- Birth: September 10, 1691
- Death: March 2, 1737
Father:Â Samuel Wardwell
Mother: Sarah Wardwell
Spouse: Ezekiel Osgood
(married 9 January 1672)
- Sex: F
Biography Notes…
Rebecca’s mother 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. Rebecca was also imprisoned with her mother. Similar to many accusations, William Baker Jr may have accused them to get their 188 acre farm on the cheep. Rebecca (one years old) and her mother Sarah were thrown into the jail.
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.
