I was doing some research on ancestors in Essex, England in 1500s, and came across several "court documents" which often included things like "a spinster who bewitched Joe's pig to death". It seemed that the courts didn't take these things too seriously, as the perp generally received a kind of one year suspended sentence. Of course these superstitions carried over to the New World in some form. I believe that at the time, marriage and children were all important, possibly as a part of one's "salvation" (people were just freed from Catholic Church and having/reading their own Bibles instead of having monks read for them). There seemed confusion over the path to salvation, and many took a dual path (Christianity and Paganism) to cover all bases. Plymouth Plantation archeologists say that virtually everyone had a urine jar at doorstep to ward off witches. Anyway, having many children was considered "very sexy" (kind of the ultimate exponent of a woman's sexual prowess) and not being married/childless obviously regarded with suspicion. Perhaps there's some agricultural survival component there also, not sure.