Timeline: Before 1692 | January 1692 | February 1692 | March 1692 | April 1692 | May 1692 | June 1692 | July 1692 | August 1692 | September 1692 | October 1692 | November/December 1692 | 1693 | The Aftermath
Note that in Old Style dates, January through March of 1692 (New Style) were listed as part of 1691.
February 1692
February 7: Boston's North Church contributed to the ransom of captives from the late January attack on York, Maine.
February 8: a copy of the new provincial charter for Massachusetts arrived in Boston. Maine was still part of Massachusetts, to the relief of many. Religious liberty was granted to all but Roman Catholics, which would not please those who opposed radical groups like the Quakers. Some were not pleased that it was a new charter rather than a restoration of the old one.
February: Captain John Alden Jr. visited Quebec to ransom British prisoners taken when the Abenaki attacked York.
February 16: William Griggs, a physician, bought a home in Salem Village. His children had already left home, but his niece Elizabeth Hubbard lived with Griggs and his wife.
About February 24: After traditional remedies and prayer failed in the Parris household to cure the girls of their strange afflictions, a doctor, likely Dr. William Griggs, diagnosed the "Evil Hand" as the cause.
February 25: Mary Sibley, a neighbor of the Parris family, advised John Indian, a Caribbean slave of the Parris family, to make a witch's cake to discover the names of the witches, perhaps with the help of his wife, another Caribbean slave of the Parris family. Instead of relieving the girls, their torments increased. Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard, who lived about a mile either direction from the Parris household began showing the "afflictions." Because Elizabeth Hubbard was 17 and of legal age to testify under oath and to file legal complaints, her testimony was especially important. She testified 32 times in the trials that followed.
February 26: Betty and Abigail began naming Tituba for their behavior, which increased in intensity. Several neighbors and ministers, likely including Rev. John Hale of Beverley and Rev. Nicholas Noyes of Salem, were asked to observe their behavior. They questioned Tituba.
February 27: Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard experienced torments and blamed Sarah Good, a local homeless mother and beggar, and Sarah Osborne, who was involved with conflicts around inheriting property and also had married, to local scandal, an indentured servant. None of these three were likely to have many local defenders against such accusations.
February 29: Based on the accusations of Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, arrest warrants were issued in Salem Town for the first three accused witches: Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, based on complaints of Thomas Putnam, Ann Putnam Jr.'s father, and several others, before local magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. They were to be taken for questioning the next day at Nathaniel Ingersoll's tavern.
