William Proctor (1675 - 1756)

Born 6 Feb 1675 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1756 at about age 80 in Maine

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Biography

William was the son of John Proctor and his third wife Elizabeth Bassett.

William Procter, s. John and Elizabeth (Bassett), was born 6: 12 m: 1674.[1674/5] Salem^[1] He was named in the distribution of father's estate, c. 1694.^[2]

Burial

Cumberland Cemetery, ME

Alias

James

Salem Witchcraft Trials

William Proctor was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

William was the oldest son of John and Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor. Both his parents were convicted of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. His father was one of those executed and his mother only escaped that fate because she was pregnant at the time. William himself was accused and imprisoned for witchcraft. He was eventually released without trial ^[3]

Tortured in Salem Jail

‘’In July, John Procter of Salem Village, who was awaiting execution in the Salem jail, sent a petition to Increase Mather and several other Boston ministers known to be sympathetic to the plight of the accused. Procter reported that his seventeen-year-old son, William, had been tortured by being tied up “Neck and Heels till the Blood gushed out at his Nose” and thereby forced to confess. Procter also said that the same technique had been used on two of Martha Carrier’s sons, eighteen-year-old Richard Carrier and fifteen-year-old Andrew, in order to extract confessions and accusations against their mother.”^[4]

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.^[5]
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
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community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[6]
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.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Salem (vol 2 pp. 200-203) Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7792/203/140898421
2. ↑ Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB515/i/13790/22851-co1/245913001
3. ↑ Witches of Massachusetts, Legends of America website https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ma-proctor/4/
4. ↑ Ray, Benjamin C. Satan & Salem: the Witch-Hunt Crisis of 1692. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2017.
5. ↑ “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://www.gutenberg.org/files/17845/17845-h/17845-h.htm#Page_ii.480.
6. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
7. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

• Source family Bible supposedly in possession of Penny Linderoth
• Ancestry Family Tree