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
Witch trials in the early modern period Age, lasting from about 1300 to 1850, is characterized by temperatures and precipitation levels lower than the 1901-1960 average. Historians such as Wolfgang Behringer, Emily Oster, and Hartmut Lehmann argue that these cooling temperatures brought about crop-failure, war, and disease, and that witches were subsequently blamed for this turmoil. Historical temperature indexes and witch trials data indicate that, generally, as temperature decreased during this period, witch trials increased. Additionally, the peaks of witchcraft persecutions overlap with hunger crises that occurred in 1570 and 1580, the latter lasting a decade. Problematically for these theories, it has been highlighted that, in that