Mary Ellis Grave - New Brunswick, NJ
Posted by: 
jiggs11
N 40° 29.352 W 074° 24.996
18T E 549441 N 4482219
Gravesite of Mary Ellis and her relations, buried 6 feet ABOVE an urban mall parking lot in New Brunswick, NJ.
Waymark Code: WM11AND
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 09/17/2019
Views: 7
An unusual spot for a grave.
The gravesite was on a family property from the 1930's until 1990, until it was sold for the current mall development, with the stipulation that te graves were to remain undisturbed. The developer obliged, and actually lowered the surrounding parking lot area to ensure that the graves would be left alone.
From Wikipedia:
"Mary Ellis (1750–1828) was a spinster in New Brunswick, New Jersey.[6] According to oral tradition, she was seduced by a sea captain who vowed to return to marry her. He never returned and she would come to the spot where her grave now stands, each day, to look for his ship in the Raritan River in New Brunswick.
Her story has been suggested as the inspiration for the 1972 pop song "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". The lyrics tell of Brandy, a barmaid in a port town. She wins the admiration of many of the sailors, but cannot return their feelings — the love of her life was unwilling to abandon his true love, the sea.
However Elliot Lurie, lead guitarist for Looking Glass and writer/singer of the song, said in an interview that the lyrics were loosely based on a girl he knew in real life named "Randye" but he changed the name to "Brandy" to remove the ambiguity of the gender. While the stories may be similar, the song has nothing to do with Mary Ellis. “No, that’s an incredible coincidence,” he said. “I write fiction.”
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