Ann Foster (c. 1617 – December 3, 1692) was an
Andover
Andover may refer to:
Places Australia
* Andover, Tasmania
Canada
* Andover Parish, New Brunswick
* Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
United Kingdom
* Andover, Hampshire, England
** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station
United States
* Ando ...
widow accused of
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
during the
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...
.
Life and family
Ann married Andrew Foster and settled in
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...
. They had five children: Andrew, Abraham, Sarah (Mrs. Kemp), Hannah (Mrs. Stone, whose husband, Hugh Stone, killed her in a drunken rage in 1689, and was hanged), and Mary (Mrs. Lacey).
Accusation and trial
In 1692, when a woman named Elizabeth Ballard came down with a fever that baffled doctors, witchcraft was suspected, and a search for the responsible witch began. Two afflicted girls from Salem village,
Ann Putnam
Annie Putnam (October 18, 1679 – 1716) was an important witness at the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts during the later portion of 17th-century Colonial America. Born 1679 in Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, she was t ...
and
Mary Walcott
Mary Walcott (July 5, 1675 – 1752) was one of the "afflicted" girls called as a witness at the Salem witch trials in early 1692-93.
Life
Born July 5, 1675, she was the daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott (1639–1699), and his wife, Mary Sibl ...
, were taken to Andover to seek out the witch, and fell into fits at the sight of Ann Foster.
Ann, seven years a widow, was arrested and taken to Salem prison. Foster's daughter, Mary Foster Lacey, and her daughter, named Mary Lacey Kemp (called "Mary Lacey Jr."), were accused of witchcraft as well.
A close reading of the trial transcripts
[http://www.ostinatoguitars.com//ghtout/npr7.htm Trial Transcripts] reveals Ann resisted confessing to the crimes she was accused of, despite being "put to the question" (i.e.
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
d) multiple times over a period of days.
Her resolve broke when her daughter, Mary Lacey Sr., similarly accused of witchcraft, accused her own mother Ann of the crime, likely to save herself and her child. Ann's subsequent confession was an apparent attempt to shield her daughter.
Death
Convicted, Ann died in the Salem jail on December 3, 1692, aged around 75, after 21 weeks of imprisonment before the trials were discredited and ended. Her son, Abraham, later petitioned the authorities to clear her name ("remove the attainder") and reimburse the family for the expenses associated with her incarceration and burial; the petition is also posted
here
Further reading
*
*
Notes
* Ray, B.C. (2015). Satan and Salem: The Witch-Hunt Crisis of 1692. University of Virginia Press. pp. 145–46. ; retrieved July 30, 2016.
* Beau, B.F.L. (2016). The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Routledge. p. 127. ; retrieved July 30, 2016.
* Bresette, Luci. "Salem Witch Trials Investigation..."; retrieved September 13, 2016.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Ann
1610s births
1693 deaths
People of the Salem witch trials
17th-century American women
People of colonial Massachusetts
Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony
Prisoners who died in Massachusetts detention
People convicted of witchcraft
People from Andover, Massachusetts
Date of birth unknown