Grandma Rebecka and the Witches' Tree

The year 1692 is an annus horribilis on the American timeline which has been engraved on the hearts of men, inscribed in the annals of history, is remembered with sadness, and continues to admonish humanity about the ease with which those deemed as other can be persecuted and made to suffer. Rebecka Nurse, ne Towne (known to many as Rebecca Nurse from Arthur Millers The Crucible and the authors 11th maternal great grandmother) could claim Charlemagne, the Anglo-Saxon kings of England, and the noble family de Ferrers among her ancestors, but nothing could save her from the gallows which had been made of the Witches Tree in the ancient Wampanoag settlement called Naumkeag, now Salem. Her own second cousin, Roger Conant, had founded Salem after leaving Plymouth (Plimoth), which all at her trial knew. He, in turn, had fought with Myles Standish (a relative of both his and Rebeckas) the governor of Plymouth and the authors 9th maternal great grandfather. This turmoil, envy, and perhaps even boredom, intertwine like the gnarled branches of the ancient tree which gives this story its title.