On August 11, 1646 at Salisbury, Susannah married a widower George Martin, a blacksmith with whom she had eight children, including a daughter Jane, a great-great-great-great grandmother of United States President Chester A. Arthur.[2]
In 1669, Susannah was first formally accused of witchcraft by William Sargent, Jr. In turn, George Martin sued Sargent for two counts of slander against Susannah, one for accusing her of being a witch, and another for claiming one of her sons was a bastard and another was her "imp". Martin withdrew the second count, but the Court upheld the accusation of witchcraft.[3] A higher court later dismissed the witchcraft charges.
George died in 1686, leaving Susannah an impoverished widow by the time of the second accusation of witchcraft in 1692. Inhabitants of nearby Salem Village, including Joseph and Jarvis Ring, had named Susannah a witch and stated she had attempted to recruit them into witchcraft. She was also accused by John Allen of Salsbury, a man who claimed that she had bewitched his oxen and drove them into the river nearby where they later drowned.[4] She was tried for these charges, during which process she proved by all accounts to be pious and quoted the Bible freely, something a witch was said incapable of doing. Cotton Mather countered Susannah's defense by stating in effect that the Devil's servants were capable of putting on a show of perfect innocence and Godliness.
Susannah Martin was found guilty, and hanged on July 19, 1692 in Salem.
Susannah North Martin is my 9th Great Grandmother, and William Sargent Jr. is my 9th Great Grandfather, they had grandchildren that married.........
"...A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box..." Frederick Douglass, 1867
