Abigail Hobbs

Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 15 years old when she was arrested for witchcraft on April 18 1692 along with Giles Corey, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop. Prior to living in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts), she and her family had lived in Casco, Maine, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki Native Americans. [Mary Beth Norton, "In the Devil's Snare", Knopf: New York 2002] Her stepmother, Deliverance Hobbs, and her father William Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.

During her multiple examinations by local magistrates between April and June 1692 [Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, "Salem Witchcraft Papers" (henceforth "SWP") DaCapo Press, 1977, pp. 405-409, pp. 410-412, & p.413] , Abigail confessed and accused others of witchcraft, including John Proctor. At her trial in September, she pled guilty to both indictments against her, one for afflicting Mercy Lewis [Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, "SWP" p. 414] and another for covenanting with the Devil ["SWP" pp. 414-415.] .

Hobbs was granted a reprieve by Governor William Phips in January 1693 after Chief Magistrate William Stoughton had signed the warrant for her execution ["Letter No. 2" (William Phips to Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, February 21 1693), "SWP" p. 865]

In 1710, her father, William Hobbs, petitioned the General Court to compensate him for £40 expenses that the family's imprisonment cost him, but said he was willing to accept £10, which the court did in 1712.

Abigail Hobbs was among those named in the Act for Reversal of Attainder by the Massachusetts Great and General Court, October 17 1711.

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