Salem Witch Trials?

Question

What is the Court of Oyer and Terminer? What is significant about it?
Any info. is good info.

Answer 1

In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) sat in Salem to hear the cases of witchcraft. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and was hanged on June 10. Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days before the court was disbanded by Governor William Phipps in October of that year. The Superior Court of Judicature, formed to replace the "witchcraft" court, did not allow spectral evidence. This belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture their victims had sealed the fates of those tried by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The new court released those awaiting trial and pardoned those awaiting execution. In effect, the Salem witch trials were over.

Answer 2

Oyer and terminer is the Anglo-French name, meaning to hear and determine, for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sits.

Here is a site that makes a reference to Oyer and Terminer in regards to the Salem Witch Trials.
http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/education/

Answer 3

There is a lot more in Wikipedia..........

Oyer and terminer
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Oyer and terminer is the Anglo-French name, meaning to hear and determine, for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sits; it is also known as audiendo et terminando. By the commission of oyer and terminer the commissioners (in practice the judges of assize, though other persons are named with them in the commission) are commanded to make diligent inquiry into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours whatever committed in the counties specified in the commission, and to hear and determine the same according to law. The inquiry is by means of the grand jury; after the grand jury has found the bills submitted to it, the commissioners proceed to hear and determine by means of the petit jury. The words oyer and terminer are also used to denote the court which has jurisdiction to try offences within the limits to which the commission of oyer and terminer extends.

By the Treason Act of 1708, the crown has power to issue commissions of oyer and terminer in Scotland for the trial of treason and misprision of treason. Three of the lords of justiciary must be in any such commission. An indictment for either of the offences mentioned may be removed by certiorari from the court of oyer and terminer into the court of justiciary.

In the United States oyer and terminer is the name given to courts of criminal jurisdiction in some states, e.g. New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

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References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Answer 4

I believe that was the names of magistrates (judges) .