33 Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged. October 8 After 20 people had been executed in the Salem witch hunt, Thomas Brattle wrote a letter criticizing the witchcraft trials that had great impact on Governor Phips, who ordered that reliance on spectral and intangible evidence no longer be allowed in the trials. October 29 Governor Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer. November 25 The General Court of the colony created the Superior Court to try the remaining witchcraft cases [the following] May. This time no one was convicted. See also The Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 (http://www.star.net/salem/witches.htm) and The Salem Witch Trials of 1692: A Chronology of Events (http://www.star.net/salem/memorial/default.htm). The Rebellion in Andover: Neighboring Witch Trials End Before Salem’s From: Andover Historical Society In 1692, more people from Andover, Massachusetts, were accused and arrested for witchcraft than from any other town in New England. Eighty percent of the town's residents were drawn into this witch hunt. Andover also holds the dubious distinction of having the most confessed witches, and the highest number of children arrested. Through petitions that eventually turned public opinion against the trials, Andover led the campaign that brought them to an end. Before the madness was over, however, 3 adults had been hanged and one woman perished in jail. Most people who lived in the 17th century believed in witches. Folklore and magical practices were part of their cultural heritage from Great Britain (see Witchcraft in 16th and 17th Century England, below). The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were indicative of a society unable to deal with social, economic, religious and political change. Many Puritans then living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were convinced that the devil was plotting to take over New England and destroy the "Cities of God" they had established in the American wilderness. Evidence of Satan's conspiracy seemed all around them: in the failure of their crops, epidemics, the French and Indian wars, the decline of clergy power, and the loss of their original Royal Charter which resulted in Tombstone of accused witch the breakdown of the legal system. This climate of fear which William Barker, Jr. resulted in scapegoating and intolerance manifested itself differently in various communities. As a frontier town, Andover had suffered sporadic Indian raids. Martha Carrier, the first arrested for witchcraft in May 1692, had been exiled from town several years before "for spreading smallpox with wicked carelessness." Religious strife was a factor in Andover, where townspeople were taxed to support two ministers for one church. The Reverend Francis Dane, the senior minister, did not believe in witches, while his assistant, Parson Thomas Barnard, supported the Trials.
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