Hawthorne and Salem Witchcraft

📖 The Scoop

Three great crises - Antinomian (1636-1638), Quaker (1656-1663), and witchcraft (1692-1693) - threatened the Puritans in New England in the seventeenth century. Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors were on the winning side each time. They correspond to the Pyncheon family in the book The House of the Seven Gables. Colonel Pyncheon was responsible for execution of Mathew Maule for witchcraft. Colonel Pyncheon then seized the valuable land belonging to Maule. Nathaniel Hawthorne's moral lesson is that greed is destructive, and that the sins of one generation are visited upon the next. Which family corresponds to the Maule family in the book? In answer, we tender the Wardwell family. They were directly involved in each of the three crises. In each crisis, they confronted members of the Hathorne family. Antinomian Thomas Wardwell was forced out of Massachusetts. Major William Hathorne was largely responsible for the persecution of the Quakers. Thomas's son, Eliakim Wardwell, was a Quaker. In protest to the persecution of the Quakers, Eliakim's wife Lydia Wardwell appeared naked at Puritan church services in Newbury. Eliakim and Lydia Wardwell both felt the cruel whip and were driven out of Massachusetts in 1663. Ten years later, in January 1673, on horseback in the dead of winter, Major William Hathorne made the 25 mile journey from Salem to Andover. He went to perform the marriage of poor carpenter Samuel Wardwell to Sarah (née Hooper) Hawkes. Sarah was an heiress with much valuable land. "The low carpenter-man! He no business so much as to look at her a great way off." Samuel Wardwell was the younger brother of Eliakim. The major was 67 years old. This is the only time that the Major ever made such a long trip to celebrate a marriage Nineteen year later Magistrate John Hathorne, the son of Major William Hathorne, was directly responsible for conviction of Samuel Wardwell and his wife Sarah for witchcraft. Samuel Wardwell was hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem on September 22, 1692. Samuel Wardwell corresponds to Mathew Maule. Fortunately the governor saved Sarah Wardwell from the hangman.

Genre: History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) (fancy, right?)