Mary Stevens Osgood Whittier, a resident of Salisbury, somehow found herself involved in one of the most infamous of these cases: that of Susannah North Martin of neighboring Amesbury, an elderly widow. Maintaining her innocence to her dying breath, on Tuesday, July 19, 1692, Goodwife Martin and four other convicted women were taken from their jail cells, put into a cart, and driven up the rocky road to Gallows Hill in Salem where they were hanged and their bodies tossed into a shallow grave.

A century ago, it was thought that Joseph Merrill's 1880 book, "The History of Amesbury," contained "a full account of the trial" of Susannah. However, Mr. Merrill's unfortunate choice of words and presentation may have led one early Whittier genealogist to incorrectly conclude that our Mary Whittier gave testimony in Susannah's trial. Mr. Merrill, under a heading of "Oyer & Terminer" named fifteen people "witnesses" (including our Mary), when a more correct statement would have been that these people were delivered subpoenas to appear before this special court, which under closer study seems to have been a preliminary proceeding (meaning "to hear" and "to determine" in Latin) ordered by the new governor, Sir Phips, who was brought in from England to quickly process the backlog of cases pending after things began to get out of control in Salem. (That fall, Gov. Phips dissolved the Court under pressure, but not before a total of twenty women and men had been executed at the height of the hysteria.)

Mr. Merrill quoted the trial testimony of ten witnesses against Susannah. Our Mary was not one of these ten, but no explanation was offered. An Internet study today, with the benefit of newer transcriptions, reveals the trial testimony of some 25 witnesses against Goodwife Martin, but again not one in her defense and no mention of our Mary beyond the issuing of the subpoena. To date, we do not know what happened to Mary Whittier's statement (if it was even recorded) nor have any clue as to why she was even subpoenaed. Was she dismissed from trial proceedings because she wanted to testify for Susannah? We do know that Susannah was denied an attorney at her trial. We do know that the presiding magistrate was literally on a "witch hunt." And we do know that just three days after Susannah's execution both Mary and her husband Nathaniel Whittier, along with over 100 of their friends and neighbors, signed the famous Bradbury Petition, a statement as to the goodness of character of another of the accused, Mary Bradbury.

Hope is not lost that Whittier descendants may one day solve this puzzle regarding our Mary. As this is being written, university scholars are working on a new joint effort to rewrite the witch trial records, looking at the original parchment documents with the aid of high-tech equipment, to discover more precisely what was said in the infamous court of Oyer and Terminer. This researcher will be staying in touch with them to learn the latest developments and hope to be able to include them in an upcoming revision of the Whittier family genealogy. "-- Marilyn Russell; e mail: [email protected].