[3] The execution of Alse Young of Windsor in the spring of 1647[4] was the beginning of the witch panic in the area, which would not come to an end until 1670 with the release of Katherine Harrison.
[5] The history of witchcraft in Connecticut is difficult to track, owing primarily to the lack of documentation from the accusations, trials, and executions.
[10] Her execution was recorded in the journals of John Winthrop the governor of Massachusetts Bay; and Matthew Grant, the second town clerk of Windsor.
Around the time of the trial, an influenza epidemic occurred throughout the New England area, including her hometown of Windsor, which may have influenced the accusations against her.
The accusations against her included breaking the Sabbath, fortune-telling and using black magic, as well as appearing in spectral form to people.
[13] Harrison's trial faced many complications: the first jury never reached a decision, and the second found her guilty, but the magistrates disagreed as most of the evidence was spectral, which relied solely on the accuser.
[19] A minister from a neighboring village claimed Branch's afflictions were the result of her declining to join a witch coven.
[21] By 1663, the witchcraft trials in Hartford were beginning to wind down, due in no small part to the return of the governor of the Connecticut colony, John Winthrop Jr.[2] Winthrop was generally regarded as "New England’s quintessential adjudicator of witchcraft cases",[2] due not only to his status as the son of the governor of Massachusetts, but also to his "first-hand knowledge of natural magical practices... associated with alchemy, a mystical form of chemical experimentation.
[5] This significantly stemmed the flow of accusations, and despite a minor panic during the Salem crisis later, no witches were executed in Connecticut after Katherine Harrison's release in 1670.
[5] On October 6, 2012, descendants of the executed petitioned the Connecticut government to posthumously pardon the victims,[23] but the motion was not passed.
[27] On May 10, 2023, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted 121 in favor and 30 against, in order to exonerate 12 people who were convicted of witchcraft in the colonial era.
On May 26, the Connecticut State Senate voted 33–1 to pardon the same group on the 376th anniversary of the first witch-hanging in New England, that of Alse Young.