Andover Bewitched: A Covenant with the Devil
Andover Bewitched: A Covenant with the Devil
What happened when Samuel Wardwell tried to recant his confession of witchcraft?
Though many people were accused of witchcraft in Andover, four Andover residents died as a result of the trials. Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, and Martha Carrier were hanged, and Ann Foster passed away in prison. This week’s entry of Andover Bewitched tells Samuel Wardwell’s story. If you’d like a background on Andover’s involvement in the 1692 witch trials, read the first post in the series here!
Born in Boston, Samuel Wardwell moved to Andover to work as a carpenter and a farmer. He married Sarah Hooper Hawkes in 1672 and together they had six children.1 Sarah was wealthy and well-positioned in the town, so they had a large property southwest of the village center with land for farming.
Before the witch trials began, Samuel had a reputation for fortune-telling. Some people in the town took these fortunes seriously, while others ignored them. His reputation made it much worse when he was accused of witchcraft in late 1692.
The witch hysteria spread across the Massachusetts Bay Colony…
In 1692, the first person accused of witchcraft in Andover was Martha Carrier. By the time Martha was accused, the hysteria had already developed in elsewhere in Salem Village, Topsfield, and Reading and the drama of it was spreading and gaining attention quickly.
In Andover, young Phoebe Chandler claimed that Martha Carrier had appeared to her as a ghostly tormenter. Next, Thomas Swan went through fits of affliction, accusing Martha and members of the Foster and Lacey families. Third, Elizabeth Ballard fell ill, with pain in her throat and visions of evil specters.2
“Afflicted” persons were those who were allegedly targeted by the witches. They might see the witch as a ghostly specter, or experience the witch’s torment with anything from pinching and pinpricks to severe physical symptoms. Some of those afflicted might have been genuinely ill, but with little understanding of germs and disease, supernatural occurrences seemed like a legitimate cause for illness.
Joseph Ballard brought Salem’s afflicted girls to Andover…
When Elizabeth Ballard became sick, her husband, Joseph Ballard, began the crusade to find the cause of her illness. Joseph invited Ann Putnam Jr. and Mary Walcott, two teenage girls from Salem Village, to come to Andover. He believed that they might be afflicted by the same witch as his wife, and hoped that their combined insight might help find the source.3
In July, Elizabeth Ballard died of her illness, and by August, Martha Carrier was brought to trial. Another Andover resident, Abigail Faulkner was arrested too (read her story here!).
More accusations in Andover flew as other young people followed the lead of Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott. The hysteria was exacerbated by illness spreading through the town as more people fell under a fever that seemed to be caused by a witch’s torment.
Amid this hysteria, Samuel Wardwell was accused and arrested on September 1, 1692. The accusations seemed almost contagious: Samuel, his wife Sarah, their oldest daughter Mercy Wardwell, and Sarah’s daughter Sarah Hawkes were all accused and brought to Salem Town for an examination. All four confessed to practicing witchcraft.
Samuel Wardwell confessed to working with the Devil…
In his confession, Samuel admitted to “covenanting” with the Devil, or making an agreement with him. Stories of signing the Devil’s book, being baptized in the Devil’s ways, and making some sort of agreement with the Devil appear frequently in accounts of witchcraft. The document recording Samuel’s examination recounts:
He sai[d] also at that time when the Devil appeared [and] told him he was Prince of the Aire…that then he s[ig]ned his book by making a mark like a square with a black pen…He sai[d] further he Covenanted with the Devil until he should arrive to the age of sixty years.4
Samuel claimed that he had renounced his earlier baptism in favor of a new baptism with the Devil in the Shawsheen River. Making this agreement with the Devil was enough to indict Samuel; by agreeing to worship the Devil, he was working against the law and against King James. 5
As was the case with almost all confessions of witchcraft at this time, Samuel had to share names of other witches who afflicted others with him. He named Mary Lilly of Reading and young Hannah Tyler of Andover. Mary Lilly was not brought to trial. While 14-year-old Hannah Tyler was arrested and examined, she was released from jail in January 1693.6
Samuel also admitted to afflicting Martha Sprague. 16-year-old Martha Sprague claimed Samuel Wardwell afflicted her by pinching and sticking pins in her, and that he was most certainly practicing witchcraft. Others also accused Samuel, including Mary Walcott and Mary Warren, both from Salem, and several well-known Andover men: Joseph Ballard, Ephraim Foster, and Thomas Chandler.
Samuel tried to recant his confession of witchcraft…
In mid-September, during Samuel’s trial, when the courts read his confession and he was due to hear his verdict, he tried to recant. He claimed that none of what he had said was true, including his accusations of others and his own supposed covenant with the Devil. He claimed that his earlier confession was forced.7
For those accused at the time, the examination process was frightening and confession seemed like the safest option. One accused, someone who confessed to witchcraft and named other “witches” was much more likely to survive than someone who denied the charges.
It seems that Samuel’s insistence on telling the truth by recanting his earlier statement led to his downfall. On September 17, 1692, Samuel Wardwell was sentenced to die by hanging for his crimes: “covenanting” with the Devil and practicing witchcraft on his fellow townsfolk.
On Thursday, September 22, 1692, with seven other accused witches (Mary Esty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Read, and Mary Parker), Samuel Wardwell was hanged. This execution was the last of the 1692 witch trials; no other accused witches were put to death afterwards.8
After the trials, the Wardwell family sought restitution…
Sarah Wardwell, her daughter, and Mercy Wardwell were eventually released from prison and reunited with Sarah and Samuel’s four children.
In 1711, Mercy Wardwell petitioned the court for restitution for goods and property seized during Samuel’s trials, which was granted (a sum of about 36 pounds).9 Samuel was included on the 1711 bill clearing the names of many of the accused witches.
Today, there are three markers in memory of Samuel Wardwell. He appears on the Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial in Danvers, Massachusetts. His name, installed at Procter’s Ledge, rests at the site where the executions took place; and Samuel’s memorial bench is included at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, both of which are in Salem, Massachusetts.10
More to come…
Stay tuned for more entries of Andover Bewitched!
If you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the trials you’d like to learn more about, leave a comment! I’m excited to hear from you.
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Thank you for reading!
— Toni
Sarah Loring Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co., 1880).
Marilyn K. Roach, The Salem witch trials: a day-by-day chronicle of a community under siege. (Lanham, Md. : Taylor Trade Pub., 2004).
Examination of Samuel Wardwell. Papers of the Salem Witch Trials, University of Virginia.
Indictment of Samuel Wardwell for Covenanting. Papers of the Salem Witch Trials.
Bruce Tyler, The Tyler Family and The Salem Witchcraft Trials. See PDF here.
Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover.
Roach, The Salem witch trials: a day-by-day chronicle of a community under siege.
Order for Payment of Damages by Governor Joseph Dudley. Papers of the Salem Witch Trials.
See Smithsonian Magazine, The Site of the Salem Witch Trial Hangings Finally Has a Memorial.
Thanks for this. I've been digging since my mother reminded me of her name, but I am an ancestor of Ann Foster.
I’d be interested to know how it is that Mary Parker is related to the Barkers. William Barker was one of her accusers and it’s noted that they were in-laws. Do you know the genealogy of that connection?