The curse can be said to have struck even before the Boston Light on Brewster Island in Boston Harbor was even built. On the 3rd January 1713, respected Boston merchant John George, wary of losing more trade to the turbulent storm that battered the New England coast, petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to build a lighthouse on the island. By November 24th of that same year he was dead, during the worst measles epidemic the colony had seen. George was buried in another man's tomb, with his wife Lydia marrying again two years later, becoming the third wife to Cotton Mather, best known for his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials. On the 14th September 1716, the lighthouse was complete, and first lit, as recorded by ‘The Boston News-Letter’ of Sept. 17, 1716, which reported that the “Light House has been built; And on Fryday (sic) last the 14th Currant the Light was kindled.” The first lighthouse in the American Colonies, is operated by the first lighthouse keeper George Worthylake, who also on the 3rd November 1718, became the first lighthouse keeper in the American colonies to die at his post. Worthylake drowned alongside his wife Ann and daughter Ruth, when their canoe overturned returning to the Lighthouse. George Worthylake’s body was never found, although his name appears on a headstone alongside that of his wife and daughter, in the colonial Boston cemetery of Copp's Hill Burying Ground on a unique tripe headstone. Copp's Hill is also the site of the grave of Cotton Mather. Their drowning was recorded in the ballad, "The Lighthouse Tragedy", and sold on the streets of Boston by its author, a young Benjamin Franklin. (Continued in the comments). #hauntedlighthouse #lighthouses #folklore #myths #mythsandlegends #bostonmassachusetts #bostonma #newenglandhistory #newenglandlegends #bostonlight #bostonlighthouse #coppshillburyingground #benjaminfranklin #cottonmather #massachusettsbay #americanrevolutionarywar #ghoststories #ghosttales #historicalstories #gothictales #historyofboston #bostonhistory #ghosthistory #cemetaryart #bunkerhill #bostonharbor #bostonharborislands #ghosts #darkromanticism #ghost https://www.instagram.com/p/CT7cGirlNeJ/?utm_medium=tumblr
