Episode 17: The Legend of Goody Cole
Eunice Cole, aka “Goody” was the only woman convicted of witchcraft in the state of New Hampshire. She was born in England in 1590 and worked as an indentured servant with her husband William Cole. The couple came to New England after their servitude was finished and eventually wound up in Hampton, New Hampshire in 1643. The couple was granted a parcel of 40 acres of land that provided them with good income, as William was a carpenter.
The neighbors of the area were Puritans and thought Eunice to be foul mouthed, argumentative and disagreeable, and they soon accused her of being a witch. The first accusation was in 1656, where Eunice was accused of witchcraft after neighbors claimed she could disguise herself as animals, most notably an eagle. These accusations along with another unnamed crime led to Eunice being publicly whipped.
During the whipping it was discovered that she possessed a “witch mark”, which the Puritans believed was a mark left on someone’s skin from the Devil touching them. We know these marks today to simply be birthmarks, but the discovery of such marks on Eunice led to her being tried and imprisoned in Boston for four years before returning to Hampton.
Within a year of her return, Eunice was again whipped and returned to prison for “cursing at a neighbor”. After Eunice was again released, she was accused of witchcraft a second time. Neighbors Constable Robert Smith and his wife Susanna became convinced that Eunice had enchanted their oven after they attempted to bake bread from their rye. The bread smelled rotten and grew spots before it was even a day old, and they blamed this on witchcraft.
After William Cole’s passing during her second prison stay, the land was sold and Eunice became a ward of the town, forced to resort to begging for scraps of food and firewood. A few families helped her until 1671, when Eunice was accused of witchcraft a third time after it was claimed she was trying to lure the 9-year-old orphan in the care of the Clifford family to her home. After the trial in 1673, Eunice was allowed to return home to Hampton where she continued to be treated coldly and cruelly by those of the town before she passed in 1680.
When her body was discovered, a stake was driven through her heart to “exorcise the baleful influence she was supposed to have possessed”, and Eunice was buried in an unmarked grave. Shortly after her passing, people of the town reported seeing the ghost of an old woman wandering the streets, appearing out of nowhere and then disappearing into thin air. Townspeople continued to blame her for their misfortunes, claiming a shipwreck caused by a sudden storm was her spirit’s doing.
In 1937, people of Hampton gathered to clear Eunice’s name and formed “The Goody Cole Society”, erecting a memorial where her body was believed to have been buried. To this day, people of Hampton report seeing the ghost of an old woman walking around, and she can sometimes be seen standing at the Goody Cole memorial.
Image Sources:
historicipswich.com - “The Legend of Goody Cole”
seacoastonline.com - “History Matters: The Pardoning of Goody Cole”