Hi, I have been researching the Salem Trials off and on for many years(mostly off) I have been interested in the real John Proctor and family since reading The Crucible way back in the 7th grade. I've learned quite a bit about the family, but am still trying to trace Mary Warren after 1692. Mary, Abigail Williams and another of the "afflicted" girls so active in the trials are three that disappeared from history after the trials ended. In his forward to The Crucible, Arthur Miller stated that there was a local legend that Abigail Williams ended up as a Boston prostitute which I've not heard of anywhere else. Since the real Abigail was 11 or 12 during the trials, I've always thought this "legend" might pertain to Mary Warren. Are their any family legends/tales regarding the real Mary Warren? I'm very interested as verbal history handed down often contains a good deal of truth. Elizabeth Basset Proctor, John's third wife, also pleaded with the courts several years after 1692 when she planned to remarry. She stated that she could not get any of her dowery back from the Proctor children ; the children claiming "she was dead in the law" as her conviction and death sentence for witchcraft had never been overturned.

This seems very contrary to John's eldest son, Benjarmin, who claimed in the 1711/1712 petition for compensation to victims of witchcraft persecution, that he had "raised his father's children from all his wives(total of 3)one after the other"
I have always thought that the real truth behind Elizabeth Basset Proctor's claim was that John Proctor's estate may have been tied up in the courts and his children simply didn't have the money/property to give to Elizabeth. Anyone know of any family stories behind Elizabeth's claims?

Thanks so much