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The history of 17th century New Hampshire is incomplete without mention of Eunice Cole of Hampton who, like many English women of the time, was accused of witchcraft.
Widowed in mid life, she became entangled in a series of accusations which eventually led to the loss of her property. Given the 20th century population in the New Hampshire Seacoast, it is hard to imagine that the& 2,000-3,000 residents of that time were also in a feverish competition for Seacoast real estate.
Eunice Cole, better known as "Goody" Cole, was a victim of this fever. Sketchy though the facts are, hunger for land inspired most New England witch accusations. Once Cole's land — her only source of income — was gone, she was virtually a ward of Hampton and fell into a spiral of begging and resentful charity.
Many New England settlers like William and Eunice Cole first arrived in the Boston area. As servants to Matthew Craddock, the Coles settled at Mount Wollaston, later Braintree. Their minister was John Wheelwright, a brother-in-law of the persecuted Anne Hutchinson and minister of the town. Wheelwright and his followers — including the Coles — came under fire for "antinomianism." These antinomians, like Anne Hutchinson, preached that God could speak directly to individuals, while Puritans believed God's only message was the Bible. Puritans dismissed inspiration as delusion or worse, the work of the devil.
Early Accusations
Wheelwright and his followers, who then were in Boston, were banished from the Bay Colony in 1637. Traveling north to Winnacunnet, they established the town of Exeter. The document of incorporation, the Exeter Combination, contains William Cole's signature. Whether because the Coles were located on land that later became Hampton, or because they moved closer to the coast, they became residents of Hampton.
By the 1640s, when William Cole was in his 50s and his wife was likely in her 30s, the Coles were in court in Salisbury a number of times. The childless Eunice was accused of slanderous speeches. She had insulted her neighbors and had been accused in court.
Starting in 1649, Massachusetts Puritans began to take control of government in all the towns of future New Hampshire. As a result, neighborhood tension in Hampton and Portsmouth took the form of witch accusations. Among the accused was Jane Walford in Portsmouth. Later that same year in Hampton, Goody Cole, long-associated with suspicions of witchcraft, was charged as a witch. Now firmly part of Massachusetts, the newly revised laws of the colony listed witchcraft as a capital crime. Conviction meant death. And death meant the dispersal of one's land.
Both communities had many members who deeply distrusted the Puritans. in control of their government. There was enough skepticism in the two communities to prevent the women from being transported out of the jurisdiction for trial. Defendants in witchcraft cases, like those of Walford and Cole, were routinely sent to Boston, the capital of the colony of Massachusetts. Conviction assured the confiscation of property. Cole was arraigned in Norfolk County Court in nearby Salisbury and Walford was arraigned in Norfolk County Court in her neighboring town of Dover. In each case, the husband of the accused was alive so no land was confiscated.
