The Wells' Witch

OR "DAN'S WITCH"

AND ONE LINE OF DESCENT FROM SUSANNAH NORTH MARTIN

(Author's note: This is straight up genealogy told with s'mores and a campfire. If you've got something else better to do now would be the time to run. This post is fluid. As new proof becomes available it will be added.)

As always, unapologetically and spectrally, unedited.

The other day, my cousin Dan Wells was giving me a bad time about "my witches" and my penchant for trying to track them down and "proof them out" like they were applications to some lineage society. Eh, so what, right? To his credit though, Dan reminded me of his own connection to Salem, and to a our (quasi) mutual connection through that very same "witch." The witch, or rather the lady in question, was Susannah North Martin, who was also tried and executed on that fateful day of July 19, 1692. (Dan is her direct descendant, I am a descendant of her husband George Martin via his first wife.)

     

        

I'd managed to space all of this out until Dan reminded me of it. (That smart boy's racehorse also just won a prize at Del Mar) Call it old man brain syndrome or that I look at WAY too much of this stuff to keep it all sorted in my balding ass head, but seeing as I had spaced it out on the Susannah North Martin connections and the shared Salem connections of old cousin Dan and myself, I figured that for sh*ts and giggles I'd take another look at it "image wise." I wanted to see just what might be there to be easily proven. (Like any of this stuff is easy?) Anyway, I figured I'd take another trip down that old Susannah North Martin Highway.

(No, not the actual highway, you dorks. Her ancestry and connection to Dan.)

Now put your pitchforks down - I know this retelling and that "the following images" isn't always going to always reflect original documentation. And yes, I can hear the tribunals of Plymouth and those Grand Mavens at the GSMD crying afoul while clutching their faux pearls and calling for a general refurbishing the stockades. I hear their admonishments. Indeed, I am surely attempting to violate here the hallowed genealogical code of the genealogical "proof conduct," etc., etc... but as they say... Blah, blah, blah, "F-'em." 

And yes, I'm gonna use some "Transcriptions and Indexes" here to tell the tale. 

Oh my, the horror!!!

However, I gotta believe that after forty years or so of doing this metier, I'm an adequate enough of a researcher to know that this will work well enough to tell y'all about, well, "Dan's witch," and his connection to Susannah North Martin.

For those of you that need a refresher course here is how it maps out:

Okay, let's dig in. I'm not gonna bother too much with background. This image below of the order to have her arrested for "sundry acts of witchcraft" should be enough to fill in the blanks:

I.  SUSANNAH NORTH

Above: Courtesy of https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n92.html

Nah, as this is a genealogy, (and a basic lineage from Susannah to Dan) let's start with Susannah marriage to George Martin shown in the Salisbury, Massachusetts index below:

Any questions? (Yeah, I didn't think so.) Okay, next is the birth of their son, John, found, where else, but in Salisbury births in the index image below:

II.  JOHN MARTIN

And just to make sure that "John was George's kid..." a copy of George's will below:

III.  RUTH MARTIN

Next we have their son John Martin getting married to the lovely Mary Weed, (image below) and mention is of found her in this old tome of their daughter Ruth Martin who married Tristram Barnard

IV.  

DINAH BARNARD

And in the image below here, we can see that Ruth Martin and Tristram Barnard's daughter Dinah Barnard married the handsome and dashing Abner Kimball.

Above image is from: The Essex Antiquarian, Volume 6, pages 121-122

The image below reflects the marriage of Abner Kimball to Dinah Barnard and the birth of their daughter Merriam/Miram Kimball:

Dinah Barnard is sometimes recorded, and incorrectly so, as "Dinah Barnett" in both the original records and also the transciptions. (Yes, I know, genealogists everywhere I saying, "We told you this would happen if you relied on transciptions, Jeff...")  This appears to be an error as she has a son named "Barnard Kimball" - More importantly, we can tell too that she was in fact "Dinah Barnard" because she is named in Tristram Barnard's will as "Dinah, wife of Abner Kimball."

  Winner, winner, chicken dinner, for Dinah :)

(So put this in your corn cob pipe folks at the General Society of Mayflower Descendants - I am not a total slacker on original proof documentation...)

Where was I? Ah yes, now back to our regularly scheduled program. Ah, yes, Dinah Barnard and Abner Kimball and their popular and talented daughter of yesteryear, "Mirream" Kimball who married the handsome Thomas Hoyt.

V. MIRIAM KIMBALL

Above: Morrison and Sharples, History of the Kimball Family..., 1897, page 102

   

   

Above: Miriam Kimball's marriage to Thomas Hoyt. (And yes I know I should have cited it better...)           

As an aside here, however, is another "intersecting point of lineage" between Cousin Dan and myself. We both share ancestry through the Hoyt family. 

VI. SARAH HOYT

Moving on to Tom and Miram's thoughtful and devoted daughter, Sarah Hoyt who married Abraham Morrill:

Above: David Webster Hoyt's A Genealogical History of the Hoyt, Haight, and Hight Families..., 1871, page 70

     

 Above: New Hampshire Marriage Index for the marriage of Sarah Hoyt to Abraham Morrill

VII. RHODA MORRILL

Now I admit, here it starts to get a little tricky. Family trees are telling me that Sarah Hoyt and Abraham Morrill (shown above) have a daughter named Rhoda Morrill who goes on to marry Eber Hotchkiss. My problem here is that I have a birth record with no parents name listed, and while it "fits" even I know that it does not prove "one and the same." (Yes, I know, I can hear them snickering in Plymouth even now...)

And while there is one late mention of the couple in a published genealogy...eh, it could really use something extra.

                                      

 

                       

 Above: James Otis Lyford's History of the Town of Canterbury, New Hampshire, 1912.                 

However, and as fate would have it, the elusive and obscurely documented Rhoda Morrill and her devilish rogue of a husband Eben Hotchkiss will have to do more to escape their own proper mention in the line of the witch's blood from Old Susannah North Martin.

You see, Rhoda Morrill's father Abraham Morrill took care of it all for me when he named his elusive daughter "Rhoda Hotchkiss" (and Abraham's wife Sarah) in his Will. (See image below)

                     

 Nice and tidy. Thank you very much. Abe.

But then again, not so fast. 

VIII. ABNER HOTCHKISS

Then next generation (or two) will prove to be just as cumbersome. We know though that (and indeed albeit unverified) if we follow submitted family trees that Eber/Eben Hotchkiss and his wife Rhoda (Morrill) Hotchkiss had a son Abner Hotchkiss, though no birth record could be found. 

We know this because once again, we have gone back  to probate records were Daddy Eber Hotchkiss has been kind enough to name everyone in his Will. (See image below)

   

And we do have a Michigan marriage record for Eben Hotchkiss and Rhoda (Morrill) Hotchkiss's son Abner Hotchkiss who, at least in the surface, appears to be "one and the same" as the Abner Hotchkiss who married Sarah Brown.

  

             

Now I admit - I am not thrilled with this chain of events. Yes, we have everything we need (sans a few dotted i's and crossed t's) down to Eben Hotchkiss and Rhoda's boy Abner Hotchkiss, and I think "the line holds" just fine thus far, and we do have this marriage record for "an Abner Hotchkiss" of Lapeer County, Michigan to a Sarah Brown, and a census record for the family of Abner Hotchkiss and Sarah (Brown) Hotchkiss - but we don't have a lot more than this to go on. 

It does help that Mary Ann's sister Harriet gives us the names of her parents in this Michigan marriage record index. Still, we need that death cert.

 

However, there is an assumption made that the Abner Hotchkiss named in Eben Hotchkiss's will is "one and the same" as the Abner Hotchkiss who married Sarah Brown - even though it appears to be the most likely scenario given the above.

                           

And further: Okay, but I don't know about you, but sending in a Google snippet off of a secondary source is not going to fly with the mavens of literally any lineage society. And seeing as this is a Google snippet from a 1985 secondary source... Well, let;s just say it needs a little more seasoning in the soup. Still, we have no reason to disbelieve it; Eben did have a son named Abner. An Abner Hotchkiss did marry a Sarah Brown... so...

IX. MARY ANN HOTCHKISS

That brings us back to the elusive Mary Ann Hotchkiss, daughter of Abner Hotchkiss and Sarah Brown. If you look in the census record, Our Gal Mary Ann is already accounted for. So aside from a small "Hiccup in the Hotchkisses" we really aren't in all that bad of shape. (And yes, I know we will need more for this generation...) And yes, we do have her sister Harrier's marriage record, and can confirm "a sister Harriett" in the census....

But...back to Mary Ann Hotchkiss:

 

 However this document definitely helps to clear up the names of Mary Ann's parents as Abner Hotchkiss and Sarah Brown.

(It could be that we don't need a copy of Mary Ann's death certificate at all.)

Still, is her father Abner "one and the same" as the Abner mentioned in Eben Hotchkiss's will.

At least on the surface, it would appear to be so.

                  

Above: Family identifies the woman in the rocking chair as Mary Ann (Hotchkiss) (Tottter) Leonard

All of the above works pretty darn well. It carries Abner Hotchkiss and Sarah (Brown) Hotchkiss's daughter Mary Ann Hotchkiss down through to her first marriage to Jason Trotter. It doesn't though, name her parents, but the affidavit she filled out in the 1920s does. We also have the 1860 census record which appears to show her parents just fine, but we likely we need a copy of her Mary Anne (Hotchkiss) (Trotter) Leonard's 1926 death certificate and just for any naysayers. Likely, it does and will name her mom and dad, or, given that it doesn't we would need to reach out for the death certs of her siblings....

But that probate records is HUGE at this point.

 

X. ELMER TROTTER

In the mean time, we need to look at Elmer Trotter, son of Jason Trotter and Mary Ann Hotchkiss. 

         

XI. 

MARIE O. TROTTER

 Yikes. That one was not easy. This next one, that for Elmer Trotter and Nora Dugger's daughter, Marie Trotter, isn't much easier. And yes, I know I have skipped some "proof documentation" along the way...but I'm not too worried about connecting the dots at this point.

   

 This document actually binds back three generations, from Mary Anne (Hotchkiss) (Trotter) Leonard to her granddaughter, Marie O. Trotter. 

Above: Nora (Dugger) Trotter named as guardian for Marie Trotter Bradford's inheiritance.

                 

       

                   

      

 

                                                                   XII. 

                                        THE BRADFORD / WELLS BOYS

Okay, we know this last part is its own chapter (if not novel) so we're not going to go into a lot of details about Bobby and Dwayne and who they aren't or were not. Suffice to say that Cousin Dan's line to Susannah North Martin of Salem 1692 fame holds up pretty well under the litmus test and spectral lights. While documenting this would require "some originals" to satisfy the Grand Inquisitors, the only generation I found to be even remotely lacking was that of Abner Hotchkiss and Sarah Brown, but I think that with a little elbow grease that it would likely pan out. 

Rest easy Susannah, we will not soon forget.

                         

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