Sarah (Solart) Good, Salem Witch Trial

Sarah (Solart) Poole Good (1653-1692) - One of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials of 1692, Sarah Good was born to a prosperous innkeeper named John Solart on 11 July 1653. However, her father's estate became entangled in litigation leaving Sarah Good in poverty. Her first marriage was to a poor indentured servant named Daniel Poole who died in debt in 1686. After he died, Sarah married William Good. Also a poor man, the Goods lived a life of homelessness and begging, earning Sarah a reputation as an unsavory person, who was described by the people of Salem as being filthy, bad-tempered, and strangely detached from the rest of the village. She was often associated with the death of residents' livestock and would wander door to door, asking for charity. If the resident refused, Good would walk away muttering under her breath.

Sarah was accused of witchcraft on 25 February 1692, when Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris claimed to be bewitched under her hand. The girls claimed they had been bitten, pinched, and otherwise abused by her. When Reverend Samuel Parris asked “Who torments you?” the girls eventually shouted out the names of three townspeople: Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good.

On 1 March 1692, Good was tried for witchcraft. Sarah was the first of three accused women to testify; but never confessed guilt. When allowed the chance to defend herself in front of the twelve jurors in the Salem Village meeting house, she argued her innocence, proclaiming Tituba and Osborne as the real witches. Dorcas Good, Sarah's daughter, who was only four years-old at the time, was forced to testify against her, claiming that she was a witch and she had seen her mother consorting with the devil.

While she was jailed, her four year-old daughter Dorcas Good was also accused of witchcraft and was imprisoned. At the time, Sarah Good was pregnant and when she was condemned to hang, she was allowed to wait for the execution until the birth of her child. She gave birth to Mercy Good in her cell in Ipswich Jail. Mercy died shortly after birth, most likely due to malnutrition, lack of medical care, and unsanitary conditions.

On 19 July 1692, Sarah Good was hanged along with four other women convicted of witchcraft: Elizabeth Jackson Howe, Susannah North Martin, Rebecca Towne Nurse, and Sarah Averill Wildes. While the others quietly awaited execution, Good firmly proclaimed her innocence. Reverend Nicholas Noyes was especially persistent in his attempts to force Good to confess. Sarah yelled, "If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink." It is said that when Noyes died twenty-five years later, it was found that there was blood in his mouth and down his throat.

In the meantime Dorcas was imprisoned for over eight months. Although the child was eventually released on bond, she was psychologically damaged for the rest of her life.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Solart-6

Solart-6 created 12 Jun 2015 | Last modified 6 Dec 2021 | Last tracked change:
6 Dec 2021

• Sarah Good formerly Solart aka Poole
• Born about 1653 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Bay
• Daughter of John Solart and Elizabeth (Unknown) Woodward
• Sister of Mary (Solart) Edwards, Elizabeth (Solart) Lovett, John Solart, Martha (Solart) Killam, Abigail (Solart) Larkum, Bethia (Solart) Herrick, Abiah (Woodward) Yarrington [half] and Mehitable (Woodward) Herrick [half]
• Wife of Daniel Poole — married about 1682 in Massachusetts Bay
• Wife of William Good — married after 1686 in Massachusetts Bay
• Mother of Dorothy Good and Mercy Good
• Died 19 Jul 1692 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

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Sarah (Solart) Good was executed for witchcraft in witch trials

Sarah Solart was born to prosperous innkeeper John Solart and his wife Elizabeth, about 1653. [1]

Sarah's father committed suicide when Sarah was a young woman: “Report of a jury of inquest... appointed upon the sudden death of John Soolart of Wenham, found him accessory to his own death by drowning himself....”[2]

Sarah married Daniel Poole in 1682, [3] an indentured servant, who died in 1686 and left her mired in debt.

Sarah next married William Good, but the couple lost their property in lawsuits related to her first husband's debts. By the time of the witchcraft outbreak, they were homeless, poverty-stricken, and dependent on others for sustenance.”[1] “Known as a pipe-smoking, muttering beggar, Good would go door-to-door with her 4-year-old daughter Dorothy in tow.”[4]

Sarah died on 19 Jul 1692[5]

Children of William Good and Sarah Solart

1. Dorothy Good, b. about 1687, Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay
2. Mercy Good, b. 1692, d. 1692, Boston, Massachusetts Bay.

Salem Witch Trials

Sarah (Solart) Good was executed for witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials On 29 Feb 1692, “Mrs Joseph Hutcheson, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, Edward Putnam and Thomas Preston...made Complaint...against Sarah Good...for suspition of Witchcraft...and...much Injury donne to Elizabeth "Betty" Parris, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam, Jr., and Elizabeth Hubbard all of Salem Village”[6] An easy target, she was among the first to be accused.

On 1 Mar 1692, Colonel John Hathorne and Captain Jonathan Corwin examined her at Salem.[5] At this time, her husband bizarrely testified, “She is an enemy to all good" and she "was a witch or would be one very quickly."[7] After a second examination on 5 Mar 1692, where her husband again testified, “william Good saith that the night before his s'd wife was Examined he saw a wart or tett a little belowe her Right shoulder which he never saw before...[6] [5] They sent her to the jail in Boston on 7 Mar 1692.[5] On 29 May 1692, the Boston jailer submitted his bill,“against the country,” for “chains for Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, 14 shillings...[5]

And on 29 Jun 1692, her daughter testified, “she had three birds one black, one yellow & that these birds hurt the Children...” [6]

She was described as “a forlorn, friendless, and forsaken creature, broken down by wretchedness of conditions and ill-repute.”[5]

Her hanging was delayed because she was pregnant when arrested. She gave birth in jail to a daughter, Mercy, but the infant died there before her execution.[8]

Sarah Good never confessed her guilt, even as her four year old daughter, Dorothy, was also accused and jailed.[5]

After testimony against her by “William Allen, John Hughes, Samuell Brabrooke, Mary walkut, mercy Lewis, Sarah Vibber’ Abig'll Williams, Elizabeth Hubberd, Ann Putman, Tittube indian, Richard Patch,” and other Salem neighbors, she was indicted on 28 Jun 1692 for “afflicting Sarah Bibber, Elizabeth Hubbart, and Ann Puttnam.”

Chief Justice William Stoughton signed her Warrant for Execution,[6] and she was hanged on 19 Jul 1692 at Proctor's Ledge, Gallows Hill, Salem, Massachusetts Bay. [5]

On the ladder, still remorseless and unyielding, she scorned Reverend Nicholas Noyes’s exhortations to confess and proclaimed,

You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink![5][9]

Massachusetts Remediation

17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.[10]
17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead [For Sarah Good, £30][10]
28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.[11]

31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.[12]

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6567/sarah-good

Salem Witch Trial Defendant. Born Sarah Solart, daughter of Elizabeth and John Solart, a successful innkeeper in Wenham, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her father died leaving his estate to his wife and 7 children, her mother remarried Ezekiell Woodworth who took over the inn and never did, according to court/historical records settle with the family, which left some of them destitute. She married Daniel Poole, a former indentured servant, who died in debt in 1686. A second marriage to William Good, a weaver, was burdened with her first husband's debts. They were forced to sell their property to settle the debts, leaving them homeless and destitute. They were forced to beg for food and work among her neighbors, she sometimes spoke against those who did not help, making her a figure of dislike. On February 29, 1692, she was named a witch, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. She appeared at a hearing on March 1, and was examined by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, she maintained her innocence and she was the first to testify in the Salem Witchcraft trials. After numerous accusations, Sarah Good and another defendant, Tituba were ordered sent to the Boston jail on March 24. however they were sent to Ipswich jail instead. Her daughter, Dorcas (Dorothy), who was about 4 or 5 years old was then arrested as well. Good was examined again in court on March 29, and maintained her innocence. In jail, she gave birth to another daughter, Mercy, but the baby did not survive. On June 29, she and four other defendants were pronounced guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to hang. Under the noose, she was urged to confess by the local Reverend, she was reported as responding: "I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink." On July 19, 1692 the five women were hanged at Gallows Hill. The victims were then disposed of in an unmarked, common grave, now lost I According to the historical records, those not taken to be buried by their families were rolled into the "crevice" next to Proctor's ledge, where they had been hung and earth put on top of them. The "Crevice" is still there to the side of the present day ledge and memorial. Compensation was paid to William Good (1710) for the death of his wife (although he had testified against his wife), which he signed over to Benjamin Putnam, infant daughter (Mercy Good) who died in jail and the condition of Dorothy Good, who was never able to function/understand/toilet herself through her life. In 1957, the state of Massachusetts formally apologized for the witch trials.

Bio by: Iola

Family Members

Children

Dorothy Good
1687 – unknown

The stone commemorating the death of Sarah Good, hanged as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. The stone is part of the Salem Witch Trials Tricentennial Memorial (dedicated in 1992) in Salem, Massachusetts, USA

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salem_good.jpg

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Good
2. https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/proctors-ledge-memorial/
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Solart-6
   1. “The Devil in the Shape of a Woman : Carol F. Karlsen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Norton, January 1, 1998. https://archive.org/details/devilinshapeofwo00karl_0/page/269.
   2. “Salem-Village Witchcraft; a Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England : Boyer, Paul S., Compiler : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Belmont, Calif., Wadsworth Pub. Co, January 1, 1972. https://archive.org/details/salemvillagewitc0000boye/page/139.
   3. Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. Online($) at Ancestry.com.
   4. “Solart-Woodward House.” Salem Witch Museum. Accessed January 25, 2020. https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/solart-woodward-house/. ##“Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/n3. pps. 13, 29, 30, 32, 268, 269, 480.
   5. The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 063) Sarah Good
   6. “The Salem Witch Trials : a Reference Guide : Goss, K. David, 1952- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, January 1, 1970. p. 92. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchtrials0000goss.
   7. Wikipedia Entry for Sarah Good
   8. “Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 : Burr, George Lincoln, 1857-1938 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. New York, C. Scribner's Sons, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/narrativeswitch03burrgoog/page/n383/mod... good.
   9. “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17845/17845-h/salem2-htm.html#Page_i....
   10. https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
   11. https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122 See also:
   12. FindaGrave Memorial #6567
   13. Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Sarah Good Biography." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/sarah-good-biography-3530339 (accessed January 12, 2020).
   14. User, Super. "Records Of The Trial And Execution Of Sarah Good, 1692." Famous Trials. Accessed June 13, 2020. https://famous-trials.com/salem/2054-asa-good.