George Corwin (February 26, 1666 – April 12, 1696) was the High Sheriff of

Essex County, Massachusetts Essex County is a County (United States), county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the total population was 809,829, making it the third-most populous county in the stat ...

during the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

, for which he signed warrants for the arrest and execution of those condemned of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

Family

George Corwin was the grandson of

John Winthrop the Younger John Winthrop the Younger FRS (February 12, 1606 – April 6, 1676) was an English politician and alchemist. An early governor of the Connecticut Colony, he played a large role in the unification of the colony's settlements into a singular ...

, the Governor of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. His wife, Lydia Gedney, was the daughter of Bartholomew Gedney, one of the magistrates involved in the witch trials.

Involvement in witch trials

Corwin was also responsible for choosing the execution site in

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

for

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

the 19 innocent people. On September 16, 1692, Corwin was ordered by the Court of

Oyer and Terminer In English law, oyer and terminer (; a partial translation of the Anglo-French , which literally means 'to hear and to determine') was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. Apart from its Law French name, the commission was also ...

to preside over the interrogation under torture of

Giles Corey Giles Corey ( 16 August 1611 – 19 September 1692) was an English-born farmer who was accused of witchcraft along with his wife Martha Corey during the Salem witch trials in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. After being arrested, Corey refu ...

, who was pressed to death for refusing to stand trial for witchcraft.

After the trials

Corwin died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on April 12, 1696, at the age of 30. After his death, his burial was blocked by a Salem resident Phillip English, who had been accused during the witch trials, and whose property had been seized by Corwin. English put a lien on Corwin's corpse, and delayed its burial until he had been reimbursed for the property he lost to Corwin. He was eventually reimbursed, allowing the burial to proceed. George Corwin supervised 81 year old Giles Corey's death by torture, September 19, 1692, for refusing to enter a plea. With no plea entered, Corey technically remained innocent, and his property could not be legally seized, but Corwin still attempted to extort money from Corey's heirs: In 1710, Corey's daughter Elizabeth and her husband filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Corwin's estate. Her statement to the court read, : "After our father's death the sheriff threatened to seize our father's estate and for fear that of we complied with him and paid him eleven pound six shillings in money."

References

1666 births 1696 deaths Government officials in the Salem witch trials Witch hunters Sheriffs of Essex County, Massachusetts {{Salem-stub