Giles Corey was a wealthy farmer in Salem, Massachusetts Bay, during the Salem Witch Trials. He would be one of the townspeople accused of witchcraft alongside his wife, Martha Corey.
Corey refused to participate in the Salem Witch Trials and did not enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. He was then tortured by pressing, which he endured for 3 days until his death.
He was accused after his wife was accused. He was standing up for her when the "afflicted" threw themselves into fits and claimed to be under attack. This spectral evidence that was allowed made it difficult for the accused to prove their innocence.
Early Life of Giles Corey
Corey was born in Northhampton, England, in 1611 before coming to America sometime before 1640. Despite some conflict with the local government, Giles Corey became a wealthy farmer in Salem who married three times.
He is believed to have married his first wife, Margaret, in England. Margaret was the mother of his eldest four children: Martha, Margaret, Deliverance, and Elizabeth. His second wife was Mary Bright; they were married on April 11, 1664, when Corey was 53 years old, and she bore him a son named John.
In 1676, at age 65, Corey was brought to trial in Essex County, Massachusetts, for allegedly beating to death one of his indentured farm workers, Jacob Goodale, son of Robert and Catherine Goodale and brother to Isaac Goodale. According to witnesses, Corey had severely beaten Goodale with a stick after he was allegedly caught stealing apples from Corey's brother-in-law, and though Corey eventually sent him to receive medical attention ten days later, Goodale died shortly thereafter.
Since corporal punishment was permitted against indentured servants, Corey was exempt from the charge of murder and instead was charged with using "unreasonable" force. Numerous witnesses and eyewitnesses testified against Corey, as well as the local coroner, and he was found guilty and fined.
Mary Bright died in 1684. Corey later married his third wife, Martha Rich. Martha was admitted to the church at Salem Village, where Giles had lived. At the time of the witch trials, Corey was 80 years old and living with Martha in the southwest corner of Salem Village.
Trial and Pressing
Martha Corey was arrested for witchcraft on March 19, 1692. Corey was so swept up by the trials that he initially believed the accusations against his wife until he himself was arrested based on the same charge on April 18, along with Mary Warren, Abigail Hobbs, and Bridget Bishop. The following day, they were examined by the authorities, during which Abigail Hobbs accused Giles of being a wizard.
Corey denied the accusations and refused to plead (guilty or not guilty), was sentenced to prison, and subsequently arraigned at the September sitting of the court.
The records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer on September 9, 1692, contain a deposition by one of the people who accused Giles of witchcraft in Mercy Lewis v. Giles Corey:
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 and almost breaking my back till the day of his examination being the 19th April [1692] and then also during the time of his examination he did afflict and torture me most grievously and also several times since urging me vehemently to write in his book and I verily believe in my heart that Giles Corey is a dreadful wizard for since he had been in prison he or his appearance has come and most grievously tormented me.
Again, in this court, Corey refused to plead.
According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid people cheating justice, the legal remedy for refusing to plead was "peine forte et dure." In this process, prisoners were stripped naked, and heavy boards were laid on their bodies. Then rocks or boulders were laid on the plank of wood. This was the process of being pressed:
... 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 draughts 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, Corey was subjected to the procedure by Sheriff George Corwin, but he was steadfast in that refusal, nor did he cry out in pain as the rocks were placed on the boards. After two days, Corey was asked three times to enter a plea, but each time, he replied, "More weight," and the sheriff complied. Occasionally, Corwin would even stand on the stones himself.
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."
Giles Corey died without ever giving a plea on September 19, 1692. His death would occur three days prior to the hanging of eight more people, including his wife.
Those who died were the following:
- Martha Corey (September 22, 1692
- Mary Easty (September 22, 1692)
- Mary Parker (September 22, 1692)
- Alice Parker (September 22, 1692)
- Ann Pudeator (September 22, 1692)
- Wilmot Redd (September 22, 1692)
- Margaret Scott (September 22, 1692)
- Samuel Wardwell Sr. (September 22, 1692)
Below is a dramatization of Giles Corey's death from the Crucible.
Conclusion
Out of those who died during the Salem Witch Trials, Giles Corey is probably one of the least empathized.
He was 80 years old and had been guilty of beating his servant so harshly that it killed him.
He also seemed to be a savvy businessman in that despite his reputation and run-ins with the law, he acquired much wealth, which then leads us to the question of why he did not plea.
While it seemed to be random who the magistrates condemned and those they set free, he clearly had a much better chance at survival than if he did not enter a plea.
This was most likely due to what would happen to his wealth if he did enter a plea and was found guilty. According to the law at the time, his estate would have been forfeited had he pled either way and had been found guilty. Since Corey refused to participate and did not plead, he stayed in possession of his estate and then passed it on to his sons-in-law after his death.
Sheriff Corwin, who seemed to have a history of extortion and bribery, was a nuisance to the Corey family after the death of their father and his last wife. Corwin tried to extort them and take their land. Corey's daughter Elizabeth filed a lawsuit against Corwin in 1710, accusing him of corruption.