| Rains/Watters/Sawyer and beyond |
| Joanna Blessing |
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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
http://www.gencircles.com/users/jillrains/1/data/1858
