Alse Young (executed 26 May 1647)
Alse Young, of Windsor, Connecticut, was the first person known to have been executed for witchcraft in colonial America. There are not many details: Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor, John Winthrop, noted in his journal that “One of Windsor arraigned and executed at Harford as [for being] a witch,” while Matthew Grant, the town clerk of Windsor, recorded in his diary that “Alse Young was hanged.”
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An English woodcut of a witch,
from A Most Certain, Strange, and True Discovery of a Witch,
printed by John Hammond (London), 1643
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What she did, exactly, isn't known. She was married, perhaps to a man named John Young, a carpenter, and she had a daughter, Alice.
Alice Young Beamon, Alse Young's daughter, would also be accused of witchcraft, some thirty years after her mother's death, about 1677 . . . (She seems to have survived the accusation and lived until 1708.)
Update, 14 November 2021: Although it contains only a brief reference to Alse Young, you may be interested in the 9-episode series, Salem: Investigating the Witchtrials, now available as part of the BBC History Extra podcast. The various episodes place the Salem witchcraft scare and trials in a larger historical, social, political, legal, and, of course, religious context. If you'd like to listen, click here.
