"Utter Ruin and Destruction of This Poor Country"

The Salem Witch Trials have reached a climax. This week, we investigate the judges: who were they, and why did the people of Massachusetts Bay increasingly turn against them?

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Portrait of William Stoughton, artist unknown ca. 1700. Stoughton was the Chief Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer and the Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Via Wikimedia Commons.

The final group of victims to be executed in the Salem Witch Trials met their end on September 22nd, 1692.

Among them was Martha Cory. Her husband Giles had died several weeks before; when he refused to respond to the Court of Oyer and Terminer’s questioning, they pressed him to death with stones.

One victim who narrowly escaped Martha Cory’s fate was Mary Bradbury, the seventy-year-old wife of Captain Thomas Bradbury. At her trial, her minister James Allen testified that her character was unimpeachable, her devotion to her faith unquestioning. In her defense was a petition signed by 118 friends and neighbors attesting to her virtue.¹ Nevertheless, she only survived because loyal supporters helped her to flee from prison.

By now, rumblings of discontent were spreading throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A clear pattern had emerged: those who were executed all denied the charges against them, while the confessed witches survived. Additionally, the accusations had now reached the upper-crust of society. (Surely Mary Bradbury couldn’t be a witch?) The judges’ acceptance of spectral evidence angered many people. The Devil was a well-known trickster—perhaps he was purposefully confusing members of the public?