Giles Corey (also spelled Cory or Coree, ca. 1612 – 19 September 1692) was a farmer and a victim of the Salem witch trials in early colonial America. Accused of being a wizard and finding his conviction highly likely, he refused to enter a plea. Under the standards of English common law in use at the time, the court could not try him unless he formally requested its judgement on the case by entering a plea. If he was convicted and executed, ownership of his property would revert to the state. The law provided that those who refused to plead should be pressed until they decided to plead.

Corey died after having increasing numbers of rocks laid on him for two days, during which time he still refused to enter a plea. It is traditionally held that all throughout the trial he did not speak, except for his last words before his death: "More Weight" A contemporary report indicates that "About noon, at Salem, Giles Corey was press'd to death for standing mute." Since he had not actually been convicted of any crime, his property did not revert to the state upon his death.

According to legend his ghost appears the night before a catastrophe in Salem. Some even say an old man seen in a graveyard before the Great Salem Fire of 1914 was Corey.

He is a character in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, in which he is portrayed as a hot-tempered but honorable man who put himself in danger to give evidence critical to the witch trials. His wife Martha (executed on September 22, 1692) was one of the nineteen people hanged during the hysteria. In The Crucible, Giles felt guilty about the accusation of his wife because he had told a minister that Martha had been reading strange books, which was discouraged in that society.

Corey and nineteen other of the accused were executed between 2 June 1692 and 22 September 1692 during the Salem witch trials.

Salem witch trials | 1612 births | 1692 deaths | People executed for witchcraft

Giles Corey | Giles Corey