Abigail Proctor

What Mollie wrote about her in The Holbrook and Low Families, and her claims about her checked against the records.

1. A newspaper article pasted into the typescript tells how in the spring of 1679 the women of Chebacco met at Abigail Varney's house and resolved to raise the meeting house the General Court had stopped the men from building.

   They were headed for the home of Abigail Varney, the wife of Thomas Varney. ... "Let not the men any longer think that they can build a church or fit it up without the knowledge and concurrence of the women."

   p. 76 →

2. In the article she rides out with Mrs. Goodhue on a pillion to recruit men from neighbouring towns, the meeting house goes up in a day, and the women are bound over to court and forgiven (the court record has her husband answering for her).

   Bright and early the next morning Mrs. Varney mounted the steady old family horse, took Mrs. Goodhue on a pillion behind her, and the hired man, Chub, on another horse ... for their contempt of authority in helping to raise a meeting-house.

   p. 77 →

3. Mollie identifies the Mrs. Varney of the church-raising as Abigail Proctor, though her chart makes her the wife of Thomas Varney Jr. (she was his mother).

   Mrs. Thomas Varney, (Abigail Proctor) had a hand in (Incomplete) the building of the church.

   p. 101 →

Checked against the records

• Proven
  Thomas Low and Rev. John Wise spoke up for the Proctors in 1692

  Deacon Thomas Low ("Tho. Low Sanor") and "Jno Wise" are among the 31 signers of the Ipswich petition of August 1692 for John and Elizabeth Proctor (Salem Witchcraft Papers no. 107). Caleb Low's wife Abigail Varney was John Proctor's great-niece: her grandmother Abigail (Proctor) Varney was his sister.

  Read it in the book, p. 74 →
• Proven
  The Chebacco women raised their own meeting house in 1679

  This newspaper retelling is borne out by the court record. On 25 June 1679 "Thomas Varny, for his wife" and others confessed they had offended "in being actiue to erect a meting hous contrary to the aduis and prohobession of the Counsell" (Essex Quarterly Courts 7:245). That Abigail (Proctor) Varney led them is the retelling's.

  Read it in the book, p. 76 →
• Disproven
  Caleb Low's wife was a daughter of the church-raising Abigail Varney

  A generation is dropped. Caleb's wife Abigail, born at Chebacco on 14 Oct 1713, was the daughter of Thomas Varney Jr. and Abigail Cogswell. The Abigail Varney who helped raise the meeting house in 1679 was Abigail (Proctor) Varney, her grandmother.

  Read it in the book, p. 78 →
• Disproven
  Thomas Varney, born 1682, married Abigail Proctor

  He married Abigail Cogswell (b. 1688/9), daughter of Adam Cogswell and Abigail Wise. Abigail Proctor was his mother, the Corporal's wife, and so the grandmother of Abigail (Varney) Low. Thomas Jr. was born 3 Dec 1682 and his daughter Abigail on 14 Oct 1713 (Ipswich vital records).

  Read it in the book, p. 101 →
• Proven
  Abigail (Proctor) Varney had a hand in building the Chebacco church

  Confirmed. On 25 June 1679 "Thomas Varny, for his wife" was among those who acknowledged in court that they had offended "in being actiue to erect a meting hous contrary to the aduis and prohobession of the Counsell" (Essex Quarterly Courts 7:245).

  Read it in the book, p. 101 →
• Proven
  Abigail's brother John Proctor was executed at Salem as a witch

  Proved. Abigail Varney's deposition of 1673 speaks of "her father" and "her mother Prockter", and in 1679 her husband testified at "the house which was formerly his father Procter's" (Essex Quarterly Courts 5:195, 7:218). John Proctor was hanged at Salem on 19 Aug 1692.

  Read it in the book, p. 102 →