Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Margaret Jones (1613 – June 15, 1648) was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony during a witch-hunt that lasted from 1648 to 1693. About eighty people throughout New England were accused of practicing witchcraft during that period. Thirteen women and two men were executed.Jones, who resided in Charlestown, now a section of Boston, was a midwife and practiced medicine. Some of what caused her to be accused of witchcraft had to do with these practices. There are only two primary sources of information on Jones' plight: Governor John Winthrop's journal and the observations of minister John Hale, who, as a 12-year-old boy, had witnessed Jones' execution.