Unfounded accusations have a way of sticking for a long time

Genealogy is one of those hobbies that worked well during social distancing and quarantines. Libraries were closed, but online sites were open for business. And I did get my money’s worth from that subscription.

I was particularly interested in my seven times great grandmother Winifred King Benham, a Puritan born in Boston and living in Connecticut in 1692.

Now Winifred and her husband Joseph should have been just a couple of names on the list of the founders of New Haven, then Wallingford, Connecticut.

Instead there are volumes written about what happened to their family.

You see, unfounded accusations have a way of sticking with a person for a long time, even if that person was found innocent twice.

In 1692, Winifred King Benham was accused of being a witch. It was not recorded exactly what she did to be accused.

I imagine her husband set the mood when he dared to criticize the selectmen of the town by calling them not “fit for townsmen as doggs.”

Interesting to think that I found an exact quote from a

Puritan ancestor. He sounds kind of modern. It is kind of crazy that Joseph actually got called before the magistrate for such words.

Winifred was evidently not known for holding her tongue and got a neighbor lady mad at her. And her husband chased the neighbor off with his blunderbuss.

It probably didn’t help that Winifred was the daughter of Mary Hale King, who had been tried twice for witchcraft in Boston a few year earlier. Mary had been found innocent by the way.

The transcript or, more accurately, an account of the trial is available online, and I found it fascinating. Winifred was checked for witch’s marks on her body. She told the judge in New Haven that she didn’t do anything wrong and wasn’t really interested in what the accusers had to say.

Well there.

With no evidence to back up accusations, the judge found her innocent. She was lucky

because that was a big change from Salem. New laws demanded real evidence.

A few years later the accusations were more serious. A neighbor’s child had died, and she was accused of causing the spots that killed him. Three teenagers, or whatever they called them then, said she had made them sick.

This time Winifred and her 13-year-old daughter, Winifred Jr., were both accused. According to court records, her husband had to post a bond of 40 pounds. That was a lot of money back then. Court charges were 21 shillings.

The two women were checked for witch’s marks with none found again. Winifred asked for the water test and was tossed into a body of water with a rock attached to her feet. It was October in New England. Brrr.

She survived, but then her father was rumored to be a ship’s master, so she probably knew how to swim and hold her breath, which would explain why she requested the dreaded test.

Eventually, Winifred and her daughter were found innocent, and as soon as they could they moved to Staten Island where the Dutch settlers were more tolerant of people who were different.

There is a chapter on Winifred in “Connecticut Witch Trials” by Cynthia Boyton, and a Facebook page, Sons and Daughters of Colonial American Witches that are full of great information. It turns out we are also descended from some of the accusers.

However, some of the sites and historical markers seem to have forgotten that Winifred and Winifred Jr. were found innocent.

Winifred is not the

Witch of Wallingford. She was just an exhausted mom of 14 kids who lost her patience with a nosey neighbor.

There was supposed to be a 350-year anniversary of the founding of Wallingford last year. Organizers called for descendants of the founders to come back, and my sisters and I were kind of tempted to show up.

Maybe it was good that the pandemic had it canceled.

But still I’d like to place flowers on her grave some day, something bright and cheerful, with a note that says, “It’s okay. We know you are innocent.”