Ann Pudeator and Alice Parker's arrest warrant signed by the chief examiner John Hathorne.
Ann Pudeator was a midwife and nurse in Salem Town, and is a doctor and midwife in Suffer a Witch. She has been the witches doctor through the last three hundred years.
Personality in Suffer a Witch[]
Ann Pudeator is the Head of the Midwife department at Bingham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She is a medical doctor, who takes care of the witches unique medical issues. She looks as if she's in her late thirties and is lovely. She is engaged to marry the head of surgery.
We meet her in Chapter Three when George calls her after Em is caught in her vision.
Historic Ann[]
Ann Pudeator fits the classic profile for a European witch.
- She was a professional nurse and midwife.
- She was widowed by two husbands.
- Finally, she was known to have scolded a man for being slow in returning her cow.
Ann Pudeator was estimated to be in her mid-seventies when she was hanged on September 22, 1692. She had worked in Salem Town as a midwife and nurse since her first husband's death (in 1674) left her destitute with five children to raise. She married John Pudeator, a wealthy blacksmith, in 1676. He bequeathed her with the land.
Ann declared her innocence the entire trial. Days before her hanging, she filed a petition with the court which stated:
- "The humble Petition of Ann Poodeater unto the honoured Judge and Bench now Setting in Judicature in Salem humbly Sheweth:
- "That Wheras your Poor and humble Petitioner being condemned to die and knowing in my own conscience as I shall shortly answer it before the great God of heaven who is the searcher & knower of all hearts: That the Evidence of Jno Best Sen'r and Jno Best Jun'r and Sam'll Pickworth w'ch was given in against me in Court were all of them altogether false & untrue and besides the abovesaid Jno Best hath been formerly whipt and likewise is recorded for a Lyar I would humbly begg of yo'r honours to Take it into your Judicious and Pious consideration That my life may not be taken away by such false Evidence and wittnesses as these be likewise the Evidence given in against me by Sarah Church and Mary Warren I am altogether ignorant off and know nothing in the least measure about it nor nothing else concerning the crime of witchcraft for w'ch I am condemned to die as will be known to men and angells att the great day of Judgment begging and imploring your prayers att the throne of grace in my behalfe and your poor and humble petition'r shall for ever pray as she is bound in duty for your hon'rs health and happiness in this life and eternall felicity in the world to come
- Ann Pudeaters Petitioner" (link )
While Ann's name is spelled "Pudeaters" here, her recorded name is "Pudeator." It is unlikely that Ann wrote this herself. It's more likely that she paid someone to write it for her.
Nothing is known about where Ann was born or where she grew up. It's assumed she was born in England.