The Case of a Ghost Haunted England for Over Two Hundred Years

The following is a guest post by Clare Feikert-Ahalt, foreign law specialist for the United Kingdom at the Law Library of Congress. She previously wrote a Halloween-themed blog post for In Custodia Legis on the issue of revealing the presence of ghosts when selling houses.

With Halloween fast approaching, I’ve prepared a ghost story – with legal elements – to help get you in the spirit.

The Hammersmith Ghost frightening a woman (Source: The Newgate Calendar, 1780 edition, Part III, http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngconts.htm.) — The Hammersmith Ghost frightening a woman (Source: The Newgate Calendar, Part III (1826), http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngconts.htm.)

In the depths of winter during the Napoleonic war, attention was drawn to Hammersmith, which at the time was a small village on the outskirts of London in England, as it was terrorized by a ghost. In December 1803, villagers claimed a ghost, covered in a white s