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:

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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.)

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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)"

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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.

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