ALICE LAKE
abt 1610-abt 1650
(Executed as a Witch)
- The Puritans believed that all people were totally depraved and could do nothing to save themselves from eternal damnation.
- They believed in salvation, that the fate of individual souls was predetermined by God
- In the Puritan discipline, dancing was acceptable, but sexual dancing was not. Drinking alcohol was also acceptable but becoming a drunkard was not.
- The Puritans believed very strongly in marriage and were opposed to illicit sexual activities. Adultery was punishable by death, and fornication was to be punished be whipping.
- They wanted to "purify" the Church of England and put an end to the hierarchy that led to corruption. They believed that the church should follow the scriptures exactly. There was a dislike of the Pope's practice of selling dulgences and the massive ornamentation of the Church.
- The Puritans had a strong belief in the supernatural and in the existence of Satan. They believed that the devil was loose in Massachusetts.
- Intolerance--error must be opposed and driven out
- The Puritans were very strict with their punishments. They saw all sins as a crime. Guilt, sin, crime, and adultery were all basically viewed the same.
"'Such was the darkness of that day, the tortures and lamentations of the afflicted, and the power of former precedents that we walked in the clouds and could not see our way."
The Reverend John Hale, 1636-1700.
Alice LAKE was executed as a witch in Boston about 1650-51, at least 40 years before the "Salem Witch Trials". While much has been written about Salem 1692, all the details of the trials, names of the accused and their families, very little has survived of the witch-hunt that had been going on for 40 years before that, in Boston and surrounding areas.
Alice LAKE was probably born in England around 1610-20.She most likely came to America with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Whether she married her husband, Henry LAKE, before or after she came to America is unknown.
(Henry may have arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 with Rev. Richard Mather's Lancashire group; he was in Salem in 1649; he was in Dorchester in 1650; he moved to Portsmouth, RI, in 1652.)
Alice LAKE settled in Dorchester, MA about 1640 with her husband, Henry LAKE. Her maiden name is unknown, though there is speculation that it may have been "POPE".
NOTES: Research of the surviving documents has raised some questions on the relationship between Alice LAKE and Alice POPE:
BURR, George L. [editor]: Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases 1648-1706, 1914, Scribner's. [Collection of old essays, collected and edited by Burr, a professor of medieval history at Cornell University.]
Quoting John HALE's "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft," 1702, [one of Burr's selected narratives]:
Pages 408 & 409:
"Another that suffered on that account some time after, was a Dorchester Woman [in a note Burr makes it clear that Hale was speaking of Henry LAKE's wife]. And upon the day of her Execution Mr. THOMPSON, Minister at Brantry [Burr notes, Braintree, MA], and J.P. [Burr notes, probably John PHILLIPS of Dorchester according to Farmer**] her former Master took pains with her to bring her to repentance. And she utterly denyed her guilt of Witchcraft: yet justified God for bringing her to that punishment: for she had when a single woman played the harlot, and 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, yet she was a Murderer in the sight of God for her endeavours, and shewed great penitency for that sin; but owned nothing of the crime laid to her charge."
[**NOTE: Another researcher, Benjamin Lake Noyes, surmised that "J.P." was John POPE, husband of Alice POPE.]
The phrase "J.P. her former master" indicates some form of familial relationship between Alice LAKE and "J.P." Is it John POPE, Alice POPE's second husband? In the customs of the times,
Alice would have been referred to as a servant in the home of John POPE if she had been his step-daughter.If it is referring to "John PHILLIPS", then why is he her "'former master"?
Alice and Henry LAKE were not wealthy and at about 30 years of age (in 1650), Alice had at least 5 children under the age of 10. Her life must have been hard, working all day, every day with no conveniences. Alice and Henry lived in Colonial New England, a puritanical society with strict and confusing beliefs and values. .
Alice was living in this society with the knowledge that she had had sex before marriage. She had also become pregnant before marriage.
Sometime around 1650, Alice and Henry LAKE's youngest child died. Shortly after, Alice began speaking of seeing her dead child. The Puritan beliefs of the day were that the devil was coming to Alice in the form of her dead child. They accused her of witchcraft and put her on trial in Boston, MA. She denied the charges , stating that she "wasn't a witch but that God was punishing her for her sins prior to marriage"
NOYES, Benjamin Lake, M.D.: Private journals, 12 volumes, prepared about 1907-1920.
[These are unpublished journals prepared by Dr. Noyes who did enormous research and analysis on Alice Lake and her descendants.]
[L.D.S. microfilm #0928213, items 1-10, and L.D.S. microfilm #0404232, items 1-2]
Volume IV :
"it was Alice who told Mr. Thompson and J.P. that she wasn't a witch but that God was punishing her for her sins prior to marriage."
Alice was found guilty of the crime of witchcraft and sentenced to be executed by hanging. On the day of her execution, she was told that she would be allowed to live if she recanted her story. Alice refused, stating that she could not deny her baby. Alice was executed by hanging at the Boston Commons in about 1650.
WEISMAN, Richard : Witchcraft, Magic, & Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts, 1984, Univ. of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. [sociologist at York Univ. in Toronto]
[ISBN 0-87023-494-3]
Page 196-197 [chart]:
"Mrs. H. LAKE, Dorchester, Case tried in 1650." Probably executed in Boston. Source: Thomas Hutchinson, The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692, p. 384, n.4 [found in New England Historical & Genealogical Register 24, 1820, pp 380-92]; John Hale, A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, 1702, p.17; G. Lincoln Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases 1648-1706, pp.408-9, n.4.
Hall, David D. Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England. Second Edition. Northeastern University Press, Boston: 1999.
Henry LAKE left Dorchester immediately for Rhode Island where he is found in Portsmouth in 1652. The children are left in Dorchester to be cared for by the townspeople.
CHILD 1: Elizabeth LAKE BORN: prob Abt 1641
DIED: Aft 1702, probably Little Compton, Newport Co., RI
SPOUSE: Thomas BUTTS (1641-1702)
MARR: Bef 1667, probably Little Compton, Newport Co., RI
CHILD 2: Thomas LAKE [King Philip's War]
BORN: prob 1642-43
DIED: 14 Dec 1715/1717, Little Compton, Newport Co., RI
CHILD 3: David LAKE [King Philip's War]
BORN: prob Abt 1644-45, probably MA
DIED: Aft 1709, Little Compton, Newport Co., RI
SPOUSE: Sarah EARLE, born abt 1640 to Ralph Earle & Joan Savage
MARR: 1673-1679, Little Compton/Tiverton, Newport Co., RI
Genealogical Section Additions to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island contributed by George Andrews Moriarty Jr
"LAKE David Lake was son of Henry of Portsmouth in 1652 This Henry was brother of Deacon Thomas Lake of Dorchester Mass and Henry had formerly lived in Dorchester David had a brother Thomas who lived in Portsmouth and Tiverton where he married and raised a numerous family but no notice of him appears in Austin"
CHILD 4: Daniel (?) LAKE BORN: prob Abt 1646-47, probably MA DIED: Abt 1652, probably Dorchester, Suffolk Co., MA
CHILD 5 ___________LAKE BORN prob about 1648-1650 (This was the infant who died and Alice stated seeing after its death)
NOTES:
GENEALOGICAL SECTION 63
Rhode Island Historical Society Collections By Rhode Island Historical Society:"Henry LAKE was also a short time in Warwick and later of Dartmouth issue 1 David 2 Thomas 3 A child dead by Dorchester records " 27 10 1653 BOSTON, City of: Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, 1896, City Printers
.Page 307:"An account of the rates gathered in the year 1651 for the Use of the towne of Dorchester: ...Disbursed as followeth ... to Alce POPE for LAKE's child 3 pounds and 14 paid to Lawrence SMITH for charges about Alex LAKE children, 4 pounds"
"paid to Mr. GLOUER 1 pound that he laid out about H. LAKE's children"
"paid and to be paid to Thomas TOLMAN for the bringing up of Henry LAKE's child according to the covenant recorded, the sum of 26 pounds."
Page 308: [continuation of accounting for 1651]
"more for LAKE's child"
Page 310:"2nd day of the 9th month, 1652 [Nov. 2, 1652]""to John POPE's wife about Alex LAKE's children, 10 pounds and 8 [smaller money units]."
Alice and Henry LAKE's son, Thomas, was placed in Henry LAKE's brother's (Thomas LAKE) household.
Rhode Island Historical Society Collections By Rhode Island Historical Society - Taunton Deeds 62
Deacon Thomas Lake of Dorchester in his will 25 Oct 1678 proved 14 Nov 1678 left the residue of his property to the children of his brother Henry Thomas being named for him to have 5 more than the rest On 15 June 1709 David Lake sold his share of the Dorchester lands to Zachery Butts and the children of Thomas Lake conveyed to him their father's share of the grant made to David and Thomas Lake for services in Philip's War by Plymouth Colony for the purpose of trying out the title and call him their honoured uncle.
Alice and Henry LAKE's son, Daniel (?)
was 'bound out' by the town meeting to brother Tolman for a consideration of 26 pounds.." and was dead within two years.BOSTON, City of: Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, 1896, City Printers.
[English modernized for easier reading]
Page 306:
"12th day of the 11th month, 1651 [Jan. 12, 1652] ... It is agreed between the select men and brother TOLMAN that he shall take Henry LAKE's child to keep it until it come to 21 years of age and therefore to have 26 pounds and to give security to the town and to teach it to read and write and when it is capable if he lives the said brother Tolman to teach it his trade. Further agreed if it dies within 2 months, brother Tolman is to return 21 pounds. If die at one year's end, brother
Tolman is to return 18 pounds; if within 2 years, he is to return 11 pounds; if it die before 3 years be expired, then he is to return 5 pounds."
From Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, 1982, Oxford University Press:
"Alice LAKE, convicted and executed at Dorchester in about 1650. Her husband Henry moved away at once; his name appears regularly in the records of Portsmouth, RI, beginning in April 1651. Meanwhile the four LAKE children, all less than ten years old, remained in Dorchester. One, probably the youngest, was 'bound out' by the town meeting to a local family for a 'consideration' of 26 pounds--and was dead within two years. The other three were also placed in (separate) Dorchester households. At this point their trail becomes badly obscured. (One was living as a servant to an uncle--still in Dorchester--in 1659.) Later, having reached adulthood, the same three were found in Rhode Island--and then in Plymouth Colony, where their father had removed by 1673. It appears, therefore, that the family was eventually reunited, some two decades after the event that had broken it apart."