 After the Court of Oyer and Terminer stopped sitting , a new Superior Court was created , and , in December 1692 , Stoughton was elected by the governor 's council to head the court , defeating Danforth by three votes . In early 1693 , Danforth sat on Superior Court sessions conducted by Stoughton that continued to hear witchcraft cases , but without accepting spectral evidence . By this time the hysteria was dying down , and the court ( sometimes with Danforth leading after Stoughton temporarily removed himself in protest at the ban on spectral evidence and other reforms imposed by Governor Phips . Danforth was sympathetic to the plight of individuals accused , relocating some of them to his lands west of Boston ; Salem End Road in Framingham is part of the area where they settled . 
