Homestead...

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is located at 149 Pine Street in Danvers, Massachusetts, and includes 25 acres of fields, pasture, and woods. An old dirt road leads to the ancient saltbox style Nurse house situated on a small knoll near the property midpoint. This homestead is today a visible link to many of the famous and infamous events of Salem Village and Danvers, and visitors to the property will acquire a good representation of New England life during the colonial period.

The property has been utilized extensively in film and video documentaries and dramas, including; Alistair Cooke's America; Three Sovereigns for Sarah; and Young Goodman Brown. It has been featured in many network and cable news and feature documentaries including; The Today Show; Good Morning America; Rediscovering America with David Hartman; and History's Lost and Found.

In the 17th century Danvers was known as Salem Village, and the land surrounding the Nurse house was originally a portion of a three hundred acre grant given to Townsend Bishop in 1636. In 1648 the property was purchased and improved by Governor John Endecott. In 1678 the then owner, James Allen, began renting the property to Francis Nurse, who could purchase the property outright at the end of 20 years. The land agreement proved very successful for Francis, his wife Rebecca, and their eight children. The "First Period" house traditionally dates from this time when the Nurse family moved to the property.

In the midwinter of 1691/92, girls living in Salem Village began to fall into horrid fits, and their parents tried to discover what was causing their distress. In late February, the village doctor concluded that the girls were being afflicted by witchcraft; and the girls, at the urging of their elders, named three witches–Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn.

Then on March 19, 1692, the girls named the frail 71-year-old matriarch, Rebecca Nurse, as one of their tormentors. When informed of her being accused of practicing witchcraft, Rebecca exclaimed, "…as to this thing, I am as innocent as the child unborn, but surely what sin hath God found out in me unrepented of that He should lay such an affliction upon me in my old age?"

On March 23 constables arrested Rebecca in her bed chamber and took her away from her beloved homestead. In June, Nurse's trial took place with 40 of her neighbors signing a petition commending her exemplary character. Nurse was at first found innocent by the jury, but they reversed their decision when the afflicted girls began to go into terrifying torments, and after the presiding justice asked them to reconsider some of the testimony. Although her children continued to fight to save her life, Rebecca was finally hanged on July 19, 1692. After the execution, Rebecca's children secretly removed their mother's body to her homestead and thereburied it in an unmarked grave.

In 1885 the Nurse family erected a memorial to Rebecca in the family graveyard. The monument included a poetic sentiment written by famed poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Later, another marker dedicated to the 40 neighbors was erected close by.

In 1992, during the Witchcraft Tercentennial Commemoration, the purported remains of another executed witch of 1692, George Jacobs, Sr., were also laid to rest in this graveyard. The site is now marked with a reproduction slate gravestone.

Francis Nurse died in 1695, and the house came into the possession of his son Samuel. In 1775 Rebecca's great-grandson, Francis, occupied the house. He was a sergeant in Captain John Putman's Alarm Company, which was to be ready to march within a few minutes notice in case of trouble. On April 19, 1775, Nurse received the alarm that British troops were marching to Concord. From this house he shouldered his musket and marched to the battle. Danvers was the farthest town to respond to the Lexington Alarm that saw action, and save for Lexington, suffered the most casualities.

In 1784 Phineas Putnam purchased the property, and it remained in the Putnam family until 1908, when the house was purchased and restored by the Rebecca Nurse Memorial Asociation. In 1926 the property was given to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, and in 1981, ownership of the homestead was taken on by the Danvers Alarm List Company, Incorporated.

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Today the house includes three restored rooms with period furnishings of the 17th and 18th century. Among other buildings on the property is the ca. 1681 Zerubabel Endecott house frame, now clad on the outside to resemble a barn. Inside the building is an exhibit of "First Period" architecture, as well as a gift shop area. A short distance away is a reproduction of the 1672 Salem Village Meeting House. This building features a multimedia "Sight and Sound" program explaining the 1692 witchcraft outbreak.

Plan to spend at least an hour at the Nurse Homestead viewing the Sight and Sound program in the Meetinghouse, followed by a guided tour of the Nurse House. More time can be spent walking around the property and down to the graveyard, or perusing the Endecott Barn exhibit and gift shop. We hope you will be able to visit with us. We are a small organization that attempts to preserve the property and continue its historic development. We will not let crass commercial tourism get in the way of our love of history and the sharing of this wonderful resource with others.

Richard B. Trask