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30-585: The house was built on 100 acres (40 ha) of farmland owned by Lt. Thomas Putnam , and occupied by the Putnam family for over three centuries. In 1692, Joseph Putnam , the resident of the house at that time, spoke out against the hysteria of the Salem witch trials . His son, Major General Israel Putnam , commander of the colonial troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill , was born in the house on January 7, 1718. In 1991,

60-520: A National Register of Historic Places listing in Essex County , Massachusetts , is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Massachusetts museum–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Thomas Putnam Thomas Putnam (March 22, 1652 [ O.S. March 12, 1651] – June 3 [ O.S. May 24], 1699) was a member of the Putnam family ,

90-628: A deposition by one of the people who accused Giles of witchcraft in Mercy Lewis v. Giles Corey : 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 and almost breaking my back till the day of his examination being the 19th April [1692] and then also during the time of his examination he did afflict and torture me most grievously and also several times since urging me vehemently to write in his book and I verily believe in my heart that Giles Corey

120-477: A few entries in the court documents for which he was charged and confessed, mainly petty theft. Charges ranged from sleeping on the watch (and once having his weapon stolen from him while doing so), collecting a canoe load of firewood while on watch, and stealing food, tobacco, knives, and several other small items. Despite these charges, Corey was a prosperous land-owning farmer in Salem and married three times. He

150-565: A minister that Martha had been reading strange books, which was discouraged in that society. Corey also appears in Robert Ward 's operatic treatment of the play, in which his role is assigned to a tenor. A movie of the same name was released in 1996, featuring Peter Vaughan as Corey. Actor Kevin Tighe portrayed Corey in the pilot episode of the WGN television series Salem , in which he

180-461: A resident of Salem Village (present-day Danvers , Massachusetts , United States) and a significant accuser in the notorious 1692 Salem witch trials . Thomas Putnam was born on March 22, 1652 (new style March 12, 1651) in Salem Village , Massachusetts Bay Colony , a son of Lieutenant Thomas Putnam Sr. (1615–1686) and his first wife, Ann Holyoke. He was baptized on February 16, 1652, at

210-429: A result of his refusal to plead, on 17 September, Corey was subjected to the procedure by Sheriff George Corwin , but he was steadfast in that refusal, nor did he cry out in pain as the rocks were placed on the boards. After two days, Corey was asked three times to enter a plea, but each time he replied, "More weight," and the sheriff complied. Occasionally, Corwin would even stand on the stones himself. Robert Calef , who

240-411: A stick after he was allegedly caught stealing apples from Corey's brother-in-law. Though Corey eventually sent him to receive medical attention ten days later, Goodale died shortly thereafter. The local coroner, as well as numerous witnesses and eyewitnesses, testified against Corey, including neighbor John Proctor , who testified that he heard Corey admit he had beaten Goodale. Since corporal punishment

270-484: Is a dreadful wizard for since he had been in prison he or his appearance has come and most grievously tormented me. Again, in this court, Corey refused to plead. According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid people cheating justice, the legal remedy for refusing to plead was " peine forte et dure ". In this process, prisoners were stripped naked and heavy boards were laid on their bodies. Then rocks or boulders were placed on

300-517: Is afflicted with a grave illness, similar to that of Betty Parris . They both have lost seven children in childbirth and point to witchcraft as the cause of it. Putnam appears in Act 1 and is apparent during Act 3. He manipulates Reverend Parris into taking his side, urging him to see that it is witchcraft that is making Salem go mad. He uses the witch trials to get the other villagers' land, such as Giles Corey 's. Giles later takes Putnam to court regarding

330-688: Is believed to have married his first wife, Margaret, in England . Margaret was the mother of his eldest four children: Martha, Margaret, Deliverance, and Elizabeth. His second wife was Mary Bright; they were married on 11 April 1664, when Corey was 53 years old, and had a son named John. In 1676, Corey was brought to trial and charged with murder in Essex County, Massachusetts , for beating to death one of his indentured farm workers, Jacob Goodale (also spelled "Goodell" or "Goodall"), son of Robert and Catherine Goodale and brother to Isaac Goodale . According to witnesses, Corey had severely beaten Goodale with

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360-537: The Province of Massachusetts Bay . After being arrested, Corey refused to enter a guilty or not guilty plea. He was subjected to torture in the form of crushing in an effort to force him to plead , dying after three days of being crushed. Because Corey refused to enter a plea, his estate passed on to his sons instead of being seized by the Massachusetts colonial government. Corey is believed to have died in

390-612: The First Church of Salem. He married Ann Carr on September 25, 1675, at Salem Village. Ann was born at Salem Village on June 15, 1661, the youngest daughter of George and Elizabeth Carr. They had twelve children: Ann Jr. , Thomas, Elizabeth, Ebenzer, Ebenezer, Deliverance, Timothy, Experience, Abigail, Susanna and Seth; two who died young. Thomas served in the military and held the rank of Sergeant , fighting in King Philip's War . He also served as parish clerk. Despite being

420-456: The Porter family, and testified at the trials. Putnam was responsible for the accusations of 43 people, and his daughter was responsible for 62. Both Putnam and his wife died in 1699, leaving their ten children orphans, two children having predeceased them. In Arthur Miller 's 1953 play, The Crucible , Thomas Putnam is married to Ann Putnam, and together have a daughter, Ruth Putnam, who

450-534: The Putnam family descendants gave the property to the Danvers Historical Society. The original house has been augmented by repeated additions. Today, it consists of an irregular 2½ story frame structure, with clapboards and with a pitch roof over one part of the house and gambrel roof over another. It is located at 431 Maple Street, behind Putnam Pantry, a candy and ice cream shop opened by the family on U.S. Route 1 . This article about

480-572: The Salem Farms and an 1893 play, Giles Corey, Yeoman , by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman . Corey is a character in Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible (1953), in which he is portrayed as a hot-tempered but honorable man, giving evidence critical to the witch trials. His wife Martha was one of the 19 people hanged during the hysteria on Proctor's Ledge. In The Crucible , Giles feels guilty about his wife's accusation because he had told

510-523: The boards. This was the process of being pressed: ... 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 draughts of standing water, that should be alternately his daily diet till he died, or, till he answered. As

540-522: The court read, "After our father's death, the sheriff threatened to seize our father's estate, and for fear, that we complied with him and paid him eleven pounds six shillings in money." According to a local legend, the apparition of Corey appears and walks his graveyard each time a disaster is about to strike the city. Notably, he was said to have appeared the night before the Great Salem Fire of 1914 . The position of Sheriff of Essex County

570-611: The date of Monday, 19 September 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 was and remains unusual for people to refuse to plead and extremely rare to find reports of people 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 otherwise have been forfeited to

600-628: The field adjacent to the prison that had held him, in what later became the Howard Street Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts , which opened in 1801. His exact grave location in the cemetery is unmarked and unknown. There is a memorial plaque to him in the nearby Charter Street Cemetery. Giles Corey was born in Northampton , Northamptonshire . He was baptized in the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton on 16 August 1611. Giles

630-489: The government. It was passed on to his two sons-in-law in accordance with his will. Corey's wife Martha was hanged three days later on 22 September 1692. She had a son from a previous marriage named Thomas; he showed up as a petitioner for loss and damages resulting from his mother being executed illegally during the witch trials. He was awarded £50 on 29 June 1723. The gruesome and public nature of Corey's death may have caused residents of Salem to rethink their support for

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660-407: The issue. In Burned: A Daughters of Salem Novel , a 2023 young adult novel by Kellie O'Neill, a minor character named "Blaire Putnam" is a descendant of Thomas Putnam. Giles Corey Giles Corey ( bapt. Tooltip baptized 16 August 1611 – 19 September 1692) was an English-born farmer who was accused of witchcraft along with his wife Martha Corey during the Salem witch trials in

690-535: The same charge on 18 April, along with Mary Warren , Abigail Hobbs , and Bridget Bishop . The following day, they were examined by the authorities, during which Hobbs accused Giles of being a wizard . Giles denied the accusations and refused to plead (guilty or not guilty), was imprisoned and arraigned at the September sitting of the court. The records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer on 9 September 1692 contain

720-486: The son of one of Salem's wealthiest residents, Putnam was excluded from major inheritances by both his father and father-in-law. His half-brother, Joseph, who had benefited most from their father's estate , married into the rival Porter family in Salem Town , fueling ill will between the clans. Putnam, his wife Ann, and their daughter Ann Jr. all levied accusations of witchcraft , many of them against extended members of

750-435: The witch trials. Giles was absolved of the crime in 1712. Martha was not. Although Corey's refusal to plead meant that his estate was protected from seizure, it was reported that Sheriff Corwin nevertheless extorted his family by falsely claiming that he could still confiscate the property. In 1710, Corey's daughter Elizabeth and her husband John Moulton filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Corwin's estate. Her statement to

780-615: 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." There are several accounts of Corey's last words. The most commonly told one is that he repeated his request for "more weight," as this was how it was dramatized in The Crucible , but it may also have been "More rocks". Another telling notes it as, "Damn you. I curse you and Salem!" Samuel Sewall 's diary states, under

810-412: Was admitted to the church at Salem Village, where Giles had lived. At the time of the witch trials, Corey was 80 years old and living with Martha in the southwest corner of Salem Village, in what is now Peabody . Martha Corey was arrested for witchcraft on 19 March 1692. Corey was so swept up by the trials that he initially believed the accusations against his wife until he himself was arrested based on

840-415: Was also said to have suffered from the "curse of Giles Corey," as the holders of that office, since Corwin, had either died or resigned as a result of heart or blood ailments (Corwin died of a heart attack in 1696). The curse was said to have been broken when the sheriff's office was moved from Salem to Middleton in 1991. Corey is the subject of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow play entitled Giles Corey of

870-411: Was permitted against indentured servants, Corey was exempt from the charge of murder and instead was charged with using "unreasonable" force for which he was found guilty and fined. Corey's neighbor, John Proctor, also accused Corey of the arson of his home. Later, one of Proctor's sons confessed. Corey's second wife, Mary Bright, died in 1684. Corey later married his third wife, Martha Rich. Martha

900-534: Was the son of Giles and Elizabeth Corey. His birth is recorded in the parish records. His name is quite often spelled "Corey," but the baptismal record is "Cory." It is not certain when he arrived in North America, but there is evidence he was living in Salem Town as early as 1640. He originally lived in Salem Town but later moved to nearby Salem Village (now Danvers ) to work as a farmer. There are quite

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