Francis  NURSE

Biography
'On account of the witchcraft delusion in Salem, [Francis] and his wife became historical characters. The name of Rebecca Nurse (or Nourse) is perhaps the best known of all of its unfortunate victims.

Francis Nourse was an early settler in Salem, and was a proprietor of the town 1647. He lived for forty years near Sperry's, on North River Street, between the main village and the ferry to Beverly. He was a woodworker, called a tray-maker. In those days, wooden trays and dishes were the rule; there was little pewter, less silver and china, and the plates, trays and trenchers of wood were the ordinary dishes.

He was a skilled workman, and a respectable man of great stability and strength of character. He was called frequently as umpire and arbitrator in cases of dispute over land boundaries. He served on local committees to lay out grants and highways, and on juries. He bought the Bishop farm of some three hundred acres at Salem village, April 29, 1678, and settled there. His sons...Read full story


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