Mistress MARY PERKINS, (convicted Salem witch): Owings Stone Family Genealogy

Title Mistress

Suffix (convicted Salem witch)

Birth Bef 3 Sep 1615 Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England [3]

Gender Female

Baptism 3 Sep 1615 Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England [2, 3, 5]

Immigration 1 Dec 1630 Bristol, England, to Mass. on the Lion, William Pierce, Master [2, 3]

Died 20 Dec 1700 Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass. [1, 2, 3, 7]

Person ID I7752 Owings Stone Genealogy, Ancestry & Heritage

Last Modified 26 Apr 2008 00:00:00

Father JOHN PERKINS, b. Bef 23 Dec 1583, Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England

Mother JUDITH GATER, b. Bef 19 Mar 1589, Warwickshire, England

Family ID F6060 Group Sheet

Family THOMAS BRADBURY, Gent., b. Bef 28 Feb 1610/11, Essex Co., England

Married Abt 1636 Mass. [1, 2, 7]

Children

	1. Wymond Bradbury, b. 1 Apr 1637, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	2. Judith Bradbury, b. 2 Oct 1638, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	3. Thomas Bradbury, b. 28 Jan 1641, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	4. Mary Bradbury, b. 17 Mar 1643, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	5. JANE BRADBURY, b. 11 May 1645, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	6. Jacob Bradbury, b. 17 Jun 1647, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	7. WILLIAM BRADBURY, b. 15 Sep 1649, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	8. Elizabeth Bradbury, b. 7 Nov 1651, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	9. John Bradbury, b. 20 Apr 1654, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	10. Ann Bradbury, b. 16 Apr 1656, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.
	11. Jabez Bradbury, b. 27 Jun 1658, Salisbury, Essex Co., Mass.

Family ID F5473 Group Sheet

Notes	On July 26, 1692 Mary Perkins Bradbury was brought before the court of Essex in Massachusetts Bay in New England accused of witchcraft by Ann Putnam. Witnesses testified against her, two saying that she had turned herself into a blue boar and tried to trip the horse of their father. Our ancestor Robert Pike and many of her neighbors came to her defense. Nevertheless, she was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. However, before she was hanged, the witch hysteria abated and she was freed. What follows are one of the charges against her and her words in her defense. "In the yeare aforesaid and divers other dayes and times as well before as after Certaine Detestable arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries Wickedly Matllitiously and felloniously hath used practiced and Exercised At and int eh Township of Andivor in the County of Essex aforesaid in upon & against one Timothy Swann of Andivor In the County aforesaid Husbandman -- by which said Wicked Acts fthe said Timothy Swann upon the 26th day of July Aforesaid and divers other days & times both before and after was and is Tortured Afflicted Consumed Pined Wasted and Tormented, and also for Sundry other Acts of Witchcraft by the said Mary Bradbury Comitted and done before and since that time against the peace of our Sov'r Lord & Lady the King and Queen theire Crowne and dignity And the forme Of the Statute In that case made and Provided." Wittness Mary Walcott Ann: Puttnam Mary was accused of being a witch and of having afflicted both Timothy Swan and Sarah Vibber. Her answer: "The Answer of Mary Bradbury in the charge of Witchcraft or familliarity with the Divell I doe plead not guilty." "I am wholly inocent of any such wickedness through the goodness of god that have kept mee hitherto. I am the servant of Jesus Christ & Have given my self up to himas my only lord & saviour: and to the dilligent attendance upon him in all his holy ordinances, in utter contempt & defiance of the divell, and all his works as horid & detestible;; and accordingly have endevo'red to frame my life; & conversation according to the rules of his holy word, & in that faith & practise resolve by the help and assistance of god to contineu to my lifes end:" For the truth of what I say as to matter of practiss I humbly refer my self, to my brethren & neighbors that know mee and unto the searcher of all hearts for the truth & uprightness of my heart therein: (human frailties, & unavoydable infirmities excepted) of which I bitterly complayne every day:" Mary Bradbury (See, e.g., Essex County Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 2 p. 34, also , ,) (Samuel Endicott, grandson of Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Endicott, testified at the witch trial of Mary Bradbury (another of my favorites) at about age thirty-one. He reported he had been in a great storm at sea some eleven years before when his captain later saw a pair of legs appear in the waves, then a woman in a white cap and a neck scarf from the middle up. He went on to say that since Mary Bradbury had sold the captain two firkins of moldy butter and only a witch would do such a thing, the apparition must have been her.) famous witch [2, 4, 7]

Sources

[S136] Lapham, William Berry, (Brown Thurston & Co., Portland)
[S132] Threlfall, John Brooks
[S157] Davis, Walter Goodwin, CS/71/D26/1996/v.1-3.
[S158] Perkins, George A., M.D., (Salem Press Publishing)
[S171] Anderson, Robert Charles, (NEHGS, Boston)
[S106] Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Savage, James
[S238] The Bradbury Family, Holman, Mary Lovering

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