A HEAL GffOST The Binstead Haunting Re-Visited
Introduced and Annotated by Edward MacDonald Sunset at Binstead.
B i n s t e a d stuff at that. Meanwhile, the essential, respectable English matron of good underlying facts of the case tend to lose Victorian stock. We know little enough ree-shrouded and years-laden, themselves in the story. about her or her husband; we know a TBinstead House sits alone on a But sometimes, just sometimes, we good deal more about her family. Her gentle swell of land overlooking the meet someone who has encountered father, William Ward (1787-1849), had Hillsborough River in Marshfield. It is the supernatural firsthand, someone been a Director of the Bank of England invisible from the highway. Only by observant, reliable, and, perhaps, a and a deeply conservative Tory MP for following along a long clay lane can little skeptical. Their accounts are con- London. (A touch of historical whimsy: you catch glimpses through the leaves crete and specific, tied to times and he was also one of his era's most cele- of white walls and shuttered windows. places, people and events. They are brated cricketers). The eldest of her When constructed, some 150 years ago, reporting, not story-telling, and the four brothers, William George Ward Binstead was deep in the countryside, result is often eerier than the best-told (1812-1882) gained a different sort of four dusty miles from Charlottetown. tale of the supernatural. It is also, to notoriety. He began his career as a fel- In recent decades, though, the city has some extent, at least, verifiable. Such is low of Balliol College, Oxford and in been creeping ever closer and now, the case with the strange occurences at 1840, was ordained an Anglican priest. modern subdivisions inch their way Binstead House in Marshfield, Prince To his family's dismay, he became a across the fields from St. Peter's Road Edward Island during the third quar- leading figure in the Oxford Movement towards the estate. But they keep their ter of the 19th century. within the Church of England, was distance still, and the open fields What follows is a rare firsthand degraded from his university degrees somehow preserve the illusion of account of the Binstead haunting. It for his heretical views, and converted isolation. was written by a woman who seemed to Roman Catholicism in 1845. A col- A century's worth of renovations and perfectly willing to believe in the super- league of Cardinals Newman, Manning, additions masks the original architec- natural and published by a scholarly and Wiseman, "Ideal Ward" left his ture of the early-19th century building. Society that was prepared to take her mark as an outspokenly conservative, Nevertheless, it remains a handsome seriously. In providing names, dates, Catholic theologian and philosopher. house behind its palisade of hardwood and details, she gives us the opportun- What effect all of this had on Ward's trees. Nothing about it —- except, per- ity to examine an Island ghost story in sister is unknown. Her family's prom- haps, its age — suggests that Binstead its context and to do, as it were, an inence (another brother, Rev. Arthur B. was ever haunted. autopsy of the case. This is more re- Ward, had a distinguished career at It was. vealing than one might think. Although Cambridge University) does suggest, This is the story of that haunting. the Binstead Ghost seems to have gone however, that she was a woman of good about its haunting quite oblivious to breeding and social standing. She was the current state of the world, the born Georgina Mary Ward. It is typical Introduction: A Tale for woman who observed it was very much of the Victorian era that she is remem- the Telling a product of her times, and that fact bered only by her husband's name. She definitely affected why and how she married Arthur Pennee (or Penny) in Hauntings on Prince Edward Island reported what she saw. There is, then, 1850. He appears to have been one of have a habit of happening to someone more than one story to be told here. The those Victorian gentlemen of indeter- else, at indefinable times, in houses first concerns the narrator. minate occupation. In the summer of that no longer exist or locales that have 1855, he brought his wife and servant changed utterly. The ghost stories are to Prince Edward Island. Six years handed down and around and embel- The Ghost Writer and Her Times later they moved on to St. Anne de lished and refined until they are as Beaupre, Quebec. much art as history. They become the The haunting at Binstead was re- William George Ward spent his de- stuff of folklore — and very important counted by Mrs. Arthur Pennee, a clining years at his estate, Weston 8IHOL* Corns Two Ctam the SPR's activities was the systematic collection of case histories from per- sons that had encountered apparitions firsthand. Each was carefully classi- EMBER 28, 1889. VOL. 25.-NO. 150 fied and analyzed. Among them was Mrs. Pennee's account of the Binstead A Eeai Ghost! capital farmer. * It was he who added all the haunting. back wing of the house and made the nece* sary division*, &c, fur farming the land. He Pennee's testimony was published in The English Society for Psychical Re- had two sisters in his service, the daughter* the SPR's Proceedings for July, 1889 as search is still vigorously pursuing its inves- of a laborer who lived in a regular hovel part of a report somewhat ponderously tigations and is about to publish Part XV. about three miles nearer town. After a time titled "On Recognized Apparitions of its proceedings, containing articles on each sister gave birth to a boy. Vcryfittle can be learned of the domestic ar- Occuring More than a Year after apparitions duplex personality, seances Death." On November. 28, 1889, the with the celebrated medium, D. D. Home, rangemetrtsTsince Pigott bore so bad a name that &.c. The following case comes from Mr. the hoa*e was avoided by respeotable people; Charlottetown Daily Examiner pub- but i' ic cert. >n that one sister and one baby lished the account verbatim (with a Wilfrid Ward (and Lord Tennyson, for disappeared uhogether, though when ai.d how whom it was first committed to writing is a complete mystery. short introduction) under the headline some years ago). It was sent by Mrs. When the other baby wss between one and "A Real Ghost!". Peunec, of St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, two yea;sold Pigot Hold Binstead to an Eng- As befits a report to a scientific daughter of the late William Ward (a Con- lish gentleman n.-uried Fellowes, from whom society, Mrs. Pennee's account is rela- pcrvatne M. P. for London), and sister of we hired it, with the intention of eventually tively straightforward, even under- the late Rev. A. B. Ward, of Cambridge^ buying it. The othei Riater returned to her SHWATER, Ialeof Wight, father's house, and leaving the baby with Mrs. stated. Only in seeking to explain what WEST*** Newbury, her mother, went to the States en 1 she observed does she slip into lurid has never re*' ^ *J Before leaving she would *.t my husband Victorian melodrama. This is what the that *h« bov "'as her Daily Examiner published:
"A Real Ghost!" was front-page news in the November 28,1889 Examiner. A Real Ghost! Manor, near Freshwater on the Isle of inclined to be cautious, but they were It was in the year 1856 that my hus- Wight, where he lived, his biographer ready to believe. band took me to live at a house called states, "in the intimate society of his The SPR tackled its self-appointed Binstead, about five miles from Char- near neighbour", Alfred, Lord Tenny- task with tremendous energy during lottetown, Prince Edward Island. It son, English Poet Laureate. It was the 1880s, investigating several catego- was a good sized house, and at the back while visiting her family there, in 1884, ries of psychic phenomena (and expos- had been considerably extended to that Mrs. Pennee wrote her account of ing many frauds in the process). One of allow of extra offices, since there were the haunting at Binstead, reputedly at Lord Tennyson's own request. A few years later, W. G. Ward's son, Wilfrid, forwarded her testimony to the Eng- lish Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Her story served to fatten its growing files on psychic phenomena. Established in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research was dominated by a group of distinguished scholars and scientists who bound themselves "to examine without prejudice or prepos- session and in a scientific spirit those :
10 about two hundred acres of farm land her companion, so that the sequel of try to deliver them from the ghost of a around it, necessitating several resi- the ghost's proceedings is unknown. young woman with a baby in her arms, dent farming men. Although forming The following spring I went home to who had appeared several times. part of the house these premises could England, and just before starting I had After I went to live in Charlottetown only be entered through the inner kit- my own experience of seeing a ghost. I I became acquainted with the follow- chen, as no wall had ever been broken had temporarily established myself in ing facts, which seem to throw light on down to form a door or passage from up the room and one evening, finding my my ghost story. The ground on which stairs. Thus the farming men's sleep- little daughter (now Mrs. Amyot) far Binstead stood had been cleared in ing rooms were adjacent to those occu- from well, had her bed wheeled in about 1840 by a rich Englishman, who pied by the family and visitors, although beside mine that I might attend to her. had built a very nice house. Getting there was no communication through About twelve o'clock I got up to give her tired of colonial life, he sold the prop- the upstairs corridor. some medicine, and was feeling for the erty to a man whose name I forget, but I It was always in or near the sleeping matches when she called my attention will call Pigott (that was like the name). apartment immediately adjacent to the to a brilliant light shining under the He was a man of low tastes and immoral men's that the apparition was seen, door. I exclaimed that it was her papa, habits, but a capital farmer. It was he and, as that was one of our spare bed- and threw open the door to admit him. I who added all the back wing of the rooms, it may have frequently been found myself face to face with a woman. house and made the necessary divi- unperceived. She had a baby on her left arm, a check sions, etc., for farming the land. He had About ten days after we had estab- shawl crossed over her bosom, and all two sisters in his service, the daughters lished ourselves at Binstead we com- around her shone a bright, pleasant of a laborer who lived in a regular hovel menced hearing strange noises. For light, whence emanating I could not about three miles nearer town. After a many weeks they were of very frequent say. Her look at me was one of entreaty time each sister gave birth to a boy. occurrence and were heard simultane- — almost agonizing entreaty. She did Very little can be learned of the ously in every part of the house, and not enter the room but moved across domestic arrangements, since Pigott always appeared to be in close proxim- the staircase, vanishing into the oppo- bore so bad a name that the house was ity to each person. The noise was more site wall, exactly where the inner man's avoided by respectable people; but it is like a rumbling, which made the house servants [sic] room was situated. certain that one sister and one baby vibrate, like that produced by dragging Neither my daughter nor myself felt disappeared altogether, though when a heavy body, which one so often hears the slightest alarm; at the moment it and how is a complete mystery. in ghost stories. appeared to be a matter of common When the other baby was between As spring came on we began to hear occurrence. When Mr. Pennee came up one and two years old Pigot [sic] sold shrieks which would grow fainter or stairs and I told him what we had seen Binstead to an English gentleman louder, as if some one was being chased he examined the wall, the staircase, the named Fellowes, from whom we hired around the house, but always culmi- passage, but found no traces of any- it, with the intention of eventually buy- nating in a volley of shrieks, sobs, thing extraordinary. Nor did my dogs ing it. The other sister returned to her moans, and half-uttered words, pro- bark. father's house, and leaving the baby ceeding from beneath a tree that stood On my return from England in 18581 with Mrs. Newbury, her mother, went at a little distance from the dining was informed that "the creature had to the States and has never returned. room window, and whose branches been carrying on," but it was the Before leaving she would reveal nearly touched the window of the bed- screams that had been the worst. How- nothing, except that the boy was her room I have mentioned. ever, Harry (a farm servant) had had sister's, her own being dead. It was this It was in February (I think), 1857, several visits, but would tell no particu- very Harry Newbury that we had that the first apparition came under lars. I never could get Harry to tell me unwittingly engaged as farm servant. my notice. Two ladies were sleeping in much. He acknowledged that the He came to bid me farewell a few the bedroom. Of course, for that season woman had several times stood at the months after I left Binstead saying he of the year a fire had been lighted in the foot of his bed, but he would not tell me would never return there. In 1877 I grate, and the fireplace really contained more. One night Harry had certainly inquired about him, and found that he a grate and not an American substitute been much disturbed in mind, and the had never been seen since in Prince for one. other man heard voices and sobs. Edward Island. About two o'clock Mrs. M. was Nothing would ever induce Harry to let The SPR's Proceedings included two awakened by a bright light which per- anyone share his room, and he was addenda, which the Daily Examiner vaded the room. She saw a woman most careful to fasten his door before did not print. In a letter dated Sep- standing by the fireplace. On her left retiring. At the time I attached no tember 24,1887, Mrs. Pennee added: arm was a young baby, and with her importance to "his ways,"as we called right hand she was stirring the ashes, them. 'Another fact has come to my over which she was slightly stooping. In the autumn of the following year, notice. A young lady, then a child Mrs. M. pushed Miss C. to awaken 1859, my connection with Binstead of from 5 to 10, remembers being her, and just then the figure turned her ceased, for we gave up the house and afraid of sleeping alone when on face toward them, disclosing the fea- returned to Charlottetown. a visit at Binstead on account of tures of quite a young woman with a I left Prince Edward Island in 1861, the screams she heard outside, singularly anxious pleading look upon and went to Quebec. In 1877 I hap- and also the ( 11 (1) Mrs. Pennee interviewed will long be remembered by his phenomena she witnessed at Binstead? Father Boudreault, the priest sent old neighbors for his genuine A dissection of the case provides some for by the C. family to exorcise goodness of heart. The insinua- of the answers. It also involves some the house. Father B., however, tions of immorality and crime history. was on his death-bed; and al- made by Mrs. Pennee regarding In many respects, Mrs. Pennee's ex- though he remembered the fact his domestic life at Binstead, are planation was only as good as the that he had been sent for to Bin- wholly without foundation. The information given her. On some counts, stead for this purpose, he could statement that the house bore so at least, she was reasonably well in- not recollect what had been told bad a name at this time that it formed. The earliest record of the Bin- him as to apparitions, etc. was avoided by respectable peo- stead estate is a 1,000 year lease granted ple, is grossly false. That house- in 1807 by James Montgomery, Baronet, (2) Mrs. M., who first saw the fig- hold was presided over by a high- and Robert Montgomery, Esq. to one ure, has gone to England, and minded, Christian woman; and James Robertson. Charlottetown mer- cannot now be traced. Mrs. Pennee the character of the place and its chant Ewan Cameron purchased the adds: 'The lady in question told visitors, during these years, will lease in 1816. In June, 1832, the prop- several people that she saw a not suffer by comparison with the erty, then known as Fasfern Farm, was woman with a baby in her arms period when Mrs. Pennee's fam- offered for sale by his widow, Mrs. Jane when she slept at Binstead; and, ily were in occupation of the same Cameron. The eventual buyer was an like myself, she noticed a frilled house.' English gentleman, John Livett Esq. cap on the woman. The woman — the "rich Englishman" of Mrs. whose ghost we imagine this to Because he quarrelled with part of Mrs. Pennee's narrative. By the following be was an Irish woman, and per- Pennee's account, Ferguson discredited year, he had constructed a handsome haps you have noticed their love her entire story. This was not really pavillion-roofed dwelling house which of wide frills in their head-gear.' fair. As Guy W. Lambert, a modern he named "Binstead." (Again Mrs. president of the SPR has observed, the Pennee's narrative is correct.) In 1838, (3) Mrs. Pennee revisited Binstead "average" ghost story consists of two he was appointed to the Island's Legis- in 1888, and says, 'The tree elements: the account of the experience lative Council, an indication of his whence the screams started is cut and the interpretation of it, sometimes standing in the community. down; the room where all saw the during the process of observation, Why Livett disposed of Binstead is ghost is totally uninhabited; and sometimes later. '"The second stage is unknown. Perhaps, as Mrs. Pennee Mrs. C. would not let us stay in it, where most stories go astray,'" Lam- maintains, he did tire of colonial life. and entreated us to talk no further bert notes, '"and the account becomes When the 1841 census was being com- on the subject. From the man we coloured by superstition and fanciful got out a little, but she followed us theories.'"* This is precisely the prob- up very closely. He says that since lem Ferguson identified with Pennee's the priest blessed the house a account. In interpreting what she saw, *Lambert is quoted in Leonard R. N. Ashley's introduction to a re-print edition of the SPR's woman has been seen (or said to Mrs. Pennee slips into the quicksand of Phantasms of the Living (1886), published by have been seen, he corrected him- hearsay. Just how accurate is the Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints (Gainesville, Fla.) self) round the front entrance, background she provides for the strange in 1970. and once at an upper window.' i *« 1 1 s. I There, apparently, Mrs. Pennee's in- * ? |? 5 vestigations ended. ^* >o\ * . ^ 2 •N %>\ >§!" & £ i *l r»~ A Tale of Mystery and ..is* 5• Imagination si 5 II ' %*7 Reaction to "A Real Ghost" was swift S^zjM^i and disapproving. On December 2,1889, the Daily Examiner carried an indig- nant letter from Marshfield native n D. Ferguson (probably the Hon., later Senator, Donald Ferguson). '"If Mrs. Pennee's ghost story is no nearer the truth than what she is pleased to call "facts", relating to the life and charac- ter of a previous occupant of Binstead, to whom she applies the fictitious name of Pigott,'" he wrote, "'all I can say is that it is entitled to no credence what- ever.'" He continued: 'Having known Binstead House and its occupants for over forty years, I am in a position to deny The Binstead estate as shown in Meacham's Atlas in 1880, when the property was most emphatically the statement U made regarding the party who owned by William Carey, the C. "family of Mrs. Penee's account. Braddock's "St. sold it to Mr. Fellowes. This man, Cuthbert's" was probably the property owned here by Isaac Crosby. though not without his faults, 12 piled, he was still living at Binstead but in May, 1842, he sold the property. Mrs. Pennee claims to have forgotten the next owner's name, referring to him as "Mr. Pigott." More likely, she deliberately concealed it, since she was determined to attribute the haunting to his rumoured misdeeds. There is no doubt, however, about the man's iden- tity. His name was Charles Braddock. Charles Braddock was born in 1813, the youngest son of Samuel Clark Braddock and the grandson of Samuel Braddock, an immigrant from Ched- dleston, County Stafford in England. Four of Charles's seven siblings died before they reached the age of 35, and in the end it was Charles who inherited Nan's Villa, the family's 240 acre estate in Charlottetown's East Royalty, adja- cent to Binstead. Three days after pur- chasing the lease on Binstead, Brad- dock sold Nan's Villa to John Grubb of Charlottetown. His precise reason for exchanging Nan's Villa for Binstead instead is unclear, but he realized a substantial profit through the transac- tions. (He bought Binstead for £1,450 and sold Nan's Villa for £3,800.) The evidence suggests that Braddock was a man of some means. He owned property on Lot 48, and during the 1840s, he dabbled in shipbuilding, con- structing at least three vessels for the Newfoundland market. (Two of his sons, incidentally, would follow the sea, one to his death.) He also held shares in the Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company. The gravestone of John Clark Binns in the old cemetery on University Avenue, In September, 1849, Charles Brad- Charlottetown. He lived only three years after buying Binstead from Robert A. dock sold Binstead to one Robert Albion Fellowes in 1867. Contrary to popular opinion, Binstead was named long before it Fellowes, Esq. Thereafter, his fortunes passed to the Binns family. appear to have declined. He apparently used the proceeds from the sale of Bin- stead to acquire the lease on "St. Cuth- their departure in 1859, Fellowes again fact, he would die in January, 1889 berts," a 138 acre farm a little east of took up residence after trying unsuc- after a long illness. There is no way Binstead. (Indeed, he appears to have cessfully to sell or let the property. In to tell from existing Church records been living there while the Pennees 1867, he finally disposed of Binstead if an exorcism was ever performed were renting his former home.) Before for the sum of £1100 to John Clark at Binstead. long, it was heavily mortgaged, and in Binns. Ultimately, it passed to William 1859 he was compelled to sell the estate Carey, the "C." family of Mrs. Pennee's to settle his debts. When the 1861 cen- addendum, who requested a rite of Murder Most Foul? sus was taken, Braddock was still rent- exorcism while she was visiting Char- ing property in Lot 34. Death found lottetown in 1877. What transpired at Binstead during him living with his wife and son, Hora- As with other firsthand details in her Braddock's tenancy can only be con- tio, at Scotchfort, Lot 36 on May 19, account, Mrs. Pennee's version of the jectured. Working backwards from the 1881. The death notice is cryptic only exorcism incident is correct in those date of his departure, 1849, the terrible for those who seek riddles: "He trusted details, at least, which can be verified. but unnamed incident that allegedly in the merits of his redeemer, and in his Considering her brother's prominence gave rise to the haunting would have last conflict had victory." in the Roman Catholic Church, it is no occurred sometime around 1847 or 1848. Braddock's successor at Binstead, surprise to find Mrs. Pennee visiting Although she stops short of saying so, Robert Fellowes, was not, it would seem, the Bishop of Charlottetown in 1877. Mrs. Pennee clearly implies that Brad- much interested in the business of Her "Father Boudreault," was likely dock kept the two serving girls as mis- farming. (In the colonial census the Father Charles Nazaire Boudreault, a tresses, that both had illegitimate previous year, he had listed his occupa- native of the Magdalen Islands, who babies, and that one sister and one tion as "gentleman.") By 1854, he was spent three years at the Cathedral par- child came to a violent end at Binstead offering the estate for sale or lease but ish after his ordination in May, 1876. and were buried under a tree beside the there were no takers until the Pennees And he was, indeed, on his deathbed house. Her hypothesis is highly melo- rented it in 1856, after coming out to when Mrs. Pennee returned again dramatic, entirely in harmony with Charlottetown the previous August. On to Prince Edward Island in 1888. In ghost story traditions, and virtually 13 untestable. Yet some observations may according to Mrs. Pennee, he did, after ing seems so implausible. Extant in- be made. all, emigrate to the United States formation does not strengthen her case While it would satisfy the traditional around the time she left Binstead and but it does not convincingly disprove it ghost story's penchant for the macabre the documentary record for the period either. And Mrs. Pennee seems a credi- if Charles Braddock were the ogre that is spotty — but lack of confirmation of ble witness. Her credentials are impec- Mrs. Pennee makes of him, the recorded his identity serves to undermine her cable; she is obviously an intelligent reality of his domestic arrangements whole testimony. Strangely, Mrs. woman; she does not seem given to seems to have been rather more respect- Pennee's addendum states that the irrationality; and she has no apparent able than the account given Mrs. woman whose ghost she saw was Irish motive for fabricating a story. Where Pennee. Braddock had a wife, Mar- yet Newbury does not seem to have the details of her story can be checked garet (who, incidentally, would outlive been an Irish name. (Thomas New- (hearsay excepted), it is accurate. The him, dying only a few months before berry's family, incidentally, were all most serious challenge to her credibil- the Daily Examiner published Mrs. born on Prince Edward Island.) ity is the absence of Harry Newbury Pennee's narrative) and a sizable fam- There is another, possibly unrelated from contemporary records, and while ily of his own, at least four of whom detail, and it concerns Braddock's suc- he does not exist there, that by no were born during the seven years he cessor at Binstead, Robert A. Fellowes, means proves that he never existed resided at Binstead. Esquire (as he liked to style himself). at all. Donald Ferguson admitted that When David Lawson came to Binstead Certainly, the SPR took Mrs. Pennee Braddock was not without his faults. in 1861 to take down information for seriously. The details of her story coin- In a manuscript history of Marshfield, that year's census, he found Mr. Fel- cided with the most convincing cases William Bannerman Robertson goes lowes most unco-operative. Lawson culled from the Society's files on appa- further. "Charles Braddock Sr.,"' he appended this note to the returns for ritions. After re-printing Mrs. Pennee's writes, "was much addicted to the use Lot 34: account, the author of the SPR report of intoxicants but otherwise was a observed, "The list of cases cited in this good neighbour." Here, perhaps, lies With respect to the first name on and the previous paper, while insuffi- part of the explanation for Braddock's page 3 viz. Robert A. Fellowes — cient . . . to compel conviction, is strik- sagging fortunes, and for the bad repu- that individual at first refused to ing enough to plead for serious atten- tation Mrs. Pennee attaches to him. answer all my questions, saying tion to a subject which will never be Another small point: a baby did die that he would give an acct. of his properly threshed out unless the inter- at Binstead during Charles Braddock's farm and stock but that it was est taken in it assumes a scientific tenancy. On March 16, 1849, the positively inquisitorical [sic] to rather than an emotional form." Mem- Islander recorded the death two nights pry into a man's domestic con- bers of the Society themselves disagreed earlier of "George Whelock Braddock, cerns, and then added that he about the existence of apparitions but youngest son of Charles Braddock, aged would give a return such as he many shared the opinion expressed in one year four months." No inquest was could swear to — the no. of bushels 1885 by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, an SPR required. Another son born later the of produce retd. [returned] by him authority on "phantasms of the dead": same year (the year, incidentally, that from a farm of 130 Acres of arable Charles Braddock gave up Binstead) land is I believe far under the lean only say that having made was named for his dead brother. Was mark, and his return therefore so every effort.. .to exercise a reas- this the seed of the elaborate story far in my estimation is not reli- onable skepticism. I yet do not repeated by Mrs. Penee? able and correct. feel equal to the degree of unbelief The other key figures in Mrs. Pennee's in human testimony necessary to narrative are the "Newbury" family. Why would Fellowes be so unforthcom- avoid accepting at least provi- Two Newbury sisters are the victims of ing about his "domestic concerns," then sionally the conclusion that there Braddock's supposed immorality, and apparently lie about the very thing he are, in a certain sense, haunted one of them's son, Harry, is a reluctant professed not to mind addressing? His houses, i.e., that there are houses witness to the later apparitions. The odd behavior adds another small enig- in which similar quasi-human 1848 census lists only a "Newberry" ma to the many which surround the apparitions have occurred at dif- family in the vicinity of Binstead, that Binstead haunting. ferent times to different inhabit- of farmer Thomas Newberry in Char- ants, under circumstances which lottetown Royalty. Upon his death in exclude the hypothesis of sugges- 1850, however, he left considerably The Haunted, Haunting Kind tion or expectation. more property than the "regular hovel" Mrs. Pennee mentions. Nor were any of What happened at Binstead? This Binstead was regarded as such a house. his four daughters old enough to have question is actually two. Was there a figured in a scenario such as she out- haunting? And, if so, what caused it? Unless Mrs. Arthur Pennee — and lines. The eldest was only four when Mrs. Pennee had no doubts on the first others — were hallucinating or unless her father died. Unless some other, score and passed straight on to the she deliberately fabricated an elabor- unrecorded Newberry family were in- second question. We cannot be so trust- ate hoax, she appears to have seen volved, this is a serious blow to Mrs. ing. Even modern scholars of the something which could not, and can- Pennee's story. Even more damaging, paranormal caution that easy credul- not, be explained. While a great many because it relates to her firsthand expe- ity is more damaging to study of the details can be verified, investigation of rience, is the fact that the extant records subject that incredulity. the phenomena raises almost as many contain no Harry Newberry (or New- Much hinges on Mrs. Pennee's char- questions as it answers, and specula- bury), although Thomas Newberry did acter. Although other people are said to tion about causes, while titillating, is leave the sum of £5 to one Harry Hobbs, have observed the apparition, we must unfruitful. The loose ends of the ghost to be paid when he reached the age of depend on Mrs. Pennee's word on that story cannot be neatly tied together 21. That Harry Newbury fails to turn score. It is tempting to dismiss her tes- as in the hauntings of fiction. The up in surviving records does not neces- timony if for no other reason than mystery remains; Binstead keeps its sarily mean that he never existed — because her explanation for the haunt- secrets still. 14 Binstead as it looked in the mid-1970s, abandoned and crumbling into decay, before being purchased by its present owners. Afterword of Marshfield. Ownership of the house land registry files, wills, contemporary eventually passed (around 1890) to the newspapers, Meacharn's 1880 Atlas of Mrs. Pennee's account of the Binstead Heartz family, after whom it came to be Prince Edward Island, Assembly Jour- haunting has already appeared once in called over the course of their genera- nals, personal interviews. Further print. James E. Harris excerpted the tions-long occupancy. A surviving background on the Ward family came Daily Examiner's account for Folklore family member recalls hearing about a from entries in the Dictionary of of Prince Edward Island back in the "hearsay" story and a proposed news- National Biography and the Isle of 1960s. That is where I first read it. The paper account as a child in the early Wight County and Diocesan Record redoubtable Irene Rogers called upon decades of this century, but neither he Office. her encyclopedic knowledge of Char- nor his five brothers and sisters ever From its headquarters in London, lottetown and area to guide me to the saw or heard anything unearthly while the Society for Psychic Research con- original newspaper account, and fur- they were growing up in the house. Nor tinues its investigations into psychic nished much valuable information have the present residents ever been phenomena. It graciously forwarded about the house and grounds from her troubled by the supernatural. The "Real the additional material recorded by own files. Staff genealogist Orlo Jones Ghost" has once again acquired an air Mrs. Pennee. Background material on helped me research the people involved of unreality. the SPR's foundation, activities, and and contributed to the article in many approach was gleaned from a number small ways. Leo Cheverie of the Robert- of sources, chief among them Leonard son Library, University of Prince Sources R. N. Ashley's introduction to a 1970 Edward Island lent assistance above reprint edition of Edmund Gurney, and beyond the call of duty. My wife, Besides those mentioned in the text, Frederic W. H. Myers, and Frank Pod- Sheila Lund MacDonald, proved an the sources for the annotation included more, Phantasms of the Living (1886); intrepid co-investigator. Finally, the the usual stock in trade of the genealo- Alfred Douglas, Extra-Sensory Powers: Durdens, who now call Binstead home, gist: the extensive files of the Genealogy A Century of Psychical Research and Mr. Harold Heartz, who once did, Department at the Prince Edward (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1976); have given their keen interest and gra- Island Museum & Heritage Founda- and Man, Myth, and Magic: The Illus- cious cooperation to the project. tion (where a copy of William Banner- trated Encyclopedia of Myth, Religion, The memory of the Binstead ghost man Robertson's manuscript history and the Unknown, vol. VIII, s.v. lingers only faintly in the community of Marshfield is stored), census records, "Psychical Research". iSi 15