In this church, founded in A.D. 1123, dedicated to St. Nicholas in 1251,* and still retaining the name, were married, March 25, 1620,

The extreme length of this structure is 230 feet, its greatest width 154 feet. The lot, upon which the church stands, contains upwards of eight acres, and the writer noticed the following New England names upon the Tombstones, viz.: Bailey, Briggs, Bowles, Cobb, Clarke, Collins, Carr, Dawson, Ellis, Edwards, Fiske, Fowler, Forster, Fuller, Francis, Giles, Gray, Goddard, Hart, Herbert, Johnson, Kemp, Lowe, Lawrence, Lee, Marston, Marshall, Moore, Mason, Nichols, Pearson, Plummer, Pearce, Reed, Read, Shepard, Symonds, Simpson, Seamans, Shreve, Thornton, Thompson, Wright, Wales and Wilson; also the name of Matthew Champion, who died Oct. 8, 1793, aged 111 years; and the fol'lowing suggestive inscription upon the tombstone of a mariner:

"This life's a voyage, the world's a sea,
Where men are strangely toss'd about,
Heaven's our port, steer thou that way
There thou shall anchor safe, no doubt."

William Towne and Joanna Blessing, and here their six first children were baptized. The next we hear of this family is at Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, where in the book of early grants appears the following: "11. 8 mo., 1640, Granted to Wm. Towne, a little neck of Land right over against his house on the other side of the river." He is also referred to in the Court Records of the same year thus: "17th Qt., last of 4th mo. and 1. 5th mo. 1640. Wm. Towne pl. agt. Jn° Cook def. in act. of debt, Jury find for pl. some to be deputed to measure John Cook's land and what is remaining to make up Goodman Town's land and if it be ffyve acres to pay Towne ffyve marks and w' is wanting of ffyve acres to abate 13s. 4d. p. acre: And costs 4s. : 0." Wm. Towne's residence was in that part of Salem known as the Northfields," and he remained at this place till 1651, the year following the incorporation of the town of Topsfield, when he purchased a tract of land in the latter place of Wm. Paine, of Ipswich, "containing forty acres of ground or thereabouts, whereof six acres is by the sellar which Wm. Howard of Topsfield built, and about thirty-two acres joining up to the sayd six acres eastward of it, part of which is plow ground, another part is meaddow, another part is upland unplowed, all lying together, having the meadow and the plow ground of the said Wm. Howard towards the east and the ground of Walter Roper towards the North and a Sertaine River towards the South or South West. Also a little piece of meddow of about two acres lying on the South side of the river directly against the plains of the said Wm. Howard, having ye grounds of the said Wm. Howard towards y° East and the said River towards ye North and upland towards the South."

In 1652, he sold his property in Salem to Harry Bullock, in 1656 purchased additional land in Topsfield, and in 1663, "in consideration of natural affection and the contemplated marriage of their sonn Joseph Towne, with Phebe Perkins, the dau. of Thomas Perkins," he and his wife conveyed to their said son Joseph, two-thirds "of the home wherein they then did dwell, with Barne, out houses, yard, gardens, orchards, lying situate and being in Topsfield, together with a parcel of broken upland by the meddow side, only a cartway reserved between the said land and the meadow towards the South, and the land of Jacob Towne towards the East, and the land of Jacob Towne and Edmund Towne towards the North, and the lands of Isaac Estie towards the West-also another parcell of land broke up and unbroken, containing by estimation thirty acres, bounded by the way towards the South-East and North-East, and a way also towards the South-West; the land of Zacheus Gould and Edmund Towne towards the North-West, and the land of Edmund Towne and Isaac Estie towards the North. Also, a parcel of meddow lying on the North side of the river, having the river for the bounds towards the South, a highway towards the West, and a way towards the North, and meddow of Jacob Towne towards the East, containing by estimation fourteen acres.

All these conveyances being made with the desire that their said son Joseph should have the first refusal of the remaining third when the same should be for sale. He died about 1672, and from the final settlement of the estate of his widow, she seems to have survived him about ten years. Their children, baptized at Yarmouth, were:

7. Sarah,* m.1st, Jan. 11, 1660, Edward Bridges; 2d, Peter Cloyes. 8. Joseph, b. about 1639.†

SECOND GENERATION.

4.

II. EDMUND TOWNE, eldest son of William and Joanna Towne, was baptized at Yarmouth, Norfolk Co., England, June 28, 1628; m. Mary, dau. of Thomas Browning; was a member of a committee from the town of Topsfield, who, in 1675, presented a petition to the General Court for leave to form military companies to protect the inhabitants from the Indians while at work, and d. between the date of the presentation of the petition and May 3, 1678, the date of the inventory of his estate. The will of his widow is dated Feb. 1, 1710, and in it she is said to be aged. It was proved Dec. 16, 1717. Joseph was named as administrator, but he d. before his mother, and Thomas and William were appointed.

II. JACOB TOWNE, son of William and Joanna Towne, was baptized at Yarmouth, Norfolk Co., England, March 11, 1632, resided at Salem, Essex Co., Mass., in the "North Fields," with his father about twelve years; m., June 26, 1657, Catharine, dau. of John Symonds, of Salem ; made his will at Topsfield, Nov. 24, 1704, and d. the third day following, aged about 73 years. His will was proved Jan. 1, 1704–5, John, executor.

son

These sisters suffered terribly during the Witchcraft delusion at Salem in 1692-Rebecca and Mary being executed, and Sarah barely escaping with her life.

+At a County Court held at Salem in 1660, in the case of Henry Bartholomew plaintiff, Jacob Towne defendant; William, Edmund and Joseph Towne were witnesses, and in their evidence William stated that he was three score years old, Edmund that he was thirty-one years of age, and Joseph that he was about one and twenty; and in the case of Norman vs. Orne, at Ipswich, in 1685, Jacob Towne, Sen., aged about 54 years, testifieth and saith that he lived in Salem in the North fields, that he was there an inhabitant near twelve years, and that he had been absent from there this four and thirty years.

+19. John,

+20. Jacob,

21. Catharine,

Children:

b. April 2, 1658.

b. Feb. 13, 1660.

b. Feb. 25, 1662; m. Elisha Perkins, Feb. 23, 1680. m. John Stiles.

22. Deliverance, b. Aug. 5, 1661; {

23. Ruth,

24. Edmund, b. July 21, 1666.

8.

II. JOSEPH TOWNE, youngest son of William and Joanna Towne, was b. about 1639, and m. Phebe, dau. of Dea. Thomas Perkins, of Topsfield. He accompanied his father in his removal from Salem to Topsfield; was made a freeman, March 22, 1690; was a member of the church at the latter place, and d. 1713, aged 74 years.

Children:

25. Phebe, b. May 4, 1666.

26. Joanna,

b. Jan. 22, 1668; m. Thomas Nichols, Dec. 15, 1691. b. March 27, 1670.

28. Susannah, b. Dec. 24, 1671.

27. Mary,

III. THOMAS TOWNE, son of Edmund and Mary (Browning) Towne, was b. at Topsfield in 1655, and March 17, 1685, m. Sarah French. He was in Captain Lothrop's company at Hatfield, Aug. 12, 1675, and may have been one of the very few of that company, numbering eighty-eight men, who escaped from the fatal encounter with the Indians on the memorable eighteenth of September following, at the battle of Bloody Brook. He was at this time about twenty years of age, and an historian of that period remarks, that "the company was made up of young men, the flower of Essex County, who were not afraid to speak to the enemy within the gate."* He d. in the early part of 1720, aged 65 years. His sons Edmund and Thomas were his executors.

III. WILLIAM TOWNE, Son of Edmund and Mary (Browning) Towne, was b. at Topsfield, March 13, 1659; m., 1st, Eliza, who became the mother of several children, all of whom d. in infancy; 2d, Aug. 22,

1694, Margaret, widow of John Willard, he having been executed at Salem about two years previous, during the witchcraft delusion.

40. Mary,

Children:

b. July 3, 1695.

41. William, b. Nov. 22, 1697; d. Dec. 23, 1697, aged 31 days. 42. William, b. Feb. 25, 1699.

+43. Isaac,

b. April 10, 1701. 44. Ichabod, b. Feb. 18, 1703.

+45. Jeremiah, b. May 27, 1705.

46. Deborah, b. Aug. 16, 1707; m. J. Kenny, of Topsfield, May 1, 1729.

47. Mercy, b. Sept. 19, 1709; m. John Towne, Jr., April 22, 1729. 48. Keziah, b. Feb. 9, 1715; m. Robert Fitz, of Sutton, Nov. 9, 1739.

13.

III. JOSEPH TOWNE, son of Edmund and Mary (Browning) Towne, was b. at Topsfield, Sept. 2, 1661; m. Amy, dau. of Robert Smith, Aug. 10, 1687, and d. in 1717, aged 56 years. She was b. Aug. 16, 1668, and d. Feb. 22, 1756, aged 87 years.

III. SAMUEL TOWNE, son of Edmund and Mary (Browning) Towne, was b. at Topsfield, Feb. 11, 1673; m. Elizabeth Knight, Oct. 20, 1696, and d. in 1714, aged 41 years.

III. JOHN TOWNE,* son of Jacob and Catherine (Symonds) Towne, was b. at Topsfield, April 2, 1658, and Feb. 2, 1680, m. Mary Smith. He was an efficient man in town affairs at Topsfield, and administered upon the estate of his father there in 1704. Framingham was incorporated in 1700, and at the first town meeting, holden on the fifth of August, of that year, he was chosen Selectman, and several subsequent years was elected to the same office. He resided at Framingham till 1712, when he removed to Oxford, where he and his sons Israel and Ephraim were proprietors. At the first town meeting holden there, on the 22d of July, 1713, he was chosen Town Clerk and Selectman, and continued to enjoy the confidence of his fellow townsmen for many years. He

* The first of this family, in this country, who spelt his name Town, omitting the e.