Cornish Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Cornish Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
Thomas Bligh was buried at South Petherwin, April 10th, 1692. There is
no entry in Vivian's pedigree of Walter Bligh, gentleman, who was
buried January 29th, 1667-8. Besides, there are many entries of an
Edmund Bligh and Katherine, his wife, and their children. Thomas Bligh
seems to have lived at one time at S. Martin's-by-Looe. Dr. Lee in his
_Glimpses of the Supernatural_ calls Dorothy Dingley, Dorothy Durant;
but on what authority I do not know. There is an entry in the South
Petherwin register of the burial of Dorothy Durant, widow, 1st May,
1677, but according to the story of the boy, Dorothy Dingley died in
or about 1657. Unfortunately the South Petherwin registers do not go
back beyond August, 1656, but there is no entry in them in 1656 or
1657 of the burial of Dorothy Dingley.
The Dingleys had been settled in Lezant and Linkinhorne from 1577, and
owned the place Hall in the latter parish; but they had connections in
Worcestershire; and Dorothy was the youngest daughter of Francis
Dingley, baptized at Cropthorne, in the latter county, in 1596. She
married Richard, son of George Durant, of Blockly, Worcestershire. As
no further trace of her can be found in the register there, it is not
unfair to suppose that having kinsfolk in Cornwall she may have
journeyed there, and both were buried at South Petherwin, Dorothy
Durant, as already stated, in 1677. She was then aged eighty-seven.
She cannot have been the ghost. But was the ghost that of her mother,
a Dorothy, who came to South Petherwin with her, and died there about
the year 1655? We cannot tell, as we do not know her mother's
Christian name. Dr. Lee clearly confused the Dorothy Durant with the
Dorothy Dingley, the ghost.
The Rev. P. T. Pulman, vicar of South Petherwin, writes to me: "In
December, 1896, a labourer died here, aged seventy-two. For upwards of
forty years he had worked at Botathan. He told me that one of the
fields was called the Higher Brown Park (he did not know the name of
Quartells) until the field was ploughed up. He told me there was a
little path in it which they called old Dorothy Dinglet's [_sic_]
path, and that they used to frighten the farm apprentices with stories
about her, but he had never met her himself. The farm has been sold of
recent years. There is a part of the old house left used for a cider
cellar. They call it Dorothy Dingley's chamber."
The Rev. James Dingley was vicar of South Petherwin from 1682 until
1695. He was born 1655, just ten years before the apparition was seen
by young Bligh.
Authorities: A. Robbins, "A Cornish Ghost Story," in the _Cornish
Magazine_, 1898; A. Robbins, _Launceston Past and Present_, 1889. The
portrait of the Rev. John Ruddle is in my possession. The descendants
of Parson Ruddle or Rudall are still on the land, but are in a humble
condition.
JOHN COUCH ADAMS,
ASTRONOMER
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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