Rebecca Town

1621 - 1692  (71 years)

• Name	Rebecca Town
  Born	21 Feb 1621	Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England
  Christened	21 Feb 1621	Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England
  Gender	Female
  Died	19 Jul 1692	Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts
  Buried	Abt 19 Jul 1692	Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts   [1]
  Person ID	I9164	Smoky Mountain Ancestral Quest
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2013

  
  

  Father	William Towne,   c. 18/18 Mar 1598/1599, St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England ,   d. 24 Jun 1673, Topsfield, Essex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 74 years)
  Mother	Joanna (Jone) Blessing,   b. 1599, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England ,   d. 1682, Topsfield, Essex, Massachusetts  (Age 83 years)
  Married	25 Mar 1620	St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England
  Family ID	F3392	Group Sheet

  
  

  Family	Francis Nurse,   b. 18 Jan 1618, Yarmouth, Bristol, England ,   d. 22 Nov 1695, Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts  (Age 77 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 - 19 Jul 1692 - Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts Buried - Abt 19 Jul 1692 - 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

  Rebecca was in the eyes of those who knew her well the very essence of what a Puritan mother should be. Deeply pious, she was so steeped in Scripture that the country roughness of her speech - she had a Chaucerian fondness for triple negatives - was often shot through with a poetical Scriptural quality. It was not merely a matter of lugging in texts, but a deep, instinctive poetry of feeling that overflowed into her simple, pregnant speech. When Rebecca spoke it was as if one of the grand women of the Old Testament were speaking Naomi or Ruth amid alien corn (Rebecca herself remembered her birthplace, Yarmouth, England), or the beloved Rachel, or indeed her own namesake. In her home life she had resembled the wise woman of Proverbs, and her children she had reared with loving devotion to both their spiritual and temporal welfare. Now in her old age they rose up and called her blessed, not only her four sons and four daughters, but what perhaps the super most tribute, her three sons-in-law and four daughters-in-law. This is not to say that she was altogether a saint. Even the Bible women, as anyone can discover by examining Scripture closely, had their off days. The years had made Rebecca hard of hearing and infirm; when she was ill and did not clearly understand what was said to her, she could sometimes lose her temper. Rebecca was one of 19 hanged as witches in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Her trial is most often cited for the injustice of this trying period. Recent evidence indicates the accusers were suffering from ergot poisoning. The night of the hanging, her family secretly removed her body from a mass grave to their family farm. ---------- Reference: "The Devil in Massachusetts", 1989, Marion L. Starkey, p 78-84, 159-165, 175-176, 189. "Salem Possessed, The Social Origins of Witchcraft", 1974, Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum.

  
  

• Sources

  [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 5872).