Thomas Maule
Encyclopedia
Thomas Maule, was a Quaker who publicly criticized the handling of the Salem Witch Trials
by the Puritan
leaders in his book, "New-England Pesecutors [sic] Mauled With their own Weapons. Giving some Account of the bloody Laws made at Boston against the Kings Subjects that dissented from their way of Worship. Together with a brief Account of the Imprisonment and Tryal of Thomas Maule of Salem, for publishing a Book, entituled, Truth held forth and maintained, and c." He wrote, "it were better than one hundred Witches should live, than that one person be put to death for a witch, which is not a Witch". For publishing this book, Maule was imprisoned twelve months before he was tried and found not guilty.
A short biography of Thomas Maule of Salem can be found at http://www.maulefamily.com/maule50.htm under the first item.
A much more extensive biography of Thomas Maule of Salem is contained in Better That 100 Witches Should Live, on which information is available at http://www.jembook.com. This book also includes extensive legal analysis of the trial and acquittal, along with republications of Thomas Maule's writings that have survived.
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
by the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
leaders in his book, "New-England Pesecutors [sic] Mauled With their own Weapons. Giving some Account of the bloody Laws made at Boston against the Kings Subjects that dissented from their way of Worship. Together with a brief Account of the Imprisonment and Tryal of Thomas Maule of Salem, for publishing a Book, entituled, Truth held forth and maintained, and c." He wrote, "it were better than one hundred Witches should live, than that one person be put to death for a witch, which is not a Witch". For publishing this book, Maule was imprisoned twelve months before he was tried and found not guilty.
A short biography of Thomas Maule of Salem can be found at http://www.maulefamily.com/maule50.htm under the first item.
A much more extensive biography of Thomas Maule of Salem is contained in Better That 100 Witches Should Live, on which information is available at http://www.jembook.com. This book also includes extensive legal analysis of the trial and acquittal, along with republications of Thomas Maule's writings that have survived.