Page 62 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

42 Ghosts and Phantoms

Mary Ricketts returned to Hinton Ampner knew that it was the master because of the
only once after she had moved away. She drab-colored gray clothing that Lord Stawell
entered the house alone and heard a sound was so fond of wearing. From that time on, the
that she had never heard before, a sound that “gray man” and his groans and plodding foot-
she said caused her “indescribable terror.” steps were heard in the corridors of Hinton
Lady Hillsborough sent her agent, a Mr. Ampner. The lady was said to have been the
Sainsbury, to stay a night in the house and to phantom of the first Lady Stawell.
test the truth of the rumors about her manor.
M Delving Deeper
Mr. Sainsbury did not last the night. Price, Harry. Poltergeist Over England. London: Coun-
In 1772, a family named Lawrence moved try Life, 1945.
into Hinton Ampner. Their servants reported Sitwell, Sacheverell. Poltergeists. New York: Universi-
seeing an apparition of a woman, but the ty Books, 1959.
Lawrences threatened their servants not to
make any statements. They lasted a year Myrtles Plantation
before they moved out. After their occupancy, According to the Smithsonian Institution, the
the house was pulled down to be used in the Myrtles Plantation located three miles north
construction of a new manor.
of St. Francisville, Louisiana, is the most
When Mary Ricketts resided in the man- haunted house in the United States. Built on
sion, an old man had come to her with a tale the site of an ancient Native American burial
about having boarded up a small container for ground in 1794 by General David Bradford,
Lord Stawell, the original owner of Hinton the plantation has been the location for at
Ampner. He had suggested that the small box least 10 violent deaths. Throughout the years,
might have contained treasure and might offer owners and their guests have fled the house in
a clue to the haunting. Workmen discovered the middle of the night, terrified by the
the container when they were stripping the appearance of frightening ghosts—and the
mansion. It was found to conceal the skeleton entities continue to be sighted to this day.
of a baby.
The haunting began when Bradford’s
When Mary Ricketts learned of this star- daughter Sara Matilda married a young judge
tling discovery, it seemed to offer the final key named Clark Woodruffe. Although the
to the legend of Hinton Ampner. The vil- Woodruffes were happily married and their
lagers said Lord Stawell had engaged in illicit union had produced two daughters, Clark
relations with the younger sister of his wife, began an extramarital affair with Chloe, one
who had lived with them at the manor. It had of the house slaves, when Sara Matilda was
been the subject of ancient gossip that his sis- carrying their third child, who would also be a
ter-in-law had borne his child—a child that daughter. Although Judge Woodruffe had a
had been murdered at its birth. When Lady reputation for integrity with the law, he was
Stawell died, her sister, Honoria, became the also known as being promiscuous. At first,
mistress of Hinton Ampner. The past wrongs Chloe tried to deny the sexual demands of her
began to form a chain of evil: The first Lady master, but she knew that if she fought against
Stawell, wronged by a younger sister and an them, she could be sent to work in the fields.
indiscreet husband; the innocent babe, born Eventually, the judge grew tired of her and
of an illicit union, murdered, its body boarded chose another house slave as his new mistress.
up in the walls of the manor. Lord Stawell, the When Chloe saw that she had fallen from
perpetrator of most of the sins, was himself left favor, she feared that she would also lose her
on his bed in the yellow room to die in agony, position as a servant in the mansion and be
while his family waited outside, ignoring his ordered to the fields.
groans of pain. Chloe hoped that she might somehow win
It was shortly after Lord Stawell’s death in back Woodruffe’s affections and not be in dan-
1755 that the groom swore that his old master ger of being sent to the brutal work in the
had appeared to him in his room. The groom fields. One evening, as she stood nearby the

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