Mary Lovett Tyler and the Salem Witch Trials

For this week's 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks, Oct 29-Nov 4 - Spirits

I have an ancestor who was accused of being a witch in the Salem Witch Trials. Here's a repost of that blog from 2021:

------------------------------

Mary Lovett Tyler and the Salem Witch Trials

I read a historical book about the Salem Witch Trials...which includes a lot of information about the events of the times, not just the trials, accusers and various accused persons. It is "In the Devil's Snare" by Mary Beth Norton, published 2002 by Vintage books. I'm having trouble concentrating, so it's slow going. But I wanted to add to my knowledge of my 8 times great grandmother, one of the accused.

Following is the post from 2018 which I shared here. 

Mary Lovett Tyler

1651–1732

Birth 7 MAR 1651/53 • Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts

Death 03 MAR 1732 • Preston City, New London, Connecticut,

Wife of Hopestill Tyler (See his blog Dec. 8, 2017)

Mary Lovett Tyler, Mrs. Hopestill Tyler, was accused of Witchcraft in Andover, Mass. in 1692, along with many other townspeople, men, women and children in other locations in New England.

There are original documents of her accusation...
and a good 4 pages of telling the story of her arrest, imprisonment, trial and acquittal.

I'll post them as well as tell a synopsis of the events.

NOT Mary Tyler, but a woman accused of being a witch, and those who tried to prosecute her.  Some women and men were hanged.

From Pequot Plantation by Radune.

How is she related to me?  She's my eight times great grandmother on my father's mother's family tree, which I call the Ada Swasey Rogers tree...she's way up there with some of the earliest immigrants to Massachusetts colony.  I've talked about her husband Here, and her husband's father, Job Tyler, HERE.

The following pages are from North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, author not cited at Ancestry.  First is a description of Hopestill Tyler (at bottom of page 25) second generation:

Top of page continuation about Hopestill's early life.
 Bottom of page 26, the story of Mary Tyler's Confession

Rev. Increase Mather states that Mary lied in her confession to being a witch to stop the verbal persecution she was enduring.

Mary is acquitted of the felony of witchcraft for which she had confessed. Her 3 daughters are also accused, but released when Hopestill pays a bond. According to Nevin's "Witchcraft in 1692" there were 11 Tylers named in list of the accused. There are no more details given of these accusations. I don't find a resource, but I believe she spent several weeks in jail.  Then the entire family moves out of state to Connecticut.

 Original transcript of 1692 witch trial of Mary Lovett Tyler

 Another page describing witch trials.

Mary and Hopestill Tyler had 11 children, the last 2 being twins born in 1687. Their children were either at home, or beginning their own lives as young adults.  Martha Tyler Farnham (their eldest and my ancestor) married right after (or during) the trials June 30, 1693, and I've written about them HERE.

Both Mary and Hopestill adjusted to their new home in Connecticut, where he continued to work as a a blacksmith.  They both joined the church there, as well as at least one of their sons. They both lived long lives, she died at age 81, and he was either 84 or 87 (due to differing dates on records.)

The Norton book has not added any specific details to Mary's story...(having looked through it to page 262 where Mary Tyler is mentioned.) I am not going to read the entire book, but will say that the frequent Indian attacks in New England seemed to have a lot to do with the various reports by children of witch attacks. I think Norton is merging these two horrific events in their lives, which sometimes resulted in legal ramifications, and sometimes didn't. And it's very interesting that so little has been said in American history classes about the frequent Indian attacks, which left many a homestead completely ruined as the people were killed. (Note, they called them Indian attacks, I still prefer Native Americans as the term to describe them. But we know who's land it had been before the colonists settled it.)

-----------------------------

And as more people have interest in the Salem Witch Trials, here's a 18 page article with bibliography describing them. It brings out how Mary's father was also accused earlier. It's a PDF file, so here's the link if you're interested.

The Tyler Family and the Salem Witch Trials, by Bruce M. Tyler, PhD.

I quote Mary Tyler from page 13...

“And, indeed, that confession that it is said we made was no other than what was suggested to us by some gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it, which made us think it was so; and, our understandings, our reason, our faculties almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition; as also the hard measures they used with us rendered us incapable of making our defense, but said any thing and every thing which they desired, and most of what we said was but in effect a consenting to what they said” (Upham, 2:402-4)." 

"How could confessing to witchcraft save their lives? Because the law had been turned on its head. Those who confessed to being witches and did not recant their confessions lived. Those who were convicted but would not confess and those who recanted their confessions were hanged. This trend had been developing in Salem, and the citizens of Andover had apparently figured out what was necessary to survive. Confessions and repentance indicated tacit approval of the system. (Konig, 175)"

-------------------------------

Also sharing with Sepia Saturday, which has a theme of portraits. My ancestress was accused, confessed and repented at the urging of clergy, and finally let go from the Salem Witch Trials (after paying some fine). No portrait needed.

Generation's Cafe is a closed Facebook Group, but applications are accepted if you're interested in ancestry!

Robert White

 Repost from When I Was 69 blog, dated 7/21/2018

-------------------------------

Robert White (1560-1617)  My 11 times great grandfather.

He was the 7th birth of 10 of which at least 3 siblings didn't live past a year of age.  Robert may have been part of the heritage which said youngest sons should go to the clergy.  His parents were well off, Lady Helen (Ellen) Kirton (Girton) of White of Hill Farrance, Somerset, England and Sir Richard White of Minot, Somerset, England.

Robert married in 1685 to Lady Brygette Allgar (1562-1605).  The youngest of her 8 children was Anna (Rosanna) White Porter, my ancestress (See blog HERE).  Though Robert and Lady Brygette White both died in England, they had a son and 3 daughters immigrate to Windsor, Connecticut in the American Colonies.

from http://ancestor.homestead.com/files/Robert_White.htm:

"Robert White was born in Essex, England, on Tuesday, June 24, 1561, and died in Essex in 1617.  His name was also spelled Robert Whighte. He was buried in Shalford, Essex, on June 17, 1617.    Bridget Allgar was baptized in Shalford, Essex, England, on Wednesday, March 11, 1562, and died in Shalford after June 24, 1605. They were married in Shalford on Thursday, June 24, 1585. She took the name Bridget White. She is the daughter of William and Margaret (Parye) Allgar.   William Allgar of Shalford, Essex, England died in County Essex, England, in 1575. He was buried in Shalford on August 2, 1575.. His wife was Margaret Parye of England."

" Robert White was a yeoman; that is, he was not a member of the nobility but did own a small amount of land (small compared to a typical nobleman's estate). He was wealthy and appears to have lived in Shalford from his marriage until a few months before his death. Shalford is about two miles south of Wethersfield."

"In his will, Robert White bequeathes 40 shillings to Mr. Richard Rogers, preacher of God's word at Withersfield in Essex. Therefore, it is likely that he was friendly to the non-conformists and attended some of their services. A like bequest to Bartholomew Scrivener, minister of the Church of God in Messing, implies that he was also interested in the established church (or was covering all of the bases). His bequest of 40s to the poor people of Messing and nothing to the poor of Shalford where he is supposed to have lived most of his life, opens the possibility that he was born in Messing."

Sources:

·        Jacobus, Donald Lines, History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield (reprinted with corrections), Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991 (1930); vol. 1, p. 487.

·        English Origins of New England Families, Series 2, vol. 3: The Children of Robert White of Messing, Co. Essex, England, Who Settled in Hartford and Windsor (Family Tree Maker CD181).

 
He is listed on a Find A Grave site as a -

 "Common Ancestor for US Presidents:

Millard Fillmore

US Grant

Stephen Grover Cleveland

Gerald Ford"

His grave site is unknown however.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday, a man in a portrait.

The Sylvesters of Shelter Island

 The Sylvesters of Shelter Island came from England and the Netherlands. The map below shows on the far right of Long Island, a tiny name, Shelter Island.

On Ancestry 11) Capt. Nathaniel Gascoigne Sylvester is listed as being born either in 1610 in London City, Middlesex, England or between 1615-25 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands,
and dying on 13 Jun 1680 in Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, Suffolk County, New York.

I'm glad to find new information about his life by looking a bit more closely at the Wikipedia information. (I'll just quote it all below)

Impossibly small picture, no idea what the script at the bottom says, I don't know where it came from, sorry!

The Sylvesters were my 7 greats grandparents.

His wife was 11) Grizzell Brinley Sylvester (born 16 Jan 1635 in Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England and died 13 Jun 1687 at Sylvester Island, Suffolk, New York) 

signature of Grissell Brinley Sylvester

 

St Mary the Virgin, Datchet

Datchet Mead and Datchet Ferry in 1686 with Windsor Castle in the background

Where Grizzell Brinley Sylvester was born: 

Datchet (Buckinghamshire, England) was a village on the River Thames, England. which developed because of its close proximity to Windsor and the ferry service which connected it to the main London road across the River Thames.

Dachet Village center

When Grizzell was 17, she married Captain Sylvester, in 1652 on Shelter Island, NY. She had come to the American colonies with her sister, Ann Brinley, who married William Coddington (who became governor of Rhode Island.) Grizzell's sister, Mary Brinley, married Nathaniel Sylvester's younger brother Peter Sylvester. 

In Nathaniel Sylvester's last will and testament he mentions that he owns half of the island originally known as "Nanhansack Ahuquashunamock" now Shelter Island, and all the negroes and livestock on it. He also was half owner of Roberts Island. He left everything to his beloved wife (and here the scribe didn't use any "," comas to separate the names) Grizzell Sylvester Francis Brinley James Floyd Isaak Arnold Lewis Morris and Daniel Gould to have and to hold...[the islands, houses, stock and all...] It was dated 1679, so it's supposed that he died sometime shortly afterward.

He mentions a brother, Joshua, who was very young (maybe 4 years old) to receive his brother Constant's aid through Constant's will, as well as anything else needed by Joshua until he was able to support himself.  His will stipulates that all his sons should equally share the islands and the estate, unless they decide otherwise. His daughters are all to receive one hundred pounds. His will has many details about his slaves, as well as his livestock. 

In his will he mentions how the Dutchmen of New York did invade their island and take much of the things they owned. He also says his brother Constant Sylvester and Thomas Middleton may be part owners of the Mill and Millhouse. He sets aside the house, gardens and orchard for his wife.  But he tries to make his sons and their heirs the only ones who may ever own the island, so when one dies, the rest will divide his portion. Since I know at some point Shelter Island finally was sold away from the family, the last survivor of Nathaniel must have finally died.

I admit that is where I stopped reading the will, written in cursive by a scribe of the court probably...and with many difficult spellings...after I waded through 5 pages of it.  Nathaniel finishes saying he's signing it, and it is dated 19 March 1679 and 80, (that's the way the year is designated.) But the signature is missing because all of this is apparently a transcription from the original, made in the town of Jamaica, New York, 30 Dec 1880.

With all his mention of his negroes, I must say something about the enslaved people on this "manor" or "plantation." There were many who were born and died there. Nathaniel made his fortune from sugar plantations of Barbados. That meant he was part of the Sugar/slave/rum triad of trade probably.  

The Sylvesters also were known as sheltering persecuted Quakers from the Puritan colonies around them. They had 12 children, all of whom saw their 30th birthdays, and at least one who lived to 101 years.

There's a monument on the property, a table, with names inscribed below it of those who are buried in the cemetery, as well as the lineage from Thomas Brinley (Grizzell's father)

Photo of the original Sylvester Manor as it is in modern times.  It was inhabited (and rennovated) by family members for 12 generations, from 1652.

Sylvester Manor as rebuilt in 1737, as it looks today (2016?)  

Ann Sylvester was a daughter of Nathaniel and Grizzell, and Ann married Jonathan Bower of Somerset, MA, and a long long way down the line comes myself.

There's an Ancestry Publication (originally published elsewhere and Ancestry offers it on line to view) about the Sylvesters and Shelter Island.  It covers much of the history, up to it's publication date of 1932.

I looked up Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, and Google Maps has a few images (copyrighted probably) of the manor house and calls it an educational farm now.

Sharing with Generations Cafe' group on Facebook for 52 Ancestors, 52 weeks

Week 43 (Oct. 22-28): Dig a Little Deeper

Families in moments

Repost of When I Was 69 blog dated 7/19/18

________________

  Most of my family pictures are of brief moments when I got the people to stand together for that photo.  Some of them have never been published, and if these are friends of yours (or you yourself) I apologize for sharing them without your permission, because I've been out of touch for 20 or 40 years.

 

In Tallahassee FL summers, people wear as few clothes as they feel like. Here David Rosenfeld, the father of my youngest son is in some really short shorts, talking with his friend, Russell, the painter, who wears his work clothes, but perhaps that spray outfit in the foreground belongs to him.

 My friends' baby, Lila, grabbed a bit of flesh of her mom, who tried to keep on smiling. (Taken by a swimming pool)

I moved away from Tallahassee but was there to see the impending birth of April...there's Steph about to have a home birth and I think that's (Note, not her husband, but a friend) behind her, her midwife has the blue t-shirt on, and that's my youngest son in the arms of a friend.

Friend, Grant playing with my youngest son.  The baby did get out of that stretchy cover-all sometimes!

 My parents visited Disney World (in Orlando FL area) from Houston.  They were kind of used to hot muggy weather, and running (walking) from one air conditioned place to another.

My nephew and mother at Disney World. Yes a background sometimes does make a difference in a photograph.

Quote for today:

WE LIVE ON THE BRINK OF DISASTER BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO LET LIFE ALONE. WE DO NOT RESPECT THE LIVING AND FRUITFUL CONTRADICTIONS AND PARADOXES OF WHICH TRUE LIFE IS FULL.

THOMAS MERTON

School Days of yore

Repost from When I Was 69 blog dated 9.27.18

-----------------------------

Some old photos of my family and myself, while in schools.

 Great Aunt Margaret Miller taught high school Math in San Antonio Texas. She never married, but was my favorite aunt!

My sister, Marty Elizabeth Rogers Miller, in Principia Upper School, St. Louis MO probably 1962-3

 Myself in college, probably 1963 since I'm wearing John's locket ( who I was madly in love with and then didn't marry!)

My staff badge at University of Hartford, Hartford CT, in 1968. I was a staff assistant in the Hartford Art School.

A just discovered photo of my grandparents, George E and Ada S. Rogers, in St. Ann MO around 1956-58.

My oldest son, Marty in Cub Scout uniform, 1972-3, Tampa, FL

The Sepia Saturday gang will also be offering some historic photos based upon this meme....HERE.

The prompt includes this...

"Once again, it is school photograph time. Let us go outside to the school yard and line up for the photograph: smaller children at the front, arms and legs tied up like trussed turkeys; taller children at the back, sprouting up like supercharged saplings. And don't forget to smile! I know you might have double maths next, I know you find yourself next to the one child you really can't get on with - but at least make it look as though you are enjoying yourself. The best days of your life - that is what your schooldays are. You will be captured for history. You will be able to look back on this photograph when you are older and wiser and a chartered accountant, a painter and decorator, a nurse or - if you are very lucky - a schoolteacher like me. And even further forward in time, people from all over the world may look at this photograph and use it as a theme prompt for their blog posts. What do you think of that?"

"Please Sir, what is a blog?"

Movement into still photos

Repost from When I Was 69 blog dated 1/31/19

-----------------------------------

 I've already posted some old home movies changed into still photos.

But I'd love to share this one series with you, as prompted by Sepia Saturday this week.

Home movies/transformed again (Repost from January 29, 2015)

My dad started taking home movies in the 40s, with a spring wound Keystone projector.  It took 16 mm rolls of film, but when the roll was finished you'd take it out and insert it again and run it through the camera again, getting two 8-mm runs.  Always doing the switch in a closet so the film didn't get exposed, of course.

We had mainly black and white photos, but there are some surprising ones in color.

My dear son, Russ, took the originals and had Walmart's genius people put them into a DVD and then showed them to all my offspring at my 70th birthday.  It was probably pretty boring, especially with the strange sound background the Walmart guys had added.

So last night I pulled out the video, which hadn't been of any interest for years, and decided it would be nice to transform it into some stills so I could share them (and archive them) here.

Ever try to take pictures of a TV show?  Right...the black bar of death crossed most of the attempts, even when the shot was paused.

No, I didn't want to copy into a video format either.  I may try that sometime, but not yet.

Anyway, out of my attempts, and from the first 12 clips, I did get some good shots, though the originals were a bit fuzzy.  I don't know if this was original resolution, or not having a good TV screen.  And I've since reduced the resolution so I can post them here easily.  Ever notice how long it takes to post 2m photos here?

So I'll give you first a series of clips of my grandparents.

 Ada Swasey Rogers and my grandfather George Elmore Rogers, taken in about 1945.  She was around 59 and he was 68 at that time.

Location is their home in Houston, Texas, which they might have just moved to, as 3 years previously (when I was born) they had lived in San Antonio, TX.

My parents and myself were visiting from Dallas, TX.

Their sons Chauncey and George (my father) were having a good time playing with various cameras, and included catching each other telling stories.  Since the camera wound down after about a minute, they were short stories!  More next time!

I posted a lot more stills from home-movies in the following posts in 2015.