Strother


 * [[image:proctor_john_edit.JPG width="442" height="289"]]

John Proctor ** ** I was originally from Ipswich, where my father before him had a farm of considerable value. In 1666 I moved to Salem, where I worked on a farm, part of which I later bought. I seemed to have been an enormous man, very large framed, and energy. Although an I’m a upright man, I seemed to have been rash in speech, judgment, and action. From the start of the outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in Salem, I had denounced the whole proceedings and the afflicted girls as a scam. When my wife was accused and questioned, I stood with her throughout the proceedings and staunchly defended her innocence. It was during her questioning that I, too, was named a witch. I was the first male to be named as a witch in Salem. In addition, all of my children were accused. My wife Elizabeth, and her sister and sister-in-law, also were accused witches. Although tried and condemned, Elizabeth avoided execution because she was pregnant. **   **  Mary Warren, the twenty-year-old maid servant in my house-who herself would later be named as a witch--accused me of practicing witchcraft. It is believed by some sources that when Mary first had fits I, believed them to be fake, would beat them, out of her. Even if it didn't actually beat her, I certainly threatened beatings and worse if she didn't stop the fits. It was this type of outspoken criticism of the afflicted that caused me to be accused. **   **  I was tried on August 5 and hung on the 19th. While in prison on July 23, I wrote a letter to the clergy of Boston, who were known to be uneasy with the witchcraft proceedings. In my letter I asked them to intervene to either have the trials moved to Boston or have new judges appointed. After the trial and execution of Rebecca Nurse, the prospects of those still in prison waiting trial were grim. If a person with a reputation as untarnished as hers could be executed, there was little hope for any of the other accused, which is why I made my request. With the present judges, who were already convinced of guilt, In response to my letter, in which I described certain torture that was used to elicit confessions, eight ministers, including Increase Mather, met at Cambridge on August 1. Little is known about this meeting, except that when they had emerged, they had drastically changed their position on evidence. The ministers decided in the meeting that the Devil could take on the form of innocent people. Unfortunately for me, their decision would not have an impact until after my execution. **   **  I pleaded at my execution for a little respite of time. I claimed I was not fit to die. My plea was, of course, unsuccessful. In seventeenth-century society, it would not have been uncommon for a man so violently tempered as me to feel that I had not yet made peace with my fellow man or God. In addition, it is thought that I died inadequately reconciled to my wife, since I left her out of the will that I drew up in prison. My family was given 150 pounds in 1711 for my execution and my wife’s imprisonment. **    1. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BPRO.HTM 2.http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2001/222/proctorjohn.jpg