There is no denying that most historic hauntings were human (rather than spiritual) mysteries, the product of personal fears, lies, crimes and deceits. But whether you believe in ghosts or not, here are five spooky cases for you to consider\u2026<\/strong><\/p>

1<\/span>
1621: Nunnifying Mary Boucher<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Mary Boucher was a London servant woman employed by a Catholic lady. According to the clergyman John Gee (d1639), the lady hatched a plot with three Jesuits to convert Mary to Catholicism, and so have her \u2018Nunnified\u2019. What better way to persuade Mary to convert to the Catholic faith than to convince her that ghosts returned from purgatory?<\/p>\n
One of the conspirators dressed up in a white sheet and approached Mary as she lay in bed one night. The supposed spirit touched Mary with \u201ca hand cold as earth or iron\u201d and claimed to be her long-deceased godmother: \u201cSee that you tell my children what you have seen, and how their mother appeared unto you\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Mary told her mother about the ghostly visitation, she convinced her daughter that it was nothing but a popish trick. But maybe John Gee, who claimed to have visited Mary to verify the story, was making up his own stories to deflect rumours that he himself was in thrall to the papacy\u2026<\/p>\n

Read more ghost stories from the past\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n
Spooky Stuart ghost stories<\/a><\/li>\n
3 curious medieval ghost stories<\/a><\/li>\n
5 Georgian ghost hoaxes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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2<\/span>
1650: The haunting of Susan Lay<\/h3>\n<\/div>
In 1650 an Essex servant girl named Susan Lay went to her local magistrate in great distress, saying that she was haunted by the ghost of her mistress, Priscilla Beauty, the wife of an alehouse keeper. Lay had given birth to illegitimate children by both Beauty\u2019s husband and her son, William. Both children died in infancy.<\/p>\n
Priscilla passed away at Easter 1650. Three days after she was buried, Susan \u2013 who was then living in the alehouse barn \u2013 began to be visited by the pale ghost of her mistress calling to her, \u201cSue, Sue, Sue\u201d. The anguished Susan thought the spirit of her mistress had come back from the dead to punish her for her sins \u2013 \u201coh this woman will be the destruction of me\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
When Susan threatened to commit suicide, William told her, \u201cthis is a just judgement of God upon you for if she walks, she walks to you and nobody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
10 things you didn\u2019t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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