My Research of Salem Witch Trials
Page Updated 10/4/2021
Why this page is here
This page is devoted to my research of the Salem Witch Trials, by using many different media resources. I hope to learn more about this subject and what caused it to happen. I live in Boston Massachusetts, not far from Salem Massachusetts, where the Trials happened in real life. OR DID IT ? You can look at what I found for evidence. I leave it up to you to make the Judgment.
You can decide what really happened, or not and if you say it happened tell me why and your findings
About Copyrights
Doing this this research, one of the websites I will be using is From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. I am not trying in anyway to copy anyone else’s work, or infringe on anyone’s copyright, but use info provided by others to learn about this subject.
Salem Witch Trails Time Line
What I Think is the Reason this event happened
I have some doubts about why this event happened and my roommate and I think it mite have something todo with the Rye, we think I mite be due to a fungus call “Ergot“ the word is Pronounced “ear-a-got” when consumed would cause hallucinations
My research area
Accusers
“Afflicted”
- Elizabeth Booth
- Elizabeth Hubbard – niece of Dr William Griggs, local physician
- Mercy Lewis – servant of Thomas Putnam; former servant of George Burroughs
- Elizabeth “Betty” Parris – daughter of the Rev. Samuel Parris
- Ann Putnam Jr. – daughter of Thomas Putnam and Ann Putnam Sr.
- Mary Warren Mary Ann Warren (c. 1674 — unknown) was the oldest accuser during the 1692 Salem witch trials, being 18 years old when the trials began.[1] She was a servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor. Renouncing her claims after being threatened to be hanged, she was later arrested for allegedly practicing witchcraft herself. Her life after the trials is unknown.
- Abigail Williams – cousin of Betty Parris
Other accusers (including accused witches who “confessed”)
Physician who diagnosed “bewitchment”
- William Griggs – relative and employer of Elizabeth Hubbard
Convicted
Executed
- Sarah Good (July 21 [O.S. July 11], 1653 – July 29 [O.S. July 19], 1692)[Note 1]
- Sarah Osborne
- Bridget Bishop (c. 1632 – 10 June 1692) was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Nineteen were hanged, and one, Giles Corey was pressed to death. Altogether, about 200 people were tried.
- Rebecca Nurse (née Towne; July 19, 1692) was accused of witchcraft and executed in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was fully exonerated less than twenty years later.She was the wife of Francis Nurse, with several children and grandchildren, and a well-respected member of the community. She was tried, and convicted, in the spring and summer of 1692 and executed on July 19.This occurred during a time when parts of the government and people of the Province of Massachusetts Bay were seized with witch-phobia. Her married sisters Mary Eastey and Sarah Cloyce were also accused. Mary was convicted and executed, but Sarah managed to survive.
- Elizabeth Howe (née Jackson; c. 1637–July 19, 1692)
- Susannah Martin
- Sarah Wildes
- George Burroughs
- George Jacobs Sr. (August 19, 1692)
- Martha Carrier
- John Proctor
- John Willard
- Martha Corey (September 22, 1692; wife of Giles Corey)
- Mary Eastey (née Towne; September 22, 1692)
- Mary Parker (née Ayer; September 22, 1692)
- Alice Parker (September 22, 1692)
- Ann Pudeator (September 22, 1692)
- Wilmot Redd (September 22, 1692)
- Margaret Scott (September 22, 1692)
- Samuel Wardwell Sr. (September 22, 1692)
- Giles Corey-Giles Corey (c. August 1611 – September 19, 1692) was an English-born American farmer who was accused of witchcraft along with his wife Martha Corey during the Salem witch trials. After being arrested, Corey refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. He was subjected to pressing in an effort to force him to plead —the only example of such a sanction in American history— and died after three days of this torture.Corey is believed to have died in the field adjacent to the prison that had held him, in what later became the Howard Street Cemetery in Salem, which opened in 1801. His exact grave location in the cemetery is unmarked and unknown. There is a memorial plaque to him in the nearby Charter Street Cemetery.One of three cemeteries significant to the 1692 Witch Trials, the Howard Street Cemetery is said to be where Giles Corey was taken to be pressed to death, a torture chosen because he refused to stand trial.This cemetery is open to the public from dusk to dawn. We ask that visitors treat the graves with respect and appreciation for their age and solemnity.
Died in prison
- Ann Foster (née Alcock) – died in custody in December 1692
- Sarah Osborne – died in prison May 29, 1692, at age 49
Pardoned
- Abigail Faulkner Sr. (née Dane), she was pregnant
- Dorcas Hoar, “confessed”
- Elizabeth Proctor (née Bassett), she was pregnant
Sarah Pease arrested for witchcraft May 23, 1692 pardoned by the Governor May 1693 along with 50 others.
Pled guilty and pardoned
- Tituba – slave from Barbados working for Rev Samuel Parris
- House in Danvers Massachusetts
Not found guilty or otherwise survived the trial period
Released on bond
- Dorothy Good – daughter of Sarah Good
- Sarah Morey
Escaped
- John Alden Jr.
- Ephraim Stevens
- Shanna Elderson
- Cynthia Boris
- Mary Bradbury
- William Barker, Sr. [1]
Died in prison
- Lydia Dustin – arrested April 30, 1692. Tried in January/February 1693, found not guilty but not released until payment of court fees. Died in jail on March 10, 1693.
Not tried
Born in prison
- Mercy, daughter of Sarah Good, born and died in prison sometime before her mother’s execution.
- John, son of Elizabeth Proctor and John Proctor
Died in prison
- Ann Foster (née Alcock)(Important in Salem)
- Mercy, infant daughter of Sarah Good
- Sarah Osborne (née Warren) – died in prison (May 10, 1692) before she could be tried
- Roger Toothaker – died before trial (June 16, 1692) probably due to torture or maltreatment
Released from prison after the Governor ended the witch trials
- Mary Black – slave who was arrested and indicted but never went to trial
Indicted by grand jury
- Elizabeth Hutchinson Hart – released after 7 months in jail after her son Thomas filed petitions on her behalf[2]
Not indicted
- Israel Porter[3]
- Sarah Cloyce (née Towne) – sister of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Eastey
- Thomas Farrer Sr. (or Farrar)[4] – spent 7 months in Boston jail before being released[citation needed][why?]
- Tituba
Named, but no arrest warrant issued
- Rev. Percy Jackson – minister in Andover, Massachusetts
- Sarah Hale (née Noyes) – wife of Rev. John Hale, minister in Beverly, Massachusetts
- James Howe (or How) – husband of Elizabeth Howe
- Lady Mary Phips (née Spencer) – wife of Massachusetts Governor Sir William Phips
- Margaret Sheaf Thacher (née Webb) – Jonathan Corwin‘s mother-in-law
Court personnel
Magistrates
Court of Oyer and Terminer, 1622[5]
- William Stoughton, Chief Magistrate
- John Richards
- Nathaniel Saltonstall (resigned from the court over the nature of the proceedings)
- Waitstill Winthrop
- Bartholomew Gedney
- Samuel Sewall
- John Hathorne
- Jonathan Corwin
- Peter Sergeant
Justices
Superior Court of Judicature, 1693[6]
Public figures
- Sir William Phips – Governor of Massachusetts
- Thomas Brattle
- Robert Calef
- Major Robert Pike[7]
Clergy
- John Hale, of Beverly, Massachusetts
- Cotton Mather, of Boston, Massachusetts
- Increase Mather, of Boston, Massachusetts
- Nicholas Noyes, of Salem
- Samuel Parris, of Salem Village – father of Betty Parris and uncle of Abigail Williams
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-samuelparris/
- Samuel Willard, of Groton, and Boston (both Massachusetts)
- Thomas Barnard, of Andover, Massachusetts[8]
References
- Nave, Steve. “SWP No. 009: William Barker, Sr”. Salem Witchcraft Papers.
- Suffolk Court Records Case No. 2668, p. 149, “Petition of Thomas Hart”
- Israel Porter
- “People Accused of Witchcraft in 1692”. www.17thc.us. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
- Massachusetts Archives Collections, Governor’s Council Executive Records, Vol. 2, 1692, pages 176–177. Certified copy from the original records at Her Majestie’s State Paper Office, London, UK, September 16, 1846.
- Records of the Massachusetts Supreme Court of Judicature, 1692/3, Page 1. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Judicial Archives
- Pike Family Association (1901). Records of the Pike Family Association of America. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. [S.l. : s.n.]
- “Not for Filthy Lucre’s Sake: Richard Saltar and the Antiproprietary Movement” by Daniel Weeks, p. 40
External links
- University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
- The Accused Witches of Gloucester
- Angelo
OTher Information
George Corwin
George Corwin (February 26, 1666 – April 12, 1696) was the High Sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, which he signed warrants for the arrest and execution of those condemned of witchcraft. Corwin was also responsible for choosing the execution site in Salem for the 19 innocent people hanged. On September 16, 1692, he was ordered by the Court of Oyer and Terminer to preside over the interrogation under torture of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death for refusing to stand trial for witchcraft.[1]
Corwin died of a heart attack on April 12, 1696, at the age of 30, after which his burial was delayed by a Salem resident named Phillip English, who was accused during the Witch trials, and had his property seized by Corwin. English put a lien on Corwin’s corpse, and delayed its burial until he had been reimbursed for the property he lost to Corwin.[2] He was eventually reimbursed, allowing the burial to proceed.
George Corwin was the grandson of John Winthrop the Younger, the Governor of Connecticut.[3] His wife, Lydia Gedney,[4] was the daughter of Bartholomew Gedney, one of the magistrates involved in the witch trials.
| # | Sheriff | Picture | Term | Party | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Corwin[1] | 1692-1696 | ||||
| William Gedney[1] | 1696-1702 | ||||
| Thomas Wainwright[1] | 1702 | ||||
| William Gedney[1] | |||||
| Daniel Denison[1] | 1708-1710 | ||||
| William Gedney[1] | 1710-1715 | ||||
| John Denison[1] | 1715-1722 | ||||
| John Denison[1] | July 3, 1722, to December 12, 1728 | Joint Sheriff of Essex County with Benjamin Marston from July 3, 1722, to December 12, 1728. | |||
| Benjamin Marston[1] | July 3, 1722, – December 12, 1728 | Joint Sheriff of Essex County with John Denison from July 3, 1722, to December 12, 1728. | |||
| Benjamin Marston[1] | December 12, 1728 – January 24, 1745-6 | Joint Sheriff of Essex County with John Denison from July 3, 1722, to December 12, 1728. | |||
| Robert Hale[1] | 1746-1766 | ||||
| Richard Saltonstall[1] | 1766-1779 | ||||
| Michael Farley[1] | 1779-1792 | ||||
| Bailey Bartlett[1] | 1792-1831 | ||||
| Joseph E. Sprague[1] | 1831-1852 | ||||
| Frederick Robinson[1] | 1852-1854 | Republican | |||
| Thomas E. Payson[1] | 1854-1856 | Whig | |||
| James Cary[1] | 1856-1866 | ||||
| Horatio G. Herrick[1] | 1866-1893 | Republican | |||
| Samuel A. Johnson | 1893-1919 | Republican | Died in office. | ||
| Patrick F. Tierney | 1919-1921 | ||||
| Arthur G. Wells | 1921-1932 | Republican | Died in office. | ||
| Frank E. Raymond | 1932-1953 | Republican | |||
| Earl Wells | 1953-1964 | Republican | Died in office. Succeeded by his son. | ||
| Roger E. Wells | 1964 | Republican | Acting | ||
| William J. Casey | 1964-1965 | Democratic | Appointed by Gov. Endicott Peabody | ||
| Roger E. Wells | 1964-1975 | Republican | |||
| Robert Ellis Cahill | 1975-1978 | Democratic | Resigned after he suffered a heart attack and stroke.[2] | ||
| Charles Reardon | 1978-1996 | Democratic | Resigned after pleading guilty to corruption charges.[3] | ||
| Frank G. Cousins, Jr | 1996-2017 | Republican | Appointed in 1996 by Massachusetts Governor William Weld. | ||
| Kevin Coppinger | 2017–present | Democratic |
|