On 1 July 1656, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in Boston from England, entering the Massachusetts Bay Colony through Barbados. It was a long journey for the pair, with Ann Austin leaving behind five children. With them were nearly one hundred books that they were planning to distribute.1 Prior to the arrival of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin with their printed materials came Anti-Quaker pamphlets, accusing members of the Society of Friends as worshipers of Satan, whose “quaking” was the devil at work inside them.2 As the ship carrying Mary and Ann arrived at the port of Boston, town officials were present to search the boat for any potential threats they saw to their Puritan practices. In addition to the women’s belongings being searched, their bodies were examined for witches’ marks, or blemishes believed to be used by witches to nurse their familiars. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin’s experience was only the beginning for Massachusetts Bay Quakers, with many being accused of practicing witchcraft or interacting with the devil in some way. Their suspicions towards their Quaker neighbors would lead to violent persecution of the Quakers, including the hangings of four Quakers in Boston Commons in the early 1660s.3 Nearly forty years after Mary Fisher and Ann Austin were searched for witches’ marks, the Salem Witch Trials would begin. In an ironic fashion, descendants of the Quakers persecuted in Salem in the 1650s and 1660s would turn on their neighbors, accusing them of being witches.
A Witch Feeding her Familiars from the Publication of the Trials of Elizabeth Stile, Mother Dutten, Mother Devell and Mother Margaret in Windsor, 1579.
On 29 June 1658, thirty-four people met in the home of Nicholas Phelps and Hannah Phelps, including two visiting Quaker preachers, William Leddra and William Brend.4 While there are no official records from early Salem Quaker meetings, the court cases against Salem Quakers give some insight to those who were present, especially as Quakers became targets of persecution.5 Two of the individuals reported as being at the meeting at the Phelps homestead were John and Elizabeth Kitchen. John Kitchen, born around 1611, immigrated to New England in 1635 as a servant of Zachary Blacknell/Bicknell from Weymouth, England.6 He married Elizabeth (Grafton) Sanders, the widow of John Sanders, residing in Salem, Massachusetts by 1638. It is unknown exactly when the couple converted to Quakerism, but the fines they faced after attending the 1658 meeting did not stop them from continuing to practice the religion.
The myths, tales, and suspicions that formed around these early Quakers were all results of Puritans’ own fears. The Puritan religion influenced all aspects of their life; it instructed them how to behave and understand the world around them. All early Quakers in Salem had converted to the religion, which took root in England in 1640, with many of them having previously been active church members. To the Puritans, they witnessed a group of their neighbors seize to participate in church meetings, where information and news was shared, to meet in the woods. Paired with Anti-Quaker pamphlets accusing members of the Society of Friends as being in league with the devil, the worst was thought if them.
Nicholas Phelps House, Sidney Perley’s The History of Salem, Massachusetts, archive.org, Vol II, p.249.
While the Kitchen family did not disrupt Puritan church meetings, their habit of meeting in a wooded area outside of the Phelps home drew much suspicion. Quaking to the Puritans was a sign of the devil at work, so when Elizabeth Kitchen made her way out of the woods in June 1660 following a Quaker meeting, Edmond Batter and Thomas Roots felt entitled to accost her.7 According to two young men who witnessed the account, John Ward and Thomas Mekings, while Edmond Batter called her a “quaking slut,” which at the time meant to be lazy or messy, Thomas Roots pulled her from her horse. Batter accused Elizabeth of being “apawpawing,” Puritan slang for practicing witchcraft, which they thought specifically was taught by indigenous people.8 The records do not contain much information in terms of what came following the trial, only that the result of the case was admonition.
Kitchen V. Batter and Roots; Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts Vol. 2
Elizabeth Kitchen would not be the only Quaker woman in Essex County, Massachusetts to be accused of witchcraft. Nine years later, Ann (Holland) (Bassett) Burt, living in the nearby town of Lynn, was accused of witchcraft. Essex court records from November 1669 recount nearly ten of Goodwife Burt’s neighbors seeing her appear and disappear at random and mysteriously helped them to cure ailments. It does not appear as though Ann Burt was punished for these accusations, and she was certainly not executed for it, as she died in 1673.9 Regardless of whatever punishment she did or did not receive, the effects of these accusations would be felt by her granddaughter over twenty years later.10 Elizabeth (Basset) Proctor was brought to court in April of 1692 on the accusation of witchcraft.11 It was believed at the time that the supernatural powers of witches could be inherited through female lines.12 In the minds of the Puritans, it would have been no surprise that Elizabeth could send out her specter, especially since her grandmother was recorded as doing the same. In 1684, Increase Mather, father of notorious Boston minister and participant in the witch trials, Cotton Mather, published An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences. In this work, Increase Mather spun wild tales of Quakers mixing with the devil, causing misfortune and death to those they meet. He tells tales of Quaker converts who gave their souls to Satan only later to be found gruesomely killed, and of Quakers leading songs and dances that bewitched other participants. To Increase Mather, all Quakers were under the delusions of Satan.13
“But I shall say no more to the Quakers at present; only pray that such of them as have not sinned unto Death, may have their eyes opened, and (if possible) by delivered out of the snares of Satan, by whom they are taken Captive at his will.” Portion of Increase Mather's Illustrious Providences, archive.org, p.356.
To the early Quakers, these accusations were just as insulting as they would be today, especially when Satan himself could be a very real force in 17th century Massachusetts Bay. The Salem Witch Trials would see active participation from several Quaker descendants, including the Pope and Shattock families. Bathsheba (Folger) Pope, the daughter-in-law of one of Salem’s most notable Quakers, Joseph Pope (and aunt to Benjamin Franklin), would accuse Elizabeth Proctor of bewitching her, causing Bathsheba to experience fits.14 In the mid-1600s, the Pope family did not face as harsh punishments as their Quaker neighbors. As a young adult, Joseph Pope was charged for attending Quaker meetings and both he and Bathsheba would have been aware of the punishments and torture experienced by other Friends. Even more surprising comes the participation from Samuel Shattuck Jr., who testified against Bridget Bishop.15 Samuel Shattuck Jr. was the son of Samuel Shattuck Sr, one of Salem’s earliest professed Quakers.16 After experiencing months of fines and time spent in the House of Correction, Samuel Shattuck Sr. was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony alongside members of the Southwick and Buffum families, with the threat of death upon return.17 By late 1660, Shattuck had made his way to England, earning himself a meeting with King Charles II. With him, came a letter written by another Friend, George Bishop, New England Judged, which detailed the horrors members of the Society of Friends were facing in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.18 In response, King Charles gave Samuel Shattuck a Royal Mandate addressed to Massachusetts Bay Governor Endicott, requesting a stop to all persecutions and the release of all imprisoned Quakers.19 In the long run, this mandate would have little effect. Even as Samuel Shattuck disembarked the ship in Boston, the captain was said to have remarked that Shattuck brought the devil with him.
Edward Manning's Pamphlet The Maske'd Devil (1664)
Despite these events and the comparisons of his own father to the devil, Samuel Shattuck Jr. and his wife, Sarah (Buckman) Shattuck, accused Briget Bishop of harming them. Ultimately, their testimonies would only contribute to the evidence against Bridget Bishop, who would be hanged in June 1692. One Quaker descendant who did not seem to forget her own experiences was Provided (Southwick) Gaskill/Gaskin, a daughter of the Southwicks who were banished from Salem alongside Samuel Shattuck Sr.20 Provided herself faced harsh punishments as well, including being set by her heels in stocks for calling the magistrates persecutors.
"The Stocks" Alice Morse Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, (Singing Tree Press: Detroits, 1968).
At only eighteen, Provided Southwick and her younger brother Daniel were sentenced to be sold out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as slaves to either Virgina or Barbados. Neither would be forced to make the journey, as no sea captain wanted to pay the potential fines they faced for transporting Quakers. In the following decades, Provided Southwick married Samuel Gaskin/Gaskill, another Salem Quaker, the couple having several children together. Provided’s punishments did not shake her faith. When the petition to support Elizabeth and John Proctor was published, Provided and Samuel Gaskill/Gaskin signed as supporters.21 There is, of course, the question of whether they were aware of what Elizabeth Proctor’s grandmother had faced. Living only miles apart in a small community, it is likely that the Gaskill/Gaskins and Ann Burt attended meetings together. Despite the years of persecution that Massachusetts Bay Quakers felt, there are few memorials to them, with none existing in Salem today. Nevertheless, they too were faced with suspicious neighbors, acts of persecution, and accusations of practicing witchcraft decades before the events of the Salem Witch Trials.
“The attempted sale into slavery of Daniel and Provided Southwick, son and daughter of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, by Gov. Endicott and his minions, for being Quakers,” Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra of Salem, Mass.
Sources
[1] William Hodgson, Select Historical Memoirs of the Religious Society of Friends, Commonly Called Quakers (Philadelphia, PA: 1867), FamilySearch.org, Ch. 6 “First Visits of Friends to America - Cruel Persecutions in New England, Etc.”, pp. 115-138. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSM7-P4MH-R?view=explore&keywords=Mary%20Fisher&lang=en&groupId=M95Z-B45
[2] “Anti-Quaker Publications 1653-1666”, bibliography by Rosemary Moore, Quaker Heritage Press, 2 Jul. 2014. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026. http://www.qhpress.org/cgi-bin/antiq.html
[3] Carla Gardina Pestana , The City upon a Hill under Siege: The Puritan Perception of the Quaker Threat to Massachusetts Bay, 1656-1661, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Sep., 1983), pp. 323-353. https://www.jstor.org/stable/365396
[4] Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, HathiTrust.org, Vol. 2 (1912); pp.104-107. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044011362217&seq=215
[5] Joseph Besse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers, archive.org, (L. Hinde: London, 1753). https://archive.org/details/collectionofsuff01bess
[6] Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, AmericanAncestors.org, Vol. 4, I-L, pp.201-207. https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/great-migration-immigrants-to-new-england-1634-1635/image?rId=10013966399&volumeId=77619&pageName=201&filterQuery=
[7] Sidney Perley, History of Salem, archive.org, Vol 2, Elizabeth v. Batter and Roots, pp. 263-264. https://archive.org/details/historyofsalemma02perl/mode/1up
[8] Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, FamilySearch.org, Massachusetts Vol. 2, p.219.https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSSR-D33H?view=fullText&keywords=Elizabeth%20Kitchin&lang=en&groupId=
[9] Joseph Felt, “Genealogical Items Relative to Lynn, Mass”, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register HathiTrust.org, Vol. 5 (New England Historic Genealogical Society: Boston, 1851). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000080782406&seq=103
[10] Deposition of Samuel Parris, Nathaniel Ingersoll, and Thomas Putnam v. Elizabeth Proctor, April 4, 1692, Salem Witchcraft Trials Records, MSS 401, Box 1, Folder 18. Property of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Division of Archives and Records Preservation. Digital image courtesy of Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Rowley, MA. https://pem.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/deposition-of-samuel-parris-nathaniel-ingersoll-and-thomas-putnam-v.-elizabeth-proctor/851?item=853
[11] Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, AmericanAncestors.org, Vol. 1 A-B, p. 190-192.https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/great-migration-immigrants-to-new-england-1634-1635/RecordDisplay?volumeId=77473&pageName=192&rId=10013933718
[12] Enders A. Robinson, The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft 1692, (Hippocrene Books, 1991), p. 282.
[13] Increase Mather, An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences, 1684, Archive.org, pp. 341-356 https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_an-essay-for-the-recor_mather-increase_1684/page/n361/mode/1up
[14] Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, AmericanAncestors.org, Vol. 5 M-P, p. 489 https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/great-migration-immigrants-to-new-england-1634-1635/RecordDisplay?volumeId=77620&pageName=489&rId=10013977408
[15] Deposition of Samuel Shattuck and Sarah Shattuck v. Bridget Bishop, June 2, 1692, Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer records, DEP 01, Box 4, Folder 5. Property of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Division of Archives and Records Preservation. Digital image courtesy of Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Rowley, MA.
[16] “Salem Births” Salem. Vital Records 1626–1849, FamilySearch.org, Vol. 2, p. 278 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-R31H-38LB?view=fullText&keywords=SHATTOCK&searchForm=advanced&lang=en
[17] George Bishop; New-England Judged, Archive.org, p. 73-74. https://archive.org/details/newenglandjudged00bishuoft/page/77/mode/1up?q=shattock
[18] Edward Burrough, A Declaration of Some Part of the Sufferings of the People of God (in Scorn Called Quakers) from the Professors in New England Only for the Exercise of Their Consciences to the Lord, and Obeying and Confessing to the Truth, as in His Light He Had Discovered It to Them (1661), digitalcommons.unl.edu, pp. 17-20. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=etas
[19] Royal Mandate for the Release of the Quakers (December, 1661) https://famous-trials.com/dyer/2477-royal-mandate-for-the-release-of-the-quakers-1661
[20] Janet Ireland Delorey, A study of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, Archive.org, (Shrewsbury, Mass: 1997) https://archive.org/details/studyoflawrencec00delo/page/40/mode/1up
[21] Jonathan Chu, Friends Neighbors Madmen, (Greenwood Press, 1985).
[22] Petition in support of John Proctor Sr. and Elizabeth Proctor, about August 5, 1692, Massachusetts Court of Oyer and Terminer records, DEP 01, Box 3, Folder 27. Property of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Division of Archives and Records Preservation. Digital image courtesy of Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum. https://pem.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/petition-in-support-of-john-proctor-and-elizabeth-proctor/1310