Who was the first witch to be burned at the stake in North America?

Stew54

Not that many witches were burned in North America. Wikipedia says there were 66, of which the earliest was in 1681, but I can't find much on them (such as any names or anything). there were many thousands of burnings elsewhere however, especially in Europe, and they began much earlier. Oct 28 04, 11:27 AM

MrsAce

The first execution in the US, by hanging, was Alse Younge on May 26, 1647. From the web: The most common form of execution was hanging. Admittedly, burning was important in many of these cases also, since to further protect against any malevolence from the dead witch, authorities often burned the remains afterward. A notoriously common myth is that the alleged witches at Salem in colonial Massachusetts were burned. All of the convicted during the Salem Witch Hunt in 1692 died by hanging. Others died by natural causes before conviction or execution, and Giles Corey was pressed to death. In fact, no witches were executed by burning in the English colonies of North America. English law did not permit it. However, in Europe witchcraft was considered heresy and punishable by burning at the stake. Got some info from this interesting site. There are many more and due to the topic you'd probably have to look at many to draw your own conclusions. The first is probably hard to say due to record keeping of the times. http://www.illusions.com/burning/burnwit5.htm Oct 28 04, 5:46 PM

scarletshadow

the first witch to be burned at the stake was Rebecca nurse. I know this as a matter of fact because she i am a direct descendant of her, my grandmother's maiden name being Nurse. i also know this because our family has apology letters sent to us from the united states government from the late 70's apologizingfor their unjust behavior hundreds of years ago. Jun 15 07, 3:43 PM

das_fenster

Rebecca Nurse was the daughter of William and Joanna Towne (nee Blessing), Nurse was born in Great Yarmouth, England in 1621. Her family settled in Salem Village in 1640. She had one older sister, Susan (baptized 26 Oct 1625 - died 29 Jul 1630) and two younger sisters, Mary Eastey (baptized 24 Aug 1634) (or Estye) and Sarah Cloyce (born abt 1642), both of whom were also accused of witchcraft. She also had four brothers: John (baptized 16 Feb 1622/23), Edmund (baptized Jun 1628), Jacob (baptized 11 Mar 1631/32) and Joseph (born abt 1639). Around 1645, she married Francis Nurse, who had also been born in England, some time between 1618 and 1620. Her husband was a "tray maker" by trade, who likely made many other wooden household items. Due to the rarity of such household goods, artisans of that medium were considered esteemed. In 1672, Francis served as Salem's Constable. Together the couple had eight children, four daughters and four sons. Nurse frequently attended church and her family was well respected in Salem Village. It was later written that she had "acquired a reputation for exemplary piety that was virtually unchallenged in the community," making her one of the first "unlikely" witches to be accused. {[[Excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Nurse]]} Rebecca Nurse's family had alot of land disputes with another family near them called the Putnam family. She was accused by Edward & John Putnam. Her Trial began on June 30th 1692 and in the end was found NOT GUILTY by the jury. But because the puplic rebelled against the jury's decision and "possesions" of girls, the magistrate asked the jury to reconsider the verdict. In the end, she was sentenced to death and was to be hanged on July 19th 1692. Most of the people of the community had called her "a good model of Christian behavior" because she never once refused the gallows and took the punishment even though she was innocent. When she was buried, she was buried in a shallow grave near the gallows because they believed they were unfit for a Christian burial. But her family didn't believe this so they snuck to her grave and dug her up and gave Rebecca a proper burial on their family's homestead. Sep 02 11, 9:33 PM