Witches, Witches…Everywhere!

         Because so many of the family lines I research stretch far, far back into early Colonial America, it wasn’t surprising to find occasional references to accused witches in my research on our family tree.

         What HAS been a surprise, is to see how many there are!  Literally “…witches, witches, everywhere!”

         Daughter-in-law, Heidi (married to our son, Brett) wins the prize for the most — no contest! A couple of her lines were literally up to their eyeballs in the Salem Witch Trials…on both sides of the proceedings!  That alone quickly puts Heidi’s ancestors at the top of the list!  More on that another time.

         I’ve found many others, usually individuals (though in a couple of instances husband and wife “teams”), who found themselves in the crosshairs of suspicious and accusatory neighbors.

         One of the best known of these accused witches is Mercy Holbridge Disbrow (also spelled Disborough), born about 1638, of Fairfield, Connecticut.  Mercy is my 8th great grandmother, through my maternal grandmother, Cecil Munkirs.  She is often referred to as, “The Beautiful Witch of Fairfield.”

         There’s actually quite a bit of information available about Mercy out there on the internet (as I said, she really is quite well known…though at least some of what is reported as fact is almost certainly taken from later fictionalized accounts).  I’ll set out the basics of what we know about her.

         Mercy was born about 1638, only 18 years after the arrival of Mayflower.  Her father was Arthur Holbridge, apparently a fairly common and ordinary colonist (at least, as “common and ordinary” as anyone could be in the early days of New England!).  He was one of the 68 men who founded the Church in New Haven, so that all by itself makes him significant.  Mercy’s mother was Susannah (last name unknown). 

Arthur’s name appears fairly often in the early records of the colony…frequently receiving various reprimands and fines for behavior considered less than meritorious.  Arthur died in 1648/49, when Mercy was still a girl.  She was baptized in the New Haven Church on June 30, 1650. ¹

It appears Mercy’s early life was difficult.  Widows and orphans were considered the responsibility of the community in those days, and Susannah’s name occasionally appears in the records as one receiving community support and assistance, through 1658.

Sometime shortly following that date she married the much older Rev. John Jones.  This was a second marriage for both, and as we try to read between the lines, it appears it may have been a matter of convenient necessity for both.  Susannah very much needed support and security.  Rev. Jones was growing older, and needed someone to help care for him.  Community norms would not have allowed an unmarried woman to live with the pastor…so, it appears for their mutual support and benefit, they married.  Mercy would have been around twenty-one…her brother John about nineteen. A note here about some information you may see on Rev. Jones, as well as Mercy’s father, Arthur: In many accounts these men are portrayed as mistreating Mercy, and sometimes her mother as well, beating them, and imposing unreasonable strictness upon them. I’ve found nothing in documentation supporting this, so I strongly suspect these reports are based on the heavily fictionalized versions of Mercy’s life we will discuss in a few moments.

Rev. Jones retired from the ministry by May, 1658, apparently without adequate funds to provide fully for himself.  The family relocated to Fairfield and in the records it is stated that the community accepted the responsibility to provide for, “their Reverend ancient Pastor, Mr Jones, in sickness or health, of his comfortable maintenance.”²  I’ve spent a lot of time around both church and historical records, and I don’t recall ever seeing a pastor referred to as, “reverend ancient pastor”!  Sounds like he was REALLY old!

Sometime before 1670 the “Reverend ancient pastor” died, because in 1670, Mercy married John Nichols, Jr. (husband #3). They had two sons before John died during the King Philip War in 1676.  At that time Mercy was living in New London, Connecticut, with her sons.

Three years later Mercy married Thomas Disbrow (husband #4, and she outlived HIM, too!).  They lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut.  Thomas Disbrow, Jr., was born about 1685.  He was their only child, and my 7^th great-grandfather.

During this time “witch fever” was growing in the colonies of New England.  The Salem Witch Trials were going on throughout 1692 and into 1693.  In 1692, witchcraft trials were just beginning in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

In April of that year a seventeen year old servant girl (Katherine Branch) began acting oddly:  sobbing, her body contorting into rigid shapes, whimpering, fits of uncontrollable laughing, and the like.  She reported strange visions.  No indication of illness could be found.  Predictably, reports began to circulate that she must be bewitched, and under questioning by four magistrates, on May 27, 1692, Katherine named Mercy Disbrow as one of the witches tormenting her. She also accused Elizabeth Clawson.

The two accused women were summoned to court the next day and upon seeing them, Katherine went into a fit, becoming unconscious.  Once revived, Katherine renewed her accusations against the two women.

Mercy was confined to jail. Keep in mind, at this time Mercy would have been in her mid-fifties.

Over the summer more than two hundred depositions were taken from Mercy and Elizabeth’s neighbors, accusing the women of various occult and satanic practices.  Based on these and other allegations, a grand jury was called on September 14, 1692.  This was one week before the trial of the final eight of the over 150 people in Salem accused of witchcraft.

On September 15, 1692, at Mercy’s request she was given the “water test.”  Her hands were tied behind her back and she was thrown into Edwards Pond in the center of Fairfield.  The purpose of the  “test” was this:  if she sank, it proved she was not guilty of witchcraft.  If, however, she floated, that was proof she was indeed a witch. For more details about how the “water test” for witches actually worked, look here. (the author provides a good understanding of the water test, though some of his/her personal opinions are off-track, I think)

Hands tied behind her, Mercy bobbed to the surface – a sure sign of her guilt!

Various other tests were administered upon Mercy and Elizabeth, including several examinations of their naked bodies for signs of occult involvement…signs which examiners claimed to find on both women.  The trial dragged on for quite some time. There is conflicting information about whether or not a verdict was actually reached and a sentence pronounced. Some reports indicate the jury did not reach a decision and the matter was referred to the Connecticut General Assembly. Some reports state that a guilty verdict was reached, and that on October 28, 1692, almost exactly 329 years ago to the day from which I am writing this, Mercy was sentenced to death by hanging.

Whichever is accurate, we do know that despite a possible guilty verdict and severe sentence, Mercy was not executed.  It appears that, in light of the Salem trials and executions, many New Englanders were tiring of all the accusations, suspicion, executions and the like.  Despite the fact that Mercy had floated in the pond, as well as damning “evidence” collected in other ways, the Connecticut General Assembly took action to acquit Mercy.  She languished in prison another six months, then the General Assembly ordered her released from her year of imprisonment in May, 1693.

Mercy tried to return to a normal life, and was relatively successful.  Some in the town of Fairfield continued to malign her and spread various malicious rumors about her, but others around Connecticut came to her defense, repeatedly trying to set the record about her straight, so to speak.  A famous letter was written by a noted clergyman of the time, Gershom Bulkeley, who had personal knowledge of Mercy and her character.  He wrote a strongly worded defense of her, explicitly refuting many of the rumors and lies which had been circulated about her.

We know Mercy died sometime before June 4, 1718, because there is a document with that date which refers to her as “deceased.”

Finally, it is likely we would know very little about Mercy were it not for something that happened over 100 years following her death.

In about 1820, documents and transcripts of her trial and ordeal came to light.  Some of these were published in various New York Newspapers in the 1820’s.  In 1823, William Stone used these documents, along with several of the names and incidents in them, in a fictionalized collection of stories he published called, “Tales and Sketches.”  Mary Disbrow, using her real name and many actual facts about her, was the central character in one of the stories.  That not only revived great interest in Mercy and assured she would not be forgotten, but also it added LOTS of fictionalized details and dialogues which, in fact, almost certainly never took place. 

It was in those stories Mercy was identified as the beautiful witch of Fairfield.  Many of the details and dialogues from those stories are now presented as facts about, “The Beautiful Witch of Fairfield.”   So, if you read information on the internet about, “The Beautiful Witch of Fairfield,” keep in mind that Marcy was in her fifties when she was arrested and tried (which, of course, doesn’t mean she wasn’t beautiful…but does seem to challenge some of the physical descriptions you’ll find about her!). Also, that while she was definitely a real person, and her trial and ordeal were all too real, some of what you see written about her is based on fictionalized accounts of her very real life.

---

I want to give credit and express my gratitude to Margie Bernard for the wonderful work she did researching and writing “Arthur, Susana, Mercy, Thomas: My Holbridge & Disbrow Family Origins.” Margie, like me, is a direct descendant of Mercy through her son, Thomas Disbrow. So, while I’ve never met her and know nothing of her apart from the paper, I am grateful to her. She took the time and did the work to sort out fact from fiction, truth from hyperbole, and created this well-documented and footnoted paper, upon which I have relied heavily in writing this blog post. She has much more information, including LOTS of citation and documentation, in her paper. The full paper is available here, on WikiTree. You may need to create an account to access it, but WikiTree is a free site. Margie also has a personal blog where she has posted this information.

---

1. Most information in the preceding paragraph from: History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Wethersfield, Donald Lines Jacobus, page 302
2. Lambert, E. R. Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut Prior tothe Union with New Haven Colony(Vol. 1 -1636/1665). Hartford, Brown & Parsons. http://ia700506.us.archive.org/16/items/histcolnewhaven00lambrich/histcolnewhaven00lambrich.pdf.