Alice Lake

Accused of Witchcraft in Puritan New England - Dorchester, Plymouth Colony, 1651

What if you were accused of being a witch in Puritan New England?

In about 1651 30-something-year-old Alice Lake gave birth to her fifth child. Alice and her husband Henry were Puritans living in Dorchester, a small town in Plymouth colony near Boston. The Lakes were working-class colonists, Henry was a currier, and Alice would have spent her days laboring to make ends meet and feed their children ages 10 to newborn.

Then, the youngest died, and afterward Alice, in her grief, thought she saw the baby. It’s not clear whether she believed she saw a ghost or just believed her baby was still with her, but her mistake was telling other people in her Puritan town. She was accused of being in league with the devil, who was coming to her in the form of her child.

This grieving mother was arrested by the church officials, tried, and convicted of practicing witchcraft! The records of her trial are lost, but one writer who had access to the records wrote that Alice was given a chance to repent on the day of her execution, but that she utterly denied the charge of witchcraft. What she admitted to was a different sin. She told the men questioning her that she had had premarital relations, and, quote, “..being with child used means to destroy the fruit of her body to conceal her sin and shame, and although she did not effect it,” she believed she was now being punished. The implication was that the child in question would have been her eldest, conceived before she was married.

A descendant of hers, Dr. Benjamin Noyes, researched the case, and wrote, “Here is a penitent, broken hearted, submissive woman, laying bare the greatest secret of her bosom, asking forgiveness; yet the damnable tactics of the fanatical Christian Church string her up like a miserable tramp.” I couldn’t have said it better.

Alice was executed by hanging.

Henry Lake fled the area abandoning his four children! The eldest son was taken in by an uncle and the rest distributed among the townspeople. The toddler was deceased within two years, but the other three survived.

The researcher Alice Marie Beard wrote the most comprehensive account I have found of Alice Lake’s story and quotes most of the scanty mentions of it in the contemporary and later records. I relied on her compilation for my story. Her web page is extant, but the content has been copied to Alice Lake’s WikiTree entry, in case it goes missing.

I am a descendant of Alice Lake, are You?

Learn More

Alice (Mrs. Henry) Lake executed as a witch by Alice Marie Beard (not a secure url):  http://www.alicemariebeard.com/genealogy/maternal/lake.htm

“Long before Salem, Dorchester executed its own ‘witch’,” by Bill Forry, Oct 29, 2008, Dorchester Reporter, Dorchester, Massachusetts:  https://www.dotnews.com/2008/long-salem-dorchester-executed-its-own-witch

Alice Lake’s Descendants at Roots Web: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~alicebeard/genealogy/maternal/lakedesc.html

Alice (Ireod) Lake (abt. 1621 – abt. 1651) at Wikitree. Although I don’t think she was an Ireod, this profile compiles many of the known sources: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ireod-3