Jonathan Corwin
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Jonathan Corwin (December 10, 1640 - June 9, 1718) was a wealthy New England merchant, and a judge in the Salem, Massachusetts area who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. He married Elizabeth Gibbs, widow of Robert Gibbs, in 1675 and had ten children. One of them was George Curwin who after his studies at Harvard became minister at the First Church in Salem. Corwin served as a representative for Salem in the Massachusetts legislature. He was also appointed to the Superior Court of Massachusetts.
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[edit] Salem witchcraft trials involvement
As a magistrate, Jonathan Corwin dealt with petty crimes and minor charges such as drunkenness and burglary. He was called to investigate the widespread accusations of witchcraft in Salem in 1692 and was appointed to be a judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer after another judge Nathaniel Saltonstall had resigned in protest over the first hanging, the verdict of which had been based on so-called spectral evidence. Spectral evidence was judged to be a legitimate means of identifying a witch as many people believed that the Devil could not assume an innocent person's shape.
Corwin signed several arrest warrants and transcribed a few of the hearings but scarcity of records from the 1692 events makes it impossible to determine Judge Corwin’s overall import in the trials as well as his attitude towards spectral evidence.
The court of Oyer and Terminer, established by Sir William Phipps, convicted nineteen of witchcraft and sentenced them to the gallows.
[edit] Notable events
- March 1, 1692 - Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne.
- May 27, 1692 - Gov. Phips establishes a Court of Oyer and Terminer to investigate the allegations of witchcraft. Lieutenant Gov. William Stoughton, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin are its members. [1]
[edit] The Corwin house
Corwin's house is the only remaining structure in Salem with direct ties to the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. His home is now a museum that focuses on seventeenth-century furnishings, architecture, and lifestyle. [1]
[edit] References and notes
[edit] External links
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