Sarah Cloyce

Sarah Cloyce (née Towne) (bap. 3 September 1648 – 1703) was accused of witchcraft but never indicted by a grand jury in the Salem Witch Trials.

She was the daughter of William and Joanna Towne, who had emigrated to Salem from Great Yarmouth in England about 1640. Sarah, who was probably the youngest of their eight children, married firstly Edmund Bridges by whom she had six children, and secondly Peter Cloyce, a widower, by whom she had three more children.

Sarah was accused of witchcraft the day after she had defended her sister Rebecca against the same charge by walking out of church, and pointedly slamming the church door (an action seemingly without precedent in New England), when Rebecca was being denounced, A few days later she was named in warrants and arrested, and transferred to Boston prison. The complaint was filed by Jonathan Walcott and Nathaniel Ingersoll, accusing Sarah of having afflicted Abigail Williams, the niece of the Reverend Samuel Parris, as well as tormenting Mary Walcott.

On April 11, 1692, she was brought before an examiner and refused to confess, attacking her accusers, Tituba and her husband John with great spirit: "oh you are grevious liars". She was then sent to jail in Salem, where her sister Rebecca was already being held. Both Sarah and her sister Mary were suspected of bewitching their niece, Rebecca Towne, daughter of their late brother Edmund Towne. However all three sisters had an extraordinary reputation for piety and charity, and the charges against them caused a backlash which ultimately helped to end the witch hunt, as many of their friends and neighbours, even at the height of the hysteria, testified to their good character and blameless lives.

On September 9, 1692, an indictment was made out against Sarah, "for certain detestable arts called witchcraft and sorceries, wickedly, maliciously and feloniously hath used practiced and exercised... in, upon and against one Rebecca Towne of Topsfield...and also for sundry other acts of witchcraft."

Sarah petitioned the court for an opportunity to present evidence which supported her innocence, and to exclude spectral evidence (testimony that the spirit of someone did something).

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