John Proctor (Salem witch trials)

John Proctor (1632–1692) was a tavern-keeper in 17th century Massachusetts. During the Salem witch trials he was accused of witchcraft, convicted and hanged.

Early life

John Proctor was born in Assington, Suffolk, England. His father was also named John Proctor (1595–1672) and his mother was Martha Harper (1607–1659). The family, by then including a younger child, Mary, born in 1634, departed from London aboard the Susan and Ellen on April 12, 1635, bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After a voyage that took a little over two months, the Proctors settled in Ipswich, Essex County, a young settlement begun only in 1633. Six more children were born into the family there.

In 1655 young John married Martha Giddons, in Ipswich. They had four children, John, Martha, Mary and Benjamin, of whom only Benjamin survived childhood. The death of Martha herself, on 13 June 1659, left Proctor a widower. In December of 1662 he married his second wife, also in Ipswich. She was Elizabeth Thorndike, daughter of the founder of Ipswich, John Thorndike, and his wife, Elizabeth Stratton. Proctor had seven children with Elizabeth: Elizabeth (1663–1736), Martha (1 April 1665 – May 1665), Martha (4 April 1666 – after 1682), Mary (20 October 1667 – 15 February 1678), John (born 28 October 1668), Mary (born 30 January 1669) and Thorndike (15 July 1672 – 1758).

In 1666 Proctor moved from Ipswich to Salem, where he leased a 700 acre estate called Groton, in Salem Farms, the section of Salem Township just south of Salem Village (now Danvers). Groton was adjacent to Proctor's own 15 acre farm. Proctor gained his first license to operate a tavern in 1668. His inn was located on the Ipswich Road in Salem, about a mile south of the Salem Village line. The men ran the farm while the women ran the tavern.

In 1672, Proctor inherited one third of his father’s estate in Ipswich. His brothers, Benjamin and Joseph also each inherited one-third shares. John’s portion of the estate was worth 1200 pounds.

In April of 1674 Proctor married for a third time, to Elizabeth Basset, daughter of William and Sarah Basset, with whom he had six children: William (born 6 December 1674 (or 1675)), Sarah (28 January 1676), Samuel (11 January 1685 – 16 March 1765), Elisha (28 April 1687 – 11 September 1688), Abigail (born 27 January 1689) and John (born 27 January 1692 (or 1693))

In 1678, the Proctors were charged for allowing a customer to pawn property in exchange for drinks, and for selling cider to a drunken Indian.

In November of 1685, an action was filed in the courts in Salem for damages to John Proctor, relating to a land boundary dispute between him and Anthony Needham, when it was claimed that "land belonging to the plaintiff as being in possession of, and hiring the said land of the Worshipful Symon Bradstreet, Esq.", the said land being part of a farm "formerly belonging to Mr. Emanuel Downing". Emanuel's daughter was married to Symon Bradstreet. Zachariah Marsch testified at the 1685 trial and again in 1690 when the case was finally settled. The farm's ownership was later transferred to Proctor's son, Thorndike.

Salem witch trials

John Proctor was near 60 years old when the Salem witch trials began, and was a tall and outspoken man. During the witchcraft hysteria he disparaged the trials and accused the girls of lying. When his wife and children were accused of witchcraft, he proclaimed the innocence of his family. This made him a direct target of the accusers and he was the first man to be accused.

John wrote a letter to authorities in Boston, to alert them to the issues taking place in Salem and asking them to intervene. In this letter he claimed, for example, if a woman so well respected as Rebecca Nurse could be convicted, then no restraint was left in the town, and he asked that the trials be moved to Boston, or that new judges be appointed. His letter brought about a meeting of eight ministers at Cambridge on August 1, 1692. No records survive of what took place at this meeting, but "when the ministers emerged they had drastically changed their position on spectral evidence, having decided that the devil could take on the form of innocent people."[1] Unfortunately for John Proctor, their decision made no practical difference until after his execution.

Mary Warren, the twenty-year-old maidservant in the Proctor house, accused John as well. Warren was later accused of witchcraft, herself.

John and Elizabeth Proctor were tried on August 5, 1692. They were both found guilty and sentenced to hang. The execution of Elizabeth, who was then pregnant, was postponed until she had given birth, and eventually she was released. John tried to save himself one last time at his execution saying he was not fit to die. His attempt was unsuccessful, and he was hanged on August 19, 1692.

The trials' aftermath

In January 1693, while still in jail, Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor gave birth to a son, John Proctor III. Elizabeth and John III remained in jail until May 1693, when a general release freed all of those prisoners who remained jailed. Unfortunately, even though the general belief of the people was that innocent people had been wrongly convicted, Elizabeth had in fact been convicted and was considered guilty. In the eyes of the law she was considered a "dead woman" and could not claim any of her husband's estate. Elizabeth petitioned the court for a reversal of attainder to restore her legal rights. No action was taken for seven years.

In June 1696, Elizabeth filed an appeal to contest her husband's will. At the time John wrote his will, he had assumed that Elizabeth would be executed and had left her nothing. On September 22, 1696 Elizabeth married again to Daniel Richards.

In July 1703, several more people filed petitions before any action was taken on Elizabeth’s appeal for reversal of attainder. The Massachusetts House of Representatives finally passed a bill disallowing spectral evidence. However, they only gave reversal of attainder for those who had filed petitions. This basically applied to only two people – Elizabeth Proctor and Rebecca Nurse.

In 1705, another petition was filed requesting a more equitable settlement for those wrongly accused. In 1709, the General Court received a request to take action on this proposal. In May 1709, 22 people who had been convicted of witchcraft, or whose parents had been convicted of witchcraft, presented the government with a petition in which they demanded both a reversal of attainder and compensation for financial losses.

On October 17, 1711, the General Court passed a bill reversing the judgment against the 22 people listed in the 1709 petition. There were still an additional 7 people who had been convicted, but had not signed the petition. There was no reversal of attainder for them.

On December 11, 1711, monetary compensation was finally awarded to the 22 people in the 1709 petition. The sum of ₤578 and 12 shillings was authorized to be divided among the survivors and relatives of those accused. Most of the accounts were settled within a year. The award to the Proctor family for Elizabeth was ₤150, much more money from the Massachusetts General Court than most families of accused witches.

Thorndike Proctor purchased the Groton Farm from the Downings of London, following the hanging of his father. The farm was renamed Downing Farm. Eight generations of Proctors resided, until 1851. Thorndike subsequently sold nearly half of the Downing Farm to his half-brother Benjamin.

By 1957, not all the condemned had been exonerated. Descendants of those falsely accused demanded the General Court clear the names of their family members. In 1957 an act was passed pronouncing the innocence of those accused, however, it only listed Ann Pudeator by name and the others as "certain other persons", still failing to include all names of those convicted.

In 1992, the Danvers Tercentennial Committee persuaded the House of Representatives to issue a resolution honoring those who had died. After much convincing and hard work by Salem school teacher Paula Keene, Representatives J. Michael Ruane and Paul Tirone and a few others, the names of all those not previously listed were added to this resolution. When it was finally signed on October 31, 2001 by Governor Jane Swift, more than 300 years later, all were finally proclaimed guiltless.

Proctor in The Crucible

A fictionalised John Proctor is one of the main characters in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller. In the play, Proctor is in his thirties and Abigail Williams is 17 years old. The real John Proctor and Abigail Williams were respectively about sixty and eleven years old at the time of the witch trials. Most likely their ages were altered in the play to make the fictional affair between them more believable. Miller probably created the affair to add to the drama of the play. Also, as a result of the affair, Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft in the play. In reality, the Proctors' servant, Mary Warren, was the one who accused her.

A loose comparison can be drawn between the fictional John Proctor and Arthur Miller himself. On May 31, 1958, Miller was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to reveal the names of members of a literary circle suspected of Communist affiliation. Like John Proctor and witchcraft, Miller refused to acquiesce to the fear of Communism during an age of McCarthyism. This is especially notable because many of Miller's peers chose to disclose the names of their associates under pressure from the House Un-American Activities Committee. His conviction was reversed on August 8, 1958 by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Bibliography

• University of Massachusetts: John Proctor
• The Salem News, “Documents Shed New Light On Witchcraft Trials”, By BETSY TAYLOR, news staff Danvers, Massachusetts
• The History of the Town of Danvers, from its Earliest Settlement to 1848, by J. W. Hanson, copyright 1848, published by the author, printed at the Courier Office, Danvers, Massachusetts
• House of John Proctor, Witchcraft Martyr, 1692, by William P. Upham, copyright 1904, Press of C. H. Shephard, Peabody, Massachusetts,
• Puritan City, The Story of Salem, by Frances Winwar, King County Library System, 917.44, copyright 1938, Robert M. McBride & County, New York.
• The Salem witchcraft papers : verbatim transcripts of the legal documents of the Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692 / compiled and transcribed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, under the supervision of Archie N. Frost ; edited and with an introduction and index by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum; Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library; pg. 662; Essex County Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 1
• The Founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, A Careful Research of the Earliest Records of Many of the Foremost Settlers of the New England Colony: Compiled From The Earliest Church and State Records, and Valuable Private Papers Retained by Descendants for Many Generations, by Sarah Saunders Smith, Press of the Sun Printing Company, 1897, Pittsfield Massachusetts.
• The Devil Discovered : Salem Witchcraft, 1692 by Gaylord Robinson
• Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft by Paul Boyer
• Chronicles of Old Salem, A History in Miniature by Francis Diane Robotti
• The Devil in Massachusetts, A Modern Enquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials, by Marion L. Starkey, King County Library System, copyright 1949, Anchor Books / Doubleday Books, New York
• A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Frances Hill
• The Salem Witch Trials Reader by Frances Hill
• The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson
• Salem Witchcraft; With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. by Charles W. Upham
• The Devil Hath Been Raised: A Documentary History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Outbreak of March 1692 by Richard B. Trask
• The Visionary Girls: Witchcraft in Salem Village by Marion Lena Starkey
• The Salem Witch Trials, A Day by Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege, by Marilynne K. Roach, copyright 2002, Cooper Square Press, New York, NY.