The Gallows Trap - A Weird Folklore Thing

 Gallitrap
 Location: Lew Trenchard (Devon) - Unknown field in the area
Type: Other
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: A piece of this parish was thought to have a Gallitrap (or Gallows Trap), a section of land which if a person guilty of a heinous crime enters, they will wander around 'lost' until a parson and a magistrate are summoned. The former will break the spell while the latter hangs the person in question.

"New" Shuck stories courtesy of the Paranormal Database monthly update.....

Is there anything creepier than an animal spectre?  Particularly when it is seen doing an un-animal-like thing, such as walking on two legs?  I've always been intrigued by ghostly dog/shuck stories, dating back to the first time I read Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Tinderbox.'  See earlier entries 'The Beast of Brymbo' and 'The Black Dogs of South Mountain.'

What is a Shuck?

What is a Padfoot?

These stories have spellbound listeners for centuries, even millennia, but even in our modern, 'enlightened' technological 21st century, new sightings and stories are still being reported.  Here are a few stories that were posted on Paranormal Database just during the last month or so.

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Postman's Dog

A postman in Wales reported that every night, at the Ewenny crossroads where one road leads to Ogmore, he would watch as a large phantom black dog appeared, moving purposefully as if it were on a mission.  It made no sound as it passed.  This story may date to the nineteenth century.

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 Trotting Dog

Also in Wales, a predictable but elusive Shuck is said to appear every night at midnight at the crossroads between Bridgend and Laleston.  This haunting is ongoing.  People who have attempted to follow the hound-like creature have always lost sight of it, despite their efforts.

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 Changing Entity

In Durham, the area of Glassensikes (river) and Harewood Hill was once said to be haunted by a large black dog which could sometimes change into a rabbit, a white cat, a headless woman, or a flaming headless man.  The age of this legend is unknown.

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 Padfoot

At Horbury in Yorkshire, in the area of Jenkin Road, a man returning home caught a glimpse of a white dog in the hedgerow.  He struck at it with a stick, which passed straight through the dog.  The dog didn't flee, but turned around and stared at the man.  He ran home, where he became sick and later died.  This shuck is said to sometimes run around on two legs.  Catching sight of it is considered to be a portent of death.
This legend dates at least as far back as the nineteenth century.

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 White Lass Beck

A stream near Thirsk in Yorkshire has long been said to be haunted by the spirit of a maid who was murdered in the area, in the nineteenth century or earlier.  Her body was found buried in a gravel pit.  White Lass Beck appears as a woman dressed in white, but also has taken the form of a white dog or a white cow.


VISIT PARANORMAL DATABASE

A Wedding in Stepney, and Neighbors

This weekend, I found an image of the church registry page which lists the marriage of my 10th great-grandparents, Anthony West and Anne Barlow Huffe, on March 11, 1633. Anthony is the relative who went to Jamestown in his late teens, spending a few years farming tobacco at George Sandys' plantation and working for Mr. Rowley, the barber-surgeon. He returned to England in the late 1620s, where he met and married Anne, returning to Virginia before 1649 with his wife and surviving children.

Today I noticed that just below the entry in the register for Anthony and Anne, there's an entry for a Tilbury Strange (waterman) and Mary Finicombe (widow) who were from the same neighborhood as A & A, and were married on the same day. I wonder if they knew each other? I wonder if they were friends? I wonder if they all went out together to celebrate after their weddings?

I decided to look up Tilbury Strange, on the off-chance that there was something out there about him. Such an unusual name. I found a page on him, and a link to another interesting person...John Taylor, "The Water-Poet", who was his neighbor. John Taylor was also a member of the guild of boatmen licensed to ferry people across the river, a vital service at this time when London Bridge was the only bridge crossing the Thames. Taylor and Tilbury were both members of the royal watermen, serving as leaders of this guild at various times. John Taylor produced more than 150 publications in his lifetime, and although his work was not sophisticated, it provided keen observations of people and pastimes during his lifetime, making it valuable to social historians.----which is why I need to find it and read it, to better understand the life and times of my relative, his neighbor ;-)

Tilbury was born in about 1588, John Taylor in 1578, so they were both considerably older than Anthony. Before Anthony, born in 1605, even left for Virginia, Tilbury and Taylor traveled through Europe together.

From RootsWeb:
'From "The World of John Taylor the Water-Poet, 1578-1653" by Bernard Capp, 1994 (Oxford University Press) ISBN.0198203756, page 24:
"TAYLOR ... left England on 4 August 1620, accompanied by a fellow waterman named TILBURY." They took ship to Rotterdam, went through Amsterdam and Brunswick to Leipzig; TAYLOR's brother joined them. They could find no transport in Leipzig except 'a fellow with a wheel barrow', who transported their 'cloaks, swords, guns, pistols, and other apparel and luggage'. They themselves carried all across the mountains and forests into Bohemia where they were welcomed. To return to England they bought a small boat and navigated 600 miles down the Elbe to Hamburg, then across the channel, arriving in London on 28 October. Footnote: "TILBURY is probably Tilbury STRANGE, a neighbour [of TAYLOR's] and royal waterman, often employed in the Lord Mayor's Pageants: 'A Calendar of Dramatic Records in the Books of the Livery Companies of London 1485-16_0' ed. J. Robertson and D. J. Gordon (Malone Soc. Collection__ iii, 1954)"'

I don't know if either of them ever traveled to Virginia, or if Anthony heard of their travels before he made his own. I don't even know if Anthony lived in Stepney before his voyage to Virginia, or if he really did know these men....but I like to think of the possibility.