Elizabeth Booth

Elizabeth Booth was born in 1674 and was one of the accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. She grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, as the second eldest of ten children. When she was sixteen she was accused of being a witch. When she was eighteen, she began accusing people (ten people on record) of practicing witchcraft, including John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Sarah Proctor, William Proctor, Benjamin Proctor, Woody Proctor, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Job Tookey, and Wilmont Redd. Five of these people were executed due to Booth's testimony (John Proctor, Woody Proctor, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, and Wilmont Redd). Elizabeth Proctor would have been executed as well if she was not pregnant. After the Witch Trials, Booth married Israel Shaw on December 26, 1695, and had two children named Israel (born December 16, 1698) and Susanna (born September 29, 1703). Booth's death date is unknown. Life before the trial Booth was born in 1674 in the Salem Village to George Booth Sr. and Alice Temple. Her parents were married some time before 1671 in Lynn/Salem, Massachusetts. She was the second eldest of ten siblings who included: George Booth Jr., Alice Booth, Benjamin Booth, Bridget Booth, Mary Booth, Rebecca Booth, Susanna Booth, and Zachariah Booth. Along with her ten siblings she had two in-law siblings. Booth was baptized on May 19, 1678, at age five, in Salem, Massachusetts along with several of her siblings: Bridget Booth, Rebecca Booth, and Zachariah Booth. When Booth was eight years old, her biological father, a woodworker, died. Her mother remarried and her stepfather died only four years later. Finally, at age eighteen, Booth claimed to be she was afflicted by witchcraft and became one of the six accusers of the Salem Witch Trials. Booth's role in the Salem Witch Trials Accusations against Booth Booth is remembered in American colonial history for her role in the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Commotion about witches in Salem had begun in January 1692. Witchcraft was first suspected within the Parris household, a family residing Salem Village. Reverend Samuel Parris had never completed his education at Harvard University and settled for the ministerial position in Salem. At the time, Reverend Parris had a slave, named Tituba working in his household. There were rumors that she told the girls stories and "did other sorts of practices". After this, Betty Paris and Abilgail Williams, nine and eleven years old, began to experiment with white magic.