Salem is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports trading commodities in early American history.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.
Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. The suburb is a fairly short ride from Boston and is also in close proximity to the beaches of Gloucester and Revere. Originally known as Salem Village, the town is most widely known for its association with the 1692 Salem witch trials. It was also the site of Danvers State Hospital, one of the state's 19th-century psychiatric hospitals. Danvers is a local center of commerce, hosting many car dealerships and the Liberty Tree Mall. As of the 2020 United States Census, the town's population was 28,087.
Elizabeth "Betty" Parris was one of the young girls who accused other people of being witches during the Salem witch trials. The accusations made by Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams caused the direct death of 20 Salem residents: 19 were hanged, while another, Giles Corey, was pressed to death.
John Proctor, Jr. was a landowner in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was the son of John Proctor Sr. (1594–1672) and Martha Harper (1607–1667). John and his 3rd wife were tried on August 5, 1692. He was hanged on August 19, 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Salem Witch Trials after being falsely accused and convicted of witchcraft.
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield served as the United States Secretary of the Navy between 1815 and 1818, during the administrations of Presidents James Madison and James Monroe.
Samuel Holten was an American Founding Father, physician, jurist, and politician from Danvers, Massachusetts. Holten represented the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Articles of Confederation. After numerous roles at the state and national levels in the 1780s, Holten was elected to a term in U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1793 to 1794. He then was appointed judge in the local courts, a position he held for nearly two decades.
Sarah Good was one of the first three women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, which occurred in 1692 in colonial Massachusetts.
The first Quaker Meeting House in Salem, Massachusetts was built during the autumn of 1688 by Quaker Thomas Maule. Much of the building was constructed using old timber repurposed from other buildings.
The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is a historic colonial house built ca. 1678 located at 149 Pine Street, Danvers, Massachusetts. It had many additions through the years, eventually being historically restored and turned into a museum in 1909. Today it is owned and operated by the Danvers Alarm List Company, a volunteer non-profit organization of Revolutionary War reenactors, and is part of the Salem Village Historic District.
Rebecca Nurse was a woman who was accused of witchcraft and executed by hanging in New England during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later.
The Stephen Phillips House is a historic house and museum located in the McIntire Historic District in Salem, Massachusetts, United States and was designed by Samuel McIntyre.
Edward Bishop was involved in the witchcraft hysteria of 1692. Four men named Edward Bishop lived in Salem at the time of the trials. Most of the early genealogical works, such as those by Savage and Pope, were confused; and some stated as much.
The Taft family of the United States has historic origins in Massachusetts; its members have served Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Utah, and the United States in various positions such as U.S. representative (two), governor of Ohio, governor of Rhode Island, U.S. Senator (three), U.S. secretary of agriculture, U.S. attorney general, U.S. secretary of war (two), president of the United States, and chief justice of the United States.
The Solomon Kimball House, probably built in 1696, is a historic First Period house in Wenham, Massachusetts. Although named for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century owner Solomon Kimball, the house was built by Thomas and Mary (Solart) Kilham—he the veteran of a pivotal battle in King Philip’s War and she the sister and aunt of defendants in the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Dudley Leavitt Pickman (1779–1846) was an American merchant who built one of the great trading firms in Salem, Massachusetts, during the seaport's ascendancy as a trading power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pickman was a partner in the firm Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee and a state senator. Among the wealthiest Salem merchants of his day, Pickman used his own clipper ships to trade with the Far East in an array of goods ranging from indigo and coffee to pepper and spices, and was one of the state's earliest financiers, backing everything from cotton and woolen mills to railroads to water-generated power plants. Pickman also helped found what is today's Peabody Essex Museum.
Martha Carrier was a Puritan accused and convicted of being a witch during the 1692 Salem witch trials.
Samuel Phillips was an American Congregational minister and the first pastor of the South Church in Andover, Massachusetts. His son, John Phillips, was the founder of Phillips Exeter Academy, and his grandson, Samuel Phillips Jr., was the founder of Phillips Academy Andover and briefly the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.
West elevation.
Judge Samuel Holten House, south elevation.
Judge Samuel Holten House, first floor.
