Regarding the Salem Witchcraft Trials
John Willard is Kith's first cousin, seven times removed.
Captain John Peabody is my (Bill's) first cousin six times removed.
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January 6, 1999, a final comment by Bill Gateley:
Pages 256-257 of The Devil Discovered says in regard to the aftermath of the trials:
With the outstanding exception of Samuel Sewall, the old guard expressed not the smallest sign of regret. Certainly neither the Putnams, Samuel Parris, nor the other conspirators were likely to speak out. And the ministers either kept a convenient silence or tried to deflect their responsibility by appealing to abstruse theological arguments. It was left to the common people to step forward. And this they did. In a highly unusual act, twelve members of the witchcraft juries were moved to sign and circulate a declaration of regret. These ordinary citizens commanded the wisdom and moral integrity which their Puritan leaders so sadly lacked:
"We do signify to all in general, and to the surviving sufferers in special, our deep sense of, and sorrow for, our errors in acting on such evidence to the condemning of any person; and do declare, that we justly fear that we were sadly deluded and mistaken; for which we are much disquieted and distressed in our minds. We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all, whom we have justly offended; and do declare, according to our present minds, we would none of us do such things again, on such grounds, for the whole world."
Signed by Thomas Fisk, Foreman, William Fisk, John Bacheler, Thomas Fisk, Jr., John Dane, Joseph Evelith, Thomas Pearly, Sr., John Peabody, Thomas Perkins, Samuel Sayer, Andrew Elliot, and Henry Herrick, Sr.
I have just discovered that Captain John Peabody, my first cousin six times removed, was a member of that jury which convicted John Willard as well as the other Salem victims. Also it is quite likely that Thomas Perkins, another jury member, is my relative because a Dorothy Perkins (my fifth great grandmother) married Francis Peabody in 1714. Also, Selim Peabody in the Peabody Genealogy writes when discussing the early Peabodys in Massachusetts: "…It is enough for the present purpose to note the intimacy of the Peabody and Perkins families."