TWO MORE WITCHES ON THE FAMILY TREE

((First posted three years ago))



Yesterday I was doing some googling  on the Witch Trials trying to find out if
I had more relatives involved in them. I am a direct descendant of Rebecca Blake
Eames and Mary Towne Estey, and my relatives Willam Barker Sr and Jr were
also accused of witchcraft. But given how many ancestors I have from Essex County,
Massachusetts, I wondered if there were more. So I went looking and sure enough, there were two more female victims of the Trials.

All I had to do was find their maiden names. One was from my Ayer line, and one was
from my Hawkes line. They are related to me through my grandmother Cora Berthella
Barker.

Mary Ayer Parker was the sister of my 8x great grandfather Peter Ayer. She married a man named Nathan Parker and was an old widow when she was accused of being a witch. She maintained her innocence and claimed they had the wrong Mary Parker since there was another woman with the same name living in Andover. The court wasn't convinced by her argument and she was executed on 22 Sep 1692.

The Hawkes relative is Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes Wardwell. She was married in 1670 to my 10x great grandfather Adam Hawkes who was 62 years old. They had a child, a daughter also named Sarah, before he died in 1672. Adam was a wealthy man when he died and left a third of the estate to his younger wife which made her fairly well off for a widow when she married Samuel Wardwell in 1673.The couple moved to Andover and were living there when Thomas, Sarah, and their daughters Mercy Wardwell and Sarah Hawkes were accused of witchcraft. Among Thomas Wardwell's accusers were my relatives Thomas Chandler and Joseph Ballard.

One of the things that mystifies me about the Witch Trials is not so much the accusations
as the admissions of guilt by the victims. Thomas, Sarah and Mercy all confessed to dealing with Satan and other acts of witchcraft. I don't know if my aunt Sarah Hawkes Jr. did as well.

Thomas Wardwell was hung on the same day as Mary Ayer Parker, 22Sep 1692. The three
 women were eventually released, but Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes Wardwell property had been confiscated at her arrest, which probably included what she had been bequeathed by Adam Hawkes. I wonder if it was ever returned to her?


So now there are two more witches on our family tree!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 25: ADAM HAWKES 1664-1691

Like many colonial New England families, the Hawkes used several given names over and over
through the generations. In my line of the family Adam and John were favorites. So I have two
Adams and two Johns alternating : Adam, John, Adam, John. My subject for this post is 8x great grandfather Adam Hawkes (the second Adam).

I've very little information on this Adam. I've a date of his birth on 12May 1664, and of his death
on 18Nov 1691, both events taking place in Lynn, Ma. Sometime around 1689 he married a woman whose first name was Elizabeth. From what I've read there is a dispute about whether her last name
was Pratt, and I have not been able so far to find a record of the marriage. Adam and Elizabeth's only child, my 7x great grandfather John Hawkes was born in Lynn on 10Apr 1690.

Adam died three years before his father John Hawkes, which meant that his part of John's
estate would be given to his young son, and provisions must be made for that and his guardian. I'll discuss that in the post about the younger John Hawkes for Week 26 of the Challenge. 
   

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 23: ADAM HAWKES PT2

I found the images for Adam Hawkes' Probate File on the American Ancestor website. They
include the estate inventory:

Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

I found this transcription in The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1665-1674 (Google eBook):

Estate Of Adam Hawkes Of Lynn.
Inventory of the estate of Mr. Adam Hawks taken Mar. 18, 1671-2 by Thomas Newhall and Jeremiah Sweyen: in wearing Aparill, 5li. 17s.; a bedsteed, fetherbed, 2 fether pilows, Flock bed, on blanket, sheetts, curtins, vallenc and one Imbroadered coverlid, 14li.; bedsteed and beding belonging to it, 7li. 10s.; trundell bed and beding belonging to it, 2li. 10s.; one other bed and bedsteed, 3li.; bras and pewter, 3li. 14s.; Iron potts and kettells, .one pare of Andirons, — pare of trambrells. tow par of pott hoks, one cast backe, on friing pan, one pare of stilliards, one spitt, 5li. 7s.; tow croscut saws, one sith, one sikell, thre Axces, to par of Hoks, one Axtre pin, on sledg and ould Iron, Hi. 11s.; tow muskits, tow small ffowlling pes, tow Rest heads, 3li. 15s.; thre swords, one wachbill, on ould belt, one pistell and one Drum, 2li. 13s.; one Table, six Joyn stools, 2li. 2s.; one Cubbard, one Joynd chear, one chest, 2li. 8s.; Table cloths, napkins, tow snapsaks, Hi. 7s.; a bible and other Books, Hi.; one press, tow small tables, tow chairs, 2li. 8s.; a pare of banddilars, milk vesells, sivs, 14s.; a peas of black cloth, Hi. 6s.; cart wheells, plow and yoks, chayns, clevis and pin, beatell, tow weges, one forke and part of a cart Roop, 5li. 18s.; fouer oxcen, 21li.; seven cows with tow sucking calfs, 24li. 10s.; one tow yearling and tow yearlings, 4li. 5s.; tow Horses and tow mares, 17li.; sixten swyn one with another, 9li.; sadell and pillion, 15s.; loking glass and baskett, 7s.; tobakow and ould caske, 18s.; The Dwelling Hows and barne, 120li.; about nyn Hundred of boards, a stoke of bees, 2li. 16s.; five hundred and ffivty akers of land, 550li.; fouer Akers of upland, 2li.; total, 817li. 11s.; credit to the Estatt, 1Li. 15s.; Debts from the Esstat, 46li. 14s. -p254-255
The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1665-1674 (Google eBook)
Essex Institute,  Salem Ma, 1917

The file also contained a document as to how the estate was to be divided between Adam's
heirs:

And here's an abstraction of that: 

Administration on the estate of Adam Haukes of Lynn was granted to John Hauks of Lynn, and certain articles of agreement were allowed. He was to give to his mother Mrs. Sarah Hauks, nine score acres of upland in Lynn, not joining to the farm, eight acres of medow in the great meadow, and one third of all the moveables; to Sarah Hauks, her daughter, four score and ten pounds, to be paid five pounds every two years until forty pounds is paid, and the fifty pounds at age or marriage; if she should die before said time to be paid to the widow, Sarah Hauks, all to be paid in corn or cattle; to Moses Hauks, son of John Hauks by Rebeckah Hauks, daughter of Mr. Moses Mavericke, as a legacy from his grandfather, Mr. Adam Hauks, one half of that farm in Lynn which the said Hauks lived and died upon, only for the housing, to pay the value thereof if he pleases, at age, and if he should die before, the estate to go to his father John Hauks and his children; to Mr. William Cogswell for his wife, four score and ten pounds, to be paid ten pounds yearly, in corn, cattle or goods; to Frances Huchisson, twenty pound, in corn, cattle or goods, to be made in two payments within two years; to Samuell Huchisson, Thomas Huchisson, Edward Huchisson and Elizabeth Hart, five pounds each, within twelve months time, in corn or cattle; all the residue to John Hauks.
Signed Mar. 27, 1672, by Sarah (her x mark) Hauks, Francis Hutchinson, Moses Mavericke, John Hauks, William Cogswell.

Approved and allowed Mar. 26, 1672 in Ipswich court.
 Essex County Probate Files, Docket 12,899.
-P255
The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1665-1674 (Google eBook)
Essex Institute,  Salem Ma, 1917

Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes went on to marry Thomas Wardwell in 1673. She, her husband, and daughters Sarah Hawkes and Mercy Wardwell were accused of witchcraft in 1692. Thomas
Wardwell was hung, but Sarah and the daughters were eventually released.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 23: ADAM HAWKES PT1

For Week 23 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, I turn to the family of another
of the women who married into the Upton line, Eve Hawkes. Eve's immigrant ancestor was
Adam Hawks, also spelled Hawkes. Adam is given short but glorious mention in a "puff piece"
of the sort common in 19th and early 20th century genealogies and local histories: 

HAWKS: In the memorable fleet which sailed from Southampton, England, with seventeen hundred Puritan emigrants under Winthrop, and landed at Salem, Massachusetts, in June, 1630, was Adam Hawks, or Hawkes, who became the progenitor of a numerous branch of the family in America. One of his descendants has recently written of him: “Adam Hawkes, founder of the numerous and respectable family that bears the name throughout the country, was one of the advance guard of hard-headed Englishmen who for liberty of conscience, not loving England less but freedom more, took wife and children and household goods, braved the perils of trackless seas, dared the wiles of savage races in an unknown world, and sowed the seed that has grown the highest civilization the earth has ever known.” He was of Charlestown in 1634, but received large grants of land in that part of Lynn now Saugus. He was a farmer, and settled on land where iron ore was found. Soon after his settlement his house was burned, the occupants, a servant and twin infants, escaping. His second house sheltered some of his kindred for two centuries, being taken down in 1872, two hundred years after his death, and on one of the chimney bricks was found the date 1601, probably written in the soft clay when the brick was moulded in England. Adam Hawks married first. Ann Hutchinson, who died December 4, 1669; children: Adam; John, born about 1633: Moses; Benjamin; Thomas and Susanna. He married second, June, 1670, Sarah Hooper; child: Sarah, born June 1, 1671-p357
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 1,  ed. by William Richard Cutter, Lewis historical Publishing Company, Boston, Ma. 1908

There are a few errors in this information. In the entry for Adam Hawkes in The Great Migration (pp253-257), it's pointed out that he and his family probably did not arrive with the Great Fleet since there is no record of them in Charlestown before 1634,and that Sarah Hutchinson was a widow when Adam married her. That is shown in Adam's Probate file which mentions five step-children, Francis, Thomas, Samuel, Edward, and Elizabeth, all with the Hutchinson surname. There is no evidence of children named Adam or Moses from this marriage, just a son John and daughter Susannah.

I've found the Probate File images and also an abstract. I'll discuss those next.
To be continued:

TWO MORE WITCHES ON THE FAMILY TREE

Yesterday I was doing some googling  on the Witch Trials trying to find out if
I had more relatives involved in them. I am a direct descendant of Rebecca Blake
Eames and Mary Towne Estey, and my relatives Willam Barker Sr and Jr were
also accused of witchcraft. But given how many ancestors I have from Essex County,
Massachusetts, I wondered if there were more. So I went looking and sure enough, there were two more female victims of the Trials.

All I had to do was find their maiden names. One was from my Ayer line, and one was
from my Hawkes line. They are related to me through my grandmother Cora Berthella
Barker.

Mary Ayer Parker was the sister of my 8x great grandfather Peter Ayer. She married a man named Nathan Parker and was an old widow when she was accused of being a witch. She maintained her innocence and claimed they had the wrong Mary Parker since there was another woman with the same name living in Andover. The court wasn't convinced by her argument and she was executed on 22 Sep 1692.

The Hawkes relative is Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes Wardwell. She was married in 1670 to my 10x great grandfather Adam Hawkes who was 62 years old. They had a child, a daughter also named Sarah, before he died in 1672. Adam was a wealthy man when he died and left a third of the estate to his younger wife which made her fairly well off for a widow when she married Samuel Wardwell in 1673.The couple moved to Andover and were living there when Thomas, Sarah, and their daughters Mercy Wardwell and Sarah Hawkes were accused of witchcraft. Among Thomas Wardwell's accusers were my relatives Thomas Chandler and Joseph Ballard.

One of the things that mystifies me about the Witch Trials is not so much the accusations
as the admissions of guilt by the victims. Thomas, Sarah and Mercy all confessed to dealing with Satan and other acts of witchcraft. I don't know if my aunt Sarah Hawkes Jr. did as well.

Thomas Wardwell was hung on the same day as Mary Ayer Parker, 22Sep 1692. The three
 women were eventually released, but Sarah (Hooper) Hawkes Wardwell property had been confiscated at her arrest, which probably included what she had been bequeathed by Adam Hawkes. I wonder if it was ever returned to her?


So now there are two more witches on our family tree!
   

ADAM HAWKES AND THE SAUGUS IRON WORKS PT3

Despite the testimony given about the damage done farmland and the bridge
by the overflow from the dam, the jury found in favor of the Iron Works. There
are two reasons why the jurors might have made this decision. The first and
less sinister reason could have been that they felt the company had been fair
with my ancestor Adam Hawkes in their previous settlements and that Adam
was too eager to go to court every time the dam overflowed. The other, less
honorable reason was that the Iron Works was a power and  had made Lynn
an important town in the still young Massachusetts colony, even if it had not
been very profitable as yet. 

By now, Adam Hawkes was in his sixties and the struggle with the Iron Works
passed on into the hands of the next generation, to my 9x great grandfather
John Hawkes. John was more inclined to taking direct action rather than
going through the judicial system. Ironically, he ended up there anyway in 1663.
I ran into a bit of a roadblock here, because the volume of Essex County Court
Records his case appears in was only available as a snippet view on Google Books:

"John Hawkes, sr., and Moses Hawkes; trespass, for that John Hawkes, sr., was
the only plotter, contriver and secret manager of the cutting or breaking of the
great dam at Hamersmith or the Iron works in Lin"-Records and Files of the
Quarterly Courts of EssexCounty, Massachusetts , Volume 9 p12

Luckily I was able to find more details in a genealogy of a related family:

"Evidently there no attempt was made to draw off the water, and in the face of
tardy justice the Hawkes family probably had taken down a part of the dam, since,
in 1663, suit was brought against John Hawkes, Sr., and his brother Moses, by
Samuel Appleton and his son Samuel, in an action of appeal from the County Court
at Salem to the Court of Assistants in Boston. Judgment was given in favor of the
plaintiffs for .£30 damages, and "the defendants shall make vp the great dam as Good
as before in twelue months time next ensuing or pay £250 "and costs. John Hawkes
appealed ; and on March 4, 1663, "the Jury brought in their verdict they found for
the plaintiff [Hawkes] Reuersion of the former Judgment & costs of Court nine pounds."

-Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill Descendants of Edward Small of New England, and the
Allied Families, with Tracings of English Ancestry , Volume 2 (Google eBook)Priv. print.
at the Riverside Press, 1910 p570

This was a reversal of more than just a court case. The Iron Works had not proven
profitable and in fact the company wasn't paying its debts. Some of the company officers
were even jailed or fugitives. Apparently things really reached a head in 1671:

"The Iron Works for several years were carried on with vigor, and furnished most of the
iron used in the colony. But the want of ready money on the part of the purchasers, and
the great freedom with which the company construed the liberal privileges of the court, caused their failure. The owners of the lands which had been injured, commenced several suits against them, and at last hired a person to cut away the flood gates and destroy the works. This was done in the night, when the pond was full. The dam was high, and just below it, on the left, stood the house of Mac Callum More Downing. The water rushed out, and flowed into the house, without disturbing the inhabitants, who were asleep in a chamber. In the morning, Mrs. Downing found a fine live fish flouncing in her oven. The works were much injured, and the depredator fled to Penobscot. 

The suits against the Iron Works were protracted for more than twenty years. Mr. Hubbard says 'that instead of drawing out bars of iron for the country's use, there was hammered out nothing but contention and law suits.' The works were continued, though on a smaller scale, for more than one hundred years from their establishment. But they have long been discontinued, and nothing now is to be seen of them, except the heaps of scoria, nearly overgrown with grass, and called the 'Cinder Banks.'  Alonzo Lewis The History of Lynn: Including Nahant (Google eBook) Samuel N. Dickinson, Boston 1844 p154

It doesn't say who the perpetrators of that second breach of the dam were, but given the
past history of my Hawkes ancestors and the Saugus Iron Works, it wouldn't surprise me
in the least if there were a Hawkes or two involved that night!

ADAM HAWKES AND THE SAUGUS IRON WORKS PT2

For seventeen years, starting in 1643, my ancestor Adam Hawkes had a less
than cordial relationship with the operators of the Saugus Iron Works over
damage done by a dam built and operated by the miners. In 1660 Adam had
finally reached his breaking point and he brought suit against company at
the Essex County Court:

"Mr. Adam Haukes v. Mr. William Paine and company of undertakers of the Iron
works of Lynn and Mr. Oliver Purchass, their agent. Trespass. For damming their
waters so high, which was the cause of floating his lands, well and bridge, to
his great damage for several years. ..."

In the testimony from various witnesses, evidence was given about the previous
agreements between Adam and the miners, as well as to the harmful effects the
overflowing dam had on the Hawkes farm.

"Writ, dated, 4mo: 1660, signed by William Longley for the court, and served by
Theophylus Bayley, constable of Lynn, by attachment of meadow on the west
side of the river to the Long Poynt, to the value of one hundred pounds.

Oliver Purchis" bill of costs. To Major Wm. Hathorne, Joseph Jencks, sr., Henry
Leonard, Jno. Vinton, Nicholas Pinnion, Macam Downing, Charls Phillips,
Thomas Browne, Daniell Salmon and George Darline, witness fees.

Thomas Wellman and John Knight, appointed to appraise the damage, reported
that it amounted to 10li . a year, for the meadow, plow land and in floating a bridge;
in the corn field, the corn had suffered much from the water; the wells were
sometimes floated with the waters of the Iron works, so that when the pond was
up with the waters standing in the wells, the well water was not fit for use on
account of the dirt that fouled it; the damage in the orchard, in the English grass
and in the tobacco lands was also great, etc. Sworn in court.

Charles Phillopes testified that he had kept the water at the Iron works since Mr.
Purchas came, and that the latter told him to keep it low in order that it might not
damage Mr. Haukes. This deponent did, and gained the ill-will of the workmen
thereby. Sworn in court.

Agreement, dated, Oct. 31,1652, between John Giffard. agent for the company of
the Iron works, and Adam Hawks: Whereas there was an agreement made, 20: 4:
1651, by Capt. Robert Caine and Capt. William Hawthorne, arbitrators for said Giffard
and Hawks, in consideration of oertain damages that said Hawks had received, from
the first erecting of the said works by raising a dam for the works, whereby he had
lost the use of three acres in one place and since then, six acres, besides the
overflowing of certain feeding ands, for all of which said Hawks was allowed eight
pounds; now in consideration of that causeway which should be made him good
by the company with sixteen loads of hay to be allowed him yearly, besides two
hundred cords of wood granted said Hawks to cut and carry away; also in consideration
of ten acres of ground now sold by Hawks to the Iron company, lying near the works
among those ten acre lots which lay near Thomas Errington's house, and in full
satisfaction for any future damage that may occur, the said Giffard conveyed to
said Hawks, that fresh marsh called Farmer Dextor's marsh, which adjoined the
house of Adam Hawks, which was in full satisfaction of the arbitration. It was further
agreed that for the future the water should be so kept that it would not ascend the
top of the upper flood gates in the pond or higher than a foot and a half from the
top of the great rock that lay in the middle of the pond before the gates. Wit:
John Jarviss* and Daniel Salmon.*

Joseph Jencks, sr., deposed that he spoke with Adam Hawks about the damage and
the latter told him that he had satisfaction from the old company, etc. Sworn in
court.

Daniell Salmon, aged about fifty years, deposed that, being servant to the Iron
works under Mr. Geffards, he laid out the marsh given to Mr. Hauckes for damage,
and Hauckes was with him at the time, etc. Sworn in court.

Henorey Lenard, aged about forty years, Nicklis Pinnion and John Vinton deposed
that ever since Mr. Porchas came to the works, the water had been kept low by his
order, so low that it caused a great deal of difference between the workmen and
the water drawer; that the waste had been dug wider and deeper since he came, etc.
Sworn in court.

Francis Hutchinson deposed that the flowage of water over Mr. Adam Hauckes' land
made the ground unfit for use; that the bridge in front of the house, which was the
usual passage to and from the house for both man and beast, a herd of cattle passing
over twice each day, had been broken by the water and the timbers raised up ; that
the cattle were in danger of falling in and breaking their legs; that sometimes it had
been repaired, and then the water would break it so that horses going over had fallen
in, etc. Sworn in court. "

-Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 
Volume 2  1656-1662 (Google eBook) Essex Institute, Salem Ma. 1912

Given the amount of damage to Adam Hawkes' land and to a bridge used by the 

general public, it would seem certain the jury would rule in Adam's favor.

 

I'll discuss the outcome of the trial and what happened afterward next.

 

To be continued...

ADAM HAWKES AND THE SAUGUS IRON WORKS PT1

When I was much much younger and  my family was living in Malden, Ma., we'd
often go over to the nearby town of Saugus. Sometimes it was to go to Adventure
Car Hop (Adventure Car Hop is the place to go, for food that's always right, woo-
woo!"), other times it was to go to a VERY small amusement park that had a mini-
roller coaster. What none of us knew at the time was that Saugus was the site
of the first iron works in the British colonies, and that two of my Dad's ancestors
had a somewhat adversarial relationship with that mine. Back then Saugus was
part of the town of Lynn, so much of my information for this post comes from
Alonzo Lewis' History of Lynn and its year by year chronicle.

The story begins in the year 1643:

"An Iron Mine having been discovered on the land of Mr. Adam Hawkes, in
Saugus, information was sent to England; where a company was formed,
called the Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works. It consisted of the
following gentlemen.

Lionel Copley, Esquire, of York County, England.
Nicholas Bond, Esquire, of Westminster.
Thomas Pury, Esquire, of Westminster.
John Becx, London, Merchant.
William Beauchamp, London, Merchant.
Thomas Foley, London, Gentleman.
William Greenhill, Stepney, Middlesex County.
Thomas Weld, Minister, Gateshead, Durham County.
John Pococke, Merchant Tailor, London.
William Becke, Merchant Tailor, London.
William Hicocke, London, Citizen.2

Mr. John Winthrop, junior, came from England with work men, and stock to
the amount of one thousand pounds, for commencing the work. A Foundry
was erected on the western bank of Saugus river, upon land now owned by
Mr. Thomas Mansfield, where large heaps of scoria are still to he seen. The
iron ore. was very plenty, about one mile north of the Foundry ; and according
to several accounts, some lead was discovered, which the people at first
imagined to be silver. The village at the Foundry was called Hammersmith,
by some of the workmen who came from a place of that name in England.
Mr. Endecott, in a letter to Governor Winthrop, December 1, says, "1 want
much to hear from your son's Iron and Steel." Mr. William Wood says that Iron
was discovered as early as 1633." pp 81-82 Alonzo Lewis The history of Lynn
 (Google eBook) Press of J. H. Eastburn, 1829 - Lynn (Mass.)

Adam Hawkes who owned the land where the iron was discovered was my
10x great grandfather through my Dad's maternal Barker line.  

Things seem to have gone well for a few years, but then in 1646 the first
hint of possible trouble occurs: the proprietors of the Iron  Works purchased
some land "for opening a new watercourse, and enlarging the pond." But,
"This extension of the pond caused it to overflow three acres of land belonging
to Mr Adam Hawkes." -p91

The water level of the dam became the center of Adam's problems with the
Iron Works. Five years later  in 1651  there was a change in the management and
an accompanying change in the water level:

"On taking on the management of the Iron Works, Mr. Gifford raised the dam,
which caused the water to overflow six acres of " plowland" belonging to Mr.
Adam Hawkes. For this, on the twentieth of June, an agreement was made, in
which Mr.Hawkes was allowed L8 for damages." p97

That agreement didn't last very long:
"Mr. Gifford this year increased the height of the dam at the Iron Works, by which
ten acres of Mr. Hawkes's land were flowed ; for which he agreed to give 16 loads
of hay yearly, and 200 cords of wood. Afterward he agreed to give him £7, "which
ends all, except that 10s. is to be given him yearly." By this agreement the water
was to be so kept "that it may not ascend the top of the upper floodgates in the
pond, or pier then within foot and a halfe of the top of the great Rock that lies
in the middle of the pond before the gates." p99

But this didn't end all. Adam Hawkes' frustration was rising along with water rising
behind the dam.


To be continued...