Katherine Palmer is the
10th Great Grandmother of Sarah Elizabeth Rose
Through the following line
Katherine and Henry Palmer
Deborah Palmer and Lewis Jones
Hannah Jones and Stephen DeWolf
Deborah DeWolf and Aaron Huntley Jr.
Phebe Huntley and Nicodemus Miller
Bethuel Miller and Jemima Huntley
Eber Miller and Acenath (surname unknown)
Bethuel -2- Miller and Amantha Martha Jordan
Samuel Eber Miller and Mahala Banks
My Great Grandparents
My Grandparents
My parents
Sarah Elizabeth Rose

1. "The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut 1647-1697"
by John M. Taylor, has a list of those who were under suspicion for witch craft.
In it we find the following:
"Goodwife Palmer, of Whethersfield, 1648.
Accused in the Witch Trials, of slander: Case ultimately dismissed.

2. Drake, Frederick C. "Witchcraft in the American Colonies, 1647-62" 2b.
American Quarterly 20 (1968):694-725, Levermore, Charles H.
"Witchcraft in Connecticut" New Englander 44 (1885): 788-817)
1662 New England/CT, Hartford Palmer, Katherine

3.Excerpt of Transcript of Lecture Delivered by Hugh R. King & Loretta Orion, PhD.
May 9, 1998
*Goody Garlick and Goody Palmer:
"Goody" referring to the title, "Good Wife". "It Were as Well to Please the Devil as Anger Him,"
Witchcraft in the Founding Days of East Hampton
In fact the Connecticut court's response to
the charges against Goody Garlick was consistent
with their treatment of a similar case.
The only other witch who escaped conviction in that court
prior to Goody Garlick's trial was Katherine Palmer.
The wife of John Robins accused Katherine Palmer
of tormenting her with witchcraft.
Robin's husband entered this complaint on his wife's behalf.
Women didn't bring their own complaints to the court in Connecticut, either.
Evidence of complicity with Satan was absent from the accuser's complaints,
just as it was absent from the complaints of Goody Garlick's accusers.

Katherine Palmer's case was a very early witchcraft trial in Connecticut.
Perhaps this inexperienced court, like that of East Hampton,
was not yet adept at persuading witnesses to modify their stories of maleficium
to conform to the charges of Satanic conspiracy that the court required for conviction.
Katherine Palmer's husband was also required to post a bond
for his wife's good behavior, just as Joshua Garlick was.
The court's only justification for usurping a man's control
over his own wife's behavior was proof of her complicity with Satan.
Evidence that women harmed others by supernatural means was not sufficient.
Some scholars believe the witch hunts were a conspiracy against women.
Most of the accused were women. We believe, this is because
it is more difficult to believe monstrous accusations
about others who resemble ourselves.
In many ways males and females are inscrutable to one another.
The gentlemen of the court treated men differently on those rare occasions
when they were accused of witchcraft. Men were not subject
to the same pressures to confess, and when they did confess,
they were almost all rebuked as liars.
Their penalties were generally a whipping or a fine for telling a lie.
Apparently the gentleman of the court found it difficult to believe
a person of their own gender was capable of being a witch.

4. From the "Witchcraft Trials of Connecticut" by R. G. Tomlinson:

page 4 KATHERINE PALMER

In October of 1648 John Robins of Wethersfield entered a complaint
on behalf of his wife against Katherine Palmer, the spouse of
Henry Palmer of Wethersfield. Good wife Robins charged Good wife Palmer
with tormenting her by witchcraft, and Henry had to post a "good behavior" bond.
The bond was lifted, and Goody Palmer was dismissed with a warning at
the Particular Court held December 7 at Hartford.
Suspicion continued to cling to Katherine Palmer, and she was to again
face charges of practicing witchcraft.

page 12

A suspicion of witchcraft did not die easily, and both Mary Staples and
Katherine Palmer were again to be subjected to
further charges of being a witch.

page 35

There was indeed, Rebecca Greensmith asserted, a band of witches in
Hartford which meet for revels in the woods at night and on the green
by her home where they would dance and drink sack. Some would come
in the form of crows or cats or other creatures. She named the other
witches as Elizabeth Seager, Mary Sanford, Goody Ayres, James Wakely,
Peter Grant's wife, Judith Varlett,
and Katherine Palmer of Wethersfield.

page 37

Henry and Katherine Palmer and their family were assailed by the
zealous witch prosecutors William Edwards and Jacob Mygat.
On June 3, 1663, Edwards brought charges against Henry's (and Katherine's)
son Ephraim for irreligious conduct on a fast day and Henry was
obliged to administer "severe correction" upon the boy's naked body
before the magistrates of Wethersfield and to pay Edwards 5 pounds.
On Oct. 6, 1663, Jacob Mygat complained to the courts that
(Katherine's daughter?) Elizabeth Palmer had slandered him by saying
that he and others played at cards at William Edward's house.
The court sentenced Elizabeth to 1 hour in the stocks and a 20 shilling fine.

The Palmers were spared more immediate trouble when a quarrel developed
between their two major antagonists. The court learned that Jacob Mygat
had said "By the life of God....he would plague Edwards' wife," (Agnes)
and directed Edwards to prosecute Mygat. On Oct. 17, 1663 Mygat countered
with a charge that Edwards was guilty of "profuse swearing, lying,
drunkenness: wanton, loose, lascivious carriage, besides intolerable
bawdy language." The charge was declared not proved.

Katherine Palmer then tried to move against Edwards, bringing
a 50 pound damage suit on May 10, 1664 for unjust molestation,
and falsely charging her, in a clandestine manner, with reviling words
and threatening speeches. She lost the suit but the court, on July 1,
released her from her good behavior bond.
However, Katherine was not left in peace, In 1667 she was accused
by Hannah Robins of bewitching and causing the death of her sister, Mary,
the spouse of Elizar Kimberly, the schoolmaster of Wethersfield
(Glastonbury). Henry Palmer moved his family
to the safety of Newport, Rhode Island.

5. John Putman Demos,
"Entertaining Satan:
Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England".
1983, Oxford Univ. Press, (Appendix A, pp. 402-9):

In addition to those executed in Salem in 1692, there were 16 persons
executed as witches in New England: 14 women, 2 men.

***1660 Katherine PALMER Wethersfield, CT: Complaint.
Some formal step was taken towards prosecution (petition, deposition).


Alice Young 1647 Windsor Hanged

Mary Johnson 1648 Wethersfield Pressured into a confession and probably executed

John and Joan Carrington 1651 Wethersfield Guilty, executed

Goodwife Bassett 1651 Fairfield Convicted and hung

Goodwife Knapp 1653 Fairfield Convicted and hung

Elizabeth Goodman 1653 and 1655 New Haven Charged with Slander in 1653.
In 1655, acquitted of witchcraft and released with a reprimand and warning.

Mary Staples 1654 New Haven Slander

Lydia Gilbert 1654 Windsor Probably executed

Nicholas Bailey & wife 1655 Acquitted and banished

William Meaker 1657 New Haven Slander

Elizabeth Garlick 1658 Easthampton* Acquitted

Katherine Palmer 1660 and 1672 Slander

Nicholas & Margaret Jennings 1661 Saybrook Acquitted

Judith Varlet 1662-63 Hartford Probably acquitted

Goody Ayres 1662 Hartford
Fled the colony with her husband, who also appears to have been accused

Rebecca Greensmith 1662 Hartford Hanged

Nathanial Greensmith 1662 Hartford Hanged

Mary Sanford 1662 Hartford Probably hanged

Andrew Sanford 1662 Hartford Acquitted

Mary Barnes 1662-3 Farmington Hanged

Elizabeth and John Blackleach 1662-3 Wethersfield
Complaint filed

James Wakeley 1662 and 1665 Hartford Fled both times

Elizabeth Seager 1663 Hartford
Tried twice and acquitted both times

Mary Hall 1664 Setauket* Indicted

Elizabeth Seager 1665 Hartford
Convicted, however the governor reversed the verdict

Ralph and Mary Hall 1664 Setauket* Acquitted

Hannah Griswold 1667 Saybrook Slander

William Graves 1667 Stamford
Complaint filed, probably indicted

Katherine Harrison 1669 Wethersfield
Guilty, however verdict was overturned and Harrison left Connecticut

Goody Messenger 1673 Windsor Slander
Goody Burr 1678 Wethersfield Slander
Goody Bowden 1689 New Haven Slander

Mercy Disborough 1692 Fairfield
Subjected to the water test** and later convicted
and sentenced to death, however given a reprieve by the General Assembly

Elizabeth Clawson 1692 Stamford Subjected to the water test** and acquitted

Mary Staples 1692 Fairfield Indicted

Mary Harvey 1692 Fairfield Indicted

Hannah Harvey 1692 Fairfield Indicted

Goody Miller 1692 Fairfield Accusation

Winifred Benham 1692 Wallingford Indicted

Hugh Croasia 1692 Stratford Indicted

Winifred Benham 1697 Wallingford Acquitted