The Four Founders of the Salem Campus

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry of America was officialy established in 1675 with an entering class of five students. Originally an establishment of the tiny wizard community of New Salem, the school formalized the earlier committment made by pioneer Christopher Ashwand to strengthen the society by educating its youth. At the time of its founding, the school's body of five pupils and four teachers also constituted the entire population of New Salem, a situation which quickly changed as word spread in England of the new colony to be settled.

Christopher Ashwand (1654-1723) was the youngest son of Muggle lord Richard Ashwand of Ashton. A Gryffindor man from 1661-1670, Lord Ashwand was a specialist in transfiguration of organic and non-organic materials. Being Muggle-raised, Ashwand was a man of polish, manners, and dignity, as well as being a keen swordsman, and-- if history is to be believed, somewhat of a swashbuckler. As is told in the school histories, he ran afoul of a powerful wizard family in attempting to rescue his unworthy ladylove from the machinations of the Muggle officers, and was forced to emmigrate to Virginia for reasons of security. (References to Lord Ashwand can be found in Muggle histories of the period, which record the rescue of traitress Lady Margaret Mortimer Maingault by a mysterious "French Knight.") Vexed by the Virginia wizarding community of surly and standoffish yokels, he decided to found a new wizard colony further north in Massachusetts. Fueled by visions of a new society where mannerliness and independence were the rule, Ashwand decided to round up a few local children with magical proclivities to help him found this great new place. It was Ashwand who enchanted the Hidden Cove near Salem and established it as a wizard base; the stone dwelling made out of a suitably adapted rock face was also his doing.

Carmena Mercatorus (1638-1726) was born to a family of wizard merchants in Avebury and attended Hogwarts' Ravenclaw House from 1645-1654. An official specialist in herbology and an unofficial specialist in the adaptation of non-magical creatures for magical service, Mercatorus is said to have had a natural affinity for rats and other small furry things. A plucky and rather capricious woman with a sharp sense of adventure, she gained fame for her pioneering method of rat charming, and eventually fell in with a Muggle mariner who offered her free passage to the colonies if she would save his ship from the rats which were plaguing it. Living with the Muggles in Massachusetts Bay for a few years, she wrote up the first known monograph on North American wildlife; the tumult that accompanied King Phillip's war forced her to put her work on hold while she tactfully relocated herself. It was at this point when she first met Lord Ashwand and his three young protegees, who invited her to join their little community. As the only member of the new society with any major housekeeping skills, she became an integral part of their group, and assisted in the next stage of transformations which adapted the cave-house into a more castle-like appearance.

Cantica Carpsicis (1638-1710) was born to a family of wizard craftsmen in Bath and attended Hogwarts at the same time as Carmena. The two girls were an inseperable duo during their years in Ravenclaw, and still remained best friends even after Carmena returned to Avebury and Cantica married their Care of Magical Creatures professor and became Lady Kylesmore. A specialist in arithmancy and potions, Carpiscis taught arithmancy at Hogwarts from 1656-1672, when she retired in order to better manage the estates of her deceased husband. Made guardian to her orphaned cousin Lady Sylvia Black, Carpiscis supervised her lovely young relative's education, and became increasingly concerned for her when it became clear that Lady Sylvia's extraordinary beauty was attracting only the worst sort of young wizards. Carpiscis accompanied Black when she fled to America in 1675 to escape the threatening advances of Slytherin prodigy Lord Gregory Parkinson. As the only member of the growing New England clan who had experience in academic administration, Carpiscis took charge of the children's education and became the first headmistress of the Hogwarts School in New Salem.

Sylvia Black (1658-1725) was the only daughter of famed witch beauty Emily Carpiscis and Muggle lord Donnagald Black. A Hogwarts student in Hufflepuff from 1665-1674, she specialized in charms, cantical spells, and other forms of musical enchantment, as well as being a friend to all things feline. A famed beauty like her mother, Black was plagues by seven suitors, each more repulsive than the next. Despairing at the threats of the most powerful and persistent suitor, young Lord Parkinson, Black eventually elected to disappear off to America and frame the slimy lord for foul play. Upon arriving in New Salem, Black completed the final set of transformations, converting Hogwarts castle into its final regal form; shortly before her twentieth birthday, she married Christopher Ashwand. Black taught at Hogwarts from its inception until her retirement in 1718, and during the later years of her tenure served as the school's primary contact with England.

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