Salem Witch Trials Daily

Salem Witch Trials Daily — July 1, 1692: Candy Examined, Mare “Blue Flame” Deposition, Martha Carrier IndictedSix months into the Salem Witch Trials, dozens remain jailed, one execution has occurred, and trials and convictions continue. On July 1, 1692, John Putnam Jr. and Thomas Putnam filed a complaint accusing Margaret Hawkes and Candy of afflicting Mary Walcott, Mary Warren, and Ann Putnam Jr....

June 30, 1692: New Depositions, Indictments, and Convictions in the Salem Witch TrialsJosh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack recount Thursday, June 30, 1692, when the Salem court schedule overflowed with new testimony, indictments, and verdicts. A late deposition against already-convicted Susannah Martin revisited earlier accusations from 1669 and linked her to reports of a threatening “she-devil” warning...

June 29, 1692: Sarah Good Convicted, Rebecca Nurse Reversed, Susannah Martin GuiltyWe follow the relentlessly efficient Court of Oyer and Terminer on Wednesday, June 29, 1692, as Sarah Good’s trial concludes with testimony about threats, livestock losses, and spectral torment, ending in a conviction and expected death sentence. Abigail and Deliverance Hobbs are reexamined, describing a witches’ me...

June 28, 1692: Sarah Good Convicted as the Court Targets Its Next AccusedWe take you inside the Salem townhouse on June 28, 1692, as the Court of Oyer and Terminer moves decisively against Sarah Good—three “true bill” indictments, a witness list packed with familiar accusers, and testimony ranging from spectral assaults to bound hands, vanishing objects, and dead cattle—ending in her conviction fo...

Blue Fire in the Barn: Ministers, Spectral Afflictions, and the Elizabeth How Depositions (June 27, 1692)Blue flame erupts in a Boxford barn as a desperate “countermagic” remedy is tried on a ruined mare—one of the strangest depositions tied to accusations against Elizabeth How. We follow June 27, 1692 from Harvard College’s library, where Boston-area ministers revisit whether Satan can impersonat...

Welcome to Salem Witch Trials Daily for Sunday, June 26, 1692. I'm Josh Hutchinson. This is Sarah Jack. According to Susannah Sheldon's June 28th deposition, today, June 26, 1692, Sarah Good's specter, quote, "most violently pulled down Susannah's head behind a chest and tied her hands together with a wheel band and almost choked her to death." Susannah reports in the dep...

Spectral Evidence Challenged: Milborne Arrested, Neighbors Defend Elizabeth HowWe spotlight a pivotal moment in the Salem Witch Trials as Baptist minister William Milborne petitions Governor Phips and the council to question the use of spectral evidence, warning it could condemn the innocent and unleash “a woeful chain of consequences.” Instead of weighing his concerns, the authorities label the p...

June 24, 1692: A Neighbor Defends Elizabeth How as Procter’s Specter Targets Abigail HobbsWe return to Salem Witch Trials Daily for Friday, June 24, 1692, after a quiet June 23 with no recorded events. Our focus shifts to testimony from Deborah Hadley, a seventy-year-old Rowley resident, who says she lived near Elizabeth How for twenty-four years and found her to be a neighborly, conscientious, tr...

Stamford-Fairfield Witch Trials (1692): Skepticism, Petitions, and Split VerdictsWe head from Salem to Connecticut’s Stamford-Fairfield Witch Trials, where the General Court formed a Court of Oyer and Terminer on June 22, 1692, after a panic began in Sergeant Daniel Westcott’s home when his servant Katherine Branch suffered violent fits and reported visions of cats. Instead of rushing to prosecute...

June 21, 1692: Jemima Rea Accuses Sarah Cloyce, Rebecca Nurse, and Faith BlackSalem Witch Trials Daily recounts reports from Tuesday, June 21, 1692, that the shapes of Sarah Cloyce, her sister Rebecca Nurse, and Faith Black assaulted 11-year-old Jemima Rea. A June 29 deposition by Sarah Stevens and Marjorie Pasque describes Jemima’s repeated fits and cries against the three, including claims that...

June 20, 1692: William Hubbard Testifies for Sarah BuckleyOn Monday, June 20, 1692, we share testimony from Ipswich minister William Hubbard in support of Sarah Buckley, arrested on witchcraft charges on May 14 during the Salem Witch Trials. Hubbard tells the court he has known Buckley for more than 50 years, since she came from England as a child, and says he never heard or observed anything in h...

Salem Sabbath: Samuel Parris Preaches 2 Corinthians 1 (June 19, 1692)We take you into Salem Village on Sunday, June 19, 1692, when the Sabbath drew neighbors to the meetinghouse twice to hear Reverend Samuel Parris preach from 2 Corinthians 1. Although Parris’s loose papers with sermon details were later lost or destroyed, we follow the King James passage itself as Paul calls God “the Father of co...

June 18, 1692: Mercy Lewis’s Trance and Major Salem Witch Trials Prisoner TransfersWe follow a tense moment from the Salem Witch Trials on Saturday, June 18, 1692, as Reverend Samuel Parris and John Putnam Sr. visit the ailing Jonathan Putnam and summon Mercy Lewis—who suddenly loses her voice, signals that witches are afflicting him, and later describes specters of Rebecca Nurse and Martha Carrie...

July 1692 Thanksgiving Proclaimed Amid Salem Witch TrialsJosh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack discuss events around Friday, June 17, 1692, noting that a day after Roger Toothaker’s death, Boston leaders ordered a colony-wide Thanksgiving for July 14 to celebrate the defense of Wells, Maine, and the May 14 arrival of Governor William Phips and Increase Mather after lobbying in London for a new charter. T...

In today's Salem Witch Trials Daily, we look into the June 16, 1692 death of Roger Toothaker in the Boston jail. He was the 4th person to die from the Salem Witch Trials and the 3rd who died in jail, following Sarah Good's infant child and Sarah Osburn. (Bridget Bishop had just been hanged June 10th)Learn about Roger's life and family and their roles in the witch-hunt.

June 14, 1692: The Burroughs Children After Salem’s InjusticeWe take you to Tuesday, June 14, 1692, as George Burroughs’ third wife, Mary, leaves Wells, Maine with their baby, possibly before the siege ends on June 12, abandoning Burroughs’ seven children from his first two marriages to fend for themselves in a war zone. With their family property in abandoned Falmouth rendered worthless by confli...

June 13, 1692: Salem Lulls, Wells Attacked, and Goody Miller Slips AwayWe track a rare quiet day in the Salem witch trials as the Court of Oyer and Terminer sits between sessions and accusations taper off, with no new arrests after Ann Dolliver’s June 6 arrest until at least July 1, when a complaint targets Candy and her mistress, Margaret Hawkes. Our attention shifts north to Wells, Maine, where...

Siege of Wells, Maine (June 12, 1692): French and Wabanaki Attack the English GarrisonWe’re on the front lines of the siege of Wells, Maine on Sunday, June 12, 1692, as French and Wabanaki forces march into town, form ranks, and unleash a coordinated volley at the English garrison houses—only to meet steady return fire that forces a withdrawal. The attackers try a fiery gamble, floating a raft of...

June 11, 1692: New Essex Justices Sworn as Wells, Maine Faces Siege in King William’s WarWe track the Salem Witch Trials and the wider New England crisis on Saturday, June 11, 1692. In Boston, John Higginson Jr., son of Salem’s senior minister, and Dudley Bradstreet, son of former Governor Simon Bradstreet, are sworn in as justices of the peace for Essex County. Far to the east, French and Wabanak...

On June 10, 1692 Bridget Bishop became the first to be executed in the Salem Witch Trials when she was hanged at Proctor’s Ledge in Salem. While Boston’s General Court carried on and Governor Sir William Phips appointed a committee to revise Massachusetts laws, fear rippled across the region—from Wells, Maine, where Captain James Converse guarded supply sloops after cattle returned bloodied, to Sa...

June 9, 1692: Giles Cory’s Specter at the Lecture We take you straight into Salem on Thursday, June 9, 1692, where later testimony claims Giles Cory’s specter showed up at the lecture held the day before Bridget Bishop was hanged. Mary Walcott and Elizabeth Woodwell—identified as a 33-year-old married woman—report seeing the apparition, a reminder that the “afflicted” in the Salem Witch Trials wer...

Show Notes June 8, 1692. The day the legal machinery of colonial Massachusetts shifted from courtroom accusations to state-sanctioned execution. A newly formed provincial government has convened in Boston, and the first death warrant has been signed. Beyond the courtroom, terrifying spectral testimonies are mounting, and a prominent justice has just walked away from the bench in protest. The burea...

June 7, 1692: Job Tookey’s Second Examination and John Allen’s Deposition Against Susannah MartinWe’re back with Salem Witch Trials Daily as we drop into Tuesday, June 7, 1692, where Job Tookey endures a second examination marked by the afflicted collapsing at his gaze and the touch test seemingly “working” once he touches their hands and wrists. Mary Warren, Susannah Sheldon, Elizabeth Booth Jr.,...

June 6, 1692: Mary Ireson and Ann Dolliver Questioned at Beadle’s TavernWe head to Salem on Monday, June 6, 1692, where justices Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin interrogate two accused women at Thomas Beadle’s tavern, guided by records kept by Simon Willard—who had also testified that George Burroughs possessed devil-given, preternatural strength. Mary Ireson faces the class...

Cotton Mather’s “Good Men Described” and a Quiet Day in SalemWe take you to June 5, 1692, a rare calm Sunday in Salem: the Court of Oyer and Terminer is not in session, and there are no reported afflictions from witch specters. Our focus shifts to Boston, where Governor Phips attends services at the North Church and Cotton Mather delivers his sermon “Good Men Described,” warning that people might...