William Phips, Governor of Massachusetts from 1692 To 1694. Witch Trials: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Supreme Court, among others-the Court of Oyer and Terminer bore little resemblance to the courts we know today. While remnants of this legal language still endure in the modern American legal system -the phrase “oyez, oyez, oyez” begins proceedings in the U.S. It was known as the Court of Oyer and Terminer, meaning “to hear and determine” in the Old Northern French that was still standard in English courts at the time. In a fateful decision, Governor Phips created a special court to try the accused witches of Salem. But the process would take time, and Phips had to act quickly.
Phips brought with him a new royal charter that gave the colony’s legislature the right to establish a court. At the time, the colony was operating without a charter, since the Crown had revoked the previous one due to repeated violations. The trials that ensued became a cautionary tale as the accused lacked many of the legal protections we take for granted today.īy the time William Phips, the newly appointed royal governor of Massachusetts Bay Province, arrived from England that May, accused witches packed local jails. The afflicted girls soon accused several local women of bewitching them, beginning a flood of accusations that threw Salem and the surrounding areas into full-blown hysteria. In early 1692, several girls in the colonial Massachusetts village of Salem began exhibiting strange symptoms, including twitching, barking, and complaining of being pinched or pricked by invisible pins.
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