Since the introduction of this blog in 2014 my focus has been recent ancestral stories however for the next few months we will be traveling back 11 generations to Salem, Massachusetts. My 9th great-grandmother Sarah Towne’s story is truly remarkable and if you haven’t guessed by now involves the Salem Witch Trials. The hysteria began in 1692 in Salem Village when a group of girls claimed to be possessed by the devil accused several woman in the village of witchcraft. In the end, more than 200 people would be accused and 20 killed. However, before I explore Sarah and her part in the trials let me start with some background information on the Towne Family, Salem Village and the Reverend Samuel Parris.
Map of Salem Village, 1692.
Here is the pedigree starting with my paternal grandfather:
Harry Atwell (1908-1985)▶︎William H. Stone Atwell (1875-1944)▶︎Harriet Parks (1855-1909)▶︎William Parks (1824-1868)▶︎Mehitable Barton (1800-1890)▶︎Alpheus Barton (1763-1849)▶︎Timothy Barton (1732-1791)▶︎Joshua Barton (1697-1773)▶︎Hannah Bridges (1669-1727)▶︎Sarah Towne (1638-1703)
William and Joanna Towne were married in St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England on April 25, 1620, the same church William was baptized in March 18, 1598/99. Their first six children were baptized here as well between 1621 and 1634: Rebecca, John, Susanna, Edmund, Jacob and Mary. There are varying accounts of the actual date of Sarah’s birth, 11 January 1637 in Salem, Massachusettes being the most accepted and her brother John followed in 1639. An exact immigration date is also not know however using references from The Ancestry of Lieutenant Amos Towne and the birthdate of their daughter Mary, it appears the family entered Massachusettes between 1634-1635: “The first record of William Towne in America appears in the town book of Salem in 1640 when he was granted ‘a little neck of land right over against his house on the other side of the river’”. “It is probably that Towne was in Salem some years before 1640, however. The list of grants by the town to that portion of its territory called the North Fields is undated and the best opinion seems to indicate that the grants were made before 1635, when the town records begin. William Towne’s name appears on this list, and it was in the North Fields that he lived”. (1)
St. Nicholas Parish, Great Yarmouth as it is today.
In 1651, the family relocated to the neighborning town of Topsfield, selling the Salem property in 1652.
Sarah and Edmund Bridges were married in Topsfield on January 11, 1659. Together they had 8 or 9 children one of which was my ancestor Hannah Bridges. The couple lived in Salem Town while Edmund persued his occupation as an lawyer. Furthermore, referencing the book, Currents of Malice by Persis W. McMillen, “Edmund Bridges and a certain William Becket owned part of a wharf on the Salem waterfront. Edmund also procured a license to sell alcholic beverages." "Sarah became involved with running the waterfront tavern while her husband carried on with his legal practice, often appearing in Salem quarterly courts as attorney, arbitrator and witness." (2)
Edmund’s unfortunate death at the age of 44 years in June of 1682 left Sarah and her children destitute and within three months the family was ordered out of town by the constable. Sarah returned to her family in Topsfield. She had lost both her husband and mother in the same year.
Sarah quickly remarried Peter Cloyce who had a farm in Salem Village (now known as Danvers). Salem Village and Salem Town were about a half days journey from each other and as far apart culturally and socioeconomically. Salem Village was known as a farming community while Salem Town for it’s fishermen and maritime merchants. Sixty years after the Witch Trials, Salem Village won it’s long bid to separate and thus no longer share taxes with Salem Town, changing the name to Danvers.
The Cloyces were members of the Salem Village congregation of Reverend Samuel Parris as was Sarah’s sister Rebecca Nurse. Samuel Parris was born in England immigrating to Boston in the 1660’s and attended Harvard College. Samuel’s father, owner of a sugar plantation in Barbados, died in 1673 so Samuel left Harvard to take up his inheritance. In 1680 after a hurricane left much of his property damaged he sold a little of his land and returned to Boston with his two slaves Tituba and John Indian. Later that year he married Elizabeth Eldridge. During this time Samuel worked as a merchant but soon began training as a minister. In July 1689 Samuel became minister of Salem Village bringing his wife Elizabeth, Tituba and his three children Thomas, Elizabeth also known as Betty and Susannah with him to Salem Village as well as his niece Abigail Williams whose parents had been killed after an American Indian raid. Generally a minister was appointed for life however, Salem Village had trouble keeping and paying their minister; Reverend Parris would be their fourth in 16 years. To say Salem Village was in turmoil when Reverend Parris became minister would be an understatement. Uncertainty was everyday life. King James II of England had just been overthrown, Massachusettes had no local magistrates, charters or written laws and until his Parris’s hire, no minister. Notwithstanding, Salem Village was known by neighboring towns as a contentious place to live and known to be bad-tempered. Not all townspeople welcomed Reverend Parris and many did not vote for him as minister which led to more feuding. Like the three previous ministers he got caught in the middle of the fracas. Parishioners would refuse to pay the minister’s salary or provide firewood for the parsonage and by October 1691 the town stopped paying his wages as well. In the book, The New England Soul, Reverend Parris didn’t handle the situation well:
“Parris had not enjoyed a moment’s peace since the commencement of his ministry in 1689, when he found himself caught between warring factions in Salem Town and Salem Village. Instead of confining and channeling social fears and tensions into revival and covenant renewal as his colleagues were seeking to do, Parris inflamed local rivalries by declaring that ‘if ever there were witches, Men and Women in covenant with the Devil, here are multitudes in New-England.’ By March 1692, he was convinced that witches had infiltrated the churches, including his own Salem congregation. In a sermon on Judas Iscariot he declared that ‘as in our text [John 6:10] there was one [devil] among the 12 [disciples]…so in our churches God knows how many Devils there are.’ Such preaching offered a powerful and dangerous release for social and political tensions that had been brewing throughout the previous decades. It encouraged the villagers to purge their feelings of frustration and guilt by locating and destroying ‘witches’ in their midst. In many cases these witches were individuals who had run afoul of Parris and his key clan of supporters, the Putnam family.”
Parris probably never imagined that his own household would become the centerpoint of accusations of witchcraft with his niece, Agibail Williams and daughter, Betty Parris, being the instigators.
Next month: The Accusers and Accused
Footnotes:
The Ancestry of Lieutenant Amos Towne, 1737-1793.
Currents of Malice, Persis W. McMillen
Souces:
Samuel Parris wikipedia
Sarah Towne wikipedia
The New England Soul by Harry S. Stout