Giles Corey

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

 

Giles Corey being pressed with heavy stones after conviction as a witch

Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, c. 1611 – September 19, 1692) was a prosperous farmer and full member of the church in early colonial America who died under judicial torture during the Salem witch trials. Corey refused to enter a plea, and was crushed to death by stone weights in an attempt to force him to do so. In April 1692, he was accused by Ann Putnam, Jr., Mercy Lewis, and Abigail Williams of witchcraft. Ann Putnam Jr claimed that on April 13, the specter of Giles Corey visited her and asked her to write in the Devil's book. Later, Putnam also claimed that a ghost appeared before her to announce that it had been murdered by Corey. Other girls were to describe Corey as "a dreadful wizard" and recount stories of assaults by his specter

  Marriages

Giles Corey was married 3 times. He is believed to have married his first wife, Margaret, in England. Margaret was the mother of his daughters and he had no sons. His second wife was Mary Bright; they were married on April 11, 1664. Mary Bright died aged 63 on August 27, 1684, according to her gravestone in Salem Graveyard. His final marriage was on April 27, 1690, to Martha Corey.

Martha was admitted to the church at Salem Village (now Danvers), where Giles lived. Martha had a son named Thomas; he showed up as a petitioner for loss and damages resulting from his mother being hanged illegally during the witch trials. He was awarded £50 on June 29, 1723.

Giles and Martha lived in the southwest corner of Salem village, what is now Peabody about 10 rods (165 ft; 50 m) west of the West Peabody Junction railroad station, adjoining the south side of the location of the Salem and Lowell railroad.

Arrest, examination, and refusal to plead

Giles Corey was arrested on April 18, 1692, along with Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs, and Bridget Bishop. The following day, they were examined by the authorities, during which Abigail Hobbs confessed to Giles being a warlock.

Corey refused to plead (guilty or not guilty), was committed to jail and subsequently arraigned at the September sitting of the court.

The records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, September 9, 1692, contain a deposition by one of the girls who accused Giles of witchcraft.

Mercy Lewis v. Giles Corey: The Deposition of Mercy Lewis aged about 19 years who testified and said that on the 14th of April 1692 "I saw the Apparition of Giles Corey come and afflict me urging me to write in his book and so he continued most dreadfully to hurt me by times beating me & almost breaking my back tell the day of his examination being the 19th of April and then also during the time of his examination he did affect and tortor me most greviously: and also several times sense urging me vehemently to write in his book and I veryly believe in my heart that Giles Corey is a dreadful wizard for sense he had been in prison he or his appearance has come and most greviously tormented me. Mercy Lewis affirmed to the jury of Inquest. that the above written evidence: is the truth upon the oath: she has formerly taken in court of Oyer & Terminer: Septr 9: 1692

(property of the Supreme Judicial Court, Division of Archives and Records Preservation, on deposit at the Essex Institute)

Again, in this court, Corey refused to plead.

Pressed to death

According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid persons cheating justice, the legal remedy for refusing to plead was "peine forte et dure". In this process the prisoner is stripped naked, with a heavy board laid on their body. Then rocks or boulders are laid on the plank of wood. This was the process of being pressed to death.

... remanded to the prison from whence he came and put into a low dark chamber, and there be laid on his back on the bare floor, naked, unless when decency forbids; that there be placed upon his body as great a weight as he could bear, and more, that he hath no sustenance, save only on the first day, three morsels of the worst bread, and the second day three droughts of standing water, that should be alternately his daily diet till he died, or, till he answered.

As a result of his refusal to plead, on September 17, Sheriff George Corwin led Corey to a pit in the open field beside the jail and in accordance with the above process, before the Court and witnesses, stripped Giles of his clothing, laid him on the ground in the pit, and placed boards on his chest. Six men then lifted heavy stones, placing them one by one, on his stomach and chest. Giles Corey did not cry out, let alone make a plea.

After two days, Giles was asked three times to plead innocent or guilty to witchcraft. Each time he replied, "More weight." More and more rocks were piled on him, and the Sheriff from time to time would stand on the boulders staring down at Corey's bulging eyes. Robert Calef, who was a witness along with other townsfolk, later said, "In the pressing, Giles Corey's tongue was pressed out of his mouth; the Sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again."

Three mouthfuls of bread and water were fed to the old man during his many hours of pain. Finally, Giles Corey cried out "More weight!" and died.

Memorial marker in Salem, Massachusetts

Samuel Sewall's diary states, under date of Monday, September 19, 1692:

About noon at Salem, Giles Cory was pressed to death for standing mute; much pains was used with him two days, one after another, by the court and Captain Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in vain.

It is unusual for persons to refuse to plead, and extremely rare to find reports of persons who have been able to endure this painful form of death in silence. Since Corey refused to plead, he died in full possession of his estate, which would have otherwise been forfeited to the government. It passed on to his two sons-in-law, in accordance to his will.

The pressing of Giles Corey is unique in New England. It is similar to the case, in England, of Margaret Clitherow, who was arrested on March 10, 1586 for the crime of harboring priests, hearing Mass, and secretly being of the Catholic faith.

Influence on folklore and fiction

He is a character in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, in which he is portrayed as a hot-tempered but honorable man, giving evidence critical to the witch trials. His wife Martha (executed on September 22, 1692) was one of the nineteen people hanged during the hysteria. In The Crucible, Giles felt guilty about the accusation of his wife because he had told a minister that Martha had been reading strange books, which was discouraged in that society. Corey also appears in Robert Ward's operatic treatment of the story, in which his role is assigned to a tenor.

He was also the subject of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow play entitled Giles Corey of the Salem Farms, an 1893 play Giles Corey, Yeoman by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, and a 2006 play Giles and the Salem community by Tristan Ellul

The Boston metalcore band Unearth have a song entitled "Giles" about Corey, which was the first single from their 2006 album III: In the Eyes of Fire.

Swedish progressive metal outfit Evergrey have a song entitled "The Corey Curse" about Corey from their 1999 album, "Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy".

The University of Louisville occasionally publishes a journal of student-written literary and artistic works under the title, "The Giles Corey Press".

Leeds post-rock band iLiKETRAiNS described Corey's fate in their 2007 song "More Weight".