This led to the death
by hanging of nineteen men and women. Seventeen others died in prison and Giles Cory was crushed to death. History recorded the tragedies. In January of 1692, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris
of Salem Village became ill. The village doctor unable to determine their sickness diagnosed that the girls were under the spell of witches. This led to the death
by hanging of nineteen men and women. Seventeen others died in prison and Giles Cory was crushed to death. History recorded the tragedies.
The colonialists of Massachusetts Bay Colony held a strong belief in the devil. There were also strong political disagreements between rural Salem Village and Salem Town. Salem was divided into a prosperous town—second only to Boston—and a farming village. There was also a faction of villagers who wanted their own separate church from Salem town.
In 1689 the villagers won the right to establish their own church and chose the Reverend Samuel Parris as their leader. 
Friction increased as he demanded larger compensation and title to the parsonage. It is a story of a church divided. Many of the accused were on the side of replacing the Reverend and also lived on the more prosperous side of the river closer to Salem town. By 1691 passions were ripe.
Prisons were filled with over 150 men and women from the Salem area towns. A group of young girls were the first accusers. Death was the the punishment for the practice of witchcraft. Rebecca Towne Nurse, Mary Towne Easty, and Sarah Towne Bridges, three sisters in the Towne family were accused.
Soon after the first of the women had been accused of witchcraft, Rebecca Nurse became a suspect. She is reported to have said "I am innocent as the child unborn, but surely, what sin hath God found out in me unrepented of that He should lay such an affliction on me in my old age."[4] On March 23 a warrant was issued for her arrest upon the complaint of Edward and John Putnam. The Putnam family was involved in land disputes with Rebecca and her husband, Francis Nurse. The Putnams also sided with Samuel Parris.
In June of 1692, the special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) convened in Salem. Presided over by Chief Justice William Stoughton, the court was made up of magistrates and jurors. The first to be tried was Bridget Bishop of Salem who was found guilty and hanged on June 10.
Rebecca was indicted on June 2 and given a physical examination by a jury of women to find marks of the devil. They found a mark which two of the women felt was from natural causes. Rebecca Nurse was tried on June 29, 1692. Her accusers included the four young girls, Rev. Parris and several members of the Putnam family. Rebecca's son, son-in-law and daughter-in-law spoke in her defense. In addition, some 40 members of Salem Village signed a declaration defending her character.
The jury at first returned a verdict of "not guilty." Some accused confessed to practicing witchcraft hoping to escape death. Goody Hobbs, had muttered "she is one of us." When Rebecca was asked what Goody Hobbs had meant, she didn't answer probably explained by her inability to hear very well. The "one of us" may have meant that they were both prisoners and accused. The Governor at first granted a reprieve, but when Rebecca's accusers complained it was rescinded.
On July 3, Rebecca Nurse was excommunicated -- "abandoned to the devil and eternally damned." This was even more hurtful than the accusation. On July 19 she was driven in a cart with four other women to Gallows Hill where she was hung. Francis Nurse, his sons and sons-in-law found Rebecca's body in the common grave brought it to the Nurse homestead for burial in a secret place. Witches due to the crime were denied proper burial.
One of Rebecca's sisters, Mary (Towne) Estey, was also hung on charges of being a witch. The last of the executions in Salem took place in September 1692.
Thirteen women and five men from all stations of life followed her to the gallows on three successive hanging days . Convictions were based on the spectral evidence that witches controlled invisible forces to torture their victims. Governor William Phips grew disgusted when his own wife was mentioned by the afflicted girls. He suspended the special Court of Oyer and Terminer. He replaced it with the Superior Court of Judicature that disallowed spectral evidence. That new court condemned only 3 of 56 defendants. In May 1693 Phips pardoned all those who were still in prison on witchcraft charges. They were free provided they could pay their jail bills.
By 1703 the General Court made payments to the heirs of the victims and 25 pounds was paid to the heirs of Rebecca Nurse. In 1706, Ann Putnam made a written statement of remorse. She said that the devil had deceived her into accusing innocent people and mentioned "Goodwife Nurse" in particular. In 1712 the pastor who had cast Rebecca out of the church formally cancelled the excommunication.
Francis Nurse survived until November 22, 1695. 
The house where he and Rebecca lived still stands and is maintained by Danvers Alarm Company.
This story is dramatically presented in the PBS movie "Three Sovereigns for Sarah", starring Vanessa Redgrave. Monuments have been erected in Danvers (prior Salem Village) and Salem, Massachusetts.