In the autumn of 1651, the community of Windsor, Connecticut, was unsettled by the untimely death of one of its residents. Henry Stiles, a 58-year-old male carpenter who had made his home in Windsor after emigrating from England, was fatally wounded on October 3, 1651. The incident occurred during a militia training exercise when a gun held by Thomas Allyn accidentally discharged, striking Stiles.
At the time of his death, Stiles was a boarder in the home of Thomas and Lydia Gilbert, where he had resided for the previous two years.
Initially, the death of Henry Stiles was treated as a tragic accident. Thomas Allyn was charged with "homicide by misadventure" for his role in the fatal shooting. In December of 1651, the court found Allyn guilty of murder, determining that his actions were a result of "sinful neglect and careless carriage." As a consequence, he was ordered to pay a twenty-pound fine and was prohibited from carrying a gun for a year. This verdict seemed to bring a close to the matter, attributing the death to negligence rather than malicious intent.
However, three years later, the narrative surrounding Henry Stiles's death took a dark and unexpected turn, becoming entangled with the growing fears of witchcraft in the colony. In 1654, with no clear explanation, the court revisited the case. This time, the focus shifted to Lydia Gilbert, the woman in whose home Stiles had lived. She was formally accused of causing his death through witchcraft. The indictment against her claimed that she had given "entertainment to Satan" and, with his assistance, had killed Henry Stiles. A jury subsequently found Lydia Gilbert guilty of witchcraft. While historical records do not definitively state her fate, it is widely believed that she was executed shortly after her conviction. Nearly 370 years later, in 2023, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a resolution that posthumously absolved Lydia Gilbert and others who had been convicted of witchcraft in colonial Connecticut.
