We've all heard of the Salem witch trials, thanks in large part to Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible." But Salem's saga wasn't the only witch hunt that blew through New England in 1692.
That same year, a Stamford house servant accused two women of witchcraft. And according to Richard Godbeer, a leading expert on witchcraft in the Colonial era, Stamford's story is a far more typical example of 17th century witch hunts.
The servant, Katherine Branch, lived with the Wescot family down on Stamford's shoreline, near Wescot Cove, according to Stamford Historical Society Librarian Ron Marcus. In April of 1692, Branch fell to the ground, her body contorting strangely, after returning from picking herbs. In the coming weeks, she would suffer several similar fits, convulsing, weeping and calling out hysterically. At first, the local midwife, Sarah Bates, examined Branch, concluding her illness could be due to natural causes. But after an unsuccessful bleeding -- a common medical practice for ailments in those days -- Bates concluded that Branch was bewitched.
Soon Branch began relaying stories about a cat that spoke to her, offering to take her to a place where she could have fine things and meet fine people. In Godbeer's 2005 book, "Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692," the University of Miami professor wrote that "sometimes, Kate declared, the cats turned into women and then back again, though who the women were she could not say."
At first.
"About a half a dozen people were accused in the beginning. That's not massive, but it's a significant number," Godbeer said in a telephone interview this week. Of that number, two women went on to be formally accused: Stamford's Elizabeth Clawson and Fairfield's Mercy Disborough. Like many of the cases in Salem, Clawson had personal ties with her accuser. The Wescot family and Clawson had feuded for several years, and Branch knew the family she worked for.
But unlike in Salem, where 19 witches were hanged, both women were ultimately acquitted.