15. Abigail Pruitt Lawson
Chapter 15
Abigail Pruitt Lawson
A bigail Pruitt Lawson was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1691. Despite being born to Elizabeth Pruitt, a known practitioner, Abigail wasn’t exposed to the craft personally. Elizabeth sent Abigail and Abigail’s father, James Lawson, away when Elizabeth was charged with witchcraft. Elizabeth was burned at the stake before Abigail’s second birthday.
James Lawson took Abigail to New York and raised her there by himself as a widower. James’s family was from New York, so Abigail was surrounded by family despite not ever getting to know her mother. Abigail was close to her aunt, Charlotte, and her grandparents, Bernard and Victoria.
When Abigail was ten years old, she accidentally levitated food when she was hungry. It was the first manifestation of her magic. James was aware of Elizabeth’s powers, and had been warned before her death that their daughter may share this gift. Elizabeth gave him a letter and her journals in case Abigail shared her magic.
This letter was addressed to Abigail, apologizing for her absence and explaining the focus on secrecy. The journals outlined every spell or discovery Elizabeth had made so Abigail wouldn’t have to discover everything on her own.
These journals became the basis of our modern understanding of magic, heralded globally as the first reliable records on element manipulation and early spellwork, and is what Abigail built upon during her lifetime.
Until his dying day, James protected his daughter and encouraged her honing her craft. He died of old age when Abigail was forty years of age.
Just as Elizabeth swore, Abigail’s powers were more advanced than her own and Abigail took to the craft quickly. With her mother’s journals as guidance, Abigail became a talented daemon hunter and spellweaver. She developed the technique of ‘scrying’—using magic to track someone or something—and used it to pursue daemons across the state.
In 1713, when Abigail was twenty-two years old, she met Christopher Beckett. In her own journals, which were continuations of her mother’s and also published separately, she describes him as the love of her life. Their connection was “buzzing as if like the beat of the wings of a bee”, and they were wed within the year.
Abigail went on to have three children—Christopher, James, and Annabelle. Annabelle was the only child to inherit the craft.
Abigail died of disease in 1756 at sixty-five years old, her husband having died a few years prior. Abigail lived to see her line continued, to mentor her own daughter, and to see the first of her grandchildren.