Alice ‘Alse’ Young – First Witch Hanging Victim in Colonial America
The chilling history of the English colonies in America holds within it a dark chapter of superstition and fear, a period marred by witch hunts and executions. Among the earliest victims of this tragic phenomenon was Alice Young, sometimes referred to as "Alse" Young due to the inconsistent spelling conventions of the 17th century. As the first person in the English colonies of America convicted of witchcraft and subsequently hanged, Alice Young’s story serves as a somber reminder of the dangers of mass hysteria and the fragility of justice. Her execution, which took place in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 26, 1647, occurred nearly half a century before the infamous Salem witch trials, highlighting that the fear of witchcraft was present in the colonies long before the events that immortalized Salem.
The year 1647 was a particularly devastating one for the town of Windsor, Connecticut, where Alice Young resided. A severe influenza epidemic swept through the community, causing a significant increase in the mortality rate. It is within this context of widespread illness and death that the misfortunes of Alice ‘Alse’ Young began to unfold. The community, grappling with inexplicable losses, sought answers and scapegoats, a climate in which accusations of witchcraft could easily take root. The death rate in Windsor that year more than quadrupled compared to the previous year, a stark statistic that underscores the atmosphere of fear and desperation that likely contributed to the accusations against Young.
Records pertaining to the case of Alice ‘Alse’ Young are scarce, making it difficult to reconstruct the events that led to her indictment and execution. The primary sources that mention her fate are limited to the diary of John Winthrop Sr., a prominent figure in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Matthew Grant Diary, also known as the Old Windsor Church Record. Winthrop’s diary entry from the spring of 1647 contains a brief and unsettling note: "One _____ of Windsor arraigned and executed for a witch in Hartford," with the blank line indicating a missing name in the original source. This laconic entry provides a chilling glimpse into the official record of the event, devoid of detail or empathy.
The second, and more revealing, record comes from the Matthew Grant Diary, which resurfaced in the late nineteenth century after being lost for centuries. Within its pages, historian James Hammond Trumbull discovered the simple yet devastating inscription: "Alse Young was hanged, May 26, ’47." This discovery finally attached a name to the anonymous victim mentioned by Winthrop, solidifying Alice ‘Alse’ Young’s place in history as the first officially recorded witch execution in the American colonies.
While the specific details of Alice Young’s personality and the accusations that led to her trial remain shrouded in mystery, some aspects of her life can be pieced together from available records. She was married to John Young, a carpenter, and together they had a daughter named Alice. John Young owned a home lot on Backer Row, an area near the modern-day railroad tracks off Pierson Lane in Windsor. He also possessed other landholdings, including a 40-acre agricultural lot situated across the Farmington River from their home.
The location of the Young family’s home may have played a role in the events that transpired. Their Backer Row home lot was situated among the properties of several married sisters with the maiden name Tinker, who had emigrated from Windsor, England. This placed them somewhat apart from the majority of the town’s original inhabitants. Intriguingly, nearly all of these Tinker women and their families left Windsor shortly after Alice Young’s hanging, with the last departing within six years. This mass exodus raises the possibility that Alice or her husband may have been related to the Tinker family and that she may have been targeted due to her perceived "outsider" status. It suggests that Alice ‘Alse’ Young might have been vulnerable due to social dynamics within the community.
The origins of Alice Young’s birth, the date and place of her marriage, and the birth of her daughter remain unknown, further complicating the task of understanding her life. One theory suggests that she may have met and married John Young in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, this theory cannot be definitively proven due to the absence of original records from Cambridge. Secondary sources do indicate a marriage of a person named Young in New England in 1638, possibly in Cambridge. Another secondary record mentions land records for a Young family adjacent to the Holman family. The Holman family employed a maidservant named Alice Ashby, who was twenty years old in 1635 and subsequently disappeared from the records. Notably, Winifred Holman, the mother in that family and a known healer, was later accused of witchcraft herself. Furthermore, at least one of the Tinker women associated with the Youngs in Windsor had connections to the Holman family.
The epidemiological context of 1647 offers further insight into the possible reasons for Alice ‘Alse’ Young being targeted. Prominent families in Windsor, including two children of the minister John Warham and the child of Bray Rossiter, the town doctor, suffered losses during the epidemic. Families of legislative members and those residing near the Young home also experienced deaths. (Rossiter later initiated the Hartford Witch Panic in 1662). The year saw a total of twenty-seven deaths, a rate four and a half times higher than the six deaths recorded the previous year. This heightened mortality rate created an environment of fear and suspicion, making the community susceptible to accusations of witchcraft.
Perhaps the most compelling clue to the events surrounding Alice Young’s case lies in her proximity to the Thornton family. Thomas Thornton, a tanner, and his wife Anne lived next door to the Youngs and tragically lost four children during the epidemic year. In the wake of these devastating losses, Thornton underwent a profound transformation and became a minister. He later formed a close relationship with Cotton Mather, a prominent figure in the Salem witch trials. Mather recounted in his Magnalia Christi Americana that Thornton’s daughter Priscilla, who died during the Windsor epidemic, claimed on her deathbed to have been "much troubled by Satan but I find Christ is too hard for him, sin and all!" Mather further stated that Priscilla hoped that other children she knew would "keep a day of humiliation together that they would get power over their sinful natures." This raises the question of what sins and encounters with Satan Priscilla believed had occurred and whether they involved her neighbor and friend, Alice Jr., or her mother, Alice Young.
The fact that Alice Young’s only child survived while so many others perished may have aroused suspicion among the villagers. They might have questioned her innocence, particularly given the high number of child deaths in her immediate vicinity. Furthermore, Alice Young’s limited fertility may have been a factor. In a society that placed a high value on large families, her single child may have reinforced the prevailing stereotype that childless or infertile women were jealous of those who had more children and were therefore more likely to align themselves with Satan. The conviction of Alice ‘Alse’ Young cast a shadow over her daughter’s reputation in later years and may have contributed to the subsequent witch hunts in New England.
Following Alice Young’s execution, John Young sold his land in Windsor in 1649 and moved to Stratford, Connecticut, joining his former neighbor, Thomas Thornton. In 1652, Thornton wrote a note to John Winthrop Jr., an alchemical physician and later the Governor of Connecticut, describing John Young’s chronic illness, suggesting that they remained friends despite the tragic circumstances surrounding Young’s wife’s death. This document also serves as the only primary source confirming the marriage between Alice and John Young.
Alice Young Beamon, believed to be the daughter of Alice Young, married Simon Beamon of Springfield, Massachusetts, in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1654, just two and a half weeks after the witchcraft indictment of Lydia Gilbert, Windsor’s second witch trial victim. Alice Jr. and Simon Beamon settled in Springfield and had at least a dozen children. Thirty years later, following her husband’s death, Alice Young Beamon and her son Thomas were accused of witchcraft. However, this appears to have been more of a case of slander than a formal accusation, and Thomas defended his mother. Alice Jr. was never formally indicted for a crime. Given that Alice Jr. married in 1654, it is unlikely that her mother was as old as forty years, as some have suggested without evidence.
John Young died on April 7, 1661, and was buried in Stratford, Connecticut, on April 8, 1661. Despite suffering from an illness for seven months, John Young did not leave a will, nor did he name Alice Jr. or her sons as his heirs. His property remained unclaimed for seven years until the town sold it to a man named Rose.
Limited records exist in Connecticut concerning the witch trials. The hanging site for Alice and the ten other victims of these trials may have been located near the Old State House, which was then Hartford’s old town green or Meeting House Square. A jail was situated on the northwest corner of that area, and the stocks and pillory were also located there. However, historian and minister William Deloss Love wrote in his book, The Colonial History of Hartford, that the hanging sites were located on a hill near Albany Ave. The exact location today would be at Albany Ave. and Irving Street, across from where the old Goodwin Inn stood at the time of Deloss Love’s writing. However, no primary source records have been found to validate this statement. Others suggest that the site was at present-day Trinity College. However, historians disagree with that supposition, stating that it was the location of revolutionary hangings. The exact location where the witch trial victims lost their lives in this horrific tragedy remains uncertain, a consequence of superstition, misogyny, and religious fervor.