I saw the book on my bureau shortly after our last House Concert guest had left the other night – The Witches – Salem, 1692 – by Stacy Schiff. I knew immediately that my friend Stephanie had left it for me. Just the day before we had been talking about the book and I told her that it probably included information about my ancestor, Mary Towne Esty who was one of the nineteen men and women hanged that year for witchcraft.

Although I am descended from Goody Esty through the Espy branch of the family, the similarity of her name is purely co-incidental. The name Esty is variously spelled Estey, Easte, Este, Estee, and Estes, but it is through Mary’s forebears, the Townes, that we Espys count our ancestral line. And I should say, also, that “Goody” was a common title preceding the surname of a “usually married woman of lowly station” says my dictionary.

Her husband, however, was not especially lowly by current-day standards.  He was a well-respected cooper and had served in every civic office, from selectman to tithing man to highway surveyor to grand jury man. Even though he knew how the system worked, he was unable to save his 58-year-old wife.

In our family, Mary Esty is known as the “Blessed Witch.” My uncle Willard wrote an entire chapter about her in Oysterville, Road to Grandpa’s Village and concluded with this paragraph:
Among my forebears there are some of whom I am proud, and others whom I could do without, but my only genes with halos spring from the loins of Mary Esty, the blessed witch of Salem.

I would add to Mary’s name, the name of her husband, Isaac, who, for the next nineteen years, pursued every avenue available to him to clear his beloved wife’s name. Finally, in 1711, the family was compensated with 20 pounds from the government for her wrongful execution. Isaac Esty died in 1712 at the age of 84. For his unshakable belief in his wife and for his unrelenting pursuit of justice for the remainder of his life, I include him, also, high among my blessed ancestors.