Welcome To Our Website!

Welcome to the Towne Family Association, Inc. site, dedicated to the descendants of William Towne and Joanna Blessing, who were married 401 years ago at St. Nicholas Church on April 25, 1620. Six of their children, Rebecca, John, Susan, Edmund, Jacob, and Mary were baptized there. After emigrating to Salem MA, two additional children, Joseph and Sarah were born. Rebecca (Nurse), Mary (Esty) and Sarah (Bridges Cloyse) were victims of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692. A plaque commemorating this family, donated by TFA hangs in St. Nicholas Church.

Help Rebecca Nurse Homestead CelebrateRebecca's 400th Birthday! Rebecca was baptized April 21, 1621 and was likely born the preceding week according to Kathryn Rutkowski, the curator at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead. To celebrate, people are asked to send postcards to the Homestead explaining why they feel connected to Rebecca. These postcards will be displayed on a corkboard wall for the remainder of 2021. They are hoping to receive cards from across the country. TFA members can certainly help with this. Send cards to: Rebecca Nurse Homestead, 149 Pine Street, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923. For more information visit http://www.rebeccanurse.org/

Did your ancestors live in Boxford, Massachusetts? If you live in the area, Robin Siegel, the archivist for the Boxford Historic Document Center, would like you to visit the center, which is now open at 173A Washington Street in Boxford on Wednesdays and the first two Saturdays of the month. (Call first since schedule is subject to change: 978-352-2733.) If you are unable to go in person, visit the website at https://www.boxfordhistory.org/ or contact Robin at boxforddocs@gmail.com for more information.

For those who will be in the Salem area in the next several months, The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem will be opening an exhibit about the Salem Witch trials on September 26 ending on April 4, 2021. It will feature a number of original documents from the PEM's Phillips Library. Go to The Salem Witch Trials 1692 for more information.

Please explore and enjoy the many public areas of our site. In order to gain access to our database, newsletter archive, and research on our English ancestors, you need to be a MEMBER of TFA. Click below for a membership form. When you join, you will be registered for a user account and gain full access to our website. Membership is open to all persons having ties to this Towne family through blood relationship, marriage, collateral lines, friendship or interest.

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