John Willard

John Willard ( 1657 – August 19, 1692) was one of the people executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem witch trials. He was hanged on Gallows Hill, Salem on August 19, 1692. At the time of the first allegations of witchcraft Willard was serving as a constable in the village of Salem and his duties included bringing the accused before the court. Soon, however, he began to doubt the truth of the accusations and in May 1692 he refused to make any more arrests. In retaliation Ann Putnam, Jr. and others accused him of witchcraft, and of murdering thirteen citizens. Some of Willard's in-laws, the Wilkins, also made accusations against him. Benjamin Wilkins would tell the court that Willard had previously beat his wife, Samuel Wilkins testified that he had repeatedly been irritated and afflicted by an entity in a dark colored coat he identified as Willard. John Wilkins would blame the death of his wife, after having delivered a baby, on John Willard, and the family patriarch, Bray Wilkins, would say that he came down with an illness after John Willard had looked at him with an evil eye. Willard was found guilty of witchcraft on August 5, 1692. On August 19, 1692, he was hanged, along with John Proctor, George Burroughs, George Jacobs, Sr., and Martha Carrier. Willard maintained his innocence until the very end. Early life Most of the information on John Willard's early life is relatively obscure. However, most scholars conclude that he probably came from Lancaster, Massachusetts, and he was born in 1657. Indeed, it was Lancaster, then called Nashaway, where Willard fled to after being accused of witchcraft. During his youth John Willard lived in Lancaster and worked under a Major Simon Willard, one of the most prominent Massachusetts land speculators of the mid-seventeenth century. Given the shared surname, some scholars have concluded that Simon and John were kinsmen, usually positing that John was either the son, or grandson of Major Willard. though the former case is unlikely as there is no record of Simon ever having a son named John with either of his two wives.