"seven years before the Salem Witch Trials, Rebecca Fowler was accused of witchcraft in Calvert County. Probably in her forties or fifties at the time she was accused, Rebecca lived in the area known as Mount Calvert Hundred, having sailed from England in 1656.[8] She and her husband John met while indentured servants to the same landowner; they had worked their way out of indenture, and her husband had managed to finally purchase some land in 1683. Her accuser was an indentured servant himself, named Francis Sandsbury, who worked on her husband’s plantation, Fowler’s Delight.[9] The details of the incident are unclear, but from what we can infer from court documents, Francis suffered some kind of injury or illness which he blamed on Rebecca. Possibly she cursed at him, or the two had some sort of altercation prior to this injury; either way, he reported Rebecca for witchcraft, and she was seized by the authorities."
Source: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2015/07/23/witch-hunts-dc-area-older-you-think (final paragraph)
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Rebecca is said to have committed her crimes in Calvert county, specifically at Mount Calvert Hundred “and several other places in Calvert County”. Prince George county wasn’t formed until 1696 from land taken from Calvert and Charles counties and with that Mount Calvert Hundred became the county seat of Prince George.
Furthermore, there was a hearing in 1767 regarding the proper boundaries for “Sim’s Delight”. Thomas Sansbury testified in that hearing, ostensibly because his land bordered Sim’s Delight and we have evidence that Thomas was the son of Francis Sansbury. Sim’s Delight is on the list of historic places as is Mount Calvert Hundred so we know their locations which are nominally five miles apart. And the fact that the Francis Sansbury we know (1661-1732) would have been about 24 at the time of the accusation against Rebecca leads me to believe this is “our” Francis, notwithstanding the “d” in Sansbury.
Is there more to this story about the relationship between Francis and the Fowlers? Francis was a servant to wealthy landowner George Collins. Francis reportedly arrived in Maryland in 1678 and he stated he was a servant to George for six years, and while not specifically stated that would have been about the time of the death of George (1684ish). So, one might presume that rather than having completed his indenture his master had died.
And in George’s will he seems to have left something of value to John Fowler (it’s difficult to tell what) and that he gave Richard Fowler “Orchard”. And then in that same year John established “Fowler’s Delight” https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I044207&tree=Tree1
which according to the article is where Francis was working as a servant when Rebecca put her hex on Francis. Did the indenture of Francis role over to John Fowler? (note: Fowler’s Delight is described as West of the Patuxent River which is the same small area described above).
And what was the relationship between the Fowlers and George? In the article it stated that Rebecca and John had been indentured servants but doesn’t say to whom. I would guess it was George. And it’s stated Rebecca arrived in Maryland quite early – 1656. So, one might guess that John and Rebecca were long time servants of George who were rewarded for that in his will.
And George also left something of value to Margaret Sansbury, whom he describes as the daughter of Anne Brett, not as the wife of Francis his servant (from our research we believe Margaret was the wife of Francis) https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I044203&tree=Tree1
One has the impression that Francis is not well thought of by George. He will’s something to Francis’s wife but not to Francis or even refer to Margaret as the wife of Francis. He gives something of value to John Fowler and John takes his winnings and establishes Fowlers Delight where Francis continues to work as a servant.
A year after George dies Francis finds himself now as servant to the Fowlers and accuses Rebecca of being a witch. Hugely speculative on my part but was Francis angry about his lot in life and resent the Fowlers resulting in the accusation against Rebecca? It does appear that while he made the charges several others claimed to have been harmed by Rebecca.
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