By the time I was 100 pages in to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, it had brought to mind that I have an ancestress, Elizabeth Emerson, who was hung on Boston Common around the time of the Salem Witch hysteria. You know, one of those, "Oh, I should really learn more about her" ancestors. It wasn't until I paid a visit to the Haverhill Historic Society last summer that I even learned of Elizabeth's existence--it's her sister, Hannah Emerson Duston, who is relatively famous, and it was the legend of Hannah that brought us to Haverhill in the first place.
Tuesday night, I set down Deliverance Dane and picked up an old copy of the Emerson genealogy. I verified Elizabeth's name and entered it into Google--not really expecting anything at all, but thinking that was a starting point. Was I wrong! Elizabeth is infamous! She was hung in June 1693, three days after Cotton Mather delivered a sermon about her...Although she was not hung for witchcraft, she was presumably held with all those women from Salem who were. Elizabeth's crime was allegedly infanticide, and--a crime I was unaware even existed--whoredom.
The best summary I've been able to find of Elizabeth's life is here: http://wprokasy.myweb.uga.edu/Emerson2.htm.
Tonight I finished the book. I also discovered that Elizabeth's first cousin, Joseph, was married to a woman who was tried and hung as a witch in the Salem-area hysteria of 1692. Rest in peace, Elizabeth and Martha Emerson. The rest of you--read this great book!
April 2010 Summary:
April 2010 Summary:
- The Hole We're In (Gabrielle Zevin)
- An Expert in Murder (Nicola Upson)
- Garden Spells (Sarah Addison Allen)
- Henry's Sisters (Cathy Lamb)
- Tales from Outer Suburbia (Shaun Tan)
- The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Katherine Howe)
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