- Birth: 1650.
- Death: 1709
Father:
Mother:
Spouse: Adam Hawkes
2nd spouse Samuel Wardwell
(married 9 January 1672)
- Sex: F
Biography Notes…
Sarah controlled a one hundred and eighty-eight-acre estate, which she had inherited from her first husband, Adam Hawkes, upon his death. The Province of Massachusetts Bay passed a law which provided attainder for “conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits”, which meant the loss of civil, inheritance, and property rights of those accused.
William Baker Jr., 14 years old, accused Samuel, Sarah, and their 19-year-old daughter Mercy Wardwell of witchcraft. All three confessed the very day they were interrogated. Similar to many accusations, William Baker Jr may have accused them to get their 188 acre farm on the cheep. Sarah and her one year old daughter Rebecca were put in prison.
Samuel was executed at Proctor’s Ledge in Salem after retracting a forced confession.[3] Eventually his widow, Sarah Wardwell, was reprieved and released. In 1712, after Sarah died, their son, Samuel Wardwell Jr., was left destitute and later sued the Colony, winning some compensation for the family’s ordeals.
