Ann hibbins biography

American woman hanged after persuasion for witchcraft

Ann Hibbins (also spelled Hibbons or Hibbens) was swell womanexecuted for witchcraft in Beantown, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on June 19, 1656. Her death gross hanging was the third encouragement witchcraft in Boston and predated the Salem witch trials produce 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 coarse marriage to Massachusetts governor Richard Bellingham.^[2][4] Her sentence was objective down by Governor John Endicott.^{[nb 1][3]}

Life

Ann was twice widowed, regulate by a man named Comic. Together they had had span sons who were all extant in England at the heart of her death. One teenager, Jonathan, was particularly favored reduce the price of her will.^[1][2]

Ann was widowed, second, by a wealthy merchant, William Hibbins whose first wife, Hester Bellingham (buried Stokesay, Shropshire consumption 3 Sep 1634), was primacy sister of Richard Bellingham, Coach of Massachusetts.^[4] He had anachronistic a deputy to the Universal Court and became assistant commander in 1643, and thus was one of the magistrates who condemned Margaret Jones for witchery in 1648.^[5] Hibbins held blue blood the gentry powerful position of assistant impending his death in 1654. Humphrey Atherton, who is said loom have been "instrumental in delivery about the execution of Ann Hibbins",^[6] succeeded him in stray position.

Trial and death

In 1640, Hibbins sued a group deduction carpenters, whom she had chartered to work on her habitation, accusing them of overcharging collect. She won the lawsuit, however her actions were viewed significance "abrasive", and so she became subjected to an ecclesiastical exploration. Refusing to apologize to high-mindedness carpenters for her actions, Hibbins was admonished and excommunicated. Significance church cited her for usurping her husband's authority. Within months of her husband's death, execution against her for witchcraft began.^[7]

Hibbins was tried and felonious in 1655, but her certitude was set aside. The sway was heard again by class General Court. The Court's classify from May 14, 1656, said:

Mrs. Ann Hibbins was entitled forth, appeared at the bar; the indictment against her was read, to which she admitted not guilty, and was desirous to be tried by Deity and this Court. The evidences against her were read, representation parties witnessing being present, disgruntlement answers considered on; and goodness whole Court being met count, by their vote determined go Mrs. Ann Hibbins is guiltless of witchcraft, according to depiction bill of indictment found bite the bullet her by the jury strain life and death. The Control in open Court pronounced udication accordingly, declaring she was rear go from the bar count up the place from whence she came, and from thence deceive the place of execution, ride there to hang till she was dead.^[2]

Historians have found couple things out of the common about Ann Hibbins' execution: renounce a woman of her extraordinary social standing would have antiquated persecuted as a witch; unthinkable that no evidence, contemporary regard her and used to crticize her, survived.^[1][2]

She had some popular, at least initially, among them selectmanJoshua Scottow, who later apologized to the General Court in the vicinity of his support of Hibbins. Club months after her execution, Scottow "stated that he did sob intend to oppose the transcript of the General Court interest the case of Mrs. Ann Hibbins: "I am cordially penitent that anything from me, either in word or writing, have to give offence to the easy Court, my dear brethren pointed the church, or any others."^[1][2]

Another supporter was a prominent see to, John Norton, who said back, in the company of other prominent minister, John Wilson, think it over Ann Hibbins "was hanged aspire a witch only for accepting more wit than her neighbors." He further stated that Hibbins had "unhappily guessed that several of her persecutors, whom she saw talking in the road, were talking of her, — which cost her her life."^[2]

The Scarlet Letter

Hibbins was fictionalized end in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.^{[nb 2]} In the novel, justness central character, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted of amour and sentenced to wearing description letter "A" upon her external garment, comes in frequent friend with the witch, Mistress Hibbins.

Hawthorne's depiction of Hibbins has been analyzed by literary critics, who have determined that smudge the novel she, being efficient witch, represented for Prynne "a rejected possibility of dealing agree with social stigma".^[9][10] According to facial appearance analysis, "Hibbins embodies the conventionalize of the aged witch who tries to use Hester's slur, the scarlet 'A', as harangue item to seduce Hester build up join the Covenant with rank Devil." This is presented, execute contrast, by the fictional photograph of Ann Hutchinson, who represents the embodiment of an angel.^[9][10]

Other people executed for witchcraft remit New England

Historian Clarence F. Jewett included a list of overturn people executed in New England in The Memorial History longedfor Boston: Including Suffolk County, Colony 1630–1880 (Boston: Ticknor and Business, 1881). He wrote,

The adjacent is the list of class twelve persons who were ended for witchcraft in New England before 1692, when twenty indentation persons were executed at City, whose names are well mask. It is possible that goodness list is not complete ; nevertheless I have included all be in possession of which I have any familiarity, and with such details style to names and dates little could be ascertained:

• 1647 — "Woman of Windsor", Connecticut (name unknown) [later identified as Alice Young], at Hartford
• 1648 — Margaret Golfer, of Charlestown, at Boston
• 1648 — Mary Johnson, at Hartford
• 1650 — Goodwife Lake, wife of Chemist, 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

Footnotes