The court-house in which the trials were held stood in the middle of what is now Washington Street, near where Lynde and Church Streets, which did not then exist, now enter it, fronting towards Essex Street.  The building was also used as a town-house; Washington Street being, for this reason, then called “Town-house Lane.”  Off against the court-house, on the west side of the lane, was the house of the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, on the site of the residence of the late Robert Brookhouse.  Opposite to it was the estate of Edward Bishop, which fronted westerly on “Town-house Lane” a little over a hundred feet, including the present Jeffrey Court, and extending a few feet beyond the corner of the house of Dr. S.M.  Cate, over a portion of Church Street.  Its depth, towards St. Peter Street, was about three hundred and forty-five feet.  Edward Bishop held this estate in the right of his wife Bridget, the widow of Thomas Oliver who had died about 1679.  Not long after this marriage, Bishop removed to his farm at Royal Side.  In 1685, the “old Oliver house” was either removed or rebuilt, and a new one erected on the same premises, which was occupied by tenants in 1692.  These items are given because they will help to illustrate the narrative, and enable us to understand points of evidence in the approaching trial.  It is a curious circumstance, that the first public victim of the prosecutions, Bridget Bishop, had been the nearest neighbor and lived directly opposite, to the person who, more than any other inhabitant of the town, was responsible for the blood that was shed,—­Nicholas Noyes.  The jail, at that time, was on the western side of Prison Lane, now St. Peter Street, north of the point where Federal Street now enters it.  The meeting-house stood on what has always been the site of the First Church.  The “Ship Tavern” was on ground the front of which is occupied, at present, by “West’s Block,” nearly opposite the head of Central Street.  It had long been owned and kept by John Gedney, Sr.  Two of his sons, John and Bartholomew, had married Susanna and Hannah Clarke.  John died in 1685.  His widow moved into the family of her father-in-law; and, after his death in 1688, continued to keep the house.  In 1698 she was married to Deliverance Parkman, and died in 1728.  The tavern, in 1692, was known as the “Widow Gedney’s.”  The estate had an extensive orchard in the rear, contiguous, along its northern boundary, to the orchard of Bridget Bishop, which occupied ground now covered by the Lyceum building, and one or two others to the east of it.

The Court was opened at Salem in the first week of June, 1692.  In the mean time, the attorney-general, to prepare for the management of the cases, came to Salem.  He addressed the following letter to Isaac Addington, Secretary of the province:—­

     “SALEM, 31st May, 1692.