| Notes |
- Salem Witch Trials notes: Accused in Apr 1692 during the Salem witch trials, she escaped conviction. Sarah's sister, Rebecca Nurse, 71, was accused of witchcraft by Abigail Williams on March 19, 1692. She was visited by a local delegation on March 21, and arrested the next day. Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examined Rebecca Nurse on March 24. March 27: Easter Sunday, which was not a special Sunday in the Puritan churches, saw Rev. Samuel Parris preaching on "dreadful witchcraft broke out here." He emphasized that the devil could not take the form of anyone innocent. Tituba, Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey were in prison. During the sermon, Sarah Cloyce, likely thinking of her sister Rebecca Nurse, left the meetinghouse and slammed the door. On April 3, Sarah Cloyce defended her sister Rebecca against charges of witchcraft -- and found herself accused the next day On April 8, she and Elizabeth Proctor were named in warrants and arrested. On April 10, the Sunday meeting at Salem Village was interrupted with incidents identified as caused by the specter of Sarah Cloyce. On April 11, Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor were examined by magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth, Isaac Addington (secretary of Massachusetts), Major Samuel Appleton, James Russell, and Samuel Sewall were also present, as was the Rev. Nicholas Noyes, who gave the prayer. Rev. Samuel Parris took notes. Sarah Cloyce was accused in testimony by John Indian, Mary Walcott, Abigail Williams, and Benjamin Gould. She shouted out that John Indian was a "grievous liar" and refused to confess. Among those who accused Sarah Cloyce was Mercy Lewis, whose paternal aunt Susanna Cloyce was Sarah's sister-in-law. Mercy Lewis took a less active role in accusing Sarah Cloyce than she did in accusing others including Sarah's sisterRebecca Nurse. That night, Sarah Cloyce, her sister Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, Dorcas Good, and John and Elizabeth Proctor were transferred to Boston prison. John Indian, Mary Walcott, and Abigail Williams claimed to be tormented by Sarah Cloyce even after her jailing. Mary Easty was arrested on April 21 and examined the next day. She was briefly set free in May but returned when the afflicted girls claimed to have seen her specter. A grand jury indicted Rebecca Nurse in early June; on June 30 the trial jury found her not guilty. The accusers and spectators protested loudly when that decision was announced. The court asked them to reconsider the verdict, and they found her guilty, discovering on reviewing the evidence that she had failed to answer one question put to her (perhaps because she was nearly deaf). She, too, was condemned to hang. Gov. Phips issued a reprieve but this was also met with protests and was rescinded. Rebecca Nurse was hanged, with Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin and Sarah Wildes, on July 19.
Mary Easty's case was heard in September, and she was found guilty on September 9. Together, Sarah Cloyce and Mary Easty petitioned the court for a "fayre and equall hearing" of evidence for them as well as against them. They argued that they had no opportunity to defend themselves and were not allowed any counsel, and that spectral evidence was not dependable. Mary Easty also added a second petition with a plea was focused more on others than herself: "I petition your honors not for my own life, for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set .... if it be possible, that no more blood be shed." But Mary's plea was not in time; she was hanged with Martha Corey (whose husband Giles Corey had been pressed to death on September 19), Alice Parker, Mary Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell on September 22. Rev. Nicholas Noyes officiated at this last execution in the Salem witch trials, saying after the execution, "What a sad thing it is to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there." In December, a brother of Sarah Cloyce helped pay the bond to release William Hobbs from jail. Charges against Sarah Cloyce were dismissed by a grand jury on January 3, 1693. Her husband Peter had to pay the prison for her fees before she could be released. Sarah and Peter Cloyce moved after her release, first to Marlborough and then to Sudbury, both in Massachusetts. In 1706, when Ann Putman Jr. publicly confessed in church her contrition for her part in the accusations (saying that Satan had put her up to it), she pointed to the three Towne sisters: "And particularly, as I was a chief instrument of accusing of Goodwife Nurse and her two sisters [including Sarah Cloyce], I desire to lie in the dust, and to be humbled for it, in that I was a cause, with others, of so sad a calamity to them and their families...." In 1711, an act of the legislature reversed the attainders on many who had been convicted, but since Sarah Cloyce's case was eventually dismissed, she was not included in that act. Sarah Cloyce was the key character in the 1985 American Playhouse dramatization of her story in "Three Sovereigns for Sarah," starring Vanessa Redgrave as Sarah Cloyce in 1702, seeking justice for herself and her sisters. - http://womenshistory.about.com/od/salempeople/a/Sarah-Cloyce.htm
The Cloyes were members of the Salem Village congregation of Rev. Parrish. Like the Nurse family, the Cloyes were also displeased with issues revolving around the Parris ministry and by 1692 were also "absenting" themselves from Sabbath. After Sarah's arrest, she was examined and refused to confess. She was fitted with hand and leg irons and placed in Salem jail with her sister Rebecka. Later she was removed to a Boston prison, and then with her sister Mary to Ispwich, and them back to Salem again. Two weeks after Rebecka's execution, a charge of 20 pounds sterling was presented by the blacksmith "for making fouer payer of iron ffetters and two payers of hand Cuffs and putting them on to ye legs and hands of Goodwife Cloys."
Sarah's grandneice Rebecca Townes testified against her, just as she had testified against her great aunt Mary, and an indictment followed. Her husband Peter was truly devoted and toiled diligently for her release. Danvers church records note his devotion to her that summer: "Brother Cloys hard to be found at home being often with his wife in Prison in Ipswich for Witchcraft." Peter did the only intelligent thing as the shadow of the hangman's rope drew near in the new round of trials of January 1693. He broke Sarah out of jail and fled south.
According to the book "Framingham Historical Reflections,"Clayes was imprisoned in Ipswich and smuggled out along with friends who had come to visit her ... conveyed by night to Framingham." Certainly Peter had been petitioning for a recognizance for his wife and it always possible they simply skipped bail. However they managed Sarah's escape, it was deep in New England winter when they made their way southwest to Framingham, then known as Danforth Plantation, and marked in old records of the times as "the wilderness." This is full 40 miles as the crow flies, but they did not undertake such an unlikely journey on speculation. They knew somehow they had a safe (albeit cold) haven waiting at Danforth Plantation in the wilderness. The only cross-country roads in 1693 were the early bridal paths that followed the old Indian trails. The only such path going southwest toward Framingham wasthe Old Connecticut Path. This wound its way from Watertown southwesterly through the wilderness lands until eventually reaching the shores of the Connecticut River near Hartford. Peter knew Old Connecticult Path, having grown up in Watertown. It was the main path southwest. In fact, it was the only path southwest. He had probably walked the eastern end extensively as a young man.The Cloyes would have carefully picked their way to Boston by night, avoiding encounters. It is unlikely they would have been unable to manage this portion of the trek without assistance from friends who helped smuggle Sarah out of Ipswich jail. For one thing, Sarah wasn't well. Having reached Boston safely, they would have gone west to Watertown and picked up the trailhead of the Old Connecticut Path. The Cloyes traveled this path southwesterly abuot 10 miles, entering the eastern side of the new town of Sudbury (now Wayland), following the lower contour of Reeve's Hill, well above the icy wet river meadows, and then crossing the frozen Cochituate Brook at the ancient wading place. Shortly thereafter they would have entered what is now the northeast corner of Framingham, crossing the Sudbury River at an ancient fordway, and then preceding southwest, a five-mile journey as the crow flies from Wayland.
Refuge at Danforth Plantation. It's a strange thing, but Danforth Plantation where the Cloyes sought asylum was owned by one of the early Judges at the Salem Witch Trials. Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth had sat on the early Tribunal. But he had left the tribunal n May, everal months before the hangings began, harboring a secret disgust and ill-ease with the proceedings. In fact, Judge Sewall, a prominent withc trial judge, wrote in his diary that Danforth had done much to put an end "to the troubles under which the country groaned in 1692."
It may also be that Danforth's departure from the tribunal in May might have to do with the fact that he was Deputy Governor under Governor Bradstreet, and the Governorship changed hands to Sir William Phips on May 14, 1692. He may simply no longer have had the position or authority to sit on the tribunal. Judging by his later actions, this may have been a disastrous loss for the accused. Danforth had acquired at least 16,000 acres of land in Colonial government grants between 1660 and 1662. This was originally known as Danforth Farm or Plantation, and later renamed Framingham. In a 1999 newspaper article, Herring is quoted as saying he believes that Danforth was the secret "guardian angel" who helped the Cloyes, and more than a dozen other escaping Salem area families who were "all related by blood or marriage," to fine refuge on his Plantation. Danforth subsequently turned over almost 800 acres to Salem families seeking asylum and safety, including the Towne, Nurse, Bridges, Easty and Cloyes families. The new settlement quickly became known as Salem End Road. They came fearing for their lives, seeking a safe haven, and found it on Danforth's Plantation, living in safety on his land as a reparation for their treatment in Salem. The Cloyes' escape and deliberate journey to the Plantation, the subsequent steady arrival of Salem Witch Trial refugees and the awaiting farmland, all smacks of a shadowy hand moving behind th scenes, and a loose network of helpful friends. In short, there are glimmers of a primitive "underground railway" in operation, quietly moving Towne sisters and related families out of Salem Village to a more hospitable locale.
Danforth had been on the Tribunal through May, long enough to have observed the character of all three Towne sisters. Records show that the three sisters repeatedly behaved with dignity, piety, firmness and good character to such an extent that the magistrates hesitated repeatedly with their cases. ... The minister of Topsfield vouched for both Mary and Sarah, but to no avail. Sarah wrote elegant appeals that were ignored. It seemed the fates were blindly determined that they should die regardless of the laws of man and god. Many were rightfully impressed with the Towne sisters and deeply distressed with the proceedings. Danforth seems to have been one of those and afterwards made it his business to take in and see to the welfare and reparations of the surviving Towne sister's families, starting with Sarah (Towne) Cloyes herself. Ironically, in Arthur Miller's play The crucibloe, Danforth was unflatteringly portrayed as a "Black-robed paragon of Puritan rectitude." However it was that the Danforth haven became known to those fleeing the accusations and executions, a large boulder on Salem End Road was said to be the official landmark that signaled escaping families that they were on the Plantation and safe at last.
A Cold Winter in the Rocks: It is unknown exactly where the Cloyes spent that first bitter winter in Danforth Plantation. But local legend has always claimed it w was in a network of small boulder caves in a steep cliff face (Witch Cliffs) on the Framingham-Ashland line. These caves have always been called Witch Caves. I have explored these caves twice; once in 2001 and more recently in 2007. One thing I can assure above anything else is that these caves are small, cold, drafty, and hard. Little improvement over the stone cell of Salem Town Prison. Of course, I am sure they would have blocked the holes tight with snow, stuffed the place full of leaves, made spruce-bough beds, built a lean-to of logs in front of the entrance, and made a door flap with birch bark. That's pretty much what any outdoorsman would do faced with such a situatoin. Add a fire under the lean-to, and it's a slight much better, and warmer, than you might expect. Peter Cloyes had been an Indian Fighter in the 1675-76 King Philip's war and lived in Wells, Maine, and was likely a rough and tumble woodsman of necessity. I don't think he would have have much trouble turning the caves into a snug burrow for the winter.
Sarah was hardly in good health when she escaped Ipswich. She was 50 years old, and had spent nine months in various jails routinely shackled in irons, in unheated quarters, subsiding only on what her family was able to provide her. She emerged from jail that cold winter night a sick and fragile woman. She was very lucky to have survived the ensuing winter in the caves. Having survived the winter in the caves, the spring of 1693 brought new hope and a new start for the Cloyes. Danforth gave them permission to build a house on his land and that year they constructed a new house for themselves on Plantation property. Herring comments on the location, "There was the Cowasock Brook nerby and a relatively friendly Indian village. Just across what must've been a trail then (now Salem End Road), there's an enormous glacial boulder you can see today that probably served as a good landmark. This boulder is the one that escaping families looked for. ... The initial trickle of refugees intensified to a migration, and by 1700 when Peter signed the township petition for Framingham, at least 50 people related to the Towne sisters had re-settled from the Salem Village area to the Salem End Road district, with more than 800 acres given away to them by Danforth. Among the new arrivals included the families of Sarah's two sons from her first marriage, Caleb and Benjamin, Benjamin arriving in the spring of 1693, with Caleb following shortly thereafter. Rebecca's youngest son Benjamin Nurse also relocated with his family in 1693, as did Mary's son John Easty and his family a few years later.
The Towne family was also represented early in the migration. Lt. John Towne and his son Israel Towne both relocated their families by 1698 and built on Danforth-gifted land. Lt. John, one of Framingham's original selectmen, was the son of the Towne sister's brother. Needless to say, grandneice Rebecca (Towne) Knight did not join them in Salem End Road. The Nurses changed the spelling of their name to Nourse to distance themselves from Salem, and if you examine Framingham's Old Burying ground, you will find many Towne, Nourse, Bridges, Easty, and Cloyes names represented throughout the years. (One Cloyes, John, was struct down by lightning in 1777.) The Townes did not saty long in the area, but the other "witch" names became part of the founding fabric and ongoing life of the town, and descendants still live there. The earliest existing grave marker left of the original emigres is that of Benjamin Bridges, who died in 1723. This marker, a rough field stone with the crudely cut epitaph, reads, "When he served his generation, by the will of God he fell asleep." ...
Three Sovereigns for Sarah: After the court of Oyer and Terminer was dissolved, and all the witchcraft cases cycled through by May of 1693, the processes of petitioning for compensation and overturning the earlier verdicts began. At the fore of this effort was Mary's husband, Isaac Easty. It took almost 20 years, but on October 17, 1710, the General Court passed an act that, "the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and delcared to be null and void." Further, on December 17, 1711, Governor Dudley issued a warrant awarding Isaac 20 pounds sterling in compensation for the injustice of the 1692 verdict against Mary. Mary's sister Sarah received 3 gold Sovereigns, each worth 1/4 of a pound. Sarah retrieved them herself, in her first and only return to Salem. - http://www.boudillion.com/witchcaves/witchcaves.htm:
"Sarah was the fourth child of William Towne and Joanna Blessing of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England and Topsfield, Massachusetts. She was their first born in New England, on January 11, 1638, in Salem, Massachusetts, and baptised there on September 3, 1648, along with some siblings. Later, the family moved to Topsfield, Massachusetts, where Sarah married, on January 11, 1659/60, Edmund Bridges, Jr., the son of Edmund Bridges and his wife, Elizabeth. Edmund was born about 1637. Sarah and Edmund had three children in Topsfield by 1667, then moved to Salem, Massachusetts, before 1669, where they had two more children, including Hannah. Edmund died about 1682 in Salem. After the death of Edmund, Sarah married Peter Cloyes of Salem Village, and apparently had 2 children, Benoni, baptised September 2, 1683, and Hepzibah, who married February 3, 1708, Ebenezer Harrington. In 1692, Sarah, along with her sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Esty, were accused in the Salem Witch trials. Rebecca and Mary were hanged, but Sarah, who had also been condemned, escaped from the jail in Ipswich. In the spring of 1693, members of the Towne, Bridges, Barton, Cloyes and Elliott families moved away from Salem, no doubt because of the witch trials, and settled in the new community of Framingham, Massachusetts, where Sarah died about 1703. Information for this biography from the privately published book, The Bartons, by Ray Barton Jr.; NEHGR, v. 84, 'The Bartons of Oxford, Massachusetts'; New England Marriages Prior to 1700, by Torrey; Genealogical Dictionary of New England, by Savage; Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts (1933), by Blodgett & Jewett, pg 42; the vital records of Ipswich, Topsfield, Salem and Framingham, Massachusetts." - Ken Smith (findagrave.com)
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1638 - Abt 1703 (64 years)
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