William Hathorne was a judge, politician, Speaker of the General Court, and Commissioner for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hathorne was the father of Salem Witch Trials Judge John Hathorne and the great-great-great grandfather of author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hathorne, born in Bray, England, in 1606, was the son of yeoman William Hathorne and his wife Sara. William Hathorne came to America aboard Arbella, one of John Winthrop’s eleven ships that brought over 800 Puritans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the summer of 1630.
Hathorne first settled in Dorchester, where he was admitted as a Freeman in 1634, and later moved to Salem Village in 1636 after he was offered a land grant if he quit the church of Dorchester and relocated to Salem instead.
William Hathorne married Anne Smith and had several children:
A daughter (name and birth date unknown)
Sarah born March 11, 1634-5
Eleazor born August 1, 1637
Nathaniel born August 11, 1639
John born August 5, 1641
Anna born December 12, 1643
William born April 1, 1645
Elizabeth born 1649
Hathorne received his promised 200-acre land grant in Salem Village on February 17, 1637, which included what is now known as Hathorne Hill where the Danvers State Hospital was later built in the 19th century.
Hathorne owned that land for 25 years and built a large mansion on top of the hill. He eventually sold the land in 1662, but the Hathorne mansion remained well into the 19th century. Hathorne also received several more land grants including 240 acres in 1648, 400 acres in 1654, and 640 acres in 1675.
Hathorne served as a member of the Massachusetts General Court from 1634 to 1661. He also served as a Speaker of the Court intermittently from 1644 to 1661 and served on the Governor’s Council from 1662 to 1679. Hathorne also served as a deputy representing Salem for many terms.
Hathorne was elected Captain of the Salem military company on May 1, 1646, and was later commissioned a major in 1656. Hathorne was known for being a “bitter persecutor” of Quakers, as Nathaniel Hawthorne later characterized him, and was responsible for ordering the public whipping of Ann Coleman in Salem in 1662.
In 1666, Hathorne and Governor Bellingham were ordered by King Charles II to go to England for a royal reprimand after Hathorne criticized the king’s commissioners, who had been sent to New England to enforce the king’s recent ban on the persecution of Quakers.
Hathorne stubbornly refused and instead sent a letter arguing for non-intervention in the colony’s affairs. Fortunately, the king was too preoccupied with other matters at the time to pursue the issue.
William Hathorne died in 1681 at the age of 74 years old. It is believed he was buried in the Old Burial Ground in Salem, possibly in an unmarked grave.
Hathorne’s great-great-great grandson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem 123 years later in 1804 and grew up to become a notable author.
Nathaniel, who added a W to the family name possibly to distance himself from his ancestors, used William and John Hathorne as inspiration for some of his most famous works, such as his novels The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and his short story “Young Goodman Brown.”
Hawthorne believed that his ancestor’s cruel actions towards Quakers and the accused Salem witches brought a curse upon the family and he saw the family’s financial struggles in the 19th century as proof of that.
In Hawthorne’s introductory chapter of The Scarlet Letter, titled The Custom House, Hawthorne states that he is haunted by the figure of William Hathorne:
“The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me and induces a sort of home feeling with the past…”
Nathaniel goes on to criticize John Hathorne, stating that he inherited William’s “persecuting spirit,” and apologizes for his ancestor’s actions, hoping it will lift the curse:
“At all events, I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes and pray that any curse incurred by them—as I have heard, and as the dreary and unprosperous condition of the race, for many a long year back, would argue to exist—may be now and henceforth removed.”
Sources:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Introduction: ‘The Custom-House’.” The Scarlet Letter. Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850.
Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne: A Life. Random House Publishing, 2012,
Gough, John. The History of the People Called Quakers, Vol. I. Darton and Harvey, 1799.
Bodge, George Mason. “Captain William Hathorne.” Soldiers in King Philip’s War. Printed for the Author, 1896. PP: 318-324.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne Digs Up His Roots.” Lapham’s Quarterly, laphamsquarterly.org/family/nathaniel-hawthorne-digs-his-roots
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library. “Hathorne [Hawthorne], William, letter to the Right Honorable [William Morrice, Secretary of State]. Oct. 26, 1666. Copy in unknown hand, note in NH’s hand.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1666. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/885ba940-c643-0130-36ee-58d385a7b928