Show Notes
In this first episode in our new Witch Hunt Victim Stories series, Josh Hutchinson tells the story of Sarah Good, a victim of the Salem Witch Trials.
In fact, Sarah Good and her daughters were all victims of the witch hunt. Unfortunately, Sarah was executed, her infant daughter died in jail, and daughter Dorothy was imprisoned in chains for nearly 9 months. Join us as we explore Sarah’s life and trial.
For more, listen to our episode, The Salem Witch-Hunt Saga: Beginnings, which was released on June 25, 2024.
Sources:
Emerson W. Baker, A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience
Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692
Bernard Rosenthal, editor, Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
Marilynne K. Roach, The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
Stacy Schiff, The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem
Salem The Podcast, 73. Witch Trials: Sarah Good
Salem The Podcast, 74. Witch Trials: Sarah Good (part 2)
Witch Hunt, The Ultimate Introduction to the Salem Witch Trials Rachel Christ-Doane, The Untold Story of Dorothy Good (video)
Transcript
Josh Hutchinson: [00:00:00] Welcome to Witch Hunt. I'm Josh Hutchinson. This episode is the first in a new series called Witch Hunt Victim Stories. This series features biographies of those persecuted as witches. In remembrance of the five victims executed in Salem on July 19th, 1692, we are filling this week with their stories. We start today with Sarah Good, and we continue with Elizabeth How, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wilds, telling one story a day through the 19th. In the future, we will release weekly episodes and include victims from many witch trials in addition to Salem.
Josh Hutchinson: Now, Sarah Good and her daughter Dorothy were both arrested on suspicion of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. By the end of the trials, Sarah had been killed, an infant daughter had died in jail, and Dorothy was forever altered by trauma.
Josh Hutchinson: Sarah was born in about 1653 or 1654 in Wenham, a town just northeast of Salem Village. She was the daughter of Elizabeth and John Soulart. Her father, an innkeeper, was known as the Frenchman. [00:01:00] He took his own life when Sarah was 18. She and her siblings later had to sue their stepfather for their portions of their father's estate, which was valued at 500 pounds, and Sarah was left with a minor inheritance of three acres of meadowland.
Josh Hutchinson: Sarah's first husband, Daniel Poole, was an indentured servant. He ran up a lot of debt and then died young, leaving Sarah destitute once the bills were settled.
Josh Hutchinson: By 1683, Sarah was married again. Her second husband, William Good, did not live up to his name. William was a weaver and a laborer who struggled to stay employed. To settle debts from Sarah's first marriage, the Goods soon had to sell the three acres of land, leaving them with no property at all. They barely got by on charity and William's meager wages. The family moved from one home to another, as neighbors agreed to take them in but later changed their minds about the house guests. Some who housed Sarah complained about her during the witch trials, dragging her reputation down [00:02:00] even further. According to witnesses Mary and Samuel Abbey, Sarah was "of so turbulent a spirit, spiteful, and so maliciously bent" that they could no longer endure living with her.
Josh Hutchinson: In December 1691, Sarah gave birth to a second daughter, whose name was not recorded. By then, the Goods were residing in Salem Village, where in January 1692, a strange illness appeared in the home of Minister Samuel Parris, causing his daughter, Betty, and his niece, Abigail Williams, to behave strangely and complain of great pain. At some point early in the year, Sarah and her daughter, Dorothy, visited the Parris home, where Sarah requested charity. Though Parris gave her something for Dorothy or for the infant daughter, Sarah was later reported to have gone away mumbling something under her breath. This incident was used against her in court to hint that she had cursed the Parisses despite receiving a gift.
Josh Hutchinson: We often find accusations like these in the witch trials. Those who refuse to give charity often [00:03:00] feel guilt and resentment toward the person who made the request. If something goes wrong for the refuser, it is easy to accuse the person they denied, assuming that person acted out of jealousy and malice for not receiving anything.
Josh Hutchinson: On about February 24th, 1692, a physician, believed to be William Griggs of Salem Village, diagnosed the girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams ,as under an evil hand. The next day, the affliction spread to Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard. On February 27th, Hubbard pointed the finger at Sarah Good, claiming that Good had sent a wolf after her.
Josh Hutchinson: On February 29th, 1692, Joseph Hutchinson, Thomas Preston, Thomas Putnam, and Edward Putnam of Salem Village rode into Salem Town and filed a formal complaint against Sarah Good for supposedly bewitching Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard. The men also complained against Sarah Osborne and Tituba for the same reasons. The magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan [00:04:00] Corwin promptly issued a warrant for Sarah Good's arrest and another for the arrest of Sarah Osborne and Tituba. All three women were to be delivered to Ingersoll's Ordinary the following day. This was a tavern in the center of Salem Village.
Josh Hutchinson: According to the warrant for Sarah Good, she was wanted "for suspicion of witchcraft by her committed, and thereby much injury done to Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams. Anna Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbard, all of Salem Village aforesaid, sunday times within this two months and lately also done at Salem Village."
Josh Hutchinson: Constable George Locker arrested Sarah and brought her to Ingersolls on March 1st. Sarah Good was examined that day, but due to an overwhelmingly large crowd, the hearing was moved from Ingersoll's to the nearby Salem Village meeting house. Some of Sarah's own words are recorded in the account of the questioning she received from magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. According to Ezekiel Cheever, who recorded the interrogation, Sarah Good's "answers were in a very wicked, spiteful manner [00:05:00] reflecting and retorting against the authority, with base and abusive words and many lies she was taken in." However, the answers he actually recorded were simple statements of innocence.
Josh Hutchinson: To quote Sarah, "I do not hurt them. I scorn it. I do employ nobody. I am falsely accused." Under pressure to confess, Sarah said it wasn't her, but one of the others brought him for questioning that day. Probably Sarah Osburn. At the end of the questioning, unfortunately, William Good did his wife no favors, saying he was afraid that she either was a witch or would be one very quickly, and that she is an enemy to all good.
Josh Hutchinson: In depositions dated March 1st, Elizabeth Hubbard said Sarah Good had afflicted her February 28th and then during her examination, Ann Putnam Jr. said Sarah Good began afflicting her February 25th, and Samuel Parris, Thomas Putnam, and Ezekiel Cheever deposed that they had witnessed the afflictions during Sarah Good's examination.
Josh Hutchinson: Following the examination, [00:06:00] Sarah was jailed with her infant daughter. Due to be imprisoned in the Ipswich Jail, Sarah was for the first night kept under guard in the home of her relative, Constable Joseph Herrick, who lived along the Ipswich Road. While their mother was in prison, Dorothy was left in the care of her father, William. Unfortunately, four year old Dorothy would not be safe here for long, as reports soon circulated that she, too, was a witch.
Josh Hutchinson: Meanwhile, her mother slipped out of Herrick's house without her shoes and stockings. When she returned on her own volition, her arm was bloody. Samuel Sibley, husband of witch cake mastermind Mary Sibley, later testified about strange events that night at the Griggs home, where Elizabeth Hubbard claimed to be visited by spectral Sarah Good. Samuel said, "I being at the house of Dr. Griggs that night after that Sarah Good was examined, and Elizabeth Hubbard said that there stands Sarah Good upon the table by you. with all her naked breast and barefoot, bare-legged, and said, Oh, nasty slut!" Samuel struck with his staff where Elizabeth had said Sarah [00:07:00] stood, and Elizabeth Hubbard cried out, "you have hit her right across the back. You have almost killed her."
Josh Hutchinson: On March 2nd, Sarah again slipped out of custody. This time she was being taken on horseback to Ipswich Jail, and she jumped down three different times, trying to get away from her escort, Samuel Braybrook. According to him, Sarah insulted the Magistrates and told them she would not confess to witchcraft unless it could be proven against her, and that was not likely because the only person of legal age accusing her of witchcraft was Tituba, an indigenous woman who would never be believed.
Josh Hutchinson: Sarah may have been moved from Ipswich to the jail in Salem on March 3rd when she, Tituba, and Sarah Osborne were questioned in jail by the Magistrates. This was repeated on March 5th, though apparently Sarah was imprisoned in Ipswich between these interrogations.
Josh Hutchinson: Also on March 5th, William Allen, John Hughes, William Good, and Samuel Braybrook made statements against Sarah Good. William Allen alleged that he had seen a mysterious beast which transformed into Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, and [00:08:00] that Sarah Good had appeared in his chamber at night. William Good said that on February 29th, he had seen a wart or teat below his wife's right shoulder. John Hughes said he was followed by a great white dog which soon disappeared. Later that night, a great light and a large, gray cat appeared in his chamber. Samuel Braybrook recounted the story of Sarah Good's three escape attempts and the words she had spoken about not confessing. He further said she had tried to take her own life that day.
Josh Hutchinson: On March 7th, the prisoners were sent on to Boston Prison, where suspects in capital cases were generally held to await trial by the highest court in the colony, the Court of Assistants.
Josh Hutchinson: On March 23rd, Jonathan and Edward Putnam went to town to complain against Dorothy Good and Rebecca Nurse, and magistrates issued arrest warrants for the latest two suspects. A day later, these suspects were arrested and examined. According to Deodat Lawson's accounting of the questioning of Dorothy Good, "when this child did but [00:09:00] cast its eye upon the afflicted persons, they were tormented, and they held her head, and yet so many as her eye could fix upon were afflicted, which they did several times make careful observation of. The afflicted complained they had often been bitten by this child and produced the marks of a small set of teeth accordingly. This was also committed to Salem Prison."
Josh Hutchinson: Jailkeepers would have the tiniest shackles made for Dorothy, as witchcraft suspects were chained to prevent their specters from roaming, and Dorothy spent many months thus chained.
Josh Hutchinson: On April 5th, Boston jailkeeper John Arnold purchased two blankets for Sarah Good's infant child, as he had been ordered to do by Governor Simon Bradstreet and his council. On April 12th, Dorothy was transferred from the Salem jail to the one in Boston, where she joined her mother and her infant sister. That same day, Samuel Parris made a statement against Sarah and Dorothy, as well as several other suspects.
Josh Hutchinson: On May [00:10:00] 23rd, Abigail Williams testified against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and Tituba. She said that she had been afflicted by them several times in February and was excessively afflicted by them on March 1st during their examinations.
Josh Hutchinson: On May 31st, Attorney General Thomas Newton wrote to Isaac Addington, Secretary of the Province. Among other requests, he asked that Sarah Good and several other prisoners be transferred from Boston to Salem for the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which would convene in Salem on Thursday, June 2nd.
Josh Hutchinson: The prisoners, including Sarah Good, were transported from Boston to Salem on June 1st. Sadly, Infant Good did not make the trip, as she had passed away sometime before.
Josh Hutchinson: On June 1st, Abigail Hobbs confessed that she had been at a general meeting of the witches in the field near Samuel Parris's house and saw Sarah Good among the attendees.
Josh Hutchinson: On June 2nd, a jury of nine women and a male surgeon [00:11:00] examined the bodies of Sarah Good and several other women. While some of the women had a preternatural excrescence of flesh, Sarah Good had no witch marks or teats.
Josh Hutchinson: On June 27th, witnesses were summonsed to attend Sarah Good's trial, which would begin the following day.
Josh Hutchinson: Johanna Childen claimed Sarah Good had killed a child, whose ghost had visited Childen, along with Sarah Good's specter. William Batten, Deborah Shaw, and William Shaw testified against Sarah Good, claiming that spectral Good had bound Susannah Sheldon's hands with strings so tight it had to be cut off. They also testified about a mysteriously placed broom that ended up in a tree twice, a shirt treated in the same manner, and a milk tube carried into the woods by invisible hands.
Josh Hutchinson: Sarah Bibber claimed Sarah Good's specter afflicted a child. Bibber also said, "on the 2nd of May, 1692, the apparition of Sarah Good did most grievously torment me by pressing my breath almost out of my body, and also [00:12:00] she did immediately afflict my child by pinching of it that I could hardly hold it, and my husband seeing of it took hold of the child, but it cried out and twisted so dreadfully by reason of the torture that the apparition of Sarah Good did afflict it with that it got out of its father's arms, too. Also, several times since, the apparition of Sarah Good has most grievously tormented me by beating and pinching me and almost choking me to death and pricking me with pins after a most dreadful manner."
Josh Hutchinson: Sarah and Thomas Gage claimed that Sarah Good muttered after they'd had a disagreement, and the next morning, one of the Gage's cows was dead.
Josh Hutchinson: Mary Herrick and Joseph Herrick Sr. said that on March 1st, Joseph was ordered to put Sarah Good under guard in his own house for the night, with three men assigned to guard her. They told him she left during the night barefoot and bare legged. Supposedly Samuel Sibley was with Elizabeth Hubbard that night, as mentioned before, when she complained of Sarah Good coming to her barefoot and [00:13:00] bare-legged. Samuel struck Good's arm, according to the Herricks, and in the morning Sarah Good was indeed found to have a cut on her arm. A note on the back of this document indicates that Samuel Sibley and two of the men assigned to guard Good were to be brought in to testify in court.
Josh Hutchinson: Susannah Sheldon testified that Sarah Good's specter had bound her hands with a wheelband on June 26th, and that Good "has most grievously tortured me by biting, pinching, and almost choking me to death." While giving this testimony, Susannah Sheldon went into a fit, and then said Sarah Good's specter had attacked her. Mary Warren also reportedly fell victim to the specter, and then the specter took a saucer off the table and carried it outside, where it was soon found.
Josh Hutchinson: Mary Walcott said that she had often seen Sarah Good among the witches who afflicted her.
Josh Hutchinson: A list of witnesses against Good also includes William Allen, John Hughes, Samuel Braybrook, Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Richard Patch, and Tituba. This testimony, which included [00:14:00] Tituba's confession, had been prepared earlier and was read and sworn to before the jury at trial.
Josh Hutchinson: On June 29th, Sarah Good was convicted of bewitching Sarah Bibber, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Ann Putnam Jr.
Josh Hutchinson: On July 19th, Sarah Good and four other women were executed in Salem for witchcraft.
Josh Hutchinson: It wasn't for several months later that Dorothy was finally released from jail on December 10th, 1692, 261 days after she was arrested, after a man had posted bond for her release. We'll have more on Dorothy's life in an upcoming episode of Witch Hunt Victim Stories.
Josh Hutchinson: For even more on Sarah Good and her family, I recommend several books, videos, and podcast episodes in the show notes.
Josh Hutchinson: Thank you for tuning in today. Have a great today and a beautiful tomorrow.
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