Who Was Abigail Williams?

 It is believed that she was born about 1681 probably in Salem Village, in the Massachusetts colony. In 1692 she was living with a relative the Pastor Samual Parris. Also in the Parris home were BettyParris the reverend’s young daughter, Reverand Parris’ wife, Tituba and John Indian. The later two were slaves owned by the Parris family.    

There is no information about her parents or any other family members. 

 There is really no way of knowing for sure why she would accuse others of being witches. But knowing what led to the accusations allows us to make an educated guess. Abigail and Betty Parris started acting peculiarly. There is some documentation that the two girls were having “Fits”. This frightened the residents of Salem Village. They insisted on Reverand Parris finding out what was causing the peculiar behavior. A doctor was consulted and his professional diagnosis was that she had been bewitched.  This diagnosis led to questions and concerns about who bewitched her. After a lot of pressure to provide a name of who bewitched her she eventually provided the name of Tituba, followed by Sarrah Good and Sarah Osborne. 

 Abigail’s last testimony in court occurred on June 3, 1692. About one week before the first execution of the trials. There are no records of her death, marriage or what happened to her. Isn’t that suspicious that she was accused of being a witch, so she started providing names then suddenly disappears from history.