Several weeks ago, we came across a spooky document in the Weld of Lulworth Archive (D-WLC/Z/22) headed “A True Account and Narrative of an Apparition in the parish church of Beaminster in the County of Dorset”. Of course, this merited further investigation! After all, who doesn’t love a ghost story at Halloween?
It’s not clear when the document was written, but the apparition appeared in 1728, and the handwriting looks to be from around the same time. The first paragraph sets the scene, telling how Isaac Daniel of Beaminster, died, leaving land worth £300 to his son John. John – for reasons unknown – nominated his stepmother (Isaac’s one-time servant and now widow Elizabeth) to be the next tenant of the land. Not long after, he was discovered dead in a stream, with unexplained bruising on his neck and body. Understandably, John’s neighbours suspected foul play, but nothing could be proven, at least until John’s ghost appeared… What follows is a transcription of the account of the apparition, which makes up the rest of the document. The original text has very little in the way of punctuation – just the occasional comma here and there! We’ve added some more commas and a few full stops for the purposes of this blog, to make things a bit easier for the modern reader. We’ve also used modern spellings, though there are a few words we have not managed to transcribe. We will be keeping a true transcription (with the original spelling and punctuation) here at the History Centre, should anyone wish to read it.
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On Saturday the 22nd day of June anno domini 1728 Mr Guppy the schoolmaster of Beaminster, who teached his boys in the gallery in the church of Beaminster aforesaid, having between the hours of 11 and 12 in the forenoon discharged his boys as usual, left 3 or 4 of them in the school to sweep and clean the school and the rest of the boys or many of them were at play in the church yard. When on a sudden these boys as were in the church heard a jingling noise like a small bell at a distance in the church which seemed by degrees to come nearer to them, and one of the boys about 14 years of age who swept out the said school was coming down the stairs when he fancied he heard some body coming after him in boots, which caused him to look back, and at the farthest end of the school he saw an apparition of a white coffin with brass nails lying on a writing desk there, at the sight of which the said boy cried out and leapt or fell down the stairs, in which he bruised himself.
Several other of the school boys that were without the door in the churchyard that opens against the school stairs and where you can see the greatest part of the school and particularly the beforementioned writing desk, came to the church door, and there some of them that were on one side of the door saw the apparition of the above mentioned John Daniel sitting at a writing desk, where he used to write when living, in a writing posture with the same [?] clothes and hat hanging over his face and having one of his hands bound up with a linen cloth in the same manner as he had on and wore the morning next before his death. The other boys that were on the other side of the door saw the coffin only, with brass nails and an end of gartering tape hanging on the handle at one end thereof. Those boys that stood in the middle of the door saw distinctly both the boy and the coffin, being 4, the last plainly saw the boy sitting as if he had been writing habited as [aforesaid?] and his coffin lying by his side. The said boys staying sometime at play in the churchyard went several times out of curiosity to the said church door in a full body, and looking up still saw the apparition, until Isaac his brother (being one of them aged 10 years) coming to the said door and looking up towards the apparition threw up a stone and said “there Johanes take it”, immediately on which it was exceeding dark all over the church, in so much that the boys could not see the windows, though a very clear day.
Which darkness presently went off, and the lyche or apparition disappeared, but the boys were terrified to the degree that, running out of the churchyard, some of them fell over the church wall, being low, and alarmed the neighbourhood. [This?] apparition having increased the suspicions that his relations before had that the boy was murdered, got a warrant from the honourable Colonel Brodrepp, next justice of peace to the said parish of Beaminster, who convened all persons before him who were likely to make any discovery in case the child was murdered, and amongst the rest sent for the said schoolboys and examined them touching the said apparition. 8 were examined, being kept apart from each other and examined separately, all concurred in the same story with its circumstances even to [?]. What is very remarkable, one of the 8 boys newly come to the school, a stranger that had never seen the said John Daniel, gave the same account with the others and definitely described him with his dress and stature as if particularly acquainted with him for his whole life.
What is further remarkable is that, the coroner being sent for and ordering the coffin to be taken up, 2 of the said schoolboys who had not seen the boy buried, as soon as the coffin was taken up, were overheard to say to one another, there Jack there is the gartering that we saw in the handle of the coffin when it lay upon the writing desk. And the sexton and all others that were present at the boy’s burial did not remember that any such thing or gartering was left in the handle of the coffin at the time it was laid in the ground.
The mother in law of the boy, who long before this accident was very gay, singing and merry, any time affected to sing but it’s observed by the neighbourhood that she pined away her lips sealed, and in this time in an infirm way.
About 6 weeks after the said apparition, the devout people being at church [?] Wednesday a young woman aged 14 years of very good repute for [?] and [?] was kneeling behind her master in the school when of a sudden a woman habited in a dark coloured gown with a flowered handkerchief about her neck and a shawl tied upon her head pushed open the door against the school stairs and with her body bent looked up into the school. On which the said girl touched her master on the shoulder, being behind him, and said “master there’s a woman wants to speak with you”. On which the master said “where”, she answered “at the church door”. The master, having a child ill at the same time, was under a surprise fearing his child was worse, ran down instantly in the [?] part of [a minute?] and saw the door pulled to with some violence, but saw nobody, and as soon as he was without the door, admiring that nobody was to be seen, searched behind the buttresses of the churchwall and corner and all about, but could see nobody, which increased his surprise for that it was impossible for any human creature to get out of the churchyard in so short a time. The minister who read prayers and all the congregation heard the door shut with a great noise, though there was no wind or any creature about to open or shut it. And girl and master, being much surprised, related the story, on which the girl described the woman thus: thin of stature, much broken with the pox and a pale countenance, had on a sand coloured gown, flowered handkerchief and straw hat. Neighbours coming in and hearing the relation said it must be the ghost of John Daniel’s own mother for the description exactly answered her person and garb being perfectly well acquainted with when she died. And it’s to be observed that the girl who saw her could not possibly describe her, being born about the time of her death.
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Unsurprisingly, reading this document left us with many questions! Was John Daniel really murdered by his stepmother? Did his father really bequeath him land with a value of £300? Did Isaac, John and Elizabeth even exist at all? Fortunately, there are many documents held at the History Centre we could look to for answers. If you’re interested in finding out more about this spooky tale, be sure to have a look at our next blog!