Anne Walker

Categories: OMENS AND PHANTASMS
Scary Books: The Haunters & The Haunted
: Local Records

In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the

county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world,

and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept

his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but

too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a

mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Clare, in

Che ter-le-Street, and promised to take care both of her and her future

child. One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with

Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Clare's door, and told

her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place

where she could remain in safety till her confinement was over. They

would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an

excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to

have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire. Fourteen days after, one

Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been

engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on going downstairs to go

home, in the middle of the ground floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled

hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head.

Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the

spectre wanted. "I," said the apparition, "am the spirit of Anne

Walker"; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particulars which

I have already related to you. "When I was sent away with Mark Sharp, he

slew me on such a moor," naming one that Graeme knew, "with a collier's

pick, threw my body into a coal-pit, and hid the pick under the bank;

and his shoes and stockings, which were covered with blood, he left in a

stream." The apparition proceeded to tell Graeme that he must give

information of this to the nearest justice of peace, and that till this

was done, he must look to be continually haunted. Graeme went home very

sad; he dared not bring such a charge against a man of so unimpeachable

a character as Walker; and yet he as little dared to incur the anger of

the spirit that had appeared to him. So, as all weak minds will do, he

went on procrastinating; only he took care to leave his mill early, and

while in it never to be alone. Notwithstanding this caution on his part,

one night, just as it began to be dark, the apparition met him again in

a more terrible shape, and with every circumstance of indignation. Yet

he did not even then fulfil its injunction; till on St Thomas's eve, as

he was walking in his garden just after sunset, it threatened him so

effectually that in the morning he went to a magistrate and revealed the

whole thing. The place was examined; the body and the pickaxe found; and

a warrant was granted against Walker and Sharp. They were, however,

admitted to bail; but in August, 1681, their trial came on before Judge

Davenport at Durham. Meanwhile the whole circumstances were known over

all the north of England, and the greatest interest was excited by the

case. Against Sharp the fact was strong, that his shoes and stockings,

covered with blood, were found in the place where the murder had been

committed; but against Walker, except the account received from the

ghost, there seemed not a shadow of evidence. Nevertheless the judge

summed up strongly against the prisoners, the jury found them guilty,

and the judge pronounced sentence upon them that night, a thing which

was unknown in Durham, either before or after. The prisoners were

executed, and both died professing their innocence to the last. Judge

Davenport was much agitated during the trial; and it was believed, says

the historian, that the spirit had also appeared to him, as if to supply

in his mind the want of legal evidence. This case is certainly a solemn

illustration of the mal-administration of justice in an ancient court;

yet the circumstantial evidence, arising from the appearance of the

spirit, appears very strong--the finding of the body, and the boots and

stockings. Yet we need perhaps to live more immediately within the

circle of the circumstance to pronounce upon it. None of us, however,

reading this book, would like to take upon ourselves the responsibility

of those daring jurymen, who durst venture to throw away life upon

evidence which, strong as it appears to have been, did not come to them,

but only to one who had borne witness to them.