Any Other Descendants from the Salem Witch Trials?

[clueliss]

I’m watching a things out the Salem Witch Trials from The Travel channel that’s on Hulu.  (This one is okay, but they skim the details and don’t go into more than some of the highlights of the accused).  This is a subject that I now will usually stop and watch documentaries on due to the genealogy work I’ve done.  
 

I’m a direct descendant of Mary Perkins Bradbury (accused, convicted was supposed to be hung but somehow escaped from jail.)

I’m also descended from Phebe Wildes Day.  (Accused, arrested, but was not taken to Boston/Salem but to a different jail because of where she was arrested.  Likely saved her life).  Also accused was her sister Sarah Wildes Bishop and Sarah’s husband.  They both escaped and went into hiding.
 

 The interesting to me part of this was accused, arrested, convicted, hung their stepmother Sarah Averill Wildes.  John Wildes first wife died.  He remarried.  But his late wife’s family (the Goulds) thought he remarried too quickly and didn’t like the new wife.  Also John Wildes was a magistrate and I believe there was a whole issue with him not helping his brother in law out of a jam in some legal issue.  

Turns out the Goulds are related to (a couple of generations up back in England) the Putman family.  Ann Putman Jr was one of the afflicted girls with her father giving names of suspects to be arrested.  
 

so, any other very distant cousins here on FJ?

[Ivysong]

Me Me!   I just discovered my connection back to John and Sarah via Wildes/Rust.   When I was in Jr. High we did a reading of The Crucible in english class, and it all came rushing in.. So I started researching the inspiration behind it.

It looks like the Rust line mingled with several of the families in Topsfield over the generations including Perkins and Towne so far. It's a work in progess.  Further back on the Rust line was Henry who helped settle Hingham.  

Wonderful hobby, but not helpful for maintaining any sort of reasonable bedtime.

(on a side note, a Google search for Sarah led me to this forum!)

 

[Kiki03910]

I'm a descendant of John Proctor! My maternal grandmother was a Proctor and grew up in Danvers (formerly Salem Village). I have a handful of early New England ancestors who were accused of witchcraft. Apparently big mouths are hereditary.

[clueliss]

@Kiki03910 I just checked my tree because the name Proctor is familiar, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the witch trials or my tree.  Turns out both.  Direct line Proctors on my tree but they’re from Virginia.  However, John Proctor from the witch trials turns out to be an uncle by marriage to Elizabeth Basset (apparently his third wife) and oh, hey I think she was in the accused list too.  

[Kiki03910]

49 minutes ago, clueliss said:

@Kiki03910 I just checked my tree because the name Proctor is familiar, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the witch trials or my tree.  Turns out both.  Direct line Proctors on my tree but they’re from Virginia.  However, John Proctor from the witch trials turns out to be an uncle by marriage to Elizabeth Basset (apparently his third wife) and oh, hey I think she was in the accused list too.  

I've had a lot of fun over the years on ancestry.com! So are we distant cousins lol?

[clueliss]

Probably,  especially as inter related the witch trial folks seem to be.  And yes, I’ve gotten side tracked into that a time or two.  (Tudor England is another inter related rabbit hole I fall down on a regular basis)

[Kiki03910]

Have you traced relatives in England? I've never gotten that far. Maybe someday! I really should follow up on the "illegitimate son of William the Conqueror" rumor that would make me a princess of sorts (a bedraggled, wild-haired, barefoot princess, but still! lol).

[clueliss]

Some.  Mainly following work of others.  But occasionally I get a record hint that will give things like descendants of Charlemagne or Manga Charta families.  Families descended from royalty that will trace back generations.  
 

 

[Kiki03910]

Lol, that's how I came across the William the Conqueror rumor. The rest of my people seem to have been just regular folks, even Thomas and Jane Walford, who founded Charlestown.