did you know conn. also had witch trials.

Connecticut was arguably the worst colony when it came to "witch" persecution. Yay for the Nutmeg State! I just added Alse Young to the project.

:)

There's an op-ed about Alse in today's Hartford Courant: https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-taking-note-buchanan-wi...

(Unfortunately, I believe the Courant is still inaccessible in GDPR countries. Sorry.)

I did know that. And, recently I discovered I am probably be related to 1 of those persecuted in CT as well as a few family members, including one 9th great-grandmother who were persecuted in the Salem Witch Trials.. The one in CT is a Sarah Dibble. I don't know if Dibble is her maiden name or a married name. I also do not know how, if at all, she fits into my Dibble family from CT.

Michael Thomas Brown, there was a Sarah Dibble accused in Windsor in 1673. I wonder if that's the right one, because the Sarah I just linked had a half-sister, Abigail Dibble who was accused by either her husband or her half-brother (both named Samuel) of witchcraft against her father.

It would make sense if two sisters were accused. And the Sarah Dibble accused in Windsor was originally from Stamford. But Stamford and Windsor weren't particularly connected -- indeed, they were in two different colonies -- so I'll have to look into it more. Seems likely, though.

Looks like there were two accused Sarah Dibbles!

One, from Stamford, was married to a Zachary. She was conveniently accused of being a witch after reporting his domestic abuse of her. He claimed the bruising on her body was from her "acute witchcraft." That was 1669 and acquitted by the court. John Demos wrote about her -- exciting!

The other Sarah Dibble, of Windsor, was accused in 1673. She moved to New York after the jury hung.

Ooh, I wonder if this is our Sarah Dibble, married to Zachary: Sarah Dibble

She was granted a divorce from her husband Zachary Dibble -- who was the half-brother of Abigail Dibble. So I'm thinking 1) Zach was a terrible guy who was terrified of strong women around him, and 2) THAT'S the Stamford Sarah Dibble.

But we still need to find the Windsor-to-New York one.

(Erica Howton, we have another witch hunt! I know you love this, too. :))

Wow. Okay. So, one of the accused (in 1667) was a William Graves, father of Abigail (1648-1666/7), first wife of Samuel Dibble (1643-1709), my 8th great-granduncle / 9th great-uncle (brother of my 8th great-grandmother Hepzibah (Dibble) Gibbs (1642-1698). As for Sarah, Abigail's half-sister via her mother, she and Abigail's husband Samuel Dibble appear to be first cousins via their fathers. The case I know of was in 1669. Where can I find information on the 1673 accusation? I wonder if there were 2 separate Sarah Dibbles accused or if one Sarah Dibble was accused on 2 separate occasions.

So Zachary *did* buy two lots in Windsor in 1665, but he sold them a year later to an Ebenezer Dibble. And since Sarah Waterbury remarried in 1672/3, she probably would've been known as Sarah Webster at the time the Sarah Dibble was accused in Windsor. I'm thinking the Sarah Dibble in Windsor was related to this overall nest of Dibbles, but maybe not the exact same woman. Also, the Sarah Dibble of Windsor apparently moved to New York, while Sarah Waterbury died in Stamford.

I'll contact the Windsor Historical Society and see what they have to say. There has to be a story here.

I just finished cleaning up around Graves / Dibble (and linked them into the Newtown settlement on Long Island).

This Abigail Dibble Died in childbirth & her husband accused her father of witchcraft (?!)

Here’s an article about it:

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/2/22/Graves-217.pdf

I am starting to understand more about this connection. What a family. Zachary beats his wife and then defensively accuses her of witchcraft after she makes the abuse allegations. I still want to find out more about that 1673 accusation. He had a full sister Sarah Dibble. Their half-sister was Abigail Graves who married their first cousin Samuel Dibble, son of Thomas Dibble (Sr) and nephew of their father John Dibble, and accuser of Abigail's father of witchcraft after Abigail died in childbirth of their only child, a daughter named Abigail Dibble. It makes one's head spin.

What about Zachariah Dibble’s second wife, Sarah (Clements) (Dibble) (Canfield) Youngs?

Erica Howton, Sarah Clements was the wife of Zachary Dibble and Sarah Waterbury's son, Zachariah.

All the sources I've looked at call "our" Zachariah "Zachary." We may need to change the display names on the men's profiles to clarify, or at least put some curator notes in.

So basically:

1) The Zachary who committed the assault is Zachary Dibble

2) The Sarah he assaulted and who got the divorce is Sarah Dibble

3) Their son is Zachariah Dibble, II

4) And HE married Sarah Youngs Dibble

Still can't find the 1673 Windsor Sarah Dibble, but I did just find another husband for Sarah Waterbury while searching for her. There's also an article in the Connecticut Nutmegger, Vol. 37 that I'm going to need to track down.

I'm going to bang my head on the desk for a moment, if you don't mind...

I had found the other Sarah Dibble mentioned in a few books about Connecticut witch trials. All recent publications.

But it was driving me nuts that I couldn't find anything on her in town records, so I went back to an OLR report from 2006, about the then-proposed, now-law bill to pardon all Connecticut witches. And it turns out that the Windsor woman accused of witchcraft in 1673 was a Goody Messenger, not a Sarah Dibble.

So someone got it wrong in a book, then other people quoted the book, then I went on a goosechase (and dragged you all along with me!). Oops.

Here's the OLR report, if anyone is interested. I'll upload it as a document. It's one of those obscure sources you'd never really think to check for genealogy reasons, but I'm glad I remembered it.

https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0718.htm

Dang, I was wondering why she wasn’t in Demos, and the lists extracted from him / he used.

Yes, I saw the jr Sarah married to jr Zachary after I posted:)

Are you going to add the document to the Witch project? I’d like to tag “William Graves 1667 Stamford Complaint filed, probably indicted” to it. I’m wondering how he faced down any gossip when he relocated to the Newtown settlement.

Thank you both for this interesting chase through early Connecticut & learning about eclampsia.

I did add it, and I started tagging it (made it as far as Alse Young) but I keep getting sidetracked. I also wrote a note explaining what an OLR report *is*, since I can't imagine they get used often in genealogy. I should try to find the PDF, since they're so Official and Formal in appearance, which is always fun. :)

Of course, our Sarah Waterbury Dibble Webster Trehern(e) isn't on it, because that is our destiny now.

https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000090486218446&