John  PROCTOR

Salem Witch Trials
Elizabeth was John's third wife and had been married to him for 18 years. Among the first to be accused of witchcraft, they were imprisoned in April, tried on 5 August, and found guilty and sentenced to hang.

Since she was pregnant at the time of her conviction, Elizabeth was given a temporary reprieve until the birth of her child, by which time those convicted of witchcraft had been pardoned. Thus, her unborn child saved her life. Although pardoned, she was still a convicted felon in the eyes of the law and barred from claiming any of her husband's property.

Their two eldest children, William (aged 18) and Sarah (aged 16), were also accused and tried. William's "examination" in prison included being hogtied for hours in an attempt to force him to confess to being a witch.

On 23 July 1692, Proctor wrote a letter from prison on behalf of himself and the other accused witches to the clergy of Boston and asked to have the trials either moved to Boston or to have new judges appointed. In it, Proctor described the tortures used to elicit confession. Eight ministers took his letter under advisement and held a meeting on the matter on 1 August 1692 from which they emerged with drastically changed positions on spectral evidence and the trials in general. However, Proctor's life was not spared. He was executed by hanging on 19 August 1692.

In a 17th-century Puritan community, when a wife died, the husband remarried and the family and their property remained intact. However, when the husband died, the contents of the house were inventoried and dispersed according to his will, and often the family was split up. In the case of a "confessed" witch, the law was entitled to seize the entire estate.

This is why Giles Corey endured the horrific process of being pressed to death, which was not intended to be a method of execution, but to elicit a confession. Since Corey refused to confess, his estate remained safely within his family's possession. To add insult to injury, the cost of imprisonment and execution was borne by the witch's family. Robert Calef, in "More Wonders Of The Invisible World" offers this poignant description of what happened to the Proctor family:

"...John Procter and his Wife being in Prison, the Sheriff came to his House and seized all the Goods, Provisions, and Cattle that he could come at, and sold some of the Cattle at half price, and killed others, and put them up for the West-Indies; threw out the Beer out of a Barrel, and carried away the Barrel; emptied a Pot of Broath, and took away the Pot, and left nothing in the House for the support of the Children: No part of the said Goods are known to be returned." [pp. 361-2]

Thus, once released, Elizabeth Bassett Proctor had a newborn, three other children under the age of ten, and two teenagers who themselves were marked by the horrors of "examination" - and nothing with which to support them. The impounded property was not returned and it was eighteen years until the family was awarded £150 as recompense for John Proctor's execution and her imprisonment.

It appears that Elizabeth returned to her parents' home after the nightmare of 1692. On 22 September 1699 when Elizabeth was 52, she married Daniel Richards. They must have removed to another town, since there is no death record for either them in Lynn; nor is there any marriage or death record for the two youngest Proctor children, Elisha and Abigail, there. wikitree.com