Margaret Jones

Margaret Jones (1613 – June 15, 1648) was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the second in New England (the first being Alse Young in 1647) during a witch-hunt that lasted from 1647 to 1693. Hundreds of people throughout New England were accused of practicing witchcraft during that period, including over two hundred in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials. Prior to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, over a forty-one year period (1647–1688), nine women, including Margaret Jones, were hanged as witches. Jones, who resided in Charlestown, now a section of Boston, was a midwife and practiced medicine. Some of what caused her to be accused of witchcraft had to do with these practices. There are only two primary sources of information on Jones' plight: Governor John Winthrop's journal and the observations of minister John Hale, who, as a 12-year-old boy, had witnessed Jones' execution. Trial and conviction John Winthrop, as governor, and several other founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were among the members of the General Court which tried and convicted Margaret Jones for witchcraft. The others included deputy governor Thomas Dudley and assistant governors John Endicott, Richard Bellingham, William Hibbins, Increase Nowell, Simon Bradstreet, John Winthrop, Jr., and William Pynchon. Ann Hibbins, who was executed for witchcraft in 1656, was reputed to be the sister of Richard Bellingham, and was the widow of William Hibbins. William Hibbins was succeeded as assistant by Humphrey Atherton, who sat in judgment of Ann Hibbins. Winthrop's journal does not reveal anything specific about what caused the accusations against Jones, or her husband, Thomas, who was also accused but not convicted. The case against her was built on evidence collected using the methods of General Matthew Hopkins, an English witch hunter . Hopkins manual on witch-hunting was published one year before Jones' conviction, in which Hopkins prescribed the practice of "watching" which required the accused to sit in a specific position, usually with legs crossed for a period of twenty four hours, during which she or he would be observed. If the person was a witch, it was supposed that within twenty four hours an imp would appear to feed off the witch. An imp was a small creature, or familiar, who depended upon the witch for daily sustenance.