John Richards (Salem witch trials) Boston on April 2, 1694. He had married Ann Winthrop, the widowed daughter-in-law of founder John Winthrop; they had no children. 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
Witch trials in the early modern period the idea that the witch trials emerged as part of the conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Early Modern Europe. This theory has however received little support from other experts in the subject. This is because there is little evidence that either Roman Catholics were accusing Protestants of witchcraft, or that Protestants were accusing Roman Catholics. Furthermore, the witch trials regularly occurred in regions with little or no inter-denominational strife, and which were largely religiously homogenous, such as Essex, Lowland Scotland, Geneva, Venice, and the Spanish Basque Country. There is also some evidence, particularly from the Holy Roman Empire,