Abigail Williams

Abigail Williams' testimony against George Jacobs, Jr.

Abigail Williams played a significant role in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and was depicted as one of the central characters in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. She was born in Hadley, Massachusetts and died in Mansfield, Connecticut.

Although The Crucible was based on the events of the Salem Witch Trial, not all of the play is historically correct. The affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor is fabricated and used as a dramatic device. Historically, Abigail was 11 years old at the time of the trials, and John Proctor was 60. Playwright Arthur Miller reduced the age of John Proctor to about 30, and raised Abigail's age to 17, to make the affair seem plausible.

After her cousin Betty became ill, Abigail quickly caught the affliction, gaining the attention that had settled on her young cousin. She began to have fits and to shout obscenities. She and other girls began to accuse neighbours of bewitching them. Little is known of what happened to Abigail after the trials finished. It is thought that she died young, having never recovered from her "affliction", although some tales state that she ended up as a prostitute for 5 dollars an hour in Boston. Other versions claim that she ended her life in the West Indies.

Source

*Genealogical record

Note: This genealogy record places Abigail at the age of 18 in 1692. This may not be the same Abigail from Salem Village who was (according to the trial records) aged of about 12 years at the time.