At this time of year, our thoughts start to change. It is our instinct to leave our summer memories in the past and begin to prepare for the approaching winter. But there is a brief period between summer and winter, this beautiful time of the year that is known as autumn. It is a time when nature turns our abundant forests to striking shades of red and gold. A time when we celebrate the bountiful harvest and consume our annual mugs of cider and pumpkin coffee. A time when we complete our food preservation, canning the proceeds from our gardens for enjoyment in the dead of winter.
As the foliage starts to shed, Halloween that will soon be knocking at our doors. We embrace Halloween with our costumes, trick or treaters, excess sweets and scary stories. It is those scary stories I write about this day, a story that is very true and quite remarkable locally, a story about our very own witches.
I have encountered witches in my life in different ways. My early research uncovered some very interesting history relating to witches in Hopkinton. Additional family research opened another relationship with witches that was surprising but sad. As the decades have passed, my wife has joined me on many expeditions relating to my quest for more history. During our trips, she started to develop a keen interest in her family history. Her childhood memories told her she was French on her paternal side, but it was her maternal link that opened another chapter in an already interesting book. Her research documented that she was directly descended from multiple people that held important roles in the Salem Witch Trials.
With research, Wendy discovered and documented that her 10 th Great Grandfather was the Reverand Dane and his daughter was accused of witchcraft. His daughter Abigail is Wendy’s ninth great grandmother. Another ninth great grandmother was discovered to be Joanna Blessings and she too was accused of witchcraft. Blessing’s daughters were Rebecca Towne Estey and Mary Towne Nurse and they are both Wendy’s eighth great aunts. They were also accused of witchcraft just like their mother Abigail and sadly executed by hanging at Salem.
Over in Hopkinton, our ancestors did in fact document at least four forms of sorcery. It was eight decades after the Salem Witch Trials and concerns were growing in Hopkinton. The good people of Hopkinton were reporting events that were similar to the Salem Witchcraft period decades earlier and grew very concerned. The residents of Hopkinton spoke to the local Reverend Elijah Fletcher about these concerns. He felt the Hopkinton hysteria was reminiscent of Salem and decided to seek help before the matter grew.
He contacted his friend in Concord, Reverend Timothy Walker, and requested his help to quell this talk. The residents of Hopkinton continued to speak about the four forms of sorcery in town and it was indeed very disturbing. The four forms of documented sorcery in Hopkinton detailed local witches having influences over the beast in the fields, hidden danger about the path of the unwary traveler, a specter appearing to those sleeping and a ghost appearing in a favored location.
The people told Reverend Fletcher the beasts in the field was suddenly not producing milk. A prominent local woman encountered an old woman begging along a path in the forest. They also told the Reverend Fletcher they dreamed about spirits as they slept at night and the lower cemetery in Hopkinton was most certainly haunted.
There were two women living in Hopkinton that were suspected to be the witches. They were referred to as Witch Webber and Witch Burbank and they were accused of practicing in the occult. Witch Webber freely told anyone that would listen that she was indeed a witch. Perhaps she enjoyed her exaggerated standing as a witch in the Hopkinton community, but the people listened to her and feared her.
Reverend Walker in Concord thought time would be the best remedy to this fearful accusation of witchcraft against Witch Webber and Witch Burbank. He delayed his response to the Reverend Fletcher in hope the talk would subside, but it did not.
The Reverend Walker gathered his bible as well as his thoughts as he boarded his black coach drawn by a single black horse. He traveled early on a Sunday morning from Concord along the old Hopkinton Road deep in thought. He reflected upon the sermon that he would soon read about witchcraft and the occult. He hoped to bring a swift conclusion and offer his support and comfort with his kind words. Though as he approached the pulpit at Hopkinton he did see real fear in people’s eyes, a fear of witches and a fear of the unknown.
Reverend Walker explained to the people the only fear they should be concerned about was the fear that came from discussion about Witch Webber and Witch Burbank. He assured the people in the Hopkinton community there were no witches and the hysteria created was of the utmost concern.
It was this sermon that ended the thought of witchcraft in the Hopkinton community. As he boarded his coach drawn by his single black horse, he departed for Concord.
The witches were no more.