Giles Corey (11 September 1611 – 19 September 1692) was a farmer from Salem, Massachusetts who was one of the accused in the Salem Witch Trials. He was crushed to death at the age of 81 in 1692 after refusing to give the name of an accuser against Thomas Putnam.
Biography[]
Corey's death
Giles Corey was born on 11 September 1611 in Northampton, England, and by 1640 he had moved to Salem in New England. He was educated in arithmetic and was experienced in law, seeing numerous cases over the years and winning many of them without a lawyer. Corey became a prosperous land-owning farmer who had occasional rivalries with John Proctor and Thomas Putnam, and Corey was experienced with court cases against them. In 1676, he dodged a murder accusation when he mortally beat an indentured servant who stole from his brother-in-law, and in 1684 he married Martha Corey. On 18 April 1692, Corey was arrested during the Salem Witch Trials after being accused of contempt of court (for withholding the name of a witness to Thomas Putnam's ill nature in land disputes). Corey was tortured by being crushed by stones, and when Judge Thomas Danforth asked him for the name of the farmer, Corey asked for more weight, much to the displeasure of Reverend Samuel Parris, who wanted him to confess. Corey died under torture, the only one of the 20 executed people not to be hanged.