Abigail Hobbs

Who is Abigail Hobbs?

Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 14 years old when she was arrested for witchcraft on April 18, 1692 along with Giles Corey, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop. Prior to living in Salem Village, she and her family had lived in Casco, Maine, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki Native Americans. Her stepmother, Deliverance Hobbs, and her father William Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.

During her multiple examinations by local magistrates between April and June 1692, Abigail confessed and accused others of witchcraft, including John Proctor. At her trial in September, she pled guilty to both indictments against her, one for afflicting Mercy Lewis and another for covenanting with the Devil.

Governor William Phips granted Hobbs a reprieve in January 1693, after Chief Magistrate William Stoughton had signed the warrant for her execution.

In 1710, her father, William Hobbs, petitioned the General Court to compensate him for £40 expenses that the family's imprisonment cost him but said he was willing to accept £10, which the court granted him in 1712.

Abigail Hobbs was among those named in the Act for Reversal of Attainder by the Massachusetts Great and General Court, October 17, 1711.