Nicholas Noyes

Nicholas Noyes was a colonial minister in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem witch trials. He was the second minister, called the "Teacher", to Rev. John Higginson. During the Salem witch trials, Noyes acted as the official minister of the trials.

Noyes spent time as the chaplain with troops in Connecticut during King Philip's War in 1675-76.

Before the execution of Sarah Good on July 19, 1692, Rev. Noyes asked her to confess. Her famous last words were, “You are a liar! I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink.” Ironically, twenty-five years later, Noyes died of a hemorrhage and literally did choke on his own blood.

On September 22, 1692, Rev. Nicholas Noyes officiated as clergyman at the final hangings of the those accused (Mary Parker, et al) of witchcraft. It is reported that he turned toward the suspended bodies of the victims and said, “What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there.”