Hugh Parsons of Springfield was Convicted of Witchcraft in Boston in 1652
Hugh arrived in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1645, hired by town founder William Pynchon as the town’s sole brickmaker. He married Mary Lewis in October 1645 after Pynchon confirmed she was free to remarry following abandonment by her first husband. Hugh was known as a man of few words who frequently threatened those who crossed him, often falling out with neighbors. Suspicions swirled around both Hugh and Mary as Springfield experienced misfortunes and strange occurrences. When Sarah Edwards refused Hugh milk to settle a debt, her cow began producing strangely colored milk. In February 1651, both Hugh and Mary were arrested on witchcraft charges, with 35 witnesses giving depositions. William Pynchon played a crucial role in the proceedings, as the magistrate who initially examined the evidence and sent the cases to Boston. Mary was sent to Boston, where she was acquitted of witchcraft but convicted of murdering her infant son; she likely died in prison before execution. Hugh was tried for witchcraft in June 1651 but received neither acquittal nor conviction. The case went to the Court of Assistants, which convicted him in May 1652. However, the General Court overturned this conviction, marking one of the rare instances where colonial leadership reversed a witchcraft conviction. Hugh was released from jail in June 1652. After release, he moved to Rhode Island with his daughter Hannah, remarried, and lived there until his death in 1685. Though his conviction was overturned, he was still forced to abandon his home and business in Massachusetts.
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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