Sheriff George Corwin

Male 1666 - 1696  (30 years)


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  • Name George Corwin  [1
    Prefix Sheriff 
    Born 26 Feb 1666 
    Gender Male 
    Died 12 Apr 1696 
    Person ID I5560  adkinshorton
    Last Modified 29 Jul 2019 

    Father Judge Jonathan Corwin,   b. 10 Dec 1640,   d. 09 Jun 1718  (Age 77 years) 
    Mother Margaret Winthrop 
    Family ID F18636  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Lydia Gedney 
    Children 
    +1. Bartholomew Corwin,   b. 1693,   d. 1747  (Age 54 years)
    Family ID F18630  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Histories Ancestral Lines of Chester Everts Howell - (PDF 39MB)
    Compiled by Jesse Howell Finch - Public Domain (At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.)

  • Notes 
    • George Corwin (February 26, 1666 ? April 12, 1696) was the High Sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials. He signed warrants for the arrest and execution of those condemned of witchcraft. On September 16, 1692, he was ordered by the Court of Oyer and Terminer to preside over the interrogation, under torture of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death for refusing to stand trial for witchcraft. Corwin died of a heart attack, in 1696, at the age of 30, after which his burial was delayed by a Salem resident named Phillip English, who was accused during the Witch Trials, and had his property seized by Corwin. English put a lien on Corwin's corpse, and delayed its burial until he had been reimbursed for the property he lost to Corwin.

      George Corwin was the Grandson of John Winthrop, the Younger, the Governor of Connecticutt. His wife, Lydia Gedney, was the daughter of Bartholomew Gedney, one of the magistrates involved in the witch trials.

  • Sources 
    1. [S18785] The Ancestral Lines of Chester Everts Howell 1867-1949 of Elmira New York, 121.
      The oldest son of John and Margaret Winthrop Corwin was named for his grandfather, the Captain, who lived until his namesake was twenty years old. This grandson George (1665-1696) held the office of Sheriff of Essex County at the time when a furor of trials and burnings for witchcraft swept over the Colony. It was from the Corwin home used also as a court, the witchcraft sentences were issued. This house, built in 1642, is now called the Witchcraft House of Salem and is considered one of the city's historical sights. George Corwin, the Sheriff, married into the Gedney family, also of the governing group in the Colony. After the death of his first wife, Susanna he married her first cousin Lydia Gedney and by her had a son Bartholomew named for Lydia's father.


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