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She Fought Back When Accused of Witchcraft

3/7/2018

9 Comments

 
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Women, especially widows, were targets of witchcraft allegations in the 17th-century.
​It was a woman baselessly accused of being a witch who first caught my eye. I was tracing the Puritan ancestors of my great-great grandmother Sarah Sikes when I read about Mercy Marshfield.  Mercy lived in Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1640s and 50s and her legal fight to clear her name marked her as a strong woman.
 
At the time of the trial against her accuser in 1649, Marshfield was a 45-year-old widow with three adult children and a son-in-law. The witchcraft accusation against her came from Mary Parsons, a Welsh immigrant woman in an unhappy marriage.  The court of Thomas Pynchon, a gentleman who first settled Springfield, heard testimony about how Mary Parsons had slandered Marshfield, charging that she was known to be a witch when living in Windsor, Connecticut and that the devil had surely followed her to Springfield.
 
Springfield residents, like faithful Puritans throughout New England, believed that witches displayed their powers in obvious ways. No one stepped forward to accuse Marshfield of any acts of witchcraft and Pynchon found Parson guilty of slander, then offered her a choice of punishments: either lashes or the payment of three pounds or 20 bushels of corn. Mary Parsons chose to pay the fine. 
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Although corn could be hard to come by and was a carefully controlled food, Mary Parson chose to give some up to avoid being whipped in Springfield.
It was not the last that Pynchon’s court heard of Parsons, who three years later accused her husband of witchcraft then was accused of witchcraft herself. Several neighbors testified against the Parsons, citing strange lights that jumped from clothing and a cow whose milk inexplicably dried up. Mercy Marshfield testifed that Hugh Parsons had cursed her and shortly after her daughter suffered from fits. Mary Parsonss was found innocent of witchcraft but confessed to having killed a child. She was sentenced to death for murder but died before the order could be carried out. Hugh was found guilty of witchcraft, then released after appeal.
 

Mercy Marshfield in Windsor
My ancestor, Mercy Marshfield, survived this drama but the stories led me to trace her roots in Windsor. There, it turned out, the entire Marshfield family had been abandoned by her husband and left to face the humiliation of the court seizing all of their property to pay off his sizeable debts. (Read more about Thomas Marshfield’s failed effort to enter the transatlantic shipping trade.)
 
When the Marshfield family left Windsor, the settlement was at least ten-years-old. The Marshfields were among the original settlers who walked from Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1636 to settle on the Connecticut River. Hardships and deprivations, along with grueling months of farming, clearing land and trying to survive with few manufactured goods, took their toll. Mercy had only been in the colony for a year, having sailed from England to reunite with her husband in 1635.
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The Margaret Bliss house in Springfield was said to have been built in 1645, just before the Marshfields arrived in the settlement.
​The fact that the Marshfields, without Thomas, managed to migrate to Springfield and start over, is a testament to their tenacity.  Mercy’s son Samuel Marshfield and her son-in-law, John Dumbleton, became propertied members of Springfield society, serving as selectmen more than a dozen years each. 
9 Comments
Jean M. Roberts link
1/1/2019 09:42:30 am

I was reading you blog article on the Scots-Irish in Maine, my Thornton Ancestors were part of the 1718 migration and lived briefly in Maine, then went to Worcester, Mass after their home was burned in an attack by the local Native tribe. Anyway, I landed on this article about Mercy Marshfield and thought you and your readers might be interested in my novel of historical fiction about Hugh and Mary Parsons, accuser of your ancestor. The book is a highly detailed description of life in Springfield in the 1640s-1650s and includes the slander trial as well as Mary and Hugh's depostion in Springfield. It interested it's called WEAVE A WEB OF WITCHCRAFT and is available on Amazon.

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NANCY
1/1/2019 02:22:22 pm

Hi Jean. I am interested in your book. I was researching and writing a novel based on Mercy Marshfield's life but I didn't finish it. I did end up with a lot of interesting info about her life and times. I thought that Mary Parsons was an interesting person. If I recall, wasn't she married to a Catholic in Wales and asked for Gov. Winthrop to intervene on her behalf saying her ex-husband was abusive to her? What inspired you to write about the Parsons? BTW, you can email directly at nancypeckenham@gmail.com

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ELIZABETH BRANSTETTER link
10/20/2019 07:41:50 pm

We're related! I have been doing ancestry/genealogy for 10 years and just now looking into Mercy's family.
This is how my line descends
Goody, Mercy Priscilla 1605 - 1654
Marshfield, Samuel 1626 - 1692
Marshfield, Esther 1667 - 1714
Colton, Sarah 1692 - 1780
Bliss, Samuel b.1734
Bliss, Solomon 1767 - 1853
Bliss, Alfred 1811 - 1899
Bliss, Charles Wesley 1846 - 1931
Bliss, Noi Celecta 1873 - 1944
Seymour, Bliss Alberta 1901 - 1972
Buchan, Bliss `Bee` Seymour 1927 - 2004
-my mom, living-
-me! @ sunny.branstetter@gmail.com
https://blissseymourbuchan.tribalpages.com

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Payton Brink
1/16/2022 10:29:55 pm

That’s my 12th great grandmother

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Nancy Peckenham
1/18/2022 06:32:34 am

I guess we're cousins then!

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Sandra Lewis
2/5/2022 03:38:11 am

John Dumbleton was a distant cousin of mine.

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Christopher Moran link
10/10/2022 05:14:06 pm

Base would character another reach purpose president line. Purpose political strategy according. Arrive as within investment really before.

Reply
Corinne
1/5/2023 11:54:30 am

I just recently discovered that Mercy Goody (maiden) or Mercy Marshfield was my 11th great grandmother. It was through one of her daughters, also named Mercy, that I am decended. Eventually one of her decendants married my great great grandfather.

Thank you for writing this article. Very interesting read and piece of history.

Reply
Nancy Peckenham
1/8/2023 11:57:25 am

Thanks for your note. I'm related to Mercy through her daughter, then through Thomas Merrick, then Hannah Merrick Wright and eventually through Joseph Sikes.

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