John Richards (Salem witch trials) John Richards (Salem witch trials) John Richards (died April 2, 1694) was a colonial military officer, businessman, politician, and magistrate, best known for his participation in the Salem witch trials in 1692. John Richards was born in England, and traveled with his parents in 1630 to North America as part of the first major wave of migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1644 Ricards was enrolled in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, which he would remain involved with for the rest of his life. A resident of Dorchester for most of his life, he operated a mill, and
Beyond the Witch Trials in Modern Europe", it dealt with the period following the Enlightenment. Brian Hoggard, an independent researcher from Worcester, England, authored a paper looking at the subject of Enlightenment-era popular magic from an archaeological perspective. Noting that the only published book dealing with the archaeology of British folk magic was Ralph Merrifield's "The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic" (1987), he argues that archaeology can provide scholars with evidence of popular magical traditions that were not recorded in the literate sources of the period. Beyond the Witch Trials Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe is an academic anthology