| The
White Lady is thought to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Southworth.
Lady
Dorothy lived at the Hall during the seventeenth century. Her family
were staunch Catholics but Dorothy fell in love with a neighbour
who happened to be a Protestant.
Because
of family conflict, the young lovers could only meet in secret,
and eventually they decided they would elope. On the night of their
escape, the young man made his way to the Hall, but before he could
get to Dorothy, her brother crept up on him and killed both him
and two of his accomplices with his sword.
Consequently,
both families found out about the affair and Dorothy was sent to
a convent abroad where she went insane and eventually died.
Some
years ago three human skeletons were found near the walls of the
Hall, and popular opinion has connected them with the tradition.
Peter
Harrison added this...
My family bought the house some time after the Southworths. it was
Joseph Harrison, my great great great uncle, who found the skeletons
in the wall. He restored the house but later went into bankruptsy
and ended up shooting himself. He supposedly haunts the gallery
above the great hall. the neighbour in the white lady story was
a De Houghton, from the neigbouring manor Hoghton Tower. It's interesting
stuff isnt it?
Margaret
in New Zealand added this...
I was so interested to find the Hall as my grandparents worked there
in the 1881 Census as butler and domestic servants, a year before
they married, Jane Russell was in Farnham Surrey in 1882, so perhaps
she had seen The White Lady and decided to leave! My mother did
not tell us about the Hall though I knew Jane was a servant. We
are curious as to how The White Lady could write her story if she
was insane!? Fascinating though. Thanks, it made my day.
Have you had a ghostly experience in Lancashire? Tell us your
spooky stories.
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