ABSTRACT
Many of the residents of Salem town were in attendance, as it was common for such public acts of discipline, and it was an appropriately solemn occasion with one exception. In one of the great 'what if' moments of history, Sir William Phips arrived at the moment when he might have been able to make a significant difference in the course of the Salem witch trials. Twenty-seven were being held for trial, but none had as yet gone to court. Phips named as judges of the Court of Oyer and Terminer seven men 'of the best prudence and figures' that he could find, as he put it. Bridget Bishop was the first to be tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. At least one member of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Nathaniel Saltonstall, was troubled by the fact that Bridget Bishop had been condemned almost exclusively on the basis of spectral evidence.
