Roger Eastman and the Salem Witch Trials

Letitia Owen--Rhoda S. Eastman--Levi J. Eastman--Abel Eastman--John Eastman--Joseph Eastman--Samuel Eastman--Roger Eastman
 
The earliest Eastman ancestor that can be reliably traced with solid evidence at this time is Roger Eastman.  He is regarded as the progenitor of the line in the British colonies of America, and for most of those descendants with the Eastman surname in the U.S. today.  He was recorded as arriving in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, in 1638 aboard the Confidence out of Southampton.
 
Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled by Puritans, who "established a theocratic government with the franchise limited to church members" and "zealously sought to prevent any independence of religious views, and many with differing religious beliefs...were banished" (Britannica.com).
 
Roger Eastman married Sarah [last name unknown] soon after his arrival, and his first child was born in 1640.  He received land in the first division of Salisbury and was a carpenter by trade.  In 1671, Roger and Sarah gave depositions wherein they reported their ages as about 60 and 50 years old, respectively.  By implication, Roger was born in 1611 and Sarah was born in 1621.  Many have speculated regarding Roger's birth place in England, and the identity of his parents, but there is no definitive link.
 
Property of Roger Eastman is highlighted, L Center
 
Roger lived in the same area, with is wife and 10 children, for the rest of his life.  In 1691, Roger wrote his Last Will and Testament, in which he left the equivalent of about $2,500 to his sons and daughters, as well as two acres to his youngest child (presumably, he had given land to all the older children before this), and to his wife, Sarah, "all the rest of my Estate undisposed of by this my will."
 
In 1692, a 75-year-old woman of Salisbury, Massachusetts, named Mary Bradbury was accused of witchcraft.  In response to these charges, over one hundred of her friends and neighbors signed a petition stating that she "was a lover of the ministrie in all appearance & a dilligent, attender upon gods holy ordinances" and that “… [she has] a courteous and peaceable disposition and carriage. Neither did any of us (some of whom have lived in the town with her above fifty years) ever hear or ever know that she ever had any differences or falling-out with any of her neighbors – man, woman, or child, – but was always ready and willing to do for them what lay in her power night and day …” (SalemWitchMuseum.com).  


Among those who signed the petition were Roger and Sarah Eastman, as well as their sons and their sons' wives: John and Mary, Nathaniel and Elizabeth, Benjamin and Ann, and Samuel and Elizabeth.  
 
Despite the number of people who testified in her behalf, Mary Bradbury was found guilty and sentenced to hang.  She was able to escape but lived in hiding for the rest of her life.

Roger Eastman and Sarah Eastman died in 1694.

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