Salem witch trials ancestors: the accused, and their descendants
Twenty people were killed in Massachusetts in 1692 on charges of witchcraft, and more than a hundred others were accused. Several left grown children, and their descendants now number in the hundreds of thousands — which is why a Salem connection is one of the most commonly discovered links in New England genealogy.
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The short version
- Executed
- Nineteen people were hanged in 1692; one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead.
- Accused
- Well over a hundred were formally accused, and many more implicated.
- Others died imprisoned
- Several people, including at least one infant, died in jail awaiting trial.
- Exoneration
- The first reversals came in 1703; a larger act in 1711 cleared most of the condemned and paid restitution, but left six women out. The last of those was cleared in 2001, and a final conviction was voided in 2022.
What actually happened, and why descendants are so numerous
The accusations began in Salem Village in early 1692 and spread through Essex County over the following months. A special court was convened, and by the time the proceedings collapsed in 1693, nineteen people had been hanged and Giles Corey — an elderly farmer who refused to enter a plea — had been pressed to death under stones. Others died in jail awaiting trial.
Most of the accused were ordinary settled adults with families, not the isolated figures of popular imagination. Several of those executed had grown children whose own descendants multiplied across New England for the next three centuries. That is why a Salem connection turns up so often in trees with deep Essex County ancestry.
Rehabilitation came slowly and in pieces. The first reversals of attainder were granted in 1703, and a broader act in 1711 restored the names of most of the condemned and paid roughly £578 in restitution to their families — but six women were left out of it. Ann Pudeator was cleared in 1957, the remaining five in 2001, and the last outstanding conviction was voided in 2022, three hundred and thirty years after the trials.
Seven of the condemned
Twenty people were killed in 1692. These seven are the ones whose descendant lines are traceable in our catalog today — six of them executed, plus Mary Bradbury, who was sentenced and escaped the gallows, which is the only reason her line survives at all.
These were real people who were killed after unjust trials. We list them because their descendants have a genuine and often meaningful interest in the connection, and because the documentary record of 1692 is unusually complete.
John Proctor
1631 – 1692Hanged 1692Salem Village farmer and tavern keeper, hanged on 19 August 1692 after he publicly doubted the accusers; a petition from 32 Ipswich neighbors failed to save him.
Check if John Proctor is your ancestorRebecca Towne Nurse
1621 – 1692Hanged 1692Salem Village matriarch, aged 71 and nearly deaf, hanged on 19 July 1692 after a jury's not-guilty verdict was reversed despite a petition signed by 39 neighbors.
Check if Rebecca Towne Nurse is your ancestorGiles Corey
1611 – 1692Pressed to deathSalem Farms landowner who pleaded not guilty but refused to submit to trial by jury, and was pressed to death under stones on 19 September 1692 — the only person known to have been executed this way by court order in what became the United States.
Check if Giles Corey is your ancestorMary Perkins Bradbury
1615 – 1700Condemned, survivedSalisbury woman condemned on 9 September 1692 for bewitching Timothy Swan; more than a hundred neighbors defended her, and she escaped jail and died at home in 1700.
Check if Mary Perkins Bradbury is your ancestorMary Towne Eastey
1634 – 1692Hanged 1692Topsfield farmwife freed from jail and rearrested two days later, hanged on 22 September 1692 after petitioning the court that no more innocent blood be shed.
Check if Mary Towne Eastey is your ancestorSusannah North Martin
1621 – 1692Hanged 1692Amesbury widow first accused of witchcraft in 1669 and cleared by the courts, then tried again and hanged on 19 July 1692 after refusing to confess.
Check if Susannah North Martin is your ancestorMartha Allen Carrier
d. 1692Hanged 1692Andover farmwife blamed for a 1690 smallpox outbreak, hanged on 19 August 1692 after her own children were coerced into testifying against her; she never confessed.
Check if Martha Allen Carrier is your ancestor
How to check a Salem line
Essex County records are excellent, and the trial documents themselves are among the best-preserved in colonial America.
- 1
Look for Essex County, Massachusetts
The accusations were concentrated in Salem Village, Andover, Topsfield, and neighboring towns. If your colonial line runs through Essex County in the 1600s, a connection is genuinely plausible.
- 2
Work through the children, not the victim
Descent runs through the grown children of the accused. Establish which children survived and had families of their own, then trace forward from there to meet your own line coming backward.
- 3
Read the court records directly
The trial documents survive in exceptional detail — depositions, examinations, and petitions, many of which name family members explicitly. They are primary evidence about these families, not just about the trials.
- 4
Distinguish accused from executed
Far more people were accused than were killed. Many were imprisoned and released, and their descendants have an equally real connection to the events — just a different one from what family stories usually claim.
Rememberkin does the mechanical part of this automatically — every line, every generation, checked at once. Run the search free.
If the line reaches 1692
A proven line deserves better than a screenshot
When Rememberkin finds one of the condemned in your tree, it can print the whole line — every generation between you and Salem, with names, dates, and portraits.
- Every generation between you and them, documented
- The relationship named plainly — 9th-great-grandmother, not a guess
- Printed as a wall chart or bound into your family book
Questions people ask
How do I know if I'm descended from someone in the Salem witch trials?
Trace your line back to colonial Essex County, Massachusetts — Salem Village, Andover, Topsfield, and the surrounding towns. If your family was there in the seventeenth century, a connection is quite plausible, since several of the accused left large families whose descendants spread across New England.
How many people were executed in the Salem witch trials?
Nineteen people were hanged during 1692, and Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea, making twenty deaths by execution. Others died in prison awaiting trial. Well over a hundred people were formally accused.
Were the victims of the Salem witch trials ever cleared?
Yes, but slowly and incompletely. The first reversals of attainder came in 1703. A broader act in 1711 cleared most of the condemned and granted restitution, but omitted six women. Ann Pudeator was cleared in 1957, the remaining five in 2001, and a final outstanding conviction was voided in 2022 — three hundred and thirty years on.
Why do so many people descend from the accused?
Because most of the accused were established adults with children already grown or growing. Three centuries of descent from several large colonial families produces tens of thousands of living descendants, concentrated among people with deep New England ancestry.
Are the Salem trial records still available?
Yes, and they are unusually complete. Depositions, examinations, and petitions survive in quantity, and many name family members directly — which makes them valuable genealogical sources about Essex County families quite apart from their historical significance.
Other ancestors worth checking for
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