Woman who escaped Salem witch trial execution is subject of former Ashland resident's book

Janice Thompson's new book, "Dry Tinder: A Tale of Rivalry and Injustice in Salem Village," was in the making for nearly 20 years.

Thompson, 50, now of Harpswell, Maine, moved to Ashland with her family in 2004. It was then she learned about accused witch Sarah Clayes, her house and the area's connection to the Salem witch trials.

"The story really kind of caught me," Thompson said. "I started to learn more and more about this story. I really started writing it nearly 20 years ago."

Thompson's home in Ashland abutted 800 acres of conservation land. Neighbors told her about the witch caves in town, where refugees from Salem came to hide.

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At first, Thompson said she thought it was an urban legend. But after some research, she discovered it was real and she also learned about Sarah Clayes, who came to Framingham after she and five other families fled Salem. Her sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Mary Eastey, had been hanged as accused witches.

Thompson found out about the Sarah Clayes house, colloquially known as the Witch House, at 657 Salem End Road. She decided to help spearhead an effort to save it, as it was then in disrepair.

"I'm a professional fundraiser, and I said I can raise some money to get this going — not knowing it would take 15 years," Thompson said.

Thompson had hoped Clayes house 'would benefit the public'

For years, she worked to help raise money to renovate the house with the idea of making it a public institution. However, the group she was working with pushed the idea to have the house privately owned, and Thompson split off from the group.

"That's the story behind why I moved to Maine — I couldn't drive by this house every day, because it's not going to benefit the public, which was what I really wanted," she said. "My vision for the house died, so I thought, 'Maybe I should write her story,' so that I could preserve her memory in a way."

And that's how "Dry Tinder: A Tale of Rivalry and Injustice in Salem Village," came to be. Thompson, who owns a nonprofit newspaper, The Harpswell Anchor, decided to write a historical novel of the events that led to the Salem witch trials. It was released in May.

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She said she decided not to write a nonfiction book because that story has been told dozens of times, in book and movie form. Rather, she decided to write in fiction, using a lot of the language of the time.

"I really wanted to fictionalize it, so I could put a little bit more of a personal standpoint on the story," she said. "This book started at 800 pages because I was trying to write about every single character. I got it down to 300 pages with a pretty extended appendix."

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The story features the Towne sisters, who later became known as Sarah Clayes, Rebecca Nurse and Mary Eastey. The book is told from Clayes' perspective, as the hysteria grows, and the Puritan faith allows for the witchcraft accusations.

The story starts 23 years before the 1692 witch trials, which led to the name "Dry Tinder," because it is a slow burn of relationships and jealousy that led to the trials, Thompson said.

There is a chapter featuring Thomas Danforth, a magistrate at the time of the trials and on whose land Clayes and other families built their homes in Framingham.

"There's nothing in this book that I dreamed up completely, except this one scene between Thomas Danforth and Sarah when he invited her to his farm," said Thompson. "It hasn't been documented if it was actually Thomas Danforth giving permission and why. That is all fiction."

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Although most of the book takes place in and around Salem, Thompson said it should also be of interest to those interested in Framingham's history.

"It's really Framingham's origin story," she said.

"Dry Tinder: A Tale of Rivalry and Injustice in Salem Village," is available on Amazon.com for $29.99 for a hardcover, $19.99 for paperback and $14.99 for an e-book.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wicekdlocal.com. For up-to-date news, follow him on X @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Accused Salem witch who fled to Framingham subject of new novel