Ann Hibbins

Hanging of Hibbins on Boston Common, June 19, 1656. Sketch by F.T. Merril, 1886 Ann Hibbins (also spelled Hibbons or Hibbens) was a woman executed for witchcraft in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on June 19, 1656. Her death by hanging was the third for witchcraft in Boston and predated the Salem witch trials of 1692. Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel The Scarlet Letter. A wealthy widow, Hibbins was the sister-in-law by marriage to Massachusetts governor Richard Bellingham. Her sentence was handed down by Governor John Endicott. Hibbins held the powerful position of assistant until his death in 1654. Humphrey Atherton, who is said to have been "instrumental in bringing about the execution of Ann Hibbins", succeeded him in that position.

Trial and death In 1640, Hibbins sued a group of carpenters, whom she had hired to work on her house, accusing them of overcharging her. She won the lawsuit, but her actions were viewed as "abrasive", and so she became subjected to an ecclesiastical inquest. Refusing to apologize to the carpenters for her actions, Hibbins was admonished and excommunicated. The church cited her for usurping her husband's authority. Within months of her husband's death, a proceeding against her for witchcraft began.

Hibbins was tried and convicted in 1655, but her conviction was set aside. The case was heard again by the General Court. The Court's record from May 14, 1656, said: Mrs. Ann Hibbins was called forth, appeared at the bar; the indictment against her was read, to which she answered not guilty, and was willing to be tried by God and this Court. The evidences against her were read, the parties witnessing being present, her answers considered on; and the whole Court being met together, by their vote determined that Mrs. Ann Hibbins is guilty of witchcraft, according to the bill of indictment found against her by the jury of life and death. The Governor in open Court pronounced sentence accordingly, declaring she was to go from the bar to the place from whence she came, and from thence to the place of execution, and there to hang till she was dead. |group=nb In the novel, the central character, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted of adultery and sentenced to wearing the letter "A" upon her outer garment, comes in frequent contact with the witch, Mistress Hibbins.

Hawthorne's depiction of Hibbins has been analyzed by literary critics, who have determined that in the novel she, being a witch, represented for Prynne "a rejected possibility of dealing with social stigma". According to one analysis, "Hibbins embodies the stereotype of the aged witch who tries to use Hester's stigma, the scarlet 'A', as an item to seduce Hester to join the Covenant with the Devil." This is presented, in contrast, by the fictional depiction of Ann Hutchinson, who represents the embodiment of an angel.

Other people executed for witchcraft in New England Historian Clarence F. Jewett included a list of other people executed in New England in The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts 1630–1880 (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1881). He wrote,