William Stoughton, American judge and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (born 1631)

William Stoughton (judge)

New England magistrate and colonial administrator

William Stoughton was a New England magistrate and colonial administrator in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was in charge of what have come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials, first as the chief justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692, and then as the…

List of colonial governors of Massachusetts

The territory of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the fifty United States, was settled in the 17th century by several different English colonies. The territories claimed or administered by these colonies encompassed a much larger area than that of the modern state, and…