Jacob's Post is a post outside the old Royal Oak pub just inside the north of

Ditchling Common Ditchling Common is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Wivelsfield in East Sussex. It is a country park. which is owned and managed by East Sussex County Council. In many respects, it is a biologically important sit ...

to the east of

Burgess Hill Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish in West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town, Chichester. It ...

, in

Lewes district Lewes is a local government district in East Sussex in southern England covering an area of , with of coastline. It is named after its administrative centre, Lewes. Other towns in the district include Newhaven, Peacehaven, Seaford, East Sussex ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

, England. The Royal Oak, Jacobs Post - geograph

It is named after a traveling peddler named Jacob Harris (also known by his Jewish name of Yacob Hirsch) who in 1734, according to local lore, killed the landlord of the Royal Oak pub's wife and a serving maid. He also slashed the landlord in the throat but he survived. After stealing a coat worth ten shillings, Jacob Harris ran north to

Turners Hill Turners Hill is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The civil parish covers an area of , and has a population of 1,849 (2001 census) increasing to 1,919 at the 2011 Census. The village is located three ...

and stayed at the Cat Inn. The landlord managed to round a party of searchers for Jacob that included soldiers and discovered him at Selsfield House hiding in the chimney by inadvertently flushing him out when they lit the fire. Harris was prosecuted and executed for his crime at

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby ...

gaol and his body was returned to hang in a

gibbet A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, executioner's block, impalement stake, hanging gallows, or related scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of crimi ...

at the northern end of

next to the highway and near the scene of his crime. The post where he hung took on a life of its own as people believed infertility and other ailments could be cured by touching the post. If you got a splinted from the post it was said you would never get toothache.SPECTOR, D. (1968). The Jews of Brighton, 1770—1900. ''Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England), 22,'' 42-52. Retrieved August 27, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29778767 Consequently people tool small pieces of the post when visiting. This continued well into the 19th century despite the original post being replaced by another. A number of ballads have been written about the event. The next recorded Jew in the Brighton area was in 1766. The post used to be visible from the road but the

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally ...

here has returned to scrub and has to be accessed via a track that starts from the farm drive or nearby Bankside Farm. The post itself has a metal bird nailed to the top. The Royal Oak pub was demolished for housing in 2017.http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/local/plan-to-demolish-pub-and-replace-with-flats-labelled-crazy-1-6814349 Mid-Sussex Times 15 January 2016

References

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External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20110724224720/http://www.yeoldesussexpages.com/ghosts/jacobs.htm Hamlets in East Sussex Ditchling Wivelsfield