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January of 1692
Reverend Parris' daughter, Elizabeth, and niece Abigail Williams started having fits. They began to throw things, scream, uttered peculiar sounds and contorted themselves into strange positions. A local doctor blamed it the supernatural. -
February
3 sick girls under pressure from magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, the girls blamed three women for afflicting them: Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne -
March
The three women were brought before the local magistrates and interrogated for several days. Osborne claimed innocence, as did Good. But Tituba confessed, "The Devil came to me and bid me serve him." -
April
Several accused “witches” confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system. -
May
Governor William Phipps ordered the establishment of a Special Court to hear and decide for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. The first case brought to the special court was Bridget Bishop, an older woman known for her gossipy habits and promiscuity. When asked if she committed witchcraft, Bishop responded, "I am as innocent as the child unborn." -
June
The defense must not have been convincing, because Bridget Bishop was found guilty and became the first person hanged on what was later called Gallows Hill. -
July
Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin and
Sarah Wildes were executed -
August
George Burroughs, George Jacobs Sr. , Martha Carrier, John Proctor and John Willard were executed. -
September
Giles Corey was pressed to death. -
September
Martha Corey (wife of Giles Corey), Mary Eastey, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmot Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell Sr. were executed -
October
Following in his son's footsteps, Increase Mather, then president of Harvard, denounced the use of spectral evidence: "It were better that ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person be condemned." -
October
as the accusations of witchcraft extended to include his own wife, Governor Phips once again stepped in, ordering a halt to the proceedings of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In their place he established a Superior Court of Judicature, which was instructed not to admit spectral evidence. -
January - May
Trials resumed in January and February, but of the 56 persons indicted, only 3 were convicted, and they, along with everyone held in custody, had been pardoned by Phips by May 1693 as the trials came to an end. Nineteen persons had been hanged, and another five had died in custody.