"The opposition to Mr. Parris was led by connections of the Towne family.  The interminable quarrels which covered a period of five years consisted of intense bickerings between the two sides in the village, those against Parris, and those for him.  The latter, it must be admitted, were always in the majority.
The Towne family connections were Peter Cloyes, who had been an original covenater with Samuel Parris, and who, after his wife's imprisonment in 1692, became a bitter opponent; John Tarbell, a son in law of Rebecca Nurse, who had been a supporter of Parris before the witchcraft proceedings; Samuel Nurse, Rebecca's eldest son; and Thomas Wilkins Jr., who was married to a daughter of Edmund Towne, the long dead brother of the three Towne sisters, Rebecca Nurse, Mary Esty, and Sarah Cloyes. Their implacable resentment against Samuel Parris eventually bore fruit and finally led to his being discredited and asked to leave, but not before calling into the fray John Higginson and John Hale who, as we have seen, had already shown themselves to have been sorry for their part in the witchcraft proceedings; and Nicholas Noyes who sat on the fence for a while but finally capitulated when Increase Mather and other Boston ministers were brought in to settle the dispute; and civil arbitrators were asked to give their opinion as well."  (Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)

2/5/1693; Committee chosen to discourse with their townfolk,  Samuel Nurse, John Tarbell and Thomas Wilkins, Jr.,  about 'their withdrawing from the Lord's table'.  The response to this committee was read aloud by Samuel Nurse at Rev. Parris' house on 2/16/1693.  (Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)

2/7/1693;  John Tarbell, Samuel Nurse and Thomas Wilkins, Jr., went to Rev. Parris house to speak to him about their displeasure with him, and on 2/8/1693 "Brother Peter Cloyes came from Boston to me with the very same objections, whom I answered after the like manner," that he, Parris, did not yet "see sufficient grounds to vary" his opinion.  Shortly thereafter all of them came back again bringing with them William Way to continue their discourse.  (Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)

4/14/1693;  Samuel Nurse, John Tarbell, Francis Nurse and Thomas Wilkins with Joseph Hutchinson, Sr., went again to Rev. Parris' house to discuss their displeasure with him as minister.  Parris did not have time to discourse with them that day so they met again on 4/20.  On this date they were unable to come to an agreement so they met again the following morning.  On 4/30 Parris brought out the complaints against him in open church and set up a meeting to allow the 'dissenters' (who were now non-church members) to speak to his bretheran of their complaints against him. This meeting took place on 5/18/1693 without an agreement made between the parties.  Matters reached such an impasse by midsummer that forty-nine of the Salem villagers addressed a petition to Governor Phips about the non-settlement of their differences and the wish for impartial citizens to decide the fate of their minister. The petition was signed those who were most injured by the witchcraft trials and included Peter Cloyes, John Tarbell, Thomas Wilkins, Samuel Nurse, Thomas Preston, and Daniel Andrew.  In October ministers from neighboring towns got involved in the dispute and met with some of the dissenters as well as Rev. Parris. On 11/5 another meeting was scheduled with message to Tarbell and Nurse to inform Peter Cloyes "if he be not too remote".  On 11/13/1693 the group met again, including Peter Cloyes, their petition was to call in an outside counsel. This airing of grievance by the two opposing factions continued until 10/11/1696 when Parris left town.  (Currents of Malice - Persis W. McMillen)

The widow Mary Towne of Topsfield testified in Ipswich court, Sept. 6, 1714, that as administratrix of her husband's estate, she had paid to Thomas Wilkins who married one of her daughters, her portion of the estate. Essex County Probate Records, vol 311, page 181.