The Case of Quaker Elizabeth Richardson and George Washington's Ancestral Lines

In my Quaker research I found this case and will further investigate Elizabeth Richardson and her history in England as a Quaker. 

According to an article published in the Washington Times 17th century Maryland was rich in witchcraft history. There are cases noted in archives and one is a local folk tale that has become Maryland’s most popular witch lore.

These earlier witchcraft cases recorded in the Maryland State Archives* were tragic, some even resulted in executions. The cases were always based on some ridiculous charges of superstition.

However, for Elizabeth Richardson witchcraft was just a convenient cover up to dodge any problems with Puritan authorities. In 1658, the ship Sarah Artch bound for Maryland out of England claimed they a supposive "Sea Witch" on board, but what they really had was a Quaker.   

Edward Prescott, merchant/co-owner and John Greene, ship master ordered the crew to execute Elizabeth Richardson after it was brought to their attention they were ferreting a Quaker.

The laws for any vessel transporting Quakers into the colonies was a 100 pound fine and a major hassle from the Puritan Republic

After "fashioning a hangman's noose slipped around her neck and dropped her from the yardarm"  Prescott and Greene assumed it was smooth sailing

What was not suspected by Prescott and Greene was for passenger John Washington, great grandfather of George Washington, to lodge a complaint for the hanging of Elizabeth Richardson for witchcraft on his ship.
Washington felt it was an outrage, and filed a complaint to Josias Fendall, governor of the Maryland province. Fendall had Prescott arrested and set a court date for October 4 1659 and sent a correspondence to Washington summoning him from Virginia. He desired Washington to bring all witnesses who were present at the execution of Elizabeth. Washington's son was to be baptized that day and requested to have court moved to the next morning and promised to appear. Images from  George Washington Blog

Bottle seal of John Washington found at his original home site in Virginia below

The summons reply from Archives of Maryland Volume 41 Washington to Fendall: Court records from Archives of Maryland Volume 41

 

Fendall did not change the court date to the following day and followed through with the interrogation of Prescott who claimed although he was the ship owner, Master Greene, along with his crew "were ready to mutiny" and he had no choice. Prescott was acquitted and no further charges were brought against him in this matter.

According to records John Washington came to Virginia as early as July of 1659. He brought a wife and two children, and a son was born in September. It is a pretty straight story that he lodged a complaint against the ship's captain for the execution of a passenger, Elizabeth Richardson, as a witch. Mr. F. A. Winder (London Athenaeum, July 19, 1890) notes that two of the Washingtons had by marriage the name Elizabeth Richardson, one being a grandaunt of the immigrant. 

BUT there is an article "John Washington on a Trading voyage in the East Country," by W. G. Packard

And Next this one

*Other cases of Witchcraft Aboard the Charity bound for Maryland from England hanged an old woman named Mary Lee after she was accused of sorcery. Her supposed crime: summoning a relentless storm that some on board blamed on “the malevolence of witches.” (1654)
Oct. 9, 1685, in Calvert County. Rebecca Fowler was hanged after a jury found her guilty of “certain evil and diabolical arts called witchcrafts, enchantments, charms [and] sorceries.”
Hannah Edwards of Calvert County, was acquitted in 1686 of similar charges.

"17th Century Witches at Sea" William H Cooke
"The Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Among the Pilgrims" by David Lindsay"Crimes and Punishments in Early Maryland" by Raphael Semmes
"The English Colonization of America During the Seventeenth Century" by Edward Deffield Neill
"The History and Topography of the United States of North America: Brought Down from the Earliest Period"
"Witchcraft A Part of Marylan's Past" Washington Times Sunday, October 10, 2004
Witch Hunts in the DC Area - Older Than You Think
"The Washingtons Of Warton" Tuesday, July 29, 1890 New York Tribune (New York, New York)
"Washington Arms Seen at Warton" Saturday, January 25, 1913 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California)
"Early Washington's" Sunday, January 4, 1931 Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana)
"Old World Offers us Reminders of Our Heritage" us of Sunday, May 19, 1957 Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts)
"Christ Church Files Stars and Stripes" Wednesday, August 11, 1926 Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey)
The Nation Volume 52

The Noyes Line Women: "Tuggie" and Ida Noyes McIntire

Many of the "marked" females in Massachusetts to be coined witchy women were "hard-working, inoffensive women, possessing a marked individuality, strong intellectual faculties, quick perception and keen wit, united to a firm will and independence of action, characteristics which, in some way, had brought upon them the ban of the community." Sarah Emery Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian One famous Margaret "Tuggie" Noyes was coined "Witch," or the Witch of Falls Parish---but luckily it was after the days of the whipping carts and the gallows hanging fates, as her descendent notes she was more fortunate than the poor lasses who "were discovered by ecclesiastical tigers." Horatio Nathaniel Noyes Noyes Genealogy. Record of a branch of the descendants of Rev. James Noyes, Newbury, 1634-1656
According to two sources Tuggie worked in town for Mrs Moses Coleman (Dorothy Pearson) spinning and weaving. She loved her pipe and often bought her tobacco from Emery's Tavern. Not all locals felt the same and she was sometimes turned down for a cup of cider or smoke. Picture of Emery Tavern from

One story retold by Sarah Emery:One cold winter morning, David and his chum Nate Perley were on their way to school, when they descried Tuggie advancing over the half-trodden path, the hood on her gray lambkin cloak drawn around her face, and a bunch of woolen yarn in her hand.
"There's the witch," Nate exclaimed, lamenting the lack of a sixpence to place in the path to stop her farther progress. His companion expressed his credulity respecting such an effect, but nevertheless drew a sixpence from his pocket, which he adroitly dropped immediately before the old woman; she passed on directly over it with a courtesy and good day, and David again pocketed his coin, firm in the faith of Tuggie's innocence of the diabolical influence, with a full determination never to believe in any witch, save the witch of Endor." Tuggie is now a legend in the Noyes family and "memory should be held in preeminent regard."
Now here is another Noyes women from the same line....Enjoy and a big thanks to Karen Prasse League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations for permission to share!
IDA NOYES McINTIRE, M.D.By Sandra Schumacher

Ida Noyes could have easily moved into the eastern blue blood society that enticed so many young women who were in her position.  Instead she chose a life of human service both in education and in medicine.  By the time she was born in Rhode Island in 1859, her family had been in this country  over two hundred years settling first in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1634.  Her paternal ancestors numbered several who chose the life of Minister and most graduated from Harvard University.  The Rev. James Noyes, also a Harvard Graduate, was one of the first trustees and founders of Yale University.
It should come as no surprise that there is little written about the accomplishments of her maternal ancestors, except for the poor Margaret Noyes who was declared a Witch.  This fate would not fall upon Ida Noyes whose  parents were on the move: by 1860 they were in Stowe, Maine and by 1864, Detroit Michigan where she attended primary school, high school and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1881.

Ida Noyes experienced a pivotal moment while a student at the university.  Her chosen field was Journalism, but while studying the Latin/Scientific course, she became interested in the field of medicine.  Following her graduation, she taught in the Detroit public schools for five years while she continued studying medicine at the Michigan Medical College.

from Roots Web

Soon she married B.N. Beaver and they moved to Dayton Ohio.  There she became active in the W.C.T.U. and became an important public speaker on their behalf.  She was one of three women who helped found ‘Bethany Home’….a refuge for “repentant and outcast women.”  Ida had not forgotten her love of medicine and her desire to heal, so she entered Woman’s Hospital Medical College in Chicago, a department of Northwestern University, and received her M.D. degree in March 1891.  She interned at the Woman’s Hospital for a few months, then moved to Denver Colorado and began the practice of medicine where she specialized in the diseases of women.
      It was Denver’s altitude that provided the impetus for her to move after divorcing Mr. Beaver and remarrying the ex-governor of Colorado, Albert W. McIntire.  They spent a few years in Cleveland Ohio before settling in Everett Washington in 1901, where Dr. McIntire opened her medical practice and private hospital at 3129 Colby.  She actively worked in the successful Washington women’s 1910 campaign for suffrage.  McIntire spoke to groups, helped gain continuing press coverage for the cause and frequently opened her clinic office for meetings of the Everett Suffrage Club.    
Ida Noyes McIntire was known as a highly gifted woman, active in local charities who considered human service life’s highest calling, just as many of her New England male ancestors had two centuries before.  Her decision to serve in the medical field was courageous considering the era in which she lived.  When she died in 1932, it was no surprise that she left the bulk of her estate for the welfare of retired Congregational Church ministers in the state of Washington.  It was her final tribute to her remarkable family and the last act of human service from a woman who lead the way for other female doctors in our community, and a person who exemplified leadership qualities that all can aspire to.
Additional info from Margaret Riddle and Louise Lindgren
Dr. Ida Noyes McIntyre, M.D. (1859-1932) was the Everett club’s Vice President.  She had come to Everett in 1901 to practice medicine and set up a clinic.   A dedicated suffragette, Ida had helped win the vote for women in Colorado.  She opened her clinic for meetings of the Everett Suffrage Club.
A colorful event captured front-page attention in both of Everett’s daily newspapers.  On July 5, 1910, Ella M. Russell, president of the Everett Suffrage Club, rose to her feet before sixty-five hundred people in a Billy Sunday crusade in Everett to answer an attack on women’s suffrage.  The attack came from Mrs. Rae Muirhead, a Bible speaker with the Sunday campaign.  Mrs. Muirhead opposed women’s suffrage and in her testimony that evening said that a woman’s role was to teach her sons to vote properly.  She also claimed to have received harassing letters from the Everett Suffrage Club.  Ella Russell asked to be heard and when denied, stepped up on a bench in front of the hall and began to speak.  Mrs. Muirhead,  Ella explained, was a woman of influence.  The suffrage club had written only in hopes of gaining her support.  Reporting this event in Votes for Women, Missouri Hanna wrote: “This event became the rallying point of an enthusiasm for suffrage which has put Everett in the forefront of the campaign.  Mrs. Russell is resourceful, she has rallied about her many able women and many novel schemes have been devised to further the cause of suffrage in Snohomish and adjoining counties.”

• 1860 Federal Census, Stowe, Maine
• Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Noyes, Schenectady NY History
• Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, by Shiach, Eilliam Sidney eds. pub 1906 page 905
• Issues of the Everett Daily Herald, and the Labor Journal and Votes for Women, 1909-1910.
• Obituary, The Everett Daily Herald, June 29, 1932