November 25, 2025 • 24 mins
In May 1692, one of Boston's most respected citizens walked into a Salem courtroom—and the accusers couldn't even identify him. Captain John Alden Jr., son of Mayflower passengers and decorated war hero, seemed an unlikely target for witchcraft accusations. But his connections to Native Americans and the French made him dangerous in the eyes of wartime Massachusetts.
What happened when Salem's witch hunt reached beyond the village to pull in a prominent Bostonian with impeccable colonial credentials? This episode examines how Captain Alden's examination revealed the absurdity and danger of the spectral evidence system and how his escape became one of the trial period's most dramatic moments.
From his parents' legendary Plymouth courtship to his own flight from justice, Captain Alden's story shows us who could be accused, who could survive, and what it took to navigate Salem's machinery of suspicion.
Episode Highlights:
John Alden Sr. and Priscilla: The last surviving Mayflower passenger and the marriage that inspired Longfellow
Captain Alden's controversial fur trading and the rumors that made him a target
The chaotic May 31st examination where accusers needed prompting
The touch test, the sword, and the claims of "Indian Papooses"
His September escape to Duxbury and surprising return
Key Figures:
Captain John Alden Jr., John & Priscilla Alden, Judges Bartholomew Gedney and John Richards, Rev. Samuel Willard, Robert Calef
The Thing About Salem examines the people, places, and events of the 1692 Salem witch trials. New episodes weekly.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You probably aren't used to thinking of Salem witches and
Plymouth Pilgrims together, but who is it that bridges 2
important moments in Massachusetts and American
history connecting the Mayflowerto the Salem witch trials?
Welcome back to the Thing about witch hunts.
I'm Josh Hutchinson. And I'm Sarah, Here's a
(00:22):
Thanksgiving treat from your friendly neighborhood.
Mayflower and Salem witch child ascended while you are preparing
that yummy feast. We hope you're enjoying this
Thanksgiving holiday and all thebaking and preparation that goes
along with it. While you're hustling in the
kitchen, we want to talk about aman whose story reveals how
(00:43):
social status could mean the difference between life and
death during the Salem witch hunt.
That man is Captain John Alden. He was the son of Mayflower
passengers, A decorated war hero, successful merchant, and
one of the most respected men inBoston.
He seemed untouchable, but in 1692, not even his rank in
(01:05):
society or his Mayflower parentage could protect him when
the accusations came. His experience shows us that
Witch Hunt Panic didn't just target the vulnerable and
marginalized, it eventually reached even the colonial elite.
So today we're looking at what happened when one of
(01:26):
Massachusetts most prominent citizens found himself accused
of witchcraft, and what his story tells us about the
machinery of the trials themselves.
Who was Captain John Alden? He was the son of the youngest
signer of the Mayflower Compact.Oh, and that man, John Alden
(01:48):
Senior was the last living Mayflower passenger.
He passed just five years beforethe Salem Witch trials.
His parents were Mayflower passengers.
John and Priscilla. Priscilla's family came on the
Mayflower and did not make it past that first year.
His parents married around 1622 or 1623, making theirs one of
(02:10):
the first marriages in Plymouth.They got off the Mayflower and
had about 10 children, accordingto some sources.
In fact, their love was immortalized in an 1858 poem,
The Courtship of Myles Standish,by their descendant, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote about a romantic love
(02:31):
triangle involving military captain Myles Standish.
But historians generally agree it's all fiction, and their
marriage went into the 1680s until Mr. Alden became a widow.
Yeah, Priscilla died just two years before he did.
She died in 1685 and he passed 1687.
(02:54):
So they both lived long lives for Mayflower passengers.
They had that endurance. All that time together.
All that time together, they gotto spend 60 plus years married
to each other. So Captain John Alden, he was
born in about 1626 and in 1659 he married Elizabeth Phillips
(03:18):
Everell. They had 10/12/14 children.
We're seeing it different from different sources.
They just, they had a whole bunch.
He was Captain John Alden was a sea captain during King
William's War, and he helmed oneof the ships of the
Massachusetts Navy called the Mary.
(03:40):
So in between October 1688 and April 1692, during King
William's War, Alden went up thecoast from Boston to northern
New England and Acadia 16 times or more on government business.
His son, John Alden Junior, was captured in Acadia and
(04:03):
eventually ransomed. In July 1690.
Alden was ordered to go to Marblehead and get a cannon from
them to use in the war effort. This was when Governor Phipps,
before he was governor, he was leading the military on
expedition to take Quebec. And so they were rounding up
(04:27):
cannons everywhere. But when they got to Marblehead,
they beat the drums and all the militiamen came out.
There was 60 to 70 men angry that confronted John Alden, and
he never got that cannon. But John Alden, some of his
other hats that he wore because he was just chock full of hats,
(04:51):
as we'll hear about a little later, he was a fur trader and a
merchant. He was a Bostonian who was a
charter member of Reverend Samuel Willard's third church in
Boston. So far, it sounds, you know,
like one of our rich historic stories of the early families
(05:13):
and that he was busy doing a lotin the community.
I wonder if there was any controversy.
There was some controversy with him in his career with the
military. He was very comfortable and at
home all across New England and even into French Acadia.
(05:33):
He had long been trading with the English, the French and
Native Americans of the region, and he went up and down the
coast doing this trading. So he encountered a lot of
different native peoples. And he often worked in concert
with fellow Bostonian John Nelson, who was the leading
trader to Acadia in wartime. These connections brought
(05:55):
suspicions, particularly againstNelson, who was an Anglican.
So here's a knock against John Alden.
He's a friend with the Ningliken.
He, like a lot of the men, were in and out of court because they
were interpreting contracts and promises different.
It was just really common to seemen going to court, squabbling
(06:19):
over money owed and, of course, accusing each other, if not
payments, for different things. And if someone was, you know,
seething at someone, they might have thrown some extra
accusations at them about unsavory behaviors, slander.
In January 26th of 1692, which is right at the beginning of the
(06:43):
Salem Witch Trials, he is in court.
Yeah, John Alden was in court onthat date in Boston.
He was there facing Anthony Checkley, who had some legal
background and had represented Captain John Alden in some early
court cases that John wasn't able to attend himself.
(07:07):
But Checkley was there to sue John for 5 lbs of back pay.
Fortunately for Alden, the jury found in his favor.
But the court dismissed a different action that Alden had
taken a suit against Mark Emerson for defamation of
character. They threw that one out.
(07:31):
Emerson was formerly A hostage and he was a redeemed captive,
basically of the French and Native Americans.
He had been captive and the English redeemed him and got him
back. But he had said that while he
was in captivity for 2 1/2 yearsin Maine, he had seen Alden sell
(07:56):
the Indians powder and shot. And so Alden was suing him for
defamation for saying that he sold that.
And the jury found for Emerson saying that Alden couldn't prove
that that was not true. As Sarah mentioned, January
(08:17):
26th, 1692, when Alden was in court, that was right at the
start of the Salem witch hunt saga because this is the time
period when Betty Paris and Abigail Williams are afflicted
in the household of Samuel Paris, the minister of Salem
village. This is when they have that
sickness that's later ruled to be caused by bewitchment and
(08:41):
witchcraft. So January was a formative time.
It really got things rolling forthe witch trials.
But by May, there were dozens ofpeople accused in jail being
examined. And on May 28th, a complaint was
(09:03):
filed by Joseph Holton and John Walcott against John Alden, but
also a host of other people. Martha Carrier.
You might have heard of her. Elizabeth Fostic, Wilmot, Red
Sarah Rice, Elizabeth Howe, William Proctor, John Flood,
(09:25):
Mary Toothacher, Margaret Toothacher, and Arthur Abbott.
Margaret was a child. Margaret was the daughter of
Rodger Toothacher. So a few days after the
complaint was issued, on May 31st, an arrest warrant was
issued for Captain John Alden, and according to the warrant,
(09:46):
Alden was complained of by a whole series of afflicted
people, Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams,
Elizabeth Booth, Elizabeth Hubbard and Putnam and Mary
Warren. The poor, distracted or
possessed creatures or witches, he believed they could have just
(10:06):
as well been witches. Mary Walcott is one of the
people named in the warrant as being harmed by John Alden.
It was her brother John who was one of the two men who filed the
complaint against that whole slew of people, including John
Alden and Martha Carrier. All those people John Walcott
(10:27):
accused on behalf of his sister.He was arrested and apparently
it was uneventful enough that hedid not give a story about it to
Robert Kayla, who later gives his account, and there's no
other real details on it. But we do know the date, because
(10:49):
an order was sent by Salem magistrates to the prison keeper
in Boston. Yeah, they had arrested him down
in Boston and put him in that local jail, and the Salem judges
wanted them to come up there forexamination.
And when he did come up for examination, and that was
eventful, and he wrote a whole account of this in Robert
(11:13):
Caleb's book More Wonders of theInvisible World, which was
published 2 years before Alden passed.
He passed in 17 O 2 and published in 1700.
Yeah, it's a great account, and in it he refers to himself as
senior and a mariner. And he says this is a quote from
(11:34):
him. Those winches being present, who
played their juggling tricks, falling down, crying out and
staring in people's faces. That's how he referred to the
afflicted people. In his account, he recalls that
the judges asked the afflicted people to identify him and that
one pointed to a Captain Hill until a man whispered in an
(11:58):
afflicted girl's ear. Then she pointed out Alden.
The truth is the afflicted, mostly young adults and
children, had never met John Alden and may have not
recognized him, but they might have known of him.
I mean the family, the family name and all of his dealings
(12:19):
with men, businessmen and soldiers.
I bet they did know the name. They may have heard people
talking about him, but in Salem Village, this is inland.
This isn't the coastal part of Salem.
And these are mainly village girls who are saying that
Captain Hill looks like the man that's afflicting them because
(12:42):
they just don't actually know what Alton looks like.
That aspect of the accusations came up more than once where
they couldn't describe who they were choosing.
They were accusing people in far-flung places in New
Hampshire and Maine and near theborder of New Hampshire in
(13:03):
Salisbury and Amesbury, and theyhad never been to those places.
And the people from those placeshad never been to Salem Village
that they were accusing, so theyhad never encountered each
other. There's no Instagram.
To identify them in court. There's no Instagram.
They can't just look, it's see. Oh, Alden was here in Salem
Village, and this was him with his.
(13:25):
Yeah. Anyways.
Yeah. And they didn't have a police
sketch artist doing drawings of what the girls said that they
saw. So after this afflicted person
did eventually point out Alden in the meetinghouse where he was
being examined, they ordered thejudges ordered everyone to go
(13:48):
out into the street. And in his account he says all
were ordered to go down into thestreet, where a ring was made.
And the same accuser cried out there stance Alden, a bold
fellow with his hat on before the judges.
He sells powder and shot to the Indians and French, and lies
with the Indian squaws, and has Indian papooses.
(14:11):
Then was Alden committed to the Marshall's custody and his sword
taken from him, for they said heafflicted them with his sword.
That is just a mindful You couldpicture the chaos spilling out
into the street. Captain Alden stressed sharply
with his hat, has his beautiful sword.
They're putting him out. Take his sword.
(14:34):
It's crazy. It forms the scene in your mind
very easily, yes. Yeah, Later Alden was made to
stand on a chair for all to see him.
Judge Bartholomew Gedney said hehad known Alden many years and
had been at sea with him and always looked upon him to be an
(14:56):
honest man. But now he did see cause to
alter his judgement. Alden answered he was sorry for
that, but he hoped God would clear up his innocency, that he
would recall that judgement again, and added that he hoped
that he should, with Job, maintain his integrity till he
died. What about the touch test?
(15:17):
Did he go through the touch test?
He did. The judges had the afflicted
people. When he looked at them, they
would be stricken and afflicted.They touch him.
They're well. He looks at them, they're not
good, but all they have to do istouch.
The magic goes back into him, and they're well again.
(15:40):
And that was court evidence. And this was evidence used
against him? Yeah, the evidence against John
Alden was pretty thin, actually.There was 1 testimony of Mary
Warren, and it was against George Burroughs, John Alden,
Elizabeth Carey, and Anne Poudiator.
(16:01):
So she's testifying against fourpeople at once, the testimony
goes. The testimony of Mary Warren,
aged 20 years or thereabouts, testifieth and saith that
sometime in July last Mr. Burroughs pinched me very much
and choked me almost to death. And I saw and heard him sound a
(16:21):
trumpet. And immediately I saw several
come to him as, namely, Captain Alden Miscarry, and Goody
Putiater, and several others, and they urged me to go along
with them to their Sacramento meeting.
And Mr. Burrows brought to me bread to eat and wine to drink,
which I refusing, he did most grievously torment me, urging me
(16:45):
vehemently to write in his book.Also, I've seen Mr. George
Burrows, or his appearance most grievously tormenting Mary
Walcott and Ann Putnam, and I verily believe in my heart that
Mister George Burrows is a dreadful wizard and that he has
several times tormented me and the aforesaid persons by his
acts of witchcraft. So the one testimony that
(17:08):
mentions Alden is primarily about George Burroughs.
Alden just happens to be along for the ride to the sacrament.
Yeah, there he goes to his witch's Sabbath.
Along for the ride to the Sabbath.
So he's arrested and he goes to the Boston jail for 15 weeks.
(17:31):
It's a whole season. So while Alden was in jail on
July 20th, 1692, there was a fast held at his house at
Captain Alden's house. This fast was held upon his
account. And this was the day after they
hanged the first group of accused witches.
(17:52):
Yeah, this was after they hanged5 of the accused witches and and
they'd already done Bridget Bishop in June.
But this is the day after a hanging, and you expect some of
these people to have been at thehanging, but they probably
weren't. Cotton reported that Mister
Willard prayed, that he himself read a sermon out of Doctor
(18:16):
Preston, and Captain Scottow prayed, Mr. Allen came in and
prayed, and that Cotton and Captain Hill sung together the
first part of Psalm One O 3, andthey were there till 5:00 PM.
Wow, was that the same Captain Hill who got falsely accused and
(18:38):
pointed at in the meetinghouse when they were asking who's
who's afflicting you? It's the same guy.
And yeah, I he was probably praying for himself, too.
Oh, yeah, Smart. You had to be at this point.
All right, So he spent 15 weeks in jail.
(18:59):
And we have a couple sources that reports that Captain Alden
escapes, Caliph says, observing the manner of the trials and the
evidence then taken, which we'vetalked about this crazy
evidence, the touch test, the sore being bewitched, he
prevailed to escape. He may have been helped to
(19:22):
escape by his minister, Samuel Willard.
While he, Samuel Willard, was protesting what was happening,
he wrote an anonymous satirical pamphlet about the witch trials,
and he was preaching about spectral evidence.
(19:45):
Well, he wrote a pamphlet calledSome Miscellany Observations
Alden while he was escaped. Apparently he was still in touch
with some people back in the Massachusetts Bay.
Province, because he seems to have been aware that the trials
(20:06):
were winding down towards the end of the year.
Because on December 31st, Alden appeared before Judge John
Richards, who was one of the judges of the Court of Warrior
and Terminer in Salem, but was also a judge locally in Boston.
And Judge Richards released Alden on 200 lbs bond, which
(20:30):
Alden paid along with Nathaniel Williams and Samuel Checkley.
John Alden was cleared by proclamation on April 25th, 1693
in Boston. The court record states John
Alden, of Boston, Mariner, who stood recognized for his
appearance at this court upon suspicion of witchcraft being
(20:51):
called, appeared and was discharged by proclamation.
So he escaped. He comes back on his own free
will knowing things are going well and gets released on bond.
So he's a free man to reside in his own home and do his own
routine again while he waits forthis day.
(21:13):
And he comes in for like 2 minutes and they're like, you're
good. How nice for him.
Nice for him, the Salem witch trials.
He spent those 15 weeks in jail,which must have been miserable
and a threat to his health and life because of the typhoid
(21:35):
fever that was rampant in the jails.
So he he did suffer. He didn't get passed easily
through the witch trials by any means.
And then he had to hide with hisrelatives.
So it wasn't an easy ordeal for him.
Yeah, it was like he was grounded from the coast.
He wasn't out enjoying his boat.That's right, no ship privileges
(22:00):
for him while he's hiding out. Oh yeah.
Well, he, like many others, onlylived a handful of years past
the witch trials. He died on March 14th, 17-O2.
His gravestone can be visited inthe Old South Church.
It's in the portico, but you mentioned other people who had
(22:25):
also lived only a few years after the witch trials.
He made it about nine years after the witch trials ended,
but William Stoughton was already dead by 17 O2 Sheriff
George Corwin Ann and Thomas Putnam.
Governor Phipps had passed Francis Nurse had passed James
(22:48):
Howe, Captain Jonathan Walcott, the father of the John and Mary
that we mentioned earlier in theshow, Captain Bartholomew
Gedney, the judge that had been friends with Alden but changed
his mind, Reverend John Hale, who published a book called A
Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, and Samuel
(23:11):
Paris's wife Elizabeth Senior. They had all passed away already
within 10 years of the Witch House.
And so it really points out to me, too, how much Caleb's
account, you know, it was. Who else was going to give an
account besides Cotton? All of these people are fading
away. Hey, and some of the books like
(23:35):
John Hale's book about the witchtrials was published after his
death. So there you have it, The Alden
family Bridge. 2 defining moments in early American
history John Alden senior signedthe Mayflower Compact in 1620,
helping establish the foundations of self governments
of the colonizers in the New World. 72 years later, his son,
(23:59):
Captain John Alden, a charter member of one of Boston's most
important churches and a decorated war hero, found
himself accused of witchcraft inSalem.
The Alden story shows us that the Panic of 1692 wasn't just
about the vulnerable or marginalized or just women.
It could reach anyone, even the most prominent colonial families
(24:22):
with significant Mayflower credentials.
Captain Alden's experience reveals both how far the
accusations reached and how someone with resources,
connections and sheer audacity could navigate the deadly
machinery of the trials and survive.
From the deck of the Mayflower to a Salem courtroom, the Aldens
(24:45):
witnessed and shaped the earliest and darkest chapters of
New England history. Have a great today and a
beautiful Thanksgiving.
You probably aren't used to thinking of Salem witches and
Plymouth Pilgrims together, but who is it that bridges 2
important moments in Massachusetts and American
history connecting the Mayflowerto the Salem witch trials?
Welcome back to the Thing about witch hunts.
I'm Josh Hutchinson. And I'm Sarah, Here's a
(00:22):
Thanksgiving treat from your friendly neighborhood.
Mayflower and Salem witch child ascended while you are preparing
that yummy feast. We hope you're enjoying this
Thanksgiving holiday and all thebaking and preparation that goes
along with it. While you're hustling in the
kitchen, we want to talk about aman whose story reveals how
(00:43):
social status could mean the difference between life and
death during the Salem witch hunt.
That man is Captain John Alden. He was the son of Mayflower
passengers, A decorated war hero, successful merchant, and
one of the most respected men inBoston.
He seemed untouchable, but in 1692, not even his rank in
(01:05):
society or his Mayflower parentage could protect him when
the accusations came. His experience shows us that
Witch Hunt Panic didn't just target the vulnerable and
marginalized, it eventually reached even the colonial elite.
So today we're looking at what happened when one of
(01:26):
Massachusetts most prominent citizens found himself accused
of witchcraft, and what his story tells us about the
machinery of the trials themselves.
Who was Captain John Alden? He was the son of the youngest
signer of the Mayflower Compact.Oh, and that man, John Alden
(01:48):
Senior was the last living Mayflower passenger.
He passed just five years beforethe Salem Witch trials.
His parents were Mayflower passengers.
John and Priscilla. Priscilla's family came on the
Mayflower and did not make it past that first year.
His parents married around 1622 or 1623, making theirs one of
(02:10):
the first marriages in Plymouth.They got off the Mayflower and
had about 10 children, accordingto some sources.
In fact, their love was immortalized in an 1858 poem,
The Courtship of Myles Standish,by their descendant, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote about a romantic love
(02:31):
triangle involving military captain Myles Standish.
But historians generally agree it's all fiction, and their
marriage went into the 1680s until Mr. Alden became a widow.
Yeah, Priscilla died just two years before he did.
She died in 1685 and he passed 1687.
(02:54):
So they both lived long lives for Mayflower passengers.
They had that endurance. All that time together.
All that time together, they gotto spend 60 plus years married
to each other. So Captain John Alden, he was
born in about 1626 and in 1659 he married Elizabeth Phillips
(03:18):
Everell. They had 10/12/14 children.
We're seeing it different from different sources.
They just, they had a whole bunch.
He was Captain John Alden was a sea captain during King
William's War, and he helmed oneof the ships of the
Massachusetts Navy called the Mary.
(03:40):
So in between October 1688 and April 1692, during King
William's War, Alden went up thecoast from Boston to northern
New England and Acadia 16 times or more on government business.
His son, John Alden Junior, was captured in Acadia and
(04:03):
eventually ransomed. In July 1690.
Alden was ordered to go to Marblehead and get a cannon from
them to use in the war effort. This was when Governor Phipps,
before he was governor, he was leading the military on
expedition to take Quebec. And so they were rounding up
(04:27):
cannons everywhere. But when they got to Marblehead,
they beat the drums and all the militiamen came out.
There was 60 to 70 men angry that confronted John Alden, and
he never got that cannon. But John Alden, some of his
other hats that he wore because he was just chock full of hats,
(04:51):
as we'll hear about a little later, he was a fur trader and a
merchant. He was a Bostonian who was a
charter member of Reverend Samuel Willard's third church in
Boston. So far, it sounds, you know,
like one of our rich historic stories of the early families
(05:13):
and that he was busy doing a lotin the community.
I wonder if there was any controversy.
There was some controversy with him in his career with the
military. He was very comfortable and at
home all across New England and even into French Acadia.
(05:33):
He had long been trading with the English, the French and
Native Americans of the region, and he went up and down the
coast doing this trading. So he encountered a lot of
different native peoples. And he often worked in concert
with fellow Bostonian John Nelson, who was the leading
trader to Acadia in wartime. These connections brought
(05:55):
suspicions, particularly againstNelson, who was an Anglican.
So here's a knock against John Alden.
He's a friend with the Ningliken.
He, like a lot of the men, were in and out of court because they
were interpreting contracts and promises different.
It was just really common to seemen going to court, squabbling
(06:19):
over money owed and, of course, accusing each other, if not
payments, for different things. And if someone was, you know,
seething at someone, they might have thrown some extra
accusations at them about unsavory behaviors, slander.
In January 26th of 1692, which is right at the beginning of the
(06:43):
Salem Witch Trials, he is in court.
Yeah, John Alden was in court onthat date in Boston.
He was there facing Anthony Checkley, who had some legal
background and had represented Captain John Alden in some early
court cases that John wasn't able to attend himself.
(07:07):
But Checkley was there to sue John for 5 lbs of back pay.
Fortunately for Alden, the jury found in his favor.
But the court dismissed a different action that Alden had
taken a suit against Mark Emerson for defamation of
character. They threw that one out.
(07:31):
Emerson was formerly A hostage and he was a redeemed captive,
basically of the French and Native Americans.
He had been captive and the English redeemed him and got him
back. But he had said that while he
was in captivity for 2 1/2 yearsin Maine, he had seen Alden sell
(07:56):
the Indians powder and shot. And so Alden was suing him for
defamation for saying that he sold that.
And the jury found for Emerson saying that Alden couldn't prove
that that was not true. As Sarah mentioned, January
(08:17):
26th, 1692, when Alden was in court, that was right at the
start of the Salem witch hunt saga because this is the time
period when Betty Paris and Abigail Williams are afflicted
in the household of Samuel Paris, the minister of Salem
village. This is when they have that
sickness that's later ruled to be caused by bewitchment and
(08:41):
witchcraft. So January was a formative time.
It really got things rolling forthe witch trials.
But by May, there were dozens ofpeople accused in jail being
examined. And on May 28th, a complaint was
(09:03):
filed by Joseph Holton and John Walcott against John Alden, but
also a host of other people. Martha Carrier.
You might have heard of her. Elizabeth Fostic, Wilmot, Red
Sarah Rice, Elizabeth Howe, William Proctor, John Flood,
(09:25):
Mary Toothacher, Margaret Toothacher, and Arthur Abbott.
Margaret was a child. Margaret was the daughter of
Rodger Toothacher. So a few days after the
complaint was issued, on May 31st, an arrest warrant was
issued for Captain John Alden, and according to the warrant,
(09:46):
Alden was complained of by a whole series of afflicted
people, Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Abigail Williams,
Elizabeth Booth, Elizabeth Hubbard and Putnam and Mary
Warren. The poor, distracted or
possessed creatures or witches, he believed they could have just
(10:06):
as well been witches. Mary Walcott is one of the
people named in the warrant as being harmed by John Alden.
It was her brother John who was one of the two men who filed the
complaint against that whole slew of people, including John
Alden and Martha Carrier. All those people John Walcott
(10:27):
accused on behalf of his sister.He was arrested and apparently
it was uneventful enough that hedid not give a story about it to
Robert Kayla, who later gives his account, and there's no
other real details on it. But we do know the date, because
(10:49):
an order was sent by Salem magistrates to the prison keeper
in Boston. Yeah, they had arrested him down
in Boston and put him in that local jail, and the Salem judges
wanted them to come up there forexamination.
And when he did come up for examination, and that was
eventful, and he wrote a whole account of this in Robert
(11:13):
Caleb's book More Wonders of theInvisible World, which was
published 2 years before Alden passed.
He passed in 17 O 2 and published in 1700.
Yeah, it's a great account, and in it he refers to himself as
senior and a mariner. And he says this is a quote from
(11:34):
him. Those winches being present, who
played their juggling tricks, falling down, crying out and
staring in people's faces. That's how he referred to the
afflicted people. In his account, he recalls that
the judges asked the afflicted people to identify him and that
one pointed to a Captain Hill until a man whispered in an
(11:58):
afflicted girl's ear. Then she pointed out Alden.
The truth is the afflicted, mostly young adults and
children, had never met John Alden and may have not
recognized him, but they might have known of him.
I mean the family, the family name and all of his dealings
(12:19):
with men, businessmen and soldiers.
I bet they did know the name. They may have heard people
talking about him, but in Salem Village, this is inland.
This isn't the coastal part of Salem.
And these are mainly village girls who are saying that
Captain Hill looks like the man that's afflicting them because
(12:42):
they just don't actually know what Alton looks like.
That aspect of the accusations came up more than once where
they couldn't describe who they were choosing.
They were accusing people in far-flung places in New
Hampshire and Maine and near theborder of New Hampshire in
(13:03):
Salisbury and Amesbury, and theyhad never been to those places.
And the people from those placeshad never been to Salem Village
that they were accusing, so theyhad never encountered each
other. There's no Instagram.
To identify them in court. There's no Instagram.
They can't just look, it's see. Oh, Alden was here in Salem
Village, and this was him with his.
(13:25):
Yeah. Anyways.
Yeah. And they didn't have a police
sketch artist doing drawings of what the girls said that they
saw. So after this afflicted person
did eventually point out Alden in the meetinghouse where he was
being examined, they ordered thejudges ordered everyone to go
(13:48):
out into the street. And in his account he says all
were ordered to go down into thestreet, where a ring was made.
And the same accuser cried out there stance Alden, a bold
fellow with his hat on before the judges.
He sells powder and shot to the Indians and French, and lies
with the Indian squaws, and has Indian papooses.
(14:11):
Then was Alden committed to the Marshall's custody and his sword
taken from him, for they said heafflicted them with his sword.
That is just a mindful You couldpicture the chaos spilling out
into the street. Captain Alden stressed sharply
with his hat, has his beautiful sword.
They're putting him out. Take his sword.
(14:34):
It's crazy. It forms the scene in your mind
very easily, yes. Yeah, Later Alden was made to
stand on a chair for all to see him.
Judge Bartholomew Gedney said hehad known Alden many years and
had been at sea with him and always looked upon him to be an
(14:56):
honest man. But now he did see cause to
alter his judgement. Alden answered he was sorry for
that, but he hoped God would clear up his innocency, that he
would recall that judgement again, and added that he hoped
that he should, with Job, maintain his integrity till he
died. What about the touch test?
(15:17):
Did he go through the touch test?
He did. The judges had the afflicted
people. When he looked at them, they
would be stricken and afflicted.They touch him.
They're well. He looks at them, they're not
good, but all they have to do istouch.
The magic goes back into him, and they're well again.
(15:40):
And that was court evidence. And this was evidence used
against him? Yeah, the evidence against John
Alden was pretty thin, actually.There was 1 testimony of Mary
Warren, and it was against George Burroughs, John Alden,
Elizabeth Carey, and Anne Poudiator.
(16:01):
So she's testifying against fourpeople at once, the testimony
goes. The testimony of Mary Warren,
aged 20 years or thereabouts, testifieth and saith that
sometime in July last Mr. Burroughs pinched me very much
and choked me almost to death. And I saw and heard him sound a
(16:21):
trumpet. And immediately I saw several
come to him as, namely, Captain Alden Miscarry, and Goody
Putiater, and several others, and they urged me to go along
with them to their Sacramento meeting.
And Mr. Burrows brought to me bread to eat and wine to drink,
which I refusing, he did most grievously torment me, urging me
(16:45):
vehemently to write in his book.Also, I've seen Mr. George
Burrows, or his appearance most grievously tormenting Mary
Walcott and Ann Putnam, and I verily believe in my heart that
Mister George Burrows is a dreadful wizard and that he has
several times tormented me and the aforesaid persons by his
acts of witchcraft. So the one testimony that
(17:08):
mentions Alden is primarily about George Burroughs.
Alden just happens to be along for the ride to the sacrament.
Yeah, there he goes to his witch's Sabbath.
Along for the ride to the Sabbath.
So he's arrested and he goes to the Boston jail for 15 weeks.
(17:31):
It's a whole season. So while Alden was in jail on
July 20th, 1692, there was a fast held at his house at
Captain Alden's house. This fast was held upon his
account. And this was the day after they
hanged the first group of accused witches.
(17:52):
Yeah, this was after they hanged5 of the accused witches and and
they'd already done Bridget Bishop in June.
But this is the day after a hanging, and you expect some of
these people to have been at thehanging, but they probably
weren't. Cotton reported that Mister
Willard prayed, that he himself read a sermon out of Doctor
(18:16):
Preston, and Captain Scottow prayed, Mr. Allen came in and
prayed, and that Cotton and Captain Hill sung together the
first part of Psalm One O 3, andthey were there till 5:00 PM.
Wow, was that the same Captain Hill who got falsely accused and
(18:38):
pointed at in the meetinghouse when they were asking who's
who's afflicting you? It's the same guy.
And yeah, I he was probably praying for himself, too.
Oh, yeah, Smart. You had to be at this point.
All right, So he spent 15 weeks in jail.
(18:59):
And we have a couple sources that reports that Captain Alden
escapes, Caliph says, observing the manner of the trials and the
evidence then taken, which we'vetalked about this crazy
evidence, the touch test, the sore being bewitched, he
prevailed to escape. He may have been helped to
(19:22):
escape by his minister, Samuel Willard.
While he, Samuel Willard, was protesting what was happening,
he wrote an anonymous satirical pamphlet about the witch trials,
and he was preaching about spectral evidence.
(19:45):
Well, he wrote a pamphlet calledSome Miscellany Observations
Alden while he was escaped. Apparently he was still in touch
with some people back in the Massachusetts Bay.
Province, because he seems to have been aware that the trials
(20:06):
were winding down towards the end of the year.
Because on December 31st, Alden appeared before Judge John
Richards, who was one of the judges of the Court of Warrior
and Terminer in Salem, but was also a judge locally in Boston.
And Judge Richards released Alden on 200 lbs bond, which
(20:30):
Alden paid along with Nathaniel Williams and Samuel Checkley.
John Alden was cleared by proclamation on April 25th, 1693
in Boston. The court record states John
Alden, of Boston, Mariner, who stood recognized for his
appearance at this court upon suspicion of witchcraft being
(20:51):
called, appeared and was discharged by proclamation.
So he escaped. He comes back on his own free
will knowing things are going well and gets released on bond.
So he's a free man to reside in his own home and do his own
routine again while he waits forthis day.
(21:13):
And he comes in for like 2 minutes and they're like, you're
good. How nice for him.
Nice for him, the Salem witch trials.
He spent those 15 weeks in jail,which must have been miserable
and a threat to his health and life because of the typhoid
(21:35):
fever that was rampant in the jails.
So he he did suffer. He didn't get passed easily
through the witch trials by any means.
And then he had to hide with hisrelatives.
So it wasn't an easy ordeal for him.
Yeah, it was like he was grounded from the coast.
He wasn't out enjoying his boat.That's right, no ship privileges
(22:00):
for him while he's hiding out. Oh yeah.
Well, he, like many others, onlylived a handful of years past
the witch trials. He died on March 14th, 17-O2.
His gravestone can be visited inthe Old South Church.
It's in the portico, but you mentioned other people who had
(22:25):
also lived only a few years after the witch trials.
He made it about nine years after the witch trials ended,
but William Stoughton was already dead by 17 O2 Sheriff
George Corwin Ann and Thomas Putnam.
Governor Phipps had passed Francis Nurse had passed James
(22:48):
Howe, Captain Jonathan Walcott, the father of the John and Mary
that we mentioned earlier in theshow, Captain Bartholomew
Gedney, the judge that had been friends with Alden but changed
his mind, Reverend John Hale, who published a book called A
Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, and Samuel
(23:11):
Paris's wife Elizabeth Senior. They had all passed away already
within 10 years of the Witch House.
And so it really points out to me, too, how much Caleb's
account, you know, it was. Who else was going to give an
account besides Cotton? All of these people are fading
away. Hey, and some of the books like
(23:35):
John Hale's book about the witchtrials was published after his
death. So there you have it, The Alden
family Bridge. 2 defining moments in early American
history John Alden senior signedthe Mayflower Compact in 1620,
helping establish the foundations of self governments
of the colonizers in the New World. 72 years later, his son,
(23:59):
Captain John Alden, a charter member of one of Boston's most
important churches and a decorated war hero, found
himself accused of witchcraft inSalem.
The Alden story shows us that the Panic of 1692 wasn't just
about the vulnerable or marginalized or just women.
It could reach anyone, even the most prominent colonial families
(24:22):
with significant Mayflower credentials.
Captain Alden's experience reveals both how far the
accusations reached and how someone with resources,
connections and sheer audacity could navigate the deadly
machinery of the trials and survive.
From the deck of the Mayflower to a Salem courtroom, the Aldens
(24:45):
witnessed and shaped the earliest and darkest chapters of
New England history. Have a great today and a
beautiful Thanksgiving.
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