Renée Renalden lived in the vicinity of Salem Institute about the time of the Salem Witch Trials. She lost her husband sometime before the trials, but seems to have remained an important person in the magical community entirely on her own merits, being described as a 'distinguished widow'.

Clearly she was also fairly well off at this time, as for several years while Salem Institute was being rebuilt at a new site her parlour served as a schoolroom for the displaced pupils.