A beautiful shaft of granite has been erected over her grave by her descendants. The monument is of Rockport and Quincy granite, and is eight and a half feet high. The base and apex are of Rockport granite, and the die of Quincy granite, polished and lettered as follows:
REBECCA NOURSE. YARMOUTH, ENGLAND. 1621. SALEM, MASS. 1692.
O Christian martyr, who for truth could die, When all about thee owned the hideous lie, The world redeemed from superstition's sway, Goes breathing freer, for thy sake, to-day.
Accused of witchcraft, she declared, "I am innocent, and God will clear my innocency." Once acquitted, yet falsely condemned, she suffered death July 19, 1692.
In loving memory of her Christian character, even then fully attested by forty of her neighbors, this monument is erected July, 1885.
NEY (famous French marshal, "The bravest of the brave"), 1769-1815. "_Soldiers--fire!_" said to the soldiers appointed to dispatch him.
Some say his last words were: "Comrades, straight to the heart, fire!" While repeating these words, he took off his hat, it is said, with his left hand, and placed his right hand upon his heart. The officer gave the signal with sword at the same moment, and the marshal instantly fell dead, pierced with twelve balls, three of which took effect in the head.
NOYES (John, the martyr). "_We shall not lose our lives in this fire, but change them for a better, and for coals, have pearls_," said to a fellow martyr.
OATES (Titus), about 1619-1705. "_It is all the same in the end._"
Titus Oates was the son of an anabaptist minister, but was educated for the Church of England, and received an appointment as chaplain in the royal navy. He was dismissed in disgrace from the navy, and united with the Jesuits. Later he rejoined the Church of England, and revealed a pretended popish plot, which resulted in the execution and imprisonment of many innocent persons. For this he received a large pension, and was granted a residence at Whitehall, where he lived until the death of Charles II. Under King James he was convicted of perjury and publicly whipped. William III. pensioned him.
An old acrostic, in a book published by Nat. Thompson, the bookseller, "at the entrance into the Old Spring Garden near Charing Cross," during the reign of Charles II., has this choice description of Titus Oates: