After George Jacobs Sr. was executed on August 19, 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials, his body was reportedly buried on his farm in Danvers, Mass.
According to historian Charles Wentworth Upham, in his book Salem Witchcraft, the body of George Jacobs Sr. was secretly retrieved by his grandson, who strapped him onto the back of a horse and brought him back to his farm, where he buried him underneath some trees. His grave was then marked by two field stones.
This legend of his secret grave was somewhat confirmed in 1864 when the remains of an unknown person were discovered on the Jacobs property and exhumed.
An examination of the body found that it was that of a tall, elderly man who was missing his teeth, which matches the description of George Jacobs Sr. when he was still alive. After being examined, the body was then reburied in the same spot.
Then in May of 1904, the Boston Globe reported that the Jacobs family accidentally sold the parcel of land where Jacobs’s grave was located.
The incident happened when the family sold part of their farm to Danvers millionaire William Penn Hussey. When that section of land was measured off, it was found to contain the grave of George Jacobs Sr., according to the Boston Globe article:
“The Jacobs heirs have unwittingly sold the grave of their ancestor George Jacobs, the Witchcraft martyr, which they have guarded for more than two centuries. This grave is the only one known of those 19 victims of the awful delusion in 1692.”
The article went on to say that the grave will probably soon be marked by a tablet or a marker provided by either the general public or the Danvers Historical Society.
A news report published in the Boston American newspaper a few days after stated that a plan to mark the grave with a monument had already been underway when the grave was accidentally sold off and that the “family meant to retain the plot including the grave, and that it was sold was not discovered until after the deed was executed.”
In 1932, the Jacobs House located on the property was destroyed in a fire, and the Beverly Evening News reported at the time that the house had been unoccupied for several years and the property was currently owned by a Worcester real estate syndicate.
In 1950, the body was accidentally uncovered by bulldozers after the property had been sold to land developers who were turning it into a housing development.
The remains were then moved to a winter crypt at the local cemetery and then given to Danvers historian Richard Trask in the late 1960s, who placed them in storage in the Danvers Historical Society archives (Baltrusis 49).
In 1992, the body was reburied in the nearby Rebecca Nurse Homestead family cemetery with a headstone that included Jacobs’ defiant testimony from his trial:
Here Lyes Buried
Ye Body of
George Jacobs SR
Decd August 19
1 6 9 2
Well! Burn Me or Hang Me,
I Will Stand in the Truth of Christ
Sources:
Nevins, Winfield S. Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692. The Salem Press Company, 1916
Nevins, Winfield S. “Stories of Salem Witchcraft.” New England Magazine, vol. 12, March-Aug. 1892, pp: 217-229.
Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Spirits. Vol. I, Wiggin and Lunt, 1867.
Baltrusis, Sam. Wicked Salem: Exploring Lingering Lore and Legends. Globe Pequot, 2019.
“George Jacobs Sr.” Find a Grave, findagrave.com/memorial/8639/george-jacobs
“Witchcraft Martyr Grave Sold Off by Mistake.” The Boston American, 14 May. 1904, p. 3.
“Grave of Martyr Sold.” The Boston Globe, 13 May. 1904, p. 5.
“Historic Jacobs House Destroyed By Fire.” Beverly Evening Times, 13 July, 1932. p. 5.
“Witch Gets Tombstone.” Lawrence-Journal World, 17 May. 1993, p. 22.