Giles Corey Headstone


This is a memorial headstone of my ancestor Giles Corey, who was pressed to death for refusing a trial during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692!

Details regarding the trials are as follows:

It was on this date, September 19, 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts colony, that sentence was carried out on Giles Corey (or Choree or Cory) that he be pressed to death for witchcraft. Corey was a prosperous farmer and 80 years old — he was on his third wife — but a church-going member of the community. In April of that year he was accused of witchcraft. This may have been because he had allied with the wrong local family and crustily criticized the witchcraft proceedings.

Jailed from April until September, Corey knew he was finished as soon as he was accused, so his only concern was the preservation of his property. Corey refused trial, for which the penalty was to be pressed to death: without a trial and conviction, his farm could not be forfeit to the colony and would instead be passed to his heirs.

The advance was too late for Giles Corey: on 19 September 1692, Corey was stripped naked, a board placed on his chest, and then heavy stones piled on top. The pressing lasted for two days, until Corey finally died of suffocation. The magistrate stopped the torture occasionally in order to hear anything Corey might wish to confess. "More weight," was all Giles Corey would say.

The Salem Witch Trials occupied less than one year of American history. Giles Corey is the only person in North American history known to have been legally pressed to death, although there is some question as to whether the punishment was legal at the time. Martha Corey was convicted, too, and hanged the day after her husband died — two less witches for the churches to worry about!

Giles Corey was my Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-Grandfather. His link to me is as follows:

Greg Batson
Shirley Gill
George Gill
Ida Whitmore
Hattie Wheeler
Alonzo Wheeler
Nathan Wheeler
Nathan Wheeler
Martha Hosmer
Martha Conant
Martha Cleaves
Martha Corey
Giles Corey