Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature
An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia
Spring Semester 2001

When Ann was arrested on May 12th 1692, she was a twice-widowed woman of property in Salem Town. Although her testimony is well-documented in the transcripts of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, details of her origins before the trials of 1692 are largely unknown. Ann is thought to have been born in England sometime between 1622 and 1627. She married her first husband, Thomas Greenslit (also spelled Greenslade) and had five children with him sometime before 1677. Her name appears for the first time in the public record of Salem Town on the certificate of inventory for the his estate following his death in 1674.

The family had likely lived in Falmouth, Maine during the birth of Ann's children, Thomas, Ruth, John, James, and Samuel, between 1650 & 1660. Although the eventual whereabouts of each of her children remains almost as unknown as Ann's own activities, her eldest son Thomas Pudeator went on to play a central role in the trial of the Reverend George Burroughs. He testified to the man's extraordinary feat of strength in lifting a gun at arm's length with just one finger in the barrel. In Salem Story, historian Bernard Rosenthal suggests that this may have been a last-ditch effort by Thomas to save his own mother from execution by appearing to join sides with the witch-hunters.

Ann was left destitute after her first husband died in 1674, probably working in the paid profession of a midwife and nurse. Her name does not appear again until March of 1678, when she is recorded as the wife of her neighbor Jacob Pudeator, a man about 20 years her junior. This unusual circumstance was calls attention to the fact that Ann had served as nurse to Jacob's first wife Isabel during her illness, and married Jacob less than a year after Isabel's unexplained death between 1675-1676. Jacob, too, passed away in 1682, leaving monetary bequests to each of Ann's five children, as well as the remainder of his property to Ann herself. Afterwards, Ann occupied the rather precarious position of being a professional woman of property in a male-dominated society.

Historian Carol F. Karlsen suggests that Ann became a prime target for allegations of witchcraft after she scolded John Best, Jr. for returning her lost cow from his fold. Best claimed that "he did conclude said Pudeator was a witch" because she "would chide me when I came home from turning the cow back." In her book, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, Karlsen argues that women such as Ann who dared to defy the Puritan gender standard of the unassertive and docile female put themselves at great risk to be singled out for punishment through witchcraft accusations. She also implies that Ann's occupation of midwife, regardless of whether she earned money (for this is not confirmed), may have threatened other male medical professionals in Salem Town, leading to accusations. Birth was a risky act and filled with apprehension in that time period, loss of life during the process was often blamed on the malignant forces of the devil at work through witchcraft.

Whatever the motivations for her accusers, a warrant for Ann Pudeator and another woman, Alice Parker, was written on May 12th 1692. Pudeator was brought to trial on July 2nd, 1692. Sarah Churchill was the first to accuse Ann of having tormented her, by appearing with the book of the devil and asking her to sign it. She also accused Ann of having presented her with several images of accusing girls that she proceeded to torture like voodoo dolls with thorns. Five more of the circle of accusing girls confirmed these accusations - both Mary Warren and Ann Putnam falling into fits during Pudeator's examination and then being cured by a touch of Ann's hand. In addition to these displays, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Walcott, and Sarah Bibber also presented testimony that Pudeator had afflicted them through pinching, pressing and choking. The constable Joseph Neal described his discovery of "curious containers of various ointments" suspected to have been associated with Ann's alleged witchcraft at her house upon her arrest, and asserted that she was an "ill-carriaged woman" whom he was convinced had adversely affected his wife in her service as midwife. During her examination Ann insisted that these jars were simply filled with Neat's Foot Oil. Incriminating evidence of Ann's relation to animal familiars was given by Samuel Pickworth, who related seeing a bird fly by one night as he walked upon Salem Street, and soon after noticing a woman coming out of Ann's home, presumably the same entity as the bird. Going even farther, Mary Warren said that Pudeator had caused John Turner to fall from a tree, and accused Ann of killing her husband Jacob, Jacob's first wife Isabel, as well as the wives of John Best and Joseph Neal.

Throughout the trials, Ann remained consistent but relatively unassertive in her declrations of innocence. She insisted that she did not know her accusers, nor anything of the art of witchcraft. In response to curiosity about the ointments, she simply explained they were containers of grease to make her soap. Although her testimony in itself was not particularly noteworthy, her petition to the court, written before her death, merits acknowledgement for its simple denunciation of her accusers. Bernard Rosenthal brings this to light in his book, Salem Story,, pointing out that Ann accused Mary Warren, Sarah Churchill, John Best, Sr. and Jr., and Samuel Pickworth of bearing false witness against her. Particularly of note was her scathing addition that John Best Jr. was a known liar: "the abovesaid Jno Best hath been formerly whipt and likewise is [recorded] for a Lyar". In retrospect, this charge cast considerable doubt upon the validity of John's accusations, as well as the credibility of any court that would admit the testimony of a publicly acknowledged liar.

Strangely enough, not one of Ann's children came to her defense during the trials. Widowed and abandoned by her remaining kinfolk, Ann Pudeator, at that time somewhere between 70 and 75 years old, was hanged upon Gallows Hill on Sept. 22nd 1692, in what would be the final set of executions resulting from the Salem Witch trials.

Bibliography

Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds. "Pudeator, Ann." in The Salem Witchcraft Papers. 1977.

Karlsen, Carol. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman. [1998], 1987.

Piper, Deborah. "Re: [Salem Witch-L] Ann Greenslet Pudeator." 26 Apr. 2000. Salem Witch Descendents ListServe

Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story, 1993