A man has discovered a chilling ‘ghost story’ dating back more than 200 years in the run-up to Halloween.
Jim Spencer made the creepy discovery while looking through a box of old deeds dating back to 1785.
Jim, who is director of Rare Book Auctions, was stunned to read a handwritten note detailing how aristocrat Francis Eld was visited by the spirit of his dead mother, Catherine.
While in his daughter’s bedroom at Seighford Hall, near Stafford, in the early hours of 19 March 1785, Eld describes experiencing a “puff of air” across his face and a “sort of cloud or vapour”, which took on the voice and appearance of his mother.
The voice reportedly spoke to him and said “My child, be not grieved, I am dead, but happy”.
Unaware his mother had died at the time of the “visitation”, the creepy experience made the man “faint”.
239 years later, the story has been brought into the light incidentally.
“The fact I discovered this during the run-up to Halloween gave me a shiver,” Jim told What’s The Jam.
“I found it in a box full of old indentures relating to the Whitby family of Shugborough and Haywood.
“It’s the sort of thing I see all the time but the word ‘visitation’ just caught my eye.
“As soon as I realised they were talking about a ghost, I genuinely couldn’t read quickly enough, my eyes were racing ahead of my brain.”
Reading on, Jim recounts that Eld learned the news of his mother’s death a few days later – news he was expecting, following the haunting.
When he realised the appearance had coincided with her death, he “fainted away” in shock.
Jim continued: “At the funeral, Mr Eld told his father about the mysterious haunting, which turned him ‘into jelly’.
“Mr Eld’s father, John Elde of Dorking, was a notable benefactor of Stafford General Infirmary who was painted by renowned society painter Thomas Gainsborough.”
The handwritten account comes with correspondence between Reverend Thomas Whitby of Creswell and Reverend Townson of Malpas, Cheshire, discussing ‘this very uncommon event’, as well as a statement from Francis Eld’s servant, taken down by Whitby.
Jim added: “The fact that Mr Eld’s experience was documented and discussed by members of the clergy, as well as a servant’s testimony, underlines how greatly he was affected by the incident.
“Seeing the ghost of his own mother telling him she had passed away when he thought she was alive was frightening enough.
“When his worst fears were met and he realised her visitation coincided with her passing, it was enough to make him faint from shock.
“When you see Seighford Hall, near Stafford, a rambling period property with its origins in the late 16th century, the ghost story comes to life even more.
“It was built for the Eld family, almost certainly for Richard Eld (1546–1621), who was born in neighbouring Derbyshire.
“It’s awash with rooms and you can but imagine which one his mother appeared in to tell her son of her own death.”
The supernatural records and deeds will be sold at Rare Book Auctions in November.
Jim said of his find: “Most auction houses would’ve overlooked these papers, I’m sure.
“This is the part of the job I enjoy most, unpicking the history of an object and telling its story.
“How does one put a price on something like this?
“There’s no way of knowing how people will respond.
“They might find it unsettling.
“I’m guiding the archive of papers at £300-£500 but it could spark a determined bidding battle and more surprising result.”
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