Today in Salem: It’s a miserably hot day, as humid as it is hot, and the women in Boston Jail are fanning themselves with their caps while the grieving Sarah Good seems not to notice. 300 feet away, the Governor and his council of advisors are at the Town House, building the Court that will hang the guilty witches.
More than 50 people are crowded into the rank jails of Salem, Boston, Ipswich, and Cambridge. Some have been there for months, shackled and chained, and as more people are arrested and jailed, it’s only getting more crowded, rank, and impossible. One person has already died from the conditions, and more are sick.
The only one way out is through a trial, which, given the judges’ assumption of guilt, will probably end badly. But even that exit is blocked, because trials can’t happen without a court. There hasn’t been a court in eight years, not since the King revoked the last Charter. Now, though, now the Charter is back, with a new governor who is wasting no time setting up a government.
After meeting with his Councilors, the royally appointed Governor Phips announces the formation of a new court: the Court of Oyer and Terminer (meaning “to hear and determine”). Its sole purpose is to clear the backlog in the jails, using strict English law rather than the more flexible colony laws. He puts the conservative, tough-minded William Stoughton in charge as Chief Justice, leading eight other judges.
WHY is this important?
Four big wheels were set in motion today, which together made a straight and slippery path from jail to the hangman’s noose.
1 – Witchcraft was now officially a capital offense, according to English law. There was no more room to question a death sentence or debate shades of gray.
2 – The court of Oyer and Terminer wasn’t restricted to a recurring schedule. Judges could hold court whenever and as often as they wanted to.
3 – Appointing William Stoughton as Chief Justice was almost like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. It wasn’t obvious at first that he would be so ruthless. But, as a conservative Puritan with no legal background, he was zealous in finding and eliminating witches, and often deviated from normal courtroom procedure. In addition to admitting questionable spectral evidence, he allowed accusers and judges to talk privately, let spectators interrupt trials, wouldn’t allow the accused to have lawyers defend them, and let judges interrogate witnesses and otherwise play the role of prosecutors.
4 – Governor Phips was now free to attend to what he really cared about: the Wars in Maine. Later he would write that when he’d returned from London he’d found the province “miserably harrassed with a most Horrible witchcraft or Possession of Devills.” But during the fateful summer of 1692, he didn’t attend a single trial or execution. Instead he spent the summer recruiting troops and gathering supplies to build a fort in Maine, and left Massachusetts entirely for about two months. It wasn’t until his own wife was accused that he turned his attention fully to Salem.
WHO were the Judges and Officials of Oyer and Terminer?
- William Stoughton (Chief Justice) – age 61; the only bachelor on the court. He’d studied for the ministry at Harvard and Oxford, and had preached successfully both in England and in Massachusetts. He left the pulpit without being ordained to enter a life of politics, and, despite lacking any legal training, became the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. Served as a justice under an immensely unpopular Governor .
- Nathaniel Saltonstall – age 53; a militia leader who resigned from the court in protest after the first hanging. He was replaced by Jonathan Corwin, age 52, a merchant and magistrate at the early examinations in Salem.
- Wait-Still Winthrop – age 50; a militia leader and trained physician who attended Harvard for one year.
- Peter Sergeant – age 45; a merchant and former constable.
- John Richards – age 40; a military officer, businessman, and merchant who’d worked his way up from a position as a servant.
- Samuel Sewall – age 40; educated for the ministry at Harvard, but entered business. His diaries are among the most important documents that show us life through Puritan eyes. He would be the only judge to apologize for his role in the Trials.
- Bartholomew Gedney – age 52; a trained physician. Served as a justice under an immensely unpopular Governor. a magistrate, physician, town selectman. merchant and the colonel of the Essex County militia.
- John Hathorne – age 51; a merchant and magistrate known to be ruthless and even cruel in his questioning. He was one of the magistrates at the early examinations in Salem.
Clerk of the Court: Stephen Sewall. Samuel Sewall’s brother. It was his family that was caring for Rev Parris’s daughter 9yo Betty, one of the first afflicted girls. Parris had sent her away to protect her from the chaos.
King’s Attorney General: Thomas Newton. Anglican. He’d probably participated in another witchcraft trial several years earlier.
Sheriff: George Corwin. Related to three of the judges. As Sheriff, he replaced the Marshall, who’d arrested several of the suspects.