REBECCA BLAKE
(1641-1721)
ANCESTOR PROFILES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REBECCA EAMES and the Salem Witchcraft Trials
Rebecca (BLAKE) EAMES was born in February 1641 in Gloucester,
Essex County, Massachusetts, the first of seven children of
George and Dorothy BLAKE. She is the fifth great grandmother of
Carl Everett LYON, Sr. (1884-1960). The EAMES (later AMES) and
LYON lines crossed with the 4 February 1870 marriage of Edward
Augustus LYON (1841-1929) and Marietta Farnsworth AMES
(1843-1929) in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Early
in 1692 in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts (about 15 miles
northeast of Boston) several girls began acting
strangely-suffering seizures, trance-like states, and mysterious
spells. Physicians, unable to identify a cause for their
symptoms, concluded that the girls were under the influence of
Satan. Pressured to identify the source of their afflictions, the
girls identified three women as witches. On 1 March 1692, one of
these women, the slave Tituba, confessed to witchcraft. The
hysteria grew, with several women and men accused of witchcraft
and examined by magistrates during February, March, and April
1692.
On 27 May 1692, Governor Phips appointed a seven-member special
Court of Oyer and Terminer (empowered to inquire, hear and
determine) the validity of the witchcraft accusations. On 2 June
1692, in its initial session, the Court pronounced Bridget BISHOP
guilty and condemned her to death. She was hanged on 10 June.
The accusations and trials continued, with five women hanged on
19 July and four men and one woman hanged on 19 August. Rebecca
EAMES of Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts, was a spectator of
the 19 August hangings at a house near Gallows Hill. While there,
the woman of the house felt a pinprick in her foot. She
immediately accused Rebecca EAMES of bewitching her. Rebecca was
promptly arrested and examined by magistrates in Salem on 19 and
31 August. Coerced by her interrogators, she confessed to being
"in the snare [of the devil] a month or two."
At this point in the witchcraft hysteria, Rebecca EAMES was
almost certainly aware that only those who denied being a witch
had been hanged. She probably confessed at the urging of her
husband and children to save her life. She was jailed, and on 17
September 1692 she was among nine persons tried and condemned.
Four of those nine were hanged on 22 September.
In October 1692, with 20 people having been executed in the Salem
witch hunt (along with others who died in prison), Governor Phips
ordered that the special Court of Oyer and Terminer not rely on
spectral and intangible evidence. On 29 October, he dissolved the
special court. With the May 1693 Superior Court trials of
remaining indicted witches resulting in acquittals, the Salem
witchcraft hysteria ended. No person was subsequently hanged for
witchcraft in Massachusetts.
From Salem prison on 5 December 1692, Rebecca EAMES petitioned
Governor Phips:
"That wheras your Poor and humble petitioner having been
here closely confined in Salem Prison neare four monthes and
likewise Condemned to die for the crime of witchcraft w'ch the
Lord above he knowes I am altogether innocent and ignorant off as
will appeare att the great day of Judgment having had no
Evidences against me but the Spectre Evidences any my owne
confession w'ch the Lord above knowes was altogether false and
untrue I being hurried out of my Senses by the Afflicted persons.
Abigaill Hobbs and Mary Lacye who both of them cryed out against
me charging me with witchcraft the space of four dayes mocking of
me and spitting in my face saving they knew me to be an old witch
and If I would not confesse it I should very Spedily be hanged
for there was some such as my selfe gone before and it would not
be long before I should follow them w'ch was the Occasion with my
owne wicked heart of my saying what I did say: and the reason of
my standing to my confession att my tryall was : That I know not
one word w't I said when I was upon my Tryall att what the
honoured Majestr'ts said to me but only the Name of Queen Mary:
But may it please your Excellencye: when Mr Matther and Mr
Brattle were here in Salem they disowned w't they before had said
against me and doe still owne and say w't they has sayd against
me was Nothing but the Divells delusions and they knew nothing in
the least measure of any witchcraft by me: your poor and humble
petition'r doe begg and Implore of yo'r Excellencye to Take it
into yo'r Pious and Judicious consideration To Graunt me A Pardon
of my life Not deserving death by man for wichcraft or any other
Sin That my Innocent blood may not be shed and your poor and
humble petitioner shall for ever pray as she is bound in duty for
yo'r health and happiness in this life and eternal felicity in
the world to come So prays."
Your poor and humble petition'r
Rebecca Eames
from Salem prison
Decem the 5th: 1692
She was released from Salem prison in March 1693. Her husband,
Robert EAMES, died on 22 July 1693. On 17 October 1711, Rebecca
EAMES was among 22 of those convicted during 1692 whose attainder
(forfeiture of all land and property) was reversed by act of the
Massachusetts General Assembly. Rebecca EAMES died on 8 May 1721
in Boxford, Essex County, Massachusetts, survived by some (if not
all) of her eight children.
Rebecca EAMES is buried in the West Boxford Burying Ground (now
called Mount Vernon Cemetery) in Boxford, Essex County,
Massachusetts. Her headstone encased in concrete for
preservation, its inscription is clear:
HERE LYES BURIED THE BODY OF REBEKAH EAMS DIED MAY Ye 8 1721 IN
Ye 82ND YEAR OF HER AGE. Although not commonly seen in New
England cemeteries, a smaller footstone also marks her grave.
She is an ancestor of Elwin E. Dresser (#1079) and his
descendants.
Sources
1. The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal
Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692, 3 vols., ed.
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum (New York, 1977) I:279-285;
III:986-987, 1018-1019, 1024
(also at http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/)
2. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman--Witchcraft in Colonial New
England,
Carol F. Karlsen, New York, 1987, pp. 140-41
3. Witchcraft in Salem Village, by Winfield S. Nevins, pp. 28,
85, 231, 254-6
4. Essex County Archives, Salem-Witchcraft, Vol. 2, p. 25
5. Salem Possessed, The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Boyer &
Nissenbaum,
Cambridge, MA, 1974, pp. 12 (n. 28) & 215
6. Records of Salem Witchcraft, Woodward, New York, 1864, vol.
II, pp. 143-146
7. A Guide to Cemeteries in Essex County, MA, Essex Society of
Genealogists, p. 19.
8. Cemetery Inscriptions Prior to 1800 from Boxford, MA, p. 12
(extracted
from The Essex Antiquarian, 1900)
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Submitted by:
Bruce C. Lyon
LtCol, USMC (Ret)
Database Manager, Lyon(s) Families Association
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution
Number 148842 Willington, CT