The Hammersmith Ghost is a recurring Ghost of a 19th-century Suicide victim in Hammersmith, London, responsible for a murder in a case of mistaken identity.

History

Around 1802, a local man committed suicide and was buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard in Hammersmith. Reports of his ghost lurking in the churchyard began to circulate in October 1803. The figure, dressed in white robes, achieved quick notoriety and terrorized passersby at night. By December of that year, the ghost was said to attack a wagon and passengers and to assault people in lanes near the church. On December 31, the ghost allegedly attacked and choked a man named Thomas Groom as he approached the churchyard.

A newspaper account told of the ghost wrapping its “spectral arms” around a woman, who fainted. “Kindly neighbours led her home, whereupon she took to her bed and never again rose,” the account said. Another witness saw the ghostly figure discard a white tablecloth and run, which suggested that a live person was impersonating the ghost.

Meanwhile, a bricklayer named James Milwood had been mistaken for the ghost. Milwood wore his trade clothes—white flannel and a white apron—in the vicinity of St. Paul’s after dark. He accidentally scared two women and a man, but assured them he was not a ghost. He threatened to punch the man in the head. Milwood was advised by friends not to wear white around the church because of the ghost reports, but he ignored the advice.

Francis Smith, a vigilante customs officer, took it upon himself to hunt down the ghost. Armed with a rifle, Smith went drinking at the Black Lion Lane Inn pub near the church on January 3, 1804, and then went out on ghost patrol. Around 11 P.M., he spotted a figure in white. Smith challenged the figure, but it kept moving toward him. He fired his gun. The figure proved to be Milwood, who was instantly shot dead.

On January 5, an inquest was held at the Black Lion Lane Inn, and the jury found for an unlawful killing. The next day, January 6, a man named James Graham was arrested for impersonating the ghost; he was released on bail.

Smith was arrested and charged with willful murder. On January 13—justice was swift in those days—he was tried at the Old Bailey in London. Smith told the jury in his own defense, “I did kill him, but I honestly thought it was a ghost.”

The jury quickly returned a verdict of manslaughter, but the judge ordered them back to return with a verdict of murder. The jury obeyed, and Smith was sentenced to death. He received a royal pardon, and his sentence was commuted to a year of hard labor.

On January 20, 1807, Graham was in trouble with the law again. He was convicted of being drunk and disorderly. Whether or not he was the “real” Hammersmith Ghost was never proved.

Haunting Activity

The Hammersmith Ghost disappeared for nearly two decades and then suddenly reappeared in the churchyard in 1825. Somehow a legend of a periodic return took hold. The ghost was predicted to appear on August 3, 1955.

On the appointed night, a crowd of about 100 people gathered at about 9:30 P.M. in St. Paul’s churchyard in hopes of seeing the specter. More than 10 hoaxes were pulled, and police escorted three “ghosts” from the premises. By midnight, most of the crowd had gone home, disappointed at seeing nothing.

At midnight, 17 people reported seeing the ghost. A newspaper account reported that “something in white” wafted out of the northwest doors of the church, which were locked, and drifted over to a lone tomb belonging to Fenn and Colvill family members who had died between 1792 and 1848.

The ghostly figure was brilliant white and had no legs, according to witnesses. It floated over the tomb for about 20 seconds and then vanished into it. Three women said that prior to the appearance of the ghost, they heard an unusual rushing sound, like a sudden wind.

The Hammersmith Ghost was predicted to appear on August 3, 2005. Despite media publicity, only about a half dozen people gathered in the churchyard. No phenomena were experienced. Several waited until 1 A.M.

Why did the ghost fail to appear? Recurring or anniversary ghosts sometimes “die” without explanation— perhaps whatever powers their appearance loses energy over time. Change of environment also may be a factor. The churchyard itself is much the same as it was in the early 19th century, but the surrounding area has been considerably built up with roads and a highway. Construction seems to be a factor in the disruption of many hauntings.

FURTHER READING:

• Ezard, John. “Ghostly murder haunts lawyers 200 years on.” The Guardian, January 3, 2004, p. 10.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits– Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – September 1, 2007

For about two months during the winter of 1803, the inhabitants of Hammersmith were much alarmed by reports of a malevolent ghost ‘stalking up and down the neighbourhood’. The affair led to a violent death, and hence was reported in the press and eventually resulted in a criminal trial. The trouble had reportedly begun after a woman who was pregnant fainted with terror when a very tall white figure arose from among the tombstones, pursued her, and grasped her in its arms; she was carried home in a state of shock, and died a few days later. Others described the phantom as wearing a calf-skin, or draped in white robes and having horns and glass eyes; on one occasion it had ambushed a wagon, causing the horses to bolt, to the great danger of the passengers. It was rumoured to be the ghost of a man who had slit his throat a year before.

There were some people, however, who rejected supernatural explanations; believing that some practical joker was at work, they lay in wait for him on several nights, but there were too many paths and alleys for him to be caught. One of these vigilantes, an excise officer called Francis Smith, went out armed on 3 January 1804 to keep watch in Black Lion Lane, where he saw a white figure coming towards him; as it did not answer his challenge, he shot it. Unfortunately, it was quite human – it was a bricklayer named Thomas Millwood, who was no hoaxer but was simply wearing the white jacket, trousers and shoes which were the normal working dress of his trade. His mother-in-law later testified that it was not the first time he had been mistaken for the ‘ghost’, and that she had advised him to wear a dark greatcoat, for his own safety.

At Smith’s trial on 13 January 1804, the jury at first gave a verdict of manslaughter, but the judge pointed out that however much one must detest the callous trickster who was terrorizing the neighbourhood, this did not justify anyone in shooting a suspect; Smith must either be found guilty of murder, or acquitted entirely. He was therefore condemned to be hanged and dissected. However, the sentence was soon commuted to a year’s imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the real hoaxer had been caught, thanks to information given by a neighbour shocked by Millwood’s death. It turned out to be an old shoemaker called James Graham, who had been going about by night wrapped in a blanket ‘in order to be revenged on the impertinence of his apprentices, who had terrified his children by telling them stories of ghosts’.

There was a sequel twenty years later, as J. A. Brooks describes in his Ghosts of London. In 1824, local papers reported the appearance of a new Hammersmith Ghost, also dubbed the Hammersmith Monster, who, not content with scaring women in unlighted lanes, would jump on them and scratch their faces ‘as if with hooks’; he turned out to be a young farmer and hay-salesman from Harrow. He was ‘sent by the magistrates to the House of Correction to undergo a little wholesome discipline for his pranks’.

Nor was this the end; in 1832, another spectral figure was attacking women in lanes around Hammersmith and Acton. According to one report, he was ‘attired in a large white dress, with long nails or claws, by which he was enabled to scale walls or hedges for the purpose of making himself scarce’. Others said he was dressed in armour, and had wagered that he would strip the clothes from a certain number of women within a specified time, and needed only one more victim to win his bet.

These episodes show the interplay between popular tales of the supernatural and the deliberate pranks of copycat hoaxers. However, there are some who still claim that there is a true ghost which appears in the churchyard of St Paul’s, Hammersmith, once every fifty years at midnight when the moon is full. This was publicized in the West London Observer in July 1955, causing such a crowd to gather that police cordoned off the churchyard. Nothing was seen at midnight (apart from ‘Teddy Boys in white shirts’), but the few people who, mindful of Summer Time, continued their vigil till 1 a.m. were rewarded with the sight of a figure draped in brilliant white gliding among the tombs.

SEE ALSO:

• Haunted England
• Haunted Europe
• Haunted Places of the World

SOURCE:

Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008