Jeane Gardiner

Jeane Gardiner, d. 26 May 1651 in Saint George, Bermuda in the West Indies, was an alleged British witch. She is one of few people to have been executed for witchcraft in the Westindies.

Gardiner was the wife of one Ralph Gardiner, of Hamilton Tribe, and was put on trial by Capt'n Josias Fforster, Governor, accused of having affected a omwn with magic; she had threthened she would cramp Tomasin, a mullatto woman, who was later struck blind and dumb for 2 hours. Another woman, Anne Bowen, was trialed with her.

Gardiner pleaded not guilty. A jury of women was appointed to search her body: Mrs Ellen Burrowes, Mrs Fflora Wood, Mrs Eliz. Stowe, Allice Sparkes, Eliz. Brangman. She was then subjected to the ordeal of water, and after being "throwne twice in the sea..she did swyme like a corke and could not sinke", she was judged guilty of withc craft and sentenced to death. She was executed on Monday 26 may 1651. The fate of Anne Bowen is unknown.

In the period of 1651-1696, 22 witch trials were held on Bermuda to 18 women and fourt men, of which five women and one man was executed. The trial against Sarah Basset (or Sally Basset) in 1730 is also sometimes counted among them. Most of them were held in the 1650s, a period when witch trials were common in England itself, and the acusation was often sickness afflicted upon slaves by use of magic. These trials likely represents the majority of witch trials held in the area of the West Indies, which were not colinized by other European countries than Spain (which did not have many witch trials) until the late 17th century, when witch trials have became uncommon in Europe.

References

* http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bmuwgw/witches.htm

Literature

* Memorials of the Bermudas", Maj Lefroy