Searching Becky's Roots in Salem, MA

Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014

Littleton, MA

Minuteman Campground

Becky's niece, Lori Basnett, drove us to the town of Danvers, just north of Salem to visit the homestead of Francis and Rebecca Nurse.  Rebecca Nurse is Becky's 8th great-grandmother.

So this is how the family tree reads:

Rebecca Towne Nurse 

   (baptized Feb. 21, 1621 died July 19, 1692 hung as a witch in Salem witch trials)

Elizabeth Nurse (1655-1735)

   daughter of Rebecca Towne Nurse

Ebenezer Russell (1716-1780)

    son of Elizabeth Nurse

Samuel Russell (1716-1780)

   son of Ebenezer Russell

Stephen Russell (1749-1820)

   son of Samuel Russell

Roswell Russell (1772-1814)
   son of Stephen Russell

Lucinda Russell (1798-1889)
   daughter of Roswell Russell
Harlehigh Hiram Sage (1821-1904)
  son of Lucinda Russell
Ava Alta Sage (1859-1962)  Yes, 103 years!
   daughter of Hiram Sage
Olin Kenneth Barton (1895-1948) Olin's brother Merle Barton (1900-2006) lived to be 106.
   son of Ava Alta Sage
Richard Allen Barton (1926- )
   son of Olin Kenneth Barton
Rebecca J Hazen (born Feb. 18, 1952- )

Becky is interested in learning more about the woman born 331 years ago that she shares a name with and possibly a birthday.  Thanks to Lori's knowledge of the area we were able to avoid the traffic messes and make our way to Danvers to learn more about her. We arriving 30 minutes before the final tour of the day.  Francis and Rebecca Nurse purchased this 300 acre farm from Bishop for 400 pounds in 1678.  It was bought on credit and finally paid off by their son after their passing.

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is located in Danvers (formerly Salem Village) on 27 acres.  It is a superb example of a colonial farmstead, and the only home of a Witchcraft Hysteria victim that is open to the public.  

Francis and Rebecca Nurse raised 4 boys and 4 girls in this house.
Elizabeth Nurse was child number 7.

The homestead also contains a replica of the 1672 Salem village meeting house which was built for the movie Three Sovereigns for Sarah, as well as the Endecott barn which contains the original framework from the 1681 Zerubabel Endecott House.

Our guide gave us the story of Rebecca Nurse's ordeal during the Salem witch trials and guided us through the meeting house and home. You can learn about her ordeal by Googling "Rebecca Nurse Salem Witch Trial"

In the colonial times clothes were rare so everyone had a set of work clothes and a Sunday meeting outfit.  Usually the clothing was wool and made for winter so in the summer you would be very hot.  Water was considered bad so bathing was only done 4 times a year and water was never drank.  Beer was the main source of liquid drink served room temperature.

The original spinning wheels and life in colonial times were still present in the house.  She explained the process of cooking in the fire 

This cupboard has been in this house for 300 plus years.  It was an amazing piece of woodworking that was made with hand tools.  The greatest dexterity was necessary in spinning of the flax yarn into thread on the small fax-wheel in the foreground. 

The fireplace was the center of the household.  Imagine standing on the hearth and looking up the chimney to see the stars on a winter night.

The fireplace was the center of the home activity.  As you can see it was huge.  Large enough to step inside and place bread dough into the ovens in the back.

Firearms were close at hand.

The bread dough was prepared in the evening and a fire was built in the oven.  When it was hot enough, the coals were removed, bread put in and the hole covered.  It took all night to bake the bread which was ready in the morning.  

The beds had a rope base that a hay stuffed mattress was placed on.

This was the stairway to the second floor sleeping areas.

Even the low stone walls have been preserved by the Danvers Alarm List Company who now owns the property.

300 yards across the fields is the Nurse family burial ground which includes a monument to Rebecca. Two days after she was hung, her husband and son retrieved her body and buried her in an unmarked grave in this burial ground.

The epitaph reads "O Christian martyr, who or Truth, could die When all about thee owned the hideous lie, The world redeemed from Superstition's sway Is breathing freer for thy sake today" was written by  John Greenleaf Whittier.

The back of the monument

Francis Nurse died during the revolutionary war is interned here also.

The Putnam Family section on the grave yard.  It was interesting that is was the 11 year-old Putnam daughter that accused Rebecca Nurse of witchery and yet the family married into the Nurse family.

A few blocks away was a memorial park to the Witchcraft Victims erected in 1992.  The 300th anniversary of the witchcraft hysteria.

These were the passages about Rebecca on the memorial.

It was a very educational day and Becky has a better understanding of her ancestors.  We will try to visit the Salem Witch Museum in downtown Salem before we leave but this day spent at the homestead gave us a better understanding of Rebecca Nurse's life.