Ann Putman! Goodman Procter and his wife too. What do you say Goodman Proctor to these things? I know not, I am innocent. Abigail Williams cried out, there is Goodman Procter going to Mrs. Pope , and immediately, said Pope fell into a fit. I would advise you to repentance, for the devil is bringing you out. There was the like of Mary Walcot, and divers others. Elizabeth Hubbard was in a trance during the whole examination.
Immediately Abigail cried out, her fingers, her fingers, burned, and Ann Putman took on most greviously, of her head, and sunk down. It is unlikely this affair even occurred since Proctor was 60 years old and Williams was 11 at the time of the witch trials and there is no evidence that they even knew each other before the trial. Nonetheless, in an essay Miller wrote for the New Yorker in , he stated that he fully believed John Proctor had a relationship with Williams and based his entire play on the idea after he read in the court records about the moment Williams tried to strike Elizabeth Proctor during her examination:.
By this time, I was sure, John Proctor had bedded Abigail, who had to be dismissed most likely to appease Elizabeth. There was bad blood between the two women now. That Abigail started, in effect, to condemn Elizabeth to death with her touch, then stopped her hand, then went through with it, was quite suddenly the human center of all this turmoil. John Proctor was officially indicted on April 11, on three charges of witchcraft against Mary Walcott, Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis and was examined in court that same day.
There is no record of this examination but many of the afflicted girls, including Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Jr. While John and Elizabeth Proctor sat in jail in Boston, many of their friends came to their defense and signed a petition asking for them to be released:. Unfortunately, the petition did nothing to sway the court and John and Elizabeth Proctor remained imprisoned. The Proctor family and their in-laws were accused by many of the same people.
According to court records, the jury decided not to indict William Proctor or Sarah Bassett due to a lack of evidence and there are no court records indicating that Sarah Proctor, Benjamin Proctor or Mary Basset DeRich were indicted either. During their conversation, Proctor, who lived on the outskirts of Salem Village in what is now modern day Peabody, said he was on his way to Salem to retrieve Warren so he could take her home and beat her and also said the afflicted girls should be whipped and hanged for lying, according to court records:.
He answered he heard they were very bad last night but he had heard nothing this morning. Parris would let him have his Indian he the said Proctor would soon drive the devil out of him and father saith not.
On July 23, Proctor wrote a letter to the clergy of Boston pleading with them to appoint different judges or move the trials to Boston where he felt they would get a fair trial. In his letter, he described the torture used against the prisoners, particularly against his son William, and declared that the accused were innocent victims:.
Here are five persons who have lately confessed themselves to be witches, and do accuse some of us being along with them at a sacrament, since we were committed into close prison, which we know to be lies.
And another five weeks my son William Proctor, when he was examined, because he would not confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, they tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed out at his nose, and would have kept him so twenty-four hours, if one, more merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound.
These actions are very like the popish cruelties. They have already undone us in our estates, and that will not serve their turns without our innocent blood. Desiring your prayers to the Lord on our behalf, we rest your poor afflicted servants. John Proctor and his wife were both convicted of witchcraft on August 5, Jacobs Munroe says that it was always said that Procters were buried near the bars as you go into the Philip H.
Saunders place. Osborn, the librarian of the Peabody Historical Society, as to what was the family tradition, I learned that it was said by Mrs. Hannah B. Osborn, Mrs. The Marsh pasture from which Mrs. Mansfield mentions. It had a way leading to it from Lowell Street over the eastern end of the John Procter lot as shown on my map. This way is still used as well as the bars opening into it on Lowell Street a few rods east of the westerly way leading southerly to the Jacobs, or Wyman, place.
Jacobs as stated above, unless we suppose the expression to mean bars leading from the John Procter lot where the way enters the Philip H. Saunders place, or Marsh pasture, as Mrs. Mansfield calls it. Perhaps the latter locality is the most probable since it is high rocky ground; but which bars were meant is uncertain.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Proctor remained in jail to await the birth of her child. Even after she gave birth to her son on January 27, she was not executed, for reasons unknown. Elizabeth remained in jail until May, when Governor Phipps released the last few prisoners of the witch trials. Once Elizabeth Proctor was freed, not only had she and her deceased husband been stripped of their legal rights due to their convictions, but Elizabeth also discovered John had written her out of his will.
John Proctor had probably done so because he expected Elizabeth to be convicted along with him and knew she would not be able to inherit his estate. As a result, she was left penniless. A year later, on April 19, , the court restored her legal rights and awarded Elizabeth her dowry. According to William P. Francis gave a deed of it to James April 19, Osborne, her granddaughter, and others who, in , conveyed the lot to Harriet A.
Walcott, wife of John G. Walcott…John G. Walcott and Harriet A. Walcott, wife, conveyed the same to Mary E. Collins, wife of William F. Collins, by deed dated June 27, Privately owned land. Proctor would say publicly that he felt all of the accusers would come to their senses if they were thrashed. His words would come back to haunt him. Elizabeth Proctor was arrested on April Accompanied by her husband, she was examined in the Salem Town meetinghouse on April By the end of the examination, which was attended by dignitaries from Boston, including Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, John Proctor was also accused of witchcraft.
Both Proctors were held for trial in Boston jail. Mary Warren, vacillating between accuser and accused, was herself arrested and jailed on April She accused both of her employers of witchcraft by the 20 th. An interesting accusation was lodged by Joseph Bayley, the brother of Reverend James Bayley the first minister of Salem Village, from Bayley claimed to see John and Elizabeth in a window and by the door, even though they were both in Boston jail.
He experienced pain in his chest, head, and stomach. He was rendered speechless and felt he was followed by something unseen on the return trip. As the date of the trials of John and Elizabeth Proctor approached, John wrote a letter on July 23 to five Boston ministers in which he described jail conditions and the treatment of prisoners. He asked that the trials be moved to Boston.
His request was not granted. Two petitions in support of the Proctors, from neighbors in Salem and Ipswich, were also presented. They too had no effect. The trials went on as scheduled on August 2. John and Elizabeth were both convicted of witchcraft, largely on spectral evidence. Elizabeth received a stay of execution because it had been discovered that she was pregnant. He may have once been buried on the edge of his property, land that belongs to the Peabody High School today.
Elizabeth Proctor remained in jail until May of John and Elizabeth Proctor were among the people whose names were cleared of the charges of witchcraft in He married his first wife Martha maiden name unclear circa The couple had four children, only one of whom, Benjamin, lived to adulthood. Martha died in childbirth in In , Proctor married Elizabeth Thorndike, with whom he had seven children.
At least two died before reaching adulthood. The Proctors moved to the western side of Salem Town, aka Salem Fields or the village of Brooksby, in , first leasing fifteen acres and then the adjoining acre farm from the illustrious Emanuel Downing. Downing was one of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was the first published poet in America. The property included a house on the Ipswich Road. A tavern license was issued in
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