Land Disputes

More About Border Disputes

In the seventeenth century, when boundaries between Essex County towns were still poorly defined, longstanding disagreements about property ownership were sometimes the underlying cause for witchcraft accusations between neighbors. Nowhere was it truer than in Topsfield. Bitter land disputes between residents of Topsfield and Salem Village likely impacted the tragic deaths of Mary Easty, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Wildes, and Elizabeth How, and the imprisonment of Sarah Cloyce.

It seems those famous Salem Witch Trials were over land. A border dispute between families and revenge The dispute was settled in 1935...

Border Disputes - Salem Witch Museum

Perhaps the main reason for witchcraft accusations in 1692 Topsfield were generations-long border disputes with Salem Village.At the time, women in Salem were allowed to independently own and dispose of property (land). Most of the people hanged in the Salem Witch Trials were land owners. Many of the women were widows without a clear male heir to their land. Once accused of witchcraft, the state took ownership of all of your physical property

The first serious trouble arose in 1668, when “common lands” south of the Ipswich River in Topsfield started to be granted to Topsfield men. It was then the Putnams claimed it was their land and harked back to the erroneous 1639 agreement. More disagreements ended up in court from 1680-1683, when several lawsuits ended with the General Court ruling in favor of Topsfield. It’s important to note the names of committee members defending Topsfield during this time – How, Easty, Wildes, Towne – all of whom would see family members accused by the opposing Putnam family during the witch trials a decade later.

In the 1680s, members of the extended Towne family sued Captain John Putnam (of the second generation) and sons, after they witnessed the Putnams felling timber on Topsfield land belonging to a Towne family member. Historian Marilynne Roach describes the encounter in Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. “The Putnam clan and their workmen faced off rival Topsfield men in distant woodlots, threatening each other with their axes in a decidedly un-Christian manner.” The General Court once again ruled in Topsfield’s favor. After England’s revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684, legal disputes were left in limbo, allowing them to fester. A new charter did not arrive in New England until May of 1692, but the witchcraft hysteria had already been underway for two and a half months by that time.

Thus, the number of accused and jailed was escalating, among them, the three living daughters of William and Joanna Towne – Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty, and Sarah Cloyce – and Topsfield’s Sarah Wildes and Elizabeth How. All were accused of witchcraft by, among others, third generation Putnam family members Thomas Putnam Jr., his wife Ann Putnam, and their daughter, 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr.

This was an extraordinary land grab done while the governor was out of town.

At the time, women in Salem were allowed to independently own and dispose of property (land). Most of the people hanged in the Salem Witch Trials were land owners. Many of the women were widows without a clear male heir to their land. Once accused of witchcraft, the state took ownership of all of your physical property.

For example, John Proctor was a successful businessman. He owned the local pub and also owned large tracts of land in Salem and Ipswitch. When he and his wife were in jail, his land was seized. The taps at his tavern were emptied and his cattle were sold cheaply or slaughtered. His children were left with no means of support.

Why would they steal the land? The new Governor had changed the voting rights law from only those who were members of the church could vote to only those who owned land were able to vote.