The Witch House (also called the Jonathan Corwin House), was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin and is the only structure still standing in Salem, Massachusetts with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692. The house was bought by Judge Corwin in 1675, when he was 24 years old, and he lived there for more than forty years. Corwin is buried in the nearby Broad Street Cemetery. The house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-19th century. The Witch House is located at 310 Essex Street, at the cross streets of North & Summer in the Chestnut Street District of Salem.
As a local magistrate and civic leader, Corwin was called upon to investigate the claims of diabolical activity when a surge of witchcraft accusations arose in Salem and neighboring communities. He took the place of Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall, who resigned after the execution of Bridget Bishop. Corwin served on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which ultimately sent nineteen to the gallows. All nineteen refused to admit to witchcraft and maintained their innocence.
The house is an excellent example of 17th-century architecture. To this day historians have not come to a conclusion as to when it was built. Jonathan Corwin’s descendants claim the house was built in 1642. Some Victorian scholars alleged that the house was built between 1620–1630, and that Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island resided in the house in the 1630s.[1] However most historians now believe the house was built in the 1660s or 1670s. It bears a strong resemblance to the Whitehall building in Sutton, England, a historic home museum built around 1500.
Despite rumors to the contrary, no interrogations or trials were ever conducted in the Witch House. There are no documents in which an accused is demanded to be brought to Judge Corwin’s home, nor is it likely the judge would have used his own home as a place to conduct legal proceedings of this nature. Interrogations were done at either the Old Meetinghouse or Ingersall’s Tavern.
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