Burroughs (Burrough), George

BURROUGHS (BURROUGH), GEORGE: The most prominent victim of the Salem witchcraft delusion; b. about 1650; executed on Gallows Hill, Salem, Mass., Aug. 19, 1692. He was graduated at Harvard, 1670; preached at Casco (Portland), Me.; at Salem Village (Danvers), Mass., 1680–83, where he suffered because of a church quarrel antedating his pastorate; was in Casco again in 1685, and when the town was destroyed by the French and Indians in May, 1690. In 1692, while acting as preacher at Wells, Me., he was accused of witchcraft by certain of his old parishioners at Salem and arrested; was brought to trial at Salem Aug. 5 and convicted on all indictments against him; before his execution he made an address which moved the hearers to tears and led Cotton Mather to remind the crowd that the devil often appeared as an angel of light.

Bibliography: J. L. Sibley, Harvard Graduates, vol. ii., Cambridge, 1881; C. W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, ib. 1867.