Ann Alcock Foster, the 8th great grandmother of Ellen Tippets Prescott was born in England about 1617, married Andrew Foster about 1640 and led a rather ordinary life until the year of her death on the 3rd of Dec 1693 at the age of 76. The family resided in Andover, Massachusetts about 17 miles from Salem. As the hysteria over witchcraft grew in Salem it affected Andover where they resided. Bridget Bishop had already been executed and on September 17, 1692 Ann and her daughter Mary Lacey along with their neighbors Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca Eames, and Abigail Hobbs were tried and sentenced to be hanged.
Those who refused to confess were being executed. Mary in her confession stated "me and Martha Carrier did both ride on a stick or pole when we went to witch meetings at Salem Village." Unfortunately a few weeks later Martha Carrier was executed by hanging. Ann did not implicate anyone in her confession.
"The Andover confessions were among the most colorful of any made anywhere. Ann Foster, who later died in prison, told John Hale that she had ridden from Andover to a Salem Village witch meeting on a stick but that the stick had broken and given her a fall. She was still sore, she claimed. When she later repeated this confession, she added in response to Hales's query as to what she did for food, that she carried bread and cheese in her pocket. She described all the witches at the meeting enjoying a picnic under a tree before getting down to their devilish business." Hill, A Delusion of Satan, p. 150.
Due to her age and ill treatment by Sheriff George Corwin she died in Salem Dungeon. They refused to release her body for burial until her son paid 2 pounds 16 shillings which he later recovered from the village after the hysteria was over and they admitted the wrongs that had been done.