Elizabeth "Betty" Parris (November 28, 1682 – March 21, 1760) was one of the accusers during the Salem witch trials

Salem witch trials

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...

. In the winter of 1691–1692, Betty, the nine-year-old daughter of the Salem, Massachusetts

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

' Reverend Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris

Samuel Parris was the Puritan minister in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials; he was also the father of one of the afflicted girls, and the uncle of another.-Life:...

 (1653–1720) and his wife Elizabeth, was the first to claim illness due to being "bewitched". Her contortions, convulsions and outbursts of gibberish at first baffled everyone, especially when other girls began to show similar symptoms. Shortly after her illness the Salem witch trials began, with the girls accusing neighbors of witchcraft.
Betty Parris appears in fiction in John Neal's historical novel, Rachel Dyer (1828).