Wicked Puritans of Essex County

by Tom Juergens

Wicked Puritans of Essex County follows in the footsteps of other Wicked titles and chronicle Essex County's darker history its "seedy underbelly" that traditional accounts frequently overlook. The book will be a grab bag of malfeasance - corruption, murder, bootlegging, prostitution, any sort of zany, sordid activity. One of the stories will be about the Hoddy Murder. "Wenham, 1637: John Williams a ship's carpenter, said to be of Wenham, has been found guilty of the murder of John Hoddy and executed in Boston. It is one of the earliest murders occurring among the European settlers of the colony. Both men had recently escaped from the Ipswich jail and were traveling together. Williams murdered his companion and stole his belongings, including the poor man's bloody clothing. He was apprehended in Ipswich wearing the dead man's clothes and ultimately confessed when Hoddy's body was found. He was executed, by hanging, in Boston, September 28th."

Genres: History

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2011

About the author

Another ink-stained wretch!

Writer’s Digest Pitch Slam, batted .500 with three of six agents seen interested in a novel and wanting to see writing samples, Roosevelt Hotel, NYC - 2014

Newburyport Literary Festival, featured speaker presenting Wicked Puritans of Essex County, Newburyport, MA - 2014

Writer’s Digest short story competition, literary/mainstream category, placed eighth with One Little Rabbit - 2012

Author, Wicked Puritans of Essex County, the surprisingly robust Puritan criminal record, writ large. Nonfiction, published by The History Press (recently acquired by Arcadia Publishing) - 2011

Also published in: The Boston Sunday Globe, Popular Science, Offshore, The Boston Business Journal and on staff at The Beverly Times, The Register, The Gazette, The Color Computer Magazine

National Writers Union, Boston Local Organizing Committee member and delegate to the constitutional convention, Brooklyn, NY – 1983

Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism, Boston University, School of Public Communication – 1980

Reviews

[Lynn Michaelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't anger a Puritan.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how when you’re reading a reference or historical text you check the index and throughout you keep hoping a family name will pop up? This is not that book! Wicked Puritans is an eye opening and informative look at “the rest of the story” of Colonial Essex. We learn about the seedy side of Early Massachusetts, some most unsavory characters who inhabited it back then, and more than a few pretty unpleasant ways they were dealt with. I would recommend this book (and am relieved to say no ancestral names of mine surfaced as I read it.)

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, I learned so much more about the Puritans and it is always enjoyable discovering the truth about groups of people that have been displayed as Saints throughout history. A definite read for all who like learning the truth of history.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I work at a small museum in Salem, MA and the giftshop there is loaded with books about the Salem witch trials but very few about other aspects of Salem history. This book is largely taken from court records from the Puritan period, (1630-1700) and gives a refreshingly different, gloss-off view of the Puritans at some of their worst behavior. There is a lot of interpretation of what forces motivated the Puritans, religious devotion, political fervor, community aspirations, but this shows many of them to have been motivated by the same things that have always motivated human beings, lust, greed, and power. I found this most refreshing because it personalizes the Puritans, removes the comfortable distance between "us" and "them", taking them from "worldly saints", to fallible human beings. As the author himself says, "there were no 'good old days'.

[Marilyn Lagier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this little historical tale while at the House of Seven Gables in Salem, MA. I loved teaching about the Salem witch trials and reading The Crucible--particularly since the evil Puritans eventually "disbanded" and most become Congregationalists-the church I grew up in. The author had quite a bit about how horrible the Puritans were--it's no wonder England kicked them out--but they were even worse than I'd even thought. I did find an error: the author stated that Elizabeth Proctor was hanged (in addition to her husband John) and this is not correct. She was eventually released from prison and married again some 6 years later. Interesting little book though.

[Rob Dinsmoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not an historian, Juergens was tasked with putting together a book about Puritans pieced together from courtroom logs, which he did with considerable dry humor. Whereas we may have our own ideas about what Puritans were like, this book shows at least some of them to be thieves, murderers, adulterers, voyeurs, and, um, wife beaters. Even the hero of The Crucible (Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials), John Proctor, was accused of some petty crimes that had nothing to do with witchcraft. An enjoyable read.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote about Samuel Guile, one of the "wicked Puritans" featured in this book, in a guest entry for the blog Executed Today. The entry doesn't reference this book, but this book is where I first heard of Guile.

[Laura Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and engaging.