Chapter 2 - Governor Richard Bellingham

Salem is called the "Witch City" because of the Salem witch trials. It was not the first witch trials or execution in Massachusetts Bay Colony. That dubious honor goes to Boston which had a series of witch trials and five executions between 1648 and 1656.
 

The last person to be hung as a witch was born with the name Bellingham, was the sister of a Governor and, unlike most of the other accused, was socially prominent and once wealthy. Ann Hibbins was also a widow with a shrewish disposition and quite obviously not well liked.
 

Mistress Hibbins came to Massachusetts Bay from England about 1634 with her husband William and her brother Richard Bellingham and his family. The Bellinghams and the Hibbins were prominent almost from their arrival. Both families prospered almost immediately.
 

William Hibbins was a successful merchant. In 1643 he was appointed a magistrate and served in that position until his death in 1654. At some point he also spent two years in England as a colonial agent.
 

Ann Hibbins spent her life, as was expected of women of that time, caring for the home. There does not appear to have been any children. She was strong minded and not afraid to defend her positions even against the church. In 1640 she became embroiled in a bitter dispute with a fellow member of the Boston Church (Puritan). The church elders attempted to mediate but Ann was unwilling to accept their terms and in 1641 she was excommunicated from the church. Despite her husband's prestige and social standing she was an outcast in Boston.
 

As long as William Hibbins lived, Ann Hibbins was protected, perhaps even begrudgingly accepted.
 

However, at some point prior to 1654, Hibbins suffered a severe financial setback, losing 500£ in a bad investment. Broken in spirit, unable to recoup, he died in 1654.
 

Left alone, aging, poor and a widow, Ann Hibbins fell close to the norm for accused witches. She became more querulous and troublesome to her neighbors, apparently to such an extent that in 1655 she was brought before the Court of Assistants. Tried before a jury, she was condemned as a witch.
 

The charge of witchcraft was not frivolous. Many had been charged and tried. Four were executed prior to Ann. In 1641 the General Court enacted a rule that there must be two witnesses, "no man shall be put to death without the testimonie of two or three witnesses, or that which is equivalent thereunto." ("Body of Liberties" art. 48)
 

The original verdict was reviewed by the magistrates and they refused to accept the jury verdict. Her accusers were not satisfied. On May 14, 1656, Ann Hibbins was brought before the General Court. By vote this colonial legislature and court of final appeal, decided she was a witch. As the eighteenth-century historian Thomas Hutchinson aptly summarized the verdict "the popular clamor prevailed against her".
 

On June 19, 1656, Ann Hibbins was hanged for her "crime" of being a witch. She was the fifth and last witch to be executed in Boston until 1688.
 

Ann Hibbins only crime was probably being eccentric, difficult and unliked. She was not the typical accused because of her social position and one time wealth. Most of the accused were poor, social outcasts. Her quick fall was certainly preceded by years of quarreling with her neighbors. Her husband's loss of wealth and sudden death gave them the opportunity to bring her down.
 

She was characterized, as was her brother, by Nathaniel Hawthorne in an apochryphal meeting with Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter:
 

"The affair being so satisfactorily concluded, Hester Prynne, with Pearl, departed from the house. As they descended the steps, it is averred that the lattice of a chamber window was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham's bitter-tempered sister, and the same who, a few years later, was executed as a witch."
 

In the book Hibbins asked Hester to go into the forest to attend a witch group. Hester refused.
 

Her brother, Richard Bellingham, the namesake of the town of Bellingham, was a rich and powerful man, high in the church, Deputy Governor, Magistrate and three times Governor, large landowner, merchant, but he was unable or refused to save his sister. His name is curiously missing when she is discussed in the articles of that time.
 

Minister John Horton commented on her execution "Mistress Hibbins was hanged for a witch only for having more wit than her neighbors."