The Legend of Giles Corey ........ Salem Witchcraft Trials

I received an email this morning saying a memorial page had been made on behalf of one of my ancestors. It gave the name of "Giles Corey", a name I was not familiar with. I went to the memorial page, and boy was I surprised! This is what I found......( Debbie, this is why Grandma Lessie was so stubborn. He was her like 8th great grand dad)

Giles Corey was a prosperous, uneducated, eighty-year-old  farmer and full member of the church. He and his wife Martha lived on a farm in the southwest corner of Salem village. 
In March of 1692, Martha Corey made the mistake of publicly questioning the sincerity of the accusations of the afflicted girls.  When the girls learned of her attacks, they quickly responded by accusing her of witchcraft.  During an examination before John Hathorne, the girls claimed to see a yellow bird suckling between Martha Corey's fingers.  They interrupted Hathorne's questioning with piercing screams and claims that Corey was biting, scratching, or strangling them.  Ann Putnam told Hathorne that she had one night seen Corey praying to the Devil outside the window of the Putnam home during a family dinner.  Based on the girls' testimony, Martha Corey was sent to the Salem jail to await trial.

Giles Corey, certain of his Martha's innocence, spoke out against the girls who sent his wife to jail.  Unsurprisingly, the girls countered with accusations of witchcraft against Giles in April 1692.  Ann Putnam claimed that on April 13 the specter of Giles Corey visited her and asked her to write in the Devil's book. Later, Putnam was to claim 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. 

Corey was examined by magistrates on April 18, then left to languish with his wife in prison for five months awaiting trial. When Corey's case finally went before the grand jury in September, nearly a dozen witnesses came forward with damning evidence such as testimony by Elizabeth and Alice Booth that Corey served bread and wine at a sacrament attended by over fifty witches. Both Ann Putnam and Mercy Lewis described Corey as "a dreadful wizard."  Corey knew he faced conviction and execution, so he chose to refuse to stand for trial. By avoiding conviction, it became more likely that his farm, which Corey recently deeded to his two sons-in-law, would not become property of the state upon his death. 

The penalty for refusing to stand for trial was death by pressing under heavy stones. It was a punishment never before seen--or ever again inflicted--in the colony of Massachusetts. On Monday, September 19, Corey was stripped naked, a board placed upon his chest, and then--while his neighbors watched--heavy stones and rocks were piled on the board. Corey pleaded to have more weight added, so that his death might come quickly. 

Samuel Sewall reported Corey's death: "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute."  Robert Calef, in his report of the event, added a gruesome detail: Giles's "tongue being prest out of his mouth, the Sheriff with his cane forced it in again, when he was dying." Judge Jonathan Corwin ordered Corey buried in an unmarked grave on Gallows Hill.

Corey is often seen as a martyr who "gave back fortitude and courage ratherthan spite and bewilderment." His very public death played a role in building public opposition to the witchcraft trials.