Witch statue at Salem Witch Village, Salem, Mass. |
1626: Roger Conant founded
1641:
1672:
1675-1678: Indian wars in
1680-1683: Rev. George Burroughs minister at
1684: King Charles II revoked the Massachusetts Charter, putting the existing government of the colony in question.
1686: Sir Edmund Andros named governor of
1688: Four Goodwin children are “afflicted” in
1689: Governor Andros deposed and imprisoned by Colonists. Rev. Samuel Parris became minister in
1691: Sir William Phips named governor of
1692 January: Betty Parris, age 9, Abigail Williams, about age 11, and Ann Putnam Jr., 12, exhibit strange behavior in
1692 February: Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne are arrested as witches.
1692 May: The Court of Oyer and Terminer is established by Governor Phips to hear witchcraft cases. The court consisted of nine judges: Lt. Governor William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Wait-Still Winthrop, Peter Sergeant, John Richard, Samuel Sewall, Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin. In June, Saltonstall resigned over the issue of spectral evidence; he was later accused of being a witch.
1692 June: Bridget Bishop tried, convicted, hanged. Rev. Cotton Mather and other ministers question the use of spectral evidence.
1692 July: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth How hanged.
1692 August: George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, Rev. George Burroughs, John Proctor, and John Willard hanged.
1692 September: Giles Corey pressed to death for refusing to answer in court to charges of witchcraft. It took two days of piling stones on his prone body for the old man to die. Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker hanged.
1692 October: Rev. Increase Mather speaks against spectral evidence. Governor Phips dissolved Court of Oyer and Terminer. Some prisoners were released on bail, if they paid for their confinement, food, and the shackles they wore.
1693 January: Witch trials began again. Some guilty verdicts were reached but Governor Phips did not allow judges to hang convicted witches.
1697 January: By order of the General Court of Massachusetts, there was a day of fasting and prayer for all the calamities that had befallen the colony. Judge Stoughton signed the proclamation, but would not allow references to the witch trials as part of its wording. Judge Samuel Sewall publicly admitted his “guilt” for his part in the witchcraft trials by having a statement read at the
1697: Rev. Joseph Green became minister at the church in
1699: War with Wabanaki Indians ended.
1703:
1706: Ann Putnam Jr. was received into full communion at the
1711: Reversal of Attainder nullified all witch trial judgments against George Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs, John Willard, Giles and Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth How, Mary Easty, Sarah Wildes, Abigail Hobbs, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Martha Carrier, Abigail Faulkner, Ann Foster, Rebecca Eames, Mary Post, Mary Lacy, Mary Bradbury, and Dorcas Hoar. The government also paid reparations totaling 578 pounds to the victims or their families. Money was only given to those who asked to be reimbursed for expenses related to the trials and confinement.
1712: The
1757:
1957: The Massachusetts General Court declared the innocence of Ann Pudeator “and certain other persons” for witchcraft.
1992: On the 300th anniversary of the witch trials,
2001:
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