Abigail Hobbs was a girl of about 17 years old when she was arrested for witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 on April 18, 1692 along with Giles Corey

Giles Corey

Giles Corey was a prosperous farmer and full member of the church in early colonial America who died under judicial torture during the Salem witch trials. Corey refused to enter a plea, and was crushed to death by stone weights in an attempt to force him to do so...

, Mary Warren

Mary Warren

Mary Ann Warren was the oldest of the accusers during the 1692 Salem witch trials, in her teens. She was a servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor. Renouncing her claims after being threatened to be hanged, she was later arrested for practicing witchcraft herself, but did not confess...

, and Bridget Bishop

Bridget Bishop

Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692....

. Prior to living in Salem Village

Danvers, Massachusetts

Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, Danvers is most widely known for its association with the 1692 Salem witch trials, and for its famous asylum, the Danvers State Hospital.-17th century:The land...

 (now Danvers, Massachusetts), she and her family had lived in Casco, Maine

Casco, Maine

Farmers found the surface of the town uneven, its hard and rocky soil "tolerably productive." Outlets of ponds, however, provided Casco with good sites for water powered mills. The town had four sawmills, four gristmills, a shook mill, a barrel stave mill, four shingle factories, a carriage factory...

, the frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

, during a time when there were many attacks by the Wabanaki

Wabanaki Confederacy

The Wabanaki Confederacy, as it is known in English, is a historical confederation of five North American Algonquian language speaking Indian tribes....

 Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

. Her stepmother, Deliverance Hobbs

Deliverance Hobbs

Deliverance Hobbs was accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. She and her husband, William Hobbs, originally came from Casco, Maine, which is in Wabanaki Indian territory....

, and her father William Hobbs, were also both charged with witchcraft.

During her multiple examinations by local magistrates between April and June 1692, Abigail confessed and accused others of witchcraft, including John Proctor

John Proctor

John Proctor was a farmer in 17th century Massachusetts. He married three women in his life, and divorced the first two. The last one he married was Elizabeth Proctor, who gave birth to two children, William and Sarah...

. At her trial in September, she pled guilty to both indictments against her, one for afflicting Mercy Lewis

Mercy Lewis

-Brief Overview:Mercy Lewis was born in Falmouth, Maine in 1675 and was a servant in Thomas Putnam’s household. She is also one of the featured characters in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible...

 and another for covenanting with the Devil.

Governor William Phips

William Phips

Sir William Phips was a shipwright, ship's captain, treasure hunter, military leader, and the first royally-appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay....

 granted Hobbs a reprieve in January 1693, after Chief Magistrate William Stoughton

William Stoughton (Massachusetts)

William Stoughton was a colonial magistrate and admininstrator in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was in charge of what have come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials, first as the Chief Justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692, and then as the Chief Justice of the...

 had signed the warrant for her execution.

In 1710, her father, William Hobbs, petitioned the General Court to compensate him for £40 expenses that the family's imprisonment cost him but said he was willing to accept £10, which the court granted him in 1712.

Abigail Hobbs was among those named in the Act for Reversal of Attainder by the Massachusetts Great and General Court

Massachusetts General Court

The Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...

, October 17, 1711.