Giles Corey is remembered for one of the most horrifying deaths in American history.
Accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692, Corey refused to enter a plea. Because he would not plead guilty or not guilty, he could not be tried in the ordinary manner. Authorities responded by placing him beneath a board and piling increasingly heavy stones on top of him.
He was pressed to death on September 19, 1692.
Three days later, his wife, Martha Corey, was hanged for witchcraft.
Less well known is what Giles Corey did with his property before he died.
He made sure that it went to his family.
Giles Corey Had an Estate to Protect
Corey was a farmer in Salem Village and owned land, buildings, livestock and personal property.
By the spring of 1692, the witchcraft accusations had reached his family. Martha Corey was accused first. Giles initially provided evidence concerning his wife, but he was soon accused of witchcraft as well.
While imprisoned and facing the possibility of death, Corey turned his attention to his property.
On April 24, 1692, he signed an extraordinary document concerning his estate.
The document described Corey as being under “great trouble & affliction” and weak in body but of “perfect memory.” He stated that he did not know how soon he might die.
He then transferred his property to two of his sons-in-law, William Cleeves of Beverly and John Moulton of Salem.
The document was witnessed and was later acknowledged by Corey before Thomas Wade, a Justice of the Peace, at the jail in Ipswich on July 25, 1692. It was recorded.
Was It Really a Will?
The document has frequently been called “Giles Corey’s Will.”
Technically, that description is misleading.
It operated more like a deed or conveyance than a conventional will. Corey gave Cleeves and Moulton authority to possess and manage the property during his lifetime. The document then provided that after Corey’s death the property would belong to them.
The document was extraordinarily comprehensive.
It covered his land, meadow, buildings and cattle. It also covered his money, household goods, clothing, brass, pewter, bedding and essentially every other kind of property he owned.
Corey was not leaving much to chance.
From an estate-planning perspective, that is what makes the document so interesting. Corey was imprisoned, facing a capital accusation, and took affirmative legal steps to determine what would happen to virtually everything he owned.
Did Giles Corey Refuse to Plead to Save His Estate?
This is where history becomes more complicated.
A famous version of the Giles Corey story says that he refused to plead because, if he were convicted of witchcraft, the government would confiscate his property. By refusing to submit to trial, the story goes, Corey endured a terrible death so his family could inherit his estate.
It is a powerful story.
It may not be accurate.
The University of Virginia’s Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive explains that Massachusetts law did not necessarily require Corey’s land to be forfeited following a witchcraft conviction. It therefore questions the traditional explanation that Corey refused to plead solely to protect his estate.
Its discussion of Giles Corey can be found at:
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people/gilescorey.html
That does not mean Corey had nothing to fear.
Essex County Sheriff George Corwin seized property from some people accused or convicted during the witchcraft proceedings. The Library of Congress discusses both the traditional estate-preservation explanation and the historical disagreement over whether a conviction would legally have resulted in forfeiture of Corey’s property.
That discussion can be found at:
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2020/10/the-crushing-death-of-giles-corey-of-salem-1692/
Whatever Corey’s precise reason for refusing to plead, his decision to arrange the disposition of his property shows that protecting his estate was very much on his mind.
His Family Was Threatened Even After His Death
Corey’s efforts did not completely protect his family from financial harm.
Years later, members of the Corey family described what they had endured during 1692.
According to their account, after Giles Corey’s death, the sheriff threatened to seize his estate.
The family said that because they feared the seizure, they paid the sheriff £11 and 6 shillings.
Raising that money was costly. They reported having to sell livestock and other property for little more than half its value to obtain the money needed to pay the sheriff and meet the expenses of maintaining Giles and Martha while they were imprisoned.
The family’s account is particularly important because it shows why Corey’s concern about his property cannot simply be dismissed as legend. Whether or not a lawful conviction would have resulted in forfeiture, his family reported facing a very real threat to the estate.
The family’s account is reproduced here:
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/texts/tei/HutPool/
Corey Refused to Plead
When Corey was brought before the Court of Oyer and Terminer, he refused to enter a plea.
Under the criminal procedure inherited from English law, the prosecution could not proceed normally until the accused entered a plea.
Corey remained silent.
The authorities subjected him to peine forte et dure—the use of increasingly heavy weights in an attempt to force an accused person to plead.
He still refused.
On September 19, 1692, Giles Corey died under the weight of the stones.
Tradition says that when asked to plead, Corey’s response was:
“More weight.”
Whether those were his exact words cannot be established with certainty, but they became inseparable from the story of his death.
The Peabody Essex Museum’s history and timeline of the Salem witch trials confirms Corey’s death by pressing on September 19, 1692:
https://www.pem.org/the-salem-witch-trials-of-1692
Martha Corey Was Hanged Three Days Later
Giles was not the only member of the family killed during the Salem witch trials.
His wife, Martha, had also been accused and imprisoned.
On September 22, 1692, only three days after Giles died under the stones, Martha Corey was hanged with seven other people in the final mass execution of the Salem witch trials.
The surviving court records concerning Martha Corey, including the warrant for her arrest, indictment, testimony and other original documents, can be found in the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive:
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n38.html
The Estate Survived
Giles Corey’s estate planning presents an unusual lesson.
He knew that he was in extraordinary danger. Rather than simply hoping that his property would eventually reach his family, he executed a detailed legal document arranging for his property to go to two sons-in-law he trusted.
The document dealt with real estate, livestock, money, household possessions and virtually everything else he owned. It was signed, witnessed, acknowledged before a justice of the peace and recorded.
More than three centuries later, its provisions are still known.
The popular story says that Giles Corey allowed himself to be pressed to death so that his family could inherit his property.
The historical record does not establish that.
What it does establish is remarkable enough.
While Giles Corey sat in jail accused of witchcraft and facing death, he took affirmative legal steps to put his property into the hands of his family.
His body did not survive the Salem witch trials.
His estate plan did.
