Siblings: Eliakim Wardwell, Martha Wardwell, Benjamin Wardwell
- Birth: May 16, 1643, Boston, Mass.
- Death: September 22, 1692, Salem, Mass – Convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials and hung.
Father: Thomas Wardwell (Came to Boston from Great Britain with his wife in 1633)
Mother: Elizabeth
Spouse: Sarah (Hooper) Wardwell
(married 9 January 1672)
- Sex: M
Biography Notes…
Samuel Wardwell was a man accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692. He was executed by hanging on September 22, 1692, along with Alice Parker, Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Ann Pudeator, Mary Parker, Wilmot Redd, and Margaret Scott.
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.
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.
There is a monument now where he was hung.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/site-salem-witch-trial-hangings-finally-has-memorial-180964049/