The Moving Coffins of Barbados

On the island of Barbados in the Caribbean sits the picturesque Christ Church Parish.  It's just like a lot of churches all over the world complete with a quiet graveyard where many of the island's inhabitants end up for their final rest.  However, in one tomb in this cemetery, the dead are anything but at rest.

It's called The Chase Vault and it is at the center of one of the island of Barbados' most chilling and sinister mysteries.

The Chase Vault was first built by The Honorable James Elliot.  The vault was majestic, made of carved stone, coral, and concrete walls over two feet thick.  At the entrance was an enormous blue slab of marble sealing the tomb in peace.

The first occupant of the vault was James Elliot's wife, Elizabeth, who died on May 14th, 1792.  A few years later, the vault was purchased by the Walrond Family and was opened to receive the body of Mrs. Thomasina Goddard however, upon removing the marble slab from the front of the door, the pallbearers  were puzzled to observe that Mrs. Elliot and her coffin had completely disappeared.  The reason for the disappearance of the co

The vault eventually ended up in the possession of the Chase Family (hence the name) and the first member of the Chase Family to be buried there was baby Mary Anne Marie Chase who died at the age of two on February 22, 1808.  Her small lead coffin was placed in the vault and the marble slab was put into place where it would remain for four years.

In 1812 Mary Anne's older sister, Dorcas, died under what some would say was strange circumstances.  It was rumored that the girl had been abused by her father, Colonel Thomas Chase, who had a reputation for being cruel and sadistic to his family and slaves.  Some say that Dorcas was unable to live with the abuse any longer and starved herself to death.  Her coffin was added to the vault.

Only a month later, Colonel Thomas Chase committed suicide and when the pallbearers opened the vault a grisly sight met them all.  Inside the tomb, both of the little girl's coffins had been seemingly thrown about and were lying in a haphazard fashion on the vault's floor with one coffin left upside down.

The first thought that the men had was that the tomb had been ransacked by grave robbers, but there were no valuables in the tomb to steal and the heavy marble slab used to seal the place up had not been moved.

Despite the mystery, the two coffins were straightened and the body of Colonel Chase was added.  The Chase Vault was sealed once more.

Four years later, the vault was once again opened to admit the body of eleven year-old Charles Brewster Ames.  Again, the coffins inside the tomb had been flung about... even the 240 pound lead coffin of the colonel.  By now, the story had begun to spread around the island and 52 days later when Samuel Brewster was due to be buried, the vault was inspected from the outside for anything out of the ordinary.  The found that the vault was airtight and watertight and that nothing could get in or out however, upon opening the tomb, once again they discovered that the coffins had been apparently violently disturbed.

This time, however, one coffin was not out of place... the wooden coffin of Thomasina Goddard.  However, it had sustained heavy damage from another coffin smashing into it that Mrs. Goddard's skeleton was sticking out of it.

By this time, the news of the moving coffins had reached the ears of Barbados' governor, Lord Combermere who decided that the puzzle of the Chase Vault must be solved.

Lord Combermere ordered that the vault be inspected and made impenetrable from the outside.  He then ordered that sand by sprinkled on the floor so that footprints would betray any human or animal intruders.  Finally, the governor's seal was placed into the fresh cement of the vault seal as an added precaution.  This is the way that the vault remained for two years and, during those two years, the curious islanders who wanted to get a look at the infamous Chase Vault reported strange sounds and howls coming from within.  The Chase Vault had garnered a very foreboding reputation.

It was time to open the vault and Lord Combermere with eight slaves, a group of able bodied men, and two masons made their way into the cemetery and towards the tomb.  As hundreds of onlookers watched, Lord Combermere ordered an inspection of the vault from the outside.  Nothing was deemed out of the ordinary or amiss... the vault was just as sturdy as it was when they first surveyed it.

The marble slab was removed and terror greeted Lord Combermere's eyes.  The coffins were again violently disturbed and flung about like toys.  One coffin was actually leaning up against the door making getting into the vault difficult.  Mary Anna's lead coffin had been thrown so violently that a piece actually chipped off.

There were no prints in the sand.  No one had entered the vault.  Detailed drawings of the scene were made.

By this time, the Chase family could take no more and had the coffins removed from the infamous vault.  They were all eventually buried in plots in the cemetery.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator and writer of Sherlock Holmes,  proposed along with others that the disturbances were caused by the spirits of two inhabitants of the vault, Dorcas and Thomas, who had committed suicide and, therefore, were cursed and restless.  The fact that the coffins had started moving only after Dorcas Chase was buried seemed to support that hypothesis.

There were other explanations, of course, such as human tampering, earthquakes, and explosions but they were all ruled out.   Explosions and earthquakes would have disturbed other vaults in the cemetery and human tampering was dismissed due to the fact that the vault seal had not been broken, the marble slab was so heavy it would have taken eight men to move it, and the coffin blocking the door would have made escape for human tricksters impossible.

The most popular theory (disregarding the supernatural ones) is flooding.  If the vault had filled with water, the coffins - even the metal ones - would have floated... but if the coffin movement was caused by floodwaters, why was the sand on the floor not disturbed?  How would it account for the damage done to the coffins as though they were thrown with great force?  Why wasn't flooding observed in any other of the tombs in the cemetery?

The Chase Vault is not the only example of coffins moving around.   "The Curious Vault at Stanton in Suffolk" in which coffins were displaced several times under mysterious circumstances is one example.  F. A. Paley told of another example when his father was the rector in the parish of Gretford, near Stamford, England. His father noted that two or three times the coffins in a vault were found on re opening to have been moved around. The incidence created some excitement within the village at the time and of course brought out every superstitious belief that existed within the English village. The incident was quickly hushed up out of respect for the family to whom the vault belonged.

Today the Chase Vault still exists, but it is empty and has been for almost two hundred years.  No one has tempted fate by allowing a family member to be buried there.

To this day, the mystery is unsolved.  Due to a lack of scientific readings done at the time, some have speculated that the creeping coffins of the Chase Vault never existed and that the entire incident was a hoax.  However, the Chase Vault does exist and records show that a Chase Family did reside on Barbados at that time... and, perhaps the most convincing evidence of all is that the vault remains to this day, empty.

After all, something cannot be moved if there is nothing to be moved.

Normally, this would be the end of our story had it not been for Lord Combermere himself.   Lord Combermere died in 1891, having been struck and killed by a horse-drawn carriage.  While his funeral was taking place, a man named Sybell Corbet was busy taking pictures of The Combermere Abby Library.  When the photos were developed, one could see a transparent figure sitting in a chair... the ghost of Lord Combermere himself.  You can read the full story here in the Ghastly Ghost Gallery.