William S. leads Witch Trials
William Stoughtons Journey
Who is William?
William was born on September 30, 1631, in Massachusetts Bay Colony.William Stoughton is a colonial magistrate in the province of Massachusetts. In 1692, William was the Chief Justice of Oyer and Terminer.William was a magistrate and he accused people of witchcraft.William persecuted people and tried to hang a pregnant woman.Stoughton was a very wealthy Chief Justice.He wanted to accuse almost everybody in Salem Village.
What was his role in the Witch Trials?
In the start of William Stoughton's life when William was young he wanted to be in a supreme court he went to Harvard College in 1650.When he graduated for college he went to England to continue with the religious studies.When William came back he in 1662 he got to choose what he wanted to study in he chose to enter politics instead of ministry. William's first case was when they accused Rebecca Nurse from using witchcraft in Salem Village.When William was the Chief Justice he wanted to hang people that were innocent and one day he wanted to hang a pregnant woman.William Stoughton, they accused Rebecca Nurse from using witchcraft in Salem Village.When William was the Chief Justice he wanted to hang people that were innocent and one day he wanted to hang a pregnant woman.William Stoughton used spectral evidence which means that he used demonic visions.
What happened in his early life?
William got his first charter in 1684 and then he got his second charter in 1692.Stoughton was a lieutenant Governor of the province 1692 until when he died in 1701.William was one of the major governors that had the most land that he owned and he owned it in Stoughton, Massachusetts.When William Phips arrived from England he wanted to be a lieutenant governor like William.
People say he got a royal permission to be a governor and also he was carrying a charter for the province of Massachusetts Bay and they also brought something to William they brought him the lieutenant charter too.
What happened when the Salem Witch Trials was ending?
When Phips arrived there was this thing going on of witchcraft and it was going rampant around Salem Village.Phips put William as Chief Justice in June so that he can deal with the accusations.When the case of Rebecca Nurse came William permitted spectral evidence.
Cotton Mather accepted spectral evidence.The special court that William was in it stopped in September 1692.In 1693, William was dealing with witchcraft cases but Stoughton was still using spectral evidence and Phips was disregarding that.On January 3, 1693, Stoughton ordered that the people that were suspected of doing witchcraft they would be executed even the pregnancy woman's had.Phips didn’t agree with that, but William left the bench with protestants.William still didn’t say that executing people was wrong or using spectral evidence William was hanging people from Salem.When he died he still didn’t say sorry about what he had done.William Stoughton died on July 7, 1701.