General Notes

m. Aug. 11, 1646 Salisbury, Massachusetts

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) North. 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.The farthest descendant recorded is Juliet Vaughn (11th generation) In 1669, Susannah was first formally accused of witchcraft by William Sargent Jr.. 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.[1] A higher court later dismissed the witchcraft charges.

By 1671, the Martin family was again involved in legal proceedings dealing with the matter of 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.

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.

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 þ county of Esses Widdow at þ 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 þ 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 þ bodies of said persons.... etc"

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.

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. .[2]

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"

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 actual reason for the witchcraft accusation was because of a land ownership/inheritance dispute and subsequent lawsuit the Martins had filed.

Sources:
    ^ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County
    ^ Essex County Archives, Salem - Witchcraft, Vol. 1, pg 35
The American Genealogist, volume 68 [1993], pp. 65–70: "The English Origins of Richard North And His Daughter, Susannah (North) Martin, Executed For Witchcraft In 1692" by David L. Green.

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.

The text below is obviously a newspaper article but the scrap of paper containing the words does not accredit the author or publisher. We’ll say “Thanks” to them now hoping their words may continue to shed light on this tragic series of events and offer solace to the descendants of these women.

AMESBURY — The wheels of justice sometimes take a long time to grind out the truth. For Susannah Martin, the wait will be more than three centuries.

The Amesbury woman was hanged as a witch 307 years ago, and her bones long ago moldered into dust. But lawmakers on Beacon Hill are only now preparing to clear her name and right the wrong done during the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.

The hysteria claimed 20 lives in all.

Fifteen of the condemned later had their names cleared when family members petitioned the Legislature. But Mrs. Martin and four others who had no surviving relatives to speak up for them remained branded as witches.

Paula Gauthier Keene, of Salem, hopes lawmakers will correct that within the next few months.

”These five women . . . are the last five alleged witches whose souls I believe are still crying out for justice and vindication,” wrote Mrs. Keene in a letter to state Rep. Michael Ruane, D-Salem, who is sponsoring a bill to clear the women.

Mrs. Keene, who described herself as a reformed witch who is now a Roman Catholic, said she hopes to organize a memorial Mass for the women in Salem once they are cleared.

Mrs. Martin was a smart woman with a sharp tongue, living when Puritan society expected women to be meek and obedient, and in a world that believed the supernatural lingered behind every good and evil event. Her demeanor was viewed by her enemies as a sure sign that the devil was working inside her.

According to local history, she was accused of witchcraft in 1660, and again in 1669.

The charges were dropped, in part, because her husband successfully sued for slander.

By 1692, however, her husband was dead and the 67-year-old woman lived alone in a house on Martin Street.

Today, Interstate 495 passes over the site of the old Martin house, which stood a few hundred yards northeast of the Amesbury Sports Park. A stone memorial marks a spot near where her house stood.

As the witchcraft hysteria mushroomed beyond Salem, Mrs. Martin’s enemies again seized their chance to press charges against her.

On April 30, 1692, an arrest warrant was issued. The trial continued through June, during which a steady parade of witnesses testified against her.

One witness claimed that Mrs. Martin walked to Newbury on a muddy day in the 1670s but arrived with her dress unsoiled.

The court decided Mrs. Martin must have flown there.

After a spirited self-defense, and showing utter contempt for the charges, Mrs. Martin was found guilty and sentenced to death on June 30. She was hanged July 19.

Due to throat surgery, Rep. Ruane was unable to comment on his bill to clear Mrs. Martin and the others, but he provided detailed information on why they were mot cleared along with the others.

In 1711, the colonial General Court, the predecessor of today’s Legislature, set aside the convictions of all but six of the victims who had no family members petitioning to overturn the verdicts.

Martha Carrier, of Andover, was one of the accused witches whose verdict was overturned.

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,” said Mrs. Keene.

Rep. Ruane’s bill will clearly state the names of the other five women, officially ending this final chapter in the witchcraft trials. Besides Mrs. Martin, the women to be cleared are Wilmot Redd of Marblehead, Alice Parker and Bridget Bishop, both of Salem, and Margaret Scott of Rowley.