Old Burial Hill is a historic cemetery in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Established in 1638, it is a 4.5-acre cemetery with 991 headstones.
The cemetery is located on a small hill on Pond Street, which was also the site of the town’s first meetinghouse.
The main entrance to the cemetery is located at the intersection of Pond and Orne Street and is marked by a low stone wall with square piers which leads to a path and steps that rise to the top of the hill.
The cemetery is the final resting place of many of the town’s first settlers as well as many other notable people. This includes General John Glover, eccentric businessman Timothy Dexter, more than 600 Revolutionary War soldiers, an enslaved woman named Agnes buried with her owner’s family, local fisherman and pirate captive Philip Ashton, and Mary Gale, a woman who testified against local accused witch Wilmot Redd during the Salem Witch Trials.
On the top of the hill are several graves known as Minister’s Row Cluster which are some of the most intricate headstones in the cemetery. Also on the top of the hill is a gazebo built in the late 20th century.
Many of the early burials in the cemetery were either unmarked or marked with materials like wood which have since disappeared. The oldest existing headstone is for Mary Latimer who died in 1681.
Most of the older headstones are made out of slate and the rest are made out of marble, which became a popular choice for headstones during the 19th century.
The older headstones were mostly likely carved and brought from England because there are no records of a gravestone maker in Massachusetts until 1723. The cemetery consists of 776 slate headstones and footstones and 125 marble headstones and footstones.
The cemetery is also home to a couple of memorials and monuments. This includes two tall marble obelisks, the Seamen’s Charitable Society monument erected in 1848 in honor of 65 sailors lost at sea during the Great Gale of 1846, and the Captain Mugford Monument, which was erected elsewhere in town in 1876 in honor of the Revolutionary War Captain James Mugford and was later moved to the cemetery in 1913.
During the early 1990s, scenes from two films, the 1993 movies Hocus Pocus and The Good Son, were filmed in the cemetery.
In 1998, a memorial stone was erected on the Pond Street side of the cemetery in honor of Wilmot Redd, the only person from Marblehead who was executed for witchcraft in 1692. Redd lived nearby at Redd’s Pond, which is named after her.
In 2009, the Old Burial Hill Oversight Committee was established to oversee the restoration of Old Burial Hill.
In October of 2023, the cemetery made the local news due to the appearance of a mysterious black cat that neighbors say shows up in the cemetery every year in October.
Locals find the cat fascinating due to its uncanny resemblance to the black cat named Thackery Binx from the film Hocus Pocus, which was filmed at the cemetery. In the film, Binx is a boy who was turned into an immortal black cat by three witches known as the Sanderson sisters.
Sources:
Bessom, Frank L. A Guide to Old Burial Hill. Marblehead, 1914.
Marblehead Reconnaissance Report. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 2005.
Pierce, Benjamin. “The mysterious grave of Susanna Jayne.” Marblehead Weekly News, 25 Oct. 2023, marbleheadweeklynews.com/the-mysterious-grave-of-susanna-jayne/
“Old Burial Hill Historical Marker.” Historical Marker Database, hmdb.org/m.asp?m=48005
“Vital and Burial Records.” Marblehead Museum, marbleheadmuseum.org/vital-burial-records/
“Old Burial Hill Headstones.” Town of Marblehead Massachusetts, marblehead.org/old-burial-hill-committee/pages/old-burial-hill-headstones
“The black cat of Old Burial Hill.” Marblehead Currant, 25 Oct. 2023, marbleheadcurrent.org/2023/10/25/the-black-cat-of-old-burial-hill/
Sokol, David. “Old Burial Hill cemetery in Marblehead established in 1638.” Wicked Local, 16 Oct. 2023, wickedlocal.com/picture-gallery/home/2023/10/16/old-burial-hill-cemetery-in-marblehead/71208695007/
“Marblehead’s Lost at Sea Monument in rough shape, report finds.” Marblehead Current, 26 Oct. 2022, marbleheadcurrent.org/2022/10/26/marbleheads-lost-at-sea-monument-in-rough-shape-report-finds/
“Historic Places.” Marblehead Historical Commission, marbleheadhistory.org/historic-places/
“Honoring Agnes: Special dedication on Old Burial Hill for enslaved woman.” Marblehead Current, 19 Sept. 2022, marbleheadcurrent.org/2022/09/19/honoring-agnes-special-dedication-on-old-burial-hill-for-enslaved-woman/
“Cemeteries in Marblehead.” Town of Marblehead Massachusetts, marblehead.org/cemetery-office/pages/cemeteries-marblehead
“Historic Burial Ground Detail: MAR.800 Old Burial Hill.” MACRIS, mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=mar.800