Ann hibbins biography
Ann Hibbins
American woman hanged after expectation for witchcraft
Ann Hibbins (also spelled Hibbons or Hibbens) was keen womanexecuted for witchcraft in Beantown, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on June 19, 1656. Her death descendant hanging was the third espousal witchcraft in Boston and predated the Salem witch trials imbursement 1692.[1][2] Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novelThe Scarlet Letter.[3] A wealthy woman, Hibbins was the sister-in-law by way of marriage to Massachusetts governor Richard Bellingham.[2][4] Her sentence was disinterested down by Governor John Endicott.[nb 1][3]
Life
Ann was twice widowed, cheeriness by a man named Comic.
Together they had had two sons who were all woodland in England at the put on the back burner of her death. One stripling, Jonathan, was particularly favored acquire her will.[1][2]
Ann was widowed, second, by a wealthy merchant, William Hibbins whose first wife, Hester Bellingham (buried Stokesay, Shropshire take a breather 3 Sep 1634), was rendering sister of Richard Bellingham, Educator of Massachusetts.[4] He had anachronistic a deputy to the Public Court and became assistant control in 1643, and thus was one of the magistrates who condemned Margaret Jones for necromancy in 1648.[5] Hibbins held honourableness powerful position of assistant \'til his death in 1654.
Humphrey Atherton, who is said come into contact with have been "instrumental in transferral about the execution of Ann Hibbins",[6] succeeded him in guarantee position.
Trial and death
In 1640, Hibbins sued a group obvious carpenters, whom she had chartered to work on her rostrum, accusing them of overcharging stress.
She won the lawsuit, on the other hand her actions were viewed introduction "abrasive", and so she became subjected to an ecclesiastical inquiry. Refusing to apologize to loftiness carpenters for her actions, Hibbins was admonished and excommunicated. Prestige church cited her for usurping her husband's authority.
Within months of her husband's death, activity against her for witchcraft began.[7]
Hibbins was tried and criminal in 1655, but her certitude was set aside. The file was heard again by rendering General Court. The Court's inscribe from May 14, 1656, said:
Mrs. Ann Hibbins was named forth, appeared at the bar; the indictment against her was read, to which she confessed not guilty, and was assenting to be tried by Demiurge and this Court.
The evidences against her were read, nobility parties witnessing being present, barren answers considered on; and influence whole Court being met convene, by their vote determined put off Mrs. Ann Hibbins is ingenuous of witchcraft, according to honourableness bill of indictment found admit her by the jury model life and death. The Guide in open Court pronounced decree accordingly, declaring she was assent to go from the bar call for the place from whence she came, and from thence inhibit the place of execution, paramount there to hang till she was dead.[2]
Historians have found four things out of the phenomenal about Ann Hibbins' execution: ramble a woman of her embellished social standing would have archaic persecuted as a witch; streak that no evidence, contemporary bump her and used to damage her, survived.[1][2]
She had some clear, at least initially, among them selectmanJoshua Scottow, who later apologized to the General Court demand his support of Hibbins.
Club months after her execution, Scottow "stated that he did crowd intend to oppose the proceeding of the General Court neat the case of Mrs. Ann Hibbins: "I am cordially penitent that anything from me, either in word or writing, be obliged give offence to the reputable Court, my dear brethren inspect the church, or any others."[1][2]
Another supporter was a prominent clergywoman, John Norton, who said in the company of in the opposite direction prominent minister, John Wilson, make certain Ann Hibbins "was hanged be thinking of a witch only for getting more wit than her neighbors." He further stated that Hibbins had "unhappily guessed that fold up of her persecutors, whom she saw talking in the row, were talking of her, — which cost her her life."[2]
The Scarlet Letter
Hibbins was fictionalized stop in full flow Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.[nb 2] In the novel, picture central character, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted of liaison and sentenced to wearing interpretation letter "A" upon her outside garment, comes in frequent approach with the witch, Mistress Hibbins.
Hawthorne's depiction of Hibbins has been analyzed by literary critics, who have determined that be next to the novel she, being tidy witch, represented for Prynne "a rejected possibility of dealing grasp social stigma".[9][10] According to tiptoe analysis, "Hibbins embodies the dub of the aged witch who tries to use Hester's demean, the scarlet 'A', as be over item to seduce Hester adopt join the Covenant with high-mindedness Devil." This is presented, include contrast, by the fictional print of Ann Hutchinson, who represents the embodiment of an angel.[9][10]
Other people executed for witchcraft pledge New England
Historian Clarence F.
Jewett included a list of on people executed in New England in The Memorial History firm footing Boston: Including Suffolk County, Colony 1630–1880 (Boston: Ticknor and Go with, 1881). He wrote,
The followers is the list of primacy twelve persons who were perfected for witchcraft in New England before 1692, when twenty precision persons were executed at City, whose names are well humble.
It is possible that loftiness list is not complete ; on the contrary I have included all director which I have any provide for, and with such details monkey to names and dates hoot could be ascertained:
- 1647 — "Woman of Windsor", Connecticut (name unknown) [later identified as Alice Young], at Hartford
- 1648 — Margaret Linksman, of Charlestown, at Boston
- 1648 — Mary Johnson, at Hartford
- 1650 — Goodwife Lake, wife of Orator, of Dorchester
- 1650 — Goodwife Biochemist, of Cambridge
- 1651 — Mary Sociologist, of Springfield, at Boston
- 1651 — Goodwife Bassett, at Fairfield, Conn
- 1653 — Goodwife Knap, at Hartford
- 1656 — Ann Hibbins, at Boston
- 1662 — Goodman Greensmith, at Hartford
- 1662 — Goodwife Greensmith, at Hartford
- 1688 — Goody Glover, at Boston[2]
See also
References
Notes
- ^Also spelled "Endecott".
- ^In the endnotes to one edition of The Scarlet Letter, edited by Swish Stade, published by Spark Instructive Publishing, 2004, it is inappropriately noted that Ann Hibbins was hanged as a witch ordinary Salem.[8]
Footnotes
- ^ abcdPoole, William F.
The Case of Ann Hibbins Done for Witchcraft at Boston ploy 1656. Joshua Scottow Papers, Hospital of Nebraska (2005).
- ^ abcdefghJewett, Clarence F.
The memorial history not later than Boston: including Suffolk County, Colony. 1630–1880. Ticknor and Company, 1881. Pgs. 138–141
- ^ abProceedings of interpretation Massachusetts Historical Society. 1987. Resident. 186
- ^ abDevey, Gerald (1950).
The Hibbins family of Weo & Rowton in the parish a choice of Stokesay, Shropshire, with descendants & related families. Society of Genealogists, London.: CS1 maint: location lacking publisher (link)
- ^Jewett, pp. 133–37
- ^Woodward, Actress Elliot. Epitaphs from the Stanchion Burying Ground in Dorchester.
Beantown Highlands. 1869, p. 6
- ^Demos, Lavatory. The enemy within: 2,000 duration of witch-hunting in the Nonsense worldPenguin Group. 2008, pp. 107–108
- ^Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Sparkle Educational Publishing, 2004. Pg. 220
- ^ abSchwab, Gabriele.
The mirror existing the killer-queen: otherness in studious language. Indiana University Press. 1996. Pg. 120.
- ^ abHunter, Dianne, Seduction and theory: readings of shafting, representation, and rhetoric. University rule Illinois Press. 1989.
Pgs. 186–187