MY ANCESTRAL CONNECTION TO SALEM

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My great grandmother’s name was Elizabeth Towne. Her great grandmother’s name was Abigail Williams, and her great grandmother’s name was Rebecca Towne Nurse. She and her sister were hanged in Salem for the crime of witchcraft in 1692.

 

As her direct descendent, I feel a special connection to the terrible events of that time. I first read about her in the ancestry compiled by my Grandfather, (which is in the collection of the Danvers Archives Library in neighboring Salem.)  I learned that I descend from her by two lines on my grandmother’s side and by one line on my grandfather’s side. When you see it in diagram form, the connection doesn’t seem so remote – only nine generations! Not that I am unique: there are thousands of descendents of victims of the witchcraft hysteria.

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As I read more of the history and the trial transcripts, ideas for songs started coming to me. Sometimes the melody came first, sometimes

the lyrics. It would happen at unexpected times: while driving the car, or walking my dog. I could “hear” the melodies and chords in my head almost as though I was actually listening to them.

“Tell us Tituba, Tituba tell us. Weave your magic, cast your spell. Will we marry? When and which of us? Tell us Tituba, Tituba tell.”

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As the number of songs increased, I realized that they actually told the story of what happened during that tragic time in Salem. I wrote dialogue (some of it from the actual trial transcripts), and pulled it all together as a play - a Dramatic Musical entitled "Salem Towne."

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The music is like nothing I've ever written before and I do believe that I composed “Salem Spell” with more than a little help from my ancestral collaborators.

“In such a place as this, at such an hour, descending spirits have conversed with man and told the secrets of the world unknown.”    C.W.Upham, Salem Witchcraft

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