Person:Rebecca Jones (54)

Life in Colonial Connecticut

One significant time in the history of Colonial Connecticut is the period of the witchcraft trials. This was not only happening in Connecticut, witch trials were being held in England, Scotland and, of course, Salem Massachusetts. It was during this time that Rebecca Jones Hull was called to testify, after the death of Goodwife Knapp in 1653, at a defamation lawsuit brought by Thomas Staplies (Staplyes, Staples) against Roger Ludlow. The proceedings of this suit at a magistrate's court held at New Haven [Conn.] the 29th of May, 1654, are preserved in the book titled, Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697, by John M. Taylor (Available online: https://play.google.com/books/reader?printsec=frontcover&output=reader&id=-tU0AAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA133).

From the history and the testimony, it can be derived that Roger Ludlow, the Deputy Governor of Connecticut, had an ongoing dispute with Mary Staplyes. In 1651 Mr. Ludlow won a suit against Mary Stapyles for slander. During the trial of Goodwife Knapp in 1653, conviction and waiting for the sentence to be carried out, Mr. Ludlow had tried to convince Goodwife Knapp to identify Mary Stapyles as a witch. Mr. Ludlow later told friends, in confidence, that Goodwife Knapp had indeed named Goodwife Stapyles as a witch, at the last minute coming down from the ladder and whispering the accusation in his ear. Some of the friends and neighbors of the Stapyles testified on their behalf, accusing Ludlow of this false accusation. Others in the neighborhood testified against Mr. Ludlow, stating that Goodwife Knapp had not accused Mary Stapyles of witchcraft.

Reading the testimoney of Rebecca Jones Hull, by itself, is confusing. However, I believe what she was testifying to was that Goodwife Knapp refused to admit that Goodwife Staplyes was a witch, and refused to name anyone else in the town. The following is found on page 133:

"Rebecka Hull, wife of Cornelius Hull, being sworne & examined, deposeth & saith as followeth, that when goodwife Knapp was goeing to execution, Mr. Ludlow, and her father Mr Jones, pressing the said Knapp to confess that she was a witch, upon wch goodwife Staplies said, why should she, the said Knapp, confess that wch she was not, and after she, the said goodwife Staplyes, had said so, on that stood by, why should she say so, she the said Staplys replyed, she made no doubt if she the said Knapp were one, she would confess it."

At one point in Goodwife Gould's testimony..."Further this deponent saith, that Mr. Jones some time since that Knapps wife was condemned, did tell her, and that with a very cherefull countenance & blessing God for it, that Knapps wife had cleered one in ye towne, & said you know who I meane sister Staplyes, blessed be God for it."

Reading further in the book, there are other testimonies which place Rev. John Jones in the presence of Goodwife Knapp, asserting that he did, indeed, minister to her as she went through the trial and awaited her hanging. What a dreadful period of time for a Minister of the Gospel to go through.

--RWMeyer 20:44, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 John Jones, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   4:96.

   Rebecca Jones, bp. St. Stephen Coleman Street, London, 7 May 1633 [TAG 71:54].

2.   Hull, Robert E. (Robert Edwin). The ancestors and descendants of George Hull (ca. 1590-1659) and Thamzen Michell of Crewkerne, Somerset, England, Dorchester, Massachusetts, Windsor and Fairfield, Connecticut. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Gateway Press, 1994)
   41-46.

   He [Cornelius Hull] married, 19 November 1652 Rebecca Jones {New England Marriages Prior to 1700} (2 other sources give the year as 1653) daughter of the Rev. John Jones {Families of Old Fairfield} and Sarah ___ of Fairfield.

3.   Jacobus, Donald Lines. History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield. (New Haven, Conn.: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1930-1932)
   602.

   Joseph Theale, s. of Nicholas
   Deputy (Stamford) to Conn. Leg., Oct 1671, Oct. 1673, Oct. 1674, May and Oct. 1675, Oct. 1676, Oct 1677, May and Oct. 1678, May and Oct. 1679, May and Oct 1680, May 1681, May 1682; Deputy for Greenwich, Oct. 1683; Chief Military Officer, Bedford Trainband, May 1682.
   Of Stamford, made freeman 1662; rem. 1682 to Bedford, N.Y. with the founders of that town, which was established by Conn. colony that year, and later fell within the bounds of Westchester, N.Y.
   We suppose that for a second wife he m. after 1695, Rebecca, widow of Cornelius Hull, and dau. of Rev. John Jones, of Fairfield, b. in England abt 1633; for an execution dated 27 Sept. 1710 and recorded in Fairfield, describes land bounded by the homelot of Rebecca Theel formerly Hull.
   (which was land once owned by Cornelius Hull...see land records).

4.   Find A Grave.

   Rebecca Jones Hull Theel

5.   Taylor, John M. (John Metcalf). The witchcraft delusion in colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697. (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1989)
   133.

   Available online:
   https://play.google.com/books/reader?printsec=frontcover&output=reader&id=-tU0AAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA133
   "Rebecka Hull, wife of Cornelius Hull, being sworne & examined, deposeth & saith as followeth, that when goodwife Knapp was goeing to execution, Mr. Ludlow, and her father Mr Jones, pressing the said Knapp to confess that she was a witch, upon wch goodwife Staplies said, why should she, the said Knapp, confess that wch she was not, and after she, the said goodwife Staplyes, had said so, on that stood by, why should she say so, she the said Staplys replyed, she made no doubt if she the said Knapp were one, she would confess it."