The Beverly widow who received a temporary reprieve after confessing to witchcraft was Dorcas Hoar.
Hoar, born Dorcas Galley, was an elderly widow from Beverly, Massachusetts, accused during the widening Salem witchcraft panic in 1692. She was arrested after accusations connected her to afflictions suffered by several Salem Village girls. The charges also drew on her reputation as a fortune teller and on sensational claims about supernatural activity.
A jury convicted Hoar and she was condemned to hang. On the eve of her scheduled execution, however, she confessed to witchcraft and expressed distress about her spiritual condition. Several ministers, including John Hale and Nicholas Noyes, supported a request for additional time so she could prepare for death. Judge William Stoughton granted a temporary reprieve.
The reprieve became effectively permanent because the remaining Salem prosecutions collapsed before Hoar was executed. She spent many months in jail and was eventually released in 1693. Her case is sometimes mixed up with other accused Beverly women, including Sarah Morrell, but Hoar is the widow specifically associated with the last-minute confession and reprieve.