LISTEN · EPISODE 11
Bridget Bishop: "I know not what a witch is"
Content note: this post discusses domestic violence, a forced body search, imprisonment, and execution.
Bridget Bishop told the Salem magistrates that she did not know what a witch was. Their reply turned her answer into a trap: how, then, could she know she was not one? On June 10, 1692, she became the first person hanged in the Salem witch trials.
She is also one of the people whose story has been most thoroughly rewritten. The flashy tavern keeper in the red bodice is familiar from books and ghost tours. But a large part of that character belongs to another woman. This episode of Witches, Bitches, and Sluts follows Bridget through the surviving records and asks how the legend came to stand in for her life.
Two women called Goody Bishop
There were two women called Goody Bishop in the Salem court records, each married to a man named Edward Bishop. Sarah Bishop and her husband ran the tavern associated with late-night games. Bridget lived in Salem Town, the port, and was married to a different Edward Bishop, a sawyer.
Later histories merged the women. Bridget inherited Sarah's tavern, its reputation, and the stories told about it. Genealogist David L. Greene separated their identities in 1981, but the combined character already had a long head start in popular memory.
A reputation built in public
The real Bridget had survived widowhood, debt, and an abusive marriage. A neighbor described seeing her face bloody and bruised. The court treated the conflict as a problem for both spouses, and Bridget was publicly punished for speaking against her husband.
She was first accused of witchcraft in 1680. The surviving records do not show a conviction, but the rumor remained available for neighbors to repeat. By 1692, old arguments over animals, property, and money could be retold as evidence that she was dangerous.
When denial became evidence
At her April examination, Bridget faced people who said her specter had hurt them. The magistrates treated movements of her body and a tear in her clothing as clues to invisible crimes. Her denial could not reach the standard the room had set for believing her.
The episode follows the accusations through testimony about poppets, a forced body search, and the court's decision to condemn her. These were claims made against a woman, not proof that she had supernatural powers. Keeping that distinction visible is part of telling her story honestly.
The woman the label replaced
Bridget was hanged alone, more than a month before Rebecca Nurse. Massachusetts did not formally clear her name until 2001.
That long delay is only one part of the damage. A red garment and someone else's tavern became a whole personality, while the woman who had endured violence, debt, and prosecution receded from view. Bridget does not need to be made into a saint to deserve a truthful account of her life.
Sources behind the episode
Read or download the Episode 11 source list (PDF).