The Curse Tree of Jamestown

This story begins with a young lady named Sarah Harrison. She was the daughter of Benjamin Harrison jr. as well as the great aunt of Benjamin Harrison V (a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As a side note his son, William Henry Harrison, and great-grandson, Benjamin Harrison both became President of the United States). She was said to be rather attractive and had many suitors. She eventually agreed to marry a man named William Roscoe whom her parents highly approved of.

However, Sarah was not to marry William. Soon after her engagement became official, she met -- and fell in love with -- a man named James Blair. Her parents were not pleased with this. One, she was already engaged. Two, Blair was almost twice her age. At the time, if a young woman married someone significantly older than her, it was seen as a sign that her family had fallen on hard times (in contrast, Roscoe was only five years older than Sarah). When she married James, her parents kicked her out of the family.

(As a side note, local legend has it that William Roscoe died of a broken heart shortly after the breakup. I can't find anything to verify this so take it with a grain of salt.)

She wasn't forgiven by her family when she died in 1713 and was even denied burial in the Harrison family plot. James put her into a vault next to the plot on Jamestown Island and was buried on the other side of her when he died thirty years later.

It is at this point that the sad story of a young woman who was disowned by her family takes an unusual turn. After James Blair was put in the ground next to his wife, a sycamore tree grew between the graves pushing Sarah's stone into the Harrison family plot. The tree died a few years ago and a sycamore sapling grew in its place and supposedly florishes there today.

(Source: Weird Virginia by Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor and Loren Coleman)

This story was one of my primary reasons in visiting Jamestown. I can tell you that it looks as though all the gravestones were moved closer to the church. It didn't look like anyone is allowed in the old cemetery so all I had to go by was a sign that pointed out the locations of all the markers. at the opposite end of the graveyard were small iron plaques that bore a number that corrasponds with the numbers on the sign. I assume these mark the actual burial site. I found the iron markers that corrisponded to the numbers listed by the Blairs' names and there was a tree beside them. Not in between them. I'm not sure if they were delebrately placed there or not. I kind of wish that I could try to locate the Harrison plot to compare them with. The book I got the story from was published in 2007 so they could have moved.

This is one story that deserves further investigation and I can definately see another visit to Jamestown Island sometime in the future.

Here is a close up of the stump. My father was with me and he wasn't sure what type of tree it was:


Here is the stump next to the Blair markers: