In 1635, when he was three years old, John Proctor Jr. arrived in the New World from England with his family. They settled in Ipswich. His father, John Proctor Sr., was granted a 100-acre farm in southeastern Ipswich, approximately where Island Road and the Trustees of Reservations property, Stavros Reservation, is located in Essex. On the Great Marsh, the crop the Proctors harvested and sold was salt marsh hay, used for livestock feed and bedding, mulch, and building material.
Island Road, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
Island Road, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
More About Proctor Family Farm
After 30 years living in Ipswich, in 1666 John Proctor Jr. relocated to western Salem (today Peabody), but continued to maintain ties with Ipswich. His father died in 1674, at which point the three Proctor sons received a third of their father’s estate, worth approximately £1200 each. John Proctor continued to visit his property (officially Chebacco Parish by 1679) over the ensuing years.
When John and his third wife Elizabeth were arrested for witchcraft in 1692, they not only had the support of neighbors in Salem, but also of neighbors in Ipswich. Led by Rev. John Wise, the minister of Chebacco Parish, 32 Ipswich residents petitioned the court on the Proctors behalf. The effort failed. John Proctor was hanged on August 19. His wife Elizabeth, whose execution was deferred due to her pregnancy, was eventually freed from jail when the trials were over, after she gave birth to the couple’s last child in prison.
To read more about the Proctor Family in Ipswich, please visit: Proctor Family, Sites of.
