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
April 1692
April: More than 50 men in Ipswich, Topsfield and Salem Village signed petitions declaring that they did not believe spectral evidence about John and Elizabeth Proctor nor did they believe they could be witches.
April 3: Sarah Cloyce came to the defense of her sister, Rebecca Nurse. The result was that Sarah was accused of witchcraft.
April 8: An arrest warrant was issued for Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce.
April 10: Another Sunday meeting at Salem Village saw interruptions, identified as caused by the specter of Sarah Cloyce.
April 11: Elizabeth Proctor and Sarah Cloyce were examined by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. Also present were Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, assistants Isaac Addington, Samuel Appleton, James Russell and Samuel Sewall. Salem minister Nicholas Noyes gave the prayer and Salem Village minister Rev. Samuel Parris took notes for the day. John Proctor, Elizabeth's husband, objected to the accusations against Elizabeth -- and was himself then accused of witchcraft by Mary Warren, their servant, who had also accused Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor was arrested and jailed. A few days later, Mary Warren admitted lying about the accusation, saying the other girls were also lying. On April 19, she recanted her recantation.
April 14: Mercy Lewis claimed that Giles Corey had appeared to her and forced her to sign the devil's book. Mary English was visited at midnight by Sheriff Corwin with an arrest warrant, and told him to come back and arrest her in the morning, which he did.
April 16: New accusations were made against Bridget Bishop and Mary Warren, who had made accusations but then recanted them.
April 18: Bridget Bishop, Abigail Hobbs, Mary Warren and Giles Corey were arrested on charges of witchcraft. They were taken to Ingersoll's tavern.
April 19: Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne examined Deliverance Hobbs, Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Corey and Mary Warren. Rev. Parris and Ezekiel Cheever took the notes. Abigail Hobbs testified that Giles Corey, husband of accused Martha Corey, was a witch. Giles Corey maintained his innocence. Mary Warren recanted her recantation in the case of the Proctors. Deliverance Hobbs confessed to witchcraft.
April 21: A warrant was issued for the arrest of Sarah Wildes, William Hobbs, Deliverance Hobbs, Nehemiah Abbott Jr., Mary Easty, Edward Bishop, Jr., Sarah Bishop (wife of Edward Bishop and stepdaughter of Mary Wildes), Mary Black, and Mary English, based on accusations of Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott.
April 22: The newly-arrested Mary Easty, Nehemiah Abbott Jr., William Hobbs, Deliverance Hobbs, Edward Bishop Jr., Sarah Bishop, Mary Black, Sarah Wildes and Mary English were examined by Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. Mary Easty had been accused following her defense of her sister, the accused Rebecca Nurse. (examination records for this day are lost, as they are for a few other days, so we don't know what some of the charges were.)
April 24: Susanna Sheldon accused Philip English of tormenting her through witchcraft. William Beale, who had sparred with English in 1690 in a lawsuit about land claims, also accused English of having something to do with the deaths of Beale's two sons.
April 30: Arrest warrants were issued for Dorcas Hoar, Lydia Dustin, George Burroughs, Susannah Martin, Sarah Morell and Philip English. English was not found until late May, at which time he and his wife were jailed in Boston. George Burroughs, a predecessor of Samuel Parris as Salem Village minister, was thought by some in town to be at the center of the outbreak of witchcraft.
