Margin Street, Danvers
c1658, demolished c1938
George Jacobs (1620-1692) will be a familiar name to anyone who has read about the Salem witch trials of 1692. Jacobs was accused by his servant and others of being a wizard, and he was hanged at Gallows Hill, among twenty who were executed. His son, George Jr., George Jr.’s wife Rebecca, and their daughter Margaret all lived with George Sr. at this homestead. They were also charged with witchcraft. George Jr. fled, leaving Rebecca and Margaret imprisoned. Under pressure from the court, Margaret accused her grandfather, but later recanted.
Family lore had it that Jacobs’ body was retrieved from Gallows Hill and buried in secret on his property. Bones that are presumably his were discovered there when the land was developed in the 1950’s, and in 1992 they were laid to rest in the Nurse family graveyard in Danvers, near fellow witchcraft hysteria victim Rebecca Nurse.
His house stood on Margin Street, in what was Salem Village, for nearly 300 years, and remained in the family until after 1920. According to the Historic American Buildings Survey, it “fell in ruins 1938.” It stood on a rise of land above the Crane and Waters Rivers, and must have commanded a rich view of the countryside. Jacobs Avenue, off Margin Street (behind the Sunnyside Bowladrome), commemorates the family, and is possibly the site of the home.
The Historic American Buildings Survey made record drawings of the Jacobs House, which you can see here: loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0615.sheet.00000a/resource/ Use the “next” arrow to navigate. There are seven drawings.
Further reading:
Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “George Jacobs, Sr.: The Fearless Accused Witch.” History of Massachusetts Blog, August 23, 2016. historyofmassachusetts.org/george-jacobs-sr-salem/
Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Vintage Books, 2002.
Schiff, Stacy. The Witches: Salem, 1692. Little, Brown and Company, 2015.
Among many others.
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