October is American Archives Month, as well as the run-up to Halloween. To mark the season, State Archivist Ashley Miller pulled some spooky artifacts from the state's history: a plate from Daniel Webster’s last meal, the remains of the Sixth New Hampshire Infantry’s battle flag from the Battle of Antietam, and court documents from the trial of one of New Hampshire’s alleged historical witches.
Dr. Tricia Peone gave a lecture on that last topic Thursday, starting with a woman named Jane Wolford who lived near Portsmouth in the mid-1600s and had the first documented witchcraft trial in New Hampshire.
Wolford was often accused of turning into a yellow cat, but was acquitted of being a witch a few times. Still, it is likely that Witch Creek in Rye was named after the place where she used to live.
Peone also shared the history of former Hampton resident Eunice Cole, better known as “Goody Cole,” who had had the best-documented witchcraft trial in New Hampshire. During her first trial, her neighbor accused her of being a witch.
“She allegedly told him that if his cows kept coming into her field and eating her grass, then they would choke on it. And guess what happens? One of his cows dies and a calf disappears,” Peone said.
Cole was accused of witchcraft several times, served time in a Boston jail a few times, and was eventually found dead in her home. Her neighbors took her body, put a stake through her heart, and put a horseshoe around the stake so that her spirit wouldn't be able to escape
About two centuries later, in the 1930s, Hampton residents decided to exonerate Goody Cole and restore her to her rightful place as a citizen, the first modern exoneration for someone accused of witchcraft.
