Bray WILKINS

                   RESEARCH NOTE:  
       Historical detail in NOTES.  Bray Wilkins accused his grandson-in-law of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials.


Bray accused a grandson-in-law (John Willard husband o f his granddaughter)of witchcraft and tried to have him hung in Salem, MA. The reason given wa s that Bray had a kidney stone attack when John Willard walked into his room--ha d to have been witchcraft Bray also accused him of being involved in the deat h of another of Bray's grandsons, Daniel Wilkins.
Apparently after the first few Witchcraft incidences, which were directed towardthe weaker, less desireable people in Salem, many of the accusation s had an economic gain involved in them. The family farm plots in Salem kept be ing divided among the many offspring and were getting too small to keep a fam ily going. Agriculture was failing and Salem was on the ropes economically. S ome people used the "witchcraft" trials to get the upper hand again st cousins and other people that had desired property. I do not know if Bray Wilkins' ac cusation was for personal gain or not.
John Willard was a successful merchant from outside the area. He was a la nd- speculator and supposedly lost a lot of his in-law, the Wilkins, money. H e married Bray's granddaughter Margaret. According to the University of Vir ginia, John Willard was executed for witchcraft on 19 Aug 1692.
-------Testimony of Bray Wilkins against John Willard-------------
-------Copied from University of Virginia website:virgi nia.edu----
(Bray Wilkins v. John Willard)
The Deposition of Bray Wilkins of Salem Village aged ab out eighty &one years with reference to John Willard of s'd Salem, lately charged with Witchcra ftwhen he was at first complained of by the afflicted persons for afflicting o f them he came to my house greatly troubled, desiring me with some other Neighbour s to pray for him. I told him I was then going from home, & could not stay , but if I could come home before night I should not be unwilling, but it was near n ight before I came home & so I did not answer his desire, but I heard no m ore of him upon that account. Whither my not answering his desire did not offend him , I cannot tell, but I was jealous afterwards that it did. A little after m y wife & I went to Boston at the last Election, when I was as well in health as in many y ears before, & the Election day coming to my brother Lt Richard Way's hous e, at noon there were many friends to dine there, they were sat down at the Tab le, Mr Lawson & his wife & several more, John Willard came into the hous e with my son Henry Wilkins before I sat down, & s'd Willard to my apprehensio n looked after such a sort upon me as I never before discerned in any, I did but s tep into the next room, & I was presently taken in a strange condition, so tha t I could not dine, nor eat anything, I cannot express the misery I was in for my wate r was sodainly stopped, & I had no benefit of nature, but was like a man o n a Rack, & I told my wife immediately that I was afraid that Willard had done me wrong , my pain continuing & finding no relief my jealousie continued: Mr Lawson , & others there, were all amazed, & knew not what to do for me: There was a Wom an accounted skilfull came hoping to help me, & after she had used means , she asked me whither none of those evil persons had done me damage. I said, I could not say they had, but I was sore afraid they had, she answered sh e did fear so too, as near as I remember. I lay in this case 3 or 4 dayes at Bo ston, & afterwards with the jeopardy of my life (as I thought) I came home, & ; then some of my friends coming to see me (& at this time John Willard was run a way) one of the afflicted persons Mercy Lewes came in with them, & they aske d whither she saw anything: she said yes, they are looking for John Willard but the re he is upon his Grandfathers Belly (& at that time I was in grevious pain i n the small of my Belly) I continued so in greivous pain & my water much stopped til l s'd Willard was in chains, & then as near as I can guess I had considerable ease , but on the other hand in the room of a stoppage, I was vexed with a flowing of water , so that it was hard to keep my self dry.On the. 5. July last talking with so me friends about John Willard some pleading his innocency & my self & some o thers arguing the contrary, within about 1/4 of an hour after that I had said i t was not I, nor my son Benjamin Wilkins, but the testimony of the afflicted persons , & the jury concerning the Murder of my Grandson Dan: Wilkins that would take aw ay his life if any thing did, & within about 1/4 hour after this was tak en in the sorest distress & misery my water being turned into real blood, or of a bloo dy colour & the old pain returned excessively as before which continued for about 24 . hours together (Reverse) Bray Wilkins Testimony ags't John Willard
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http://www.familyhistorypages.com/Wilkins.htm
Bray Wilkins, born possibly in Wales, about 1610; die d in Middleton, Essex, Massachusetts, 1 January 1702; married in 1634, either Hannah Way, christened 3 March 1616 in Bridport, Dorset, England, daughter of Henry a nd Elizabeth (Batchelar) Way, or Hannah Gingell, presumed to have been a sis ter of John Gingell. 
According to David Green, ("Bray Wilkins of Salem Village and His Ch ildren," TAG, 60: 1-18 and 101-113), William C. Hill's The Family of Bray Wilkins, Patriarch of Will's Hill, "states that Bray came from Wales, but pro vides no evidence except tradition for this." This assertion is not entirel y fair to Hill, who states at the outset (pages 1-2): "after diligent and thorough inqui ry by English and Welsh authorities, conducted in the interests of this genealogy, it m ust be admitted no definite trace has been found as to Bray Wilkins' presence i n Wales or of any who might be his immediate ancestors." Green admit s that Bray's age_at death (i.e., the approximate date of his birth), as given by Hill, "thoughperhaps slightly overstated," is largely substantiated b y circumstance (Bray would had to have been at least twenty-one to have received an allo tment of land in January 1633) and by statements Bray himself made in court concerning his age, by virtue of which he would had to have been born som etime between 1610 and 1612. The principal import of Green's article, however , was to dispute Hill's conclusion that Hannah, Bray's wife, was a sister of Joh n Gingell. 
Hill's account is as follows: B ray Wilkins' wife was probably Hannah Gengell. There is no record of the marriage to be found, which probably occurred a t Dorchester between 1632 and 1636, for on the latter date Hannah Wilkins , the wife of Bray, is recorded ashaving been received into the First Church in Dorchester. Two persons who had access to much early documentary material about the Wilkins family, now lost, Mrs. Martha J. Averill and Mrs. Emil y Ann (Wilkins) Milliken, maintain that Bray's wife was Hannah Gengell. Family tradition, generally, among those nowsettled in and near Middleton, is t o the same effect. [Note: The first wife of William Nichols, early settler of S alem, was Mary, or Margaret, Gengell (or Gingell), who died before 1640. Two childr en of Nichols, by a second wife, married two children of Bray Wilkins. The nam e was uncommon. Could she have been a sister of John Gengell and Mrs. Bray Wilkins?] Hannah Gengell was the sister of John Gengell, one of the incorporators of Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1643. He was made a freeman i n 1646 and described as a tailor. December 2, 1646 Gengell is recorded as h aving become an inhabitant and proprietor of land in Dorchester. Gengell is bel ieved to have come to Dorchester to be near his sister and it is significant tha t from this time on he is closely associated with Bray Wilkins, their business and fa mily relations being closely interwoven throughout the rest of their lives. Wi lkins and Gengell left Dorchester together and went to Lynn to work iron mines ther e. Together they bought the Bellingham grant in Salem and they lived togethe r in the same house in Salem Village (now Middleton) until Gengell built a hou se of his own close by. And when Gengell died, his will provided that all his p roperty be distributed among the children and grandchildren of Bray Wilkins and h is wife. The only exception was a gift of five pounds to the First Church in Dorch ester, the memory of which is preserved in a silver cup marked "John Genge n 1685," still preserved by the society. Alternatively, Green, pointing to apparen t errors in Hill's book and SidneyPerley's History of Salem, states unequivocally tha t Hannah, who married Bray, "was beyond much doubt a daughter of Mr. H enry Way of Dorchester by his wife Elizabeth Batchelar." Green's argumen t (parotted by Anderson) is as follows (with our "asides" in parentheses; n ot an exact quote): Merriam (Peabody Ancestry, p. 15) concluded that Bray Wilkins' wife Ann a was a daughter of John Gengell (or Gingell), primarily based on the abstract o f John's will in NEHGR 40:257. That conclusion is impossible: Gengell called himse lf 70 in that document, dated 10 April 1685, and thus about 21 when Bray marrie d Anna. Hill says that Bray's wife was "probably Hannah Gengell," ; a sister of John, and Torrey reached the same conclusion based on what he could find in pri nt and what seemed to him reasonable. It is [Greene admits] difficult to esc ape the inference that Bray and John Gengell were in some way related. To suppor t the notion that Bray's wife was Way, Greene advances the following arguments : (1) that Henry Way arrived at Nantasket in 1630 [i.e., was in New England whe n Bray was] with his wife Elizabeth and children Samuel, Richard, Henry, an d Susanna." Apparently, Aaron should be added to Banks' list of Henry' s children," says Green, "and I suggest that he had a daughter Anna/Hannah as wel l" [It should be noted, however, that Greene does not offer proof (here) that He nry Way was the only person in Nantasket with Bray Wilkins]. (2) In May 1675, Braypurportedly sold land to his "trusty kinsmen" Aaron Way an d William Ireland. (3) When he testified against John Willard in 1692, Bray mentioned that h e had come to "my brother Lft. Richard Way's house" in Boston. " Since Bray Wilkins called Richard Way his brother and called either Richard's brother, Aaron , or Aaron's son Aaron, his "trusty kinsman," and since both Bray Wi lkins and Aaron Way Sr. were in some way related to William Ireland, it is clear that the se v
arious relationships could not have come about from the putative marriage of Bra y's sister or of Anna's sister to Richard Way, for that would not explain Bra y's relationship to Aaron Way or William Ireland. It appears most likely tha t Bray's wife Anna was a sister of Aaron and Richard Way" [Greene acknowledge s, however, that other relationships could explain the language. Perhaps w e should also rethink the meaning of the terminology: e.g., members of a common so cial group might call themselves "brothers" or "cousins" w ithout any actual blood or marital relationship]. (4) Bray and Anna (Way) Wilkins named a son Henry. David Dearborn found manuscript summaries of the parish registers for Bri dport and Allington, Dorset, in the collection of the Rev. Richard Grosvenor Ba rtelot, showing that Henry Way married apparently as his second wife, 22 January 1615, Elizabeth Batchelar, and that they had a daughter "Hanah" ; baptized there on 3 March 1616.