Press release
Carol Dwinnell was the speaker at the Rootseekers meeting on September 19 at the Tri-County Library in Mabank. Suzanne Fife made the introductions. Carol has a very interesting ancestor who lived in Massachusetts during the witch trials. Her topic was “Much Maligned Family.”
In 1692 three sisters were tried as witches in the Salem Witch Trials. Two were hanged, Rebecca Towne Nourse, wife of Francis Nourse, and Mary Towne Estey. The Third sister, Sarah Towne Bridges Cloys (Clayse), wife of Peter Cloyse was imprisoned and one historian says released while another says she escaped and hid in a cave until exonerated.
These three elderly women were the daughters of William Towne and Joanna blessing, who were married on April 25, 1629 at St. Nicolas Parish Church in Great Yarmouth, England. They came to America and settled in Salem, Mass. about 1640. They had eight children and the Dwinnell’s descend from their son Edmund.
In March of 1692 several young girls named the frail 71-year-old Rebecca Nourse as one of their tormentors. When informed of her being accused of practicing witchcraft, Rebecca replied,—“as to this thing, I am as innocent as the child unborn, but surely what sin hath God found out in me unrepentant of, that He should lay such an affliction upon me in my old age?”
In June, Nourse’s trial took place with 40 of her neighbors signing a petition commending her exemplary character. Nourse was at first found innocent by the jury, but they reversed their decision when the afflicted girls began to go into terrifying torments, and the presiding justice asked them to reconsider some of the testimony. Although her children continued to try to save her life, Rebecca was finally hanged on July 29. After the execution her children secretly removed their mother’s body to her homestead and buried her in an unmarked grave. In 1885 the Nourse Family erected a memorial to Rebecca in the family graveyard.
Some say the witch trials were a hoax, concocted to steal land. In all 25 died, 19 of those were condemned in 9 months. Those who were arrested their land and all their possessions were confiscated by the courts leaving the husband/or wives and children destitute.
Carol was the youngest of four children. Her father was a farmer and her mother was hospitalized with TB when Carol was only two years old. She and her siblings were sent to live with her grandparents in Sulphur Springs. It was in the Presbyterian Church that she met her husband who later became a Presbyterian Minister. Carol has been an avid genealogist for nearly 50 years. She is a member of the NSDAR, DAC, DRT, and a charter member of Root Seekers. Colonial Dames and War of 1812. She is also a member of the Mabank Garden Club,Cedar Creek Lake Women’s Club and most important of all the First Presbyterian Church in Mabank.
Root Seekers Genealogical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of genealogical research, and the training and education of persons interested in such research. Root Seekers meets on the third Monday of every month, except December, at 7 p.m. in the Resource Room of the Tri-County Library at 132 E. Market Street in downtown Mabank,Texas. The public is welcome to attend. To learn more, please visit our website at www.rootseekers.org or our Facebook page: Root Seekers Genealogical Society.