Sarah (Towne) Cloyes (abt. 1637 - abt. 1703)

Born about 1637 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Wife of Edmund Bridges Jr — married 11 Jan 1659 in Topsfield, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died about 1703 at about age 66 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Biography

Sarah (Towne) Cloyes was accused of witchcraft in witch trials

Sarah Towne was baptized on 3 Sep 1648 in Salem, Massachusetts Bay, the daughter of William Towne and Joanna Blessing^[1][2][3][4]

On 11 Jan 1659/60, she married 1st Edmund Bridges, son of Edmund and Alice Bridges, at Salem, Massachusetts Bay.^[5][4] He died by 1682, and Sarah married second Peter Cloyes, son of John and Abigail Cloyes.^[4][6]

She died in 1703 in Framingham, Massachusetts Bay.^[4]

Salem Witchcraft Trials

The sister of Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty, both of whom were convicted of witchcraft and hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. Sarah was accused herself and condemned and jailed. ^[7]

Sarah's parents, William and Joanna Towne, were married in St. Nicholas' church. "In this church, founded in A.D. 1123, dedicated to St. Nicholas, in 1251, and still retaining the name were married, March 25, 1620, William Towne and Joanna Blessing, and here their six first children were baptised." ^[4]William and Joanna (Blessing) Towne emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts in 1635.^[8] They had two more children in Salem.

On April 4, 1692, a conspiracy complaint (No 6) was filed against Sarah Cloyce. On April 11, 1692, she was arrested. She was examined before Thomas Danforth (the deputy governor), Issac Addington (the secretary of the province), John Hawthorne, Major Samuel Appleton, James Russell, Captain Samuel Sewall, and Jonathan Corwin. The last five were Assistants to the Governor and were members of the upper legislative chamber. She refused to confess. In response to testimony by John Indian, she said: "Oh! You are a grievous liar." She was imprisoned at Salem and was later moved to Boston.

Sarah's sister, Rebecca (Towne) Nurse, was executed for witchcraft by the government on July 19, 1692 at Salem.^[9] Sarah's sister Mary (Towne) Esty (or Eastey) was hanged on September 22, 1692, with seven others accused of witchcraft.^[10] Sarah defended her sisters, and was accused herself of witchcraft primarly because of her courageous protest against blackening of her sister's name by the Salem Village Clergyman, Mr. Parris.^[4] On January 3, 1693, the Superior Court of Judicature at Salem dismissed the charges against her. Her husband paid the prison fees. They left Salem and moved to Marlborough, Massachusetts. The later moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Years later, after the mania had passed, the preachers involved asked forgiveness, and the government made restitution to the families.

“...eighteen pounds of iron for fetters, for making four pair of iron fetters and two pair of handcuffs, and putting them on the legs and hands of Goodwife Cloyse, Easty, Bromidg, and Green...(bill of expense)^[11]

Massachusetts Remediation

1. 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.^[12]
2. 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead
3. 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.^[13]
4. 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.^[14]

Research Notes

Editor's Note: In almost all Towne biographies and records on the children of William and Joanna (Blessing) Towne, it has always been stated that Joseph Towne, born in 1639, was their youngest child. Now TFA's outstanding genealogist Lois Payne Hoover, has established that Sarah Towne was born circa 1642. "The History of Topsfield, Massachusetts" by George Francis Dow published by the Topsfield Historical Society, 1940, reprinted 1999, pp. 324 has the following: "Sarah joined the village church in 1690, then being about 48 years of age." In the "Essex County Quarterly Court" records (Vol. 7:250) there is an entry where she deposed 3 June 1679 and states she was age thirty-seven. Lois also says, "This year of birth in 1642 makes her child bearing years more reasonable also." We are indebted to our genealogist for establishing a more correct age for Sarah." At some point I found a birthdate for Sarah but am now unable to locate the source for that information - the date I had recorded was; born January 11, 1636/37 in Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts.

As one of the accused and condemned "witches" in Salem, Sarah's story is found in many histories and genealogies. I used "Witchcraft at Salem," by Chadwick Hansen. published in 1969, by George Braziller, Inc., New York, N.Y., and "The Devil in Massachusetts," by Marion L. Starkey, published in 1940, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, N.Y., as well as My Heritage and Ancestry sources and several Internet sites.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital records of Salem, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849, database online at InternetArchive.org, by Salem (Mass.), Topics Registers of births, etc. -- Salem, Mass. Publisher Salem, Mass., The Essex institute, Year 1916
2. ↑ U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, Author: Yates Publishing, Publication Online at: Ancestry.com
3. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/7792/356/140903197
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5} The ancestry of Lieut. Amos Towne, 1737-1793, of Arundel (Kennebunkport, Maine, https://archive.org/details/ancestryoflieuta00davi/page/6, Author: Walter Goodwin Davis, (1927), page 6
5. ↑ Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21072/252/1427113842
6. ↑ "The Towne Family Memorial : Hubbard, Edwin, 1811-1891 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming." Internet Archive. January 01, 1880. Accessed June 13, 2020. https://archive.org/details/townefamilymemor1880hubb/page/20/mode/2up?q=Cloyes.
7. ↑ Witches of Massachusetts, Legends of America website
8. ↑ Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
9. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, Rebecca Nurse, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed September 18, 2013). Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
10. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, Mary Eastey, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed March 11, 2017), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
11. ↑ "Salem Witchcraft : With an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming." Internet Archive. January 01, 1970. Accessed June 13, 2020. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/198/mode/1up?q=Cloyse.
12. ↑ “Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects : Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, January 1, 1970. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17845/17845-h/salem2-htm.html#Page_ii.480.
13. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
14. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

See also:

• User, Super. "Warrant For The Arrest Of Elizabeth Proctor And Sarah Cloyce." Famous Trials. Accessed June 13, 2020. https://famous-trials.com/salem/2072-sal-
• Towne. Accessed June 13, 2020. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~walkersj/genealogy/towne.htm.
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49981410/sarah-clayes
• Towne genealogy posting on Rootsweb Towne mailing list Jill (O'Neall) Ching
• The Salem Witchcraft Papers (Scholars' Lab, University of Virginia Library, 2018) SWP No. 033.