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Individual:
The Blessing family resided in Somerleyton bordering Blundeston [England].
She survived her husband by about ten years. [Judging from the
five-year gap in ages between Edmund and Jacob, she probably lost several
babies.]
"William2 Towne was married to Jone (Joanna) Blessing on 25 April [other
two sources say March] 1620 in the same church, where between 1621 and 1634,
their first six children were baptized. Inasmuch as the name Blessing has
not been found after considerable search in the Norfolk County records at
Norwich and as the marriage record of “Jone” is the unique instance of the
name in the parish register at Yarmouth during the period searched
(1588-1611), it would seem probable that she was a foreigner, many emigrants f
rom Germany and the Low Countries having been attracted to Yarmouth by the
herring fisheries in the sixteenth century. A general search for the name in
records covering all England has been fruitless, and families named Blessing
now living in the United States claim a German origin. [Source: The Ancestry
of Lieut. Amos Towne 1737-1793 of Arundel (Kennebunkport, Maine by Walter
Goodwin Davis; Portland, Maine, The Southworth Press 1927; Reprinted by The
Anundsen Publishing Co. in 1987 under the auspices of Parker River
Researchers, Newburyport, MA with the cooperation of the New Hampshire
Historical Society, Concord, NH]
"Joanna Towne figured in a series of suits brought by and against Rev.
Thomas Gilbert, the Topsfield minister, in 1670. Gilbert, by his own
testimony and that of his wife, was a sick man and he was doubtless of
erratic temperament, but some of his principal parishioners laid his acts and
eccentricities to overindulgence in drink, and the court seems to have
considered their suspicions credible. Most of the evidence produced dealt
with a dinner at the parsonage between two Sunday services at which Mr. and
Mrs. Gilbert had Capt. John Gould, Mr. Thomas Perkins, and their wives, and
old Mrs. Towne as their guests. A gold cup (surely a rare treasure in
seventeenth-century New England) filled with wine was passed about the table
and Mr. Gould alleged that Mr. Gilbert drank too freely therefrom. Joanna
Towne (her age being given at seventy-five) testified that on Sunday Mr.
Gilbert had administered the “sacrament swetly unto us” and that after the
service “I was att dinner att Mter Gilberts table...and sat next to him on
his right hand, and though some report that he drank too much of the
sacrament wyn...I believe he is wronged, for I that then sat next him saw no
such matter...And I can saifly take my oath that though our minister had the
cup twyce in his hand, yet the first tyme he drank not one drop of it, but
gave it out of his hand to Thomas Perkins, bidding him give it to me, for I
needed it mor than he, being older. When the cup had gone about, it came
into his hand the second time and I am sure ther could not be much in it then
(it may be two or three spoon-ful) and that he drank.” [Records and Files,
etc., IV: 247, 369].
At the June term of court, 1673, Joanna Towne was appointed to
administer the estate of her late husband, which fixes the approximate date
of William Towne’s death. The property was probably retained by her until
her death, and it was not divided until 1682, when Mary, widow of Edmund
Towne, Jacob Towne, Joseph Towne, Francis Nourse, Mary Estey and Sarah
Bridges addressed to the court “the Humbell peticion of us whos names are
under wrighten in way of the seatellment of a small esteat left to us by our
Honered ffather deceased about tenn yers agoo who died and leaft no will,”
and requested that the real estate be assigned to the sons and the personal
property to the daughters [Essex Probate, No. 27923].
SALEM-WITCH-L Archives
From:
Subject: Re: [SALEM-WITCH-L] Joanna Blessing-Towne
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 18:41:07 EST
>The book Currents of Malice spends a fair amount of time talking about
>Joanna being thought of as a witch. I think the idea came mostly from
>some of the accusations against the three Towne sisters. The author seemed
>to feel that daughters of witches were more susceptible to being accused.
> She also said that Joanna was a midwife. I have never seen any real
evidence
>about any of this.
>Abby
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