Rebecca (Towne) Nurse (abt. 1621 - 1692)

Born about 21 Feb 1621 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Wife of Francis Nurse — married about 24 Aug 1644 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 19 Jul 1692 at about age 71 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Rebecca (Towne) Nurse migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Rebecca (Towne) Nurse is Notable.

Birth & Baptism

Rebecca (Towne) Nurse immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Rebecca was christened 21 on February 1620/21 in Norfolk, England, the daughter of Joanna (Blessing) and William Towne.^[1][2]

Immigration

She and her five siblings migrated with their parents to Salem in New England by 1639. Anderson in the "Great Migration Directory" lists a William Towne of unknown origin who immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1635 and a William Towne of Great Yarmouth who immigrated to Salem in 1639 making it seem most likely that this family, known to have lived in Salem, were the 1639 immigrants.^[3]

Witch Trials

Rebecca (Towne) Nurse was executed for witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

Rebecca Towne Nurse (or Nourse) (February 21, 1621 – July 19, 1692) was executed for witchcraft by the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials. She was the wife of Francis Nurse, with several children and grandchildren, and a well-respected member of the community. Although there was no credible evidence against her, she was hanged as a witch and died on 19 July 1692 at Proctor's Ledge, (named after Thorndike Proctor, a son of witch trial victim John Proctor, who bought the land after the witch trial delusions were over), Gallows Hill, Salem, Massachusetts Bay. ^[4]

This occurred during a time when the Massachusetts colony was seized with hysteria over witchcraft and the supposed presence of Satan within the colony.^[5]

"In most cases, the bodies of those hanged or pressed were cast off into a shallow ditch [ Update September 2021: There is no room to build gallows on Proctor’s Ledge. This fact, along with the lack of reports of any gallows being built for the witch trial executions, and no debris being found at the site led researchers to conclude the convicted witches were hanged from trees. Also, the ground penetrating sonar has revealed no bodies at the site. This also makes sense, as the soil on the ledge is too thin to make a shallow grave for even one person, much less a pit for nineteen convicted witches] not deserving of a Christian burial due to the charge of witchcraft. However, the family of Rebecca Nurse, according to legend, got to her body, removed it from the ditch in Salem and buried it in secret on the family farm in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) ..... Several years after her execution, it was agreed that she had been innocent of being a witch."

Execution and Possible Burial Site

Tradition has long said that the sons of convicted and executed witch Rebecca Nurse came back to the execution site under cover of darkness and removed their mother’s body for burial in the family cemetery. There is certainly a headstone for her in the family cemetery today, though it was erected long after the execution, in July 1885. This cemetery is referred to as GR2 Nurse private burial ground, off Pine Street in the "Vital Records of Danvers, Massachusetts to the end of year 1849, Volume II, Marriages and Deaths". It has been 89% photographed. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/640804/nurse-homestead-cemetery

Knowing where the site of the hangings took place means descendants of those involved in the trials can visit it and honor their ancestors there. The city of Salem is already planning some kind of memorial for the place, which will likely be small in keeping with the character of the residential neighborhood where it is. Those with ancestors who were hanged can stand in the spot that was the last place those ancestors saw while on earth. Knowing the families probably buried all the victims on the family property will give those with “witch” ancestry a better idea of where their ancestor now rests.

Looking at old maps to discover where family farms were once located and where that property is today will give descendants at least a general idea of the resting places of their witch trial victim ancestors. With the discovery of Proctor’s Ledge and what likely happened on it, genealogists with a connection to the witch trials have a more complete picture of what really happened to their ancestors than they did in the past, and this is always one of the most important parts of genealogy. SOURCE: Site of Salem Witch Trial Hangings Discovered: Why It’s Important to Genealogists

Marriage & Children

Torrey in "New England Marriages to 1700" is equivocal about their marriage date and location, saying this:

NURSE, Francis (-1695, ae 77) & Rebecca [TOWNE] (1621-1692); 24 Aug 1646, ca 1645?; Salem citing his usual copious sources.^[6]

Cutter claims, without source, that Rebecca Towne married Francis Nurse (various spellings) 24 Aug 1644 in Salem.^[2] and gives the couple the following children (sources added where found so far; these children are also detailed in Ames' "Nurse Family...Five Generations" but again without primary sources usually listed^[7]):

1. John Nurse born about 1645; his death, if this is the same man, appears in Reading, Massachusetts Vital Records on 26 Nov 1717.^[8] However, this entry is crossed out and indeed, his probate of 15 Dec 1719 shows that his will was in fact written on 12 Nov 1719 as "yeoman of Salem"^[9]. He married on November 1, 1672, Elizabeth, daughter of John Smith.^[10] She was born June 5, 1662 and died October 12, 1673. He married second Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Alice Very/Vary, on August 17, 1677.^{[11] [12]}
2. Rebecca, born about 1647; died 1719; married April 15, 1669, Thomas Preston ^[13] born at Ipswich in 1643, son of Roger and Martha Preston. ^{[14] [13] [15] [7]}Died November 22, 1695{citation needed}
3. Samuel, born February 3, 1649; died July 3, 1715; married Mary Smith, daughter of John on April 5, 1677. ^{[13] [7] [12]} Died July 15, 1715
4. Mary married John Tarbell at Salem, on October 25, 1678. She died June 28, 1749 in her 90th year. ^{[16] [13] [15] [7]}
5. Francis Jr., born February 3, 1661; died February 5, 1716 at Reading, Massachusetts ^[17]; married Sarah ___ (?Tarbell or Craggen) on January 15, 1685. Lived in Reading and Framingham. ^{[15] [7]} Sarah Craggen was born at Woburn, August 10, 1664, daughter of John and Sarah (Dawes) Craggen. ^[18]
6. Sarah born in 1663; testified in June 1692 as being aged 28; married Michel Bowden of Marblehead and Salem after that date. ^{[19] [20]}
7. Elizabeth born January 9, 1665; married William Russel, son of William and Elizabeth Russell, of Salem Village on October 25, 1678 [25: 8m: 1678]. ^{[13] [16] [13] [7]}
8. Benjamin born January 22 1666; died in 1748; married first Tomasin/Tamesin/Thamesin Smith on February 21, 1688. She was born at Salem 1: 2m: 1671, daughter of John and Margaret (Buffum) Smith. ^[13] ; married second Elizabeth Morse, widow of Joseph Morse, daughter of John and Mary Sawtelle. ^{[7] [21]}

[NOTE: Mary and Tamesin Smith were sisters that married Samuel and Benjamin Nurse, Mary & Tamesin were daughters of John and Margaret (Thompson?Buffum) Smith of Salem.}

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.^[22]
2. 17 December 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 [For Rebecca Nurse £25]^[22]
3. 28 August 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.^[23]
4. 31 October 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.^[24]

Sources

1. ↑ Norfolk : Great Yarmouth : St Nicholas : : "Parish Register" database, FreeREG (https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5818f6cee93790ec8b81a8b3 : viewed 11 Sep 2021) baptism Rebecka Towne 21 Feb 1620/21
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts"; William Richard Cutter Published in 1908 Vol 3. p. 1489 Note that this family genealogy does not list any primary sources
3. ↑ The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640, a Concise Compendium by Robert Charles Anderson, FASG NEHGS 2015 p. 261
4. ↑ “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. https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftw02upha_0/page/268.
5. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Rebecca Nurse," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (accessed September 18, 2013; updated 13 December 2021).
6. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol 2. p. 1104 $subscription
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6} "A Genealogy of the Nurse Family for Five Generations" by John D. Ames, Binghampton, NY" Putnam's monthly historical magazine by Putnam, Eden, 1868-1933 Publication date 1892, Vol 1 May 1892 - April 1893 pp.96-102
8. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-FSRB : 29 November 2018), Jonathan Nurse, 26 Nov 1717; citing Death, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009686.
9. ↑ Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Essex Case# 19695:1 $subscription
10. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-ZTS2 : 29 November 2018), John Nurse and Elizabeth Smith, 1 Sep 1672; citing Marriage, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011200
11. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-S45M : 29 November 2018), John Nurse and Elizabeth Verry, 17 Aug 1677; citing Marriage, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011200.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Volume 2, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts,1860, p. 15: 300
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6} Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, The Essex Institute, Salem, 1918
14. ↑ Putnam, Eden, A History of the Putnam Family in England and America. Recording the Ancestry and Descendants of John Putnam of Danvers, Mass., Jan Poutman of Albany, New York, Thomas Putnam of Hartford, Connecticut, Volume 1, Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company, 1891, p. 73
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2} Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem-village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England, by Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum, UPNE, 1972, p. 149-154
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vols. 37-52 (1883-98) include section: Genealogical Gleanings in England, by H. F. Waters, The Society, 1907, p. 71: 156
17. ↑ Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, compiled by Thomas Baldwin, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1912 p. 545 Reading Deaths
18. ↑ Woburn Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths 1640-1873, Andrews, Cutler & Co., Woburn, 1890, p. 63
19. ↑ Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project: Salem Witchcraft Papers: SWP No. 012, The University of Virginia , http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n12.html#n12.4
20. ↑ Perley, Sidney. The Essex Antiquarian, Volume 11, Essex Antiquarian, 1907, p. 46
21. ↑ Baldwin, Thomas, compiler. Vital Records of Framingham Massachusetts to the Year 1850, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1911, p. 346
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1} Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. (1867) v2, page 480.
23. ↑ https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
24. ↑ https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

See Also:

• Find A Grave: Memorial #5872 Rebecca Nurse

• CENOTAPH FOR REBECCA NURSE: A cenotaph was erected in July 1885 in Rebecca's memory. There is some new evidence that her family removed the body and had it buried elsewhere, perhaps near the location of this cenotaph: Find A Grave: Memorial #190799468 Rebecca Nurse

• Site of Salem Witch Trial Hangings Discovered: Why It’s Important to Genealogists: https://ancestralfindings.com/site-of-salem-witch-trial-hangings-discovered-why-its-important-to-genealogists

• The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 094) Rebecca Nurse
• The Towne Family Memorial: Compiled from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Towne Manuscripts, Public and Family Records; for A.N. Towne Esq., San Francisco, Cal. By Edwin Hubbard. Chicago, Illinois. Fergus Printing Company. 1880.
• Matt Madden, “Examination of Rebecca Nurse of Salem Village," Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature, An Undergraduate Course, University of Virginia, Spring Semester 2001
• Tabley, Charles Sutherland. Rebecca Nurse: Saint But Witch Victim (Marshall Jones Company, 1930. Ninth printing 2008, by the Danvers Alarm List Company, 149 Pine Street, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923) February 21, 1621 is the date she was baptized in England.
• The Rebecca Nurse Homestead 149 Pine St., Danvers, Massachusetts 01923. Open to the public. Phone: (978) 774-8799
• Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1986 Victor Pisano) PBS Home Video: The Rebecca Nurse Homestead was used for filming this movie.
• Biographical data - Rebecca Nurse Ray, Benjamin and the University of Virginia. "Important Persons in the Salem Court Records". Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. n.p. Web. 2001. retrieved 5 November 2016.
• Gurnee and the Salem Witch Trials
• Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Biography of Rebecca Nurse, Victim of the Salem Witch Trials." Thought Co. https://www.thoughtco.com/rebecca-nurse-biography-3530327 (accessed January 12, 2020).
• Dow, George Francis. Witchcraft Records Relating to Topsfield, The Historical Collections of The Topsfield Historical Society (Topsfield, Massachusetts, 1908) Vol. 13, Page 39-58.