Sarah Good: Accused Witch

The story of Sarah Good (1653 -1692) does not end well as Good was one of the first of fourteen women and six men to be tried and executed for the crime of witch craft. In Salem village during the Salem Witch trials her death on July 19, 1692 was inevitable.

Sara Good was a daughter, wife and mother. She was also homeless and considered to be mentally unbalanced. What is wrong with being poor and different? Nothing unless you were living in time of the Salem witch trials. Good was an easy target for her accusers with no one to speak for her, not even her husband William, whose words only helped victimize Good.

Learn the details of Sarah Good's story and how her daughter Dorcus became the youngest accused witch.

Photo Source: "Salem Witch Trials Memorial" by GWP Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .

• February 25, 1692 Good accused of being responsible for causing convulsions in Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris
• February 29, 1692 Warrant filed against Good by Thomas Putnam, Edward Putnam, and Thomas Preston of Salem Village.
• Warrant accused Good of injuring Ann Putnam. Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Hubbard over a time period of two months.
• March 1, 1692 March 1 Good brought to a hearing to be examined by John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin.
• Tituba confesses to being a witch and implicates Good.
• Good accused Tituba and Sarah Osbourne of being the real witches and continued to profess her innocence.
• March 3, 1692 taken to Salem jail.
• March 5, 1692 William Good testifies and reveals Good has a mole on her back. The mole was said to be proof of a witch mark.
• March 24, 1692 Good was sent to Boston jail and daughter Dorthy was arrested for witchcraft after she was accused of biting Mary Walcott and Ann Putnam Jr.
• March 24-26, 1692 Dorthy was questioned and confessed. Her confession implicated her mother because a snake (her mother gave her) bit Dorthy's finger.
• March 29, 1692 Good examined again while accused appeared to be having physical reaction to Good's presence. She again maintains her innocence and points a finger towards Osbourne.
• Gives birth to Mercy Good is prison but the infant does not survive.
• June 29, 1692 Good was tried and convicted.
• July 19, 1692 Good was hanged by Gallow Hills.(Salem)

Early Life of Sarah Good

Sarah Good born to John Solart, a well off Wenham Innkeeper, was supposed to have a good life, but when her father drowned himself in 1672 everything changed. She was only seventeen at the time of his death. Solart left a 500 pound inheritance which was divided among with his late wife, two sons with a small share set aside for his seven daughters. Unfortunately, most of the girls never received their share of their inheritance because their mother quickly remarried, and her new husband came in possession of his new wife's share of the inheritance and the unclaimed shares of the daughters.

Sarah eventually married a man named Daniel Poole, a former indentured servant, who left Sarah with a load of debt when he died in 1682. The debt followed her into her second marriage to a man named William Good. When they married Sarah and William became responsible for Poole's debts. Part of their land was seized to pay off their creditors, but that was not enough. Eventually the debt crushed them and they were forced to sell the remainder of their land. Good and her family were left homeless, and she was forced to beg for food, shelter and work from her neighbours.

Source: Sarah Good

Sarah routinely cursed and yelled at her neighbours who refused to give her and her family charity. Do you think this was an understandable response? In Salem Village in 1692 Sarah's behavoir was proof that she was a Witch. If you were alive during the Salem Witch trials what would you believe, say or do. Take a moment to think about you answer as people who stood up for the accused would be looked at with scrunity and possible the next to be accused of witchcraft.

What is an accused witch to do?

Sarah Good was accused of being a witch by Tituba and was among the first three people accused of being a witch. Her neighbours lined up against her to testify about her mutterings when they refused to give her charity; however, the most damaging and tragic accusation came for her daughter Dorthy/Dorcus Good. Dorcus implicated her mother as a witch in her confession of engaging in witchcraft March 23, 1692. It might seem monstrous to turn against your mother, but Dorthy/ Dorcus was an impressionable four year old. Good's daughter was the youngest person locked up and accused of being witch; though, she was spared the noose she was psychologically scarred from her ordeal. Her father, William Good, would later receive compensation in 1711 for the cruelties his daughter suffered.

Source: Sara Good

Salem Witch Trials by Dividenda

"Every of them to be hanged by the neck until they be dead"

- from Sarah Good's Death Warrant

What are those asked accused of witchcraft?

During Sarah Good's examination she was asked why she tormented the afflicted girls, and she answered she did not and that she scorned anyone who did. She was repeatedly asked who she served and she would answer God or God in Heaven; though, the examiner thought these were lies. She was questioned about her mutterings only to reveal she was repeating a psalm, which psalm was never recorded.

Upon reading the examination of Good I found her answers sensible ridiculous and her examination notes absurd. Noting she could not say God, which she in fact did, and was wicked when dealing with the authorities. Evidence for her being a witch was cited third party recollections of what William Good had allegedly said in a conversation about his wife. The third party claimed that William Good thought she was a witch or could soon be a witch because of her mistreatment of him. He is reported to have said, "I may say with tears that shee is an enimy to all good."

This provided the authority with proof of Good's guilt during the Salem Witch Trials. Today, it might be considered nothing more than an utterance of a disgruntled husband.

Note: the examination of Sarah Good was written by Ezekiell Chevers on March 1, 1692.

Did Tituba start the Salem Witch Trials?

Tituba's fortune and story telling created the ideas in the afflicted girls head that they were possessed; however, the afflicted girls actions,simulated convolutions and statements about devil possession, led to the Salem Witch Trial and the execution of 19 people, plus those who died in prison.

Tituba was an Indian woman (this has been contested by some) and a slave of Rev. Samuel Parris. She was the third name mentioned by the afflicted girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams. of witchcraft but Tituba was the first to confess to witchcraft and indicate other members of the community were witches. Sarah Good was among those she accused.

While Good was hung for being found guilty of witchcraft Tituba was not hung. She was eventually let out of prison. No one knows what happened to the fortune teller after her release.

Source: Wikipedia

Tituba decided to confess to being a witch and engaging in witchcraft, flying around on sticks, and being in league with the devil. Not a bad strategy considering she survived the Salem Witch Trials, even if she fueled the witchcraft hysteria, but why does she introduce new people into the tragedy.

Is Tituba to blame for the hanging of Sarah Good or do you think she came to believe the lies?

The Salem Witch Trials end for Good

"You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink." is what Good is reported to have said to Minister Nicholas Noyes, in response to his final attempt to get Good to confess. Taken as a curse her wish was fulfilled when Noyes died bleeding from the mouth because of an internal hemorrhage. Too bad that this news was not seen as proof that Good had been innocent of participating in witchcraft.

Source: Sara Good

Take a moment to try these games and get a feel for what it would have been like to live in Salem Village in 1692.