- Ann Foster
Ann Foster of Andover, Massachusetts had been the widow of Andrew Foster for seven years when she was accused of
witchcraft during theSalem witch trials .Born in 1617, Ann, or Annis, came to Massachusetts from London on the ship "Abigail" in 1635. Her mother, Ann Hooker, was a sister of Rev. Thomas Hooker, her father was Deacon George Alcock. (The Foster Genealogy (837 A.D. - 1998 A.D.) Andrew Foster or Forster, Andover Branch, Edson Foster Myer, 1999, NEHGR, p. 38.)
Ann had 5 children: Andrew, Abraham, Sarah Kemp of Charlestown, the late Hannah Stone, whose husband, Hugh Stone, had killed her in a drunken rage in 1689 and was hanged, and Mary Lacey. Mary Lacey and her daughter, also named Mary Lacey, were accused of witchcraft as well.
In 1692, when Joseph Ballard's wife, Elizabeth, came down with a fever that baffled doctors, witchcraft was suspected, and a search for the responsible witch began. Two afflicted girls of Salem village, Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott, were taken to Andover to seek out the witch, and, at the sight of Ann Foster, the girls fell into fits. Ann, 72, was arrested and taken to Salem prison.
A careful reading of the trial transcripts reveals that Ann resisted confessing to the 'crimes' she was accused of having committed, despite being "put to the question" (i.e., tortured) multiple times over a period of days. However, her resolve broke when her daughter Mary Lacey, similarly accused of witchcraft, accused her own mother of the crime in order to save herself and her child. The transcripts reveal the anguish of a mother attempting to shield her child and grandchild by taking the burden of guilt upon herself.
Convicted, Ann died in the jail in the winter of 1693, before the trials were discredited and ended.
Ann's 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.
External links
* [http://www.tc.umn.edu/~austi012/ghtout/npr7.htm Foster's interrogation]
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