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
June 1692
June: Governor Phips appointed Lt. Gov. Stoughton as chief justice of the Massachusetts court, in addition to his position on the special court of Oyer and Terminer.
June 2: The Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in its first session. Elizabeth Fosdick and Elizabeth Paine were arrested. Elizabeth Paine turned herself in on June 3. Elizabeth Proctor and several other accused women were subjected to a body search by a male doctor and some women, looking for "witch's marks" such as moles.
June 3: A grand jury indicted John Willard and Rebecca Nurse for witchcraft. Abigail Williams testified on this day for the last time; after that, she disappears from all records.
June 6: Ann Dolliver was arrested and examined for witchcraft by Gedney, Hathorne, and Corwin.
June 8: Bridget Bishop was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. She had a previous record of accusations of witchcraft. Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Booth showed signs of being afflicted by witchcraft.
Around June 8: A Massachusetts law which had been made obsolete by another law against hangings was resurrected and passed anew, allowing executions for witchcraft.
Around June 8: Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned from the Court of Oyer and Terminer, possibly because the court pronounced a death sentence on Bridget Bishop.
June 10: Bridget Bishop was executed by hanging, the first to be executed in the Salem witch trials.
June 15: Cotton Mather wrote to the Court of Oyer and Terminer. He urged that they not rely on spectral evidence alone. He also recommended that they make the prosecution "speedy and vigorous."
June 16: Roger Toothaker died in prison. His death was found by a coroner's jury to be of natural causes.
June 29-30: Sarah Good, Elizabeth How, Susannah Martin and Sarah Wildes were tried for witchcraft. They were all found guilty and condemned to hanging. Rebecca Nurse was also tried, and the jury found her not guilty. The accusers and spectators protested loudly when that decision was announced. The court asked them to reconsider the verdict, and they found her guilty, discovering on reviewing the evidence that she had failed to answer one question put to her (perhaps because she was nearly deaf). She, too, was condemned to hang. Gov. Phips issued a reprieve but this was also met with protests and was rescinded.
