by Douglas Miller, Site Director of Pennsbury Manor
Nine years before the infamous Salem Witch Trials took place, a Delaware County woman faced her own witch trial in Philadelphia. It was Pennsylvania’s only witch trial. The woman in question was a Swedish settler named Margaret Mattson, who lived on a farm with her husband. In 1683 she was accused of bewitching farm animals and “saying strange incantations while boiling meat in a great cauldron.” Mattson pleaded not guilty and mounted her own defense at a trial attended by William Penn himself. Doug Miller of Pennsbury Manor, will recount the dramatic events at Mattson’s “trial” in a colony that hadn’t hadn’t yet established a court system, and explain why the results were so different from what would happen just nine years later in Massachusetts.
Doug Miller is the site director at Pennsbury Manor, the colonial estate of William Penn, who was founder and proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania. Miller was previously the Education Director at Pennsbury Manor, which is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and is a frequent speaker on topics related to the early history of the Commonwealth. He has more than 30 years of experience as a museum director having served as Director at Hope Lodge, Graeme Park, Washington Crossing and Curtin Village.
The program is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will follow the talk. It is hosted by the Greene-Dreher Historical Society and sponsored by its Business Partner, Stone Silo Foods.
