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- She has the unfortunate distinction of being hung in Salem as a witch. She is an ancestor of the Mary Decker who married Capt. Stephen Clough, then descending to the McLellans of New Orleans.
Margaret (Stevenson) Scott of Rowley was born in England about 1621, married in 1642 to widower Benjamin Scott. She immigrated from Cambridge to Rowley in 1654. She had six children. Her husband Benjamin died at Rowley in 1671. She was a widow over age 70 when she was charged with witchcraft on Sept. 15, 1692. She was hanged on Sept. 22, 1692.
Taken From Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trial of 1692, by Bernard Rosenthal:
"In the final rush to gather what witches they could, the court also executed Margaret Scott, Ann Pudeator, and Wilmot Reed. As with Mary Parker, little about the case against Mary Scott survives. Not a single name of the Salem Village accusers appears in the record of the proceedings, nor even the names of the newly prominent Andover ones. Instead, we have only two documents. One comes from a girl or woman named Franes Wycum, who gives testimony as if she were experienced at it. On September 15 she swears that at Margaret Scott's examination on August 5, as well as on earlier occasions, she had been tortured by her. She also offers the ritual statement that she believes in her heart that Margaret Scott is a witch. The only other document is of a statement sworn the same day by Philip and Sarah Nelson that a man who had died had sworn that Margaret Scott had afflicted him for two or three years prior to his death, and that he would never get well as long as she lived. Although the makers of legends forged no stories about her, she was among those whose case the legislature in Massachusetts addressed in 1957 when it cleared the names of six women, although without removing the attainder from them: After her death, no one had made any claims for judicial redress. At her death, she had been 75."
Bibliography:
* Kent, Deborah. Salem, Massachusetts. Dillon Press. New Jersey: 1996.
* LeBeau, Bryan F. The Story of the Salem Witch Trials: "we walked in clouds and could not see our way." Prentice Hall. New Jersey: 1998.
* UVa has a record of all of the witch-craft trial documents, here: http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/. Volume 3 of the Complete WitchCraft Papers contains the transcripts of the two accusations against her.
* Also see http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
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