Mary Bliss

Mary Bliss Parsons (1628–1712) was an American woman who was accused of witchcraft, but was exonerated, in 17th-century Massachusetts. Background Parsons was born to Thomas and Margaret (Hulins) Bliss in Gloucestershire, England in 1628. Her family later immigrated to Hartford, Connecticut, where she married Joseph Parsons on November 2, 1646. The couple later moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1655, Joseph Parsons purchased a land tract from the local Native Americans in what would become Northampton. Parsons frequently negotiated for land from the Nonotuck, Agawam, and other Indigenous peoples of the region under circumstances that have come under scrutiny as an instrumental part of the colonization of the area and partial displacement of Native people by Puritan settlers. The Parsonses became financially successful members of the Northampton community, owning property in Springfield, Hadley, Massachusetts and Boston as well as in Northampton. The Feud