Robert Calef

Born in England and baptized on November 2, 1648, he later settled in colonial Boston, where he worked as a cloth merchant. Although not a minister or magistrate, he became an important voice in the aftermath of the Salem witch trials.

He is best known for More Wonders of the Invisible World, a work he assembled during the 1690s and published in 1700. In it, he gathered documents, testimony, and argument to criticize the trials of 1692–1693 and to question the influence of Cotton Mather and others who had defended the proceedings.

Because of that book, he is often remembered less as a man of commerce than as an early, stubborn critic of injustice and fear-driven judgment. He died on April 13, 1719.