Execution of Reverend George Burroughs

Execution of Reverend George Burroughs
Identifier: ourgreatercountr00nort (find matches)
Title: Our greater country; being a standard history of the United States from the discovery of the American continent to the present time ..
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Northrop, Henry Davenport, 1836-1909
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, National pub co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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e secondof June. In this court Parris acted as pros-ecutor, keeping back some witnesses, andpushing others forward as suited his plans. The first victim of the court was BridgetBishop, a poor, friendless old woman.\Parris, who had examined her at thetime of her commitment, was the principalwitness against her. Deliverance Hobbsbeing also accused, a natural infirmity of herbody was taken as a proof of her guilt, andshe was hanged, protesting her innocence.Rebecca Nurse was at first acquitted of the WITCHCRAFT IN MASSACHUSETTS. 1S9 /rharges against her, but the court refused toreceive the verdict of the jury, and Parriswas determined that the woman againstwhom he had preached and prayed shouldnot escape him, and the jury were inducedto convict her, and she was hanged. John tion. He was immediately denounced, triedand hanged. When George Burroughs, the minister,was placed on trial, the witnesses producedagainst him pretended to be dumb. Whohinders these witnesses from giving their testi-
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EXECUTION OF THE REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS. WTrlartf, who had been compelled by hisduty as a constable to arrest the accused,now refused to serve in this capacity anylonger, as he had become convinced of thehypocrisy of the instigators of the persecu- monies? asked Stoughton, the chief judge.I suppose the devil, replied Burroughs, con-temptuously. How comes the devil, criedStoughton, exultingly, so loath to have anytestimony borne against you ? The words 100 SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA. of the prisoner were regarded as a confes-sion, and his remarkable bodily strength wasmade an evidence ot his guilt. He was con-victed and sentenced to be hanged. He wasexecuted on the nineteenth of August withfour others. As he ascended the scaffold,Burroughs made an appeal to the peopleassembled to witness the execution, andeffectually vindicated himself from the absurdcharges against him, and repeated the Lordsprayer, which was regarded as a test of inno-cence. The spectators seemed about tointerfere in favor