In 1807 a local plantation-owner, Thomas Chase, purchased a
family vault at Christ Church graveyard
in south-west Barbados. That year Mrs Goddard, one of his relatives, was laid
to rest there, Chase’s infant daughter, Mary Anna, was buried in 1808, and
Dorcas, another daughter, followed in July 1812. When the vault opened later in
1812 to receive Chase’s own body, Mary Anna’s coffin was found upended against
the opposite wall, and the others had been flung about. Attendants set the
coffins straight and sealed the vault.
When
another baby from the family was buried in 1816, the vault was again found
dramatically disordered, although sand on the floor remained undisturbed. The
coffins were set out neatly again but another family interment seven weeks
later saw a repeat of the chaotic scene. Tales of evil spirits and the cruelty
of Thomas Chase began to circulate.
A crowd
gathered to witness the next burial in 1819. This time Lord Combermere,
governor of Barbados, observed the havoc in the crypt. His wife’s diary records
that he examined the building, supervised the rearrangement of the coffins, the
re-sprinkling of sand on the vault floor, and the careful sealing of the heavy
door, with ‘secret marks’.
On 18
April 1820, after noised had been reported from the vault, Lord Combermere
returned to the graveyard He found the seals unbroken and the door difficult to
move. Yet again the coffins had been thrown about, and one had even damaged the
stone wall. This time family members were so horrified that they removed all
their dead to new graves, and the vault has remained empty ever since
In
England similar instances were reported near Bury St Edmunds in the eighteenth
century and Stamford in the early 1800s. Flooding or earth tremors were
suggested explanations. Other such disturbances occurred in 1844 on the Baltic
Sea island of Saaremaa. Officials investigated thoroughly, and carefully sealed
the vault, but noised and damage persisted until the bodies were placed elsewhere.
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