In Honor of Rebecca Nurse–Hanged: July 19, 1692

Rebecca Nurse is born in 1621 in Yarmouth, England. At the time of the Nurse’s family crossing to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rebecca is in her teens. By the time she is accused, tried and finally executed many citizens of the town express sympathy for a women who is known for her very pious attitude and thought "a model of Christian behavior."

Rebecca and Francis Nurse found themselves in a land dispute with the very powerful and influential Putnam family. When in March 1692 Ann Putnam charged Rebecca with witchcraft the community is stunned. At her trial the verdict is, at first not guilty. But then... the jury is instructed to reconsider because the strange behavior of the accusers continued. Sentenced to hang on July 19, 1692 after the jury re-examined their verdict Rebecca Nurse goes to her death. Afterwards, the corpse is buried in a common grave but in the clouds of midnight, Nurse's family reburies the body within the grounds of her homestead.

Her home is now a museum, located in Danvers (formerly Salem Village). The town of Danvers, unlike Salem does not embrace what occurred in 1692. Even though much of the hysteria happened in Salem Village it is their neighbors that has made Salem a tourist attraction and have chosen to celebrate those innocents that were hanged in 1692. Postscript: Her homestead remained in the Nurse family until 1784 when the property was sold to Phineas Putnam–a relative of Anne and Thomas Putnam.

"Chilling, the whole thing is chilling."

Mary Towne, a great-great granddaughter of Rebecca' brother- Jacob when describing the event of 1692