26th May 1647: Alse Young, the first person to be executed for witchcraft in America

More than forty years before the famed witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts, Governor John Winthrop recorded the hanging of Alse Young. Referred to in other sources as Alice Young, there are no surviving records of either her trial or the charges of which she was found guilty. Nevertheless her execution is corroborated by the second town clerk of Windsor, Matthew Grant, who recorded the hanging in his diary. It is likely that Alse Young was married to farmer John Young, who owned a house on Backer Row in Windsor. While searching for evidence to support this theory, historians found that the town had experienced a substantial rise in the number of deaths during 1647. 27 people are recorded to have died, compared to just six the previous year. This has led many to hypothesize that an influenza or similar epidemic hit the town, and that this may explain the accusation of witchcraft. Children of both the local minister and doctor died in 1647, and based on similar cases it is possible that they or other notable families used Young as a scapegoat. Young was executed in Hartford on 26 May 1647, but the site of the gallows is disputed as again there is insufficient evidence to confirm any of the possible locations. Nevertheless, Young was not the last Connecticut resident to be executed on charges of witchcraft. At least a further 17 people were arrested over the next few decades, of whom ten were killed. In early 2017, Windsor Town Council unanimously passed a resolution that formally exonerated both Alse Young and Lydia Gilbert, the second Windsor resident to be executed for witchcraft.