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Died in Walpole, N. H. Jan. 7, 1892, Salem Towne, aged 78 years; also in Keene N. H., March 12th, 1892, Elisha Towne, aged 84 years. They were the youngest sons of nine children of Elisha Towne, who was born in Sturbridge, Oct. 28th, 1771, by his wife Mariam Lane. They were relatives of the Townes formerly so numerous and prominent in Oxford and Charlton. These Townes are decendants of William and Joanna ( Blessing ) Towne, from Yarmouth, Norfolk county, England, who emigrated with six children to Salem in 1640, the oldest and youngest of these six children, Rebecca, wife of Francis Nurse, and Mary, wife of Isaac Estey, being among the unfortunate victims of the witchcraft delusion in Salem in 1692. The first of the family in this county was a grandson of William and Joanna, Dea. John Towne, who settled in Oxford in 1712, and also his sons Jonathan and Israel, Jonathan’s son Jacob being father of Hon. Salem Towne, born in this town, Oct. 21, 1746, and afterwards of Charlton, who was father of Gen. Salem Towne who died in Charlton, February, 1872, aged 92 years, whose wife was a daughter of Gen. John Spurr of Charlton, a distinguished citizen of this county in the Revolutionary time, the later being also parents of the late Major John Spurr of Charlton, and of the late Col. Samuel D. Spurr of Worcester, whose daughter was the first wife of Hon. George F. Hoar and sister of the patriotic and lamented Lieut. Thomas Jefferson Spurr of the old 15th Mass. regiment, which suffered so terribly in the disaster of Ball’s Bluff in 1861. |