Editing Giles Corey (section)

==Death by pressing==
According to the law at the time, a person who refused to plead could not be tried. To avoid people cheating justice, the legal remedy for refusing to plead was "''[[peine forte et dure]]''". In this process, prisoners were stripped naked and heavy boards were laid on their bodies. Then rocks or boulders were placed on the boards. This was the process of being pressed:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://witchway.net/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205090135/http://www.witchway.net/times/giles.html|title=Salem Witch Trials of 1692|date=19 June 2021|url-status=usurped|archive-date=5 February 2010}}</ref>

<blockquote>... remanded to the prison from whence he came and put into a low dark chamber, and there be laid on his back on the bare floor, naked, unless when decency forbids; that there be placed upon his body as great a weight as he could bear, and more, that he hath no sustenance save only on the first day, three morsels of the worst bread, and the second day three draughts of standing water, that should be alternately his daily diet till he died, or, till he answered.</blockquote>

As a result of his refusal to plead, on 17 September, Corey was subjected to the procedure by Sheriff [[George Corwin]], but he was steadfast in that refusal, nor did he cry out in pain as the rocks were placed on the boards. After two days, Corey was asked three times to enter a plea, but each time he replied, "More weight," and the sheriff complied. Occasionally, Corwin would even stand on the stones himself. [[Robert Calef]], who was a witness along with other townsfolk, later said, "In the pressing, Giles Corey's tongue was pressed out of his mouth; the Sheriff, with his cane, forced it in again." There are several accounts of Corey's last words. The most commonly told one is that he repeated his request for "more weight," as this was how it was dramatized in ''[[The Crucible]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-were-giles-last-words-crucible-89385 |title=What were Giles Corey's last words in The Crucible? |last=Hurn |first=Susan |website=eNotes |language=en |access-date=19 September 2018 }}</ref> but it may also have been "More rocks".<ref name="Magotra"/> Another telling notes it as, "Damn you. I curse you and Salem!"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/witch.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205025452/http://www.coryfamsoc.com/resources/articles/witch.htm|url-status=dead|title=Salem Witch Craft Trials|archive-date=5 February 2010}}</ref>

[[Image:Gilescoreymemorial.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial marker in [[Salem, Massachusetts]]]]
[[Samuel Sewall]]'s diary states, under the date of Monday, 19 September 1692:

{{blockquote|About noon at Salem, Giles Cory was pressed to death for standing mute; much pains was used with him two days, one after another, by the court and Captain Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in vain.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwg178oYyU4C&pg=PA32|page=32|title=The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide|first=K. David|last=Goss|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313320958}}</ref>}}

It was and remains unusual for people to refuse to plead and extremely rare to find reports of people who have been able to endure this painful form of death in silence. Since Corey refused to plead, he died in full possession of his estate, which would otherwise have been forfeited to the government. It was passed on to his two sons-in-law in accordance with his will.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hill|first=Frances|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54477464|title=A delusion of Satan: the full story of the Salem witch trials|date=2002|publisher=Da Capo Press|others=Karen Armstrong|isbn=0-306-81159-6|edition=second|location=New York|pages=184–185|oclc=54477464}}</ref>