This week's post has been made possible by the help of my marvellous neighbour and friend, Sheila McIntyre, who teaches various courses in American History at SUNY Potsdam, including one about witchcraft in the early communities of New England. She has helped me with the information I relate below, including the books mentioned, 'Medicine and Healing', and 'Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England'. I am sure she will be appalled at my terrible attempts at citations. I am not an academic writer, and write purely for the love of sharing what I have found out about my ancestors and their lives. I hope she will forgive me, and know that I am so grateful for sharing her knowledge with me!
The writing prompt for this week's piece is very timely, especially with our proximity to Halloween, and all that is spooky! This week's ancestor is none other than Dr Phillip Reade (sometimes spelled Read, or Reed). I am connected to him via my 3x great grandmother, Sophia Reed, who was married to George Newell, and mother to my 2x great grandfather Frederick Newell. It was Frederick who, as one of the many mariners in our family, sailed from New England to Scotland, and there met my 2x great grandmother Christine Hall Main, thus bringing the Newell family back to Britain, after a 200 year hiatus in the USA.
Dr Phillip Reade was my 8x great grandfather. He was born in England in 1623; his father (a student of divinity) coming from Kent, according to 'The History of the Reed Family in Europe and America'. The family were first mentioned in Woburn, MA, but Dr Reade himself settled first in Lynn, and then later in Concord, MA. Phillip married Abigail Rice in 1669, at the age of 46. Together they had four children; Phillip (1671-1720- my 7x great grandfather), Jacob (born 1673), Abigail (born 1675), and Amy (born 1678). Dr Phillip Reade's story includes an interesting professional life, a fair number of appearances in various trials, including ones involving accusations of witchcraft. It is always challenging when we are confronted by ancestors whose beliefs are so glaringly different from the beliefs we hold today.
Dr Phillip Reade served several communities in New England, including Concord, where he lived, and all the way out to the coast at Lynn, and further north at Salem. He would have travelled long distances to see his patients all living in various, fairly isolated communities in a roughly 400 square mile area.
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| Dr Reade visited patients in Concord, Billerika, Woburn, Reading, Lynn, Salem, Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Sudbury. |
He would see patients at inns and 'ordinaries', which were sort of 17th century community centres. He was not entirely a successful medic, as there are records of several cases made against him, regarding his under or over doctoring skills, and bills. There are, however, reports that he was a diligent medic;
'In 1670 six men certified they had observed Reade at work in their own houses and elsewhere when he took care of the sick and lame, "and some of us have observed him to bee carfull in his practise of physick and chirurgery and have Reseived Good by his care and industry."'
(The Trials of Phillip Reade, Rapoza; Medicine and Healing, page87; published by Boston University, 1992)
Around the time of King Phillip's War (the war between the colonists and a group of indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands) Dr Reade travelled with Major Willard, who commanded the troops of Middlesex county, and was the second highest paid in those forces, in January 1676, after Major Willard himself. The first of the doctor's stories that I find challenging happened a few years before, in 1669, at Lynn, and relates to a lady by the name of Ann Burt.
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| Major Simon Willard |
Ann Burt and her husband had arrived in the colony in 1635, and settled in Lynn. By 1669 Ann Burt was a widow. She was a known healer in her community, but in 1669 was accused of witchcraft by several people. One of the people who Goody Burt was said to have afflicted was Sara Townsend. Dr Phillip Reade was asked to testify in this case;
'...he had no opportunity to examine her condition but did plainly perceive there was no natural cause for such unnatural fits[.] But being sent for the fourth time and finding her in meet capacity to give information of her aggrievance and cause of her former fits she told me the above Burt had afflicted her and told her if ever she did relate it to anyone she would afflict her worse[.] One hour after she had a sadder fit than any ever she had afore: then I asked her who afflict[s] her now and what the matter was[.] She replied with a great screech she had told me already and that she did now suffer for with it much more now.'
(Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, by David D Hall; Three Ambiguous Cases (1669-1681), page 186; published by Northeastern University Press, 1991)
Of course, as a female healer, Ann Burt was at risk of such accusations. Dr Phillip Reade might also have benefitted from her not being able to practise healing; with less competition he would potentially increase his income. There are no records of any trial against Goody Burt, so perhaps she was acquitted. Ann Burt died in 1673.
It seems that Lynn was not a great place for our doctor. In 1679 it was in the town of Lynn that Phillip Reade fell out with a couple by the name of Gifford. John and Margaret Gifford were residents of Lynn, and John had been described as a 'stormy petrel of Essex County and litigant par excellence.' Doctor Phil had started a big argument between himself and the Giffords, by calling John a 'cheating dog', because Gifford had cheated a friend of his out of one thousand pounds. But what Reade did next was, with the benefit of modern hindsight, inexcusable. He accused Margaret Gifford of witchery by saying;
'...for there were some things which could not be accounted for by natural causes.... [others had been] strangely [and] badly handled by her'
Margaret Gifford later met Reade at the ordinary in Reading, where she told him that she had been cleared of his accusations. She had not stood trial, however the pair were furious with Dr Reade and the matter was not over.
It was in fact, October 31st (it's not lost on me that this was Halloween!) 1679 that Phillip and John met again, on the road to Salem. Reade was going towards the town, travelling east, and Gifford was coming west, away from the town. It was at this meeting that Gifford claimed that Dr Reade assaulted him, cutting him on the hand and elbow with his sword. Reade, of course, claimed that he was the injured party, and that it was Gifford who had struck him, and kicked him in the chin. In the ensuing trial over this matter Dr Reade reasserted his accusation of witchcraft against Gifford's wife Margaret, and even started painting John with the same brush accusing him of 'haveing Sum familiaritye with Satan or his instruments.' Margaret was ordered to appear in court the next day, but Reade's accusations of devilry against John Gifford were largely ignored. As it happened Margaret never did appear in court, and like Goodwife Ann Burt, she never sat trial.
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| By unattributed - William A. Crafts (1876) Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849[1], Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849. edition, Boston: Published by Samuel Walker and Company, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17689791 The Witch Trial Craze of Salem began in 1692, and its possible that both Goody Burt and Gifford avoided further trouble from Reade's accusations because they predated that time. Had the accusations been made in 1692-3, things could have been very different for Ann Burt and Margaret Gifford. |
On the face of it, it is hard to understand or excuse Dr Reade's accusations, but perhaps I'm being too hard on him. Our 17th century ancestors thought the world worked in a very different way than our understanding about how it does now. The science of the 1600s was not the science of today, if indeed you can call it a science by today's standards. Instead religious beliefs, and superstition ruled the hearts and minds of the people, and as much as we would like to think that our ancestors were people with knowledge and understanding like you and me, they were not. Dr Phillip Reade was, however, a challenging man in many other ways, not necessarily to me, but to his fellow colonists, some of whom were members of his own family.
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| The doctor's dispensary and the apothecary's shop in the 17th century. Pictures facing title page of 'The expert doctor's dispensary' by Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) et al. Rare Books Keywords: Physicians; Herbalist; Drugs; Pharmacy; Herbal remedies; Apothecary; Medicine Dr Phillip Reade would have travelled to larger towns where he would have stocked up on medicines, and treatments. |
It seems that Dr Phillip Reade was an incredibly cantankerous sort, who possibly made more enemies than friends. In August 1669 warrants were issued for the apprehension of a Robert Williams who had been heard to say that he would 'have the blood of Doctor Read.' Phillip was apparently in fear of his life, and the reports that Williams had also said that he would 'get a club and.... knock out the doctors brans' surely did not help his anxiety. The records only give us a glimpse of why Williams was so upset with Reade; 'Dr Read had given him such Language as that he would not bear it though it cost him his blood.' No verdict was ever reached, as Williams ran away.
Another time Reade sued Ambrose Makefasset who reportedly said that Reade's mother (and supposedly my 9x great grandmother) was a whore! That truly does sound awful, but what was it about Reade that rubbed people so entirely, up the wrong way?! I can't imagine that the deeply religious people of the colony would use such language without having a great many buttons pressed.
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| Stony Ground, by Edwin Austen Abbey, shows a Puritan pastor preaching to a family around the dinner table. Whilst the Puritans were deeply religious, they did not abstain from drinking alcohol. |
Phillip Reade was not just nasty to his neighbours, but also turned his spite on his mother-in-law (another of my 9x great grandmothers!) In 1671 Abigail Rice, his wife (and my 8x great grandmother) was desperately ill. Abigail's mother, Mary Rice, suggested to Phillip that he pray to God that his wife would recover, and this reasonable suggestion ignited the fuse for this explosive response;
'ye Devill take you and yor ch[ris]t... ye Divel take you & yor prayers'
Later on, Reade shared with another person that his mother-in-law infuriated him, saying 'the Devill take her for she brought [me] to it'. Reade was accused of blasphemy, an offence that carried the death penalty, and he was taken to the prison in Boston, ahead of his case being tried in court. The charges were not found to be proven, and he escaped being hung, yet he was admonished, and ordered to pay the court costs.
In his lifetime Dr Phillip Reade spent at least a couple of times in jail. He was ordered to pay a fine of twenty pounds for making nasty comments against Reverend Bulkely in 1670, which he was unable to pay. For this he was sent to the Boston jail, and then was moved to the Cambridge jail, while the family tried to raise the funds. His wife, Abigail, in pleading to the court, gave an inkling to the reason behind his nastiness. She argued that her 'greatest feare is... he would injure himself Lying under soe many temtations.' The temptations being alcohol.
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| By Price - http://maps.bpl.org/details_10913, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10475205 This map from 1745 shows the location of Boston jail. |
It seems that as well as a mediocre doctor, Phillip Reade was a nasty drunkard. An earlier court case recorded the testimony of Ann Adams of Cambridge, who reported that Reade had come to her house 'much overtaken in drinke, & in such a condition that wee could not get rid of him, but were forsed to entertaine him till the morneing and that he uttered sundry evil & reproachful termes against Captain Gookin' (one of the magistrates who often sat on Reade's cases).
Whilst I might be able to forgive Dr Phillip Reade for his accusations of witchcraft. I think it's certainly clear that his fellow New Englanders found his nasty drunk self to be challenging. He left behind him a litany of records citing unpaid bills, fines, and hate filled spiteful commentary; all symptomatic of a life of an alcoholic. He died in Concord, MA on 10th May 1696, at the age of 73. Just three years earlier he had been sued for slander, after saying that John Clarke's wife had the French Pox (syphilis.) It seems that our Doc Reade remained the cantakerous old drunk he always had been, and that even his 70 years had not mellowed him.
Yup- Dr Phillip Reade was most definitely challenging, in plenty of ways!
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https://digital.nls.uk/histories-of-scottish-families/archive/94790627#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=287&xywh=-258%2C162%2C5442%2C4034
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3720.ar079701/?r=0.569,0.555,0.156,0.085,0
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Samuel_Willard
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