Ann Foster
Andover widow accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials
Ann Foster (c. 1617 – December 3, 1692) was an Andover widow accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.
Life and family
Ann married Andrew Foster and settled in Andover, Massachusetts. They had five children: Andrew, Abraham, Sarah (Mrs. Kemp), Hannah (Mrs. Stone, whose husband, Hugh Stone, killed her in a drunken rage in 1689, and was hanged), and Mary (Mrs. Lacey).
Accusation and trial
In 1692, when a woman named Elizabeth Ballard came down with a fever that baffled doctors, witchcraft was suspected, and a search for the responsible witch began. Two afflicted girls from Salem village, Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott, were taken to Andover to seek out the witch, and fell into fits at the sight of Ann Foster.
Ann, seven years a widow, was arrested and taken to Salem prison. Foster's daughter, Mary Foster Lacey Sr, and her daughter, named Mary Lacey Jr, were accused of witchcraft as well.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4766403. VIAF identifies the subject as 14185668. The Library of Congress control number is n2005172332. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1617, 1692 and 1689.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ann Foster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.