John Proctor (30 March 1632 – 19 August 1692) was a farmer from Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who was one of the convicted and executed witches in the Salem Witch Trials.
Biography[]
John Proctor was born on 30 March 1632 in England, and on 12 April 1635 his family boarded the ship "Susan and Ellen" to the Thirteen Colonies. Proctor and his family settled in the Chebacco area of Ipswich, Massachusetts, and his family was a wealthy landowning family. In 1666, he moved to Salem and bought Groton Farm, which was 700 acres. In 1674, Proctor married Elizabeth Proctor, and they had two children together. John and Elizabeth hired Abigail Williams as an indentured servant; John had an affair with her, leading to Elizabeth dismissing her. In 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials, John and Elizabeth stayed on the sidelines until Mary Warren gave Elizabeth a doll with a needle in its chest, implicating her in the stabbing of Abigail Williams. Elizabeth was accused of being a witch, and John Proctor and his neighbor Giles Corey believed that Thomas Putnam was aiding the trials so that he could take over their land. Proctor was himself accused of being a witch by Mary Warren after she was scared into joining the accusing girls, and Proctor was condemned when he said that God was dead. Proctor confessed to adultery to Judge Thomas Danforth, but his wife, not knowing that he had confessed, defended his pride by saying that he was not an adulterer. Proctor was then sentenced to death for lying to the court, and he decided to confess to being a witch at the last minute. The judges were not satisfied with this, as they required him to write a confession that would be displayed to the whole town. Proctor struggled with himself and, refusing to filthy his name and lie, tore up his confession and decided to join Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse on the gallows. The three of them would be hanged while reciting the "Our Father" prayer, with John Hale being disappointed by Proctor's death.