massachusetts

1692

January

Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams begin acting strangely and babbling

incoherently.

February

Parris's Caribbean and Indian slaves, Tituba and John Indian, bake a "witch cake" with the girls' urine to feed to the dog. Other girls
in the neighborhood, including Ann Putnam and Elizabeth Hubbards, join Betty Parris and Abigail Williams in having fits. They
accuse Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne of bewitching them.

March

March 1-5: The three accused witches are examined in the Salem Village meetinghouse by magistrates John Hathorne and
Johnathan Corwin. Tituba confesses of witchcraft, and the three witches are sent to prison.

March 6-19: The girls accuse Martha Corey, a respectable church member, of bewitching them. Betty Parris is sent to stay with the
Stephen Sewall family in the town of Salem.

March 19: Deodat Lawson arrives in Salem Village on a visit, probably at the invitation of Thomas Putnam, Ann Putnam's father.

March 21: Martha Corey is examined and sent to prison.

March 21-23: Ann Putnam's mother, Ann, joins the afflicted girls in having fits, and they accuse seventy-one year-old Rebecca
Nurse of bewitching them.

March 24: Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good's four and a half year-old daughter Dorcas are examined and sent to prison.

April

The accusations, examinations, and imprisonments continue. By the end of the month, twenty three more suspected witches are in
jail. These include John and Elizabeth Proctor, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey, and Mary and Phillip English. Four out of the eleven legal
complaints against the accused, leading to their arrests, were made by Thomas Putnam.

May

May 4: George Burroughs is arrested and brought back to Salem from Maine, examined, and imprisoned.

May 14: Sir William Phipps, the new governor of Massachusetts, and Increase Mather arrives from England with the new provincial
charter. By the end of the month at least thirty nine more people are in jail.

June

June 2: Sir William appoints a Court of Oyer and Terminer in and try the accused witches, with William Stoughton, the deputy
governor, as chief judge. Bridget Bishop is tried, convicted of witchcraft, and sentenced to death.

June 10: Bridget Bishop is hanged on Gallows Hill. One of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns Sir William Phipps consults the
minister of Boston, including Increase and Cotton Mather. They write the Return of the Ministers Consulted, which advises caution in
the witchcraft proceedings but also "speed and vigor". Meanwhile, the arrests and examinations of the accused continue in Andover,
Ipswich, Gloucester, and other outlying areas not just Salem itself.

June 29: Five more accused witches are tried: Sarah Wildes, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah
Wildes. Rebecca Nurse is acquitted but the judges ask the jury to reconsider and they find her guilty. Sir William Phipps reprieves
her but later withdraws his reprieve. All five are sentenced to death.

July

July 19: Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah Wildes are hanged on Gallows Hill.

August

August 5: George Burroughs, John and Elizabeth Proctor, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are brought to trial.

August 14: By this time the Nurse family members have ceased to take communion in the Salem Village.

August 19: George Burroughs, John Proctor, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are hanged. Elizabeth Proctor is
spared because she is pregnant.

September

September 9: Six more are tried and sentenced to death: Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Pudeator, Dorcas
Hoar, and Mary Bradbury.

September 17: Nine more are sentenced to death including Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Abigail Falkner, Rebecca
Eames, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster, and Abigail Hobbs. The last five listed were spared because they confessed, but Abigail Falkner was
spared because she was pregnant. Giles Corey refuses to stand trial.

September 19: Giles Corey is pressed to death try to get a confession of witchcraft from him.

September 22: Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, and Samuel
Wardwell are hanged. These are the last hangings.

October

The afflicted girls are sent for by Andover. As a result more than fifty people are accused and many confess. The girls are then sent
for by Glouchester. Four woman are imprisoned. But the backlash to the witch-hunt has started. The girls have overreached
themselves by naming a few prominent people as witches including Lady Phipps, the wife of the governor.

October 3: Increase Mather delivers a sermon ( later published as an essay called Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits
Personating Men, which casts serious doubt on the validity of spectral evidence. It says the girls visions that, "It were better that ten
suspected witches should escape, than that one innocent person to be condemned.")

October 8: Thomas Brattle, a merchant, mathematician, and astronomer, writes an eloquent letter criticizing the trials and
convictions.

October 12: Sir William Phipps forbids further imprisonments for witchcraft.

October 26: The General Court votes for a day of fasting and a convocation of minister to consider how to proceed "as to the
witchcrafts."

October 29: Sir William Phipps formally dissolves the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

November: The afflicted girls are sent for again by Glouchester, but when they have fits they are ignored and they withdraw.

1693

January

A newly formed Superior Court, with William Stoughton as chief judge, sits in Salem to try accused witches. Only three are found
guilty. Sir William Phipps reprieves them along with five other previously sentenced.

January 31: The Superior Court sits at Charlestown. Stoughton learns of the reprieves and walks off the bench.

April 25: The Superior Courts sits at Boston. None are found guilty.

May: Sir William Phipps orders the release of all accused witches remaining in jail, on payment of their fees.

1697

Samuel Parris is ousted from Salem Village Church and leaves the village.

1706

Ann Putnam makes and apology in Salem Village Church for causing the deaths of innocent people and say it was due to the "great
delusion of Satan."