Some Windham residents share a unique common thread: their ancestors were hanged more than 300 years ago.

It is autumn in New England. Piles of pumpkins brighten the roadsides and markets, and the plentiful hardwood trees offer streaks of color unseen at any other time of year. In this cheery environment, the dark side appears.

Susannah Martin, George Jacobs, John Proctor. These three and more than 150 others were called witches and wizards during the horrific summer of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Some of the accused were hanged on Gallows Hill in that town.

The descendants of Martin, Jacobs and Proctor today live in Windham and many surrounding towns and have familiar local family names like Morrell, Reynolds, Hawkes, Chute and Dingley.

By October of 1692, residents and leaders of Salem, Mass. were recovering from months of what today is called hysteria. During the summer, 19 people had been executed on Gallows Hill in Salem (today known as Danvers). Eighteen were hanged; one was crushed to death by huge rocks being piled on him. Giles Corey was in his 80s when he was killed this way.

In the spring of that year, 19-year-old Mercy Lewis of Salem accused George Jacobs, Sr., who also lived in Salem, of being “a most dreadfull wizzard” who tormented her by “his acts of witchcraft,” which included pinching, asking her to sign the devil’s book, and striking her with his cane. He was also accused of never leading his family in prayer or reading from the Bible (he explained to his accusers that he could not read). The authorities referred to this as lack of respect for religion and further evidence of wizardry. He was well known as a grumpy old man.

When accused, Jacobs allegedly said, “Well, burn me or hang me. I will stand in the truth of Christ.”

Mercy, along with several young women her age and younger, were called “afflicted,” meaning that for whatever reason, they had temporary blackouts, claimed to see things others didn’t see, and inappropriate (for the times) weeping and bursts of laughter. These afflictions were blamed on witches. Among the girls accusing Jacobs of being a wizard, was one of his granddaughters who recanted her testimony (after he was dead) and admitted she had been lying.

In those days, the community of Puritans ran their municipality according to English law. Witches were executed. In England, it was the practice to burn witches. Here in New England, they were hung. From its founding until 1692, Massachusetts Bay Colony had executed 15 alleged witches. The summer of 1692 would change that statistic.

The Puritans believed that aggressive or unhappy women, those who used profanity, and especially those who were independent and owned property were witch-candidates. There was even a witch-finding manual! When one member of a family was accused, it was the pattern to suspect and usually arrest other members of the family. If a wife was accused of being a witch, it followed that her husband was also. Even the family pets didn’t escape for it is reported that a couple of dogs were also killed because they were somehow bewitched.

It didn’t matter if the women were pregnant as there are reports of children left alone when both parents were arrested. Eventually, the hysteria passed but not before many had died or been killed. Some of those who were jailed, awaiting trial, died in prison; some were eventually set free.

In 1702, the Salem General Court declared that the 1692 witch trials were unlawful; a few years later they passed a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused. They granted 600 pounds in restitution to the accused’s heirs.

In 1752 Salem Village was renamed Danvers.

In the early 1900s, a young woman Hulda Jacobs, who lived in the Stroudwater section of Portland/Westbrook, married William Cuyler Hawkes of Windham. She was a direct descendant of George Jacobs, who was hanged as a “wizard.” Her granddaughter, Betty Roberts, is very knowledgeable about her famous ancestor.

John Proctor, who went to his death along with Jacobs, had been an innkeeper near Salem. His wife was also executed, but among their sons, one named Samuel (who reportedly chased the cart that hauled his parents away) settled in Maine. Samuel Proctor built a house on what is now Fore Street and lived to be 85. He had nine children and one of them, William, moved to Windham where the family became well-known, productive and married into the Chute, Page, Dingley and Mayberry families.

Susanna North Martin had eight children. She had previously been accused of being a witch but this was not proven. However on the second accusation in 1692, she went to Gallows Hill. Her descendants include members of the Morrell family.

In 1992, on the 300th anniversary of the trials, a witchcraft memorial was dedicated by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. The memorial consists of 20 granite benches cantilevered from a low stone wall surrounding an area adjoining the Old Burying Point. The benches are inscribed with the names of the accused and the means and date of execution.

One of George Jacobs’ descendants from Windham, the late Dorothy Hawkes Reynolds, attended the dedication of the memorial and a special re-burying of her ancestors’ remains, which was part of the ceremony.