If these stones could speak
Want to learn more about Charter Street Cemetery? Pick up If These Stones Could Speak: The History and People of the Old Salem Burying Point by Daniel Fury. Learn about the people who lived and died in Salem. Black-and-white grave photographs accompany profiles of some of the dead, along with their gravestone inscriptions.
Compiled from many sources and checked against extant gravestones and vital records, the burial index is the most comprehensive list yet. To help you find your way around the burying ground, the book is divided into family groups and sections, with maps included. And if you’re unfamiliar with the symbols, terminology, and funeral practices of early Salem inhabitants, Daniel added helpful information on those topics too.
While none of the victims executed during the Salem witch trials are buried at Old Salem Burying Point, their memory lingers there. Behind the Samuel Pickman House, now the Charter Street Cemetery Welcome Center, the 1992 Salem Witch Trials Memorial features stone benches engraved with each victim’s name and death date. Every time I visit, I whisper their names as I follow the path. Near Bridget Bishop’s stone, you’ll find an entrance into the cemetery.
Besides an overview of the witch trials and the memorial, the book provides biographies of the 20 witch-hunt victims executed and those who perished in jail as well.
A resident of Salem, author Daniel Fury is a proprietor of Black Cat Tours and a founding member of Friends of the Downtown Salem Historic Cemeteries.
Read more: Salem’s Old Burying Point: Old photos by Frank Cousins
I wish I could find out where Elizabeth Jackson How was buried.
She was hanged on July 19th, 1692.
The Essex Institute has certified our family tree which shows that I am her great grand daughter (however many generations by now), through her bloodline and her daughter Deborah.The How family descended to the Littlefields, which is my paternal grandmother.
Do we know where the victims were buried?
Elsie Collins
Elsie,
No, we don’t know where the Salem witch trials victims were buried, but they were not buried in one allocated spot for accused witches. Although they had private burials and unmarked graves, their bodies were taken from Proctor’s Ledge and buried by family and friends. We know this from numerous family stories. From records we know the gravediggers only dug shallow graves (probably in anticipation that families would take their dead) and that no bones were found at Proctor’s Ledge.
Rest assured that these victims were buried so that they could rest in peace, undisturbed by those who believed they were witches. They may have been buried on family property or at relatives and friends’ private burial places. And while you cannot visit (or find) those secret burial places, Salem, Danvers, and other towns have created memorials so you can show your respects to and mourn the victims of the 1692 Salem witch trials.