Talk:Abigail Williams/Archive 1

Alright, so
The current page is kinda inferior to the October 9th page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.250.139.97 (talk) 22:49, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Her character
In "The Crucible" Abigail Williams was a liar who she didn't had an affair with John Proctor. She would not ever be truthful. Reverend Hale never believed her in the first place and was by far the character who changed the most. Abigail was a "strikingly beautiful girl" at the age of 17 or 18. Abigail was an orphan who lived with her uncle, Reverend Parris, and her cousin, Betty Parris. Abigail claimed that John Proctor's wife, Elizabeth, was a witch in an attempt to kill Elizabeth so that she could marry Proctor. She killed off many people to get to Elizabeth, but fled when her plot was discovered as a fake. 69.87.138.35 14:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)A.R.P.


 * The Crucible is a fictional work of literature written during the red scare, looking at the similarities of it and the Salem Witch Trials. You cannot base a oppinion of any person that lived in the time of the Salem Witch Trials by the story of The Crucible. The author used artistic licence to change ages and personalities of the actual people. It is not accurate or ethical to base judgements becuase of a fictional work of literature. FRIEND OF VonShroom 14:55, 6 December 2006 (UTC), using his account.

Dollars in Puritan Massachusettes
I removed the speculation "It is thought that she died young, having never recovered from her "affliction", although some tales state that she ended up as a prostitute for 5 dollars an hour in Boston. Other versions claim that she ended her life in the West Indies." There's no way that's possible, as there were no "dollars" in New England until after the American Revolution.

I also removed the previous vandalism on this talk page.69.58.248.102 09:55, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
 * The funny thing is that these things can be found some where else in the www. For example here. --134.147.116.110 (talk) 12:37, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Birthplace/Deathbed
This *needs* citation(s), as I have found it extremely difficult to find any information on her. -This site has the relevant information, but, as cited on Book Rags, this Abigail (if we are to trust the dates) would be 6 years older than the Abigail mentioned in the Salem Witch Trial documents. The historical record can be less than clear at times so this should probably stay up (especially since it can be hard to follow people's tracks), but there should be some sort of disclaimer. ("... Although it was ordinary practice for young girls to live with relatives to learn about housewifery, we know very little about Abigail, including where she was born and who her parents were.")

Age During Trials
This wikipedia entry states she was 11 years old during the trials on one half, and 10 years old during the trials on the other. Which is correct?

it seems that the trials continued from one year to the next (1692-3) therefore both entries are actually correct.

However, the entry also states she was born in 1680. Since the Salem Witch Trials went from 1692-93, she would be 11 going on 12. 1692 (year of the trials) - 1680 (year of her birth) - 1 (the trials began before her birthday) = 11 Mr. College (talk) 05:03, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Strange Vandalism
For some reason, I cannot revert the vandalism at the bottom of the article page. For me, it doesn't appear in the "Edit This Page" section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.209.236.122 (talk) 05:15, 7 December 2006 (UTC).

Abigail Williams, Fiction and Silly Vandalisms
This page has problems with people confusing the historical Abigail Williams with the fictional Abigail Williams of Miller's play. Plus, folks like to add silly vandalism about pirates, etc. Caveat lector! MacPhilbin 19:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Relationship with John Proctor
In The Crucible (yes, I know it's a work of fiction), Abigail is said to have had an affair with John Proctor. I read in "Why I Wrote The Crucible" that Arthur Miller sincerely believed that this affair happened, but I can't find any information on it myself, other than in The Crucible. Was it speculation, or is there any proof that this affair existed? Oh, and if there is proof, I'd just like to say that the almost 50-year age difference... bleh. 68.221.194.114 (talk) 03:48, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

What about the Band?
I really want to start a page about Abigail Willams the band. How can I do that —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zelda911111 (talk • contribs) 16:01, 15 November 2008 (UTC)


 * There is one. Someone just needs to add the disambiguation, which I dont know how to do.  Just type in "Abigail Williams (band)." 75.179.3.77 (talk) 18:22, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

I changed it back...
I changed back her age at the time of the actual trials for accuracy.

Wikiguy2.0 (talk) 23:26, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

At present, the article shows a picture of an actress in the role of Abigail Williams, a character in a film, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This is a film set in the modern day, and the character bears scant relation to the historical figure. Were the film a retelling of the events of the day, one might have little complaint; however it is not. The image is fundamentally not one of Williams (as in a contemporary sketch), nor of a serious attempt at a depiction of Williams (such as from a production of The Crucible, or other depiction of the events). As such, I feel it has no place in a serious encyclopedic article. Ché (talk) 22:24, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

My change in "appearances in fiction"
In my opinion this section was vandalized. The Paragraph made no sense without the text: "...began to name people as having been (???)s portrayed by...". The text I inserted was there in the version of 01:07, 6 October 2011, it's gone in the next: Feel free to revert if I'm mistaken. 132.199.230.135 (talk) 22:18, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

This article
This article has been based off the book the Crucible, which is only based on the facts, it is not the actual facts themselves. I changed the part that said she died when she was 17-18 years old because it is not true. I know this because she had seven children. My family did a little research and actually discovered that Abigail Williams is a great grandmother (to the n'th degree) of ours. Therefore it would have been impossible for her to have seven children before she was even 18 years old. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.20.68.37 (talk) 05:08, 18 July 2012 (UTC)


 * As a genealogist, as well as someone who did a college paper on the Salem Witchcraft trials, I'd be very interested to see what documentation you've found on the descendants of Abigail Williams. Did you find a marriage record, a will, an estate inventory, a family bible record, what? I'm sincerely interested to see what you found.  History Lunatic (talk) 12:51, 2 November 2012 (UTC)History Lunatic

Claims of prostitution
I'm not seeing any sources for the claim at the end of the "Salem Witch Trials" section that she was a prostitute. Removing that. CharmlessCoin (talk) 17:13, 1 March 2013 (UTC) prostitution is her character because whatever she did is just a liar — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.210.202.158 (talk) 11:26, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

Major Spoiler in this article
At the end of "Legacy" it states that Abigail Williams appears as the antagonist in Murdered: Soul Suspect, this is actually a major spoiler that you do not find out until the end of the game. This should be change to "appears as a character" or something similar, as this spoiled the game's ending for myself and a few others I know who liked to research the Witch Trials as we played through the game. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 154.20.22.246 (talk) 04:09, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

Cause of Death
According to this article (and the other sources I've seen) Abigail died when she was only 17. Does anyone know the cause of her death? It's not currently in this article and I haven't found any sources that say what she died of either. TrafficJam (talk) 10:04, 18 March 2017 (UTC)h

External links modified
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I have just modified one external link on Abigail Williams (Salem witch trials). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130110200410/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/173790-Abigail-1702-Exploring-Aftermath-of-The-Crucible-Will-Play-Cincinnati to http://www.playbill.com/news/article/173790-Abigail-1702-Exploring-Aftermath-of-The-Crucible-Will-Play-Cincinnati

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Requested move 5 January 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: moved. — Za  wl  08:33, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

This Abigail Williams should be considered the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for Abigail Williams. Due to her key role in the Salem witch trials, she clearly meets the long-term significance criteria of "substantially greater enduring notability and educational value" over the band and soap-opera character. She also meets the usage criteria of the guideline, due to receiving far more pageviews than either of the other two, drawing 87.6% of all non-disambiguation pageviews last year. Over 2017, the disambiguation page actually got more page views than either the band or the character. Egsan Bacon (talk) 13:56, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Abigail Williams (Salem witch trials) → Abigail Williams
 * Abigail Williams → Abigail Williams (disambiguation)
 * For some reason, the RM template really didn't like having the 2017 pageview link included in it, so |Abigail_Williams_(Salem_witch_trials)|Abigail_Williams_(band)|Abigail_Williams_(As_the_World_Turns) here it is. Egsan Bacon (talk) 13:56, 5 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Support, per nom and historical importance of the topic. Randy Kryn (talk) 06:02, 6 January 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Abigails Parentage.
Abigail Rogers (circa 1680-1713) Duxbury Plymouth County Massachusetts was the daughter of Joseph Rogers (1635-1716) and Abigail Barker (1657-1718) of Plymouth Colony. They could not have been the parents of Abigail Williams (of the Salem Witch Trials) as they did NOT die in an Indian raid and were living at the time of the trials of 1692. Joseph Rogers will is dated 10 Apr 1716 and his wife did not die until 1718.

Her maternal grandmother was Luce or Lucy Williams (1620-1681), thus a connection to the name "Williams", this is a coincidence.

She married Thomas Parris (1670-1730) which made her a grandniece of Reverend Samuel Parris (of the Salem Witch Trials) by marriage which occurred after the trials. This is a coincidence.

Although she would have been the right age and there are a couple of similarities, Abigail Rogers Parris is a documented person and she is NOT the Salem Witch Trial Accuser (barring a historical cover up of the identity of the minor child Abigail Williams). If Abigail Williams did survive to have children, they have been lost to history.

https://archive.org/details/johnrogersofmars00drum/page/10/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/johnrogersofmars00drum/page/12/mode/2up https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rogers-2044 https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rogers-6039 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107986548/abigail-parris