Mary Bliss (F)
b. about 1625, d. January 1712
3 Generation Pedigree
Relationship=7th great-grandaunt of Lydia Electa Corey.

Notes and Citations:

1. [S29] John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1982), ISBN: 0-9-503378-7, page 257.
2. [S29] John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1982), ISBN: 0-9-503378-7, page 271, "On March 2, Mary was taken to Boston, 'presented' at the Court of Assistants. and formally indicted by a grand jury. Thereupon the court ordered her commitment to prison until 'her further trial.' The trial came some ten weeks later (May 23, 1675). An imposing roster of Assistants lined the bench: the governor, the deputy-governor, and a dozen magistrates (including her husband's old associate, John Pynchon). However, her fate rested with 'the jury of trials for life and death ' - twelve men, of no particular distinction, from Boston and surrounding towns. The indictment was read one last time: "Mary Parsons, the wife of Joseph Parsons ... being instigated by the Devil, hath ... entered into familiarity with the Devil, and committed several acts of witchcraft on the person or persons of one or more." The evidence in the case was also read. And "the prisoner at the bar, holding up her hand and pleading not guilty ... [put] herself on her trial."
        The tension of this moment must have been very great, but it does not come through in the the final, spare notation of the court recorder: "The jury brought in their verdict. They found her not guilty. And so she was discharged."
3. [S29] John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1982), ISBN: 0-9-503378-7, page 273.