Plaque in Boston's North End Honors Irish Servant Goody Glover, Falsely Hung as a Witch in 1688

Goodwife Ann Glover plaque in Boston's North End

The next time you are exploring landmarks along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail, visit the Goodwife Ann Glover plaque at St. Stephen's Church, located at 401 Hanover Street, in Boston's North End.

The plaque honors an Irish Catholic immigrant who was falsely accused of being a witch in Boston, part of a mass hysteria taking place in the Puritan community during that era. Glover was found guilty and hung by the town elders, led by Minister Cotton Mather, on November 16, 1688.

According to 18th century accounts, Glover was an Irish indentured servant who had been sent to Barbados in the 1650s after the Cromwell invasion of Ireland. Her husband went with her, and when he died on the island, Ann and her daughter came to Boston where she worked in the Goodwin household as a servant.

The Goodwins 13-year-old daughter Martha swore she got sick shortly after discovering Goody's daughter stealing laundry. Based on that flimsy charge and plenty of innuendo, Goody was charged with witchcraft by a handful of self-righteous Puritan ministers and was ordered to stand trial.

In the courtroom, there was confusion over Glover's testimony, since she refused to speak English, despite knowing the language, and only spoke in her native Irish tongue. This prompted Rev. Cotton Mather to call her "obstinate in idolatry." According to Mather, "the court could have no answers from her, but in the Irish, which was her native language." The judge and ministers decided Goody must be hung.

James B. Cullen, author of The Story of the Irish in Boston (1889) picks up the story from here. "She was drawn in a cart, a hated and dreaded figure, chief in importance, stared at and mocked at, through the principal streets from her prison to the gallows," he wrote. "The people crowded to see the end, as always; and when it was over they quietly dispersed, leaving the worn-out body hanging as a terror to evil-doers."

The plaque at St. Stephen's Church was originally placed at Our Lady of Victories Church in Boston's South End/Bay Village neighborhood on the 300th anniversary of the hanging, on November 16, 1988. When Our Lady was closed and later converted to condominiums, the plaque was moved to St. Stephen's Catholic Church on Hanover Street in Boston's North End.

Boston City Council proclaimed Goody Glover Day on November 16, 1988.

Originally designed by architect Charles Bulfinch in 1802, St. Stephen’s Church became a Catholic Church in 1862, a parish for Irish refugees who settled in the North End after fleeing Ireland’s famines. One family was President Kennedy’s mother Rose Fitzgerald who was baptized here in 1890. Near the Goodwife Ann Glover plaque you'll also find a plaque honoring Rose.

Learn more about Boston's Irish history on the IrishHeritageTrail.

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