Although my eighth great grandfather, John Proctor, made famous in the movie the Crucible was caught doing the “mess around” with a seventeen-year-old maid, Mary Warren, who when scorned by him, accused his wife first of witchery. He then beat the maid for such a bold-faced lie. She then accused Grandfather John of witchcraft himself. He was convicted. Grandmother Elizabeth was pregnant and pled “the belly.” She escaped hanging, and the trials were all over by the time the babe, Mary, was born. Elizabeth then married John Stanley.
Before his death by hanging for witchcraft, John Proctor begat Mary Proctor with his second wife, Elizabeth, who begat William Stanley who begat William Stanley, II, who begat William Stanley, III, who begat Meribah Stanley, who begat Hannah Fullerton who married Levi Sanborn who began Ira Quinby Sanborn who begat Martha Charlotte Sanborn, my grandmother, who married Harold Verner Johnson, who begat my father, Stanley Truman Johnson, who begat me, Kristine Johnson.
Funny enough, I also have been accused of being a witch, not by any maids – my household help and I have always gotten along famously -- but I have been accused by some ex-husbands of the same vile sins as Grandfather John – WITCHCRAFT -- AND I also hope to be a martyr myself unto the truth, as was he. I find it fascinating that the names Stanley, Quinn, and John, all have remained in our family for nine generations. I came within a hair’s breadth of naming my own first daughter Mary.