John and Sarah Atkinson House

Near the southwest corner of the Upper Green is the John Atkinson House, built circa 1664-1665.

One of the most interesting accusations of the Salem witch trials was one directed against the elderly Susannah Martin of Amesbury. Susannah began her life as Susannah North, born in 1621 to Richard and Joan North in England, and arriving in Salisbury, Massachusetts in 1639 with her father and stepmother, when Susannah was 18 years old. At the age of 25, in 1646, Susannah married another Salisbury resident, George Martin. The couple had eight children. George Martin was granted 40 acres west of the Powwow River in 1658. A decade later, that area separated from Salisbury and became the town of Amesbury. Susannah and George Martin were among the earliest Amesbury settlers.

When the witch hysteria took hold in Essex County in 1692, elderly widows, and particularly those who were thought to be argumentative and outspoken, were typical targets. Susannah, widowed in 1686, fit the bill. She had also been the subject of witchcraft charges over the previous three decades. In early May of 1692, Susannah was accused, arrested, examined, and held for trial. On June 29, her trial commenced, and numerous neighbors traveled the distance from Salisbury, Amesbury, and Newbury to Salem to share their stories.

Among those who testified was Sarah Atkinson of Newbury. She described a visit from Susannah some 18 years earlier when Susannah had walked from Amesbury to Newbury on a particularly muddy day or, as described by Sarah, “it was not fit for any person to travel.” (This was a distance of over six miles AND involved crossing the Merrmack River, so a ferry was likely  involved.) Sarah continued, “I asked her how she could come in this time afoot, and bid my children make way for her to come to the fire to dry herself. She replied she was as dry as I was and turned her coats on side, and I could not perceive that the soles of her shoes were wet. I was startled at it.” Sarah informed Susannah that, had it been she, “I should have been wet up to my knees.” Susannah apparently ended the discussion saying, “she scorned to have a drabled tayle.” Did this mean she flew? On such flimsy stories and “evidence” were people convicted of practicing witchcraft.

Sarah’s husband John Atkinson also testified, saying he had arranged to exchange a cow of his for a cow belonging to one of Susannah Martin’s sons about five years earlier. When he went to pick up the animal it was “so mad that we could scarce get her along, but she broke all the ropes fastened to her, we put her halter two or three times round a tree which she broke and ran away ….” It was Atkinson’s opinion that, because he heard Susannah Martin muttering, she was unwilling for him to have the cow and had, perhaps, bewitched the animal.

5 Hanover Street. Private residence. Not open to the public.