However, the family of Rebecca Nurse, according to legend, got to her body, removed it from the ditch in Salem and possibly buried it in secret on the family farm in Salem Village (now Danvers . She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. It was later written that Rebecca had "acquired a reputation for exemplary piety that was virtually unchallenged in the community," making her one of the "unlikely" persons to be accused of witchcraft. In 1885, the descendants of Rebecca Nurse placed a granite memorial at her grave at what is now known as the Rebecca Nurse Homestead cemetery, located in Danvers . Nurse was the subject of Lectures on Witchcraft by Charles W. Upham. Great Yarmouth, Great Yarmouth Borough, Norfolk, England. Allrightsreserved. Despite being a fervent churchgoer and an upstanding member of the communitya newspaper of the day referred to her as "saint-like" and "a perfect example of good Puritan behavior"she was accused, tried, and convicted of witchcraft and put to death without the legal protections Americans would come to enjoy. Rebecca and Francis frequented the Salem Village meeting house and Francis was quite active in the community becoming well respected in Salem Village; he was often asked to serve as mediator to help settle matters. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. , i hope you will like it about rebecca towne nurse family tree please comment if we missed anything here, please let us know. Leave a message for others who see this profile. My maternal great grandfather was (Joseph) Josiah Nourse, his wife, Edith Sprague Please reply. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. 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. Although her exact resting place has never been confirmed her descendants erected a tall granite memorial in the family plot in 1885 at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead cemetery in Danvers (formerly Salem Village), Massachusetts. She is my ninth great grandmother, Im 62. I need clarification . under CHILDREN - #2 Rebecca married Thomas, son of Robert.. Despite being a fervent churchgoer and an upstanding member of the communitya newspaper of the day referred to her as "saint-like" and "a perfect example of good Puritan behavior . Rebecca Nurse was a 71-year-old grandmother and wife of a local artisan when she was accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. In 1712, Salem Church reversed Nurse's excommunication. What an interesting and in depth article. Nurse filed a petition protesting the verdict, pointing out she was "hard of hearing and full of grief.". Wadsworth Publishing Co, 1972.Records of Salem Witchcraft: Copied from the Original Documents, Volume 1. In doing my family tree I have found that I am a descendent of Rebecca Nurse. Remembering is a painful process., The legacy of what transpired here crosses into the imaginations and consciousness of our community, our Commonwealth, and even our country, said Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll. Rebecca (Towne) Nurse is my 8th great-grandmother through her son Benjamin. If not, at least good will eventually triumph over evil 30,000 descendants is quite a legacy ; ). [2] and gives the couple the following children (sources added where found so far; these children are also detailed in Ames' "Nurse FamilyFive Generations" but again without primary sources usually listed[7]): [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.}. I would like to ask, though, were her famous words I can say before my Eternal Father I am innocent and God will clear my innocency said during her trial or her pre-trial examination? William Towne (c1598/9 - c1673) Great Migration Immigrant . A warrant issued on March 23 for Nurse's arrest included complaints of attacks on Ann Putnam Sr., Ann Putnam Jr., Abigail Williams, and others. It is always preferable to locate primary records where possible. In 1957, Massachusettsformally apologized for the trials, but It wasn't until 2001 that the last 11 of those convicted were fully exonerated. Rebecca Nurse is my 8th great grandmother. Saltonstall, like his peers of the time, believed in witchcraft but questioned the due process and the dependence on spectral evidence. The court asked the jury to reconsider the verdict; they found her guilty after reviewing the evidence and discovering that she had failed to answer one question put to her (perhaps because she was nearly deaf). They had 9 children: Francis Nurse Jr.. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later. We cannot imagine the cause of the alleged complaint of witchcraft. Through my brother, I have learned that we are 6th 7th or 8 generation of her grandchildren through my father who was a Tracy. descendants. we call are grandmother a witch ever since we found out as a joke (Shes okay with it though considering I can be called a witch by inheritance/ wizard), Our grandmother* BTW when I mean shes okay with it, I mean the annoyed but not grounded okay with it. There is certainly a headstone for her in the family cemetery today, though it was erected long after the execution, in July 1885. All five were hanged on July 19 on Gallows Hill. Nurse was arrested and examined the next day. [citation needed]. Visitors walk by the Salem Witch Memorial. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2021. Then I looked at him and said, Well I wonder how many people can say that they are ROYAL WITCHES? My two sons just about fell out of their chairs.it was a good day in my opinion. It is no coincidence that we see witch hunt in the news today, Baker said. [citation needed] Fatally, Rebecca, who was hard of hearing, did not hear the question: she later explained to her children that she was referring to this woman as a fellow "accused" witch. Towne Esq., San Francisco, Cal. Rebecca Nurse Homestead: Check their website for hours. Thomas Fisk. Since my Mother is a Noyes her Great x 12 Grandfather was Nicholas Noyes (The Minister giving Sarah her last rites) Its amazing how each one of us have cross over each others path throughout the ages. By the autumn, the court banned the use of spectral evidence in trial, rendering most of the accusations baseless and eventually brought the trials to an end in 1693. In the first and much acclaimed television adaption by the BBC in 1980 she was played by Ann Dyson. Cummings : Descendants of Isaac Cummings (1601-1677) of Topsfield/Ipswich, his son Isaac Cummings Sr. (1633-1721) and grandson Isaac Cummings Jr. (1664-1746) and his wife Alice Howlett accused Elizabeth (Jackson) Howe (1637-1692) of witchcraft. She was hanged on July 19, 1692, for witchcraft. Btw Salem is a fascinating place, I was there twice. Nurse was accused of witchcraft by Ann Putnam, Jr, Ann Putnam, Sr, and Abigail Williams of Salem village, as well as several others, including Reverend Deodat Lawson of Boston, who claimed to have seen Nurses spirit tormenting Ann Putnam, Sr, at her home that March. I have more information on most of these people in my genealogical database which I have not posted here yet. I read the script and I see modern relevance in the play to the issues on our minds today.. Another deposition detailed accusations of afflictions on March 21 and 23 caused by Nurse's specter. If you take all the people associated with the trial the accused, judges, witnesses, jurors, court officers and you multiply that by nine or 10 generations, you get about one million people around the world that have a family connection, said Baker. He admits to being influenced by his connection to Rebecca Nurse. She is likewise a major character in Robert Wards Pulitzer Prize-winning operatic adaptation of Miller's play. View entire list of famous kin for Rebecca (Towne) Nurse. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later. and sourcing their bios. 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. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Rebecca Nurse is a prominent and respected older woman in Puritan Salem, drawn into the witchcraft trials because of her and her husband's friction with the Putnams.Though she has the least stage time of any of the major characters, Rebecca is important because of the moral ideals she represents. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 2 vv., v. 1 p.80, v. 2 pp. I am also a descendant of Rebecca, very interesting to find out. Again, nine women signed the document. Nicholas Noyes the minister who accompanied the accused persons to their deaths, was a distant uncle, as I am descended from his sister Hannah Noyes. Stoughton suggested that perhaps the the jury had not heard Rebecca make an incriminating statement when another prisoner was brought in to testify against her. Topsfield in the Witchcraft Delusion. The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, vol. Keenan and Child plan to see the play, and Baker will be a guest speaker following the performance Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, Oct. 20, there will be a special descendants performance at 2:30 p.m., followed by a post-show conversation with Roach and Rachel Christ, director of education at the Salem Witch Museum. On December 17, 1711, the General Court awarded the Nurse family 25 in restitution for Rebeccas wrongful conviction and death. 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. An error has occured while loading the map. Her entire family, including several siblings, immigrated to theMassachusetts Bay Colonysometime between 1638 and 1640. The daughter of William and Joanna Blessing Towne, Rebecca was born in Great . With the discovery of Proctors 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. His famous parents were Pilgrims John Alden (c. 1599-1687) and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower. She was fully exonerated fewer than twenty years later. Research devoted solely to this person has either not yet taken place or it is currently in progress. The examining magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, who normally regarded the guilt of the accused as self-evident, took a notably different attitude in Rebecca's case, as they also did in the case of her sister Mary Eastey. JAIME CAMPOS/Staff photo Jaime Campos DANVERS Beth. Douglas Grundy / Three Lions / Getty Images. On May 25, judges John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin ordered the Boston jail to take custody of Nurse, Corey, Dorcas Good (Sarah's daughter, age 4), Cloyce, and John and Elizabeth Parker for acts of witchcraft committed against Williams, Hubbard, Ann Putnam Jr., and others. When the verdict not guilty was, the honoured court was pleased to object against it, saying to them, that they think they let slip the words, which the prisoner at the bar spake against her self which were spoken in reply to Goodwife Hobbs and her daughter, who had been faulty in setting their hands to the devils book, as they have confessed formerly; the words were what, do these persons give in evidence against me now, they used to come against us. After the honoured court had manifested their dissatisfaction of the verdict, several of the jury declared themselves desirous to go out again, and thereupon the hounored court gave leave; but when we came to consider the case, I could not tell how to take her words, as evidence against her, till she had a further opportunity to put her sense upon them, if she would take it; and then going into court, I mentioned the aforesaid, which by one of the court were affirmed to have been spoken by her, she being then at the bar, but made no reply, nor interpretation of them; whereupon these words were to me principal evidence against her. On July 12, Judge William Stoughton signed death warrants for Nurse, Good, Martin, How, and Wildes. The play focuses on the true story of Haverhill Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall, who served on the court and questioned the fairness of the trials. Benjamin born January 22 1666; died in 1748; married first Tomasin/Tamesin/Thamesin Smith on February 21, 1688. If you are not a descendant, then you probably know someone that is., Keenans career as an assistant district attorney, legislator, and college president has focused on social justice. In addition, Rebecca Nurse often criticized the afflicted girls for dabbling in fortune-telling prior to the witch trials, according to the book An Account of the Life, Character, & c. of Reverend Samuel Parris: It had been said that Rebecca Nurse was an object of special hatred to Parris, but this we have failed to discover. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. 9 Jan 1656, Essex Co., Mass. Have you taken a DNA test? [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. Rebecca (Towne) Nurse migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1620-1640). 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