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Book with connection to Salem witch trials being auctioned

This 2015 photo provided by Swann Auction Galleries shows the inside cover of the seventh edition of "The Bay Psalm Book.".
This 2015 photo provided by Swann Auction Galleries shows the inside cover of the seventh edition of "The Bay Psalm Book.". Swann Auction Galleries via AP

SALEM, Mass. – A psalm book once owned by a judge in the Salem witch trials is being sold.

The previously unknown seventh edition of The Bay Psalm Book that once belonged to Jonathan Corwin could sell for $40,000 when it is auctioned on Thursday by Swann Auction Galleries.

Corwin was a judge during the 1692 trials, when 19 accused witches were hanged and another was crushed to death. Corwin’s home, now owned by the city of Salem, is known as the Witch House.

Auction director Rick Stattler tells The Salem News the book dates to before the trials. The edition was printed in 1640.

The book has a second connection to the witch trials. It was also once owned by the descendants of John Proctor, hanged as a witch in 1692.

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