George Washington's Great Grandfather and a "Witch"
The last Witch trials were in Virginia during a 104-year period from 1626 to 1730 and in Maryland between June 1654, and October 1712 and in Connecticut between 1647 to 1663 and in Salem Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Using the last years of those witch trials averages out to about 1700. The French and Indian war comes 54 or so years later. That compares to us in 2024 looking back to around 1970 or so. Stories like Young Goodman Brown, set in Salem, referred to those times in 1835 by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
With our easy access to history nowadays, fifty some years doesn't seem so long ago. But back then? Some things were timeless, like the articles and plays of Addison and Steele from 1714, especially Addison's popular Cato play that had a run for a 100 years. Other matters of the memory back then might have just disappeared as though it might have been a 1000 years ago.
For example George Washington had no idea of his great Grandfather John Washington's proximity to death just across the river from Mt Vernon in 1675. John Washington wrote his will anticipating he was heading towards something fatal. If you look across from Mt Vernon to the Piscataway side of Maryland, you will be looking at a major incident in Washington's great grandfather's life. That was when John Washington of the Virginia troops and Truman of Maryland troops were sent to kick out the Susquehanna Indians for violating a year old Maryland legislature decision requiring the Susquehanna to move to the Great Falls area of the Potomac and stop squatting on Piscataway Indian land. They were also there because Doeg Indians allegedly killed some people on a Virginia Plantation. It is alleged these Susquehannocks were involved. A siege of a Susquehanna fort, the site of which is now underwater in the Piscataway estuary, went for 6 weeks after the colonials killed 5 or 6 Susquehanna Chiefs seeking to parley a truce. A source alleges both John Washington and Truman were castigated by VA Gov Berkeley for such an outrage on those Susquehanna Indians. That year of 1675 has a modern feel. Virginians were divided whether to keep peace or war with all Indians or some Indians. This then led to Bacon's Rebellion.
George Washington's great grandfather sued about an executed "witch."
John Washington joins Edward Prescott on his ketch, "The Seahorse of London" in Denmark. They then eventually leave for Virginia. They run into some shoals on the Potomac. Then a storm came and the ketch sank. John Washington meets Ann Pope and soon has her father's blessing to marry. This happens while John Washington is helping to dig out "the Seahorse of London." They finally resurrect the boat. Washington wants to stay and so wants his wages for his help. Prescott refuses this request. Prescott believes Washington is not fulfilling his agreement to keep their association and so countersues Washington. Washington appears to be losing this suit, so Nathaniel Pope, the father of Ann Pope, promises beaver skins to Prescott to make this matter right.
This allows John Washington to stay in Virginia. He marries Ann Pope. But he has no end to bad feelings towards Prescott. Sometime later he hears Prescott is back on the Potomac on a different boat and is now in Maryland. He hears from sailors Prescott hung a woman on accusations of being a "witch." He sues Prescott for murdering that woman. A court case is set.
In 1657, another woman on a ship bound for the colonies was executed as a witch. Her name was Elizabeth Richardson, and her death would go on to result in lawsuit brought forth by John Washington, great-grandfather of George Washington, against Captain Edward Prescott for her death.
Two women were hung for witchcraft on ships off the coast of Virginia, first in 1654, and again in 1659. The matter concerning Katherine Grady’s 1654 execution was later heard in a Jamestown court, while Elizabeth Richardson’s 1659 execution went to a Maryland court. Both women were hung in efforts to calm storms that the crew and passengers believed were caused by witches. Both captains were tried, though the records for Captain Bennett, who ordered Grady’s death were lost, Captain Prescott was not convicted of any wrongdoing in Richardson’s death.14
Fendall is a court judge in Maryland.
"Fendall did not change the court date to the following day and followed through with the interrogation of Prescott who claimed although he was the ship owner, Master Greene, along with his crew "were ready to mutiny" and he had no choice. Prescott was acquitted and no further charges were brought against him in this matter."
This link states John Washington was on that boat with the "witch', but other accounts such as Douglas Southall Freeman indicate he was not.
"I believe in general that there is and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to any particular instance of it. " — Joseph Addison, The Spectator (1711). He was also that same author of the 100 year popular play, Cato, A Tragedy.
This painting by Goya painted around 1821 to 1823 is part of the "Black Paintings" series and depicts a coven of witches.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 10/23/204, updated 10/24/2024, 10/26/2024, 10/27/2024
Table of Contents
John Washington
sues Prescott
for killing a "witch"
From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 1, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons, pages 15-18.
Maryland court
on the charge of
Murder of Witch
Fendall is a court judge in Maryland.
"Fendall did not change the court date to the following day and followed through with the interrogation of Prescott who claimed although he was the ship owner, Master Greene, along with his crew "were ready to mutiny" and he had no choice. Prescott was acquitted and no further charges were brought against him in this matter."
Goodman is a specific meaning
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1835
The meaning of Goodman, Goody, Goody Two Shoes
"Goodwife (Scots: Guidwife), usually abbreviated Goody, was a polite form of address for women, formerly used how Mrs., Miss and Ms. are used today. Its male counterpart is Goodman. However, a woman addressed by this title was of a lesser social rank than a woman addressed as Mistress.
Goodwife and Goody were used in England, Scotland, and Colonial America, with the earliest known use circa 1325.[1] By the mid-18th century they had become archaic outside Scotland, and they are perhaps best known today as the forms of address used in period literature, like Arthur Miller's historical fiction The Crucible.
The title also appears in the expression Goody Two-Shoes, which is sometimes credited to the 1765 children's book The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, though it was first used at least a century earlier."
Wonderful analysis of this story, Young Goodman Brown
Read the story itself here:
Cato, A Tragedy
Cato, A Tragedy by Joseph Addison in 1712
John Washington, Susquehanna & Piscataway
"The colonists found their scapegoat in the form of the local Indians. The trouble began in July 1675 with a raid by the Doeg Indians on the plantation of Thomas Mathews, located in the Northern Neck section of Virginia near the Potomac River. Several of the Doegs were killed in the raid, which began in a dispute over the nonpayment of some items Mathews had apparently obtained from the tribe. The situation became critical when, in a retaliatory strike by the colonists, they attacked the wrong Indians, the Susquehanaugs, which caused large scale Indian raids to begin."
The Washington ancestry, and records of the McClain, Johnson, and forty other colonial American families : prepared for Edward Lee McClain by Hoppin, Charles Arthur, 1866- Publication date 1932, volume 2 of 3
All 3 volumes
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