NURSE & TOWNE: Francis Nurse and Rebecca Towne were married in Salem, Massachusetts in 1644 and reared a family of four sons and four daughters in Salem Village. In 1688, Francis was appointed to the committee to select a new minister for the church. Samuel Parris was selected, but by 1691 the Nurses and other families began to mistrust Parris. They stopped attending church and refused to contribute to the reverend's salary.
The Putnam family led the supporters of Rev. Parris. The Nurses were part of the anti-Parris faction led by the Porters. The Putnams and Porters had been at odds for nearly 20 years.
When several girls in the village, including Parris' daughter and niece, started behaving strangely in January of 1692, accusations of witchcraft were made. Over the next few months several citizens were accused of being witches. Among them were 71 year-old Rebecca Nurse and two of her sisters. Rebecca was hanged as a witch on 19 July 1692.
Many of those accused and executed were opponents of the Putnams and Rev. Parris. Parris was finally removed as minister in 1697.
Most of the Nurse family remained in Salem Village. Francis died there in 1695.
No comments:
Post a Comment