Samuel Abbe (1648)
SAMUEL ABBE, son of JOHN ABBE, born in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts, about 1648; died in Windham, Windham, Connecticut, March 1698; married in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts, 12 October 1672, MARY KNOWLTON, daughter of WILLIAM and Mrs. ELIZABETH KNOWLTON, born in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, 1649 (1653). The notice of this marriage is the first appearance of SAMUEL's name in the Wenham records.
SAMUEL and MARY ABBE were sixteenth and seventeenth in "the Record of Communicants" of the Congregational Church in Wenham, kept by its pastor, JOSEPH GERRISH, starting 13 January 1674. They are preceded in the list by JOHN and MARY NOLTON (KNOWLTON), who are 14th and 15th. SAMUEL and ELIZABETH NOLTON were 40th and 41st; MARY ABBE was 53d; JOHN ABBE Sr., 66th (See NEHGR 62:35ff).
On 3 April 1675, SAMUEL received from his father a grant of ten acres of land in Wenham, and land to set his house upon, "his brethren to have the refusal of the place if he should sell" (Essex Deeds, 15:150). He served the town as surveyor of lands in 1676 and was admitted to the ranks of freemen, 13 October 1680. In the same list, there is a JOHN KNOLTON and a SAMUEL KNOLTON (NEHGR 3:246 (Jul 1849), citing Colonial Records, 5:285). On November 1, 1682, SAMUEL ABBEY "of Wenham" bought six acres in Salem from LOT KILLAM (KILHAM) and his wife HANNAH. This property was on Norrice's Brook. In 1684, he bought additional land in Salem from JAMES STIMPSON and his wife, PRISCILLA, widow of ISAAC GOODALE.
In 1689, SAMUEL and MARY participated in the establishment of a church in Salem Village (now Danvers). The following year, 22 March 1690, SAMUEL took the freeman's oath in Salem Village, together with HENRY and BENJAMIN WILKINS, sons of BRAY (NEHGR 3:348). MARY ABBE, SAMUEL's wife, entered into convenant with the Church in Salem Village, SAMUEL PARRIS, pastor, on 12 May 1690 (NEHGR 11:131). A map of the village, published in the first volume of Upham's Witchcraft in Salem, shows the location of SAMUEL's house in 1692 -- number 114 on a plot in the south-west part, east of Bald Hill, within the 500 acres laid out to ROBERT GOODALE in 1652 and its subsequent additions.
Though among the "respectable inhabitants" who petitioned in favor of REBECCA NOURSE, SAMUEL and MARY ABBE offered testimony of their own in the witchcraft trials against SARAH GOOD and MARY EASTY.
The ABBEs had taken WILLIAM and SARAH GOOd into their home about three years previously, "out of charity, they being poor" and "desititue of a house." But SARAH was "of so Turbulent a Spirit, Spiteful and so Maliciously bent" that they ABBEs were forced, after about six months, to expel her and her husband from the house "for Quietness' sake." The expulsion, apparently did not improve SARAH's disposition: ever thereafter, testified the ABBEs, she behaved "very crossly and maliciously" toward them, calling their children vile names and often threatening them. The following winter, SAMUEL began to loose cattle "after an unusual manner, in a drooping condition, and yet they would eat." Within two years, he lost seventeen head this way, besides sheep and hogs: "And both [SAMUEL and MARY] do believe they died by witchcraft." To substantiate this belief, SAMUEL observed: "Just that very day that the said SARAH GOOD was taken up, we, your deponents, had a cow that could not rise alone, but ... after she was taken up, the said cow was well and could rise so well as if she had ailed nothing." The warrant for SARAH GOOD was issued at Salem, 29 February 1692.
In the case against MARY EASTY, on 9 September 1692, SAMJUELtestified that, the morning of 20 May 1692, he had visited the home of Constable JOHN PUTNAM, where he found MERCY LEWIS on the bed "in a sad condition." MERCY sent him to fetch ANN PUTNAM "to see if she could see who it was that hurt her." "Accordingly I went and found ABIGAIL WILLIAMS along with ANN PUTNAM and brought them both to see MERCY LEWIS, and as they were going along the way both of them said that they saw the apparition of GOODY ESTICK ... and when they came to MERCY LEWIS, both of them said that they saw the apparition of GOODY ESTICK and JOHN WILLARD and MARY WITHERIDGE afflicting the body of MERCY LEWIS." SAMUEL stayed with MERCY "who continued in a sad condition the great part of the day being in such tortures as no tongue can express ... but at last she came to herself for a little while and was very sensible and then she said that GOODY ESTICK said she would kill her before midnight because she did not clear her so as the rest did; then again presently she fell very bad and cried out 'pray for the salvation of my soul, for they will kill me.'"
On 3 April 3 1697, for £130, SAMUEL and MARY sold ZACHARIAH WHITE of Lynn all their property in Salem, consisting of a dwelling house, two orchards and seventeen acres (bounded by the properties of ANTHONY NEEDHAM, JOHN WALCOTT, ISAAC and SAMUEL GOODALE, ABRAHAM SMITH, ABEL GARDNER, and JOSEPH FLINT), the six acre lot on Norrice's Brook, and the two acre lot they had bought from JAMES SRIMPSON.
Subsequently, for £22 10s "current money," SAMUEL bought half an allotment of land (500 acres) from BENJAMIN HOWARD of Windham, Connecticut, being number 2 at the Center, at or near the locality known later as Bricktop. His older brother, JOHN, had already relocated to Windham from Wenham (NEHGR 7;325). SAMUEL was admitted an inhabitant (freeman) of Windham, 21 December 1697, but died the following March. The inventory of his estate, taken 9 May 1698, named the following legatees: wife, MARY; daughter, MARY, aged 25; son, SAMUEL, aged 23; son, THOMAS, aged 20; ELEAZER, aged 16 (the land records prove that this is a mistake for ELIZABETH); EBENEZER, aged 16; MERCY, aged 14; SARAH, aged 13; HEPSIBAH, aged 10; ABIGAIL, aged 8; JOHN, aged 7; BENJAMIN, aged 6; JONATHAN, aged 2. On 27 April 1699, SAMUEL's widow, MARY, married ABRAHAM MITCHELL, by whom she had a son, DANIEL, born and died 10 December 1700. MARY MITCHELL, formerly MARY ABBE, was dismissed from the Salem Village Church to the church in Windham on 14 September 1701.
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