As I wait for the final proofs of the Discovering Nicholas Ackley book, I have started work on the next in my line, his youngest son James.

Who was James Ackley? The simple answer is that he was the youngest son of Nicholas and Hannah Ackley, born in 1677 in Haddam, Connecticut. He married Elizabeth in 1706, lived in East Haddam, raised 7 children and died at 69 in 1746.

It was somewhat easier to glean information about James’s father Nicholas (1630-1695) — one of the first settlers of Hartford, then a founder of Haddam — than about James. As Connecticut grew and the population dispersed, records were less well kept and more widely scattered. Although some time spent in the East Haddam and Connecticut history libraries likely would turn up more about James, what is readily available is, well, both not enough and too much.

Who was James the man, beyond the dates and list of family members? Below is what the clues I now have suggest.

The first set of clues is in the probate of his will.

• James was well off. His total estate was £974, not including any land, livestock and other possessions he had already given to his children. The inventory shows he was well dressed and his house was well furnished. He and Elizabeth had gravestones fancy for the time—no simple granite stone with roughly chiseled initials for them!

• It is unlikely James was a farmer in the same vein as his father. The inventory in the probate does not list enough such equipment and he is too wealthy. He could well have raised livestock, which was a major occupation at the time, or he might have been a trader or merchant. Living in East Haddam, he was on the Connecticut River, a major commercial route.

• James had two slaves, a “Negro woman” and “a Negro girl” (probably mother and daughter) valued at £50 each. For a man of his means in Connecticut at this time, owning slaves would have been common. They most likely were house slaves, but would have helped with outside chores as needed. That the slaves listed were two females supports the idea that his main occupation was not farming. Had he been a farmer, he would have been more likely to own men who could do heavier work. Sadly, the probate does not indicate the fate of the slaves, or provide their names or any details at all. Probates of that period often did so, but not this one. Since Elizabeth received at least a third of his “movable estate,” it is likely they continued to serve her

• Many men of the period learned to sign their names without being literate, but there is no question James could read. His inventory lists six “sermon books,” some probably just pamphlets but some likely bound books. They offer some insight into him—more on this below.

The second set of clues about James the man: Connecticut records and several books have made James and Elizabeth famous as the last to accuse someone of witchcraft in Connecticut. In 1723, Elizabeth charged Sarah Spencer with witchcraft for harassing and tormenting James. And James threatened Sarah with adverse consequences if she continued to bother them. The shocker: Sarah Spencer was James’s sister, an aging and impecunious widow in her early 60s. Another post will examine this more closely but, yes, I am quite certain that it was his sister Sarah Spencer who was accused, not another woman of the same name.

Sarah was acquitted and in return sued James and Elizabeth for slander, a serious crime in the early colonies. She sued for a huge award of £500; the jury awarded £5 and appeals reduced that to 1 shilling, the equivalent of perhaps $5 today. More on this in another post, but I suspect Sarah had in fact been harassing a wealthy James to help support her and a teenage son still at home, or perhaps she was mentally ill, or both. The incident, however, appears to be no more, or less, than a family feud played out in a way history would remember. And it sure does remember (see references).

Back to the pamphlets and books. Remember that James would have been a Puritan and religion would have been central in how he conducted his life. Books were precious and pricey, so he would have chosen tracts with which he likely agreed, or that revealed his concerns in life.

• “Mr Chauncy’s sermon book” likely was a bound book. It was a compilation of sermons delivered by various religious leaders in the 1690s.  See https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/702164418
• “Mr Bulkley’s sermon book on the necessity of religion.” This sermon was preached in Hartford in 1713. Bulkely was pastor of the Colchester church, a town very near East Haddam. (In fact, he was the pastor of Sarah Spencer’s church and wrote in defense of her for her witchcraft hearing.) See https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/n01345.0001.001
• “Mr Hosmer’s ordination sermon book,” most likely a pamphlet. Hosmer was the pastor in East Haddam and this sermon was given at the ordination of Timothy Symmes in 1736. See https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/826067
• “Mr Wadsworth’s guide for doubting sermon book,” published in 1720, was written by Benjamin Wadsworth, a famous Boston pastor (not a direct descendant of Nicholas Ackley’s Hartford neighbor William.) The focus was on overcoming 30 common doubts about Christian beliefs. See https://www.worldcat.org/title/guide-for-the-doubting-and-cordial-for-the-fainting-saint-or-directions-and-consolations-for-afflicted-consciences-being-an-answer-to-above-thirty-particular-doubts-or-objections-which-many-christians-are-sometimes-grievously-disquieted-with/oclc/55821449

The last two of James’s books hold the most interest for me.

• “Mr Mather’s lectures and sermons,” by the famous Boston-based pastor Cotton Mather (1663-1728). A staunch Puritan, Mather jumped through several Biblical hoops to justify enslaving “Negros.” But he also was very outspoken about treating them as equals in every other respect. Convoluted and objectionable? Yes. But perhaps the saving grace was his insistence on kindness, both in his writings and sermons, and in his actions as a pastor and judge. The inventory does not indicate which of Mather’s compilations James owned. See https://www.matherproject.org/node/22

• “Mr Sewall’s sermon book” is perhaps the most interesting of the six. Sewall (1652-1730) also was based in the Boston area. He was one of the judges who presided over the Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693), as was Cotton Mather. But Sewall soon after deeply regretted his role; he spent the rest of his life apologizing and attempting to make amends. Sewall was also an early abolitionist who spoke out loudly and often against slavery. In 1705, he wrote the first Puritan anti-slaveholding tract, The Selling of Joseph, which used the Bible to refute apologists such as Mather. See http://blog.umd.edu/slaverylawandpower/samuel-sewall-the-selling-of-joseph-1705/ For a personal look at the man, written by his 6^th great granddaughter, see Eve LaPlante, Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall.

What does this tell us about James? If only we could see which of these tracts James most read, and perhaps bookmarked or dog-eared, we might know more. Taken together, though, these books suggest a man grappling with basic issues, including issues of belief (including witches?), and probably the question of slave ownership.

It surprises me that he did not release his slaves in his will or make any provision for them, which had become common by the mid-1740s in Connecticut. It may well have been Elizabeth who insisted on the house slaves and so would have continued to keep them until her death at 65 in 1755. But often such arrangements were specified in the will.

I suspect James may have disagreed when Elizabeth accused Sarah of being a witch, but he clearly had had enough of Sarah’s harassment. Unfortunately, because women were virtually invisible in these times, learning much more about Elizabeth is unlikely no matter how much time anyone spends looking. She did attempt to claim insanity in the legal action Sarah brought against her, although I doubt she was that.

If anyone has information to add, or points to refute, please contact me or use the comment form.

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References

James’s probate is available on Ancestry.com here: https://bit.ly/3pBa31q

On the accusations against Sarah and her slander suit in reply, see:

Taylor, J.M. (1908) The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647-1697. New York: Grafton Press, p. 155.
Tomlinson, R.G. (1978) Witchcraft Trials of Connecticut. Hartford: Bond Press, pp. 65-66.
Karlsen, Carol F. (1998.) The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, p. 45.
Morgan, F. (1906) Witchcraft in Connecticut. American Historical Magazine. 1:3, p. 237. Available at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=qWUKAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA200-IA2&hl=en.

The original records are available on microfilm through the Connecticut State Library. Look for Crimes and Misdemeanors, Vol. 2. Note that they are in the original handwriting and devilishly difficult to decipher.