“It was quite grand by Salem standards, befitting the station of Corwin and his wife,” says Elizabeth Peterson, director of what has come to be known as the Witch House.Ĭorwin’s eternal claim to infamy is that he served as one of the judges who condemned 19 people to death during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

She brought her three children from Boston to his native Salem, then the shipping capital of the northern colonies, and they settled in a house that featured three steep gables, vaulted ceilings and a massive central chimney.

When Jonathan Corwin and the widow Elizabeth Gibbs wed in 1675, they needed a house to match their status as heirs to two prominent Puritan families who made their fortunes in the shipping trade. Ghosts inhabit the historic home of hanging judge Jonathan Corwin, but not the ones you might expect.