Benjamin Nurse, Jr.

Notes:

----------
Reference:
"Nurse Genealogy", Henry H. Nurse et. al, 1988, p 2.

Benjamin married Martha Marbel 31 Mar 1739. [Group Sheet]

1. Benjamin Nurse was born 1783.

Other Events:

• AFN: G8ZC-H4

Notes:

Owned mill in Rutland Massachsetts.

NURSE, BENJAMIN, Framingham, s. of the first Francis, by w. Thomasine had Thomasine, b. 13 Nov. 1691; Benjamin, 20 Jan. 1694; William, 8 Mar. 1696; Elizabeth 18 Sept. 1698; Ebenezer, 27 Mar. 1701; Margaret, 24 Apr. 1703; Moses, Mar. 1705; and Aaron, 11 Jan. 1708. He m. sec. w. 16 Feb. 1714, Elizabeth wid. of Joseph Morsie; and prob. d. late in 1747, or early in 1748, for Barry found his will pro. 13 Feb. 1748. FRANCIS, Salem, in that part now Danvers, by w. Rebecca, d. of William Towne, had John; Samuel; Rebecca; Mary; Francis, b. 3 Feb. 1661; Benjamin, 26 Jan. 1666; Michael; and Elizabeth who m. William Russell. Rebecca m. 15 Apr. 1666, Thomas Preston; and Mary m. 1678, John Tarbell. The unhappy mo. of these ch. suffer. death in the stupendous fanaticism of 1692, wh. began the investig. of her case, 24 Mar. tho. twice the jury fail. to find a verdict, to wh. at last they assent. from her not giv. satisfact. answers to their questions in open Court, that from her defense she fail. to understand. Sir William Phips, the Gov. upon hearing this, prepar. a reprieve, but by solicit. of those who had less responsibility, weak. withheld it, and the dreadful sentence was execut. on 19th July; and he surv. until 22 Nov. 1695, aged 77. Her sis. Sarah Cloyce, not less guilty, perhaps, aft. long suffer. having better hearing, escaped with life. Felt, in Ann. of Salem, I. 48, well sums up the case. She was excommunica. bef. trial, but that opprobrious deed was cancell. 20 yrs. aft. the sufferer was hang.
----------
Reference:
"Nurse Genealogy", Henry H. Nurse, et. al., 1988, p 1.

Benjamin married Elizabeth Roberts 25 Dec 1710. Elizabeth was born 3 Aug 1690; died 29 May 1739. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Farmer, Reading and Farmingham.

Some sources lists Francis' wife as Sarah Tarbell in error.
----------
Reference:
"A Genealogy of the Nurse Family for Five Generations", 1892, John D. Ames, p
101.

Francis married Sarah Craggen 16 Jan 1685, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts. Sarah (daughter of John Craggen and Sarah Dawes) was born 10 Aug 1664, Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; died 17 Jun 1707, Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Some sources list name as Cragin.
----------
Reference:
"Francis and Sarah (Craggen) Nurse of Reading, Mass.", The American Genealogist, Barbara Matthews, vol. 69 (April 1994), P 82.

Notes:

"Francis and Sarah (Craggen) Nurse of Reading, Mass.", The American Genealogist, Barbara Matthews, vol. 69 (April 1994), P 82.

Notes:

Francis Nurse was an early settler, and had lived for some forty years, "near
Skerry's," on the North River, between the main part of the settlement in the
town of Salem and the ferry to Beverly. He is described as a "tray-maker."
The making of these articles and similar objects of domestic use was an
important employment in a new country remote from foreign supply. He appears
to have been a very respectable person, of great stability and energy of
character; whose judgment was much relied on by his neighbors. No one is
mentioned more frequently as umpire to settle disputes, or arbitrator to adjust
conflicting claims. He was often on committees to determine boundaries or
estimate valuations, or on local juries to lay out highways and assess damages.

On 29 April, 1678 Francis Nurse became at one stroke a major Salem Village
landowner by purchasing, on credit, a rich 300-acre farm located near Salem.
Francis Nurse paid off his mortgage right on schedule. His economic rise after
1678 is documented in the Village tax lists; his 1690 tax went up 39 percent
from that of 1681, and in 1695 it rose by another 16 percent.

The house on this land had an interesting history. Before his purchase the
"mansion" or "cottage" was the scene of social intercourse among the choicest
spirits of the earliest age of New England. Here the first owner Allen Bishop
and, after him, Chickering, entertained their friends. Here the fine family of
Richard Ingersoll was brought up. Here Governor Endicott projected plans for
opening the country, and the road that passes its entrance gate was laid out by
him. To this same house young John Endicott brought his youthful Boston bride.
Here she came again, fifteen years afterwards, as the bride of the learned and
distinguished James Allen, to show him the farm which, received as a "marriage
gift" from her former husband, she had brought as a "marriage gift" to him.
Here the same Allen, in less than six years afterwards, brought still another
bride. In all these various and some of them rather rapid changes, it was, no
doubt, often the resort of distinguished guests and the place of meeting of
many pleasant companies. During the protracted years of litigation for its
possession, frequent consultations were held within it; and in 1692, for twelve
years, it had been the home of a happy harmonious and prosperous family,
exemplifying the industry, energy and enterprise of a New England household.

Francis Nurse had been involved during the 1670's in a protracted timber dispute
with Nathanial Putnam over some mutually bounded acreage. He was elected to a
Village Committee which took power at the end of 1691. These were factors that
contributed to Ann Putnam's accusation of Francis' wife of witchcraft.
----------
Reference:
"Salem Possessed, The Social Origins of Witchcraft", 1974, Paul Boyer & Stephen
Nissenbaum, p 149, 200.
"A Genealogy of the Nurse Family for Five Generations", 1892, John D. Ames, p
96-100.

Francis married Rebecca Town 24 Aug 1644, , Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. Rebecca (daughter of William Towne and Joanna (Jone) Blessing) was born 21 Feb 1621, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England; was christened 21 Feb 1621, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England; died 19 Jul 1692, Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts; was buried Abt 19 Jul 1692, Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Rebecca was in the eyes of those who knew her well the very essence of what a Puritan mother should be. Deeply pious, she was so steeped in Scripture that the country roughness of her speech - she had a Chaucerian fondness for triple negatives - was often shot through with a poetical Scriptural quality. It was not merely a matter of lugging in texts, but a deep, instinctive poetry of
feeling that overflowed into her simple, pregnant speech. When Rebecca spoke it was as if one of the grand women of the Old Testament were speaking Naomi or Ruth amid alien corn (Rebecca herself remembered her birthplace, Yarmouth, England), or the beloved Rachel, or indeed her own namesake.

In her home life she had resembled the wise woman of Proverbs, and her children she had reared with loving devotion to both their spiritual and temporal welfare. Now in her old age they rose up and called her blessed, not only her four sons and four daughters, but what perhaps the super most tribute, her three sons-in-law and four daughters-in-law.

This is not to say that she was altogether a saint. Even the Bible women, as anyone can discover by examining Scripture closely, had their off days. The years had made Rebecca hard of hearing and infirm; when she was ill and did not clearly understand what was said to her, she could sometimes lose her temper.

Rebecca was one of 19 hanged as witches in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Her trial is most often cited for the injustice of this trying period. Recent evidence indicates the accusers were suffering from ergot poisoning.

The night of the hanging, her family secretly removed her body from a mass grave to their family farm.
----------
Reference:
"The Devil in Massachusetts", 1989, Marion L. Starkey, p 78-84, 159-165, 175-176, 189.
"Salem Possessed, The Social Origins of Witchcraft", 1974, Paul Boyer & Stephen Nissenbaum.

Other Events:

• Reference Number: BPM5-KC

Notes:

Ancestral file lists surname as Craggens.
----------
Reference:
"Francis and Sarah (Craggen) Nurse of Reading, Mass.", The American Genealogist, Barbara Matthews, vol. 69 (April 1994), P 82.

John — Sarah Dawes. Sarah (daughter of William Dawes) was born Abt 1640, Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; died 23 Dec 1725, Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: BPM5-LJ

Notes:

"Francis and Sarah (Craggen) Nurse of Reading, Mass.", The American Genealogist, Barbara Matthews, vol. 69 (April 1994), P 82.