Paintings, Statues, Poems, plays, novels, and movies by or about our ancestor and his or her family.

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Part 1

1. Books
2. Drawing/Etchings
3. Movies
4. Museum Exhibits
5. Painting/Portraits

Part 2

6. Plays
7. Poetry
8. Reenactors
9. Sculpture
10. Sermons
11. Songs
12. Stained Glass
13. Television
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1.Books

Stephen BACHILER (c.1561 – 1656) (Wikipedia) was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in America.  He was one of our most complicated ancestors and one of my favorites.  His story represents America.  He had the most setbacks and the most second, (third, fourth, fifth …. ) acts late in life that I can imagine.

Stephen and his fourth wife Mary were probably the adulterous figures in Puritan history who were the prototypes of Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter.

The first case of a woman branded for adultery first appeared in the records of York, in what is now Maine. Dated 15 October 1651, the entry reads:

“We do present George Rogers for, & Mary Batchellor the wife of Mr. Steven BATCHELLER minister for adultery. It is ordered by ye Court yt George Rogers for his adultery with mis Batcheller shall forthwith have fourty stripes save one upon the bare skine given him: It is ordered yt mis Batcheller for her adultery shall receive 40 stroakes save one at ye First Towne meeting held at Kittery, 6 weekes after her delivery & be branded with the letter A.”

We know that Hawthorne had a personal interest in Maine’s history.  He could have read an account of the sentence passed on George Rogers and Mary Batchellor in the first volume of Collections of the Maine Historical Society.

Stephen BATCHELER’s life story contains elements of both Roger Chillingworth and  Arthur Dimmesdale.

Mary Batchellor’s adultery is the only known case involving a child that can be linked to Hester Prynne’s plight. By postponing execution of the sentence until six weeks after Mrs. Batchellor’s delivery, the officials of York obviously considered the health of the unborn child. Hawthorne suggests a similar delay in the novel, for when Hester and Pearl appear in the opening scaffold scene, Pearl is “some three months old”

Stephen Batchller Epilogue – When Stephen was 90, his last wife had an affair with another man.  She was sentenced, after her approaching delivery, to be whipped and branded with the letter “A,” the “Scarlet Letter”of Hawthorne’s romance.

Not only was our Stephen fined £10 for not publishing his marriage according to law. (He had performed his last wedding ceremony himself.) but the court ordered “Mr. Batchelor and his wife shall live together as man and wife, as in this court they have publicly professed to do; and if either desert one another, then hereby the court doth order that the marshall shall apprehend both the said Mr. Batchelor and Mary, his wife, and bring them forthwith to Boston.

Denied a divorce by the Massachusetts Court, Bachiler finally returned to England about 1653. He died near London, and was buried at All Hallows Staining on October 31, 1656.

Stephen Batcheler Postcript – His unfaithful wife sued her husband in 1656 for support based on various untrue charges including a claim that Bachiler had married a new wife while still legally married to her.  Stephen had already died a few days before.

Stephen has also been the subject of many books and articles (Source: Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, NH):

• Stephen Bachiler entry from the book “Piscataqua Pioneers : Selected Biographies of Early Settlers in Northern New England” published in 2000 by the Piscataqua Pioneers organization of the Seacoast.
• “Our Fascinating Ancestor Stephen Bachiler” by Eleanor Campbell Schoen, 1999.
• “Reverend Stephen Bachiler of Hampton: Some Additional Information”, by George Freeman Sanborn, Jr., 1991.
• “The Reverend Stephen Bachiler – Saint or Sinner?”, by Philip Mason Marston, 1961.
• “An Unforgiven Puritan”, by Victor C. Sanborn, 1917.
• “The Hard Case of the Founder of Old Hampton : Wrongs of Rev. Stephen Bachiler”, by Frank B. Sanborn, 1900.
• “Rev. Stephen Bachiler”, an earlier article by Victor C. Sanborn, 1898.
• Rev. Stephen Bachiler by Charles E. Batchelder, 1892.
• “Father and Founder of the Town”, from Joseph Dow’s History of Hampton, 1892.
• The Dalton and Batcheller Pedigree, by William H. Whitmroe, 1863.
• Excerpts on the Rev. Stephen Bachiler from the History of Lynn by Alonzo Lewis, 1829.
• Stephen Bachiler’s Coat of Arms
• A Red-hot ‘A’ and a Lusting Divine: Sources For The Scarlet Letter, New England Quarterly article from 1987 which examines the possibility that Bachiler’s fourth wife was the inspiration for Hester Prynne in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.

George MORTON (George Mourt) (c. 1585 – 1624) was an English Puritan Separatist. (Wikipedia)  He published and wrote the introduction to the first account in Great Britain of the founding of Plymouth Colony, called Mourt’s Relation.

George received the writings sent in the Fortune from Plymouth in 1622, and published them under the title: “A Relation or Journall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth in New England…London, Printed for John Bellamie” (1622) which gives the earliest account of the Pilgrim enterprise.  He may have wrote the preface and gave the book to the press; the bulk being written by Edward Winslow.  It provides the only contemporary report on the voyage of the Mayflower, the first days of Plymouth Colony and a brief account of the first Harvest Celebration (Thanksgiving).

It has been conjectured that Bradford and Winslow were the authors and Morton merely the publisher, but since the narrative Bradford wrote and sent back on the Fortune was retained by the captain of the French privateer which captured the Fortune on its return voyage., it is possible that Morton wrote a narrative from information brought back by those returning on the Mayflower and the Fortune and published it together with material by Winslow and others not retained by the French captain.

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William JOHNSON’s son Capt. Edward Johnson (Wiki) was born 16 Sep 1598 Canterbury, Kent, England.  Edward died 23 Apr 1672 in Woburn, Mass.

Edward is the author of Wonder Working Providence, a quaint and authentic narrative of events connected with the settlement of Massachusetts Bay. It is acknowledged to be the most important book on the Massachusetts Colony that was printed during the first hundred years after the settlement. The fraudulent use made of this work in the collection known as the Gorges Tracts for a time robbed the author of the credit due him, but the true authorship has beyond a doubt has been established by Dr. Poole, the famous librarian.”

Edward is the author of Wonder Working Providence, a quaint and authentic narrative of events connected with the settlement of Massachusetts Bay. It is acknowledged to be the most important book on the Massachusetts Colony that was printed during the first hundred years after the settlement. The fraudulent use made of this work in the collection known as the Gorges Tracts for a time robbed the author of the credit due him, but the true authorship has beyond a doubt has been established by Dr. Poole, the famous librarian.”

Constance HOPKINS (1606 – 1677)   (Wikipedia) is the central character in Patricia Clapp’s young adult novel Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth.  It must be a popular book as I found three different cover portraits.

The second daughter of Stephen HOPKINS   (Wiki), by his first wife, Mary.   Constance, at the age of fourteen, along with her father and his second wife Elizabeth (Fisher), accompanied by brother Giles, half-sister Damaris as well as two servants   Edward Doty and Edward Lester were passengers on the Mayflower .  Constance married Nicholas SNOW, shortly before the 1627 division of cattle.

John TUTTLE‘s (1618 – 1663) farm, Tuttle’s Red Barn, is  the oldest continually operating family farm in the United States, having passed down through 11 generations.

John sailed from Bristol, England in the Angel Gabriel in 1635.   The day after John and his fellow passengers disembarked, it  was caught at anchor and destroyed  by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.   The ship sank along with all of the passengers’ worldly goods, and taking the lives of several crew members who were attempting to save the vessel.  John first came to Ipswich, Massachusetts, and by 1640, to Dover, New Hampshire.

Amazon.com says

As the Tuttles passed down the farm, along the way they witnessed the settlement and expansion of New England; they fought in the American Revolution; they helped runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad and sold maple syrup to Abraham Lincoln; they bought the first Model T in that Dover; and they transformed the old barn into the thriving country store it is today.

With Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian’s evocative woodcuts and Richard Michelson’s moving prose bringing the Tuttle story to life, readers will be enraptured by the panorama of American history as seen through the eyes of one family..

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William L. LATTA’s  grandson Robert Ray Latta (1836-1925)  wrote a book, “Reminiscences of Pioneer Life – Google Books“, published in 1912.  Click here for a review and excerpt.  It’s a fun read in a jaunty style as you can see from the preface.

Robert Ray “Freck” (on account of his freckles) got a job in 1852 at the age of 16,  carrying the United States mail by horseback between Washington and Bloomfield, Iowa, a distance of 80 miles.  The round trip had to be made in four days, a ride of 40 miles a day and the compensation was $480 a year.  He noted that he rode through prairie and gloomy woods 84 times and only met one horseman, one team and a band of Indians.  A few years later Freck and his family moved by wagon train across the  State to Page County, Iowa, where they built a log cabin and settled in.   In 1860 they went to Cass Co., Neb. and in 1861 to Mills Co., Iowa and in 1870 to Silver Cliff, Colo.  He was a miner.  In 1898 lived at Colorado Springs, Colo.

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2. Drawing & Etchings

Rev. John  LATHROP (1584 – 1653) was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England.  He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

John’s congregation were forced to meet in private to avoid the scrutiny of Bishop of London William Laud. Following the group’s discovery on April 22, 1632 by officers of the king, forty two of Lothropp’s Independents were arrested. Only eighteen escaped capture. They were prosecuted for failure to take the oath of loyalty to the established church. They were jailed in The Clink prison. All were released on bail by the spring of 1634 except Lothropp, who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. While he was in prison, his wife Hannah House became ill and died. His six surviving children were according to tradition left to fend for themselves begging for bread on the streets of London. Friends being unable to care for his children brought them to the Bishop who had charge of Lothropp. The bishop ultimately released him on bond in May of 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove to the New World.

John brought The Lothrop Bible with him aboard the “Griffin”  on his trip to America in 1634. During the voyage, while at evening devotions, he spilled hot candle wax on the open book which burned through several pages, causing holes about the size of a shilling. Before landing, he carefully repaired most of the damaged paper and filled in the missing text from memory. A few of the holes in the pages remain.

Johann Conrad WEISER Sr. (1662 – 1746) (Wikipedia) was a German soldier, baker, and farmer who fled his homeland with thousands of other German Palatines and settled in New York. Weiser became a leader in the Palatine community and was founder of their settlement of Weiser’s Dorf, now known as Middleburgh, New York. When the Germans were in dispute with their English landlords and the colonial government of New York, he was among the representatives chosen to go to London and seek help from the British government.

His son John Conrad Weiser (Wikipedia) (1696 – 1760) was a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer, interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native Americans. He was a farmer, soldier, monk, tanner, and judge as well. He contributed as an emissary in councils between Native Americans and the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, during the French and Indian War.  Weiser was able to maintain fairly stable relations between the Pennsylvania government and the Iroquois Nation during the 1730’s and 1740’s.

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3. Movies

Stephen BACHILER (c.1561 – 1656) (Wikipedia) was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in America.  He was one of our most complicated ancestors and one of my favorites.  His story represents America.  He had the most setbacks and the most second, (third, fourth, fifth …. ) acts late in life that I can imagine.

Stephen and his fourth wife Mary were probably the adulterous figures in Puritan history who were the prototypes of Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter.  (See 1. Books above for the story)

The Scarlet Letter has been adapted to numerous films, plays and operas and remains frequently referenced in modern popular culture. The Scarlet Letterhas been adapted in the recent movie Easy A, the story of Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) who experiences the same isolation Hester Prynne undergoes in the novel.

• The Scarlet Letter (1908 film), starring Gene Gauntier and Jack Conway
• The Scarlet Letter (1911 film), starring Lucille Young and King Baggot
• The Scarlet Letter (1913 film), (in color) starring Linda Arvidson and Murdock MacQuarrie
• The Scarlet Letter (1917 film), starring Mary Martin and Stuart Holmes
• The Scarlet Letter (1920 film), produced by Selznick Pictures Corporation
• The Scarlet Letter (1922 film), a British version starring Sybil Thorndike and Tony Fraser
• The Scarlet Letter (1926 film), starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson
• The Scarlet Letter (1934 film), starring Colleen Moore and Hardie Albright
• The Scarlet Letter (1973 film) (Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe), a German version starring Senta Berger and Hans Christian Blech
• The Scarlet Letter (1995 film),  Stephen BATCHELER’s life story contains elements of both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale.
  • Demi Moore as Hester Prynne
  • Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale
  • Robert Duvall as Roger Chillingworth,
    This version was “freely adapted” from Hawthorne and deviated from the original story. Universally panned by critics, the film was also a box office bomb. It was nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards at the 1995 ceremony, winning “Worst Remake or Sequel.”
    
• The Scarlet Letter (2004 film) (Juhong geulshi), a South Korean mystery/thriller starring Han Suk-kyu, Lee Eun-ju, and Sung Hyun-ah

The Crucible is a 1996 drama film written by Arthur Miller and based on his play of the same name. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, Paul Scofield as Judge Thomas Danforth, Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth Lawrence as Rebecca Nurse.

John PROCTOR’s son John Proctor (1632 –August 19, 1692) was a  successful farmer, entrepreneur, and tavern keeper who lived far from Salem Village center, on the edge of Salem Town in what is today Peabody, Mass. He had never been directly involved in Salem Village politics or litigation with the Putnams.  During the Salem Witch Trials he was accused of witchcraft,convicted and hanged.

Although Abigail Williams was John Proctor’s chief accuser, he was also named by Mary Walcott, who stated he tried to choke her and his former servantMary Warren on April 21. Mary Warren told magistrates that Proctor had beaten her for putting up a prayer bill before forcing her to touch the Devil’s Book. Further allegations of an increasingly salacious nature followed.

Mash-up of famous Daniel Day Lewis Yells! including “God is Dead!” and “It is my name!” from the Crucible 😉

John Proctor continued to challenge the veracity of spectral evidence and the validity of the Court of Oyer and Terminer which led to a petition signed by 32 neighbors in his favor. The signatories stated that Proctor had lived a “Christian life in his family and was ever ready to help such as they stood in need.”

John and Elizabeth Proctor were tried on August 5, 1692. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Still maintaining his innocence, Proctor prepared his will but left his wife with nothing.

Elizabeth, who was then pregnant, was given a reprieve until she gave birth. n January 1693, while still in jail, Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor gave birth to a son, John Proctor III. Elizabeth and John III remained in jail until May 1693, when a general release freed all of those prisoners who remained jailed. Unfortunately, even though the general belief was that innocent people had been wrongly convicted, Elizabeth had in fact been convicted and was considered guilty. In the eyes of the law she was considered a “dead woman” and could not claim any of her husband’s estate. Elizabeth petitioned the court for a reversal of attainder to restore her legal rights. No action was taken for seven years.

In the 1996 film based on the play The Crucible, Proctor was played by Daniel Day-Lewis.

William TOWNE‘s daughter Rebecca Towne Nurse (Wiki) (1618 – 19 Jun 1692 [age 61] Salem MA Hanged for Witchcraft.  Rebecca is a central character in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible as well as many other dramatic treatments of the Salem Witch Trials.

In the play Rebecca Nurse, wife of Francis Nurse, is highly respected in Salem for her helpful nature. Very firm in her opinions, and willing to make any sacrifice in the cause of truth, she voices her opposition to the idea of witchcraft. Near the end, she is accused of being a witch on the prompting of the Putnams, who are jealous of her good fortune.

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4. Museum Exhibits

In 1925 the Brown-Pearl House, built by Cornelius BROWN Jr. (1667-1743)  was acquired by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and dismantled.  The living area was reconstructed as an exhibit hall – an example of colonial architecture and early domestic life.  It was taken down and stored 10 or 11 years ago when the museum began construction of the new Art of the Americas Wing. On Nov. 20th, 2010, the new wing was opened to the public and the Brown–Pearl Hall is again on display as a gallery in the lowest level of the new wing.

The woodwork in this room came from a house built by Cornelius Brown, a farmer, and his wife Susannah in Boxford, a small town in Essex County, north of Boston before the American Revolution. In 1738, the house passed to Richard Pearl and descended in his family until it was dismantled. The heavy oak framework, pine sheathing (or wall boards), and large fireplace are characteristic of houses of its day.

This would have been the central living space of the house, called the “hall.” Here, the family would conduct important matters of cooking, eating, and sleeping. It is clear from the imported pottery on the table that this house belonged to a well-to-do family. Imported items signal the shift in Puritan culture towards material prosperity. As New England seaport towns grew and prospered before the Revolution, successful citizens called upon the arts to express and enhance their new mode of life.

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Peter WINNE and his family were favored tenants on the manor. Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, son of the founder of Rensselaerwyck, and later the fifth patroon of Rensselaerswyck, was Daniel Pietersz’ tutor.  When young Daniel (1678-1757) inherited his father’s life-tenancy on the land, his home, and his sawmill, he was granted additional land upstream, where, in turn, his son, Peter Daniel (1699–1759) and grandson, Daniel Peter (1720–1800), built homes; the former circa 1725 (the house still stands in present-day Bethlehem, New York, about five miles south of Albany) and the latter in 1751; Daniel Peter’s home was part of the last generation of houses built in the time-honored anchor bent framing tradition of the New York Dutch. Daniel also inherited the  property in Cedar Hill, along the Hudson, where the Winne dock was located in the 1800′s.

The New York Dutch Room  in the New York Metropolitan Museum comes from a house built in 1751 in Bethlehem, New York, for Daniel Pieter Winne (1720–1800). The woodwork demonstrates the reliance on traditional Netherlandish building practices in late colonial New York. Dutch immigrants began settling the Hudson River Valley in the early seventeenth century but continued to construct houses and barns much as they had in the Netherlands through the end of the eighteenth century.

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Capt. Nathaniel FITCH’s son Isaac Fitch (1734 – 1791) was one of Connecticut’s most skilled and accomplished colonial builders and carpenters. He was born in Lebanon, a cousin of Jonathan Trumbull Senior (1710-85), the Governor of Connecticut and supplier to Washington’s Continental Army.  Isaac died relatively young, and had he lived longer Fitch would probably have been known as one of Connecticut’s greatest eighteenth-century architects.

Fitch built Colchester’s Deming House in 1768. This fine mansion was demolished in 1958, but it possessed outstanding examples of Fitch’s craftsmanship. The house’s most elaborate work, located in the northeastern parlor was purchased by the American Museum in Bath, England..

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7.Paintings

Sir Ralph WARREN (1486 – 1553) (Wikipedia) was a mercer and alderman of London, and Lord Mayor in the years 1536, and 1543.   His father was  Sir Thomas WARREN, a fuller in, and sheriff of London, in 1528. His daughter Joan WARREN married Sir Henry (Williams) CROMWELL .

Sir Ralph was knighted in the first year of his mayoralty by King Henry VIII. He was buried in the chancel of St. Osythe’s, (also known as St Benet Sherehog) under a fair marble tomb, with this inscription, “Here lyeth buried the right worshipful Sir Ralph Warren, knight, alderman, and twice lord mayor of London, mercer, merchant of the staple at Callis, with his two wives, dame Christian and dame Joan”, and “Sir Ralph departed this life the 11th day of July, 1553″.

Sir Thomas BROMLEY (1530 –  1587) (Wikipedia) was a English lord chancellor during the turbulent reign of Elizabeth I and prosecuted famous cases against the Duke of Norfolk and Mary Queen of Scots.  He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Adrian Fortescue, K.B., and by her had four sons and  four daughters.  His daughter Elizabeth married Sir Oliver CROMWELL (1563 – 1658)  

James CARVER’s son John Carver was born 9 Sep 1565 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. He married Catherine White c. 1600.   John died 5 Apr 1621 Plymouth, Mass 

John Carver was a Pilgrim leader. He was the first governor of Plymouth Colony and his is the first signature on the Mayflower Compact.

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Elder William BREWSTER (1567 – 1644).

When the Mayflower colonists landed at Plymouth, Brewster became the senior elder of the colony, serving as its religious leader and as an adviser to Governor William Bradford.  As the only university educated member of the colony, Brewster took the part of the colony’s religious leader until a pastor, Ralph Smith, arrived in 1629.

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Thomas WEST 3rd Baron de la Warr (1577 – 1618)  (Wikipedia)  was the Englishman after whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, an American Indian people and U.S. state, all later called “Delaware“, were named.

Franics COOKE (c.1583 -1663) (Wikipedia) was one of the 102 passengers on theMayflower. This early settler is one of the twenty-six male Pilgrims known to have descendants.

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Isaac ALLERTON (1586 – 1659) was one of the original Pilgrim fathers who came on the Mayflower to settle the Plymouth Colony in 1620. (Wikipedia)

Boston artist Henry Sargent first painted the Pilgrims landing around 1815. The painting was exhibited to great acclaim at an exhibition in New York. Soon after, the painting was damaged. Sargent painted this new version between 1818 and 1822. The painting was loaned to Pilgrim Hall Museum for the 1824 celebration of Forefathers Day (and the opening of the Hall).

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John HOWLAND (c. 1591 – 1673) was one of the Pilgrims who travelled  on the Mayflower, signed the Mayflower Compact, and helped found Plymouth Colony.

The arduous voyage very nearly ended his life as he was thrown overboard in turbulent seas, but managed to grab a topsail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely.  (See his page for an account of this incidence was written by William Bradford, political leader of the Pilgrim Colony).

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Francis MARBURY’s daughter Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643) was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts. She was a Puritan whose religious ideas were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma created a schism in the Boston church which threatened to destroy the Puritans’ religious experiment in New England. Creating the most challenging situation for the ruling magistrates and ministers during her first three years in Boston, she was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony with many of her followers.

Anne Hutchinson figures prominently in an excellent book , The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell.

Anne is a key figure in the study of the development of religious freedom in England’s American colonies and the history of women in ministry. She challenged the authority of the ministers, exposing the subordination of women in the culture of colonial Massachusetts. Although her religious ideas remain controversial, her implicit rejection of state authority to prescribe specific religious rites and interpretations, was later enshrined in the American Constitution. The State of Massachusetts honors her with a State House monument calling her a “courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration.”

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Richard MONTAGUE was born about 1614 or 1615  at Boveney, Burnham Parish,  Buckinghamshire, England.  It is a small Hamlet, picturesquely situated upon the river Thames, 7 miles from Windsor, 23 from London. He came to America about 1634, perhaps sailing on the “Speedwell”, locating first in the Boston.    Richard died on 14 Dec 1681 at Hadley, Hampshire, Mass.

George DOWNING’s  grandson Sir. George Downing 1st Baronet (1623-1684) (Wikipedia) was an Anglo-Irish soldier, statesman, and diplomat. Downing Street in London is named after him. As Treasury Secretary he is credited with instituting major reforms in public finance. His influence was substantial on the passage and substance of the mercantilist Navigation Acts. The Acts strengthened English commercial and Naval power, contributing to the security of the English state and its ability to project its power abroad. More than any other man he was responsible for arranging the acquisition of New York from the Dutch, and is remembered there in the name of Downing Street, in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York.

Downing attended Harvard College and was one of nine students in the first graduating class of 1642. He was hired by Harvard as the college’s first tutor. In 1645 he sailed for the West Indies with slaves in-tow, as a preacher and instructor of the seamen, and arrived in England some time afterwards, becoming chaplain to Colonel John Okey‘s regiment.  See his grandfather’s page for the story of his career in England, suffice to say his character low as it stood with English historians, was more infamous yet in the eyes of his New England countrymen, and it passed into a proverb, to say of one who proved false to his trust, that ” he was all arrant George Downing.”

Susanna NORTH (Wiki) was baptized 30 Sep 1621 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.  Her parents were Richard NORTH and Joan BARTRAM. She married George MARTIN 11 Aug 1646 in Salisbury, Essex, Mass.   Susannah was executed for witchcraft on 19 Jul 1692 in Salem, Essex, Mass.

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.

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.

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Samuell BROADLEY‘s  daughter Sarah Broadley Cox Oort Kidd Rousby (1665-1744) married one of the richest men in New York and then as a young double widow married the famous  William “Captain” Kidd (c.1645 – 1701) .

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Salem Witch Trial records state that John FOSTER’s son-in-law John De Rich was sixteen when he testified in 1692 meaning that he was born about 1676.   John died in 1711.

On 23 May 1692 the conspirators filed a complaint against John’s mother, Mary De Rich, Benjamin Proctor, and Sarah Pease. They accused them of ‘sundry acts of witchcraft by them committed on the bodies of Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, whereby great hurt is done them, therefore craves justice.’”.

That summer with his mother in jail and his father dead, John  accused his aunt  Elizabeth Proctor (Our ancestor John PROCTER’s daughter-in-law) and many other victims of the Salem Witch Trials including George Jacobs.    John at that time was apparently only about 16 years of age and intimidated, but never a member of the original conspirators. In fact, he may well have been imprisoned himself after his mother, Mary.

The painting above was created by Thompkins H. Matteson in 1855, and is based on the accounts of George Jacobs’ granddaughter.  The boy is John DeRich and the girl may be Jacobs’ servant Sarah Churchill or a principal accuser Ann Putnam, Jr.   On the left of the painting is William Stoughton, who was the chief magistrate and went on to be a Governor thrice in Massachusetts. George’s principal accuser was his own granddaughter, who was accusing George in order to save her own life. Jacobs’ daughter-in-law is the woman standing who is being held back. She was thought to be mentally ill. The judge who is leading the accusation is thought to be an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Hathorne, who holds a book and points at George’s granddaughter as if challenging her to substantiate her earlier written statements. George is in the front left with his arms outstretched.  In the foreground are a girl and boy who are having fits allegedly caused by Jacobs’ wizardry.

Edward WANTON’s grandson Joseph Wanton (1705-1780) was a merchant from Newport, Rhode Island, privateer, and Governor of Rhode Island from 1769 to 1775 and a Loyalist. .

Joseph graduated from Harvard in 1751 and then, following his family interests, he also became a successful merchant of the area.  Joseph Wanton was the master aboardthe King of Prussia, a privateer during the French and Indian War, that was captured by the French in 1758 with a cargo gold dust, rum, and 54 slaves, Many such privateers out of Newport were actually running in the slave trade.  Wanton served as Governor of Rhode Island from 1769 to 1775 when he was removed for his failure to swear a loyalty oath to the patriot cause. .

Joseph Wanton is pictured in the 1755 painting by John Greenwood, “Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam” along with Stephen Hopkins. Joseph Wanton (being doused with  punch and vomit) and other Rhode Island merchants  The artist included various notable Rhode Islanders, including Nicholas Cooke, Esek Hopkins, Stephen Hopkins, (all seated at the table): in “Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam,” a 1755 painting, the oringinal of “Dogs Playing Poker” genre. Surinam (Suriname) was a Dutch colony on the North coast of South America known for its slave plantations. It was a predominant trading destination for Rhode Island merchants during the 18th century who exchanged lumber, horses, rum, and African slaves for sugar, coffee, and cocoa in what is known as the Triangular Trade.

Wikipedia says In the mid 1750s, the Boston portraitist, John Greenwood, followed a group of sea captains and merchants to Surinam on the northeast coast of South America. The trading usually took time, so the men often waited in pubs.   Being commissioned by the merchants to create a satirical painting, Greenwood concocted a 22-figure tavern scene, showing himself among the affluent traders, all subject to the “intoxicating effects of alcohol and economic ambition.”  Most accounts agree that Wanton is the bald man slumped in a chair by the table, being doused with a pitcher of rum, by one account,  or of punch and vomit, by other accounts.

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Continue to Part 2