Posted on 06/28/2021 7:45:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
To this day, brides leave flowers on her grave on the day of their wedding to avoid a cursed marriage
The morning of October 11, 1641 was cold, wet and misty in Chagford.
But despite the depressing weather, a young lady by the name of Mary Whiddon was in a joyous mood: today was her wedding day.
Looking resplendent in her white wedding dress, there were gasps of approval as she climbed down from her carriage outside and entered the Church of St Michael the Archangel.
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After a brief ceremony, Mary was married. As she stood on the steps of the church, people cheered, friends applauded and loved ones sent her their best wishes.
She had the rest of her married life in front of her.
Just then a shot rang out, piercing the dank, misty Dartmoor air. Mary collapsed, a bright red spot of blood just above her heart shockingly visible through her pristine white wedding dress.
Within seconds, she was dead. Her husband, married for just a few minutes, cradled his dead wife in his arms.
Mary Whiddon came from a prosperous family in Chagford.
For generations, they had been local squires, and many of them are buried in the church. Their family home was the 13th-Century building which is now the Three Crowns Hotel, formerly known as Whiddon House.
Her parents were Oliver Whiddon and Margaret, née Crymes, formerly Coplestone. She had one brother, Rowland, and a sister, Margaret.
She was the granddaughter of Francis Whiddon, one of the first Englishmen who tried to settle in what is now America.
Mary was also the great granddaughter of Sir John Whiddon, serjeant-at-law for Henry VIII, and judge of the king's bench for Mary I and Elizabeth I.
She had apparently been courted by a man who possibly asked for her hand in marriage. Mary refused and, with there being no shortage of admirers, she chose another man to be her husband.
This was received poorly by her former suitor, who spent the coming months complaining bitterly to anyone who would listen about the match.
Despite his incessant complaining about his bad luck, many thought his ill-feeling towards Mary and her husband-to-be would subside once the wedding had taken place.
That day finally came in October, 1641. It was there, on the steps of the church, that he shot Mary dead with one bullet from a pistol.
Fact or fiction?
Quite what happened to Mary's killer is not known. In fact, although the story is widely acknowledged as being true, there is little to confirm it definitely happened.
Mary's tomb records that she died 'a matron, yet a maid', meaning she was married but still a virgin. However, with maid even now being a common Devon word for a young girl, this could just mean she was not very old when she died. In that case, it would translate as 'married, but young'.
The church's marriage and burial registers for the Civil War period are lost, and the only contemporaneous record is Mary Whiddon's undated will.
It mentions no husband, but as her maiden name is also thought to have been Whiddon, potentially meaning she married a cousin, it might have been written before her marriage was arranged.
The will shows no date or place. In it she bequeathed money to her siblings, her godchildren, the poor of Chagford, and the labourers of the parish. She also left a gold ring to her mother.
Legacy
in the stone floor of the church, this verse was carved to commemorate her:
“Reader wouldst know who here is laid, Behold a matron yet maid, A modest look, a pious heart, A Mary for the better part, But dry thine eyes, why wilt thou weep - Such damsels do not die but sleep.”
But that was not the end of the affair.
In 1971, a wedding guest staying at Whiddon Park awoke to find the ghostly apparition of a young woman dressed in a period wedding gown standing in the doorway of his room.
Many believe this is Mary haunting the area following her death.
Some say there is a secret passage from Whiddon Park House to The Three Crowns Hotel and that Mary's ghost haunts The Bishop's Room and upstairs corridors of The Three Crowns.
Her tragic death is said to have inspired RD Blackmore's fictional account of Lorna Doone, shot - but not killed - by Carver Doone through the church window in Oare just as the husband was about to kiss his bride.
It is known that the author spent a great deal of time in the Chagford area and so it would not be unreasonable to assume he heard Mary Whiddon’s tale.
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What is known is that now, newly-wed brides often lay a flower on Mary's tomb after signing the register.
This is said to bring good luck to the marriage, and ensure the ghost of Mary Whiddon does not haunt them for years to come.
Those wedding dresses are expensive. The young woman marrying my son is paying $3,000 for her dress.
Me too! Watch every paranormal show on TV!
And in Ottawa there is a tour of haunted places every fall. :)
I think my corespondent is in New England...
But then she was rich so it could have been.
Yep.
That’s the thing about Arkansas. No matter if you’re divorced or separated, it doesn’t matter. She’ll always be your sister.
White fragility.
. . . and she voted by mail for biden.
That was around 1550.
Eloping is a lot cheaper.
If that seems antisocial, get hold of an old Emily Post manual from about the 1930s. Great instructions for having a lovely but inexpensive wedding at home.
Drives me nuts that people spend enough on weddings in recent decades to have put a sound down-payment on a very nice house - and in a few years, the couple is divorced anyway.
Go Figure.
When I got married, I refused to pay thousands of dollars for a dress that I would wear once in my life.
I bought a nice dress for $300 or maybe $200. And I asked my bridesmaids to get something they could wear again.
More a case of white shows every spot and stain and there was a major lack of Clorox back then.
Then you'll love San Antonio. A couple of weeks ago, we took my sister and her family to Fredericksburg and San Antonio. We spent 3 nights at the Menger Hotel, a stone's throw from the Alamo.
Teddy Roosevelt's ghost is known to haunt the hotel's bar, where he recruited soldiers for his Rough Riders.
There are at least two other hotels in downtown San Antonio with ghostly activity.
Well, I refused to ask my parents for the thousands of dollars! LOL!
I’m sure there have been exceptions.
(Also drives me nuts that women marrying for the second or third time, wear white - and a veil! - these days...)
I remember reading once that it was Queen Victoria of England who locked in the tradition of the white wedding gown. Not positive if it’s accurate
That is very interesting.
I bet they wanted to use them again. White would be impractical.
As father of the groom, I get off rather cheaply. I'm paying for the rehearsal dinner and contributing to the honeymoon. But it will be a $40,000 wedding when all is said and done. Crazy.
Generally it was blue, but there were the occasional white dress. But usually not pure white.
Arrre you a... gh-gh-ghost???
Or are you 400-something years old??
:)
I’ve worn three bridesmaid dresses, thoughtfully chosen by the brides to be ‘reusable’.
Never wore any of them again. Hope the thrift store where I donated them made a little money.
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