This realization, along with Elizabeth's forgiveness, enables Proctor to forgive himself and finally regain his good name and self-respect. As the court officials lead him to the gallows, he finds peace for the first time in the play.
Previous Abigail Williams. Next Reverend Hale. Removing book from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Are you sure you want to remove bookConfirmation and any corresponding bookmarks? My Preferences My Reading List. He asked that the trials be moved to Boston.
His request was not granted. Two petitions in support of the Proctors, from neighbors in Salem and Ipswich, were also presented. They too had no effect.
The trials went on as scheduled on August 2. John and Elizabeth were both convicted of witchcraft, largely on spectral evidence. Elizabeth received a stay of execution because it had been discovered that she was pregnant. He may have once been buried on the edge of his property, land that belongs to the Peabody High School today. Elizabeth Proctor remained in jail until May of John and Elizabeth Proctor were among the people whose names were cleared of the charges of witchcraft in He married his first wife Martha maiden name unclear circa The couple had four children, only one of whom, Benjamin, lived to adulthood.
Martha died in childbirth in In , Proctor married Elizabeth Thorndike, with whom he had seven children. At least two died before reaching adulthood. The Proctors moved to the western side of Salem Town, aka Salem Fields or the village of Brooksby, in , first leasing fifteen acres and then the adjoining acre farm from the illustrious Emanuel Downing.
That Abigail started, in effect, to condemn Elizabeth to death with her touch, then stopped her hand, then went through with it, was quite suddenly the human center of all this turmoil. John Proctor was officially indicted on April 11, on three charges of witchcraft against Mary Walcott, Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis and was examined in court that same day.
There is no record of this examination but many of the afflicted girls, including Elizabeth Hubbard, Ann Putnam, Jr. While John and Elizabeth Proctor sat in jail in Boston, many of their friends came to their defense and signed a petition asking for them to be released:. Unfortunately, the petition did nothing to sway the court and John and Elizabeth Proctor remained imprisoned. The Proctor family and their in-laws were accused by many of the same people. According to court records, the jury decided not to indict William Proctor or Sarah Bassett due to a lack of evidence and there are no court records indicating that Sarah Proctor, Benjamin Proctor or Mary Basset DeRich were indicted either.
During their conversation, Proctor, who lived on the outskirts of Salem Village in what is now modern day Peabody, said he was on his way to Salem to retrieve Warren so he could take her home and beat her and also said the afflicted girls should be whipped and hanged for lying, according to court records:. He answered he heard they were very bad last night but he had heard nothing this morning. Parris would let him have his Indian he the said Proctor would soon drive the devil out of him and father saith not.
On July 23, Proctor wrote a letter to the clergy of Boston pleading with them to appoint different judges or move the trials to Boston where he felt they would get a fair trial.
In his letter, he described the torture used against the prisoners, particularly against his son William, and declared that the accused were innocent victims:. Here are five persons who have lately confessed themselves to be witches, and do accuse some of us being along with them at a sacrament, since we were committed into close prison, which we know to be lies. And another five weeks my son William Proctor, when he was examined, because he would not confess that he was guilty, when he was innocent, they tied him neck and heels till the blood gushed out at his nose, and would have kept him so twenty-four hours, if one, more merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him, and caused him to be unbound.
These actions are very like the popish cruelties. They have already undone us in our estates, and that will not serve their turns without our innocent blood. Desiring your prayers to the Lord on our behalf, we rest your poor afflicted servants.
John Proctor and his wife were both convicted of witchcraft on August 5, Jacobs Munroe says that it was always said that Procters were buried near the bars as you go into the Philip H. Saunders place. Osborn, the librarian of the Peabody Historical Society, as to what was the family tradition, I learned that it was said by Mrs. Hannah B. Osborn, Mrs. The Marsh pasture from which Mrs. Mansfield mentions. It had a way leading to it from Lowell Street over the eastern end of the John Procter lot as shown on my map.
This way is still used as well as the bars opening into it on Lowell Street a few rods east of the westerly way leading southerly to the Jacobs, or Wyman, place.
Jacobs as stated above, unless we suppose the expression to mean bars leading from the John Procter lot where the way enters the Philip H. Saunders place, or Marsh pasture, as Mrs. Mansfield calls it. Perhaps the latter locality is the most probable since it is high rocky ground; but which bars were meant is uncertain. He still wants to save his name, but for personal and religious, rather than public, reasons.
Such a confession would dishonor his fellow prisoners, who are brave enough to die as testimony to the truth. Perhaps more relevantly, a false admission would also dishonor him, staining not just his public reputation, but also his soul. By refusing to give up his personal integrity Proctor implicitly proclaims his conviction that such integrity will bring him to heaven. He goes to the gallows redeemed for his earlier sins. God forbid I take it from him!
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