March 24, 2023

Katherine Harrison:
Wethersfield Witch Leaves a Legal Legacy

Don't miss the upcoming lecture by Walt Woodward, CT State Historian emeritus, on  Thursday, March 30, 2023 from 7-8pm  as he discusses New England’s Other Witch Hunt.  

We hope you can join us.

Katherine Harrison
Life Before the Accusations

As a young woman before getting married, Katherine Harrison had worked as a servant to a prominent family in Hartford. It was during this time that she claimed to have read a book by British astrologer William Lilly, and tried to predict the other servants' fortunes for them. Had she known that these predictions would come back to haunt her decades later in the form of witness testimony at her witchcraft trial, she may have acted differently.

Katherine later married John Harrison, who was a wealthy farmer/landowner and Wethersfield's town crier. They had three daughters and when her husband died in August of 1666, he bequeathed Katherine and their daughters his large estate valued at "nearly a thousand pounds." (Pagliuco)  This is when Katherine's troubles really began, as within months of her husband’s death an onslaught of lawsuits and accusations were being levied against her.

The majority of women accused of witchcraft were disliked, envied or lived on the fringes of society. Many of the circumstances of Katherine's life after the death of her husband made her a prime candidate for being accused of witchcraft.  She was envied because she married above of her social status, and apparently she was not well liked among her neighbors as many of them took the stand and bore witness against her at her trial.  Undoubtedly, greed also played a large role in the accusations against her. Women who did not have male offspring inherited their husband’s estates should they outlive them, but if the wife died before her husband, the man’s property went to the community after he died.

The Accusations

One witness testified that he had an argument with a friend of Katherine's and was then unable to properly sew a jacket or a pair of breeches. He also said Katherine and a friend of hers stood by his bed at night threatening to kill him and pinched him. His parents came into his room after hearing him groan.  They saw no one there, but the next day he had pinch marks. 

Another witness thought Katherine was a witch because she spun “so great a quantity of fine linen yarn… [that she]…did never know nor hear of any other woman that could spin so much.” (Pagliuco) Other evidence presented included fortune telling, maleficium, allegations of shapeshifting, and several different incidents having to do with livestock acting strangely. There was even evidence given about her summoning bees.

“Richard Mountague, aged 52 years, testifieth as followeth, that meeting with Goodwife Harrison in Weathersfield the saide Katherin Harrison saide that a swarm of her beese flew away over her neighbour Boreman's lott and into the great meadow, and thence over the greate river to Nabuck side, but the said Katherin saide that shee had fetched them againe; this seemed very strange to the saide Richard, because this was acted in a little tyme and he did believe the said Katherin neither went nor used any lawful means to fetch the said beese as aforesaid. - Dated the 13 of August, 1668.  Hadley, taken upon oath before us, Henry Clarke, Samuel Smith.  Exhibited in Court, October 29: 68, as attests John Allyn Secretry.”

The Lasting Legal Legacy

"The trial of Katherine Harrison provoked a major revision of Connecticut trial law.   According to Connecticut state historian Walter Woodward, Harrison’s was 'the pivotal case in the transformation of colonial witch craft prosecution' from reliance on single-witness testimony to requiring multiple and corroborating testimonies." (Pagliuco)

At the time of Katherine's conviction, it took only a single witness to support a witchcraft trial and conviction, but Colonial Governor, John Winthrop, Jr., began to question the value of the “evidence” in these witch trials along with the possible agendas of the witnesses. As a result, he helped to established more objective criteria for witch trials that required at least two witnesses for each alleged act of witchcraft. In some cases, Katherine's included, he personally intervened and overturned or reversed the verdicts.

"[Katherine] Harrison's trial was notable in that it changed the way evidence is used in Connecticut, including determining that there should be a plurality of witnesses, at least two for every event. Additionally, Winthrop lead the way in determining that the burden of proof should be on the accusers rather than the accused and he lobbied to dismiss the use of spectral evidence (evidence based on dreams or visions). Over time Winthrop used his alchemist background to challenge the ideas of 'diabolical magic'." (Witches and Witchcraft Doses of Connecticut Legal History)

Katherine’s death sentence was ultimately overturned. She was released with a fine and the recommendation that, for her own safety, she leave Wethersfield, which she did relocating to Westchester, NY.  Witch trials continued in the state until 1697, but no other witches were ever executed in Connecticut.

Sources used for this Musing are listed below.

-Pagliuco, Chris,  Connecticut’s Witch Trials, Hog River Journal, Winter 2007/08, retrieved March 24, 2023 from Wethersfield Historical Society website.

-Katherine Harrison and the Adoption of Rules of Evidence, Doses of Connecticut Legal History page of the Connecticut Judicial Branch website, accessed March 24, 2023.

-The First Person Executed in the Colonies page of the Connecticut Judicial Branch website, accessed March 24, 2023.

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