sep 2, 1674 - Susanna Sheldon, age 18

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Susanna Sheldon was 18 years old at the time of the witchcraft trials. Like Mercy Lewis, she was a refugee from the Indian wars and made claims of afflictions for the first time during the last week of April 1692.

Four days following the accusation that Minister George Burroughs was the leader of the suspected witches, Sheldon allegedly began experiencing “strange spectral encounters.”

On April 24th, she was the first to identify the wealthy Salem merchant, Philip English, as her tormentor.

She also accused Boston merchant Hezekiah Usher of witchcraft and, throughout the crisis, claimed to experience afflictions caused by Goody Buckley, Bridget Bishop, Mary English, Martha Corey, John Willard, Sarah Good, Lydia Dustin, John and Elizabeth Proctor, and George Burroughs.

Altogether, Sheldon filed 24 legal complaints against her alleged tormentors. Throughout the trial, she allegedly experienced apparitions from specters who she said tried to persuade her to sign the devil’s book, visions from the dead, visual manifestations of snakes and birds, and symptoms of feeling physically choked and having her hands bound so tight that she could not free herself.

Beyond the trial, nothing more is known of her.

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