Bridget Bishop was one of nineteen people executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Born some time in the 1630s, Bishop had was on her third marriage by the time the witch craze began. Bridget had one daughter, Christian Oliver, by her second husband in 1667, and married Edward Bishop, a lumber worker, in 1685.
Bridget was well-known in her neighborhood. She publicly fought with all of her husbands, dressed flamboyantly (although for Puritans, that just meant she liked to wear big hats and a red bodice with her black dress), and was the mistress not one but two taverns. She developed a reputation for entertaining into the wee hours of the night, playing forbidden games such as shuffle board, and generally being the target of much speculation and gossip. In other words, Bridget Bishop didn't seem to care what society thought of her - and because of that, she became a likely target when the accusations began. She was, in personality and reputation, the polar opposite of the pious Rebecca Nurse, although they both ended up on a scaffold.
In April, 1692, a warrant was issued for Bishop's arrest on charges of performing witchcraft and consorting with the devil himself. When she entered the courthouse, a number of the "afflicted" girls, including Mercy Lewis and Ann Putnam, howled that she was causing them pain. Bishop denied any wrongdoing, swearing that she was "innocent as the child unborn," according to Mary Norton's In the Devil's Snare.
Bishop's wild ways were used as evidence against her. Certainly the town dyer's claim that she brought him yards of lace to color was proof that she was up to something; after all, no sensible or respectable woman could need that much colored lace. In addition to this damning testimony, and the accusations of the teenage girls, Bishop's own brother-in-law swore he'd seen her "conversing with the Devil" who "came bodily into her." She was executed on June 10.
After Bishop's hanging, eighteen others were executed for the crime of witchcraft, and one man was pressed to death. Several others died in prison. Within months of Bridget Bishop's death, her husband remarried.
Bridget's descendants through Christian Oliver still live in New England today, and her tavern, the Bishop House, still stands.
-The Crafty Witch
I recently ate at the Bishop house on my yearly trip to Salem. I am the direct descendant of Mary Perkins Bradbury, whom was convicted during the witch trials, but thankfully escaped death and was released/escaped from prison as the hysteria came to light for what it was. I follow your blog and facebook and thank you for the time and subjects that you write about.
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