Wilmot Redd, the town’s sole Salem witch trials victim

BY PAM PETERSON

It happened 331 years ago this month. In May of 1692 the local constable came to arrest Wilmot Redd of Marblehead for having “committed sundry acts of witchcraft on the bodies of Mary Wolcott and Mercy Lewis and others in Salem Village to their great hurt.”

The end of the 17th century was a time of unrest in the American colonies. Many factors were at work, including the reassertion of English control over colonial government, concerns about the French and Native Americans, and the beginnings of a shift of influence and power away from the Puritan church. There was also genuine belief in and fear of the devil. In Boston, Puritan minister Cotton Mather believed the devil was at work everywhere. He published his account of the prosecution of Goody Glover, the so-called witch of Boston, increasing fear of witchcraft. His work was read by the Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem. Accusations of witchcraft and possession began in Salem Village early in 1692. Wilmot Redd, known as Mammy Redd, was the wife of a poor fisherman, and she was old and disagreeable. She was known to have cursed those she didn’t like. When she appeared before the judges, several of the afflicted girls became hysterical at the sight of her. Her response to all this was confusion and disbelief. When magistrates asked what Wilmott thought of the girls, she replied “My opinion is they are in a sad condition.”

Some witnesses from Marblehead appeared for the prosecution, including Ambrose Gale. They testified to earlier conflicts and told of a curse that Redd had successfully cast on a previous employer.

One of her victims claimed she was cursed by Redd so that she was unable to defecate for a month, which caused her stomach to swell and inflicted great pain. The possessed girls claimed that Redd flew to Salem to torment them. Redd refused to confess to being a witch. No one from Marblehead came forward at the trial to speak on her behalf. She was convicted of “detestable arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries” and hanged on September 22, 1692. After her death, her body was not claimed.

The witch hysteria in New England lasted less than a year. It ended suddenly when the wife of Gov. William Phipps of Boston was accused.

Phipps reacted swiftly in defense of his wife and the frenzy ended. As awareness of the horror of what had happened began to sink in, there were public apologies and attempts to make amends. Twenty-five people died, 19 by hanging, one by being pressed to death and five died in prison.

Redd is remembered as the only Marbleheader accused, tried and convicted in the Salem Witch trials of 1692. Redd’s Pond in Marblehead is named after Redd, but she has received far more recognition and concern in the present than she ever did in her own time.

Many of the accused witches were pardoned in the early 18th century, but Redd was in one of the last groups that finally received pardons and apologies in 2001. There is a recently-constructed memorial to all those convicted of witchcraft in Salem at Proctor’s Ledge, just below Gallows Hill. There is also a memorial marker to Redd on Old Burial Hill in Marblehead.