Crypt of the Moving Coffins

Sometime between 1812 and 1820 West Indian Folklore recalled this story which has mystified and confused people ever since. It tooks place in a tomb owned by the Chase family. The tomb stands at the entrance to the Christ Church Graveyard in Barbados and is built of large cemented blocks of coral. It measures 12 feet by 6 feet and is sunk halfway into the ground.

 

Nothing happened for the first two burials on 31st July 1807 (Mrs Thomasina Goddard) and 22 February 1808 (a 2 year old infant Mary Anna Maria Chase), but, on 6 July 1812 the tomb was opened to bury Dorcas Chase (her older sister). It took several men to open the heavy door and they found that the two coffins already there had been flung against the wall. As both coffins were encased in lead a great force was needed to do this. They buried Dorcas Chase and returned the other two coffins to their original positions.

On subsequent burials (Colonal Chase himself died a month later on the 8th August) the same sight greeted the eight pallbearers. Each time the coffins were found flung against the walls. opened for the burial of Master Samuel Brewster Ames, a young Chase relative aged 11 months, on September 25th 1816. The funerary procession was once again greeted by the macabre sight of a jumbled mess of caskets. It was believed that people had been breaking into the tomb and moving the coffins, though when the burial of Miss Thomasina Clarke took place on 17 July 1819 the newly appointed and popular governor Governor of Barbados, Viscount Combermere, supervised the sealing of the vault. Nine months later he returned to check the state of the tomb and again found it in disarray. Yet the seals on the door that he had personally put there remained intact.

Lord Combermere’s wife recorded the following details in her journal that day:-

“In my husband’s presence, every part of the floor was sounded to ascertain that no subterranean passage or entrance was concealed. It was found to be perfectly firm and solid; no crack was even apparent. The walls, when examined, proved to be perfectly secure. No fracture was visible, and the sides, together with the roof and flooring, presented a structure so solid as if formed of entire slabs of stone. The displaced coffins were rearranged, the new tenant of that dreary abode was deposited, and when the mourners retired with the funeral procession, the floor was sanded with fine white sand in the presence of Lord Combermere and the assembled crowd. The door was slid into its wonted position and, with the utmost care, the new mortar was laid on so as to secure it. When the masons had completed their task, the Governour made several impressions in the mixture with his own seal, and many of those attending added various private marks in the wet mortar…”

In 1820 the vault was emptied without the mystery of the “creeping coffins” being solved. The coffins were all reburied in another place. There are no known scientific observations recorded around the time. The Chase vault still exists in the Christ Church Graveyard and remains empty.

At the time The Honourable Nathan Lucas wrote:- “…I examined the walls, the arch, and every part of the Vault, and found every part old and similar; and a mason in my presence struck every part of the bottom with his hammer, and all was solid. I confess myself at a loss to account for the movements of these leaden coffins…” (20th April, 1820).

The “Chase Vault” was constructed by the Waldrons back to the early 18th century, a wealthy sugar plantation family. The vault is hewn from the very coral that the island is made of, sunken halfway into the ground near the entrance of the Christ Church Parish Church cemetery. A tombstone was once in place that indicated the burial of the “Honourable James Elliot, Esq., who died on May 14th, 1724, son of the Honourable Richard Elliot, Esq. and husband of Elizabeth, daughter of the Honourable Thomas Waldron, Esq.” It is not known if Mr. Elliot was ever actually interred there or, if he was, what happened to the coffin. Nonetheless, the crypt was empty on July 31st, 1807 when it received its first occupant with the death of Mrs. Thomasina Goddard. She was buried in a wooden coffin; a large marble slab was used to seal off the entrance. Soon afterward ownership of the crypt passed to the Chases, another wealthy plantation family. The family patriarch was one Colonel Thomas Chase, a man with the reputation of having a bad temper and a propensity for cruelty to his slaves and family alike.

Chase relative, Samuel Brewster, who had been killed by his slaves during a revolt the previous April, was removed from its original resting place in the St. Philip cemetery (a few miles northeast of Oistins) to be reinterred in the Chase Vault. The Reverend Thomas Orderson, Rector of Christ Church, was on hand along with a magistrate and two other men. Word had gotten around the island about the strange goings-on and a “flock of the curious” assembled to witness the opening of the vault. They got what they were looking for. The coffins had been shifted with such violence that Mrs. Goddard’s wooden coffin had practically disintegrated. The Reverend Doctor ordered the vault thoroughly inspected for cracks in the walls, floor, ceiling, or hidden entrances, but the structure proved as solid as it ever was. The nervous mourners bundled the splintered pieces of Mrs. Goddard’s coffin together and placed them between Samuel Brewster’s coffin and the wall. The rest of the coffins were reorganized and the door sealed with mortar.

With the revolt still fresh in their minds, the baffled populace again looked at the slaves suspiciously, even though such accusations were difficult to justify. The slaves stayed away from the cemetery completely, fearing the work of malevolent “duppies” (spirits). If asked by curiosity-seekers where the Vault was, many would pretend not to know anything about it at all. A feeling of dread fell over the islanders.

 

The Chase Vault today (2005)
[Note the damage since the earlier picture from 1999]