Mary Walcott

Mary Walcott (July 5, 1675 – after 1719) was one of the witnesses at the Salem Witch Trials of Salem, Massachusetts in the years 1692 and 1693.

Deposition of Mary Walcott, August 3, 1692

She was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott (1639–1699), and his wife Mary Sibley (1644–1683), both of Salem, and was about seventeen years old when the allegations started in 1692. Her aunt, Mary Woodrow, the wife of Samuel Sibley (1657–1708), was the person who first showed Tituba and her husband John Indian how to bake a witch cake to feed to a dog in order that she and her friends might ascertain exactly who it was that was afflicting them. Joseph B. Felt quotes in the The Annals of Salem (1849 edition) vol. 2, p. 476 [from the town records]:

March 11, 1692 – "Mary, the wife of Samuel Sibley, having been suspended from communion with the church there, for the advices she gave John [husband of Tituba] to make the above experiment, is restored on confession that her purpose was innocent."

At the trials, she was said to be calm, but subsequently critics have accused her of everything from compromise to actually being a witch who foiled her potential adversaries by distracting their attention away from herself onto innocent persons^{[citation needed]}. She married Isaac Farrar on April 29, 1696. Isaac was the son of John Farrar of Woburn, Massachusetts. They had several children, and eventually moved to Townsend, Massachusetts. Mary Walcott also married David Harwood in 1701 in Sutton, Massachusetts. They had nine children. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Record Name: Mary Walcott Gender: female Birth Place: MA Birth Year: 1675 Spouse Name: David Harwood Marriage Year: 1701 Number Pages: 1

Portrayals

Mary Walcott appeared (as "May Walcott") in the television film Salem Witch Trials, portrayed by Canadian actress Nadia Litz. Litz told the press, "I was one of the girls who denounces people as witches. I had a great screeching scene- I cried for 18 hours and they cut it to 30 seconds. I cut my voice and I hit the lit on fire, saving a calf from a fire." For the role, she also inherited a costume from a film version of The Crucible.^[1] In the play of The Crucible, there is a character called Susanna Walcott, who is of the same age as Mary Walcott. This character is the fictional person of the real Mary Walcott, but called Susanna in the play to avoid confusion between the characters Mary Walcott and Mary Warren. It is also possible that Miller meant the character to be a hybrid of Mary Walcott and Susannah Sheldon.

Footnotes

Sources

• Sidney Perley, The History of Salem Massachusetts (1924–1928, 3 volumes)
• Essex Institute, Vital Records of Salem Massachusetts (1918–1927, 6 volumes)
• Melindi Lutz Sanborn, Essex County Massachusetts Probate Records, 1630–1840 (1987, 2 volumes)
• Ithamar B. Sawtelle, editor, History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts ... 1676–1878 (1878)
• Henry C. Hallowell, Vital Records of Townsend, Massachusetts (1992)
• Ezra S. Stearns, editor, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire (1908, vol. II) p. 591 [Family of Isaac Farrar]

External links

• University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials (includes former "Massachusetts Historical Society" link)