Elizabeth Winslow: Which Witch Is Which?

I wanted to discuss each of these 4 children from the White-Winslow Family. I am starting with the youngest, Elizabeth, upon the courteous principle of ladies first. Elizabeth Winslow was the half sister to my 8th great grandfather, Resolved White. This makes Elizabeth my 8th great grandaunt.

Elizabeth was the youngest sibling in the White-Winslow family living on the Careswell Estate, Marshfield. Her father had been a Plymouth Colony governor, her brother Josiah was a Harvard graduate and commander of all Plymouth armed forces and a governor to be, and her brother Peregrine was a colonial celebrity, being the first Englishman to be born in New England. It was not long before she was married out, being such a catch. I am sure she longed to be released from Careswell though, given that her new sister-in-law, Penelope Winslow, Josiah's new bride, was living at the manor house too. There can be only one lady of the house. Although, in all fairness, we really do not know what the family dynamics were. All of them, Susanna, Penelope and Elizabeth could have been a wonderful congenial trio of women living in perfect harmony. I doubt it very much though. The real mystery is what did they do with themselves all day long, having servants performing every necessary task of the day.

In the mid-1650s, around the time when Elizabeth's father died at sea, never to be seen again, and Penelope, her new sister-in-law, did come to live at Careswell, she married a Robert Brooks and moved to Charlestown, just outside of Boston. Elizabeth and Robert were around the same age, in their early 20s. They had one son, John, who never married and who died quite young. Robert died in 1667-68, leaving Elizabeth a widow, but with a new name: Elizabeth Winslow-Brooks.



George Corwin - Great Aunt Elizabeth's Second Husband

A year later, Elizabeth married again, to man by the name of George Corwin, thus taking on an even longer name: Elizabeth Winslow-Brooks-Corwin. George was a recent widower himself, and he was more than 20 years Elizabeth's senior. He also had several children from a previous marriage, some of whom were not that much younger than Elizabeth, who became their step-mother.

When George Corwin died in 1685, he left Elizabeth well looked after in his will, and so he should have. It is estimated that by the size of his estate, he was probably the wealthiest man in all of New England. He had been well connected too, given that one of his sons, John, was married to Margaret Winthrop, her grandfather being the very famous and long-term governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Another son by the name of Jonathan, was a judge - Judge Jonathan Corwin - who was one of the judges who presided over the Salem Witch Trials.
(Yes, I knew that if I dug far enough into my ancestors and their relatives, that I would find some sort of connection with the infamous Salem Witch Trials, and I did. However, as I go on, it gets even better, or is that, it gets even worse.)

So it ended up that our little great grandaunt Elizabeth, became the step-mother to one of the premier judges of the Salem Witch Trials. And, oh yes, Judge Jonathan Corwin is right up there with the likes of Judges John Hathorne and Bartholomew Gedney, all from Salem and presiding over the court of Oyer and Terminer, and all "hanging judges." How can it get any worse?

Aunt Lizzy's other step-son, John, had a son by the name of George. This George Corwin became the High Sheriff of Essex County, and was my great aunt Elizabeth's step-grandson. Georgy was married to a Gedny woman, who was the daughter of the Judge Gedney who also sat on the Salem Witch Trial court. So it seems like this was very much a family affair in so many ways. The following is some text to describe the activity of little Georgy:



The Pressing of Giles Corey

George Corwin (1666-1696) was the High Sheriff of Essex County and carried out the arrests of the accused and the executions at the gallows of those condemned during the Salem witchcraft trials beginning with Bridget Bishop, the first to be executed. On September 16, 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer ordered Sheriff Corwin to pile rocks on Giles Corey, an 80-year-old farmer, who refused to stand trial for witchcraft. On September 19th, Corey was stripped naked and a board was placed upon his chest. As rocks were piled on the board, he was interrogated by the magistrate. He is reported to have pleaded for "more weight" so his death would come more quickly. Judge Samuel Sewall reported "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute." In a report, Robert Calef, who opposed the trials, observed that Corey's "tongue being prest out of his mouth, the Sheriff with his cane forced it in again, when he was dying." Witnesses claim they heard Corey say, with his dying breath, "Damn you Sheriff I curse you and Salem!" Four years later, at age 30, Sheriff George Corwin had a fatal heart attack. In Haunted Happenings (Salem, Mass.: Old Saltbox Pub Co., 1995) by Robert Ellis Cahill, former High Sheriff of Essex County, Cahill noted that every Sheriff since Corwin, including himself, a period of almost 300 years, each headquartered at the Salem Jail overlooking the spot where Corey was pressed to death, had died while in office or had been forced out of his post as the result of a heart or blood ailment.

Source: http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=682&lotNo=56037

There were in total 19 people executed for being found witches, 1 was tortured to death (Giles Corey), and 5 died in prison. High Sheriff George Corwin was responsible for the executing of the warrants, for administering the hangings, and for confiscating the wealth of those executed for being witches. The only amusing part of this whole black period in colonial history, was that the executions stopped only after Governor Phips' wife was "called out upon" for being a witch. After that, the remaining accused were either pardoned or found not guilty, and the Court of Oyer and Terminer was dismissed.

Governor William Phips

As for how great aunt Elizabeth reacted to all these goings on, is completely open to speculation. I know that she was still living during this period of 1692-93, and that she was living right in the midst of the events. She would have been around 60 years old at the time. For the Puritans, demons and Satanism were a living reality, and to deny them, was heresy. Anyone who spoke out against the Salem Witch Trials when they were ongoing, was more than likely to find themselves accused shortly thereafter. The accusers were a group of allegedly afflicted girls in what we would call their "tween" years. Spectral evidence, such as one of these girls having a bad dream about someone hurting them, and then accusing this person of being in league with the Devil, is the reason why most of the accused were hanged. When the court, through the gentle nudging of the Governor after his wife was accused through spectral evidence, stopped accepting such evidence as being valid, the trials soon ended.

The Judge Jonathan Corwin House

However, witch trials were fairly common in English society for centuries. The Massachusetts Bay Colony merely was a reflection of English society. Prior to the Salem Witch Trials, there had been at least a dozen "witches" hanged in the colony after going to trial, but the only difference was, these were one witch at a time type trials. In Salem, in 1692-93, 25 people died as a result of these trials. That was what was so uncommon about the Salem Witch Trials.

In Salem today still stands the house that was owned by Judge Jonathan Corwin, my great aunt's step-son. It is known as the last "Witch House" standing, and it is a tourist spot.