Alice Lake

Alice Lake was born in England, and immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony at some point, and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was the mother of at least five children, all presumably fathered by her only known husband, Henry Lake. In 1651, those children would have been a girl about ten, a boy about seven, a boy about five, a child about three who likely was a boy, and an infant.

In 1651, Alice Lake’s baby died. Later, she told people that she saw the baby. Maybe she did. Or, maybe she grieved so much that her mind allowed her to imagine that she saw her baby to ease her grief. As painful as the death of a loved one is, a mother’s loss of a child is the most difficult.

The Puritan belief was that the devil was coming to her in the form of her deceased child, and because of that, she was accused of being a witch and brought to trial. Like most of the women accused of witchcraft, Alice was poor. And like most of the accused, she denied being a witch. The records of her trial are lost, but she was apparently found guilty of witchcraft.

The Devil’s Mark
It was widely believed that most witches sported a mark on their body which was placed there by the Devil. The Witches’ mark, Devil’s Mark, or Witches’ teat was the seal of the Devil, given to witches upon initiation. This mark could be a scar, a mole, or a birthmark. If a witch had no mark, it meant that she or he was especially devout to Satan.

Alice was given the opportunity to recant her story on the day of her execution, which might have saved her life. Instead, she said that God was punishing her because she had engaged in premarital sex, had become pregnant, and had attempted an abortion. She had apparently carried the Puritanical guilt for trying to cause the death of her oldest child throughout her life.

Alice faced death, and still she insisted that she had seen her dead baby. Perhaps admitting her child had died was more than she could bear, though her only hope of living was to admit that she knew her baby was dead.

Alice Lake was hanged in 1651 in Dorchester Massachusetts.

From Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, 1982, Oxford University Press:

Alice LAKE, convicted and executed at Dorchester in about 1650. Her husband Henry moved away at once; his name appears regularly in the records of Portsmouth, RI, beginning in April 1651. Meanwhile the four LAKE children, all less than ten years old, remained in Dorchester. One, probably the youngest, was ‘bound out’ by the town meeting to a local family for a ‘consideration’ of 26 pounds–and was dead within two years. The other three were also placed in (separate) Dorchester households. At this point their trail becomes badly obscured. (One was living as a servant to an uncle–still in Dorchester–in 1659.) Later, having reached adulthood, the same three were found in Rhode Island–and then in Plymouth Colony, where their father had removed by 1673. It appears, therefore, that the family was eventually reunited, some two decades after the event that had broken it apart.

SOURCES
Vice Voices

48 comments

  1. The oldest child of Alice Lake was Elizabeth. Elizabeth could not have been Henry Lake’s child, but had to have been the child that survived Alice’s attempted abortion. Elizabeth likely has thousands decedents today. She was the only of Alice’s children to have children of her own. The family name of Elizabeth’s children was Butts.

    1. Why could elizabeth not have been Henry’s child? I am a descendant and putting together some pieces. I would like to know how you reached that conclusion. Thanks.

      1. I am a decent of David Lake, my 10 GG. Henry & Alice were my 11 GG. The Lake line runs long in my family research.

        1. That’s very interesting because I’m a am decent of not only Henry lake the name lake and Henry still runs in the family but on my moms side I am related to cotton Mather the judge who prosecuted Alice so long story short my moms family killed my dads

    2. Actually, one of her sons had children, he was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.

    3. In my genealogy there is a David Lake. DAVID married Sarah Earle after her husband Thomas Cornell was hung for murdering his mother on spectral evidence. David had children. David and his brother fought in the King Philip War. One child also a boy was farmed out to the community and died. My line goes Mary LAKE born 1809 married Joseph Cook.

    4. I’m one of them!

  2. I am one of them. Alice is a 9th great grandmother. What a story to discover.

    1. Omg she is my 9th gma aswell my great gma was leona lake lived in warren she married walter Salisbury my poppy ..if you want touch base with me on fb robert stangelo is how i can be reached then we can message

    2. I am also a descendent. I was adopted when I was 6. I did the ancestry dna and found my bio family. My cousin sent me the information.
      If anyone has anymore information I would love to hear from other descendants.

    3. She’s my 10th! How cool is that!

    4. I am a 9th descendant as well :). I live in Maine.

  3. I, too am one of Alice’s descendants and what happened to her both saddens me and makes me angry. I am proud to be a very great granddaughter of a supposed ‘witch’. As for George Hollister’s assumption that her oldest child was the only one who had children….that is wrong because my descent comes from one of her sons, though I can’t remember which one it is. I would have to find the family tree.

    1. My husband is a descendant of David Lake Sr, one of Alice’s sons. He was close to his brother a Thomas, and they both resided in Little Compton, RI

  4. I’m a direct descendant of Alice(9xGG) and Elizabeth(8xGG) Lake- Butt’s.
    Edith Ellis-Earle-Ano was my matrilineal grandmother. But the Butt’s were heavy hitters in Portsmouth, RI, and a very important family within the growing Quaker movement. For a family that was in “tatters” as the author is implying, Elizabeth married well and had a good life. She was married into one of the most prominent RI families of the Newport area, and her children also married well.
    Unfortunately Alice was a victim of her era. And as nonsensical as the witch hunts and trials went, Alice’s story illustrates what type of human she was.
    My innocent grandmother was hanged because she was depressed. She was too trusting. She shared her feelings of grief and horror at losing a child, and was killed for being naive. I’m sure she had such horrible postpartum depression, that at that particular point in time, she didn’t care if she lived or died. And, she probably knew that there was no way around the rhetoric of the day. The politics were decided before they even questioned her. She stood her ground and died for the truth.

    1. I am a direct descendant of Elizabeth and Thomas Butts

      1. So am i.i descend from hodijah(idido) and hepsibah( Elizabeth). Elizabeth went down my Earle/Bennett) Benedict line.idido went down my Knowles/Benedict line making my great grandparents not too distant cousins!!

  5. I too descend from Henry and Alice Lake. They are my 9th great grandparents through their son David Lake. My paternal grandmother was Eulah May Lake. My line ended up IN Nova Scotia Canada.

    1. Also Nova Scotia Lake descendant !My grandmother was Caroline Lake ! Cambridge Hants Co NS.

      1. Hello! We must be related…my dad was from Hants County!! Blair Miller was his name

  6. I also descend from the Henry and Alice Lake line. Their son David had a son named Joel who sailed to Nova Scotia in 1756. The settlers at this time in Nova Scotia were known as The Planters. He was granted land in Hants County in the Cherverie area.

    1. Correction: It was Joel’s son Caleb who sailed to Hants County, Nova Scotia.

  7. I’m also descended from Alice Lake, through her daughter Elizabeth, then her daughter Hepzibah Butts, then her daughter Sarah Earle …

    1. Hi!! We are not too distant cousins on the Earle line.i then go Bennett/Benedict( great grandparents)

  8. I am also a descendant. I was given passed down articles that mentions more details from a witness. They were details of her statements at the end. Has anyone seen those? I can direct you to them if you havent.

  9. Who was your GG? David’s second wife was Lizzie Borden’s 5th GG.; Sarah Earl. It was second marriages for both. My line comes from David &Sarah. (Ralph & Joan Earl were GG on both LB fathers sides).

  10. I am also a descendant of Henry and Alice Lake. My grandfather, Ernest Lake, found a letter from Nathaniel Mather to his brother Cotton Mather referencing H. Lake’s wife and how she had seen her dead child, but her name was never mentioned.

  11. I’m a descendant as well, my 9th great grandmother. Such a sad story.

  12. I am a direct descendant of Alice and Henry through their son Thomas to my paternal great grandmother (my dad’s grandma on his father’s side) Vera Adams (born Lake). My line ended up in Ohio.

  13. I also descend from Henry Lake and Alice. They are my eighth grandparents. What a sad heartbreaking story. My own grandfather who descended from them died a violent death in 1933 and his son who was my father died at another’s hands when he was only 24 years old. I was only two. Lord, please forgive those people.

  14. I am also a descendant of Elizabeth Lake & Thomas Butts. 9th great grandparents. Sure is a lot of us!

  15. I am also a direct descendent of Alice Lake through her daughter, Elizabeth who married Thomas Butts. My great grandmother was Elvira Butts, daughter of John Butts, who married William Wagner in Illinois. William Wagner was from New York City and rode the orphan train after being placed in the orphanage. He was taken in by a farmer family in Northern Illinois where he met Elvira Butts. An interesting family to say the least.

  16. I am a decendant of Elizabeth Lake (Butts) on my father’s side. Elizabeth is my 9th great grandmother.

  17. I am also a descendant. My father was Raymond Henry Lake. His father was Harold Lake & his grandfather was Jeremiah Lake who was a whaler. My brother-in-law did a lot of research if anyone is interested.

  18. Alice was my 9th great grandmother. I am so sorry about what happened to her.

  19. I am married to a descendant of Henry Lake and Alice and it is not through the Butts line. My husband is a descendant of David Lake. Eventually, some of those descendants ended up in Berrien County, Michigan. I know that you cannot trust all the research or posts on Ancestry. You have to find proper documents. I have used great care in backing up every step up to present day. It does not speak well of Alice’s husband that he abandoned the whole family during this crisis. Today, Alice would have had several sessions with a therapist and worked her way through her grief. I suspect she suffered some kind of mental breakdown. [email protected]

  20. I knew that I’m a direct descendant of Alice And Henry, but wasn’t sure which child. Based on what you say Krista, Id say David would be my great-grandfather, as NS us where my family landed many years ago. It breaks my heart to read the story about my grandmother.

  21. One of the histories cites a document called “Do Not Suffer a Woman to Live”. It supposedly is a document about Alice Lake specifically and goes into more detail. I have not been able to find this cite. Has anyone else come across it.

  22. Alice Ireod Lake is my 11th great-grandmother. I’m directly descended from her oldest daughter Elizabeth born in 1642 who went on to marry Butts and had son Zaccheus Butts
    who is my 9th great-grandfather. Her story is very sad and unfortunate.

  23. I am also a descendant of Alice and Henry. Alice is my great grandmother to the tenth. My name is Sarah and my dads’s name is David, and there are Sarah’s and David’s all along the branches of the family tree. Off to feel the history of those names.

  24. I am also a descendant through Elizabeth. Alice was my 10th great-grandmother through Elizabeth’s daughter, Hepzibah Butts. They eventually made their way to NJ. I am very proud of having such an honest ancestor who was willing to die rather than deny her baby’s appearance.

    1. I descend from two of Elizabeth’s children. I am a New Zealander. My maternal grandmother was American. Alfred Mosher Butts who invented Scrabble descends from Moses Butts I think

  25. I am also descended through son David. Prudence Lake was my 3rd great grandmother.

  26. My son also descends from Alice, most directly through David. But I have also traced ancestral connections to Elizabeth and Thomas, all DNA confirmed. All three had children.

  27. I am yet another descendant of Alice Lake. She was my grandmother 11 generations back.
    Alice Ireod (Lake)’s relationship to you:
    Direct ancestor (11 generations)
    Details:
    Donna Petersen (Matos)
    Born: 1944
    Southbridge, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
    Bernice Ina Marcy (Petersen)
    Born: Nov 5 1919
    Connecticut
    Died: July 10 1997
    Putnam, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Earl Newton Marcy
    Born: Jan 16 1898
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Died: Jan 1 1949
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Forest Aden Marcy
    Born: May 27 1874
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Died: June 23 1912
    Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
    Mary Elizabeth Perrin (Marcy)
    Born: 1839
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Died: Feb 11 1907
    Southbridge, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
    Amos Perrin
    Born: Sep 15 1809
    Woodstock, Windham, Conn.
    Died: Nov 3 1868
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut
    Dorothy Bugbee (Perrin)
    Born: Dec 2 1765
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Died: June 12 1839
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Daniel Bugbee
    Born: July 1 1735
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, British Colonial America
    Died: Nov 7 1819
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, United States
    Elizabeth Earl (Bugbee)
    Born: 1702
    Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, British Colonial America
    Died: Mar 19 1744
    Woodstock, Windham, Connecticut, British Colonial America
    Hepzibah Butts (Earl)
    Born: July 30 1675
    Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, United States
    Died: Dec 19 1722
    Pomfret, Windham, Connecticut, USA
    Elizabeth Lake (Butts)
    Born: May 26 1642
    Dorchester, Norfolk, MA
    Died: Sep 10 1709
    Little Compton, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
    Alice Ireod (Lake)
    Born: Circa 1620
    Liverpool, Lancashire, England
    Died: June 5 1651
    Dorchester, Suffolk County, Masachusetts

  28. I am a direct descendant of Thomas and Elizabeth (Lake) Butts

  29. I am a descendent of Elizabeth Lake-Butts as well. My line of Butts, William C Butts, moved to up state New York along the Hudson River where William married Rachel Lockwood on 5 Oct 1779 at Amenia, Dutchess New York. William fought in the Revolution.

    I have Elizabeth as the oldest of Alice Lake’s children, which could mean Elizabeth was the baby Alice attempted to abort, and that Elizabeth’s father is unknown.

  30. Count me in as a descendant of Henry and Alice.

    Their Son David had a child Joel. Joel was the Father of Caleb
    Caleb was one of the New England Planters who left RI for a land grant in Newport NS
    I make Henry and Alice to be my ninth GGF.

    The names Lake, Mosher, Sanford, Blackburn very common in the Newport Landing cemetery. Was just there looking around and got the info about the planters and how I descend from Caleb Lake.

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