The Dane and Chandler Families and the 1692 Andover Witchcraft Hysteria

An illustration of the hanging of a convicted witch

In my last post, I shared information about our Chandler ancestors, who emigrated from Bishop's Stortford, England to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1637. The matriarch of that family, my 10th great-grandmother Annis Bayford Chandler, married as her second husband, John Dane, after the death of her first husband, William Chandler. This was not the only Chandler-Dane marriage.

In 1658, Annis' son William Chandler married John Dane's granddaughter, Mary Dane. Mary was the daughter of John's son John Dane, Jr. and his wife Eleanor Clark.

In 1690, at the age of 75, John Dane's son Francis Dane married Annis Chandler's daughter Hannah, who was then a widow of 60.

The Dane family, while related to me only via marriage, was at the center of the witch trials that plagued the Massachusetts towns of Salem and Andover in 1692. Theirs is such a fascinating story and historical connection that it is worth detailing here, even though the Danes are not biological relations.

Multiple descendants of my 10th great-grandparents William Chandler and Annis Bayford Chandler, and the children of my 9th great-grandfather John Chandler, were also caught up in the witchcraft accusations in Andover. Two were accused, and four leveled accusations that resulted in executions. 

This horrific time in American history had few heroes, but in Andover, Rev. Francis Dane, the stepson of Annis Bayford Chandler, rose to the occasion.

Rev. Francis Dane

Francis Dane in Andover, Massachusetts

Francis Dane was born in about 1615 in England, likely in Bishop's Stortford, and came to the American colonies with his parents, John Dane and Frances Bowyer, by 1639. The family settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. As an adult, Francis moved from Roxbury to Andover, Massachusetts, located about 25 miles northwest of Roxbury. In 1641, he married Elizabeth Ingalls, the daughter of Edmund Ingalls and Annis Telbe. The Ingalls family settled in Lynn, Massachusetts after immigrating from England sometime between 1629-1632. 

Between 1641 and 1656, Francis and Elizabeth had six children together. Elizabeth died in 1676, at the age of 56. All six of their children were adults at that time. A year later, Francis married the widow Mrs. Mary Thomas, who died in 1689, after twelve years of marriage. The following year, he married Hannah Chandler, the widow of George Abbot. Less than two years after this marriage, Hannah and Francis found themselves at the epicenter of Andover's worst moments.

An aerial view of North Andover showing the North Parish Church. [Source]

The Church in Andover

Francis Dane was the minister of North Parish Church in Andover, Massachusetts. He was appointed to lead the church in Andover in 1648. He did so for 48 years, until his death in 1697, becoming one of the most important figures in Andover, and its moral center. However, as he aged, Andover's citizens began agitating for change.

... there is no record of any discord between Dane and his congregation from 1649 to 1680, although historian Sarah L. Bailey calls the reality of such a situation into question in her Historical Sketches of Andover. Whether flawless or not, it is evident that Dane was a highly respected and powerful member of the Andover community, comparable only to Dudley Bradstreet, former Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Around 1680, church members began to complain about the capabilities of Dane and requested a younger, more vibrant minister for their church. In January of 1682, the congregation called the young Rev. Thomas Barnard, a recent graduate of Harvard and protege of Cotton Mather. Soon thereafter, the congregation stopped paying Dane's salary and gave Barnard a full salary. Dane petitioned the General Court in Boston, and the Andover church was required to pay Dane thirty pounds a year to share pastoral duties with Barnard. The church decided to pay Barnard fifty pounds a year, which was much less than Barnard expected, with the stipulation that when Dane retired or died, Barnard would receive the full eighty pounds annual salary. [source: History of Andover: from its Settlement to 1829 by Abiel Abbot]

The jostling for authority and salary meant Barnard and Dane started their relationship as opponents rather than colleagues. It must have been difficult for them to work together as real partners, as they were not being paid the same fee for their ministry. Barnard was young (just 22 in 1682), ambitious, and eager to assume full authority in Andover's church. Barnard had many supporters in town, but Dane hung onto his position and his prominent role in Andover, not ready to step aside. It was into this dynamic that the fear of witchcraft, ignited in nearby Salem Village, exploded in 1692.

Andover in 1886, nearly 200 years after the witchcraft hysteria

Martha Carrier, Smallpox, and Witchcraft

The first person to be accused of witchcraft in Andover was Martha Allen Carrier. Martha was Francis Dane's niece by marriage -- the daughter of his wife Elizabeth Ingalls' sister, Faith Ingalls Allen. Martha married Thomas Carrier in 1674 and settled in Billerica, Massachusetts. However, Thomas and Martha were embroiled in conflict there, and faced legal charges that they had engaged in fornication prior to their marriage (irrefutable, since Martha was seven months pregnant at their wedding). The Carriers were eventually asked to leave Billerica. Rumors of problematic behavior followed Thomas and Martha back to Andover in the mid-to-late 1680s, where they moved in with Martha's father. 

In Andover, Martha became known as difficult and argumentative. She engaged in conflict with neighbors. Then, in 1690, her family contracted smallpox. Martha, Thomas, and their five children survived the disease, but Martha's father, Andrew Allen, and her two brothers, Andrew and John, died, along with other members of the extended family. Ultimately, this outbreak killed thirteen people in Andover. Many already disliked Martha, and the smallpox outbreak made things worse. 

Martha's sister, Mary Allen, married a farmer named Roger Toothaker. Roger also practiced as a doctor, but he was more of a folk healer. Medical practices in the American colonies were very different than what we experience today. Roger would have primarily prescribed herbs and folk remedies to ill patients. Like others of his time, he was superstitious, and believed witchcraft responsible for many diseases. In the 1680s, Roger left his family in Billerica to set up a practice in Salem Village. At that time, what we think of as Salem was two towns: Salem Town, a prosperous coastal settlement, and Salem Village (now called Danvers), a poorer and less-populated agricultural area to the northwest of the town. In Salem Village, Toothaker ascribed many ailments to witchcraft, and claimed that he knew counter-magic to cure those ills, causing locals to view him with suspicion. The increasing concern about Roger Toothaker in Salem Village in the early 1690s also cast aspersion on his sister-in-law, Martha Carrier. 

Then, in late 1691, Martha got into an argument with her neighbor, Benjamin Abbot. There was a tiff about their property line and where livestock grazed. After this argument, Abbot became ill, and he accused Martha of cursing him, calling her a witch. This lit match, tossed on top of Andover's struggle for church authority, and the witchcraft accusations surfacing in nearby Salem Village, ignited a frenzy. 

An illustration of a witch trial in progress, created in 1892. [Source: Library of Congress]

The Witch Trials Begin

In 1692, Francis Dane and Thomas Barnard were now ten years into their co-leadership of the community church. That February, accusations of witchcraft were made in Salem Village, and by March, arrests and a full-blown hysteria were in motion. The madness was poised to spread through surrounding communities, and in the spring of 1692, it did.

On May 28, 1692, Joseph Houlton and John Walcott of Salem Village filed a witchcraft complaint against Martha Carrier and ten other people: Elizabeth Fosdick, Wilmot Redd, Sarah Rice, Elizabeth Howe, John Alden, William Proctor, John Flood, Arthur Abbot, Mary Toothaker (Martha Carrier’s sister, the wife of Roger Toothaker), and Mary’s daughter, Martha Emerson.

Martha Carrier was taken to Salem Town, where she was examined by Judges John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Several of the afflicted girls of Salem Village, including Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Mary Walcott, were brought to the court and asked to testify as to whether Martha had harmed them with witchcraft. The girls accused Martha of tormenting them and forcing them to sign the devil’s book. Carrier denied all charges, calling the proceedings shameful and insisting, "...I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits." The girls then claimed Martha had killed 13 people in Andover, likely referring to the smallpox outbreak that locals blamed on her family in 1690. When one of the girls fell into fits, the judges ordered Martha bound, and the record noted that the afflicted then felt “sudden ease.” Following her examination, Carrier was indicted on two counts of witchcraft and returned to jail. Francis Dane spoke in Martha's defense, saying that she was simply a victim of gossip.

Martha Carrier's children were also targeted. Her sons, Richard and Andrew, were imprisoned in Salem Town. Fellow prisoner John Proctor wrote to Governor William Phips claiming that the boys had been tortured in jail, brutally tied at their necks until blood came from their noses. Richard and Andrew later testified against their mother, surely in an attempt to save their own lives. Martha's seven year old daughter Sarah was also accused and jailed. She confessed under duress, claiming that her mother had forced her into witchcraft. 

As Martha sat in prison, Elizabeth Ballard of Andover fell gravely ill with a mysterious fever, and when doctors could not help her, her husband Joseph Ballard sought an alternative solution. He brought two of the afflicted girls from Salem Village, possibly Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott, to Andover. Suspecting that Elizabeth was cursed by witches, Joseph hoped the girls could reveal those causing his wife’s illness. At a meeting hosted by Thomas Barnard, the girls accused residents, including Ann Foster and William Barker, of witchcraft. They also pointed the finger at Ann Foster's daughter, Mary Lacey, and her granddaughter, also named Mary Lacey. All were subsequently arrested and sent to trial in Salem Town, marking the start of a wave of accusations. When William Barker was brought in for questioning, his niece, Mary Barker, and his wife's niece, Mary Marston, were also detained. They all confessed to witchcraft and accused others of coercing them, surely in an attempt to save themselves, and this led to further arrests. The accused deflected blame onto family members and neighbors, and made colorful confessions, hoping to shift the focus of authorities.

By August 1692, the Salem witchcraft hysteria had fully engulfed Andover. On August 11, Francis Dane's daughter, Abigail Dane Faulkner, was arrested on charges of witchcraft. On August 25, residents Mary Osgood, Eunice Frye, Deliverance Dane, Sarah Wilson, and Abigail Barker were accused of witchcraft. Abigail Barker was Francis Dane's granddaughter. Deliverance Dane was his daughter-in-law, the wife of Nathaniel Dane. On August 29, Dane's daughter Sarah Dane Johnson was arrested, along with her daughter, Sarah. Three more of Dane's grandchildren were arrested in the weeks that followed.

In response to the accusations, Andover town selectmen arranged "touch tests," bringing the afflicted girls from Salem Village to Andover to identify supposed witches. The touch tests were a method used to determine the guilt of those accused. Magistrates ordered the afflicted girls to touch an accused person. If their fits stopped or lessened upon that touch, it was taken as proof that the accused was the witch harming them. The idea was based on the belief that a witch’s power flowed physically to their victim, and that direct contact could interrupt the spell. 

Francis Dane was opposed to the touch tests, but Thomas Barnard was in favor. Reports differ as to whether Barnard helped make arrangements for the touch tests, and how involved he was in the proceedings, but he was undoubtedly supportive of the process. Barnard’s perspective was influenced not only by the ongoing trials in Salem Town, but the sway of Cotton Mather, whose writings and sermons during that time period justified aggressive action against witchcraft as a divine duty. Barnard had been at Harvard at the same time as Cotton, and would certainly have been familiar with his theology. In contrast, Francis Dane was an outspoken critic of the proceedings. Having lived through earlier witchcraft accusations in the region, he cautioned against the use of spectral evidence and the reliance on coerced confessions. Unfortunately, Andover was too far gone to heed his warning.

On August 19, 1692, Martha Carrier was executed by hanging at Gallows Hill in Salem Town. 

On September 7, 1692, another wave of accusations was made against Andover women, and Mary Marston, Hannah Tyler, Martha Tyler, Mary Bridges, and Mary's daughter (also named Mary Bridges) were taken for questioning. Two weeks later, dozens of Andover residents were jailed and pressured into confessing to witchcraft. As the hysteria spread and arrests continued, Andover soon had more accused witches than any other New England town. 

The elite of Andover were caught off guard. Captain Osgood, Deacon Frye, and other pillars of the church urged their friends and family members to confess, believing the message preached by Thomas Barnard that confession was the way to eternal life. And, “confess” they did, hoping that confession would keep them from being tried and executed. However, once numerous wives and children were in prison, the church pillars began to realize that they had been deceived by the fanaticism of their younger minister, Thomas Barnard. Finally comprehending the full implications of the hysteria, they turned to their older minister, Reverend Francis Dane, and formed a resistance movement. Under his guidance, they started to take the strong steps required to free the imprisoned members of their families. [source]

Salem Village and Andover are marked with red stars. Salem Town is outlined in red dots.

Francis Dane Attempts to Rein in the Madness

As dozens of Andover residents were accused and imprisoned following the touch tests, Francis Dane became increasingly outspoken. He circulated letters and petitions to colonial authorities questioning the evidence used in trials and protesting the imprisonment of so many respected citizens. His standing as Andover’s senior minister lent weight to these objections, though his own family’s involvement made his position precarious. He was accused of witchcraft himself while advocating for those who had been jailed, but was never arrested.

On September 22, 1692, Mary Parker of Andover was hanged in Salem, having been convicted of witchcraft. Dozens of other women languished in prison, some spared from the gallows only because they were pregnant, like Francis Dane's accused daughter, Abigail Faulkner. By October, as public confidence in the trials waned and leading ministers in Boston, including Cotton Mather, began to urge caution, Thomas Barnard started to pull back his support of the trials. Barnard, likely influenced by Dane’s steady opposition to the witch trials and the growing local outrage, joined his fellow minister in advocating mercy and moderation, acknowledging that the proceedings had gone too far. Together, Dane and Barnard helped organize petitions for the release of the accused Andover residents and worked to restore unity to their divided congregation.

On October 18, 1692, twenty-six men in Andover, including Francis Dane and Thomas Barnard, signed a letter written to Massachusetts Governor William Phips. In it, they claimed that the accusations had spiraled out of control and that good, God-fearing people had been arrested and were suffering in prison, causing extreme hardship to their families. They said that people had wrongly confessed out of fear and pressure from their terrified relatives. The letter-writers claimed that the accusers were under a diabolical influence, and that no one could think themselves safe in such an environment.

Now though we would not appear as Advocates for any who shall be found guilty of so horrid a crime, but we heartily desire that this place, and the whole land, may be purged from that great wickedness: yet if any of our freinds and neighbours have been misrepresented, as tis possible some of them have been; wee would crave leave (if it might be without offence) to speak something in their behalf, haveing no other desighn therein, then that the truth may appear. We can truly give this Testimony of the most of them belonging to this Town, that have been accused, that they never gave the least occasion (as we hear of) to their neerest relations or most intimate acquaintance, to suspect them of witchcraft. Severall of the women that are accused were members of this church in full Communion, and had obtained a good report, for their blameless conversation, and their walking as becometh woemen professing godliness. But whereas it may be alledged, that the most of our people that have been apprehended for witchcraft, have upon Examination confessed it. To which we Answer that we have nothing to plead for those that freely and upon conviction own themselves guilty; but we apprehend the case of some of them to be otherwise. for from the information we have had and the discourse some of us have had with the prisoners, we have reason to think that the extream urgency that was used with some of them by their friends and others who privately examined them, and the fear they were then under, hath been an inducement to them to own such things, as we cannott since find thay are conscious of; and the truth of what we now declare, we judge will in time more plainly appear. And some of them have exprest to their neighbours that it hath been their great trouble, that they have wronged themselves and the truth in their confessions.

...there are more of our neighb'rs of good reputation & approved integrity, who are still accused, and complaints have been made against them, And we know not who can think himself safe, if the Accusations of children and others who are under a Diabolicall influence shall be received against persons of good fame.

On October 29, 1692, after his own wife was accused of witchcraft, Governor Phips dissolved the special court of Oyer and Terminer, effectively ending new prosecutions. Dane’s outspoken criticism of the trials and the petitions of family members from Andover were among the voices that helped turn public sentiment. As new accusations and trials ceased, many convicted of witchcraft were still detained in Salem Town. Dane advocated for those in jail, pressing for their release and for the clearing of their names. He and Thomas Barnard both worked to rebuild the town’s moral fabric after months of terror and suspicion.

The Chandler-Bixby-Abbot house, home of Hannah Bixby, which still stands in Andover

The Chandlers in the Andover Witchcraft Trials

While there are no accounts detailing the experiences of Hannah Chandler Dane during the 1692 Andover witch trials, it is reasonable to assume that she experienced significant distress due to the widespread accusations affecting her family. Her husband, Francis Dane, was the most vocal critic of the hysteria in Andover, and both Chandler and Dane relatives were arrested and imprisoned. This tumultuous period must have caused extreme anxiety and emotional strain for Hannah.

Several other Chandler family members were impacted by the witchcraft scare in Andover. Two of William and Annis Chandler's grandsons (the sons of their son John Chandler) were accused. William and Annis were my 10th great-grandparents, and John was my 9th great-grandfather.

John Chandler, Jr. was accused of witchcraft in Andover and was questioned and imprisoned, but later released. His brother William, an innkeeper whose property lay on the Ipswich Road to Billerica, was also accused and briefly jailed.

William Chandler's daughter Phebe, who was eleven in 1692, was one of the accusers of Martha Carrier. In May 1692, she testified that she encountered Carrier’s threatening specter in the meeting house, and heard Carrier’s disembodied voice while running an errand for her mother. She claimed that she became ill after these events, and that Martha's witchcraft was the cause. 

Thomas Chandler, brother of William and John, Jr., testified against Andover fortune teller Samuel Wardwell in 1692 saying, “I have often heard Samuel Wardwell of Andover tell young persons their fortune and he was much addicted to it.” An accusation of fortune telling was enough to bring suspicion of witchcraft in the 1600s. Wardwell was executed in Salem on September 22, 1692. However, Thomas later had a change of heart and signed petitions in support of the accused.

Thomas Chandler's daughter Hannah, the wife of Daniel Bixby (sometimes spelled Bigsbee), testified that the specter of Mary Parker afflicted her. Thomas' granddaughter, ten year old Sarah Phelps, also accused Mary Parker, a widow with no previous complaints against her in Andover. The accusation of Mary Parker was so perplexing that Mary suggested in court that Hannah and Sarah must have meant another Mary Parker, for there was a second Mary Parker in Andover. However, when the touch test was administered, the afflicted girls cried out that this was the person cursing them, and Mary was convicted. She was later executed in Salem, on the same day as Samuel Wardwell.

The Salem Village Witchcraft Victims Memorial in Danvers, which lists the names of the victims from Andover. [Source: Danvers Library]

The Aftermath

In total, 45 people from Andover were accused of witchcraft in 1692, more than any other New England town. While Salem is the focus of historical accounts of this time period, because their hysteria started first and because the trials and executions largely took place in Salem Town, what happened in Andover was greater in scale and was unquestionably traumatic for all residents.

Some accounts question whether the citizens of Andover truly repented the conviction and execution of Martha Carrier. There seems to have been some sentiment that her arrest and death sentence were legitimate, but those that followed were regrettable hysteria. The change of heart about witchcraft accusations only began when well-liked people from prominent families were jailed, but Martha remained unpopular until the end.

Martha Carrier was officially exonerated when Massachusetts reversed her witchcraft conviction in 1711, and her family received financial restitution. The full exoneration of all victims took place in waves, with the court overturning some verdicts in 1702 and 1711 and additional official apologies and pardons coming much later. The last person to be exonerated was Elizabeth Johnson, the granddaughter of Francis Dane (daughter of Elizabeth Dane Johnson), whose conviction was officially overturned on May 26, 2022, 329 years after her arrest, thanks to the efforts of a middle school civics class.

Mary Parker's sons, John Parker and Joseph Parker, petitioned for restitution of her lands, which had been confiscated when Mary was executed. This request was granted, but Mary's conviction was not formally overturned until 1711. Like the Parkers, many families of those accused and killed worked to claim recompense for their losses. The trauma of their experiences would live with them the rest of their days.

As it became clear to officials, judges, and clergy the scope of the delusion of 1692, and how unjust it had all been, there was some effort to bury the official evidence of it. In Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and A History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects, Charles W. Upham touches on a cover-up.

The effect produced upon the public mind, when it became convinced that the proceedings had been wrong, and innocent blood shed, was a universal disposition to bury the recollection of the whole transaction in silence, and, if possible, oblivion. This led to a suppression and destruction of the ordinary materials of history. Papers were abstracted from the files, documents in private hands were committed to the flames, and a chasm left in the records of churches and public bodies. The journal of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer is nowhere to be found.

In early 1693, Francis Dane wrote a letter lamenting the Andover witchcraft hysteria by stating, "Had charity been put on, the devil would not have had such an advantage against us," and acknowledging the role of spectral evidence in influencing trials and the unjust imprisonment of many innocent people, including his own family. He argued that a focus on grace and not solely on the accusations from afflicted individuals would have prevented the panic, and he believed the accusations themselves were a tool of the devil.

...had Charity been put on, the Divel would not have had such an advantage against us, and I beleeve many Innocent persons have been accused, & Imprisoned, the Conceit of Spectre Evidence as an infallible mark did too far prevaile with us Hence we so easily parted with our neighbours of honest, & good report, & members in full Communion, hence we so easily parted with our Children, when we knew nothing in their lives, nor any of our neighbours to suspect them and thus things were hurried on, hence such strange breaches in families. [Francis Dane, 1693]

In Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and A History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects, Charles W. Upham writes of Francis Dane, "He deserves to be recognized as standing pre-eminent, and, for a time, almost alone, in bold denunciation and courageous resistance of the execrable proceedings of that dark day."