In the 1600's living in Massachusetts, being a female could be dangerous. On my Mothers side my ancestor's were the the founders of several different colonies and towns. But this didn't necessarily keep them protected even with their influence.
My 9th Great grandfather Henry True was the first of his family born on American soil. His father (of the same name) had traveled from Norfolk England with the children from his first marriage to Salisbury Massachusetts. At the age of 44 his first wife passed. Not horribly uncommon during this time, life as settlers was rough and many died young.
5 years later he married his second wife Israel while already living in Salisbury. five years later at the age of 54 they had their first son, Henry True (my 9th great grandfather). They would go on to have five more children, his youngest daughter Jemima being born in 1657 Henry at the time being a father of a newborn at 66 years old.
Henry and his wife Israel were called in to court being charged with "a miscarriage before marriage" , however back in this time what this meant was pre marital sex. Israel delivered their first child only two and a half months after the two were married. There isn't much information on this in regards to why they did this. It wasn't super uncommon, couples would do this intentionally to get pregnant so that their parents would allow them to be married to save the family from shame. This was done by couples who's parents would not allow them to marry for reasons such as social class. However both Henry and Israel came from prominent families so there is no clear reason as to how this came to be. This would be the only legal trouble either of them would have.
There first child would be born in new Hampshire away from Salisbury. The only connection there was that Israel's sister lived there. Some believe she was sent there to have the baby away from the eyes of the town, to further attempt to hide any shame.
Henry went on to be successful. After many years everyone kind of forgot bout the past transgressions of Henry and his wife, and he took the freemans oath. He also became a full member of the Salisbury Church, which at the time was not achieved by many, though everyone went to church, to be a full member you had to go through "soul baring" confession and additional teaching. It was considered the Ultimate Puritan Distinction.
Over the years Henry rose to be the Captain of the Salisbury Militia. As well as a leader of his Church. However his rise to influence didn't come without a cost. There was another influential family in town the Carr's. There was a long going rift between the families, because Carr's had wanted Henry's mother in law to marry into their family a whole generation ago and had offered a proposal, however she turned it down and later married Henry's father in law Thomas.
Spring forward and all of sudden his wife's mother Mary Perkins Bradburry, is accused of of being a witch. This wasn't horribly uncommon at the time. Women were accused of being witches for all sorts of different reasons. Mary was tried and charged with being a witch and sentenced to hang. Several people would testify on her behalf, she was said to be "full of works of charity" including feeding the poor, and helping the sick. In fact one member of the Carr family Richard, would be the only Carr to stand up in court and defend Mary, his claims that his family had created this plot because they felt shamed that she hadn't chosen to marry into their family and instead married Thomas Bradbury Henry's father in law. However though many years had passed, it wouldn't be enough to get her off, as many of the members of court were Carr relatives.
However the Carr family did testified to several crimes. Including selling a bad batch of "voodoo" butter to Captain Smith supposedly making them all sick. And supposedly casting a storm causing them to loose their "main mast, rigging and 15 horses" She was even accused of using a spectral to haunt them during "a bright moon-shining night" She was also accused of causing the death of one of the Carr men, by leaving him weakened with disease with disordered fancies by "dethroning his reason" Though it is rumored that the truth was this particular Carr was actually slightly in love with Mary. The stories got so ridiculous one of the Carr men explained how Mary was able to turn herself into a "blue bore" to attack his horses.
Somehow Mary a 72 year old woman at the time, who was said to have been starting to show signs of hysteria, and dementia , managed to escape the gallows. It is not certain how she escaped this fate, but it is believed that her son in law, Henry's power and influence was what made it possible to get her out of town to escape her certain death.
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