BROWN, William

Other Events and Attributes:

• Differentiator: Testified against Susannah Martin who was tried and executed for witchcraft; Salem witch trials cast of characters
• Misc: Wife was mentally ill, afflicted about 1660
• Public Service: Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; Selectman & Constable
• Occupation: Weaver and Farmer
• Residence: England
• Residence: Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; Lived on Brown's Hill
• Arrival: 1649, Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
• Witch Trials Connection: 1692, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; Testified against Susannah Martin who was tried and executed for witchcraft; Salem witch trials cast of characters

Notes:

Deposition against Susannah Martin 11 May 1692

The deposition of William Brown of Salisbury, aged seventy years, who, testifying, saith: That about one or two and thirty years ago Elizabeth, his wife, being a very rational woman and sober, and one that feared God, as was well known to all that knew her, and as prudently careful in her family, which woman going upon a time from her own house towards the mill in Salisbury, did there meet with Susanna Martin, the then wife of George Martin of Amesbury. Just as they came together the said Susanna Martin vanished away out of her sight, which put the said Elizabeth into a great fright; after which time the said Martin did many times appear to her at her house, and did much trouble her in many of her occasions; and this continued until about February following, and then, when she did come, it was as birds pecking her legs or pricking her with the motion of their wings; and then it would rise up into her stomach, with pricking pain, as nails and pins; of which she did bitterly complain, and cry out like a woman in travail; and after that it would rise up to her throat in a bunch like a pullet’s egg, and then she would turn back her head an say, ‘Witch, ye sha’nt choke me.’

In the times of this extremity the church appointed a day of humiliation, to seek God on her behalf, and thereupon her trouble ceased, and she saw goodwife Martin no more for a considerable time, for which the church, instead, of a day of humiliation, gave thanks for her deliverance. She came to meeting and went about her business as before. This continued ‘till April following, at which time the summonses were sent to the said Elizabeth Brown and goodwife Osgood by the court to give their evidences concerning the said Martin; and they did, before the grand jury, give a full account.

After which time the said Elizabeth told this deponent that, as she was milking her cow, the said Susanna Martin came behind her and told her that she would make her the miserablest creature for defaming her name at the court, and wept grievously as she told it to this deponent. About two months after this deponent came home from Hampton, and his said wife would not own him, but said they were divorced, and asked him whether he did not meet with one Mrs. Bent of Albury, in England, by whom he was divorced. And from that time to this very day she has been under a strange kind of distemper and frenzy, incapable of any rational action, though strong and healthy of body.

He further testifyeth that when she came into that condition this deponent [got] Doctors Fuller and Crosby to come to her for her release, but they did both say that her distemper was supernatural, no sickness of body, but that some evil person had bewitched her.

Sworn the eleventh day of May Anno Domini 1692, before me, Robert Pike, Assistant.

William married MURFORD, Elizabeth on 25 Jun 1645 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. Elizabeth (daughter of MURFORD, William) was born in 1620 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England; died in 1692 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. BROWN, Mary was born on 17 Jun 1647 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 13 Aug 1696 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.
2. BROWN, William was born on 24 Feb 1649 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 11 Nov 1669 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.
3. BROWN, Sarah was born on 12 Apr 1658 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died in 1730 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA.
4. BROWN, Elizabeth was born on 6 Aug 1656 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 3 Aug 1679 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.
5. BROWN, Ephraim was born on 24 Jun 1650 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 7 Jun 1693 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.
6. BROWN, Martha was born on 5 Jun 1654 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died in 1674 in USA.
7. BROWN, Elizabeth was born in 1644 in Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA; died on 17 Mar 1727 in Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA.
8. BROWN, Martha was born on 5 Jul 1654 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA; died on 10 Mar 1717 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA.

George married HIBBERT, Christiana on 30 Sep 1611 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Christiana was born in 1592 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 28 Dec 1641 in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]