Susannah Sheldon, a refugee from Maine, was eighteen years of age during the time of Salem witch trials. As one of the core group of allegedly afflicted girls, Sheldon made claims of afflictions for the first time during the last week of April 1692.
Four days following the accusation that Minister George Burroughs was the leader of the suspected witches, Sheldon allegedly began experiencing “strange spectral encounters".[1] and on April 24 identified a wealthy New England merchant, Philip English, as her tormentor. Sheldon was the first to accuse English and the Boston merchant, Hezekiah Usher, of witchcraft and throughout the crisis, she claimed to have experienced afflictions caused by Bridget Bishop, Martha Corey, John Willard, Sarah Good, John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Goody Buckley, Lydia Dustin, Mary English (Philip's wife), and George Burroughs. Sheldon filed a total of twenty-four legal complaints. The complaint against Hezekiah Usher was withdrawn.
Symptoms
Throughout the trial, Sheldon allegedly experienced apparitions from specters attempting to persuade her to sign the devil’s book, visions from the dead, visual manifestations from familiars of snakes and yellow birds on her tormentors, and symptoms of feeling physically choked and having her hands bound so tight that she could not free herself.
In an attempt to diagnose the symptoms claimed to have been experienced by the girls, scholars have attributed the torments to a variety of causes, giving such explanations of fraud, ergot poisoning, hysteria, and PTSD. One scholar, Mary Beth Norton, argues that Sheldon experienced PTSD because of her connection to the Indian wars on the Maine frontier. Sheldon was a young child during the confrontation at Black Point garrison in 1675, and Norton speculates Sheldon would have developed PTSD from living through the Indian conflict, the death agonies of her uncle Arthur, the grief of her mother and aunt, and the death of her older brother Godfrey in July 1690.
|
---|
| | | Magistrates and court officials | |
---|
| Town physician | |
---|
| Clergy | |
---|
| Politicians and public figures | |
---|
| Accusers |
- Benjamin Abbot
- Ebenezer Babson
- William Barker, Sr.
- Thomas Barnard
- Elizabeth Booth
- John Bly, Sr. and Rebecca Bly
- Thomas Chandler
- Nathaniel Coit
- John DeRich
- Joseph Draper
- Joseph Fowler
- Mary Herrick
- John Howe
- Elizabeth Hubbard
- Joseph Hutchinson
- John Indian
- Nathaniel Ingersoll
- Thomas and Mary Jacobs
- Margaret Wilkins Knight
- Mercy Lewis
- Jeremiah Neale
- Sarah Nurse
- Betty Parris
- Edward Payson
- Samuel and Ruth Perley (or Pearly)
- John and Lydia Porter
- Thomas Preston
- Ann Putnam, Jr.
- Ann Putnam, Sr.
- Edward Putnam
- Hannah Putnam
- John Putnam, Jr.
- John Putnam, Sr.
- Jonathan (or Johnathan) Putnam
- Nathaniel Putnam
- Thomas Putnam
- Nicholas Rist
- Margaret Rule
- Susannah Sheldon
- Mercy Short
- Martha Sprague
- Timothy Swan
- Peter Tufts
- Moses Tyler
- Jonathan Walcott
- Mary Walcott
- Richard Walker
- Mary Warren
- Joseph Whipple
- Bray Wilkins
- John Wilkins
- Samuel Wilkins
- Abigail Williams
|
---|
| Accused but survived (unindicted, acquitted or reprieved) |
- Arthur Abbot
- Nehemiah Abbot, Jr.
- Katerina Biss
- Edward Bishop
- Edward Bishop III
- Sarah Bishop
- Mary Black
- Anne Bradstreet
- Dudley Bradstreet
- John Bradstreet
- Mary Bridges, Sr.
- Sarah Bridges
- Sarah Buckley
- John Busse (or Buss)
- Andrew Carrier
- Richard Carrier
- Sarah Carrier
- Thomas Carrier, Jr.
- Bethiah Carter Jr.
- Bethiah Carter Sr.
- Rachel Clinton
- Sarah Cloyce
- Francis Dane
- Phoebe Day
- Elizabeth Dicer
- Rebecca Dike
- Ann Dolliver
- Mehitable Downing
- Mary Dyer
- Daniel and Lydia Eames
- Rebecca Blake Eames
- Esther Elwell
- Martha Emerson
- Joseph Emons
- Thomas Farrar, Sr.
- Abigail Faulkner, Jr.
- Abigail Faulkner, Sr.
- Dorothy Faulkner
- Elizabeth Fosdick
- Eunice Frye
- Dorothy Good
- Mary Green
- Sarah Noyes Hale (wife of John Hale)
- Elizabeth Hutchinson Hart
- Margaret Hawkes
- Sarah Hawkes, Jr.
- Dorcas Hoar
- Deliverance Hobbs
- William Hobbs
- Elizabeth Johnson, Sr.
- Stephen Johnson
- Rebecca Jacobs
- Jane Lilly
- Mary Marston
- Sarah Morey
- Sarah Murrell
- Sarah Pease
- Joan Penney (or Penny)
- Sarah Phelps
- Mary Post
- Susannah Post
- Margaret Prince
- Elizabeth Bassett Proctor
- Sarah Proctor
- William Proctor
- Sarah Davis Rice
- Sarah Rist
- Sarah Root
- Susanna Rootes
- Abigail Rowe
- Mary Rowe
- Elizabeth Scargen (her infant child died in jail)
- Ann Sears
- Abigail Somes
- Sarah Clapp Swift
- Mary Harrington Taylor
- Margaret Thacher
- Job Tookey
- Margaret Toothaker
- Mary Toothaker
- Hannah Tyler
- Joanna Tyler
- Mary Lovett Tyler
- Hezekiah Usher II
- Rachel Vinson
- Mercy Wardwell
- Sarah Wardwell
- Mary Whittredge (or Witheridge)
- Sarah Wilson, Jr.
- Sarah Wilson, Sr.
- Edward Wooland
|
---|
| Confessed and accused others (in some cases later issuing retractions) | |
---|
| Executed by hanging | |
---|
| Pressed to death | |
---|
| Born in prison | |
---|
| Died in prison | |
---|
| Escaped from custody in Salem or environs until the trials ended |
- John Alden
- Daniel Andrew
- Mary Bradbury
- Elizabeth Cary
- Phillip and Mary English
- Edward Farrington
- Mary Green
- George Jacobs, Jr.
- Ephraim Stevens
|
---|
|
References
- ↑ Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), p. 140.