General Notes

- "The origin of the Blessing family is obscure. The name Blessing has not been found after considerable search in the Norfolk County (ENGLAND) records at Norwich, and as the name Jone is the only instance of the name in the Yarmouth register for the period 1558 - 1611, it is possible that she was a foreigner. A general search for the name Blessing in records covering all England has been unavailing, and families of the name Blessing in now living in the United States claim a German origin. A glance at the map of Europe will show that Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and just south of it, Ipswich in Suffolk (the ancestral home of the Estys), are directly opposite the Low Countries across the North Sea to the west.  Many emigrants from Germany and the Low Countries were attracted to Yarmouth by the herring fisheries in the sixteenth century." (Currents of Malice - McMillen)
- February 08, 1655/56, bequeathed "old cloth gowne" by sister Alice66,66,67,68
- "Relations between the Gould family and the Townes and Estys had been strained ever since the quarrrel over their minister, the Reverend Mr. Gilbert, when Mary Esty's mother, old Joanna Towne, had supported him against the Goulds faction."(Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)
- 1670; She deposed that she was 70 years old in this year. (Pope's Pioneers of MA)
- 4/24/1673; Administration granted to Joanna Towne of the estate of William Towne. She was to bring inventory to the next Ipswich court.
(Salem Quarterly Court Records)
- 1692; Of Joanna's daughters Mary, Sarah and Rebecca; "Apparently young John Putnam had said that it was no wonder they were witches since their mother had been a witch herself." (Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)