Elizabeth's Story

Historians have been confused for years about who Elizabeth was and what her connection is to the Lambert family of Salem. I began searching for her three months ago and believe I now have the answers to the questions up to the year 1690. She then frustratingly leaves no traces behind.

Richard Lambert came to Salem in 1634. He arrived on a ship with two families that would loss family members to the witch trials. The Proctors and the father of Rebecca Nurse and her sisters. His name is recorded throughout the quarterly court records a cheat in business, a drunkard, and an all around non male ideal of manhood. There are no records of his having children or getting married until after it is mention that his property is being given away and it is reported that he is dead in around 1657. On July 4, 1661 the birth of twin daughters are reported in Ipswich to Richard Lambert, Elizabeth and Sarah. In about 1661, the care of his wife and a child and another child are reported as wards of the town of Salem. In 1667, Sarah Lambert is convicted of fornication and the punishment of lashing is deferred until after the birth of her child. Also in August of 1667 a mystery woman Elizabeth Lambert is married to William the Mariner Cash in Salem. Their first child William Cash Jr is born on February 2, 1668. Interestingly, the original record of Elizabeth and Williams marriage places a small "w" next to Elizabeth's name. In the codex to this volume is the following, w=widow. It is in this volume that William Jr birthday is listed as 2, 2, 1668. In a later volume a 12, 2 , 1668 has been added and the small "w" has been removed with the signatures of the two midwives who agreed to testify that the penalty had been administered to Sarah Lambert for the crime of fornication.

In 1657 Quaker missionaries arrived in the New World. The held a meeting at the home of Lawrence Southwich in Salem. The meeting was broken up the Salem's constable. Several people are named in the quarter records and twelve individuals are noted to have been there, but are not named. In historical accounts of the trials of the Quakers twelve individuals are mentioned but not named as having been imprison, and subject to all manner of torture including, whipping, ear clipping, and tongue piercing on and off over the next four years. Eventually ten or so of these people were send with the missionaries to England for trial in 1661. When people were convicted of Crimes and excommincated, see Sarah Proctor and the witch trials, they were deemed to be dead, and their property was forfeited.

In a book published in London, The Sufferings of the People Called Quakers, an account of Richard Lambert's trial is given. He is convicted of being a Quaker in London and sentenced to banishment. Several other prisoners are sent to Barbados. The court determined they could not send the prisoners from Massachusetts back to the new world. Instead they sent them to Newgate Prison. Richard and 21 other men died there three years later in 1665.

His conviction of a capital offence explains his being reported dead in the late 1650's. I believe he and Elizabeth were married in Quaker ceremony during one of the brief periods he was out prison. It is likely she is the daughter of one of the Quaker families of Salem. He daughter, Mary, by William Cash married the grandson of Lawrence Southwich family.

Following their marriage Sarah/Elizabeth becames pregnant with the twins in the fall of 1660, Richard was transported to London in the Spring of 1661 and would have never seen the children. The quarterly records show that Sarah is a servant that has a child that town is compensating her master for taking care of until around 1665 when the twin Elizabeth dies. I suspect her daughter Elizabeth was sickly in someway and had to stay with her mother. Her other daughter was placed in the care of various towns people and passed from person to person. It was provided that she would be cared for until she was eighteen. Historians have commented that the child would have been less than 5 when she is first mention in 1661, she was in fact less than a year. Little Sarah is mention in 1676 as being convicted of fornication on the way home on thanksgiving and sentenced to being lashed. Sometime later a Boston court convicts her attacker of rape and sentences him hanging. The Salem courts of course do nothing to restore the fifteen year old foster child who has been abandoned by her mother who now lives in town with a new husband and is raising a new family. Little Sarah has a child out of wedlock in 1680, which is taken from her by the town (likely adopted out) and is again accused of fornication six years later, but this time the man marries her and she moves away.

In 1690, Elizabeth becomes a widow. She had buried two children she had with William Cash. The only record his death is the new grave marker placed in the Burying Place Graveyard sometime in this century. In her profile a death date of 1711 is given. I can verify the date to be wrong. It belongs to Elizabeth Lambert that married Joseph Swasey on 10/16/78. I suspect the lack of death dates is the result of their being Quakers. Quakers do not openly publish death dates. My hope is that on his original grave marker the names and dates of his infant child and wife's names were inscribed and simply were lost to history and that in the ground below the entire family is resting in peace together.

I can say that Elizabeth Lambert, wife of William Cash was not Richard Lambert's daughter, but his wife. She had two children. In died at the age of four, the other lived a difficult life at a time when women had few rights. I suspect she a little choice but to leave little Sarah behind. She was the widow of a heretic, a former indentured servant(following her conviction, the town paid her master 10 pounds for her remaining time and legal fees), and she needed a fresh start. I believe Sarah Elizabeth Lambert, simple became Elizabeth Lambert and left her spotted past behind her in August of 1667.

I hope this is helpful in your search for your families past