Joanna Blessing

d. 1682 · Great Yarmouth, Norfolk → Salem (Essex County) MA → Topsfield MA

Died 1682

Children include Edmund

Joanna Blessing married William Towne in the church of St. Nicholas at Great Yarmouth on 25 March 1620, and the first six of her eight children were baptized at the same font: Rebecca in 1621, John in 1624, Susannah in 1625, Edmund in 1628, Jacob in 1632 and Mary in 1634. Joseph was born in 1639 and Sarah, the last, was baptized with him on 3 September 1648, by which time the family had been in Massachusetts for years.

She crossed with her husband and five or six children and kept house in the Northfields of Salem until 1651, then at Topsfield. In 1663 she joined William in conveying two thirds of the house they lived in to their son Joseph, in contemplation of his marriage. Her name is on that deed, which is more than most wives of her generation get.

William died about 1672. She survived him about ten years and died in 1682, a date that comes from the final settlement of her own estate.

Ten years after her death, three of the daughters she had borne were accused of witchcraft. Two were hanged.

Children

Edmund Towne b. 1628

Sources

Edwin Eugene Towne, The Descendants of William Towne, who came to America on or about 1630 and settled in Salem, Mass. (1901)

George A. Perkins, The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts, part two, the descendants of Deacon Thomas Perkins of Topsfield (1889)

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Cite: Heirology, "Joanna Blessing (d. 1682)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joanna-blessing-1682-30dbc4.