One of New Jersey's oldest graveyards, dating to 1695, behind the white St. James Episcopal Church in Edison — famed for the legend of Mary Moore, the 'Witch of Edison,' and her supposedly cursed headstone.
2136 Woodbridge Avenue, Edison, NJ 08817
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to view from the public sidewalk and during church-grounds open hours; this is an active church cemetery, so visit respectfully during daylight.
Access
Limited Access
Old graveyard with uneven, settled ground and grass paths
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1695 · One of the oldest burial grounds in Middlesex County (granted 1695; oldest stone 1693) · Active St. James Episcopal parish since 1704 · Common grave of British Revolutionary War soldiers buried in the Post Road breastworks · Resting place of original colonial families, a Civil War general, and town mayors
The Piscatawaytown Burial Ground sits on Woodbridge Avenue (the old Post Road) in the section of Edison historically known as Piscatawaytown. The Proprietors of the Province of East New Jersey granted a tract of land for a burial ground and a town common on March 5, 1695, and the surrounding settlement grew to include a town hall, militia training ground, stockade, jail, church, burial ground, and houses. The oldest readable monument in the cemetery is dated 1693, making it one of the earliest burial grounds in Middlesex County.
St. James Church was established in 1704, with the original structure built in 1724. The existing white-frame church building dates to 1836 and remains an active Episcopal parish. Generations of the area's founding families were laid to rest in the adjoining ground; by a 2015 survey, more than 1,800 burials had been identified, roughly 1,500 of them with surviving gravestones.
The burial ground carries significant Revolutionary War history. To the east of the grounds lies a common grave of British soldiers who died during the Revolution; they were buried in the British breastworks — a defensive trench dug along the Post Road, now Woodbridge Avenue. The cemetery also holds American soldiers from several wars, a Civil War general, town mayors, and other influential early residents, and a Saint James Church historical marker stands at the corner of Woodbridge Avenue and Myrtle Street.
In recent years the site has been studied with ground-penetrating-radar and public-archaeology programs to better map its many unmarked and lost graves, underscoring both its age and its importance to local heritage.
Sources
The most enduring legend at the Piscatawaytown Burial Ground concerns Mary Moore, remembered in local folklore as the 'Witch of Edison.' As the tale is told by regional storytellers, Moore was a local woman accused of witchcraft and put to death in the early 1700s — said to have grown strange plants in her yard, made animals behave oddly, and dressed unusually. Accounts of her death vary widely: some versions say she was hanged, others that she poisoned herself after murdering her husband. Importantly, historians point out that there is no documented evidence of an actual witch trial in Edison, so the story is best understood as long-lived folklore rather than verified history (News 12 New Jersey).
The legend's most repeated element is the 'cursed headstone.' According to widely circulated accounts, in the 1970s two local brothers, John and Charles Porubsky, found a flat marker carved with the name 'Mary Moore' and carried it home. As the story goes, one brother was later struck and killed by a car on Route 27, and the surviving brother — overcome by guilt or fear — destroyed the headstone and buried the fragments. The tale is cited in regional folklore writeups and aggregations of 'cursed graves' (Mental Floss, Random Times).
Visitors who come looking for Mary Moore repeat a summoning ritual: walk around her grave three times and spit, and you are supposed to come face-to-face with her ghost. In practice, her grave is famously difficult to find, and the legend has only grown harder to pin to a specific stone. Reported phenomena around the burial ground include apparition sightings attributed to Moore and a general sense of unease among nighttime visitors. As with all the lore here, these are folklore traditions, not documented events.
Notable Entities
Stroll one of the oldest burial grounds in Middlesex County, established 1695, with the oldest readable monument dated 1693. Markers include original colonial families, a Civil War general, town mayors, and a common grave of British soldiers who died in the Revolutionary War. The legend of Mary Moore, the 'Witch of Edison,' draws curiosity-seekers year-round — though her grave is famously hard to locate.
View the white-frame St. James Episcopal Church (present building 1836) and the burial ground from Woodbridge Avenue, near the Saint James Church historical marker at the corner of Myrtle Street.
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