Haunted York, Maine – Mary Nasson’s grave

At left: The haunted “Witch’s Grave” of York, Maine
Mary Nasson (1745 – 1774)

On 17 Oct 1999, I visited the Old Burying Yard on Rte. 1a in York Harbor, Maine. It’s a small cemetery on the right, slightly west of the downtown area. You can park in town and walk back to it.

On this day, I was searching for the grave of witch “Mary Miller Jason.” That was the name reported in at least one book about the ghosts of Maine, and at several websites.

Instead, I found a grave that matched the book’s description, but the woman was Mary Nasson, wife of Samuel Nasson.

I’m fairly certain that the “Jason” spelling was originally a typo that spread as one resource copied another.)

I took several photos to document this grave, since–until other books and websites started using Hollow Hill as a resource–I was the only one who’d spotted the misspelled name.

(Footstone inscription)

(To see a larger photo of the grave and the slab, click on the small photo centered at the top of this page.)

Mrs. Nasson’s grave is known as “Witch’s Grave,” and it is reported to be haunted.

Skeptical after the name was different from some published accounts, I put my hands on the stone slab covering the grave. The slab was reported to emit heat, and I found the stone to be much warmer where it meets the headstone (the larger of the two grave markers).

The crows which frequent the cemetery in the summer are reported to be Mrs. Nasson’s “familiars,” still paying tribute to her. There were none when I visited in October, but I often saw the crows in the graveyard when I lived in York.

The inscription on the headstone:

Here liest quite free from Lifes
Distrefsing Care,
A loving Wife
A tender Parent dear
Cut down in midst of days
As you may see
But – stop – my Grief
I soon shall equal be
when death shall stop my breath
And end my Time
God grant my Dust
May mingle, then, with thine.

Sacred to the memory of Mrs. MARY NASSON, wife of Mr. SAMUEL NASSON, who departed this life Aug. 18th 1774, AEtat 29.

However, Mrs. Nasson’s grave is not the only eerie one in the cemetery, nor the only reason why the cemetery may be haunted. For more information about the Old Burying Yard, see our other pages about York, Maine.