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William Stoughton (Massachusetts)
Encyclopedia
William Stoughton was a colonial magistrate and admininstrator in the Province of Massachusetts Bay
. He was in charge of what have come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials
, first as the Chief Justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer
in 1692, and then as the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693. In these trials he controversially accepted spectral evidence
(based on supposed demonic visions). Unlike other magistrates, he never admitted to the possibility that his acceptance of such evidence was in error.
After graduating Harvard College
in 1650, he continued religious studies in England, where he also preached. Returning to Massachusetts in 1662, he chose to enter politics instead of the ministry. An adept politician, he served in virtually every government through the period of turmoil in Massachusetts that encompassed the revocation of its first charter in 1684 and the introduction of its second charter in 1692, including the unpopular rule of Sir Edmund Andros
in the late 1680s. He served as lieutenant governor of the province from 1692 until his death in 1701, acting as governor (in the absence of an appointed governor) for about six years. He was one of the province's major landowners, partnering with Joseph Dudley
and other prominent figures in land purchases, and it was for him that the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts
was named.
and Elizabeth Knight Stoughton. The exact location of his birth is uncertain, because there is no known birth or baptismal record for him, and the date when his parents migrated from England
to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
is not known with precision. What is known is that by 1632 the Stoughtons were in the colony, where they were early settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts
.
Stoughton graduated from Harvard College
in 1650 with a degree in theology. He intended to become a Puritan
minister and traveled to England, where he continued his studies in New College, Oxford
. He graduated with an M.A. in theology in 1653. Stoughton was a pious preacher who believed in the "Lord's promise and expectations of great things." England was at the time under Puritan Commonwealth Rule
, although 1653 was the year Oliver Cromwell
dissolved Parliament, beginning The Protectorate
. Stoughton preached in Sussex
, and after Charles II
was restored to the throne
in 1660, Stoughton lost his position in the crackdown on religious dissenters that followed.
from 1673 to 1677 and 1680 to 1686. In the 1684 election, Joseph Dudley
, who had been labelled as an enemy of the colony (along with Stoughton, Bulkley, and others) for his moderate position on colonial charter issues, failed to win reelection to the council. Stoughton, who was reelected by a small majority and was a friend and business partner of Dudley's, refused to serve in protest.
In 1676 he was chosen, along with Peter Bulkley, to be an agent representing colonial interests in England. Their instructions were narrowly tailored. They were authorized to acquire land claims from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges
and John Mason that conflicted with some Massachusetts land claims in present-day Maine
. These they acquired for £1,200, incurring the anger of Charles II
, who had intended to acquire those claims for the Duke of York
. They were unsuccessful in maintaining broader claims made by Massachusetts against other territories of Maine and the Province of New Hampshire
. Their limited authority upset the Lords of Trade, who sought to have the colonial laws modified to conform to their policies. The mission of Stoughton and Bulkley did little more than antagonize colonial officials in London because of their hardline stance.
For many years Stoughton and Joseph Dudley where friends, as well as political and business partners. The two worked closely together politically, and engaged in land development together. In the 1680s Stoughton acquired significant amounts of land from the Nipmuc tribe in what is now Worcester County
in partnership with Dudley. The partnership included a venture that established Oxford
as a place to settle refugee Huguenots. Dudley and Stoughton used their political positions to ensure that the titles to lands they were interested in were judicially cleared, a practice that also benefited their friends, relatives, and other business partners. Concerning this practice, Crown agent Edward Randolph
wrote that it was "impossible to bring titles of land to trial before them where his Majesties's rights are concerned, the Judges also being parties." This was particularly obvious when Stoughton and Dudley were part of a venture to acquire 1 million acres (4,046.9 km²) of land in the Merrimack River
valley. Dudley's council, on which Stoughton and other investors sat, formally cleared that land's title in May 1686.
When Dudley was commissioned in 1686 to temporarily head the Dominion of New England
, Stoughton was appointed to his council, and he was then elected by the council as the deputy president. During the administration of Sir Edmund Andros
he served as a magistrate and on the council. As a magistrate he was particularly harsh on the town leaders of Ipswich
, who had organized tax protests against the dominion government, based on the claim that dominion rule without representation violated the Rights of Englishmen
. When Andros was arrested
in April 1689 in a bloodless uprising inspired by the 1688 Glorious Revolution
in England, Stoughton was one of the signatories to the declaration of the revolt's ringleaders. Despite this statement of support for the popular cause, he was sufficiently unpopular due to his association with Andros that he was denied elective offices. He appealed to the politically powerful Mather family, with whom he still had positive relations. In 1692, when Increase Mather
and Sir William Phips
arrived from England carrying the charter for the new Province of Massachusetts Bay
and a royal commission for Phips as governor, they also brought one for Stoughton as lieutenant governor.
When Phips arrived, rumors of witchcraft were running rampant, especially in Salem
. Phips immediately appointed Stoughton to head a special tribunal to deal with accusations of witchcraft, and in June appointed him chief justice of the colonial courts, a post he would hold for the rest of his life. In the now-notorious Salem Witch Trials
, Stoughton acted as both chief judge and prosecutor. He was particularly harsh on some of the defendants, sending the jury deliberating in the case of Rebecca Nurse
back to reconsider its not guilty verdict; after doing so, she was convicted. Many convictions were made because Stoughton permitted the use of spectral evidence
, the idea that a demonic vision could only take on the shape or appearance of someone who had made some sort of devilish pact or engaged in witchcraft. Although Cotton Mather
argued that this type of evidence was acceptable when making accusations, some judges expressed reservations about its use in judicial proceedings. Stoughton, however, was convinced of its acceptability, and may have influenced other judges to this view. The special court stopped sitting in September 1692.
In November and December 1692 Governor Phips oversaw a reorganization of the colony's courts to bring them into conformance with English practice. The new courts, with Stoughton still sitting as chief justice, began to handle the witchcraft cases in 1693, but were under specific instructions from Phips to disregard spectral evidence. Because of this, a significant number of cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence, and Phips vacated the few convictions that were made. This turn of events angered Stoughton, and he briefly left the bench in protest. Historian Cedric Cowing suggests that Stoughton's acceptance of spectral evidence was based partly in a need he saw to reassert Puritan authority in the province. Unlike his colleague Samuel Sewall
, who later repented for his actions on the bench in the witch trials, Stoughton never admitted that his actions and beliefs with respect to spectral evidence and the trials were in error.
, which had broken out in 1689. Massachusetts (which then included Maine) was in the forefront of the war with New France
, and its northern frontier communities suffered significantly from French and Indian raids. Governor Phips was frequently in Maine overseeing the construction of defenses there, leaving Stoughton to oversee affairs to the south. During one such absence, for example, Stoughton was responsible for raising a small force of militia intended to help protect neighboring New Hampshire, which was similarly being devastated by raids. In early 1694 Phips was recalled to London, to answer charges of misconduct. He delayed his departure until November, at which time Stoughton took over as acting governor. Phips died in London in early 1695, before the charges against him were heard.
Stoughton viewed himself as a caretaker, holding the government until the crown appointed a new governor. As a consequence, he gave the provincial assembly a significant degree of autonomy, which, once established, complicated the relationship the assembly had with later governors. He also took relatively few active steps to implement colonial policies, and only did the minimum needed to follow instructions from London. A commentator in the colonial office observed that he was a "good scholar", but that he was "not suited to enforce the Navigation Act
".
In 1695 Stoughton protested the actions of French privateer
s operating from Acadia
, who were wreaking havoc in the New England fishing and merchant fleets. In an attempt to counter this activity, he authorized Benjamin Church to organize a raid against Acadia. While Church was recruiting men for the expedition, New France's governor, the comte de Frontenac
, organized an expedition to target the English fort at Pemaquid, Maine
. Church had still not departed in August 1696 when he learned that the fort had been taken and destroyed
. The instructions Stoughton issued to Church were somewhat vague, and he did little more than raid Beaubassin
at the top of the Bay of Fundy
before returning to Boston. Before Church's return Stoughton organized a second, smaller expedition that unsuccessfully besieged Fort Nashwaak on the Saint John River. The failure of these expeditions highlighted the inadequacies of the provincial forces, and the Massachusetts assembly appealed to London for aid.
Peace between France and England was achieved with the Treaty of Ryswick
in 1697, but it did not resolve any issues concerning the Abenakis to the north. As a result there continued to be tension on the frontier, and disputes over fishing grounds and the use of Acadian territory by New Englanders for drying fish continued. Stoughton and Acadian Governor Joseph Robineau de Villebon
exchanged complaints and threats in 1698 over the issue, with Villebon issuing largely empty threats (he lacked the needed resources to execute them) to seize Massachusetts ships and property left in Acadian territory. Stoughton appealed to London for diplomatic assistance, which had some success in reducing tensions.
Stoughton served as acting governor until 1699, while still also serving as chief justice. He remained lieutenant governor during the brief tenure of the Earl of Bellomont
as governor, and again became acting governor on the latter's departure in 1700. He was by then in poor health, and accomplished little of note in his final year.
had been thrown into turmoil by the recission of the colonial charter in 1684, upon which the Harvard charter depended. In 1692 the provincial assembly passed a law enacting a new charter for the college, but the Board of Trade vetoed this law in 1696, again throwing the college's existence into jeopardy. Stoughton, then acting governor, made temporary arrangements for the college's governance while the assembly worked to craft a new charter. Ultimately, Harvard's charter problems would not be solved until 1707, when its 1650 charter was revived.
Religious and political differences between factions of directors at Harvard boiled into the open during the late 1690s. Increase Mather
, then the president of Harvard, was theologically conservative, while a number of the directors had adopted moderate views, and in these years they began a struggle for control of the college. This split eventually led to the founding in 1698 of Boston's Brattle Street Church
, which issued a manifesto explicitly distancing itself from some of the more extreme Puritan practices advocated by Mather and his son Cotton
. Stoughton and a number of high profile religious and political figures in the colony stepped into the dispute to bring tempers down and reinforce the colony's position on religious tolerance. The peace was so successfully brokered that the elder Mather took part in the new church's dedicatory services.
. He was a bachelor, and willed a portion of his estate and his mansion to William Tailer
, the son of his sister Rebeccah. Tailer, who was twice lieutenant governor and briefly served as acting governor, was buried alongside Stoughton.
The only sermon of Stoughton's to be published was entitled New-Englands True Interest. The sermon was originally delivered at the election of 1668, and was published in 1670. In it he harkened back to the founding of the colony, saying "God sifted a whole Nation that he might send choice Grain over into this Wilderness", but also lamented what he saw as a decline in Massachusetts society, and urged the lay members of society to defer judgment to their clerical elders.
The town of Stoughton, Massachusetts
is named in his honor, as is one of the Harvard College dormitories in Harvard Yard
. Construction of the first Stoughton Hall, in 1698, was made possible by his £1,000 gift.
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...
. He was in charge of what have come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials
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...
, first as the Chief Justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer
Oyer and terminer
In English law, Oyer and terminer was the Law French name, meaning "to hear and determine", for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat...
in 1692, and then as the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693. In these trials he controversially accepted spectral evidence
Spectral evidence
Spectral evidence is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions. It was admitted in court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief justice, William Stoughton. The booklet A Tryal of Witches taken from a contemporary report of the proceedings of the Bury St...
(based on supposed demonic visions). Unlike other magistrates, he never admitted to the possibility that his acceptance of such evidence was in error.
After graduating Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1650, he continued religious studies in England, where he also preached. Returning to Massachusetts in 1662, he chose to enter politics instead of the ministry. An adept politician, he served in virtually every government through the period of turmoil in Massachusetts that encompassed the revocation of its first charter in 1684 and the introduction of its second charter in 1692, including the unpopular rule of Sir Edmund Andros
Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros was an English colonial administrator in North America. Andros was known most notably for his governorship of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. He also governed at various times the provinces of New York, East and West Jersey, Virginia, and...
in the late 1680s. He served as lieutenant governor of the province from 1692 until his death in 1701, acting as governor (in the absence of an appointed governor) for about six years. He was one of the province's major landowners, partnering with Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley was an English colonial administrator. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and son of one of its founders, he had a leading role in the administration of the unpopular Dominion of New England , and served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, where he oversaw the trial...
and other prominent figures in land purchases, and it was for him that the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,962 at the 2010 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, and from Cape Cod.-History:...
was named.
Early life
William Stoughton was born in 1631 to Israel StoughtonIsrael Stoughton
Israel Stoughton was an early English colonist in Massachusetts, and later a Parliamentarian officer in the First English Civil War.-Life:...
and Elizabeth Knight Stoughton. The exact location of his birth is uncertain, because there is no known birth or baptismal record for him, and the date when his parents migrated from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
is not known with precision. What is known is that by 1632 the Stoughtons were in the colony, where they were early settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
.
Stoughton graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1650 with a degree in theology. He intended to become a 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...
minister and traveled to England, where he continued his studies in New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
. He graduated with an M.A. in theology in 1653. Stoughton was a pious preacher who believed in the "Lord's promise and expectations of great things." England was at the time under Puritan Commonwealth Rule
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
, although 1653 was the year Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
dissolved Parliament, beginning The Protectorate
The Protectorate
In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...
. Stoughton preached in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, and after Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
was restored to the throne
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
in 1660, Stoughton lost his position in the crackdown on religious dissenters that followed.
Politics and land development
With little prospect for another position in England, Stoughton returned to Massachusetts in 1662. He preached on several occasions at Dorchester and Cambridge, but refused offers of permanent ministerial posts. He instead became involved in politics and land development. He served on the colony's council of assistants (a precursor to the idea of a governor's council) almost every year from 1671 to 1686, and represented the colony in the New England ConfederationNew England Confederation
The United Colonies of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation, was a short-lived military alliance of the English colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. Established in 1643, its primary purpose was to unite the Puritan colonies against the Native...
from 1673 to 1677 and 1680 to 1686. In the 1684 election, Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley was an English colonial administrator. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and son of one of its founders, he had a leading role in the administration of the unpopular Dominion of New England , and served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, where he oversaw the trial...
, who had been labelled as an enemy of the colony (along with Stoughton, Bulkley, and others) for his moderate position on colonial charter issues, failed to win reelection to the council. Stoughton, who was reelected by a small majority and was a friend and business partner of Dudley's, refused to serve in protest.
In 1676 he was chosen, along with Peter Bulkley, to be an agent representing colonial interests in England. Their instructions were narrowly tailored. They were authorized to acquire land claims from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Ferdinando Gorges
Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.-Biography:...
and John Mason that conflicted with some Massachusetts land claims in present-day Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. These they acquired for £1,200, incurring the anger of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, who had intended to acquire those claims for the Duke of York
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
. They were unsuccessful in maintaining broader claims made by Massachusetts against other territories of Maine and the Province of New Hampshire
Province of New Hampshire
The Province of New Hampshire is a name first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America. It was formally organized as an English royal colony on October 7, 1691, during the period of English colonization...
. Their limited authority upset the Lords of Trade, who sought to have the colonial laws modified to conform to their policies. The mission of Stoughton and Bulkley did little more than antagonize colonial officials in London because of their hardline stance.
For many years Stoughton and Joseph Dudley where friends, as well as political and business partners. The two worked closely together politically, and engaged in land development together. In the 1680s Stoughton acquired significant amounts of land from the Nipmuc tribe in what is now Worcester County
Worcester County, Massachusetts
-Demographics:In 1990 Worcester County had a population of 709,705.As of the census of 2000, there were 750,963 people, 283,927 households, and 192,502 families residing in the county. The population density was 496 people per square mile . There were 298,159 housing units at an average density...
in partnership with Dudley. The partnership included a venture that established Oxford
Oxford, Massachusetts
Oxford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,709 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Oxford, please see the article Oxford , Massachusetts.-History:...
as a place to settle refugee Huguenots. Dudley and Stoughton used their political positions to ensure that the titles to lands they were interested in were judicially cleared, a practice that also benefited their friends, relatives, and other business partners. Concerning this practice, Crown agent Edward Randolph
Edward Randolph (colonial administrator)
Edward Randolph was an English colonial administrator, best known for his role in effecting significant changes in the structure of the England's North American colonies in the later years of the 17th century...
wrote that it was "impossible to bring titles of land to trial before them where his Majesties's rights are concerned, the Judges also being parties." This was particularly obvious when Stoughton and Dudley were part of a venture to acquire 1 million acres (4,046.9 km²) of land in the Merrimack River
Merrimack River
The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...
valley. Dudley's council, on which Stoughton and other investors sat, formally cleared that land's title in May 1686.
When Dudley was commissioned in 1686 to temporarily head the Dominion of New England
Dominion of New England
The Dominion of New England in America was an administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America. The dominion was ultimately a failure because the area it encompassed was too large for a single governor to manage...
, Stoughton was appointed to his council, and he was then elected by the council as the deputy president. During the administration of Sir Edmund Andros
Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros was an English colonial administrator in North America. Andros was known most notably for his governorship of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. He also governed at various times the provinces of New York, East and West Jersey, Virginia, and...
he served as a magistrate and on the council. As a magistrate he was particularly harsh on the town leaders of Ipswich
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...
, who had organized tax protests against the dominion government, based on the claim that dominion rule without representation violated the Rights of Englishmen
Rights of Englishmen
The rights of Englishmen are the perceived traditional rights of British subjects. The notion refers to various constitutional documents that were created throughout various stages of English history, such as Magna Carta, the Declaration of Right , and others...
. When Andros was arrested
1689 Boston revolt
The 1689 Boston revolt was a popular uprising on April 18, 1689, against the rule of Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of the Dominion of New England. A well-organized "mob" of provincial militia and citizens formed in the city and arrested dominion officials...
in April 1689 in a bloodless uprising inspired by the 1688 Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
in England, Stoughton was one of the signatories to the declaration of the revolt's ringleaders. Despite this statement of support for the popular cause, he was sufficiently unpopular due to his association with Andros that he was denied elective offices. He appealed to the politically powerful Mather family, with whom he still had positive relations. In 1692, when Increase Mather
Increase Mather
Increase Mather was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay . He was a Puritan minister who was involved with the government of the colony, the administration of Harvard College, and most notoriously, the Salem witch trials...
and Sir William Phips
William Phips
Sir William Phips was a shipwright, ship's captain, treasure hunter, military leader, and the first royally-appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay....
arrived from England carrying the charter for the new Province of Massachusetts Bay
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...
and a royal commission for Phips as governor, they also brought one for Stoughton as lieutenant governor.
Witch trials
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
. Phips immediately appointed Stoughton to head a special tribunal to deal with accusations of witchcraft, and in June appointed him chief justice of the colonial courts, a post he would hold for the rest of his life. In the now-notorious Salem Witch Trials
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...
, Stoughton acted as both chief judge and prosecutor. He was particularly harsh on some of the defendants, sending the jury deliberating in the case of Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca Towne Nurse was executed for witchcraft by the government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1692, during the Salem witch trials. She was the wife of Francis Nurse, with several children and grandchildren, and a well-respected member of the community...
back to reconsider its not guilty verdict; after doing so, she was convicted. Many convictions were made because Stoughton permitted the use of spectral evidence
Spectral evidence
Spectral evidence is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions. It was admitted in court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief justice, William Stoughton. The booklet A Tryal of Witches taken from a contemporary report of the proceedings of the Bury St...
, the idea that a demonic vision could only take on the shape or appearance of someone who had made some sort of devilish pact or engaged in witchcraft. Although Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
argued that this type of evidence was acceptable when making accusations, some judges expressed reservations about its use in judicial proceedings. Stoughton, however, was convinced of its acceptability, and may have influenced other judges to this view. The special court stopped sitting in September 1692.
In November and December 1692 Governor Phips oversaw a reorganization of the colony's courts to bring them into conformance with English practice. The new courts, with Stoughton still sitting as chief justice, began to handle the witchcraft cases in 1693, but were under specific instructions from Phips to disregard spectral evidence. Because of this, a significant number of cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence, and Phips vacated the few convictions that were made. This turn of events angered Stoughton, and he briefly left the bench in protest. Historian Cedric Cowing suggests that Stoughton's acceptance of spectral evidence was based partly in a need he saw to reassert Puritan authority in the province. Unlike his colleague Samuel Sewall
Samuel Sewall
Samuel Sewall was a Massachusetts judge, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay The Selling of Joseph , which criticized slavery.-Biography:...
, who later repented for his actions on the bench in the witch trials, Stoughton never admitted that his actions and beliefs with respect to spectral evidence and the trials were in error.
Acting governor
In addition to the witch trials, Stoughton was also involved in overseeing the colonial response to King William's WarKing William's War
The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...
, which had broken out in 1689. Massachusetts (which then included Maine) was in the forefront of the war with New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
, and its northern frontier communities suffered significantly from French and Indian raids. Governor Phips was frequently in Maine overseeing the construction of defenses there, leaving Stoughton to oversee affairs to the south. During one such absence, for example, Stoughton was responsible for raising a small force of militia intended to help protect neighboring New Hampshire, which was similarly being devastated by raids. In early 1694 Phips was recalled to London, to answer charges of misconduct. He delayed his departure until November, at which time Stoughton took over as acting governor. Phips died in London in early 1695, before the charges against him were heard.
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
".
In 1695 Stoughton protested the actions of French privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s operating from Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
, who were wreaking havoc in the New England fishing and merchant fleets. In an attempt to counter this activity, he authorized Benjamin Church to organize a raid against Acadia. While Church was recruiting men for the expedition, New France's governor, the comte de Frontenac
Louis de Buade de Frontenac
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to his death in 1698...
, organized an expedition to target the English fort at Pemaquid, Maine
Fort William Henry (Pemaquid Beach, Maine)
The Fort William Henry is located in the village of New Harbor in the town of Bristol, Maine. The fort was the largest in New England. The fort was originally built in 1692 but destroyed four years later by New France in the Siege of Pemaquid . The fort was rebuilt in 1908. The fort was added to...
. Church had still not departed in August 1696 when he learned that the fort had been taken and destroyed
Siege of Pemaquid (1696)
The Siege of Pemaquid occurred during King William's War when French and Native forces from New France attacked the English settlement at Pemaquid , a community on the border with Acadia. The siege was led by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin between August...
. The instructions Stoughton issued to Church were somewhat vague, and he did little more than raid Beaubassin
Beaubassin
Beaubassin was the first settlement on the Isthmus of Chignecto, Nova Scotia, which was Acadian. The area is now known as the Tantramar Marshes. Beaubassin was settled in 1672, the second Acadian village to be established after Port Royal. The village was one of the largest and most prosperous in...
at the top of the Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy
The Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...
before returning to Boston. Before Church's return Stoughton organized a second, smaller expedition that unsuccessfully besieged Fort Nashwaak on the Saint John River. The failure of these expeditions highlighted the inadequacies of the provincial forces, and the Massachusetts assembly appealed to London for aid.
Peace between France and England was achieved with the Treaty of Ryswick
Treaty of Ryswick
The Treaty of Ryswick or Ryswyck was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick in the Dutch Republic. The treaty settled the Nine Years' War, which pitted France against the Grand Alliance of England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Provinces.Negotiations started in May...
in 1697, but it did not resolve any issues concerning the Abenakis to the north. As a result there continued to be tension on the frontier, and disputes over fishing grounds and the use of Acadian territory by New Englanders for drying fish continued. Stoughton and Acadian Governor Joseph Robineau de Villebon
Joseph Robineau de Villebon
Joseph Robineau de Villebon , a governor of Acadia, was born in New France and received much of his education and military experience in France....
exchanged complaints and threats in 1698 over the issue, with Villebon issuing largely empty threats (he lacked the needed resources to execute them) to seize Massachusetts ships and property left in Acadian territory. Stoughton appealed to London for diplomatic assistance, which had some success in reducing tensions.
Stoughton served as acting governor until 1699, while still also serving as chief justice. He remained lieutenant governor during the brief tenure of the Earl of Bellomont
Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont
Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont , known as The Lord Coote between 1683 and 1689, was a member of the English Parliament and a colonial governor...
as governor, and again became acting governor on the latter's departure in 1700. He was by then in poor health, and accomplished little of note in his final year.
Harvard and the Brattle Street Church
The corporate existence of Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
had been thrown into turmoil by the recission of the colonial charter in 1684, upon which the Harvard charter depended. In 1692 the provincial assembly passed a law enacting a new charter for the college, but the Board of Trade vetoed this law in 1696, again throwing the college's existence into jeopardy. Stoughton, then acting governor, made temporary arrangements for the college's governance while the assembly worked to craft a new charter. Ultimately, Harvard's charter problems would not be solved until 1707, when its 1650 charter was revived.
Religious and political differences between factions of directors at Harvard boiled into the open during the late 1690s. Increase Mather
Increase Mather
Increase Mather was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay . He was a Puritan minister who was involved with the government of the colony, the administration of Harvard College, and most notoriously, the Salem witch trials...
, then the president of Harvard, was theologically conservative, while a number of the directors had adopted moderate views, and in these years they began a struggle for control of the college. This split eventually led to the founding in 1698 of Boston's Brattle Street Church
Brattle Street Church
The Brattle Street Church was a Congregational and Unitarian church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.- Brief history :...
, which issued a manifesto explicitly distancing itself from some of the more extreme Puritan practices advocated by Mather and his son Cotton
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
. Stoughton and a number of high profile religious and political figures in the colony stepped into the dispute to bring tempers down and reinforce the colony's position on religious tolerance. The peace was so successfully brokered that the elder Mather took part in the new church's dedicatory services.
Family and legacy
He died at home in Dorchester in 1701, while serving as acting governor, and was buried in the cemetery now know as the Dorchester North Burying GroundDorchester North Burying Ground
The Dorchester North Burying Ground is a historic cemetery at Stoughton Street and Columbia Road in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
. He was a bachelor, and willed a portion of his estate and his mansion to William Tailer
William Tailer
William Tailer was a military officer and politician in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Born into the wealthy and influential Stoughton family, he twice married into other politically powerful families. He served as lieutenant governor of the province from 1711 until 1716, and again in the...
, the son of his sister Rebeccah. Tailer, who was twice lieutenant governor and briefly served as acting governor, was buried alongside Stoughton.
The only sermon of Stoughton's to be published was entitled New-Englands True Interest. The sermon was originally delivered at the election of 1668, and was published in 1670. In it he harkened back to the founding of the colony, saying "God sifted a whole Nation that he might send choice Grain over into this Wilderness", but also lamented what he saw as a decline in Massachusetts society, and urged the lay members of society to defer judgment to their clerical elders.
The town of Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,962 at the 2010 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, and from Cape Cod.-History:...
is named in his honor, as is one of the Harvard College dormitories in Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
. Construction of the first Stoughton Hall, in 1698, was made possible by his £1,000 gift.
External links
- Biography of William Stoughton (1631-1701) from Stoughton, MA website
- A narrative of the proceedings of sir Edmond Androsse and his complices by William Stoughton, et al. (1691)
- "William Stoughton," pp. 194–208 of Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, Vol. 1