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.
Read more: 89 stand-out memories from the Preston area of Paignton
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.
No, that is my cousin.
Snowdrops....
Yes white wasnt popular until the Victorian era...
Poor you. That’ll teach ya.
No, I didn't see anything, though my niece and sister saw a couple of orbs outside the Crockett Hotel. I took a picture inside the Emily Morgan Hotel, that possibly contained an apparition. When you zoom in, it's not an image of a human, but I'm still not sure.
During our first night in the Menger, our smoke alarm went off, but it was a rapid beep, not like the once a minute beep when the battery goes dead. It stopped completely after 5 minutes. Hotel maintenance came up, and tested the battery...fully charged. I think a ghost messed with it, and I'm sticking to that story...lol. The maintenance told us of a few encounters he'd experienced in the year he'd been working there.
If you ever go to Tombstone, AZ, you must take the nightly ghost tour. I took a picture of my son standing in the lot next to the building where Morgan Earp was shot. The photo showed a bright orange orb over my son's right shoulder. I went back and looked several times in that spot, there was no orb to be seen.
“But I’m very old-fashioned in certain ways...”
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I believe you to be displaying a great deal of Common Sense.
My current (last, please, dear LORD) marriage is in its 33rd year.
We had a very quiet civil marriage then a blessing of the marriage.
Depending upon the circumstances of the bride (young widow, perhaps?) I can see a cream-white dress with floral colors providing the extra touch.
3rd, as was mine.....quiet is best and dignified is even better.
Some of us take several tries to get it correct.
I have no problem with ‘several tries’ - I don’t believe that we are put here to be condemned for earthly life to one or two mistakes; and I’m very glad that you finally found The One.
White is not an easy ‘color’ for most women beyond a certain young age to wear, anyway.
Cream, ivory, beige are more flattering to most.
I’ve never seen anything either; and the main ghost story from my family history was a ‘hearing’ one, not a ‘seeing’ one.
But I’m always looking, and listening :-)
Great to have a firsthand account of how cold, wet, and misty it was on one October morning in 1641.
#6. I’m a little confused. You wrote that “My brides mother was crying as we got married”.
Did you first marry your mother-in-law and then her daughter? No wonder she was crying.
These are confusing times.
I wouldn’t have married my first mother-in-law if she was the last woman on earth or any other planet. When she walked by a garden plants would die in a second, squirrels fell dead out of trees, and birds dropped like stones if within a 100 feet of her.
Never knew my long-time wife’s mother because she died very young but I heard that she was a really lovely person. She did raise her girls to be ladies, something that is lacking in many young women today.
Lots of people married cousins, back then. I and some of my relatives are modern-day results of some of those marriages, in the Tidewater.
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In the early 17th century near Goochtown, Virginia, my g.g.f.’s wife died and he remarried with his first cousin.
“Pickings” were slim in rural areas and he needed help raising his family. People knew back then knew that products from such a marriage were normal, something fairly newly “rediscovered” by science.
Problems arise after it’s done generation after generation such as the mooselimbs do.
First cousin marriage is still illegal in some states.
Love ghost stories, BUT...
I didn’t think it was common for brides to wear white until the early 20th century.
LOL! No respect I tell ya! On my wedding day I took a cab to the church. My wife’s wedding dress was in the back seat!’’.
Just saw a show on TV this week that said the white dress didn’t come about til Queen V.
A black powder pistol would have been VERY loud, and given off lots of smoke and sparks. Everyone around the shooter would have known who shot.
The church door was open and I stepped inside
I was still hoping that she changed her mind
There were beautiful roses in a bridal bouquet
But she stood at the altar in a veil of white lace
I pitied that stranger for all he could see
was their life together through eternity
My heart filled with anger when I pictured the face
Of a false hearted quitter ‘neath a veil of white lace
I reached in my pocket when the wedding was done
My hand touched the locket, then fell on the gun
It shattered the silence as it left its trace
Stains of red crimson on a veil of white lace
I walked from the church house, as I dropped the gun
But stopped on the steps, for there crossing the lawn
My sweetheart was saying she decided to wait
Death to a stranger ‘neath a veil of white lace
Death to a stranger ‘neath a veil of white lace
Yes, I think you are right that Victorian England contributed much to our culture.
Very interesting. Thanks. Did not know that white had been a sign of mourning.
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