| Notes |
- In 1669, she was assaulted by Thomas Wilkinson in her home. As soon as Roger left in the morning, Wilkinson approached Mary for sex, offering “shirt cloth for her husband” and a cheese if she would comply. Mary’s deposition says, “She againe replyed that shee would see him hang’d first, and was not he ashamed to offer such abuse to another man’s wife whenas he had a wife of his owne …” Wilkinson eventually left, not before exposing himself to Mary, but when told of the incident, Roger declined to report it, saying he’d been threatened by Wilkinson if he did so, and also wanted to avoid charges of slander. After all, Mary was the only witness.
Mary was arrested for witchcraft on May 28, 1692, with her 9-year-old daughter, Margaret, and taken to Salem jail, upon a complaint made by Joseph Houlton and Jonathan Walcott of Salem Village on May 28, 1692, for allegedly afflicting Mary Walcott and Abigail Williams.
When questioned, she would admit that her husband, Roger Toothaker, had skills in practicing countermagic against witches and confirmed that her daughter, Martha Toothaker Emerson, had killed a witch. Mary would also be accused by her seven-year-old niece, Sarah Carrier, and Elizabeth Johnson Jr.
Two months after her arrest, Mary was examined on July 30 by magistrates Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, and John Higginson Jr. Says historian Mary Beth Norton, “Mary Toothaker clearly illustrates the connection between the ongoing Indian wars, the fear that instilled, and the witch trials. ‘This May last,’ she told the Essex magistrates, ‘she was under great Discontentedness & troubled with feare about the Indians, I used often to dream about fighting with them.’ After acknowledging that she had afflicted [Timothy] Swan and unnamed others, Goody Toothaker revealed that ‘the Devil appeared to her in the shape of a Tawny man and promised to keep her from the Indians and she should have happy dayes with her sone,’ who had been wounded in the war.” She confessed to making a mark on a piece of bark, a pact with the Devil, to protect her from the Indians.
Mary detailed two witch gatherings in Salem Village, with a cast of accused attendees, drums and trumpets, and preaching from former Salem Village minister George Burroughs. “Because Mary Toothaker confessed to being a witch on July 30, she was in jail in Salem two days later on August 1, when a small party of Indians attacked her neighborhood in Billerica. All the occupants of two households near hers were killed. Had she been home, she too would probably have died. Upon hearing the news, she undoubtedly concluded that Satan had fulfilled his promise to ‘delyver her from the Indians.’ Perhaps that was why she never retracted her confession,” says Norton.
Mary Toothaker’s confession had another important effect on the trials, according to author Richard Hite. “Hers was the eighth confession in less than two weeks, but it was the first one by a suspect who had already been jailed for an extended period of time. This fact is crucial: it may have been the first piece of evidence the public witnessed that one could, by confessing, at the very least postpone facing trial or perhaps avoid being tried altogether.”
Mary was not tried until January of 1693. It is unclear if 9-year-old Margaret remained imprisoned with her for those many months, but the child was never tried. On January 31, the quarterly court in Charlestown, MA indicted Mary for Covenanting, referencing her confession of the mark she had made on a piece of bark, which made her a “Detestable Witch.” On February 1, Mary pled Not Guilty and, shortly thereafter, the jury found her so. She was likely released from prison after payment of any outstanding jail fees.
Mary Toothaker’s sister Martha Carrier was hanged for witchcraft on August 19, 1692. Of her four accused and imprisoned children – Richard, Andrew, Thomas, and Sarah – only Richard was indicted, and none went to trial. All were released after payment of jail fees, and eventually relocated to Colchester, Connecticut with their father Thomas.
After their release from prison, one would have hoped that the long-suffering Mary Toothaker and her daughter Margaret would be able to live out their lives in peace. It was not to be. On August 5, 1695, Mary’s worst fears came true. A raid by natives on horseback swept through the northern part of Billerica, either killing or capturing fifteen people. Mary Toothaker was among the dead, and daughter Margaret, now 12-years-old, was taken captive and never seen again. As historian Henry Allen Hazen said, “If the remembrance and sympathy of later generations could afford any compensation for the sorrows of such a life, we might search far to find a person better entitled to them than Mary Allen Toothaker.”
—— https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/roger-mary-margaret-toothaker-home-site-of/
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Old Dead Relatives
1644 - 1695 (51 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
