Sarah Hood Bassett: Accused of Being a Witch

Accused of Witchcraft (3)

My 7th great aunt (4, 6), Sarah Hood, was accused of being a witch and jailed for months. There are several versions of her story. Here are two.

(1)

From the Salem Witch Museum:

"Sarah Hood Bassett was born in August of 1657 in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts to Richard Hood and Mary Newhall. In her eighteenth year, on October 25, 1675 she married William Bassett, Jr., who was the brother of Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, wife of John Proctor.

Both John and Elizabeth Proctor were accused and tried for witchcraft; John was hanged on August 19th, 1692, whereas Elizabeth escaped persecution due to her pregnancy. Their daughter, Sarah Proctor, was also accused of witchcraft at age 16 on the same day as her aunt Sarah Bassett.

[A hired girl] claimed Elizabeth Proctor administered an ointment to her which she received from “Mrs. Bassits of Linn.” Only two days after the Putnam’s complaint against Sarah Bassett she was brought to jail in Boston on May 23, 1692, where she remained until her release on December 3, 1692.

Not long after the ordeal was over, Sarah gave birth to a daughter whom she named Deliverance as an ode to her freedom.  Sarah Bassett died at age 64 in 1721." (2)

The idea of a pregnant mother being jailed for months along with her toddler is chilling. And poor Elizabeth and John Proctor--he was hung and she was left a pregnant widow with her reputation in ruins. 

Witchcraft was thought to run in families, so there are many connections among those accused. Sarah Hood Bassett's sister, Mary Hood Deriche (or Derich, or Rich) was also accused and jailed. (5) 

Mary was also my 7th great aunt.

Next: More relatives accused, and more family connections

*****

Sources and Notes

1. John Hood of Lynn, Massachusetts and Some of His Descendants, by Mary Jane Hood Bosson. Salem, Massachusetts, Essex Institute, 1909. https://archive.org/details/johnhoodoflynnma00inboss

2. Sarah Hood Bassett (1657-1721), by Peter Murphy. Salem Witch Museum: https://salemwitchmuseum.com/blog/2013/05

3. Accused of Witchcraft, By Douglas Volk. Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2911199

4. 7th great aunt: Short for great great great great great great great aunt.

5. An American Family History: Joanna Dwinnell Hood, by Roberta Tuller. 2017. 

http://www.anamericanfamilyhistory.com/Dwinnell%20Family/DwinnellJoannaHood.html#RichardHood

6. How I am related to Sara Hood (1657 - 1721)

7th great-aunt

Richard Hood (1625 - 1695)
father of Sara Hood

Nathaniel Hood (1669 - 1748)
son of Richard Hood

Nathaniel Hood Jr. (1713 - 1755)
son of Nathaniel Hood

Susannah Hood (1745 - 1812)
daughter of Nathaniel Hood Jr.

Stephen Kinney (1771 - 1837)
son of Susannah Hood

John Shepherd Kinney (1802 - 1872)
son of Stephen Kinney

Sarah Ann "Anna" Kinney (1842 - 1935)
daughter of John Shepherd Kinney

David Jewett Crabtree Sr. (1875 - 1954)
son of Sarah Ann "Anna" Kinney

Elva Myrtle Crabtree (1914 - 1998)
daughter of David Jewett Crabtree Sr.

Clair Marie Harris
I am the daughter of Elva Myrtle Crabtree

My Loyalist Ancestors: Arriving in New Brunswick From New York

In the last post, I wrote about my 4th great Uncle Murphy Giberson, who lived in New Brunswick, was descended from Loyalists, and is related to me through my mother's mother.

My mother's father's side of the family was also descended from a Loyalist--my paternal great great great great grandfather, John Crabb, who was born in 1741 in Duchess County, New York. This is how we are related:




John Crabb (1741 - 1792)
My 4th great-grandfather

John Crabb Jr. (1770 - 1853)
son of John Crabb

William Henry Crabb Sr. (1802 - 1868)
son of John Crabb Jr.

William Henry Crabb Jr. (1837 - 1890)
son of William Henry Crabb Sr.

David Jewett Crabtree Sr. (1875 - 1954)
son of William Henry Crabb Jr. (my grandfather)

Elva Myrtle Crabtree (1914 - 1998)
daughter of David Jewett Crabtree Sr. (my mother)

Clair Marie Harris Zarges
This is me, the daughter of Elva Myrtle Crabtree

***

During the American Revolutionary War John Crabb, Sr. remained loyal to the King of England, serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the King's military.(1)

When the war was over the

 Loyalists fled to New York, the last British bastion in the 13 Colonies, from where they were transported to safety and a new settlement. Those who had ample time retreated with dignity, carrying the family's prized possessions with them. Most fled with little more than the clothes on their backs. On arrival in the new land they were herded into camps where they survived on government rations and dreams of a new life in a new land.(2)

Last British soldiers leave New York, 1783 (2)

John, age 42, and his wife, Elizabeth Bassett, age 34, and their five children (Stephen, 17; John, Jr., 13; Elizabeth, 12; Polly, 10; and Charity, almost 4) , boarded the ship Cyrus in New York City on Aug. 21, 1783. They didn't set sail until Sept. 6, 1783, and they were on the St. John River [in what is now New Brunswick, Canada] by Sept. 14, 1783.(3)

(2)

It was a terrible time of year to arrive in a cold climate, with a brutal winter to come, and little preparation made.  To describe the conditions the Loyalists experienced, I am quoting the following article by W.O. Raymond in its entirety.

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The Loyalists and Their First New Brunswick Winter

The first winter in New Brunswick was long remembered by the loyalists. Those who came early in the season were able to build log houses which, though rude structures in comparison with former dwellings, enabled them to pass the cold weather with comfort. But the later arrivals were not so fortunate. When they arrived they found that scarcely any preparations had been made for their reception. 

At Parrtown, Portland and Carleton every habitation was crowded, and up the river St. John the houses of the old inhabitants at Gagetown, Sheffield and Maugerville were in many cases filled to overflowing with as many of the loyalists as could find accommodation.

During the month of October many of the disbanded soldiers pushed their way up the Saint John transporting their few possessions in boats provided by government. But the season was cold and wet and the hardships and exposure very great.

Mrs. Mary Bradley, in her curious old autobiography, describes the effect produced in her mind by the arrival of the loyalists. She was living at the time in the lower part of the township of Maugerville, now known as Sheffield. "My heart," she says, "was filled with pity and affection when I saw them in a strange land without house or home, and many of them were sick and helpless. I often looked at them when they passed by in boats in rainy weather and wished for them to call and refresh themselves and was glad when they did so." She adds that during the winter one of the loyalist families occupied a part of her father's house.

Colonel Richard Hewlett, seeing the impossibility of disbanding the loyalist corps at their several locations as originally intended by Sir Guy Carleton, was compelled to disband them at St. John, urging them at the same time to make the best provision they could for the approaching winter. 

The more adventurous spirits pressed on up the river, some finding shelter in the houses of the old settlers, while others took possession of the abandoned French settlements at Grimross and St. Anne's Point, where they set about building huts and repairing the ruined dwellings of the Acadians, but before they had made much progress the snow was on the ground and the winter frost in the air. They then endured the greatest hardships, their situation being at times rendered well nigh desperate in consequence of the non arrival of supplies expected up the river before the close of navigation. 

Frequently the stout hearted fathers and sons of the little colony at St. Anne's had to journey from fifty to a hundred miles with toboggans through wild woods or on the ice to procure a precarious supply of food for their famishing families. Women, delicately reared, cared for their children beneath canvas tents rendered habitable only by the banks of snow which lay six feet deep in the open spaces of the forest, and as one said who had as a child passed through the terrible experience of that first winter: "There were times when strong proud men wept like children and lay down in their snow bound tents to die."

A few of the pioneer settlers doubtless found shelter among the French Acadians of whom there were then several families living near Springhill, others may have passed the winter at Prince William where the disbanded men of the King's American Dragoons had been sent sufficiently early to finish their log cabins and provisions for passing the winter in comfort. 

It has commonly been supposed that a party of de Lancey's men under the leadership of Lieut.

Benjamin P. Griffith arrived at Woodstock before the close of the year 1783, but in the absence of any positive evidence on the point this appears improbable. True, it is barely possible that by prompt and decisive action a party of men might have gathered the necessary supplies and pushed up the river nearly 150 miles before the close of navigation, and then have contrived in some way to exist through the winter, but the undertaking seems such a rash and even perilous one, that the writer is disposed to think it was not until the spring of 1784 that the actual settlement of Woodstock began.

Very many men from all the loyal American regiments spent their first winter at St. John. Some of them drew town lots there and became permanent residents, others removed to their lands up the river the following year. For lack of other accommodation many were forced to live in bark camps and even under canvas tents pitched upon what is now known as the barrack square. These tents were trenched around and covered with spruce brought in the ship's boats from Partridge Island but even then they were a pitiful protection against the biting cold of a New Brunswick winter. 

Still it was wonderful what the brave hearted founders of this province endured. The late Hon. John Ward, who died at St. John, Jan. 2nd, 1875, at the advanced age of 92 years, was born in a canvas tent on the barrack square Dec. 18th 1783.

In his little work on New Brunswick history, published in the year 1825, Mr. Peter Fisher (father of ex-Mayor Fisher of Woodstock) speaks of the tribulations endured by the pioneer settlers in the words following, "The privations and sufferings of these people almost exceed belief. The want of food and clothing in a wild, cold country, was not easily dispensed with or soon remedied. Frequently in the piercing cold of winter a part of the family had to remain up during the night to keep fire in their huts to prevent the other part from freezing. Some very destitute families made use of boards to supply the want of bedding; the father or some of the elder children remaining up by turns, and warming two suitable pieces of boards, which they applied alternately to the smaller children to keep warm; with many similar expedients. . . . I have received the above facts with many other expedients, which were at that time adopted by the settlers, from persons of undoubted veracity, and who had been eye witness of what they related." 

Quite a number of officers and men of De Lancey's first and second battalions drew lots in Parrtown, and amongst them were Major Joseph Green, Captain Jacob Smith, Captain Thomas French, Surgeon Nathan Smith, Quarter Master George Everett, Lieut. Benjamin Lester, Ensigns Nicholas E. Old, Ralph Smith, Geo. Brewerton and Henry Ferguson; Sergeants David Newman, Daniel McSherfry, Patrick McNamara, Thomas Fowler and Edward Neil; Corporals Richard Rogers, Thomas Stanley, Jonas Highby; Privates James Craig, Daniel Cummings, Lawrence McDonald. Most of their lots were side by side extending along the south side of Britain street from Wentworth street eastward to Canterbury Bay and also including adjoining lots on Broad street where the "Old Ladies Home" now stands.

Early in the year 1784 pioneer settlers of Woodstock proceeded to the place allotted them for settlement. The leader of the party was Lieut. Benjamin P. Griffith -- afterwards Colonel Griffith of the York County militia. He was born in the then province of New York, July 4th, 1754, and the fact that he received a commission as lieutenant in Lt. Col. Stephen de Lancey's company of de Lancey's brigade, when about twenty-three years of age, shows him to have been a young man of spirit and decision. One of the first engagements in which his company saw active service was in repelling an attack made by the Americans on King's Bridge at the head of Manhattan Island, August 22, 1777, where the 2nd de Lancey battalion was then stationed. The "rebels" were beaten off, but the youthful rashness of Lieutenant Griffith led to his being captured by the enemy. He soon after effected his escape or was exchanged and served gallantly through the war including the southern campaign, to which reference has already been made. At the peace in 1783 he came with his company to St. John. Lt. Col. de Lancey who commanded the company did not come to the province, having received the appointment of chief justice of the Bahamas, and governor of Tobago. Lieut. Griffith's influence with his men is seen in the fact that a larger number of his company were grantees at Woodstock than any other company in the brigade, and more of them became actual settlers.

Doubtless the pioneer party found it a difficult task to propel their heavily laden boat against the strong current of the upper St. John, the navigation of which was then more difficult than now. The Meductic rapids were a much more serious hindrance to navigation than now owing to the occurrence of dangerous rocks in the channel. During the ensuing summer the grant for the de Lancey battalions was surveyed and the lots for the officers and men were drawn in the usual manner, after which the grant was recorded at Halifax.

W. O. Raymond (4)

***

Sources:

1, 3. Smith, Louise Elizabeth: Grandma and Me; Family Stories, Information and Photos of the Crabtree and Higginson Families of Amanda Myrtie Crabtree Briggs. Cave Creek, AZ: Austin-Smith Books, 2007.

2. Historical Narratives of Early Canada: Two Nations. http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/uel/uel6.html

4. The article by W.O. Raymond was found on RootsWeb.com, where genealogists share their family history:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nbsunbur/historyarticles/loyalistsfirstwinter.htm. It was accessed 28 May 2017.

More About My Grandfather, David J. Crabtree, Sr.

Grandfather David in the field with his youngest son, David, Jr. 

c. 1940

From our family's photo collection

My grandfather, David J. Crabtree, Sr., was born David Jewett Crabb in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada in 1875; the ninth child of thirteen born to William Henry Crabb and Sarah Ann Kinney. He had five sisters and seven brothers. 

The family name was changed from Crabb to Crabtree in 1910 in Maine. See A Family Changes its Names for the details and the text of the legal document.

I had always heard that the Crabtrees came straight from England to Canada, so it was a great surprise to find that the truth was quite different. David was descended from both Loyalists and Pre-Loyalists. During the American Revolution, the Loyalists were the folks who remained loyal to the King of England, lost their lands, and left America to resettle in Canada. The Pre-Loyalists were those who had come to Canada from America prior to the Loyalist immigration of 1783. The story of the Loyalists is a dramatic one and full of hardship, and I hope to tell it eventually on this blog. 

David's maternal great-great grandparents, Israel Kinney and Susannah Hood, moved in 1767 from Topsfield, Massachusetts to Maugerville, in what would later become New Brunswick, Canada. Another set of great-great grandparents, John Crabb, Sr. and Elizabeth Bassett (who show up on both sides of David's family tree--David's father's grandfather, John Crabb, Jr., and David's mother's grandfather, Richard Arnold Crabb, were brothers), left Dutchess County, New York for New Brunswick in 1783.  

I never met my grandfather; what I know about him is the result of research, reading books, correspondence, and interviews. I haven't learned anything about his younger days, but I know that one of his sisters, Gertrude, died at the age of two; another sister, Elizabeth, died at the age of 24 of tuberculosis; and his brother, Aaron, died in the goldfields of Alaska in 1897. His sister, Sarah Ermina "Sadie" Kinney Thomas, was  the "Auntie" in my Aunt Sadie's memoirs (see Separated from the Family, etc.). Another sister, Anna Thursa Crabb, married Charles Field and I met them when I was a child and they visited our home in San Francisco in the 1950's. 

However, I have read about the grown and married David as both a farmer and neighbor. His neighbors called him Dave, and knew they could call on him for help with cutting ice, cutting brush, sawing wood, threshing, and moving machinery. I read about his hard-working farming days in Sheila Antworth Lafferty's blog, Diary of an Aroostook Farmer; The farm journals of Milton Lloyd Flewelling (1901-1996), a farmer from Easton, Aroostook County, Maine. "Dave" and "Cliff" (my uncle Clifford Crabtree) are mentioned frequently in Milton's journals, and Patricia Pickard's booklet (No. 5 in the Bibliography, below) on Clifford Crabtree tells us that Clifford worked on Milton's farm in Easton, Maine. Milton mentions a great deal of going back and forth between his farm and Dave's place in Beaconsfield, New Brunswick.

These next three quotes are from Pat Pickard's booklet, and are used with her kind permission. 

[Dave] was a farmer, plus he was busy at the local Baptist church where he was Sunday school superintendent. With godly parentage, the children of this family learned to love the things of God. David never failed to take his family of 13 children to church, even trudging on foot through snow at times. (Page 1)

Evelyn (Allen) Crabtree shares a bit of history on the Crabtree family: "Clifford's parents owned a nice home in Easton, [Maine] and they had an opportunity to sell it, which they did. They moved from Easton to Beaconsfield, New Brunswick--just over the border from Easton [some time after 1905]. The move to Beaconsfield seemed to be a mistake. Clifford's father, David, found that the soil was full of rocks and it caused him a lot of grief. He worked and worked to clear them out, only to find more rocks the following year. It was a hard life on that farm." [NOTE: The writer of this book had the opportunity to visit this farm in the 1970s, and wonders how they managed to farm at all. It was a beautiful spot--high on a hill, overlooking the town of Easton--but not for farming]. (Pages 1-2)

Donny Ladner used to butcher hogs in the Easton/Beaconsfield area, and whenever someone had a hog that they wanted to have butchered, they would call him up, fill a barrel full of water, and put it on to boil so that they could dip the hog in it for easy removal of its hair after it was slaughtered. One day David had a hog to be butchered, and Donny came to the Crabtree home in Beaconsfield and did the job. After he got the hog killed, it was time to put it in the hot water. David looked at his wife and said, "Ede (as he called her), we forgot to boil the water!" (Page 7)

Form for replacement of lost naturalization papers

Dave left behind a physical description of himself. This is a copy of an undated form requesting replacement of lost naturalization papers. It was apparently used as a draft or kept at home as a record of the completed form. Dave tells us that he is male, white with a medium complexion, has blue eyes and brown hair, is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 148 pounds. He "kept papers in pocket. Lost while working in the field."

David is mentioned several times in the book, Prevailing Westerlies; The Pentecostal Heritage of Maine. It seems that David was often on hand to help with building and maintaining the churches of the area. His grandson, Charles T. Crabtree (see photo below) remembers: When the new sanctuary was built, I remember my dad talking to my grandfather, David Jewett [Crabtree], about getting permits to remove a big elm tree. He went on and on about the danger and expense. My grandfather just snorted. It was a thrilling sight for me to watch as the men began to ax away. They tied great ropes to guide the fall. It was a great victory to watch that monster fall in the exact spot my grandfather had planned. The only fly in the ointment was when Billy Washington sawed off a limb he was sitting on. He fell a long way but, miraculously, was not hurt. (pages 169-170).

Another church-building memory from the same book: Let's go back to the summer of 1947. The work on our new church on Court Street had been completed, and a group of us went down to Cape Jellison [Maine] to work on building a new church. Grampie Crabtree; Pastor [Clifford] Crabtree; [Clifford's] son, David, and I [author James Peters] traveled back and forth most of those days. We tore down an old barn for the lumber, which we hauled half way around the Cape to build the church... 

...as we tore the old building down and built the church... We had a few nails in our feet and bloodblisters under our nails from time to time, but we worked for the Lord and He blessed our efforts. I recall some of the antics of Charlie [Charles Flewelling, a missionary just back from Africa] and Grampie (David) Crabtree--who says Christians can't have fun? They were always playing practical jokes on each other and on anyone who happened to be in the vicinity. I considered it a great privilege to work alongside these men who, as we look back on our heritage, made such an impact for the Lord, both at home and on the foreign field. (Pages 171-172)

The late Rev. David J. Crabtree assisted greatly in the work of this church. [He] laid the foundation. (Pages 175-176)

Grandfather "Grampie" David and his grandson, Charles Talmage Crabtree (son of Clifford Crabtree)
All three served as ministers in the Pentecostal Church (David started out as a Baptist)
As Charles was born in 1937, I am guessing that this photo was taken c. 1952,
or two years before Grampie's death in 1954
(Photo courtesy of Patricia Pickard)

Undated photo of Grandfather David
Courtesy of Patricia Pickard

Undated photo from Patricia Pickard

This is an indirect (and not very flattering) story about Grandfather. My mother (Elva Crabtree Harris Rodriguez) told me about a time when her mother, Edith, was in labor with her last baby, David, Jr. My mother's older brothers were out with the horse and wagon and stopped to talk with a neighbor who asked after Edith's health. He jokingly asked that since they already had kids named Faith and Hope in the family, were they planning to name this new baby-to-be Charity? One of the brothers, no doubt feeling great sympathy for his mother's labor with her 13th child, said "'Twould be a great charity if he [David, Sr.] would leave her alone so's she'd have no more babies!"

Here are the last two stories that I have about my grandfather. The first was received in an email from Patricia Pickard, 4 May 2014:

I just came across a typescript that has a story about David Jewett Crabtree:
"A former neighbor from Beaconsfield, N.B., Handy Nevers, recalls that many a time David J. Crabtree and Frank Nevers (who became very good friends) walked twelve miles to Perth to attend Pentecostal meetings there. David lived in Beaconsfield, N.B. with his family, and Frank's family lived nearby in Dover Hill.
"David J. Crabtree had a terrible accident while living in Beaconsfield. He fell off a load of hay and broke his neck. He was prayed for and God healed him completely."

And from my cousin, Cheryl Blakely (via Facebook, August 11, 2014): I very rarely heard my mom [Faith Crabtree Blakely] talk of her dad. She did say he was like an old banty hen, tough and stubborn. She said he fell off the roof and broke his neck. She said it didn't kill him the first time. The second time did. Whether that's true or not, I have no idea.

Copy of David's obituary, courtesy of Patricia Pickard

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Bibliography

1. Bell, Edwin Wallace: Israel Kenny; His Children and Their Families. [Vancouver, B.C.], 1944. May be borrowed from Open Library for reading online: https://archive.org/details/israelkennyhisch00bell.

2. Kinney, Fern Gallup: Kith and Kin of the Kinneys. [nd]. PDF file available for download:http://home.comcast.net/~kinneyed/KithAndKin_image.pdf.

3. Lafferty, Sheila Antworth:  Diary of an Aroostook Farmer; The farm journals of Milton Lloyd Flewelling (1901-1996), a farmer from Easton, Aroostook County, Maine.

4. Peters, James E. and Patricia Pickard: Prevailing Westerlies; the Pentecostal Heritage of Maine. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1988.

5. Pickard, Patricia P.: Rev. Clifford A. Crabtree, Called of God. Prepared for the 90th anniversary celebration of Glad Tidings Church, Bangor, Maine, November 24, 2013. Published by Glad Tidings Church, 1033 Broadway, Bangor, Maine 04401. 2013. (A copy may be purchased from Glad Tidings Church for a suggested donation of $10.00 or more).

6. Pickard, Patricia, from a typescript, "Notes taken during a phone conversation that Pat Pickard of Bangor, Maine had with Handy Nevers of Brockville, Ontario on April 26, 2013."

7. Smith, Louise Elizabeth, compiler and editor: Grandma and Me; Family Stories, Information, and Photos of the Crabtree and Higginson Families of Amanda Myrtie Crabtree Briggs. Cave Creek, Arizona: Austin-Smith Books, 2007. (May be purchased from Lulu.com at http://www.lulu.com/shop/louise-smith/grandma-and-me/paperback/product-1070857.html)