Never Said I Wasn’t a Cheapsake
I accepted an offer to give Newspapers.com a free week-long trial. I found some interesting, if minor, articles. All are related to my ghostly volumes published by Brom Bones Books. I’ll present them in chronological order.
An 1828 Reference to “Ghost Hunters”
I found an 1828 article that uses the term “ghost hunters” in an issue of the Essex, Herts and Kent Mercury. I quickly added this to The Rise of the Term “Ghost Hunt” TARDIS, a page that charts my discoveries regarding the long history of that still-familiar (and, in some circles, controversial) term. From time to time, I’ve come upon the misconception that ghost hunting begins in the late 1800s in response to the rise of Spiritualism and the Society for Psychical Research. My own digging has revealed that there’s far longer, much richer history to this branch of paranormal investigation. I write about that in Certain Nocturnal Disturbances: Ghost Hunting Before the Victorians.
The Silverton Abbey Haunting and Late-Victorian Ghost Hunting
Something that might’ve fit nicely in The Victorian Ghost Hunter’s Casebook is a 16-page pamphlet titled The Ghost of Silverton Abbey: A True Story. It was published in 1896 and written by H.A. Fitz-Maurice and J. Pooley. Unfortunately, it’s extremely rare, and a guy who pounces on a free trial to Newspapers.com ain’t going to buy a ticket from the North American Great Plains to Britain to see it. (Of course, there are other very nice things one might visit in Britain, but that’s a discussion for another time.)
I did, however, find a couple of newspaper articles by the same authors. In fact, I found the article that first stirred interest in the haunting. It was published in London’s The Standard on April 22, 1896, and the writer reviews a variety of weird phenomena happening at what he renames “Silverton Abbey” to protect the actual place. (The real names of the building and the letter writer are divulged here.)
A number of responses were published in The Standard, but the one I personally found most interesting is from Fitz-Maurice and Pooley. They recount their investigation of the site in the May 6th issue, and describe some of the “peculiar attributes” they encountered there. Over two nights, the duo heard footsteps, something heavy being dragged, and a loud bang. They conclude:
We are fully aware that the usual objections will be urged; but we can only say we took all precautions, such as examining bolts, bars, &c., and patrolling the house twice during the night, being provided with a pistol and lights, and the fact remains, based on our joint testimony, that the most unusual sounds were heard, which we who heard them are quite sure could not have been caused by rats, cats, wind, and so forth. We can offer no explanation, and must refer any one interested to the various authors and Societies who investigate these matters.
In other words, Fitz-Maurice and Pooley were not among those more formal investigators. The manifestations seem fairly routine, if not disappointing, but it would be interesting to read that pamphlet to get a sense of how amateur ghost hunters went about their business.
The case sparked several letters, including a follow-up by Fitz-Maurice in the May 8th issue. He points out that the house was a fairly new one and then mentions that, based on his “reading on the subject,” hauntings should be “received quietly and in a sympathetic manner” or the ghost is liable to be scared away. Subsequent investigators reported their experiences in the May 13th and May 21st issues of the Standard, and these take a more skeptical stand on some of the phenomena.
There’s not enough here to qualify Fitz-Maurice and Pooley for the Ghost Hunter Hall of Fame. I’ll certainly reconsider this if I ever manage to read their pamphlet. Until then, you’ll find comparable pamphlets listed and linked in the “Pamphlets on Individual, Purportedly True Hauntings” section of The Victorian Ghost Hunter’s Library.
Remember that Help-for-the-Haunted-ish Ad?
Now, whether Vera Van Slyke is fictional or factual is a matter of debate. I usually assume my great-grandaunt, from whom I inherited the chronicles of Van Slyke, was either making things up entirely or, at least, allowing her imagination to “enhance” the tales.
Yet, quite a few years ago, I came upon and blogged about a 1919 advertisement with the heading: “HAUNTED OR DISTURBED PROPERTIES.” The ad, run in London’s The Times, offers aid from a person who “will find out the history of the trouble and undertake to remedy it.” This has intriguing similarities to an ad run by Van Slyke, as discussed in Help for the Haunted: A Decade of Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries. However, I had never seen the quirky ad itself until now:
Something I hadn’t known was the ad ran just about every week for several months. The earliest printing I found was February 25th, and the latest was June 3rd. It would be interesting indeed if this ad had been placed by Vera Van Slyke herself!
— Tim
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