♂William Towne

William Towne (born about 1600, died by June 1673) was an emigrant from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and an early settler of Salem and Topsfield, Massachusetts, and the father of Rebecca Nurse, Mary Esty and Sarah Cloyce, three sisters accused of witchcraft in 1692. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Jacob Towne (died 1704).

Early life

He married Johanna Blessing at St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk on 25 April 1620, as the parish register records (an index gives 28 April), and their children were christened at Great Yarmouth between 1625 and 1634. A history of Topsfield records that William Towne was at Salem by 1640, with a house on a ten-acre grant in the North Fields. In June 1640 he sued John Cook at the Salem court for debt over a shortfall in land there, and the court ordered Cook’s land measured and six marks paid to Towne. That October the Salem town meeting granted him a little neck of land across the river from his house.

About 1645/6 he bought twenty acres at Salem from Jeffery Massy, paying in wheat, and when he removed from Salem in 1651 he sold the lot to Nathaniel Felton. On 20 March 1647/8 the Salem townsmen ordered a parcel of land, desired by him and by Francis Nurse, to be looked over. A history of Topsfield records that in 1651 he bought forty acres in Topsfield from William Paine and was a commoner there by 1661. Most likely in 1652 he sold his Salem property to Henry Bullock. His sons Edmund and Jacob settled beside him.

Topsfield

Essex County’s courts heard his name often in these years. In November 1658 Mr. William Browne sued him for not accounting for a heifer he had hired, and the suit was withdrawn. In June 1659 the Salem court allowed the town of Topsfield five pounds toward a bridge over the river near his house. In June 1660 he deposed at Salem, “aged three score years”, about a mare that his son Jacob now had in his possession. In March 1661 the town of Topsfield sued him for detaining a parcel of meadow bought from Mr. Paine, and that suit was withdrawn as well.

In 1663 he and Johanna probably deeded their son Joseph two thirds of their house and lands at Topsfield, in view of Joseph’s intended marriage to Phebe Perkins. On 1 March 1668/9 he made his mark, with Johanna, Joseph and Phebe, on a release of their interest in a Topsfield lot that had been sold to John Gould. The last record of him alive is a warrant of 29 May 1672 over a defective highway near his house at Topsfield.

Death

He died without a will. On 24 June 1673 the court granted administration of his estate to his widow, Johana. She kept the estate together until her own death, and in January 1682/3 the six children asked the court to divide it: the land to “his three sons, Edmond, Jacob and Joseph” and the moveables to “the three daughters, Rebecka, Mary, and Sarah”. The court at Ipswich allowed the division in April 1683.

Family

Nineteen years after his death, the witchcraft accusations at Salem Village fell on three of his daughters. Rebecca, the wife of Francis Nurse, was hanged in July 1692, and Mary, the wife of Isaac Esty, in September; Sarah, by then the wife of Peter Cloyce, was accused and imprisoned but never tried. Compiled accounts give Great Yarmouth in Norfolk as the family’s English home, a claim that no record cited here confirms.

Notes

Birth

The only age given is his own, in his deposition at the Salem court on 26 June 1660, where he is recorded as “aged three score years”, about sixty. That puts his birth about 1600. No christening for him is cited here.

Marriage date

The Great Yarmouth register gives 25 April 1620. A published index gives 28 April 1620, and the compiled Towne family books of 1880 and 1901 give 25 March 1620. The register’s date is followed in the text.

The Salem land

The purchase from Jeffery Massy (about 1645/6) and the sale to Nathaniel Felton when William removed from Salem in 1651 come from his son Jacob’s deposition at Ipswich in March 1681, printed in Dow’s Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County. The land order of 20 March 1647/8 and the grant of 11 October 1640 are from the Salem town records. The Cook suit of 30 June 1640 is in the Quarterly Court records, which give six marks; Hubbard’s The Towne Family Memorial gives five marks. The sale to Henry Bullock in 1652 is from Walter Goodwin Davis’s The Ancestry of Lieut. Amos Towne (1927), a compiled genealogy. No deed is cited for it, and it may concern different land from the lot sold to Felton.

Topsfield land and the 1663 gift

The Paine purchase of 1651 and the 1663 gift to Joseph come from compiled accounts: Dow’s History of Topsfield, Hubbard, and the Essex Institute Historical Collections of 1885. The 1651 purchase is in the Ipswich deed books, which are not cited here. The gift is stated with “probably” because it rests on printed copies of the deed. The Perkins family history gives Joseph’s marriage as 1665, while the deed is dated 1663.

The courts

The heifer suit (30 November 1658), the bridge order (28 June 1659), the deposition (26 June 1660) and the meadow suit at Ipswich (26 March 1661) come from Dow’s Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County. The heifer suit and the meadow suit were both withdrawn.

The last years

The release of 1 March 1668/9, copied among the Salem court papers in November 1670, and the highway warrant of 29 May 1672 come from Dow’s Records and Files. Two compiled Towne family books, of 1880 and 1901, say he died at Topsfield about 1672. The administration of 24 June 1673 is dated “24: 4: 1673” in the printed Essex probate abstract, the fourth month counting from March. The children’s petition of January 1682/3 says he had died ten years earlier.