Bridget Bishop was born in 1632 in England, later emigrating to the 'New World', becoming a settler in Salem. She is historically significant for being the first person executed in the famous 1692 Salem Witch Trials.
Before her execution on June 10, 1692, she led a life that made her the subject of gossip and suspicion. Bridget had been married three times (twice widowed), was accused of unseemly behavior, and had run-ins with the courts for "profanity" and disputes with neighbors. Early witch trial accounts indicate she was a tavern keeper and a midwife.
Bridget Bishop owned a home in Salem Town, and land that included an apple orchard. That orchard roughly occupied the site of what is now Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall. The building was originally built in 1831, after Bishop's time, and later transformed into our restaurant, Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall, in 2013.
Over the years, local lore has connected Bishop's orchard with haunted tales: visitors and staff at Turner's Seafood report that in certain parts of the building they sense strange atmospheres, see apparitions, or smell apples (though no orchard remains), linking these phenomena to Bishop's former presence on the land.
The last words spoken by Bridget Bishop, on June 10, 1692:
I am innocent, I know nothing of it, I have done no witchcraft. I am as innocent as the child unborn.