An East Hampton woman has been taken into custody as allegations surrounding witchcraft and consorting with the devil have solidified. Village justices ask anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of the accused, Elizabeth Garlick — who some have alleged summons black cats, injures animals and children, and has perhaps caused the death of a prominent resident — to report to Baker’s Ordinary.
Ghosts, goblins, and monsters be damned! East Hampton has its very own, very real witch, and for an hour on Friday, the memory of her and the time she lived in was brought back to life by Hugh King and a band of re-enactors, just in time for spooky season.
It was February 1657, and the shadow of death had settled on East Hampton, much as it had across most colonial settlements, which were rife with reminders of mortality during the coldest months.
Lion Gardiner, the town’s most prominent resident, had just become a grandfather. His 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth had recently given birth to a daughter of her own, also named Elizabeth.
From the family’s home on what is now James Lane, at the site of the Gardiner Mill, Lion could see the home of his daughter and her husband, Arthur Howell, across the green and through the South End Cemetery.
The new mother had fallen ill, and from her bed yelled out, “A witch! A witch! Now you are come to torture me because I spoke two or three words against you! In the morning you will come fawning.” She told anyone who would listen that she’d been afflicted, and pricked by pins, and her servants confirmed that they’d found several pins that could not have come from the house.
The sick girl told her father that she had been bewitched, saying she saw someone at the foot of her bed.
Who was it? he asked.
“Goody Garlick in the further corner, and a black thing in the hither corner, both at the feet of the bed,” she said. She died a day later.
Who was Goody Garlick? Elizabeth Garlick (the honorific “Goody” was short for Goodwife, a term used at the time for common folk) was the wife of Joshua Garlick, a farmer who had worked for the Gardiner family on Gardiner’s Island but had moved to the mainland.
Thirteen women testified against Goody Garlick during the inquest, which lasted over three weeks. It was held at Baker’s Ordinary (the current Baker House on Main Street) and presided over by Thomas Baker, John Hand, and John Mulford. Goody Garlick was accused of consorting with the Devil, causing the death of a pig and her piglets, breaking the leg of an ox, and causing the death and illness of several children, along with the death of Elizabeth Gardiner.
Her trial, though, would be held in Hartford, Conn. Records from the case have been destroyed, and only local reports exist, but there was apparently talk in the village that Lion Gardiner, who himself went to Connecticut for the trial, was actually intending to defend the woman. It is since believed that the town’s most prominent citizen had only gone there to ensure that Connecticut, which was a colony of England at the time, had jurisdiction; New York was under Dutch governance.
Goody Garlick was found innocent of the charges and allowed to return to East Hampton with her husband, who was made to post a surety bond promising her future good behavior.
The Court of Magistrates, a venue that had already seen to the execution of several accused witches, was headed by Gov. John Winthrop, who has been described as a man of science who did not believe the accusations of witchcraft. His judgement was simple: “The jury doth not find Elizabeth the wife of Joshua Garlick guilty according to the indictment.”
And it seems that good fortune followed the couple later on as well. They found themselves not only allowed back into the fold, but were able to amass some land holdings and livestock. Both lived to nearly 100 years.
It wasn’t until some 35 years later that the infamous Salem witch trials began, resulting in 144 incarcerations and 19 hangings, not counting one man who was “pressed to death.” A handful of the accused died in prison.
Alas, the specter of Goody Garlick is thought to have made its way up to Salem as well. Many of the afflicted young women who testified there, Mr. King said, claimed to have been pricked by pins.
