Francis Nurse

1618 - 1695  (77 years)

• Name	Francis Nurse
  Born	18 Jan 1618	Yarmouth, Bristol, England
  Gender	Male
  Died	22 Nov 1695	Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts
  Buried	Y  [1]
  Person ID	I9163	Smoky Mountain Ancestral Quest
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2013

  
  

  Father	Allen Nurse
  Family ID	F25179	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Rebecca Town,   b. 21 Feb 1621, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England ,   d. 19 Jul 1692, Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts  (Age 71 years)
  Married	24 Aug 1644	, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England
  Children	+ 1. John Nurse,   b. Abt 1645, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 1 Dec 1719  (Age ~ 74 years) + 2. Rebecca Nurse,   b. Abt 1647, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 1719  (Age ~ 72 years) + 3. Sarah Nourse,   b. 1648, Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts + 4. Samuel Nurse,   b. 3 Feb 1649, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 15 Jul 1715  (Age 66 years)   5. Michael Nurse,   b. Abt 1651, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts + 6. Elizabeth Nourse(Nurse),   b. 9 Jan 1656, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 1734/1735  (Age 78 years) + 7. Mary Nurse,   b. Abt 1657, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts + 8. Francis Nurse,   b. 3 Feb 1660, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 8 Oct 1716  (Age 56 years) + 9. Benjamin Nurse,   b. 26 Jan 1666, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts ,   d. 1747/1748  (Age 81 years)   10. Nurse,   b. Abt 1667, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F3379	Group Sheet

  
  

• Event Map		Died - 22 Nov 1695 - Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts  = Link to Google Maps   = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  Francis Nurse was an early settler, and had lived for some forty years, "near Skerry's," on the North River, between the main part of the settlement in the town of Salem and the ferry to Beverly. He is described as a "tray-maker." The making of these articles and similar objects of domestic use was an important employment in a new country remote from foreign supply. He appears to have been a very respectable person, of great stability and energy of character; whose judgment was much relied on by his neighbors. No one is mentioned more frequently as umpire to settle disputes, or arbitrator to adjust conflicting claims. He was often on committees to determine boundaries or estimate valuations, or on local juries to lay out highways and assess damages. On 29 April, 1678 Francis Nurse became at one stroke a major Salem Village landowner by purchasing, on credit, a rich 300-acre farm located near Salem. Francis Nurse paid off his mortgage right on schedule. His economic rise after 1678 is documented in the Village tax lists; his 1690 tax went up 39 percent from that of 1681, and in 1695 it rose by another 16 percent. The house on this land had an interesting history. Before his purchase the "mansion" or "cottage" was the scene of social intercourse among the choicest spirits of the earliest age of New England. Here the first owner Allen Bishop and, after him, Chickering, entertained their friends. Here the fine family of Richard Ingersoll was brought up. Here Governor Endicott projected plans for opening the country, and the road that passes its entrance gate was laid out by him. To this same house young John Endicott brought his youthful Boston bride. Here she came again, fifteen years afterwards, as the bride of the learned and distinguished James Allen, to show him the farm which, received as a "marriage gift" from her former husband, she had brought as a "marriage gift" to him. Here the same Allen, in less than six years afterwards, brought still another bride. In all these various and some of them rather rapid changes, it was, no doubt, often the resort of distinguished guests and the place of meeting of many pleasant companies. During the protracted years of litigation for its possession, frequent consultations were held within it; and in 1692, for twelve years, it had been the home of a happy harmonious and prosperous family, exemplifying the industry, energy and enterprise of a New England household. Francis Nurse had been involved during the 1670's in a protracted timber dispute with Nathanial Putnam over some mutually bounded acreage. He was elected to a Village Committee which took power at the end of 1691. These were factors that contributed to Ann Putnam's accusation of Francis' wife of witchcraft. ---------- Reference: "Salem Possessed, The Social Origins of Witchcraft", 1974, Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum, p 149, 200. "A Genealogy of the Nurse Family for Five Generations", 1892, John D. Ames, p 96-100.

  
  

• Sources

  [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 50647036).