A small stone crypt stands abandoned in a centuries-old churchyard on the Caribbean island of Barbados. It was once the tomb of the wealthy Chase family, and today is the site of one of the most famous paranormal mysteries in history. Between 1812 ad 1820, the burial vault was opened 4 times to receive the dead, and each time the crypt was unsealed onlookers found the coffins in the tomb tossed about wildly. Was is earthquakes, floods, voodoo or something even more sister that moved the caskets about in the tomb? Join us as we explore the tantalizing mystery of the Dancing Coffins of Barbados on this episode of Beyond the Fringe.
A small stone crypt stands abandoned in a centuries-old churchyard on the Caribbean island of Barbados. It was once the tomb of the wealthy Chase family, and today is the site of one of the most famous paranormal mysteries in history. Between 1812 ad 1820, the burial vault was opened 4 times to receive the dead, and each time the crypt was unsealed onlookers found the coffins in the tomb tossed about wildly. Was is earthquakes, floods, voodoo or something even more sister that moved the caskets about in the tomb? Join us as we explore the tantalizing mystery of the Dancing Coffins of Barbados on this episode of Beyond the Fringe.
THE DANCING COFFINS OF BARBADOS
Narrated by Jay Nix
Welcome back to Beyond the Fringe, a weekly paranormal podcast exploring some of the world’s greatest, strangest, and most baffling mysteries and then trying to make some sense of it all.
In tonight’s episode we’ll be talking about one of the strangest paranormal cases on record. It is certainly one of the longest standing, going way back to 1807. The tale is instantly recognizable to fans of the paranormal because it pops up a lot in books, magazines and on TV shows about unsolved mysteries. This is the story of The Dancing Coffins of Barbados. This legend seems to have it all. An exotic location, an eerie underground crypt, ghostly manifestations, and suicide. Put it all together and you’ve got all the ingredients of a super supernatural story.
If you’ve been with the show for a while and you’ve listened to our previous podcasts, you’ve probably already picked up on our format here at Beyond the Fringe. What we do is take a reportedly true paranormal event such as this, relate story as it’s often told and popularly understood, and then break it down and see whether or not we can take the story at face value. So let’s do that here. I’m going to share with you the story of these “dancing” coffins, and then examine the story in depth to see whether or not it holds water or is just all wet. So, let’s get right to it. This is the tale of the Dancing Coffins of Barbados.
Colonel Thomas Chase was one of the most feared and hated men in the British colony of Barbados. Known throughout the area as a strict father and cruel slave owner, he was also paradoxically known as a pious man and regular church goer. In 1808 Chase purchased a stone crypt in the local cemetery of Christ Church Parish to serve as the final resting place for man of his station and for his family. However, the crypt was not a new one and one Barbadian, a Ms. Thomasina Goddard, was already enjoying her eternal slumber in the vault, having been buried there just the year before in 1807. The pious side of his nature convinced Chase that it wouldn’t be Christian to remove Ms. Goddard from her final resting place, and thus her plain wooden coffin was left in the crypt undisturbed. Unfortunately for the Chase clan, it would not be long before the crypt would accept the first of their own. Mary Ann Chase, the colonel’s youngest daughter died at the tender age of 2 in 1808. The crypt was opened, and her tiny leaden coffin was placed on the floor of the crypt next to Ms. Goddard. Afterwards the heavy marble door was slid back into place and the entrance sealed against weather and vandals with mortar. It would be another four years before the crypt received its next tenant. Chase’s 12-year-old daughter Dorcas died in 1812 after starving herself to death, some said to escape the cruelty and inappropriate overtures of her father. The crypt was again open and Dorcas’s lead coffin was placed on the floor beside those of her sister and Ms. Goddard. And as before, the crypt was sealed, and the door slab slid back into place. But the tomb would not remain sealed for long. Less than a month after Dorcas’s funeral, the patriarch of the family Thomas Chase also committed suicide. Some say it was the result of gambling debts and failed investments, other stated it had something to do with the death of his elder daughter. Whatever his reasons for taking his own life, Thomas Chase was placed in an ornate lead coffin and, after a hasty service, carried to the churchyard for burial. But when the mortar was pried away from the seals and the crypt was opened, those who were gathered at the entrance were shocked upon gazing inside. The three coffins buried in the crypt were no longer resting side by side on the floor as they had been. It appeared as if they had been violently tossed about the small enclosure and were now all standing upright against the stone walls. Baffled, the mourners quickly returned them to their intended position before adding Thomas Chase’s coffin to the arrangement. The crypt was then summarily sealed and mortared shut once more.
The tomb remained quiet for another 4 years until 1816 when Samuel Brewster Ames died in infancy and his little coffin was prepared to join the others already in the Chase vault. Again, the mortar seals were chipped away and again the slab door was slid back. And once again the caskets of the Chase crypt were found scattered haphazardly about the small space, with the coffin of Thomas Chase – a massive leaden affair weighing ½ a ton -- turned upside down on its head. By now Thomasina Goddard’s wooden coffin had rotted away almost to nothing, its remains having to be bound together with rope. Like before the coffins were rearranged with young Samuel’s added to the group and like before the crypt was properly and securely sealed.
Just 2 months later the elder Samuel Brewster passed away and the crypt reopened so he could be placed next to his infant son. As before, the coffins were once again tossed about the tomb in disarray. By now word had spread throughout the colony and the tale of the “Dancing Coffins” had caught the attention of local officials.
But it wasn’t until 1819 that the governor of Barbados himself decided to personally become involved. It was shortly after the was crypt was opened to receive the remains of Thomasina Clark and the coffins were found yet again to have been tossed about the tomb that an official investigation was undertaken. The governor Lord Combermere had the coffins removed and the crypt thoroughly inspected. Upon sounding the floor with a hammer, he found that there were no secret entries or hidden passages that would allow unseen access to the interior of the tomb. Neither did he find signs of flooding or water damage. Other crypts in the churchyard were opened and inspected and none showed any evidence of the disturbances experienced in the Chase vault. Not finding any rational explanation for the movement of the coffins, Lord Combermere had the coffins returned to the crypt and a thin layer of sand carefully sprinkled on the floor and finely raked into a smooth and unbroken surface. Should anyone enter the vault, impressions of their footprints would be captured in the sand. And once more the slab was securely slid into place and the entrance sealed. Mortar again was inlaid into the door seams and as a precaution several of the officials present, including the governor himself, had their personal seals pressed into the mortar.
The plan was to wait until the next burial to open and inspect the vault, but curiosity got the better of the governor and he ordered the opening of the Chase tomb just three months after he had personally witnessed its closure. Thousands of curious onlookers crowed into the tiny churchyard that day as the governor arrived with his entourage. Upon making his way to the crypt, he carefully inspected the exterior of the vault. The mortar with the official seals were found to be intact and there were no outward signs of tampering. Once again, the mortar was chipped away and once more the door slid open. The cloudless sky cast a dusty beam of sunlight into the vault, which allowed those closest to the door to see inside. The coffins were once again strewn about chaotically about the tomb. Lord Combermere himself examined the fine sand laid down on the stone floor and found that not a grain appeared to have been disturbed. There were no signs of flooding, no hints as to a secret tunnel. But still the coffins were thrown about the small crypt. Deciding enough was enough, the Governor ordered that coffins of the Chase vault be removed for good and reburied in individual plots elsewhere in the churchyard. He further stated that the crypt was not to be used again under any circumstances and that it would remain empty and open from that day forward. And remains so today.
That’s the tale of the “Dancing Coffins of Barbados”. You’d be hard pressed to find a book on true mysteries that doesn’t mention this incredible story. But is it in fact a true story, or is it – like so many tales of this type – the result of years if not centuries of selective editing and literary license? It’s time to take a closer look at this yarn and see what about it is true and what may be stretching the truth. Let’s do this.
First off, let’s take a closer look at the location where this supposedly happened. Barbados is an island in the southern Caribbean 330 miles due north of the border between Venezuela and Guyana. It is 20 miles long north to south and roughly 15 miles east to west and shaped like a pork chop. It was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Campos who named the island Os Barbados, meaning “the bearded ones”, referring to the facial hair of the indigenous Carib and Arawak inhabitants. But as the colonization of the West Indies gained speed, control of Barbados transitioned from the Portuguese to the British and the first settlements popped up in 1625. It wasn’t long before the island became one of the top sugar-producing colony in the world. In fact, so much land was utilized for growing sugar that there was precious little left on which to grow food crops. As such, most food stuffs had to be imported from the colonies on the north American mainland.
But sugar production is a labor-intensive endeavor and in order to maintain production, massive numbers of African slaves were brought into Barbados to work the fields. While Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, the institution of slavery itself was not eliminated until 1834. In the interim, the Barbados Slave Codes that were instituted to segregate slaves from their white owners were harsh and barbaric, resulting in repeated uprisings. The most famous of these being the Bussa Rebellion which took place in April 1816 – concurrent with the events at the Chase vault. During this time, racial tensions were at the breaking point with slaves hearing the growing calls for abolition and becoming emboldened to act on their own, while at the same time slave owners – like Thomas Chase -- were trying desperately to quell any such unrest through torture and even murder.
This was the environment at the time of our tale. And now that we understand a little bit about Barbados and what was going on there at that moment, it’s time to take a look at what was happening in the Parish of Christ Church and in particular the churchyard in Oistins.
Christ Church Parish, or county let’s say, encompasses the southern shores of the island, running from Bridgetown International airport in the east to the Garrison Savanah racetrack to the west and inland as far as Edgecumbe. This parish includes many small settlements and villages including the town of Oistins that some say got its name from a local colorful character named “Austin”.
The Christ Church Parish Chapel upon which out story is centered itself has a long and interesting history. Records indicate that it was initially built along the shoreline near the portage not long after the British came to Barbados in 1629. But the newly arrived colonists were unfamiliar with the temperaments of the Caribbean climate and the annual hurricane season which runs from June to October. The little wooden church was no match for the power of these storms and within a few years of its construction it lay in ruins. While other places of worship continued to pop up around Barbados, it wasn’t until almost 100 years after it was destroyed that the Christ Church Parish chapel was rebuilt. Learning from past mistakes, a new location was chosen situated further inland away from the docks and higher up on the bluff at a height of just over 100 feet above sea level. This spot was also the location of a pre-existing cemetery on the north end of the present-day Scarborough neighborhood. Subsequent hurricanes and a fire here and there resulted in the church having to be rebuilt three more times until its current manifestation was able to withstand both the finicky Barbadian climate and egregious religious candle usage.
But while the church itself went through several incarnations; the little burial ground next to it remained untouched. And it was in this small graveyard that a crypt was built for a Mr. James Elliot who died in Christ Church on 15 May 1724. The vault is not very big at all, just over 6 feet across by 12 feet in length, and the arched ceiling barely tall enough for a man to stand erect. It was more or less a split level, in that the floor was dug into the earth several feet below ground level. This was to lower the vaults profile and thus protect it from the ravages of hurricanes. Four stone steps carved into the limestone lead down to the entrance of the vault. It was not the most ostentatious mausoleum in Barbados by any stretch, but as far as Thomas Chase was concerned it was available for purchase which would certainly be cheaper than building a new vault from the ground up – so to speak. And this is apparently how the Elliot Vault became the Chase Vault in 1807. At the time the Chase family took possession of the vault, the rector of Christ Church Parish Church was a fellow by the name of Thomas H. Orderson. Most if not all of what we know about this story comes from anecdotes that can be traced back to Thomas Orderson.
The first thing I wanted to do before barreling head long into this story was to verify that there had indeed been a family named Chase living in Barbados at the time of the alleged incidents. No Chase’s in Christ Church would mean no truth to the story, that the whole thing was made up. With a bit of clever detective work – and by that, I mean a boat load of Google searches -- I was able to track down the church registry for Christ Church Parish between the years 1637 and 1887 – documentation of the people living in Christ Church for 100 years on either side of these events. What I found out was that the name “Chase” in Barbados in the 19th century was like “Smith” in the federal witness protection program. You couldn’t swing a stick in Oistins and not hit a Chase or someone related to the family by marriage. Digging a little deeper I discovered that the antagonist of the story, slave owner and overall bad guy Thomas Chase, was a real dude. The birth, marriage and death records prove this. It’s all there in black and white. Here’s what we know about our particular Chase’s:
Thomas Chase born 10 August 1739. His wife Catherine Collins was born in 1743, and the two were married on 27 August 1763.
Thomas and Catherine had 7 Children
Thomas Chase 1767-1767 died in infancy.
Catherine Chase 1769-1776 died age 7.
Dorcas Chase 1795-1812 died age 17.
Thomas Ince Chase 1799-1823 died age 24 (unmarried, no children).
Elizabeth Best Chase 1802-1837 died age 35 (again unmarried, no children).
Mary Anna Maria Chase 1807-1809 died age 2.
John Best Chase 1809 -?
You may remember that in the story, Dorcas Chase was described as 12 years old when she starved herself to death. In reality she was 17, and the cause of death is not listed in the registry. Then again none of the deaths recorded in the church’s registry around that time have a listed cause. The only facts recorded in this hand-written leather-bound book are names of the deceased and the date on which they are buried. Occasionally a side comment like “a slave” or “a child” would be added and on rare occasions the age at death is given. But for let’s say 95% of the time, name and date of burial is all we have to work with.
Which brings us to the dearly departed that were reportedly buried in the vault. Those people are:
Thomasin(a) Goddard, who was buried on 31 July 1807 was already in the vault when the property was purchased by Chase family. The name is always listed as “ThomasinA”, but in fact it was recorded as Thomasin in the registry. The name Thomasin is Aramaic in origin and means “twin”. Interestingly, both the Thomasins in this narrative, Goddard and Clarke, are referred to as “Thomasina” in the story. And strangely enough, both are listed as “male” in the genealogical database in which the records were found. I’m inclined to think this was just a slip of the mouse clicker when entering the names into the computer system, as Thomasin is clearly defined as a girl’s name and anecdotal evidence all points to this being the case. Perhaps the names were expanded to “ThomasinA” in order to avoid confusion on this point.
The next to enter the vault was Thomas Chase’s youngest daughter, Mary Anna Maria Chase who was buried on22 February 1808, age 2.
Four years later, the second oldest daughter Dorcas Chase was buried on 6 July 1812 after reportedly starving herself to death. Records from this same source list Drocas’s birthyear as 1795. This would make her age 17 at the time of her death, not 12 as is repeatedly related in various versions of the story. I don’t think it’s a critical detail or entirely relevant to the story, but we’re looking at the facts here and this is a fact. She was 17, not 12 when she died.
Thomas Chase, patriarch of the clan overall dillhole also committed suicide and barely a month after the death of his 2nd oldest daughter. He was buried on 9 August 1812 at age 72 – just one day before 73rd birthday.
The next person to find their way into the Chase family vault was an infant by the name of Samuel Brewster Ames who was interred on 25 September 1816. While I couldn’t find the genealogical smoking gun that connected this particular Brewster with the Chase lineage, I was able to locate several records that point to an intertwining of the two families. There is a record of a Catherine Brewster Chase getting married on December 31, 1817. And what is interesting here is that she married a man named John Elliot. Remember it is said that the crypt was originally built for a James Elliot in 1724. Perhaps the connection between the three families is more relevant and immediate than was initially thought.
Two months later, Samuel Brewster – described as the infant Brewster’s father -- was laid to rest on 17 November 1816.
And finally, Thomasin Clarke – Thomasina if you’re nasty – was the last person said to be interred in the Chase vault and she was buried on 7 July 1819. I couldn’t find any records that would allow me to associate this Ms. Clarke with the Chase family. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection, it just means that after going cross-eyed reading hundreds of birth and burial records that I didn’t come across one. I certainly could have missed it. But it this did make me wonder if perhaps – perhaps – the vault had come under new ownership in the years after it’s previous owner Thomas Chase had passed away. Maybe the Clarkes purchased the crypt from the surviving Chase children? Just a thought.
But one thing I do want to point out here is that although we have strong documentary evidence on the deaths and more to the point the burials of each of the people listed above, we zero evidence that any of them were ever placed in the Chase Vault. Like I said, we know their burial took place in Christ Church cemetery and we know the dates. But that’s all the burial records show. In no record that I can find is there any mention of these people actually being buried in the Chase family vault at any time or being removed and being reburied at a later date. Each of the burial records concerning the supposed inhabitants of the Chase vault lists only that they were buried on those dates. It doesn’t mention how or where in the churchyard they were laid to rest. The only information that we have that points to these seven souls being interred in the Chase vault comes from the rector of the church, T.H. Orderson. He is our lone source on this. But a good source, wouldn’t you say? As the rector of the parish church, he more than anyone should know who was buried where and when.
Let’s leave it at that for now. Now if you remember from the story, the eerie goings on – i.e., the movement of the coffins inside the vault – weren’t observed until the third burial. Some versions say it was between the 4th and 5th burial, which was the internment of Thomas Chase himself, but by and large the legend states that the first incident occurred between the time Dorcas was buried and the tomb was opened to received Thomas. So, let’s recap quickly here:
1) Thomasin Goddard already in the vault when purchased by the Chase family.
2) Mary Anna Maria Chase interred February 1809, no issues.
3) Dorcas Chase interred July 1812, no issues.
4) Thomas Chase interred August 1812, first reports of coffins being moved
5) Samuel Brewster Ames interred September 1816, coffins moved 2nd time.
6) Samuel Brewster interred November 1816, coffins moved 3rd time.
7) Thomasin Clarke interred 1819, coffins moved 4th and final time.
8) All coffins removed in 1820 and reburied in individual plots, vault left vacant.
A few notes of interest before we move on. I did come across an account of this story as its often related as a local legend in Barbados today, and one facet of this legend is that it was “a member of the Chase Family” (unnamed) who initiated the investigation into the disturbances rather than the governor of Barbados. There are a couple of good candidates for this mysterious family member. Thomas Ince, the Chase’s 2nd oldest son would have been 20 years old at the time of Thomasin Clarke’s burial. After his father’s passing, he was the man of the house as it were and in a position to investigate the matter if he chose. Or it may have been a Richard Chase, who is also listed as a slave owner in Christ Church at the time. His relationship with Thomas can neither be determined or even confirmed, there is supposition in several circles that the two men were somehow related. So more than likely if there were an investigation started by a Chase family member, it was in all likelihood attributable to Thomas Ince Chase. It should also be noted that local legend has it that the first instance of the coffins being moved occurred after Thomas was buried in the crypt, and not after Dorcas’s funeral as is often stated in the familiar version of the story. So, you can see that the particulars associated with this story change, sometimes drastically, depending on which version you read. But that’s not to say that all accounts from the same source are necessarily consistent. Its confusing, I get it. In order to understand where this story comes from, we’ll need to look at the legends provenance and trace each variation on this theme back to the source. And to do that, we’ll need to find out how and from where the story entered the collective consciousness of the reading public and thus into true mystery legend.
The first published account of the Dancing Coffins of Barbados comes from Transatlantic Sketches, a book writtenby General James Edward Alexander and published in 1833. Later that same year, the tale appeared again in the “anecdote gallery” of Rueben Percy’s collection entitled The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. The story was retold again in 1848 in Robert Hermann Schombergk’s tome History of Barbados. Mr. Schombergk was a member of the Royal Geographical Society and lived in Barbados in the 1840’s where he interviewed anyone and everyone while researching the colony’s history. And it is from Shombergk that we get our first hint as to the origin of the Chase vault mystery. He not only recounts the story in familiar detail, but he also mentions from where he got the story. He states that he discovered the legend in an unpublished manuscript written by “J. Anderson, Rector”. Sound familiar? Yeah, it turns out that this manuscript was actually little more than a privately printed pamphlet (sorry about the alliteration) and that J. Anderson was in fact T. H. Orderson, rector of the Christ Church parish church. So, it would seem that the source for the three initial versions of events appears to come from the anecdotes (I hesitate to call them recollections) published in a brochure by our old buddy, Thomas Orderson. Folklorist Andrew Lang was able to track down through his brother-in-law who lived on Barbados, another version for the story printed in yet another pamphlet written by a “Reverend Harrison” – obviously, another misprinting of “Orderson” – in 1860. But these booklets were not the only printed source material we have. There are others that claim not only contemporary knowledge of the events, but first-hand eyewitness accounts of the strange goings-on.
The god emperor provenance to the authenticity of this story of the dancing coffins of Barbados comes from what would seem to be an unimpeachable source. And that is the official memoirs of the then governor of Barbados, war hero and statesman extraordinaire, Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount of Combermere, GCB, GCH, KSI, PC. The guy has more suffixes than you can shake a stick at. This is an account not only written by the highest-ranking official on the island, but by a reputed eyewitness and participant in the investigation into the mystery.
Lord Combermere arrived in Barbados in March 1817 to assume the governorship of the island. So, it wouldn’t have been long after he landed that he must have heard the strange tale of the moving coffins in Christ Church. The first instance occurred in the summer of 1812, just 5 years previous. And with each successive opening of the vault, news of the haunted crypt surely spread across the island and soon it was reported that thousands (yes, thousands) of onlookers flocked to the tiny churchyard in hopes of getting a glimpse of the unrestful dead.
As recorded in his memoirs, Cotton become interested in the phenomenon after the crypt was opened to receive the body of Thomasin Clarke on 7 July 1819. Attended by his aides-de-camp and other local officials including one Nathan Lucas, the governor traveled to Oistins and personally inspected the Chase family vault, sounded the walls and floor for secret passages, and when the coffins were returned to their proper places he ordered a fine coating of sand be dusted on the floor to detect any intruders footprints. The vault was then sealed yet again, only this time once the door was slid into place, cement was pressed into the seams along the door and into this cement Cotton and others imprinted their official seals to ensure no one tampered with the door without his knowledge.
The plan was to inspect the crypt at the next interment, but Cotton’s curiosity and mounting public interest moved the reopening of the tomb up to the afternoon of 18 April 1820. Consistent with other versions of the tale, when the door was opened, they again found the crypt in disarray with one of the coffins all but wedged against the door making it difficult to open. The seals had apparently not been broken or tampered with, the sand on the floor was was described as pristine. Yet two of the coffins had been hurled across the narrow room with such force as to leave deep indentations in the rock walls. This was apparently the last straw, for almost immediately the Chase family ordered all the coffins removed from the tomb and buried in individual plots in the churchyard. As for the crypt, it was sealed one final time and it was never used again.
Less than two months later, Lord Combermere would leave Barbados for good and return to England aboard HMS Spartan on 12 June 1820. He would go on to serve in other territorial administrative roles, garnering an ever-increasing list titles and acronyms along the way. But know this: like the hated Thomas Chase, Cotton too was a slave owner and was paid reparations by the British government for “loss of property” upon their freedom in 1837. So, let’s not throw the guy any tickertape parades.
But with relation to the Chase family vault, this provenance sounds fantastic, right? The governor. Of the colony. Eyewitness. Thousands of onlookers. In his official memoirs. What more do you need?! Before I answer that, I want to share with you a passage taken directly from said memoirs concerning the opening of the vault for the final time. Keep in mind, this is supposedly written by a war hero, who rose to the rank of Field Marshall, who fought in the Peninsular War where he earned the nickname “The Lion of Gold” and captured the Indian fort at Bharatpur which everybody and their mother had thought impregnable. Okay, this is what he says about the opening of the vault.
“Terror a second time palsied the energy of those engaged in this operation. Suspense deepened the intensity of interest and awe which transfixed the anxious spectators. Every breath was hushed lest they should fail to catch the first whisper of those near the tomb…”
I laughed out loud when I first read this the first time. A soldier with the combat resume of Cotton being “palsied by terror” didn’t seem to add up to this old soldier. So, I decided to take a closer look at the “memoirs” of Stapleton Cotton. Cotton, Lord Combermere, died on 21 February 1865. His memoirs were published the following year in 1866. Looks as though he finished writing his autobiography just in the nick of time. But that would not be the case. You see, Stapleton Cotton didn’t write his memoirs. They were pieced together after his death from letters, journals and the recollections of family and friends by his wife Mary and military historian Captain W.W. Knollys. It seems that Mary took charge of his personal and political life while Knollys put together his military career. Knowing this, we can now rest assured that Cotton didn’t write that let’s call it “fragrant” account of the opening of the Chase Vault – its idiotically out of character. But if he didn’t write it, then who did? I was lucky enough to find a copy of Lord Combermere’s memoirs and read the passages about the Chase vault from the original source. And at the end of that section, just after where he relates how the bodies were removed from the crypt and reburied, I noticed a little mark above the text. It was a footnote. Footnote #51. And when I flipped back to the appendix and scanned down to Footnote #51, guess what it said?
“These details have been collected from a pamphlet printed for private circulation by and inhabitant of Barbados.”
You have to know that this “resident of Barbados” can be none other than good old Thomas H. Orderson, rector of Christ Church Parish church. Do I even then need to discuss the other eyewitness account supposedly written by local official Nathan Lucas, who also appears in the memoir? I don’t think so. All roads lead to Rome, and all versions of this fascinating story can be traced back to a single source. T.H. Orderson.
Thomas Orderson’s name as the officiant in the burial registry becomes increasingly less frequent after John Braithewaite and John Duke begin taking over his duties in 1832. By the time C.C. Gill becomes the new rector of Christ Church in December 1833, the name Orderson disappears from the records of Barbados all together. Fun fact, Orderson appears to retire around the same time as the Chase vault story first shows up in Transatlantic Sketches, in 1833. Coincidence? Remember that memoirs of Stapleton Cotton and therefor the Orderson pamphlet spoke of thousands of onlooks swarming the tiny town to witness the strange goings on as the vault. But stranger still is that there isn’t a single mention of this circuslike atmosphere descending on sleepy little Oistins anywhere. There is not a single Barbadian newspaper article at all concerning the Chase vault. Nor are there private letters, diaries, journals, postcards, police reports, logbook entries of visiting ships, songs, poems, nothing about the haunted burial vault from anyone else who ever lived on Barbados. Every single solitary publication of this story can be directly traced back to a lone source. The pamphlet of T.H. Orderson. It appears that the rector saw himself a writer and thought this story would be his ticket to fame and fortune. Of course, after choking down just a couple lines of his idiotic and pretentious prose, its easy to see why we don’t remember his name today.
But boy howdy, did his story generated a spate of well-written versions of this tale? And it’s these highly crafted takes on the Orderson original that have convinced generations that the story is hands-down a paranormal landmark. For years and to this day people are coming up with fantastic theories on what happened on Barbados and why. Even Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, tossed his two cents in the collection plate. His idea: “The space must have been crowded with overheated (slaves), and when the slab was at once hermetically sealed, these effluvia were enclosed…furnishing a possible source of that material power which is needful for material effect.” Magical slave sweat was his explanation. Not surprising, in that he was racist who also theorized slaves were responsible for the disappearance of the Mary Celeste’s crew – even though there were no slaves on the ship as slavery had been abolished for 40 years before that tragedy occurred.
It’s reasonable to assume that something happened in a vault on the island, as there is anecdotal evidence that coffins were moved. The Chase legend is but one of the stories about moving coffins from Barbados, some predating the Chase case. Is it possible the Orderson used these instances as inspiration when crafting his story? As rector of the parish church, he certainly had access to the burial records and had great source material in formulating his tale. Like I said, we have no concrete evidence that anyone was ever buried in the Chase vault. But certainly someone was. Why build an crypt in a churchyard if not for burying the dead? Right. So, just for the sake of argument, I’m going to stipulate that yes, there were indeed coffins in the crypt around the time Orderson created this myth. Maybe not the Chase family, maybe. In this respect it doesn’t matter. What does is that there were coffins in the crypt. Taking that into consideration, what might have happened?
I think we can put to rest the argument that paranormal forces were at play in the little Barbadian churchyard. While it was, and still is in some locations, a firm belief that the victims of suicide are unable to find eternal peace and often return to cause mischief and misfortune for the living. But I seriously doubt the vengeful spirits of Dorcas and Thomas Chase tossed their caskets about in a post burial hissy fit. It certainly wasn’t effluvial sweat bombs exuded by the local salve population. Poltergeist activity has often been suggested as a cause, but as you may or may not know – and we will certainly entertain this topic in a future episode – poltergeist manifestations are associated with a living person, a catalyst, though which physical telekinetic movement is exerted.
So, if not paranormal, what are some of the more normal explanations for the disturbances – assuming there were any. Some have said the escaping methane gas from the decomposing bodies somehow ignited and blew the coffins around. Okay, highly unlikely but scientifically viable. Methane gas does explode and does so quite easily under the right circumstances. But the vault was porous coral limestone through which such gas could easily escape, and contrary to popular belief the door wasn’t hermetically sealed after every burial. It was just slid back into place. And none of the coffins were damaged or had their lids blown off by said explosions. So, I don’t think so. Earthquakes make a convenient culprit, but as Barbados lies on the eastern fringe of the Caribbean Plate, tremors there are rare and even more rarely of significant magnitude to cause much damage. Even if there were seismic activity, it’s unlikely that it would be so laser-focused on the Chase vault and leave all others intact. Others have suggested flooding as a possible cause for the movement of the coffins. Now this makes perfect sense. The tropical island does get on average about 5 feet of rainfall a year, you heard me 60 inches of rain annually. And in that the vault was constructed partially underground, heavy rains and flooding could get into the crypt and under the right conditions float the coffins out of their original positions. And again, the porous limestone would allow for the rainwater to drain out once the rains had stopped. So certainly plausible.
But there is another explanation of the moving coffins in Barbados, and not only those associated with the Chase vault but others on the island as well. When you consider the social and political climate at the time, one explanation seems to fit the facts nicely. The smoldering hatred of the white landowners by the slave population was at its peak around the time of the disturbances of the Chase vault. Rebellion was rife in Barbados in the early years of the 19th century. While the slave trade had been axed by the British colonies in 1807, that only meant that there would be no new slaves brought to the island. It did not eliminate the practice of slavery and did nothing for those already enslaved by the colonials. Abolition would not happen until 1834, long after the purported events surrounding the churchyard. The indentured population was aware of the movement to end slavery outright and saw rebellion as an opportunity to speed the process along. Slave uprisings did claim British lives and the retribution for such insurrection was harsh in turn. Defiling the graves of slave owners and their families might have been symbolic, it might have been a warning, or it may have been vandalism brought about by those aching to have their voices heard and their chains broken and could find no other way of achieving this.
Whatever the cause of the disruption at the Chase vault and others during the heyday of the British Empire, there have been lasting effects. And one of those effects is this story. It has crossed oceans, spanned centuries, and inspired similar tales in England, the US and even Estonia. Though no longer as mysterious as once thought, it is still a fantastic ghost story best read by candlelight on a stormy night. And if you ever find yourself in Barbados for a tropical vacation, you can still visit the tiny churchyard in Christ Church Parish where the Chase family vault stands empty today. While the massive stone door which guarded the entrance is long gone, rusted iron bars keep the curious at bay. But if you dare, you can take the weathered stone steps down and peer inside the vacant crypt. There is history there. Both real and imagined.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Beyond the Fringe. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast as new episodes are uploaded weekly. You can follow us on Twitter at podcastbtf and If you’d like to drop us an email telling us how much you love the show or to suggest topics for future episodes, the address is podcastbtf@gmail.com. Until next time this Jay reminding you to “Keep it Real”.