Witch and Warlock?? -- How a Genealogy Journal Article Led to an Accused Witchy Woman and Her Warlock Husband Hiding in My Genealogy (October 28, 2019)

                          

I've been waiting for an appropriate time to post this recent genealogy discovery and, given the subject matter, the month of October seems to be just right.  The timing also coincides with two items on this blog in recent Saturday Serendipity posts: (1) Item #7 in the September 28th Saturday Serendipity noting a New England Folklore story related to the Salem Witch Trials; and (2) Item #1 in the September 21st Saturday Serendipity about the value of reading academic genealogy journals published by various genealogical organizations.  This post gives me the opportunity to weave together items of interest from some Saturday Serendipity posts with recent probable additions to my genealogy.

The story begins with the fact that one of my 4th great grandmothers is Amey Bishop.  Amey was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island on April 22, 1781.  She married Asquire/Asquare Miller before 1800 when the first of their children, Aurin Miller, was born on April 22, 1800 (his mother's birthday).  Amey died in Cumberland on October 31, 1864.  Both Amey [Bishop] Miller and her husband Asquare/Asquire Miller are buried in Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3 [1]   located on Dexter Street  in Cumberland, RI.  The cemetery is a short walk from what was the Miller homestead at 551 High Street (also now known as Rte. 114) in Cumberland.

    

Amey [nee Bishop] Miller's parents were Naamon/Namon Bishop and his wife, Hannah [nee Grant] Bishop. Hannah [Grant] Bishop (1753 - 1805) is also interred at Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3.

Cumberland Cemetery 3 was incorporated by an Act of the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1870. Among the eight incorporators of the cemetery was Eber Miller (1805 - 1877), my 3x great grandfather and the son of Amey [Bishop] Miller (1781 - 1864) and Asquire Miller (1775 - 1825).   Eber Miller and his wife, Abby Hunt (1807 -1893) are also interred in Cumberland Cemetery 3.  I have known for some time about my Bishop ancestors and that they are interred in the historical Cumberland Cemetery 3 along with several of my Miller and Carpenter ancestors and relatives. [2]  

As many genealogists habitually do, I review all the genealogy journals I receive as a result of membership in genealogy organizations, and I peruse other genealogy journals I come across in libraries or elsewhere.  Whenever I browse such journals, the first thing I am looking for is surnames that I know are in my genealogy.  It is not often that I come across a familiar surname that appears to deserve additional attention and research to determine if there is a family connection, but recently I did just that with the Bishop surname.

Because of my Bishop ancestors, when I received the Winter 2019 issue of The Register the first item that caught my eye in the table of contents was the article by Nancy R. Stevens, "Edward Bishop (ca. 1618 - 1697) of Salem and Beverly, Massachusetts." [3]  

The goal of the Nancy Stevens article (hereafter "Stevens") was to further clarify the confusion found in the well-known work, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Clarence Almon Torrey.  Torrey's original compilation of marriages lists a total of five Edward Bishops who lived at one time in Salem, Massachusetts. Three of the five Edward Bishops are designated as Edward [1] and the two others are designated as Edward [2] and Edward [3], respectively. [4]  The Third Supplement to Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Melinde Lutz Sanborn (2003) adds yet another Edward Bishop who is noted as being "not Edward [1]."  The Supplement addition of the Edward Bishop who was not the same as Torrey's Edward [1] was undoubtedly based on the 1981 - 1982 work of David L. Greene [5] who established that a sawyer named Edward Bishop married Bridget Playfer/Wasselbe/Oliver in Salem sometime before 1680.  As both Greene and Robert Charles Anderson [6] noted, Bridget Playfer/Wasselbe/Oliver/Bishop had the unfortunate fate to be the first person executed during the 1692 Salem witch trials.  Torrey had originally (and erroneously) attributed the marriage of "Bridget (Warsilbe) (Oliver)" as the second marriage of Edward [1], widower of Hannah Bishop.  [Stevens also points out in her article that the third marriage Torrey originally attributed to Edward [1] -- that to Elizabeth (Lambert) Cash -- "is probably for Edward the sawyer as well."]

In reading and re-reading the Stevens article, it was the carefully documented story of Edward [1] that grabbed my attention and sent me to my maternal Carpenter/Miller/Bishop line to do further research on my 4th great grandmother, Amey Bishop's, paternal genealogy.  The Stevens article had as its central purpose the indentification of "records created by or about Edward [1] Bishop and [to] present a genealogical summary of his children and grandchildren."  My purpose was to try to work backwards from Amey's parents to see if her genealogy (and thus mine) connected to Edward [1], and particularly his son Edward [2] who left Salem and moved to Rehoboth, Massachusetts where he was an innkeeper until he died in Rehoboth on May 12, 1711. 

The presence of Edward [2] and his wife Sarah in Rehoboth was of great interest to me because my 2x great grandfather, Samuel Carpenter, was born in Rehoboth as were both his parents and all his male line back five additional generations.  Samuel Carpenter (1828 - 1904) married Ruth Ann Miller (1828 - 1893) of Cumberland, Rhode Island who was the granddaughter of Amey [Bishop] Miller and her husband, Asquire/Asquare Miller.  And Amey Bishop's father, Naamon Bishop, was born in Rehoboth in 1746.    

The basic biography for Edward [1] was summarized by Stevens as follows: "Edward [1] Bishop was born about 1618 (age in 1680 and 1681), probably in England, and died by 7 November 1697, probably in Beverly, where he lived.  He married probably in Salem about 1645, Hannah _____."

Through careful analysis of the record trail left by Edward [1], Stevens established his presence in Salem and then Beverly from about 1641 until his death in 1697.  Edward [1] and his wife Hannah had three children (two daughters and one son) who were all baptised in Salem: Hannah Bishop married Wiliam Raymond and had five children; Edward [2] Bishop married Sarah Wild and had eleven children; and Mary Bishop married Robert Coburn and had eleven children.

All of the eleven children of Edward [2] Bishop and his wife Sarah [Wild] Bishop were born in either Salem or Beverly, Massachusetts according to the Stevens article.  But only two of their nine sons had any stated connection to Rehoboth -- Jonathan Bishop, who married Abigail Averill, died in Rehoboth in February 1752, and John Bishop, who married twice, died in Rehoboth in September 1748.  So the question for me became, "Did Amey [Bishop] Miller's father Naamon Bishop, who was born in Rehoboth, have any genealogical connection to either Jonathan Bishop (abt. 1675 - 1752) or his younger brother John Bishop (1689 - 1748) and thus to Edward [2] Bishop and his wife Sarah [Wild] Bishop who moved to Rehoboth in 1703?" 

Naamon Bishop's parents were Gould Bishop (born 1703 in Beverly) and Mary [Pullen] Bishop (1712 in Rehoboth - 1756).  Gould Bishop's parents (and thus Naamon's grandparents and Amey [Bishop] Miller's great grandparents) were .  .  .  Jonathan Bishop and his wife Abigail [Averill] Bishop!  And so the answer to my question is that there was a genealogical connection between my 4x great grandmother Amey [Bishop] Miller and both Edward [2] Bishop and his father Edward [1] Bishop.  It appears that Edward [2] Bishop and Sarah [Wild] Bishop are my 8x great grandparents.

So why did the possibility of this genealogical connection back to Edward [1] and Edward [2] interest me so much?  It is because both of these Edward Bishops lived in Salem, Massachusetts during the period of February 1692 to May 1693 when the Salem witch trials occurred.  During that time more than 200 people were accused and 19 were found guilty and executed by hanging (14 women and 5 men).  In addition, one man was crushed to death for refusing to plead and five other people died in jail. [7]

Neither Edward [1] nor his wife Hannah were among the accused during the Salem witchcraft hysteria even though both of them signed a petition in defense of Rebecca Nurse.  Tragically, Rebecca was nonetheless executed on July 19, 1692 for witchcraft involving the killing of seven babies supposedly by using her spirit!

Edward [2] and his wife, Sarah [Wild/Wildes] Bishop daughter of John and Priscilla [Gould] Wild, were not so lucky because both of them were accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in the spring of 1692!  They were transferred to the jail in Boston, but escaped in October 1692. [8]  Eventually they removed to Rehoboth where Edward [2] became an innkeeper.  Both of them died in Rehoboth.  Their son Jonathan Bishop, a sadler, also died in Rehoboth and he and his wife, Abigail [Averill] Bishop, had a son Gould Bishop (who appears to have been named after his great grandmother, Priscilla [Gould] Wild).  Gould Bishop married Mary Pullen in Rehoboth on March 15, 1733 and the second of their three sons was Naamon Bishop born in Rehoboth on January 24, 1746.  Naamon married Hannah Grant in Cumberland, Rhode Island on December 24, 1778.  Naamon and Hannah had two daughters -- Nancy Bishop [9] and Amey Bishop.  As mentioned at the top of this post, Hannah [Grant] Bishop is buried in Cumberland Cemetery 3 and so is her daughter Amey, who is buried with her husband Asquire/Asquare Miller [10]. 

And so, with Halloween and depictions of witches and warlocks popping up on lawns, in stores, and in the costumes of trick-or-treating children, 'tis the season to contemplate the existence of witchcraft.  While I do not believe my 8th great grandparents were a witch and warlock couple, clearly some in Salem, Massachusetts in the spring of 1692 believed they were and accused them of such fabricated evil.  The accusations were taken seriously enough by the supposedly godly powers that governed Salem and nearby communities, that Edward [2] Bishop and his wife Sarah were imprisoned to await trial and possible execution -- but they were fortunate enough to escape and live a full life in Rehoboth, Massachusetts!  

All of the above having been said, however, perhaps I might reconsider if a witch and warlock are sitting in my geneaology IF on Halloween night either of my young granddaughters twitches her nose and things start flying about the room.

😉

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[1]  See the six-part series on Cumberland Cemetery 3 beginning with the initial post of May 20, 2016 and the documents and photos presented there.

[2]  As explained in my blog series on Cumberland Cemetery 3, my mother's father (my maternal grandfather), Everett S. Carpenter (1891 - 1962), was the last Secretary/Treasurer of the Cumberland Cemetery and it was from him that all the documents relating to the Cumberland Cemetery eventually came to me so that the information and names contained in them could be published and shared with others.  See also, John D. Tew, "Discoveries About Cumberland Cemetery 3," Rhode Island Roots, Journal of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society, 43 (December 2017): 211 - 226.

[3]  Nancy R. Stevens, "Edward Bishop (ca. 1618 - 1697) of Salem and Beverly, Massachusetts," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register -- The Journal of American Genealogy 173 (Winter 2019): 52 - 65.

[4]  With respect to Edward [2] and Edward [3], Stevens observes that the one entry in Torrey's original compilation for each of these Edwards "have stood the test of time" and they are the son of Edward [1] and the grandson of Edward [1] respectively.

[5]  David L. Greene. "Salem Witches I: Bridget Bishop," The American Genealogist 57 (1981): 129 - 138; 58 (1982): 163.

[6]  Robert Charles Anderson, "Bridget (Playfer) (Wasselbe)(Oliver) Bishop: Her Origin and First Husband," The American Genealogist 64 (1989): 207.

[7]  See, "Salem witch trials" at Wikipedia.

[8]  See, "Edward Bishop (Salem witch trials)" at Wikipedia.

[9]  My 2x great grandfather, Samuel Carpenter (who married Ruth Ann Miller, daughter of Eber Miller), had tthree children: my great grandfather Samual Eber Carpenter and his two sisters Abby Laura Carpenter, and Nancy Bishop Carpenter.  Nancy Bishop Carpenter was named after her great grandmother Amey [Bishop] Carpenter's sister, Nancy Bishop.

[10]  My Miller ancestors in Cumberland, Rhode Island also originally came from Rehoboth.  The Millard/Miller family had been living there for four generations when Peter Miller (who was born in Rehoboth) married Anne Aldrich of Cumberland in November 1766 and relocated to Cumberland.  It was Peter Miller who built (sometime around 1767) what became the Miller/Carpenter homestead on High Street in Cumberland. 

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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