Elizabeth Kendall was hanged for witchcraft in Boston between 1647 and 1651
Elizabeth Kendall of Cambridge was falsely accused by a Watertown nurse of bewitching a child to death. The nurse testified that Elizabeth “made much of the child” who was well, but then “changed its color and died in a few hours after.” Based on this testimony, Elizabeth was hanged despite claiming innocence. After her execution, Deputy Richard Brown questioned the child’s parents, who revealed they never suspected Elizabeth. They believed the nurse had killed the child by leaving it out in the cold. The nurse was later imprisoned for adultery and gave birth in jail. Brown visited her there, telling her God was punishing her for “murdering Goody Kendall by her false witness bearing.” The nurse died in prison. This case presents clear evidence of a fraudulent witchcraft accusation where an innocent woman died before the truth emerged. Elizabeth’s execution occurred during the early years of Reverend John Hale’s ministry, when he was beginning to form his theological understanding of witchcraft cases that would later influence his involvement in the Salem trials.
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Sources:
David D. Hall, Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History 1638-1693
John Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England
Paul B. Moyer, Detestable and Wicked Arts: New England and Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World