In the year 1678, there was a suit at law between Corey and a man named John Gloyd, a laborer on his farm, on a question of wages.  The case was, by agreement of the parties, passed out of court into the hands of arbitrators mutually chosen.  John Procter was one of the arbitrators, and, as it would seem, chosen as the friend of Gloyd:  Nathaniel Putnam and Edmund Bridges were the others; one of them chosen by Corey, and the other mutually agreed upon.  They brought in their award.  Its precise character is not stated; but the circumstances indicate that it was favorable to Gloyd.  The conduct of Corey on this occasion shows, that, though a rough man perhaps, and liable, from his peculiar ways, to be harshly spoken of, he had, after all, a generous, forgiving, and genial nature.  Nathaniel Putnam and Edmund Bridges state, that, when they brought in their award, “it was greatly to the satisfaction of the parties concerned; and Giles Corey did manifest as much satisfaction, and gave as many thanks to every one of us, as ever we heard; and Goodman Corey did manifest, to our observation, as much satisfaction to John Procter as he did to the rest of the arbitrators.”  Captain Moore, being by when the award was brought in, says, “I did see and take notice of the abundance of love manifested from Corey to Procter, and from Procter to Corey:  for they drank wine together; and Procter paid for part, and Corey for part.”

This remarkable overflow of affection between these two men is rendered interesting, not merely by the collisions into which, before and after, their impulsive and imprudent natures brought them, but by the part they were destined to enact in an impending tragedy, which was to bring them to a fearful end in a manner and on a scene that will arrest the notice of all ages, and attest to their strong characters and heroic spirit.  The passage has a unique interest, and is worthy of a painter.

It happened unfortunately, that, a few days after the loving embraces of these hardy men, Procter’s house took fire.  According to their habit, some of the neighbors at once started the idea, that Corey had set fire to it because of the award of the arbitrators, of whom Procter was one.  Under the excitement of the conflagration, with his usual rashness, and forgetting the pledges of reconciliation that had just passed between them, Procter fell in with the accusation, and Corey was brought to trial.  It appeared, in evidence, that John Phelps and Thomas Fuller, who lived on the western borders of the village, near Ipswich River, coming along the road towards Procter’s Corner about two hours before daylight, on the way probably to Salem market, saw his roof on fire, gave the alarm, and stopped to help put it out.  Thomas Gould and Thomas Flint thought it must be the work of an incendiary, or of “an evil hand,” as they expressed it, from the place where it took and the hour when it occurred.  On the other hand, it was testified by James Poland and Caleb and Jane Moore, that they heard John Procter say that his boy carried a lamp and set the fire by accident.  This was said by him, probably before the idea of Corey’s agency in the matter had been put into his head.  The prisoner proved an alibi by the most conclusive evidence, which is so curious, as giving an insight of a farmer’s life at that time, and of Corey’s domestic condition, that it may well be inserted.