Melinda Warren

Melinda Warren was the first-born and only child of Charlotte Warren and Lawrence Cutler. She was born on October 31st, 1670, and possesed the powers of telekinesis, molecular immobilization and premonition. She started the line of Warren/Halliwell witches, who, as prophesied by Melinda herself, culminated in the arrival of the most powerful witches of all time: the Charmed Ones.

To The Warren Born
When her mother, Charlotte, seeked for the help of a, as told, witch, presumably to help her abort her pregnacy, the witch, revealed to be named Isabel, who was actually Neena, told her that the birth of her child, was very important to "us all", and that her child was magical, since she gave her mother a premonition, which told her that her lover Lawrence, was never coming back. Isabel gave her a Triquetra talisman, which would later lead her to Eva, a good practitioner of witchcraft.

Birth
Two years after the Halliwell sisters became the Charmed Ones, they were sent through a portal, to the year 1670, to help Eva and Charlotte to save an unknown child from a evil witchcraft practitioner, named Ruth Cobb. Ruth, captured Charlotte in order to force her to give birth to her child and be raised in the evil side. The Charmed Ones, with the help of Eva and her coven, rescued Charlotte, and with the recently acquired knowledge of natural magic, created a shield in which Charlotte gave birth to her child. Later, Charlotte revealed to them the newborn child was named Melinda Warren, who they already knew started the magical line of Warren/Halliwell family. (All Halliwell's Eve)

Affair with Matthew Tate
Although most of Melinda's story after her birth is unknown, in Season 1, it was revealed she had an affair with a warlock named Matthew Tate. He used their "love" as a way to gain her trust and mimicry her powers, and then he outed her as a witch, thus betraying her, making her realize what he was up to.

Cursing him into her Locket
After finding out Matthew's plans, Melinda tricked Matthew into visiting her, and used a potion on her locket, the Pewter Heart, which she returned to Matthew, because it was a gift. He opened it, and the potion exploded, as she started to cast a spell to make him pay for what he had done to her, cursing him to be trapped in the locket for eternity.

Death
After Matthew Tate outed Melinda as a witch, she was trapped and condemned to be burned at the stake. She had a daughter, Prudence, which she deeply wished to protect from the Witch trials, and never used her powers to escape, which would actually reveal her as a witch, and that would have lead into the death of her daughter too.

Premonition about The Charmed Ones
As stated by Phoebe Halliwell, the day Melinda Warren was burnt at the stake, she prophesized the coming of three sister witches, the Charmed Ones, who will be the most powerful witches ever. It is implied that it was a premonition, in her own words:

You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. With each generation, the Warren witches will grow stronger and stronger - until, at last, three sisters will arrive. Together, these three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will be the Charmed Ones.

Meeting the Charmed Ones
Not long after Prue, Piper and Phoebe became the Charmed Ones, Melinda's locket ended on Buckland's. This little event lead to Prue to open it, which set the warlock Matthew Tate free. He tricked Prue to use her power on him, and eventually copied it. After Phoebe had a premonition of Melinda cursing Matthew into the locket, the sisters found out who he really was. With no know ways of vanquishing him, the sisters summoned Melinda Warren, to help them curse him into the locket again, so they'll be sure he won't ever be freed. Melinda seemed to already know who they were, and what was her reason to be there. After helping the Charmed Ones to brew the potion and finally cast the spell to trap Matthew forever, she gave the sisters a last goodbye, and said that she couldn't stay, it wasn't her time, it was their time. Before Melinda left, Phoebe superficially let her touch her womb, which triggered a premonition about more generations of their beautiful daughters. After that, Melinda was released to her ghost life again, full of joy to saw her dreams came truth. (The Witch Is Back).

Telekinesis, Molecular Immobilization and Premonition
It was said since the beggining of the show, that Melinda possesed three powers, the power to move things with her mind, see the future and stop time. She demonstrated one of them once in the series, the power of Premonition, when she saw more generations of their daughters. It was also implied in "To The Warren Born," that she possesed these powers from the womb, since she gave her mother a premonition about her fiancé never coming back.

Legacy
At Piper Halliwell's wedding to Leo Wyatt, the "something old" found by Phoebe was Melinda Warren's blessing cup that she drank from at her wedding. ("Just Harried")

Piper later planned to name her first daughter after her ancestor after seeing a potential future. In that future Melinda was her only child. Later Piper would become pregnant and expect a girl, planning on naming her Prudence Melinda, only to have a son instead. (Morality Bites, Baby's First Demon)

In "Forever Charmed", Piper is shown in the future to have a third child, a daughter, and although her name was not mentioned, the shooting script listed her as Melinda Halliwell.

Trivia

 * Although she possesses the same powers as her grandaughters, The Charmed Ones, she just demonstrated one, Premonition.
 * Prue said she and her sisters could always summon her, however Melinda wasn't seen again in the series, except for All Halliwell's Eve, when the sisters met her as a newborn baby. And in Last Witch Effort as a ghost.
 * The family tree seen in Pardon My Past says that William Warren married Melinda Jackson. This is mistaken, as Melinda was born a Warren.
 * In the Book of Shadows, the title page says that the book was created in 1693. This wouldn't be possible siMelinda_Warren_in_the_comics.jpg Melinda created it, and she died one year before the Book's written date.
 * She appears to be the first of the Warren line to name her child Prudence, which will be quite popular in the family well into the future.
 * Paige Matthews finally met Melinda in Last Witch Effort.
 * Melinda's birth can be seen as a precursor to Wyatt Halliwell's birth: both Charlotte and Piper were kidnapped in labor; Melinda and Wyatt were prophesized to be extremely powerful children that could be swayed to great good or great evil.
 * The character is probably named after Mary Warren who took part in the real Salem witch trials. 'The show's creator and writer, Constance M. Burge, named the character "Melinda" after her niece.