Abigail Hobbs

{{For|the fictional character|Abigail Hobbs (Hannibal)}}

{{short description|American girl accused of witchcraft}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Abigail Hobbs

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| known_for = Victim of Salem Witch trials

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| mother = Deliverance Hobbs

| father = William Hobbs

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Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 14-17{{Cite book|title = Salem Story|last = Rosenthal|first = Bernard|publisher = Cambridge University Press|year = 1993|pages = 43–45}} years old when she was arrested for witchcraft on April 18, 1692, along with Giles Corey, Mary Warren, and Bridget Bishop. Prior to living in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts), she and her family had lived in Falmouth, Maine, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki Native Americans.Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil's Snare, Knopf: New York 2002 Her father William and mother, Deliverance Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.

During her multiple examinations by local magistrates between April and June 1692,Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Witchcraft Papers (henceforth SWP) DaCapo Press, 1977, pp. 405-409, pp. 410-412, 413 Abigail confessed and accused others of witchcraft, including John Proctor. At her trial in September, she pleaded guilty to both indictments against her, one for afflicting Mercy LewisPaul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, SWP p. 414 and another for covenanting with the Devil.SWP pp. 414-415. In her examination on April 20, 1692, Abigail Hobbs accused George Burroughs, the previous minister of Salem, of being a witch. With the naming of Minister Burroughs, a well-respected member of the community, many accusations came forth and climbed up the social hierarchy.{{Cite book|title = The Penguin Book of Witches|last = Howe|first = Katherine|publisher = Penguin Group|year = 2014|isbn = 9780143106180|location = New York, NY|pages = [https://archive.org/details/penguinbookofwit0000unse/page/173 173–177]|url = https://archive.org/details/penguinbookofwit0000unse/page/173}}

File:Abigail Hobbs Confession.jpg

Governor William Phips granted the Hobbs family a reprieve in January 1693, after Chief Magistrate William Stoughton had signed the warrant for her execution."Letter No. 2" (William Phips to Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, February 21, 1693), SWP p. 865 In 1710, her father, William Hobbs, petitioned the General Court to compensate him for £40 expenses that the family's imprisonment cost him but said he was willing to accept £10, which the court granted him in 1712. She was among those named in the Act for Reversal of Attainder by the Massachusetts Great and General Court, October 17, 1711.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Hobbs' confession is currently in the possession of the Philadelphia Free Library, willed to the institution by William McIntyre Elkins. It is currently stored in the Elkins Room on the third floor of the library in the Rare Book Department.