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(1652-1730), Chief Justice of Massachusetts, came to America from England in 1661. He was an "assistant" of Massachusetts from 1684 to 1688, a member of the Executive Council from 1692 to 1725, and judge of the probate court from 1692 to 1718. He was prominent in the Salem witchcraft trials and afterward publicly acknowledged his error. He was Chief Justice from 1718 to 1728. He published "The Selling of Joseph," one of the first tracts advocating the rights of slaves, and kept a diary, since published, which gives an interesting and amusing picture of life in Puritan Boston.