Giles Corey
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Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, c. 1611 – 19 September 1692) was a prosperous farmer and full member of the church in early colonial America who died under judicial torture during the Salem witch trials. Corey refused to enter a plea, and was crushed to death by stone weights in an attempt to force him to do so. In April of 1692, he was accused by Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, and Abigail Williams of witchcraft. Ann Putnam Jr claimed that on April 13, the specter of Giles Corey visited her and asked her to write in the Devil's book. Later, Putnam also claimed that a ghost appeared before her to announce that it had been murdered by Corey. Other girls were to describe Corey as "a dreadful wizard" and recount stories of assaults by his specter.
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[edit] Marriages
Giles Corey was married 3 times. He is believed to have married his first wife, Margaret, in England. Margaret was the mother of his daughters and he had no sons. His second wife was Mary Bright; they were married on April 11, 1664. Mary Bright died aged 63 on August 27, 1684, according to her gravestone in Salem Graveyard. His final marriage was on April 27, 1690, to Martha Corey.
Martha was admitted to the church at Salem Village (now Danvers), where Giles lived. Martha "was bought out a London ship in Virginia by the father of Caleb More; who testified to this and to her good character when she was accused in 1678". Martha had a son named Thomas; he showed up as a petitioner for loss and damages resulting from his mother being hanged illegally during the witch trials. He was awarded £50 on June 29, 1723.
Giles and Martha lived in the southwest corner of Salem village, what is now Peabody about ten rods (50 m) west of the West Peabody Junction railroad station, adjoining the south side of the location of the Salem and Lowell railroad.
[edit] Arrest, examination, and refusal to plead
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This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (March 2008) |
Giles Corey was arrested on April 18, 1692, along with Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs, and Bridget Bishop. The following day, they were examined by the authorities, during which Abigail Hobbs confessed to Giles being a warlock.
The court ordered Corey's hands to be tied, and they asked him if it were not enough to "act witchcraft at other times, but must you do it now in face of authority?" He replied, "I am a poor creature and cannot help it." Again, a magistrate exclaimed, "Why do you tell such wicked lies against witnesses?" One of his hands was loosed and the girls were afflicted. He held his head on side, and the heads of the afflicted were held on one side. He drew in his cheeks, and the cheeks of the afflicted were sucked in.
Corey refused to plead (guilty or not guilty), was committed to jail and subsequently arraigned at the September sitting of the court.
The records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, September 9, 1692, contain a deposition by one of the girls who accused Giles of witchcraft.
Mercy Lewis v. Giles Corey: The Deposition of Mercy Lewis aged about 19 years who testified and said that on the 14th of April 1692 "I saw the Apparition of Giles Corey come and afflict me urging me to write in his book and so he continued most dreadfully to hurt me by times beating me & almost breaking my back tell the day of his examination being the 19th of April and then also during the time of his examination he did affect and tortor me most greviously: and also several times sense urging me vehemently to write in his book and I veryly believe in my heart that Giles Corey is a dreadful wizard for sense he had been in prison he or his appearance has come and most greviously tormented me. Mercy Lewis affirmed to the jury of Inquest. that the above written evidence: is the truth upon the oath: she has formerly taken in court of Oyer & Terminer: Septr 9: 1692
(property of the Supreme Judicial Court, Division of Archives and Records Preservation, on deposit at the Essex Institute)
Again, in this court, Corey refused to plead.
[edit] Pressed to death
According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid persons cheating justice, their legal remedy for refusing to plead was "peine forte et dure". In this process the prisoner is
... remanded to the prison from whence he came and put into a low dark chamber, and there be laid on his back on the bare floor, naked, unless when decency forbids; that there be placed upon his body as great a weight as he could bear, and more, that he hath no sustenance, save only on the first day, three morsels of the worst bread, and the second day three droughts of standing water, that should be alternately his daily diet till he died, or, till he answered.
As a result of his refusal to plead, on September 17, Sheriff Jonathan Corwin led Corey to a pit in the open field beside the jail and in accordance with the above process, before the Court and witnesses, stripped Giles of his clothing, laid him on the ground in the pit, and placed boards on his chest. Six men then lifted heavy stones, placing them one by one, on his stomach and chest. Giles Corey did not cry out, let alone make a plea.
After two days, Giles was asked three times to plead innocent or guilty to witchcraft. Each time he replied "more weight". More and more rocks were piled onto him, and the Sheriff, from time to time, would stand on the boulders staring down at Corey's bulging eyes. Robert Calef, who was a witness along with other townsfolk, later said, "in the pressing, Giles Corey's tongue was pressed out of his mouth; the Sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again".
Three mouthfuls of bread and water were fed to the old man during his many hours of pain. Finally, Giles Corey cried out at Sheriff Corwin, "I curse you Corwin and all of Salem!" and died.
Samuel Sewall's diary states, under date of Monday, September 19, 1692:
About noon at Salem, Giles Cory was pressed to death for standing mute; much pains was used with him two days, one after another, by the court and Captain Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in vain.
It is unusual for persons to refuse to plead, and extremely rare to find reports of persons who have been able to endure this painful form of death in silence. Since Corey refused to plead, he died in full possession of his estate, which would have otherwise been forfeited to the government. It passed on to his two sons-in-law, in accordance to his will.
The pressing of Giles Corey is unique in New England. It is similar to the case, in England, of Margaret Clitherow, who, having been arrested on the 10th of March, 1586 for the crime of harboring priests, hearing Mass, and secretly being of the Catholic faith, she refused to plead, since the only witnesses against her would be her own small children and servants, whom she could not bear to involve. Therefore, when arraigned on the 14th of March 1586 she was condemned to the peine forte et dure, to be pressed to death, and this was carried out on Lady Day, 1586, even though it was most likely that she was with child at the time, which should have protected her from execution. She was laid on the ground, a sharp stone beneath her back, hands stretched out and bound between two posts, and a door placed on top of her, which was weighted down, until she was crushed to death. Her last words were "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!" Because she did not plead, her family could not be involved further in any investigation of her actions.
[edit] Influence on folklore and fiction
According to legend, Corey's ghost appears the night before a catastrophe in Salem. Some even say that the old man who was seen in a graveyard before the Great Salem Fire of 1914 was Giles Corey.
He is a character in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, in which he is portrayed as a hot-tempered but honorable man, giving evidence critical to the witch trials. His wife Martha (executed on September 22, 1692) was one of the nineteen people hanged during the hysteria. In The Crucible, Giles felt guilty about the accusation of his wife because he had told a minister that Martha had been reading strange books, which was discouraged in that society.
He was also the subject of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow play entitled Giles Corey of the Salem Farms, an 1893 play Giles Corey, Yeoman by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, and a 2006 play Giles and the Salem community by Tristan Ellul
The Boston metalcore band Unearth have a song entitled "Giles" about Corey, which was the first single from their 2006 album III: In the Eyes of Fire.
Swedish progressive metal outfit Evergrey have a song entitled "The Corey Curse" about Corey from their 1999 album, "Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy".
Boston-based rock band Slide have a song titled "Giles Corey" on their 1997 album, Whipdang!.
The University of Louisville occasionally publishes a journal of student-written literary and artistic works under the title, "The Giles Corey Press".
Leeds post-rock band iLiKETRAiNS described Corey's fate in their 2007 song "More Weight".
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