The most puzzling case that year was the accusation of Rebecca Nurse of Salem, who was a pillar of the church and widely respected for her upright life. The only resentment townspeople felt toward her had to do with her care of a young Quaker orphan who had chosen the Nurses as his guardians after his parents died.

Quaker families, among whom figure the John Pearces and John Hammonds, clustered around Lobster and Goose Coves in Gloucester. According to town records, other families in this area from about 1654 to 1673 were the Thomas Riggs, the Stanwoods, the Richard Windoes, and the Richard Beefards. The Stannards (Stanwoods), though not Quakers themselves, consented to alliances with the Quakers, Jane Stannard having married John Pearce. The Somes and Sargent families in the area also intermarried with Quaker families. Clement Coldom and Francis Norwood, Sr. settled in this Gloucester neighborhood, and their troubles began almost immediately; at least Mr. Coldom's did.

Clement Coldom was a farmer in Goose Cove, a Gloucester militiaman, and a Congregationalist. He had been a member of the militia since 1645, but for rather vague personal reasons, his company suddenly stripped him of his rank of ensign in 1666. Christine Heyrman believes this might have been due to the marriage of Clement's daughter, Elizabeth, to Francis Norwood three years earlier.

"Coldom's fall from grace could have been brought about by his new son-in-law, Francis Norwood, Sr. Norwood had come to New England after (sic) the restoration of the Stuart monarchy made England an inhospitable environment for someone with his radical religious and political convictions. He first kept a tavern in Lynn, a center of early Baptist and Quaker enthusiasm, but after a few years, he settled in Gloucester at Goose Cove amidst the Quaker Pearces and Hammonds and the Congregationalist Coldoms. In 1663 he married Clement Coldom's daughter" (Heyrman, 1984).

Regarding Francis Norwood's possible Quakerism, the following points can be made:

1. Francis Norwood, Jr. is in the records of the Salem monthly meeting of Quakers.
2. Francis, Sr. did not join the First Church, though in his will (perhaps, admittedly, pro forma) he addresses "God the father of spirits" and speaks of "God in his goodness and mercy", indicating spirituality.
3. Francis, Sr. purchased land from Quaker John Pearce in 1682.
4. Mature, adult members of the Quaker community were typically more circumspect than the young people, and are therefore hard to identify, not appearing in local records as such.
5. Francis, Sr., in his will, states "I committ and comend...my body to the ground to be decently buried by my surviving friends..." (A study of other wills should be made to ascertain if the mention of "friends" here might have to do with Quaker friends or simply to natural, worldly friends.).
6. Quakers did not usually use burial markers, and Francis, Sr. appears not to have had one.

Additional historical information about Quaker persecution in the Massachusetts Bay colony can be found by clicking here