Giles Corey
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Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, ca. 1612 – 19 September 1692) was a farmer and a victim of the Salem witch trials in early colonial America.
Accused of being a witch, he refused to enter a plea. Under the standards of English common law in use at the time, the court could not try him unless he formally requested its judgment on the case by entering a plea. If he was convicted and executed, ownership of his property would revert to the state. The law provided that those who refused to plead should be pressed until they decided to plead.
Corey died after having increasing numbers of rocks laid on him for two days, during which time he still refused to enter a plea. It is traditionally held that all throughout the trial he did not speak, except for his last two words, with a smile, before his death: "More weight...". A contemporary report indicates that "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute." Since he had not actually been convicted of any crime, his property did not revert to the state upon his death, and was given to his two sons-in-law.
According to legend his ghost appears the night before a catastrophe in Salem. Some even say that the old man who was seen in a graveyard before the Great Salem Fire of 1914 was Giles Corey.
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.
He was also the subject of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow play entitled Giles Corey of the Salem Farms, and an 1893 play Giles Corey, Yeoman by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
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.
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| Magistrates | William Stoughton · John Hathorne · Jonathan Corwin · Samuel Sewall · Bartholomew Gendey · Thomas Danforth · Nathaniel Saltonstall |
| Clergy | Samuel Parris · Cotton Mather · Increase Mather · Nicholas Noyes · John Hale · Deodat Lawson · Samuel Willard |
| Politicians & Public Figures | William Phips · Thomas Brattle · Robert Calef |
| Accusers | Elizabeth Hubbard · Mercy Lewis · Betty Parris · Ann Putnam, Jr. · Susannah Sheldon · Mary Walcott Abigail Williams · Sarah Bibber |
| Accused | John Alden · Edward Bishop · Sarah Bishop · Mary Black · Mary Bradbury · Sarah Cloyce · Rebecca Eames · Mary English · Phillip English · Abigail Faulkner · Dorcas Good · William Hobbs · Mary Lacy · Sarah Morey · Benjamin Proctor · Elizabeth Proctor · Sarah Proctor · William Proctor |
| Confessed and Accused Others | Tituba · Abigail Hobbs · Deliverance Hobbs · Margaret Jacobs · Mary Warren · Ann Foster · Mary Lacey Jr. · Mary Lacey Sr. · Sarah Churchwell |
| Executed | Bridget Bishop · George Burroughs · Martha Carrier · Martha Corey · Mary Eastey · Sarah Good · Elizabeth Howe · George Jacobs, Sr. · Susannah Martin · Rebecca Nurse · Alice Parker · Mary Parker · John Proctor · Ann Pudeator · Wilmot Redd · Margaret Scott · Samuel Wardwell · Sarah Wildes · John Willard |
| Died in Prison | Lydia Dustin · Ann Foster · Sarah Osborn · Roger Toothaker |
| Pressed to Death | Giles Corey |
