George Burroughs (1650 - 1692)

Born 1650 in Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Husband of Hannah (Fisher) Burroughs — married before 1674 in Maine

Husband of Sarah (Ruck) Burroughs — married before 1683 in Salem, Essex, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 19 Aug 1692 at about age 42 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Biography

George Burroughs was executed for witchcraft in witch trials

George Burrough/Burroughs was born about 1650. Most references (such as Wikipedia) suggest he was born in Suffolk, England, but others suggest he may have been born in either Maryland or Virginia, when his father was visiting from England, or even in Scituate, Massachusetts. Other references such as NEHGR, are silent as to his birthplace.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

George wrote his name "Burrough" in the early part of his life; by the time he graduated from Harvard, he referred to himself as "Burroughs". His name was spelled "Burrows" in the Roxbury church records, where he was admitted to full communion April 12, 1674. His daughter, Rebecca, was baptized there that same day, and his son, George was baptized there November 25, 1675.^[5]

George was a graduate of Harvard University in 1670.^[6]

George was married three times. His first wife's name was Hannah Fisher. They were married by 1674 in Roxbury or Falmouth Maine.^[7] She died in Salem Village in September 1681. By 1683, George was married to Sarah Ruck, widow of Captain William Hathorne. She died several years before George's death. George's third wife's name was Mary (last name unknown), and by her he had one child, Mary. A prior article in the same publication conflated Mary, George's widow, and Mary, George's daughter^{[8] [9]}

George Burroughs was the minister of Salem Village from 1680 to 1683. He was accused by members of his former congregation during the Salem Witch Trials and was convicted and executed on August 19, 1692^{[10] [11]}

Birth

1650 Uncertain place (Suffolk, England; Scituate, Massachusetts; Maryland; Virginia)

Christening (1650) Pettaugh, Debenham, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom ^{[citation needed]}

Death

Cause: hanged for witchcraft at the Salem Witch Trials

19 AUG 1692 Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay, British America^[12]

Graduation

1670 Harvard College, Middlesex, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch George Burroughs (c. 1652 – August 19, 1692), was born in Suffolk, England. At a young age he left England for Massachusetts. There he was raised by his mother in the town of Roxbury.[1] American Congregational pastor, graduated from Harvard College in 1670 with distinguished honors, and became the minister of Salem Village in 1680, a charge which he held until 1683.

Burroughs was described in a reading by Frances Hill,[who?] "George Burroughs was confident, strong-willed, and decisive, a man of action as well as a preacher, unusually athletic and clever enough to do well in Harvard. Short of stature, muscular, dark-complexioned, he was highly attractive to women, as is shown by his winning the hand of a rich widow as his second wife when he was a mere village minister." He lived at Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) until it was destroyed by the Wabanaki in 1690. He moved to Wells, Maine, believing it would be safer as there were fewer Indian attacks there.

George Burroughs was executed for witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

In May 1692, during the Salem witch trials, based on the accusation of some of his personal enemies from his former congregation who had sued him for debt, Burroughs was arrested and charged, among other offenses, with extraordinary weight lifting (lifted a musket with a finger in the barrel), and such feats of strength as could not be done without diabolical assistance. George Burroughs was executed on Witches Hill, Salem, on 19 August 1692, the only minister who suffered this extreme fate. Although the jury had found no witches' marks on his body he was nonetheless convicted of witchcraft and conspiracy with the Devil. While standing on a ladder before the crowd, waiting to be hanged, he successfully recited the Lord's Prayer, something that was generally considered by the Court of Oyer and Terminer to be impossible for a witch to do. After he was hanged, Cotton Mather, a minister from Boston, reminded the crowd from atop his horse that Burroughs had been convicted in a court of law, and spoke convincingly enough that four more were executed after Burroughs. Below is the original account as first compiled and published in 1700 by Robert Calef in More Wonders of The Invisible World, and later reprinted or relied upon by others including Charles Wentworth Upham and George Lincoln Burr,

"Mr. Burroughs was carried in a Cart with others, through the streets of Salem, to Execution. When he was upon the Ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his Innocency, with such Solemn and Serious Expressions as were to the Admiration of all present; his Prayer (which he concluded by repeating the Lord’s Prayer) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness as such fervency of spirit, as was very Affecting, and drew Tears from many, so that if seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the execution. The accusers said the black Man [Devil] stood and dictated to him. As soon as he was turned off [hung], Mr. Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a Horse, addressed himself to the People, partly to declare that he [Mr. Burroughs] was no ordained Minister, partly to possess the People of his guilt, saying that the devil often had been transformed into the Angel of Light. And this did somewhat appease the People, and the Executions went on; when he [Mr. Burroughs] was cut down, he was dragged by a Halter to a Hole, or Grave, between the Rocks, about two feet deep; his Shirt and Breeches being pulled off, and an old pair of Trousers of one Executed put on his lower parts: he was so put in, together with Willard and Carrier, that one of his Hands, and his Chin, and a Foot of one of them, was left uncovered."

Source for above quote^[13]

Massachusetts Remediation

1. 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.^[14]
2. 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead [For George Burroughs, £50]^[14]
3. 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[15]
4. 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ Burroughs, Lewis Amos, Genealogy of the Burroughs Family, published 1804 by Prince Printing Company. Reference page 4.
2. ↑ Famous American Trials, Salem Witchcraft Trials, George Burroughs
3. ↑ Richardson, Douglas, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011, Reference page 376.
4. ↑ Additional Royal Descents, NEHGR 108:175, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.)
5. ↑ Genealogical Gleanings in England, NEHGR 45:233, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.)
6. ↑ Sibley, John Langdon, M. A., Bibliographic Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, Volume 2, 1659-1677, Published in 1881. Reference page 323.
7. ↑ Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700, (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Reference Volume 1, page 254.
8. ↑ The Third Wife of Reverend George Burroughs, The American Genealogist 56:43, New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)
9. ↑ Mary (Burroughs) (Homer) (Hall) Tiffany, The American Genealogist 48:144, ', New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)
10. ↑ Wikipedia Entry for George Burroughs
11. ↑ Nichols, Amy, Salem Witch Trials, George Burroughs, Published 2002 by University of Virginia
12. ↑ Upham, Charles W., Salem Witchcraft, With an Account of Salem Village, originally published 1867 by Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, New York, Reference Volume 1, pages 256-268; Volume 2, pages 140-163, 296-304, 479-482, 515
13. ↑ Calef, Robert, More Wonders of the Invisible World, published 1700. Reference page 213
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/480/mode/1up?q=Foster.
15. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
16. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

See also:

• The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 022) George Burroughs
• “Case Files Referencing George Burroughs.” Case files referencing George Burroughs - New Salem - Pelican. Accessed February 27, 2020. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/tag/burroughs_george.html.
• Archaeologia Americana (American Antiquarian Society, 1820-1909) Vol. 5, Page xviii
• Torrey, Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
• Fowle, Eugene Chalmers, Descendants of George Fowle (1610/11?-1682) of Charlestown, Massachusetts (NEHGS, 1990) Page 42.
• Sylvester, Herbert Milton, Maine Pioneer Settlements, Olde Casco, Published Boston: W.B. Clarke Co., 1909, Reference pages 275-300
• Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1862)
• The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA) 148 vols., 1847-1994: Vol. 45, Page 233, Vol. 1, Page 37-9
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 01 April 2019, 00:52), entry for Rev. George Burroughs(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:MC5W-KTT); contributed by various users.
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8295
• Roach, Marilynne K., Were the Salem Witchcraft Victims Buried or Not?, "American Ancestry Magazine" (NEHGS, Boston, Summer 2020) Vol. 21, No. 2, Page 46.
• Battle of Falmouth (16–20 May 1690)