Thomas Andrews

July 1st 1692

The testimony of Thomas Andrews of Boxford aged about 50 yars this deponant Testifieth & saith yt Jsiah Comings senior of Topsfield sent for me to help help a mare yt was not well & when I came thare ye mare was in such a condition yt I could not tell wt she ailed for J neuer sawe yt like her lips ware exceedingly swelled yt ye Jnsides of Them Turned outward & Look Black & blue & gelled, her Tung was in ye same Condition J told ye said Comings I could not tell wt to doe for her J perceiued she had not ye Botts wch J did att first think she had but J said she might haue some great heat in her Body & I would applie a pipe of Tobaco to her & yt that was concented & I lit a pipe of Tobaco & putt itt under her fundiment & there came a Blew flame out of ye Bowle & Run along ye stem of sd pipe & took hold of ye haer of sd Maer & Burnt itt & we tryed itt 2 or 3 times together & itt did ye same itt semed to Burn blew butt Run Like fyer yt is sett on the grass to Burn itt in ye spring Tyme & we struck itt outt wth our hands & ye sd Comings sd yt he would trye no more for sd he J had rather loose my mare yn my barn & J this deponant doe testifi yt to ye Best of my understanding was ye same mare yt James Hough Junior Belonging to Jpswich farmes husband to Elizabeth Hough would have borowed of ye sd Comings

Tho. Andrews

Removal of Attainder
and Reimbursement

“Ipswich ye 9 of September, 1710

“Whereas ye honored General Court has appointed a committee to consider what damage persons have sustained in their names and estates in the year 1692 by their sufferings in that as was called witch craft, ye odium whereof was as if they are one of ye worst of mankind, we Mary How and Abigail How: ye only survivers in this family also do groundedly believe that our honored mother Elizabeth How suffered as innocent of the crime charged with as any person in the world, and as to the damage done to our estate we can not give a particular account but this we know that our honored father went twice a week ye whole time of her imprisonment to carry her maintenance which was provided with much difficulty and one of us went with him because he could not go alone for want of sight also one journey to Boston for a replevey and for maintenance 5s. money left with her the first coming down 20s. the second time and 40s. so that sometimes more some less yt never under 5s. per week which we know for charge for her and necessary charge for ourselves and horses cannot be less than £20 money yet notwithstanding so that ye name may be repaired we are content if your honors shall allow £12.

Yours to serve

Mary How & Abigail How.”

“This petition was presented to said Court by Capt. John How and Abraham How uncles of said Mary and Abigail for relief in the premises and pray that the petition may be allowed the same.”

The petition was referred to the committee referred to therein.

“The committee met at Salem, 13th, Sept. 1710, and the 14th reported allowing the Misses How the £12 asked for.”

Thos. Noyes }
John Burrill}Committee
Nah. Jewett }

“23 Oct., 1711. Read and accepted in House of Representatives, and sent up for concurrence.

John Burrill, Speaker.

“In Council, 28 Oct., 1711.

“Read and concurred.

John Addington, Sec’y.”

State Archives, Room 434, Vol. 135: 131, 169.

Home of Mrs. Howe
Located. The Conclusion

This map delineates a part of the homestead of Mrs. Eliza Howe Perley, now in her ninety-third year (May 15) whose residence is at “6.” The ascent of the estate is: Mrs. Perley’s father, Aaron Howe; his second cousin, Joseph Howe; Joseph’s father, Abraham Howe; his father, Abraham Howe, Jr.; his cousins, Abigail and Mary Howe; their father, James Howe, Jr.; his father, James Howe, Sr.,—a continuous Howe ownership of two hundred sixty years.

The house pictured on the opposite page stood at “2,” and was built, probably, in 1711, since Abraham Howe, Jr., bought the land in February of that year, “to set a house upon.”

James Howe, Jr., owned “a small house in the orchard,” “3,” and a third of other “housing,” which may have included “the old house,” that stood in 1711, “near” “5” south of “2,” “the southwest corner of the orchard.”

While searching the records of deeds, the writer noted a course in a description: “Thence to the gate opposite James Howe, Junior’s.” The locality was well known to him, and that knowledge located the gate. He had often seen a gate there, between 1840 and 1850. It swung at the entrance of the avenue leading to the residence of James Howe, Senior, marked “gate” on the map. That fact was tangible; Mrs. Howe’s home was at “2” on the map or near it.

Thus far and no farther, till one day looking over the ground back of the present residence of Mrs. Eliza Howe Perley, “6” on the map, the writer noticed a peculiar hollow in the otherwise level surface, and to his question, What made it? she replied, “I don’t know; I have always heard it called Mary’s hole.” He immediately exclaimed, “Mary Howe, daughter of the witch.”

His conclusion: There the surviving daughters, Mary and Abigail, lived, secluded and alone, beneath the shadow of the cruel attainder. After the death of Mary, their home became Mary’s cellar; and when all appearance of a cellar was gone, it became “Mary’s hole.” To-day there is not the slightest vestige of “Mary’s hole”; the old home, known only to the saddest pages of New England history, is arable ground.

The Aaron Howe House, Linebrook Parish
Built in 1711, the birthplace of Rev. Nathaniel Howe (1764-1837), of Hopkinton, Mass., and of Rev. Benjamin Howe (1807-1883) of that parish; taken down about 1853.

DESCENDANTS OF JAMES HOWE

JAMES
ELIZATH
JAMES .....MARY
DEBORAHMARTHA
JOHN ......SARAH HOWE ARMS
ABIGAILJAMES
MARY
SARAHMARK
MARKMARY
JOHN ......SARAH
ANNJOHN
SAMUELZERUIAH
JOHN ......JOSEPHJOSEPH
MARY
ELIZATH
LYDIA
BENJN
HANNAH
ABIGAIL
ISAAC
JOSEPH
REBECCA
LOVEMARY
JOSEPH
SARAH
INCREASE ..SUSAN
ELIZATH ABRAHM ...ABRAHM P.
JOSEPH
JOHN WM A.
SAMSON EDWARD E.
MERCY ADELINE
JEMIMA ABEL ......MARGARET
HEPHZIBAHABRAHM ...ELEANORLEVERETT S.
ABRAHM ..ABRAHM ...SARAHJOHN ABEL S.
RUTHLUCY WILLARD P.
ABRAM ....NATHANLJOHN
ELIZATHELIZATHMEHITALE
ABIJAH JOSEPH ....ELIZATH
MARKMOSES
DANIELSAMUELPRISCILLA
ISRAEL .... SAMUEL
HANNAH JOSHUACECIL P.
PRISCILLA BENJN ....HOMER
LUCY MARY
AMOS
HANNAH
LOVE
MOSES
LUCY
MARK ......MARY
AARON
SARAH MARKCATHERINE
ABIJAHJANE
MARK .....ELIPHALET
NATHANL LEONARD
NATHANL ..AARON ....ELIZACALVIN E
PHILEMONHANNAH CELESTIA E.
HEPHZIBAHMARK .....NATHANL ..MARY I.
EMERSON ...CELIA A.
HANNAH

DESCENDANTS OF JAMES HOWE
IPSWICH HOWES—JAMES BRANCH
ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO

James Howe, Jr., was son of James, Sen., of Ipswich, County Essex, Mass., and grandson of Robert, “who lived in Hatfield, Broad-Oak, county Essex, England, where Sir Francis Barrington lived in Woodrow-Green; James, son of said Robert, lived in a place called Hackerill, or Bockerill, in Bishop-Stortford—in the happy and gracious reign of King James I.”

The mention of Sir Francis’s name in this connection suggests some particular attachment, of which Mr. Howe had, no doubt, informed his children, and which he wished them to remember and cherish. Sir Francis’s family name went into England with the Conqueror, 1066, as Du Barentin. The old feudal burg and barony which cradled the name, near Rouen, is now Barentin. The Conqueror gave Baron Odo Du Barentin a grant of land in county Essex and the descendant office of ranger or keeper of the forest of Hatfield. Early in the seventeenth century the name was anglicized Barrington.

The special mention of Sir Francis’s name, noted above, could hardly indicate a family relation; it may have been a correlation, as ranger and subranger, or assistant, a lucrative station of Sir Francis’s gift. The charge, a wolf’s head, which has characterized the Howe arms for centuries, suggests forests and an encounter.

The Coat of Arms
James, Jr., and Elizabeth

Of the arms “Gules (red) a chevron argent (silver) between three cros-cros-lets or (gold) three wolves’ heads of the same,” said to have “adorned the walls of the ‘Wayside Inn’ or Howe Tavern, in Sudbury, for over a hundred and fifty years,” “Ye wolfs are ye fams. Arms, ye cross, for gt accts don by ye 1st El.,” who lived around A.D. 1500, or the time of Henry VII or VIII.

The seat of the family bearing the above arms was in county Warwick; the seat of Robert Howe and the place of the original Howe arms: “Argent (silver) a chevron between three wolves’ heads couped sable (black)” was in county Essex.

If the query is now suggested, why did not our James Howe claim a coat of arms if he were entitled to one, this answer is persuasive if not conclusive; so early created and so long unused, it was forgotten; or maybe, in New England practical home life its value was considered zero, or negative.

It may be said, further, that the Howe coat armor, the Howe family, the Barrington family, and the King’s forest—each and all—belonged to Hatfield, county Essex, and it may be thought strange that the ancient Howe arms should not include our James, the immigrant, in its descent. On the whole, there is a preponderating impression that the wolf’s head on the Howe arms was captured in the Hatfield forest by a Howe.

James Howe, Sr., was of Roxbury, and made freeman May 17, 1637, and removed to Ipswich before 1648. He was granted June 11, 1650, on motion of Mr. Norton, one of the farms of a hundred acres formerly reserved for Mr. Norton’s friends. He bought, July 3, 1651, about twenty-one acres adjoining to Mr. Winthrop’s and Mr. Symonds’s farms. He was a commoner, 1641; a tithing man, 1671. His wife, Elizabeth Dane, only daughter of John Dane, of Roxbury, died Jan. 21, 1693-4. Both joined the church at Topsfield in 1684.

He was eminently an all round man. He was a weaver by trade, but he could butcher a swine or write a will or deed; he could practice in probate or dig a grave; he could make a coffin or build a house; he could cultivate a farm or survey it; he could shoe a horse or an ox or make his own or others’ shoes; he was a ready helper in every department of country life. He died May 17, 1701-2,[[4]] at the age of one hundred and four years, a man of three centuries.

James Howe, Jr., was born in Roxbury, in 1635 or 1636, since he was “about 30” in 1666 and “about 34,” Sept. 28, 1669. He married, April 13, 1658, Elizabeth Jackson, a neighbor, daughter of William and Joanna, of Rowley, and sister to Mary, who married Wm. Foster, of Boxford, and to Deborah, who married Lieut. John Trumble, of Newbury, official men in their respective towns.

He had a share in Plum Island, 1664; was a voter, 1679; at about fifty years of age was blind, so he had to be led. His will is dated Nov. 19, 1701. He confirms to his daughter Elizabeth Jackson’s children, what he had given her; mentions his daughter Deborah and grandson James “when 21” and granddaughters Martha How and Sarah How “when 18 or married.” He gave his other two daughters, Mary and Abigail, “for their pains and care that they have taken of me for several years and their labor for my maintenance,” my house, barn, orchard, lands, and movables, and appointed them executrices. He signed his will “James How,” but it was proved, March 11, 1701-2, as the will of James Howe, Jr. He died Feb. 15, 1701. Their children were:

All the family connections of the alleged witch were well-to-do people and stable and standard in church and civic life.