Sargent Thomas Putnam

Thomas Putnam (January 12, 1651/2 - May 24, 1699) was a real person ([1]) in the Salem witch trials, and is a character in the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He was the son of Lt. Thomas Putnam (1615-1686) and Ann Holyoke (1621-1665). He was also a nephew of Elizur Holyoke and great uncle of General Israel Putnam.

Some historians have speculated that her parents, Thomas and Ann (Carr), Sr., coerced Putnam to accuse those they were feuding with or sought revenge on. Many of the accused had some sort of relationship with the powerful Putnam family.

Thomas was the husband to Ann Carr, and father of Ann Putnam, Jr. (In the Crucible, her name is Ruth Putnam) Together they blame Goody Osbourn, the midwife of Salem, for killing the seven babies that Goody Putnam had many years ago. Not only do they blame her, but they blame many of the wealthier and well respected citizens of Salem during the time. Unfortunately, their accusations are not booed down, but actually believed, because of the climate of fear and hysteria. In one of the most dramatic scenes in The Crucible, Giles Corey accuses Putnam of killing his neighbors for their land, so Danforth calls Putnam in to the court. Putnam denies the charge.

Minutes later Corey rushes at Putnam and tries to tear him limb from limb.

Putnam owns much of the land, and money. He is respective of the church, and is close to Reverend Parris. That does not stop him from subtly manipulating Parris. Putnam has often been viewed as unscrupulous and amoral, but his subtle machinations are often overlooked. He leads Parris by the nose to the conclusions he wants to hear, and faces down John Proctor, a man not lightly intimidated.

Putnam and his wife Ann act as a group in The Crucible, particularly in Act I, where they allow their fears and demands to override Parris' inherently weak personality.

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Thomas Putnam, Jr. (1651-1699) - A third generation member of Salem Village, Thomas was a significant accuser in the notorious 1692 Salem witch trials. He was born to immigrant Thomas Putnam and Ann Holyoke on January 12, 1651 (or '52) in Salem Village, Massachusetts. When he grew up, he served in the local militia and fought in King Phillip's War (1675-1678), obtaining the rank of sergeant. Upon returning home, he married Ann Carr, who came from a wealthy family, on November 25, 1678. The couple would eventually have 12 children. Beginning in the 1660's, Salem Village began the process of trying to separate itself from the larger nearby community of Salem Towne. The Putnam family supported this effort whole heartedly. The village finally was allowed to build its own church and hire a minister in 1672. However, not all of Salem Village's residents supported this idea, which would eventually split the settlement into two factions. Heading up the group who supported the independence of Salem Village was Thomas Putnam, Jr. Opposing him and his followers were the powerful Porter family. Both families were early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, both families had been successful, and both were large land owners in Salem Village. Over time, the division of the community became more and more heated.

Thomas Putnam, Jr. appears to have been an embittered man for a variety of reasons. The Putnams were farmers who followed the simple and austere lifestyle of traditional Puritans. They, along with other farmers in Salem Village, believed that the thriving economy of Salem Towne, and more specifically, thriving merchants, made people too individualistic, which was in opposition to the communal nature that Puritanism mandated. On the other hand, though the Porters derived much of their wealth from agricultural operations, they were also entrepreneurs who developed commercial interests in Salem Towne as well as other areas, and were active in the governmental affairs of the larger community. Due to these differing viewpoints, the Porters' diversified business interests allowed them to increase their family's wealth, becoming one of the wealthiest families in the area. In the meantime, the Putnam family wealth was stagnated.

Further adding to Putnam's issues of "wealth" was the death of his father in 1686. Thomas, Jr.'s father and his wife Ann Holyoke had born ten children. But, when his mother died in childbirth in 1665, Thomas Sr. married for a second time to a woman named Mary Veren on November 14, 1666. This union would produce one child -- Joseph, who was born on September 14, 1669. Thomas, Jr. did not get along well with his younger half-brother Joseph and when his father died in 1686, he felt cheated out of his inheritance when Thomas Sr. left almost all of his estate to his second wife Mary, and their son Joseph. Thomas, Jr. and his brother, would contest the will, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Adding insult to injury, his half-brother Joseph married Elizabeth Porter, the daughter of his enemy Israel Porter, on April 21, 1690.

His wife, Ann Carr Putnam, had also been disinherited. When her wealthy father died, she got nothing, as his estate was given to her brothers. She also tried unsuccessfully to sue for her inheritance. She too was embittered and also said to have been a woman of a highly sensitive temperament. Before she had married Thomas Putnam, she had moved to Salem with her sister, Mary. When her sister's three children died in quick succession, followed shortly by Mary herself in 1688, Ann's mental stability was severely shaken and she went into a decline.

It was not long after the first of the "afflicted girls", Elizabeth Parris began to have fits, that Thomas' own daughter, Ann Putnam, Jr., would also begin to show symptoms of having been afflicted by witch craft. She was followed by Putman's niece, Mary Walcott, and a servant girl who lived in the Putnam household named Mercy Lewis. Twelve year-old Ann Putnam, Jr. would become the most prolific accuser in the witchcraft trials, her name appearing over 400 times in the court documents. By the time the hysteria was over, she had accused nineteen people, and had seen eleven of them hanged.

Thomas Putnam, Jr. gave his daughter’s accusations legal weight in first seeking warrants against the accused witches in February, 1692. He would also participate by writing down the depositions of many of the "afflicted" girls, personally swear out a number of complaints, and write letters of encouragement to the judges. It is obvious that Thomas Putman, Jr. had a great influence on the shape and progression of the trials. Though he has never been accused of deliberately setting up the hysteria, he, his family, and his friends benefited to some extent by eliminating their enemies.

Thomas Putnam, Jr. died on May 24, 1699 in Salem Village. Just two weeks later, on June 8th, his wife, Ann Carr Putnam, also passed away. Their daughter, Ann Putnam, Jr., was left to bring up their younger children.

Captain Jonathan Walcott (1639–1699) - Born to William and Alice Ingersoll Walcott in 1639, William grew up to wed Mary Sibley about 1664 and the couple would have six children, one of whom was Mary Walcott, who would later become one of the "afflicted girls" in the witchcraft hysteria of 1692. During the years of 1675-76, he served in King Phillip's War. Mary Sibley died on December 28, 1683 and Captain Walcott would marry a second time to Deliverance Putnam on April 23, 1685. Deliverance was the sister of Thomas Putnam, Jr. The couple would have seven children. A wheelwright by trade, Walcott also owned land next to his Uncle Nathaniel Ingersoll. In 1690, Jonathan Walcott was elected captain of the military company at Salem Village. His Uncle Nathaniel Ingersoll would also serve in the Salem militia, first as a corporal, then a sergeant, and finally as a lieutenant. When the witch hysteria broke out in 1692, he became involved and was known to have signed many of the complaints against the accused. He died on December 16, 1699.

Mary Walcott (1675-1752) - The daughter of Captain Jonathan Walcott, and the cousin of Ann Putnam Jr., Mary Walcott was a regular witness in the witch trials of the Salem witch trials, testifying that she was afflicted by 59 people. See more HERE.

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, July, 2012.

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-putnam3.html#Nathaniel Putnam

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Thomas Putnam Jr. was involved in the Salem Witch Trials.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Putnam-75

Profile last modified 15 Oct 2020 | Created 20 Oct 2010

Sgt. Thomas Putnam Jr.

Born 12 Mar 1652 in Wenham, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Son of Thomas Putnam Sr. and Ann (Holyoke) Putnam

Brother of Elizabeth Putnam, Ann (Putnam) Trask, Sarah Putnam, Mary Putnam, Edward Putnam, Deliverance (Putnam) Walcott, Elizabeth (Putman) Bailey, Prudence (Putnam) Wyman and Joseph Putnam [half]

Husband of Ann (Carr) Putnam — married 25 Sep 1678 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Father of Ann Putnam Jr., Thomas Putnam, Elizabeth Putnam, Ebenezer Putnam, Deliverance Putnam, Timothy Putnam, Abigail Putnam, Abigail Putnam, Susannah Putnam, Seth Putnam and Experience (Putnam) Bailey

Died 24 May 1699 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Merging Notice

This profile is a work-in-progress. Under the developing rules on historically-significant ancestors over 300-years-old we are doing expedited merges. The current manager and contact person is Kathy Patterson but this is under the auspices of the European Aristocratic Ancestors User Group so the actual manager is subject to change. Please join the user group to participate in cleaning up and maintaining these profiles. We need one manager to take primary responsibility for each profile. Lechner-18 13:01, 13 May 2012 (EDT)

Biography

Thomas Putnam Jr. was a witchcraft accuser in the Salem Witch Trials Thomas Putnam was born on Mar. 12, 1652 to Thomas Putnam and Anne Holyoke.[1]

Thomas Putnam was a third generation member of Salem Village. He had many relatives in the area and they collectively owned a substantial amount of land in Salem Village and Essex County. Putnam was a Sergeant in the local militia and had fought in King Phillip's War (1675-1678) against native Indians and their French allies on the northeastern frontier. He was married to Ann Putnam Sr. (maiden name Carr), who came from a wealthy Essex County family.1

Sometime in January of 1691/1692 Ann Jr. began having fits along with other girls in Salem Village. By the end of February of that year, the girls claimed that the source of their affliction was witchcraft and made specific accusations against Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an Indian slave of the Reverend Samuel Parris. Because the girls were not of legal age to make accusations, Putnam along with three other prominent men in Salem village filed official compalints on their behalf and sought warrants against the suspected witches on February 29, 1692. Immediately, the three women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft, which was a capital offense, and were taken into custody.2

In April 21, 1692, with dozens of accused already in jail, Putnam wrote a letter to John Hawthorne and Jonathan Corwin, two of the judges of the examining magistrates in Salem who would later be appointed to the special court of Oyer and Terminer to try the accused witches. In that letter Putnam gave the honored judges a "most humble and hearty thanks" for the work they had done to root out evil in Salem. Putnam remarked that the judges had taken "great care and pains" to assist the people of Salem during this time of crisis. Putnam claimed that the people of Salem could never repay the judges for their remarkable actions. He assured the judges that "therefore a full reward will be given you of the Lord God of Israel, whose cause and interest you have espoused." Here Putnam was giving the legal proceedings against the witches a decidedly theological grounding. He was emphasizing the apocalyptic nature of the struggle in Salem. The Devil was attempting to spread evil in Salem, through his pact with the witches. In order to defeat Satan, good men like the judges were required to do God's work by seeking out those who had made a pact with the Devil. Putnam reminded the judges that their work for God's cause against Satan would only "add to [their] crown of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus." Here Putnam was making the argument that the judges would receive praise and reward when Jesus came for a second time and resurrected the souls of the faithful.

Yet despite the hard work of the judges, there remained work to be done. In his letter, Putnam wrote that he believed it his duty to inform them of a "high and dreadful" truth, of a "of a wheel within a wheel, at which [their] ears do tingle." The day before, on April 20th, his daughter had accused the Reverend George Burroughs of tormenting her. Burroughs was to be accused of being the ringleader of the witches in Salem. Putnam was referring to this greater conspiracy in this part of the letter. Putnam asked the judges to continue to pray for the community and offer their help and prayed to "almighty God continually to prepare [them]" for the work ahead. He hoped the judges would be a "a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well" and offered his assistance to them in any way he might be able.3

In April, Putnam sent a second letter to Judge Samuel Sewall. In that letter he wrote that his daughter "was grievously tormented by witches, threatening that she should be pressed to death, before Giles Cory." Here Putnam was simultaneously arguing that witches were still at large in the community and that they were greatly angered by the trial of their fellow witches, like Giles Cory. Putnam claimed that his daughter had been visited by the specter of a person who had been pressed to death by Giles Cory and that that person had claimed that God desired Giles Cory to die in the same way that he had died. Here Putnam was arguing that God supported Cory's immediate death by pressing. Putnam then reminded Judge Sewall that some seventeen years past a man who lived with Giles Cory had "bruised to death." Putnam implies that Cory had to pay a large bribe to avoid prosecution in this case. Once again, in this letter, we see Putnam supporting the judges' actions and giving their work a theological basis, arguing that God supported their work.4

The question of Putnam's motives in furthering the trials has been taken up by many. In Miller's The Crucible, the Putnams worried that several of their children might have been killed by witchcraft. In reality, the Putnams had only lost one child, a girl named Sarah who died six weeks after birth in 1689.5 Ann Jr. accused John Willard of killing baby Sarah through witchcraft. Worry over the death of their baby daughter two years prior and the possibility that it may have been the result of witchcraft provides one explanation for the zeal that Putnam showed in attempting to provie evidence against so many for the crime of witchcraft.

A recent handwriting analysis of the depositions of the afflicted girls has shown that some 122 of them were written by Thomas Putnam. While it cannot be known to what degree the accusations made in those depositions were influenced by Putnam it is clear that Putnam had the opportunity to shape the words of the young accusers as he saw fit. Further, the similarity in language across these depositions suggests that some of the language might be that of Thomas Putnam rather than that of the afflicted girls themselves.6 In the depositions taken by Putnam, the afflicted often claim to be "grievously afflicted" or "grievously tormented" and "beleve in my heart" that so-and-so is a witch. The accused are often referred to as "dreadful witches or wizards" in the depositions taken by Putnam. The frequency with which these phrases can be found in the depositions written by Putnam furthers the theory that they might have been more strongly influenced by Putnam that was previously recognized. Taken in conjunction with Putnam's letters to the judges and his efforts to secure warrants against many of the suspects, this new evidence further demonstrates the remarkable influence Putnam had on the shape and progression of the trials. Mary Beth Norton In the Devil's Snare (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) 22. Rosenthal Salem Story (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 14-15. "Letter of Thomas Putnam to John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin" in Salem Witchcraft Papers Vol. I Paul Boyer and Steven Nissenbaum ed. 165-166. "Letter from Thomas Putnam to Judge Samuel Sewall" in Salem Witchcraft Papers Vol. I, 246. Norton, Devil's Snare 157. Peter Grund, Merja Kyto, and Matti Rissanen "Editing the Salem Witchcraft Records: An Exploration of a Linguistic Treasure" American Speech, Vol. 79 No. 2, Summer 2004, 158-159.[2] [3]

Baptized

FEBRUARY 2, 1651/2, baptized in the First church.[4][5][6]

Death

MAY 24, 1699, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts.[7][8][9][10]

Note

Thomas PUTNAM received a liberal education and wrote a fine, clear hand. Many of the records of the witchcraft trials, in which he took a prominent part, were written by him. He was the largest taxpayer in Salem, and a man of great influence in the Massachusetts colony.[11]

Note: Sergeant Thomas Putnam had received a liberal education for his times, but with others whom we should more enlightened, he took a most prominent part in the witchcraft delusion of 1692, being in fact, second to none but Rev. Parris in the fury with which he seemed to ferret out the victims of his young daughter's insane desire for notoriety. His wife also took prominent part in those proceedings.

Sergeant Putnam was of a decisive and obstinate nature; he had been in the Narragansett fight, belonged to the company of troopers and was parish clerk. Many of the records of the witchcraft proceedings are in his hand. He wrote a fine, clear and beautiful hand.

It was in the houses of Thomas and of Rev. Parris that the "bewitched" children first met to accomplish their pranks. In the "circle" were the daughter Ann, and a maid-servant of Mrs. Putnam, Mary Lewis by name.

That Sergeant Putnam was a firm believer in the whole matter there seems to be but little doubt. He showed a lamentable lack of common sense, but so did many others. The strain was too much for him and he died shortly after the trails; his wife followed him to the grave a few weeks later.[12]

Thomas Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1651. [citation needed]

Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr were married in Salem in 1678, [13]

A third generation member of Salem Village, Thomas was a significant accuser in the notorious 1692 Salem witch trials.

When he grew up, he served in the local militia and fought in King Phillip's War (16751678), obtaining the rank of sergeant.

Thomas Putnam, Jr. gave his daughter’s accusations legal weight in first seeking warrants against the accused witches in February, 1692. He would also participate by writing down the depositions of many of the "afflicted" girls, personally swear out a number of complaints, and write letters of encouragement to the judges. It is obvious that Thomas Putman, Jr. had a great influence on the shape and progression of the trials. Though he has never been accused of deliberately setting up the hysteria, he, his family, and his friends benefited to some extent by eliminating their enemies. - http://www.legendsofamerica.com/The Vengeful Putnam Family of Salem Village

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