♀Johanna Blessing

Johanna Blessing (died by January 1683) was the wife of William Towne of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and later of Salem and Topsfield, Massachusetts, and the mother of Rebecca Nurse, Mary Esty and Sarah Cloyce, the three sisters accused of witchcraft at Salem in 1692. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Jacob Towne (died 1704).

Great Yarmouth

The register of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, records the marriage of William Towne and Jone Blessing on 25 April 1620. The index of the same registers of the Great Yarmouth registers lists children of “Wm. Towne” and “Joane” christened there between 1625 and 1634, among them Jacob in February 1631/32 and Marie, the future Mary Esty, in August 1634. The family had crossed to New England by 1640, when William was at Salem.

Massachusetts

When her husband died without a will, the court granted her administration of his estate on 24 June 1673. She kept the small estate undivided for the rest of her life. In January 1682/3 her children petitioned for its division, saying that it had been left “in the hands of their mother who was appointed administratrix” and had “remained unsettled until her death”; she had therefore died by then.

The petition names her six children: Edmond, Jacob and Joseph, and Rebecka, Mary and Sarah.

Notes

The Massachusetts court papers call her only Johana Towne. Her maiden name comes from the Yarmouth marriage register. The published index of English marriages dates the wedding 28 April 1620, and a compiled genealogy 25 March 1620; the register itself has 25 April, and it records no marriages at all in March that year.