Fairfield, 1692. Acquitted.
MARY STAPLIES. Fairfield, 1692. Jury found no bill.
Account in previous chapter.
MERCY DISBOROUGH. Fairfield, 1692. Convicted; reprieved. Account in
previous chapter. HUGH CROTIA. Stratford, 1693. Jury found no bill.
Account in previous chapter. _C. & D._ (Vol. I,185).
WINIFRED BENHAM SENIOR and JUNIOR. Wallingford, 1697. Acquitted.
They were mother and daughter (twelve or thirteen years old), tried at
Hartford and acquitted in August, 1697; indicted on new complaints in
October, 1697, but the jury returned on the bill, "Ignoramus." _Records
Court of Assistants_ (1: 74, 77).
SARAH SPENCER. Colchester, 1724. Accused. Damages 1s.
Even a certificate of the minister as to her religion and virtue, could
not free Sarah from a reputation as a witch. And when Elizabeth (and how
many Connecticut witches bore that name) Ackley accused her of "riding
and pinching," and James Ackley, her husband, made threats, Sarah sued
them for a fortune in those days, L500 damages, and got judgment for L5,
with costs. The Ackleys appealed, and at the trial the jury awarded
Sarah damages of ls., and also stated that they found the Ackleys not
insane--a clear demonstration that the mental condition of witchcraft
accusers was taken account of in the later and saner times.
NORTON. Bristol, 1768. Suspicioned. No record.
"On the mountain," probably Fall mountain in Bristol, the antics of a
young woman named Norton, who accused her aunt of putting a bridle on
her and driving her through the air to witch meetings in Albany, caused
a commotion among the virtuous people.
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