Sarah Bowden (Nurse) - When was she born?

Emily Kent Marget C

6/18/2022 at 4:18 AM

At the Salem Witch Trial for Rebecca Nurse her daughter, Sarah claimed to be 28 years old.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Nurse-99 has a discussion about her, including questioning whether the Sarah Nurse who testified at the trial was the daughter of Rebecca (Towne) Nurse.

From the will of Francis Nurse dated 1694, it is clear that his daughter, Sarah, married a man named Michael Bowden. Unfortunately, Perley only states that Sarah married Michael Bowden.

From Topsfield VR, the marriage record for Sarah Nurse and Michael Bowden is for "Dec. 15, 1669." This Sarah Nurse would have been born around 1648.

Any help in determining (1) when the Sarah Nurse that testified at the Witch Trial was actually born; (2) when the Sarah Nurse that married Michael Bowden in 1669 in Topsfield was born and (3) of what parents would be greatly appreciated.

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 6:38 AM

Sarah, daughter of Francis Nurse, had to have been the wife of Michael Bowen of Topsfield, because he had a share in her father’s estate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=GtPqBtdo-TEC&pg=RA2-PA46#v=onepag...

So you’re getting hung up on the dates. Go from the child Susannah Bowen born 1670 - was she Sarah’s? If so, the 1663 birth date is someone else, the 1669 wedding date is good, and this Sarah was born in the late 1640s and we don’t have a record besides “living in 1695. Or, did this Michael Bowen have a 1st wife? Seems less likely.

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 5:14 PM

I would also question whether it was this Sarah deposing she was age 28 in 1692.

Rebecca Preston, her sister Mary Tarbell, brother in law John Tarbell and brother Samuel Nurse testified on behalf of their mother Rebecca Towne Nurse during the Salem Witch Trials. [6]

6. Boyer, Paul S. and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England, UPNE, 1972 p. 33

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 5:32 PM

Ames, John D. A Genealogy of the Nurse Family Through Five Generations in: Putnam, Eben, editor. The Genealogical Magazine, Volumes 3-5, Putnam's Monthly Magazine, Salem Press and Genealogical Record, 1893, p. 100-1. <GoogleBooks>

Has her born 1663 and married 1700. Which makes no sense as her husband is her father’s heir in 1695.

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 5:48 PM

Our colonial and continental ancestors : the ancestry of Mr. and Mrs. Louis William Dommerich / by Louis Effingham de Forest. by De Forest, Louis Effinghan, 1891- (Publication date 1930). “Francis Nurse.” Chart XLVll. <Archive.Org>

Gives her no birth or death dates but affirms the marriage date.

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 6:36 PM

There was another “Sarah Nurse” in 1692 -

Sarah Nurse

It appears that after the court-sanctioned murder of Rebecca, some of Francis' children joined the church in Reading:

[1693] May Eliz. Russell, Sarah Nurse [wife of Francis Jr?], Francis Nurse [probably the son], Mary Brown owned ye covenant.[23]

—

This Sarah Nurse was born 1664, making her age 28 in 1692, and a more likely candidate for the deposition than Sarah Bowden - who was living away from the “patriarchal cluster” in Salem, in the Topsfield “wilderness.”

Emily Kent Marget C

6/18/2022 at 7:02 PM

Perley has Francis, jr., in Reading after 1697. So I think you have found what was needed.

Thanks.

Erica Howton C

6/18/2022 at 9:58 PM

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project: Salem Witchcraft Papers: SWP No. 012, The University of Virginia ,

https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n173.html#n173.80

Added to profiles for Sarah Bowden & Sarah Nurse

And I posted at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Nurse-31

Cynthia Curtis, A183502, US7875087 PRO

11/4/2023 at 4:08 PM

Rebecca Nurse (Towne) is your third cousin 9 times removed.
You
→ Viet Nam War Veteran, SFC Freddie Ralph Hicks, Sr
your father → Viola Isabelle Hicks (Webber)
his mother → John Thomas Edgar Webber
her father → John Richard Carter Webber
his father → Samuel Webber
his father → Seth Ward Webber, Sr.
his father → Phillip Webber
his father → Phillip Webber
his father → William Webber
his father → Margery Webber (Wyatt)
his mother → George Wyatt
her father → Sir George Wyatt, of Boxley Abbey
his father → Jane Wyatt (Hawte)
his mother → Rose Clarke (Fenne)
her daughter → Elizabeth (or Alice) Towne (Clarke)
her daughter → William Towne, of Topsfield
her son → Rebecca Nurse (Towne)
his daughterConsistency CheckShow short path | Share this path
Shortest in-law relationship
Rebecca Nurse (Towne) is your first cousin four times removed's husband's fourth great grandmother.
You
→ Viet Nam War Veteran, SFC Freddie Ralph Hicks, Sr
your father → Arvel Yewell Hicks
his father → Theodore E. Hicks
his father → William J. Hicks
his father → Adry Hicks
his father → Sarah Gentry (Hicks)
his sister → Elizabeth Jane Downs (Gentry)
her daughter → Jesse Downs
her husband → Wiley Downs
his father → Nehemiah Downs
his father → Deborah Downs (Twiss)
his mother → Sarah Twiss (Nurse)
her mother → John Nurse, Sr.
her father → Rebecca Nurse (Towne)
his mother

Sarah Bowden (Nurse) - When was she born?

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