An 1840 Gothic Revival church and its adjacent graveyard — the oldest in Wilmington — with the long-told legend of Samuel R. Jocelyn Jr., reportedly buried alive in 1810.
25 S 3rd St, Wilmington, NC 28401
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Self-guided exterior and graveyard visit is free. Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington ticketed separately for evening tours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks around the church and graveyard; grass and uneven ground within the cemetery
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1840 · Colonial Parish (chartered 1729) · Thomas U. Walter Architect · Oldest Cemetery in Wilmington · Gothic Revival
The parish of St. James was chartered in 1729 as one of the original Anglican parishes of colonial North Carolina. An earlier parish church stood on the site through the 18th and early 19th centuries. The current Gothic Revival building was designed by architect Thomas U. Walter — later the architect of the U.S. Capitol dome — and completed in 1840.
The graveyard adjacent to and behind the church is the oldest cemetery in Wilmington. Burials at the site predate the current church building by several decades and include prominent figures from colonial and antebellum Wilmington commerce, politics, and military history. The cemetery remained the principal downtown burial ground for the city's Anglican / Episcopal community until the establishment of Oakdale Cemetery in 1855 began to draw new burials north.
St. James continues to function as an active parish of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina with regular Sunday services and ongoing community programming. The parish maintains both the church building and the historic graveyard, and the site is a regular stop on downtown Wilmington walking tours.
The building, the parish records, and the graveyard together represent one of the longest-documented sequences of religious and community history in coastal North Carolina.
Sources
The Samuel Jocelyn buried-alive story is one of the most consistently told ghost narratives in Wilmington and is the centerpiece of the St. James graveyard lore. According to versions of the story published by Salt Magazine, Only In Your State, WWAY-TV, and the Wilmington tourism board, Jocelyn was a young man (born in the late 1780s) who had been at a hunting lodge with friends and family in the spring of 1810. He left the lodge after a domestic disagreement, was thrown from his horse, and was found unconscious in cold standing water. He was pronounced dead and buried in the St. James graveyard.
A few nights later, according to the story, Jocelyn's friend Alexander Hostler was woken in the night by Jocelyn appearing at the foot of his bed and telling him that he had been buried alive. Hostler and a small group reportedly exhumed the body and found Jocelyn's fingers torn down to the bone from scratching at the lid of the coffin and his body turned from its original interred position. The event was never officially documented in surviving parish records and exists primarily as oral tradition and through Carolina ghost-tale books.
Visitors and ghost-tour guests report muffled cries and scratching sounds from the graveyard at night. Older accounts describe a local dare in which young residents would lie atop Jocelyn's grave with an ear to the ground for an hour; the lore claims that no one ever completed the full hour. The Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington and the year-round Haunted Wilmington tour both feature the graveyard as a consistent stop.
The Salt Magazine 'Five Most Famous Ghosts' feature lists Samuel Jocelyn as one of Wilmington's defining paranormal figures.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Evening guided walking tour passing the graveyard adjacent to St. James Episcopal Church. The Samuel Jocelyn buried-alive story is one of the most consistently told stops on the Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington and the Wilmington Ghost Tours circuit.
The exterior of the Gothic Revival church and the historic graveyard can be viewed from public sidewalks during daylight hours. The oldest portion of the burial ground predates the current church building.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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