In the rear behind the present home (accessible by path) is the archaeological site of the parsonage of Salem Village (present day Danvers). The Reverend Samuel Parris and his family lived here. Their slave Tituba was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft. Tituba also gave a confession and damaging testimony about others who were later accused of witchcraft.
In addition, the Reverend George Burroughs lived here and was hanged as a witch in 1692.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, most of them women. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay: Salem Village (now Danvers), Ipswich, Andover, and Salem Town.