall hereafter name and appoynt) in hopes of a [joy]full resurrection at ye last day unto life eternall
2dly I give & bequeath unto my natural [i.e. legitimate] Children viz: my Sonns Richrd Martin, & John Martin, & my Daughters, Hanna Wathen: Hester Gimson, Jane Hadley & Abigail Hadlock unto each & every of them five shillings apiece to be payd in good and merchantable pay within one twelvemonth next aftr my decease
3dly I give & bequeath unto my Grandchild John Hadlock five pounds in good & merchantable pay in case yt ye sd John live wth me or my wife or my son
Will: untill yt he come unto ye full & compleat age of twenty one years.
4thly I give & bequeath all ye rest of my housing, lands stock & estate both moveable & Immoveable unto my wife Susanna during her Widowhood, & after her marriage, or decease (in case she marry not againe) unto my youngest son William.
ffinally: I Doe appoint, Constitute & ordaine my Wife Susanna, to be exectutrix and my youngest son Will: martin to be executr in conjunction wth her unto this my last Will & testament. A[nd in] confirmat[ion] of ye promisees I have hereunto subscribed my hand & seale Dated the nineteenth day of January An: Dom: one thousand six hundred eighty & three or foure.

Susannah (North) Martin (baptized September 30, 1621 – July 19, 1692) was a woman executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.

Martin was the fourth daughter, and youngest child, of Richard North and Joan Bartram. Her mother died when she was a child. Her stepmother was named Ursula. She was baptized in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England on September 30, 1621. Her family first moved to Salisbury, Massachusetts around 1639. On August 11, 1646 at Salisbury, Susannah married the widower George Martin, a blacksmith with whom she had eight children, including daughter Jane, the great-great-great-great grandmother of Chester A. Arthur. In 1669, Susannah was first formally accused of witchcraft by William Sargent Jr., son of our ancestor William SARGENT. In turn, George Martin sued Sargent for two counts of slander against Susannah, one for accusing her of being a witch, and another for claiming one of her sons was a bastard and another was her “imp.” Martin withdrew the second count, but the Court upheld the accusation of witchcraft. The jury in the case found for the defendant, but the Court “concurred not with the jury”. A higher court later dismissed the witchcraft charges.

Another version of the story

In 1669 Susanna was required to post 100 pounds bond to appear in court on a charge of witchcraft, a capital offense. At the same time George Martin sued William Sargent, Jr. for slander for saying that “…said Martyn’s wife had a child at Capt. Wiggins and was wringing its neck in Capt. Wiggins’ stable, when a man entered, and she took him by the collar and told him she would be the death of him if he told”; he sued William Sargent “…for saying his wife was a witch and he would call her a witch.” George also sued Thomas Sargent “…for saying that his son George Marttin was a bastard and that Richard Marttin was Goodwife Marttin’s imp,” (a witch’s familiar.)

Charges were dropped against Thomas Sargent, William Sargent, Jr.. was found guilty of accusing Susanna of ” fornication and infanticide” and George was awarded (in what appears to be a public insult) the amount of “a white wampam peague (colonial currency) or the eighth part of a penny damage” by the magistrates. William Sargent  was acquitted of witchcraft slander, although, “the Court did not agree.” The records of Susanna’s first trial for witchcraft have not survived, but as she was around for another 23 years, we might assume that she was acquitted.

In October, 1669 George Martin was sued by Christopher Bartlett because Susanna had called him a liar and a thief. The verdict was against George and Susanna but they had other problems to deal with. At that same court session, their son Richard was ” presented by the grand jury at the Salisbury Court, 1669, for abusing his father and throwing him down, taking away his clothes and holding up an axe against him.” The court found him guilty and sentenced Richard to be “whipped ten stripes.”

In 1671, George and Susanna (her sister Mary Jones would join them later) became involved in lengthy litigation over Ursula North’s inheritance, most of which Ursula had left to her granddaughter, Mary Jones Winsley. The court sided against Susannah and George, though Susannah was able to bring five further appeals, each being decided against her.  In October 1674, their inheritance would be lost when the court found against them in the final appeal.

George died in 1686, leaving Susannah an impoverished widow by the time of the second accusation of witchcraft in 1692. Inhabitants of nearby Salem Village, Massachusetts had named Susannah a witch and stated she had attempted to recruit them into witchcraft. Susannah was tried for these charges, during which process she proved by all accounts to be pious and quoted the Bible freely, something a witch was said incapable of doing. Cotton Mather countered Susannah’s defence by stating in effect that the Devil’s servants were capable of putting on a show of perfect innocence and Godliness.

Our ancestor Orlando BAGLEY Jr. was the arresting Amesbury constable. See his page for images of the original summons, examination and death warrant.  Susannah was found guilty, and was hanged on July 19, 1692 in Salem.

Some interesting excerpts from the transcript of Susannah’s trial are below: (spelling, punctuation, capitalization as original)

“To the Marshall of the County of Essex or his lawful Deputies or to the Constable of Amesbury: You are in their Majesties names hereby required forthwith or as soon as may be to apprehend and bring Susanna Mertin of Amesbury in y county of Esses Widdow at y house of Lt. Nathaniel Ingersolls in Salem village in order to her examination Relating to high suspicion of sundry acts of Witchcraft donne or committed by her upon y bodies of Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, and Mercy Lewis of Salem village or farms whereby great hurt and damage hath been donne to y bodies of said persons…. etc”

Abigail Williams by Winona Ryder — The Crucible 1995

At the preliminary trial for the crime of “Witchcraft and sorcery” Susanna pled not guilty. The original court record book has been lost, but the local Puritan minister, Cotton Mather, recorded the testimony. Susanna and the others accused were not allowed to have council.

“As soon as she came in, Marcy had fits”
Magistrate: Do you know this woman?
Abigail Williams saith it is goody Martin, she hath hurt me often.
Others by fits were hindered from speaking.
Marcy Lewis pointed at her and fell into a little fit.
Ann Putnam threw her glove in a fit at her.

……………. Susanna laughed …………….

Magistrate: What! Do you laugh at it?
Martin: Well I may at such folly.
Mag: Is this folly? The hurt of persons?
Martin: I never hurt man or woman or child.
Marcy: She hath hurt me a great many times and pulls me down.

Then Martin laughed again.

Susannah Martin portrayed reading her Bible in the Salem jail.Caption: “Who turned, in Salem’s dreary jail,/Her worn old bible o’er and o’er.” Source: Mabel Martin: A Harvest Idyle. By John Greenleaf Whittier, Boston: Houghton, Mifflen & Co. 1876, p. 43. Artist, Mary A. Hallock.

Probably the worst indignity that Susanna was twice forced to submit to was the physical examination for evidence of a “witch’s tit or physical proturberance which might give milk to a familiar.” No such deformity was found in Susanna but it was noted that “in the morning her nipples were found to be full as if the milk would come,” but by late afternoon “her breasts were slack, as if milk had already been given to someone or something.” This was an indication that she had been visited by a witch’s familiar, and was clear evidence of guilt.

Aftermath

In the 19th century, poet John Greenleaf Whittier composed “The Witch’s Daughter” about Martin.

“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 Massachusetts State Legislature in 1999 passed the “Massachusetts House Bill No. 4457 – The witchcraft trial of 1692” that was signed into law by the Governor of Massachusetts to eliminate the stigma associated with the deaths of the final five thus killed.

In 1711, the colonial General Court, the predecessor of today’s Legislature, set aside the convictions of fifteen of the condemned based on the petition from family members. But Mrs. Martin and four others who had no surviving relatives to speak up for them remained branded as witches. Over the next several years, efforts to overturn the remaining six convictions failed, in part because officials feared having to pay damages to descendants.

In 1948, a Louisiana man who was related to one of the six renewed the effort. Nine years later, lawmakers passed a resolution exonerating the Louisiana man’s relative, Anne Pudeator, and ”others” who were never named. Based on this technicality of omission, the last five alleged witches have never been legally cleared. Rep. Ruane’s bill clearly states the names of the other five women, officially ending this final chapter in the witchcraft trials. Besides Mrs. Martin, the women cleared in 1999 were Wilmot Redd of Marblehead, Alice Parker and Bridget Bishop, both of Salem, and Margaret Scott of Rowley.

Children

1. Hannah Martin

Hannah’s husband Ezekiel Worthen (Starkweather?) was born 24 Jun 1636 in England. His parents were George Wathen and Margery Hayward. Ezekiel died 15 Jun 1716 in Amesbury, Essex, Mass.

Ezekiel was born in 1636 and baptized at St. Nicholas Parish in Bristol on April 15, 1636. Ezekiel was apprenticed to Thomas Abree at the age of eight. He and his family lived in Amesbury and had eleven children. He was in Salem in 1662, but removed to Amesbury, Massachusetts, about 1663. He received land in Amesbury that year and had a seat in the meeting house in 1667. He took the oath of allegiance at Amesbury in 1677, and signed the petition of 1680. He went from Salem with Samuel Foote. Both married daughters of men who became commoners at Amesbury. Ezekiel Worthen married, December 4, 1661, Hannah Martin, who died at the house of her son-in-law, Samuel Fowler, June 29, 1730. Ezekiel Worthen died in 1715 or 1716. His will was dated May 5, 1715, and proved August 6, 1716.

2. Richard Martin

Richard’s wife Mary Hoyt was born 20 Feb 1646 in Salisbury, Mass. Her parents were John HOYT and Frances TEWKSBURY. She first married 19 Dec 1663 in Newbury, Mass. to Christopher Bartlett. Mary died 1728 in Amesbury, Mass.

George also sued Thomas Sargent “…for saying that his son George Marttin was a bastard (See above)

In October 1669, Richard was “presented by the grand jury at the Salisbury Court, 1669, for abusing his father and throwing him down, taking away his clothes and holding up an axe against him.” The court found him guilty and sentenced Richard to be “whipped ten stripes.”

3. George Martin

George’s first wife Elizabeth [_?_] was born in 1650.

George’s second wife Elizabeth Durkee was born in 1658 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass. Elizabeth died in 1712.

George also sued Thomas Sargent “…for saying that his son Richard Marttin was Goodwife Marttin’s imp,” (a witch’s familiar.) (See above)

4. John Martin

John’s wife Mary Weed was born 5 Sep 1653 in Salisbury, Essex, Mass. Her parents were John Weed and Deborah Winsley. Mary died 1713 in Amesbury, Essex, Mass.

5. Esther Martin

Esther’s husband John Jameson (Gimson) was born 1 Sep 1648 in Salisbury, Essex, Mass. His parents were James Jameson and Sarah [__?__]. John died in 1713 in Amesbury, Essex, Mass.

6. Jane MARTIN (See Samuel HADLEY Sr.‘s page)

7. Abigail Martin

Abigail’s husband James Hadlock was born 1655 in Salem, Essex, Mass. His parents were James Hadlock and Damaris Fosdick. James died 2 Jul 1716 in Amesbury, Essex, Mass.

8. William Martin

William’s wife Mary Stone was born 1674 in Mass.

Sources:

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=22500477&st=1

http://www.genealogyofnewengland.com/b_m.htm

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County

Short film about Susannah – http://www.screamingsoloud.com/susannah.html

http://www.famhist.us/2011/05/08/susannah-north-martin-was-not-a-witch/