The Wicked Witch of the East End: Goody Garlick’s Long Island Witch Trial- Guest Post by Melissa Chim
- Mar 21
- 4 min read
March is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, I am delighted to welcome a new guest blogger and a very different kind of post on Women’s History.
Melissa Chim is a historian, librarian, and author based in NY. She holds a BA in History from Rutgers University, an MA in History from Queen Mary, the University of London, and an MLIS from St. John’s University. She regularly blogs about history and books at The Painted Librarian.
When we think of witch trials, usually it’s the Salem Witch trials that first come to mind. We may even think back a little earlier to the witch trials that spread across Europe. But most people don’t think of Long Island, New York as home to a breeding ground of the paranoia and fear that sparked a witchcraft accusation. As a historian, I’m fascinated by witch trials, and as a native New Yorker, I was stunned to learn about the trial of Goody (as in Goodwife) Elizabeth Garlick.
In 1658, thirty years before the Salem Witch Trials, Elizabeth Garlick was accused of witchcraft by her neighbors in Easthampton, on the East End of Long Island. Elizabeth Gardiner Howell, a sixteen girl who had recently given birth, suddenly fell ill. As her condition got worse, she was said to scream “A witch! A witch! Now you are come to torture me because I spoke two or three words against you!” When asked who she saw by her mother two days later, she named Elizabeth Garlick.
In many ways, Easthampton at this time was similar to Salem. In 1658, the town was only ten years old. Thirty four families lived there, and court documents show that many neighbors regularly disputed each other. This atmosphere of tension and distrust paved the way for a witchcraft accusation. Elizabeth herself mirrors many of the characteristics of accused witches in Salem: she was about fifty years old, and she and her husband often did not get along with the neighbors.
But how did the afflicted know that what they were experiencing was witchcraft? And how would the courts determine if Elizabeth was truly a witch? According to Dr. Loretta Orion, the following conditions needed to have been met to reasonably conclude that witchcraft was present:
“1) When a healthful body shall be suddenly taken without probable reason, or apparent natural cause.
2) When the afflicted party in his fits tells truly what the witch, or other absent parties are doing or saying or the like.
3) When there is a supernatural strength such that a strong man or two shall not be able to keep down a child, or weak person upon a bed.
4) When the parties shall do strange things, or say strange things, and yet when out of their fits know nothing of what they did or said.
5) When the party doeth vomit up crooked pins, needles, nails, coals, lead, straw, hair, or the like
6) When the party shall see visibly some apparition, and shortly after some mischief shall befall him.
The last criterion — When two or more are similarly taken in strange fits— was satisfied by two witnesses who offered testimony relating to misfortunes other than the death of Elizabeth attributed to Goody Garlick’s witchcraft.”
Goody Garlick’s trial consisted of a three week hearing in front of local judges followed by a trial in Hartford, Connecticut. Her indictment shows how seriously accusations of witchcraft were taken:
“Elizabeth Garlick…that not having the fear of God before thine eyes thou hast entertained familiarity with Satan the great enemy of God and mankind, and by his help since the year 1650 have done works above the course of nature to the loss of lives of several persons (with several other sorceries) and in particular the wife of Arthur Howell of East Hampton, for which both according to the laws of God and the established law of this commonwealth thou deserveth to die.”
Garlick’s trial hosted a parade of witnesses testifying to her supposedly wicked behavior. Goody Simons said she witnessed Elizabeth shriek from her sickbed “Send for Goody Garlick! Send for Goody Garlick!…I could tear her in pieces! She is a doubletongued woman! Did you not see her last night stand by the bed side ready to pull me in pieces? And she pricked me with pins.”
Another neighbor, Richard Stratton, testified that he “heard Goody Davis say that her child died strangely at the Island and she thought it was bewitched and she said she did not know of anyone on the Island that could do it unless it were Goody Garlick.” In addition to accusing Garlick of the murder of her child, Goody Davis blamed her for her ox’s broken leg.
The spectral evidence against Garlick echoes those found in other witch trials both in America and Europe. But one interesting piece of evidence did not appear (or is missing from the records) of Garlick’s trial. Unlike other accused witches, Garlick did not seem interested in recruiting anyone else to a coven. She presumably used her powers from Satan to cause evil in her small town, but no witnesses claim that she tried to get them to sign the Devil’s ledger and give up their souls. Additionally, the records do not say that she was examined for supposed witches’ marks (such as birthmarks that did not cause pain when pricked by a pin).
The records of Garlick’s trial ends on a happy note. She was found not guilty, and continued living in Easthampton with her husband until her death many years later. But that is not to say that her case is indicative of a lax view of witches in general. At least four witch trials in Connecticut resulted in the hangings of the accused shortly before Garlick’s case. This glimpse into a small Long Island town demonstrates how fears of witchcraft permeated into the social, legal, and spiritual lives of its residents.
If you are interested in reading more, please see my posts on the Malleus Maleficarum and the witch trial of Jean Campaga.
References
“Before Salem, there was the Not So Wicked Witch of the Hamptons,” Smithsonian Magazine, (October 25, 2012). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/before-salem-there-was-the-not-so-wicked-witch-of-the-hamptons-95603019/
Dewan, George. “In the Matter of Goody Garlick.” New York Archives, (2005). https://www.nysarchivestrust.org/application/files/7915/6520/4235/archivesmag_fall2005.pdf
Orion, Loretta. “East Hampton’s Legendary Witch.” Lecture, East Hampton Library, Life in Olde East Hampton series, October 25, 2002. https://easthamptonlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20021025.pdf
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