Stephen Bachiler was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in the American Colonies. He was also among the first settlers of Hampton, New Hampshire.
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, was pressed to death after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.
Samuel Sewall was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph (1700), which criticized slavery. He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court.
The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).
John Hale was the Puritan pastor of Beverly, Massachusetts, and took part in the Salem witch trials in 1692. He was one of the most prominent and influential ministers associated with the witch trials, being noted as having initially supported the trials and then changing his mind and publishing a critique of them.
John Pike (1613–1688/89) was a founder of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey and a judge and politician of the early colony of New Jersey.
Joshua Coffin was a historian, an American antiquary, and an abolitionist.
Mercy Lewis was an accuser during the Salem Witch Trials. She was born in Falmouth, Maine. Mercy Lewis, formally known as Mercy Allen, was the child of Philip Lewis and Mary (Cass) Lewis.
Edward Rawson served as the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
USS Fredonia was an 800-ton bark that served the U.S. Navy as a transport and as a storeship. After several voyages to California by way of Cape Horn, she became the station warehouse in Arica, where she was destroyed by an earthquake.
Rev. Nicholas Noyes II was a colonial minister during the time of the Salem witch trials. He was the second minister, called the "Teacher", to Rev. John Higginson. During the Salem witch trials, Rev. Noyes served as the official minister of the trials.
Susan Grimes Walker is best known for her long commitment to women's suffrage, and for her involvement in progressive political organizations. In 1923, she became one of the first two women elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Sir Francis Wheler was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the Nine Years' War.
Richard Dummer was an early settler in New England.
Margaret Jones was the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the second in New England during a witch-hunt that lasted from 1647 to 1693. Hundreds of people throughout New England were accused of practicing witchcraft during that period, including over two hundred in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials. Prior to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, over a forty-one year period (1647–1688), nine women, including Margaret Jones, were hanged as witches.
Robert Pike (1616—1706) was an opponent of the Salem witchcraft prosecutions of 1692. He was also involved in two other notable, public controversies prior to 1692. The first was his open criticism of the persecution of the Quakers, for which he was arraigned by the Massachusetts General Court in 1653. Years later, he became embroiled in a long feud with the pastor of Salisbury, the Reverend John Wheelwright, who excommunicated him in 1675 and was later obliged to reinstate him.
Rev. James Noyes was an English clergyman who emigrated to Massachusetts. He was a founder of Newbury, Massachusetts.
Samuel Lee (1625–1691) was an English Puritan academic and minister, late in life in New England.
Samuel Appleton was a military and government leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was a commander of the Massachusetts militia during King Philip's War who led troops during the Attack on Hatfield, Massachusetts and the Great Swamp Fight. He also held numerous positions in government and was an opponent of Governor Sir Edmund Andros.
