The Mystery of Barbados’ Moving Coffins

I’ve always loved ghost stories, especially when I was younger and way more gullible. I blame my grandmother, who used to tell us ghost stories whenever she came to visit.

When I was 16, I got a book of ghost stories and unexplained phenomena from the library and spent a week reading up on all of them. There was a chapter on the Winchester house that we’d already covered on this channel. Then there was one on the hauntings at Borley Rectory in Essex, England, where some of the residents saw phantom carriages racing past the house, or the ghost of a nun haunting the grounds, claiming that it even went so far as to watch them through the windows.

Then there were the hauntings that are said to take place at the Golden Fleece, an inn and pub that is located in York, England, and has been in existence since at least 1503. According to legend, the ghosts of Roman soldiers can be seen marching through the cellar along an ancient Roman road. People who have witnessed their endless march, report that it’s like watching a faded recording play out, almost as if nature itself had recorded the events that had taken place at the time. Sometimes the soldiers seem to be heading towards battle, and other times, they’re returning.

Sometimes they carry round shields, and other times, their shields are square. And sometimes there are hundreds of them, and other times, only a handful.

But my favourite ghost story by far was the story of the moving coffins of Barbados, and it’s this particular story that we are going to decode today.

The Mysterious Vault

Just a note – the internet is truly a wonder, and I was able to find one of the original versions of this story, sections of which are included here!

On the 9th of August 1812, Colonel Thomas Chase died. He was a rich plantation owner, owned hundreds of slaves, and was said to have been ‘the most thoroughly detested man in all Barbados’.

His funeral took place at the Christ Church on Church Hill and was attended by all the other esteemed plantation owners in the parish. Afterwards, his coffin was taken to the Chase family vault, so that the ‘Honourable’ Thomas Chase could be laid to rest alongside his two daughters – little Mary Ann and Dorcas Chase.

Thomas’s body was placed in a lead-lined coffin to keep his decomposing body from stinking up the place, and eight pallbearers would be assigned to carry his incredibly heavy coffin the 12 metres from the church doors, through the churchyard, and towards the family’s burial vault, which lay partially buried in the churchyard and could be accessed by climbing down a set of narrow stone steps.

The day before the funeral, a group of six or seven black men had chipped away the cement that had sealed the vault. They then moved the heavy marble slab that acted as a door aside, and that is when they noticed that the coffins inside the vault had moved.

There were three coffins inside the vault – a little lead-lined coffin that belonged to Mary Ann Chase, who had only been two when she’d passed away in 1808, and a larger lead-lined coffin that belonged to Dorcas Chase, who had been twelve when she passed away in 1812. The third coffin was a wooden one that belonged to a Mrs. Thomasina Goddard, who’d already been buried in the vault when the Chase family purchased it.

The three coffins had been neatly placed side by side following Dorcas’ funeral, but now Mrs Goddard’s coffin was lying on its side and up against a wall. Little Mary Ann’s coffin was standing on its head in a corner on the far side of the tomb, and Dorcas’ coffin was askew.

The black labourers became alarmed and hastened to the church officials to relate this singular circumstance; but no credence was given to their story, and it was imagined that, actuated by a love of mischief, these men had upon the last occasion, in order to create a sensation, entered the vault before closing the door, disturbed the coffins, and left them in this disorder.

Of course, they all denied it. They were afraid of angering the ‘duppies’, ‘the malevolent spirits of dead ancestors’, and believed that they’d be haunted by the dead if they ever attempted such a thing. Still, the past was the worst, so these men were punished for tampering with the coffins, and the church officials decided not to breathe a word of what had happened to the Chase family. The coffins were put back in their rightful places, and the next day, Col. Thomas Chase was laid to rest.

Little Mary Ann’s coffin was now placed on top of Dorcas’, and then Thomas Chase’s coffin was placed down next to those of his daughters. The marble door was moved back into place, the door was cemented shut, and the mourners all returned home.

Four years later on the 25th of September 1816, a funeral was to be held for a baby named Samuel Brewster Ames, and he too would be laid to rest in the Chase vault. This time, church officials stood watch as the black men worked to chisel away the vault’s cement seal, satisfied that no one had tampered with it. But when the marble slab was pushed aside, the coffins had once again moved.

Deciding that they couldn’t keep this from the family, the church officials contacted them and then went on to inspect the vault themselves. No signs of tampering were found, and the family decided to just let it be. The coffins were placed back into their proper spots, little Samuel’s lead-lined coffin was placed on top of Col. Chase’s coffin, and once again, the vault was closed and sealed with cement.

Just six weeks later, the vault was to be opened again. Little Samuel’s father, Samuel Brewster, had passed away in April 1816 after some of his slaves had bludgeoned him to death during a slave rebellion, and his coffin was now moved to the Chase vault so that he could rest next to his son. Once again, the church officials watched on as the untouched vault was opened, and once again, the coffins had moved.

Mrs Goddard’s plain wooden coffin is said to have been falling apart by this point and had to be tied up with wire to keep it from falling to pieces. Her coffin was placed next to the wall, and once again, the coffins were stacked neatly inside the vault. Samuel Brewster’s coffin replaced Mrs Goddard’s coffin, and the small coffin belonging to little Samuel was placed on top of it. Once again, the vault was closed and the door was sealed with cement, and three years would pass before the vault was opened again.

It was now regarded more seriously than hitherto, and the account of the mystery spread so rapidly that not only all the inhabitants of Bridgetown but of the whole island, were interested. Thousands visited the spot, curiosity was at its height, and the news having reached Government House, [the Governor of Barbados] Lord Combermere stated his intention to be present at the [next] interment.

During this time, the vault had already become infamous, and the more superstitious inhabitants of Barbados – particularly the slaves, free men and indigenous people – avoided the vault like the plague, and many of them would tell stories of strange noises and loud bangs coming from the vault at night.

When Mrs. Thomasina Clarke passed away in July 1819, the entire island was made aware that the Chase Vault would once again be opened. This time, the Governor of Barbados, Lord Combermere, and several other influential members of Barbados’ elite watched on when the cement was chipped away on the 17th of July, 1819.

Once again, the coffins had moved and were strewn all over the vault. The only coffin that hadn’t moved was the one belonging to Mrs. Goddard. Lord Combermere himself inspected the vault and then had masons hammer at the walls and the floor to determine if there was some sort of tunnel that would allow someone access to the vault. None were found.

Lord Combermere ordered that a sketch had to be made of the positions of the coffins as they left them and that the floor of the vault had to be covered in a fine layer of sand. Reverand Thomas Orderson made a quick sketch of the coffins, which showed that Dorcas’s coffin stood to the left of the entrance, with little Mary Ann’s coffin on top of it. In the middle was Col. Thomas’ coffin, and Little Samuel’s coffin stood on top.

To the right was Samuel Brewster’s coffin, and Thomasina Clarke’s wooden coffin was placed on top of it. Mrs. Goddard’s coffin was once again placed in a corner to the side of the room.

The vault was sealed with cement, but as an extra precaution, Lord Combermere and several others left marks in the wet cement, which included Lord Combermere’s private seal.

But the interest in this strange occurrence continued, furnishing a constant topic of conversation. The greatest curiosity was expressed as to the result, and numerous conjectures arose regarding the phenomenon: some suggesting volcanic power, others expressing a superstitious belief in superhuman agency, while many still continued to attribute the mischief to the cunning of the [black workers].

So great a commotion did the occurrence make in the island, and so many expressed impatience to test the possibility of trickery by the reopening of the tomb, that Lord Combermere, who participated in this general curiosity, consented to have it examined, and the opening was fixed for the 18th of April 1820, just nine months and eleven days after the period of its close.

Barbados has seldom witnessed such a gathering as that assembled in Christ Church district on that day. The towns were deserted, and thousands hastened to the scene; every spot, every avenue, every foot of ground was crowded in and around the churchyard. The scorching rays of the sun blazed forth in tropical splendour upon that sea of living forms. Europeans and [blacks], all crowded together in their varied attires, and scarcely less varied complexions, upon the brow of a hill, with the massive stone tombs rising here and there above them, and the old church standing forth in sombre relief, as if a connecting link between the living and the dead, made the scene altogether one which beggared description, while perhaps its peculiar interest was in the death-like silence that reigned over it—the silence of mute anxiety and superstitious awe.

That day, Lord Combermere and several others once again went to visit the Chase vault. They confirmed that their marks in the cement were untouched, and they watched on as a group of workers chipped away at the dried cement. But when the workers tried to move the heavy marble slab aside, it wouldn’t budge, so the crowd cheered them on, urging them to put their backs into it.

The next excitement lent a powerful energy to their efforts, and the stone yielded half an inch, enough to afford a glimpse inside.

One of the lead-lined coffins was standing up against the marble slab, and it took a few more tries to push the marble slab far enough aside that someone could enter the vault. Once again, Lord Combermere and several others confirmed that the coffins – all except Mrs Goddard’s - had been moved.

…it was discovered that a huge leaden coffin was standing upon its head, with the end resting against the middle of the stone door. Though this coffin, which required seven or eight men to move, was thrown from its central place, and left in this remarkable position, yet the sand on the floor bore no trace of footprint, or of having been in any way disturbed. The coffin of an infant had been hurled with such force against the opposite wall, near which it was lying, that a deep indentation had been made in the stone work by the corner which it struck.

Freaked out, the Chase family asked that the remains of their loved ones should be removed from the cursed vault so that they could finally rest in peace. A sketch was made of the locations that the coffins were discovered in, and they were then removed and buried in separate plots throughout the churchyard. The Chase Vault was closed for the final time, and would never be used again.

The History of Barbados

Over the years, a lot of people have looked into the mystery surrounding the Moving Coffins of Barbados, which makes it one of the most well-researched ghost stories I’ve ever come across. As such, I would like to add some additional background information that might help us to better debunk some of the more outlandish stories around the case.

At the time, Barbados had already been a British colony for almost two hundred years. The population of Barbados consisted of the elites who were mostly wealthy plantation owners, soldiers and their families who were stationed on the island, the merchants who traded almost exclusively with the allies of Britain, Creoles, free men and the Kalinago, aka the indigenous people of Barbados, and of course, the thousands of slaves who worked the cocoa farms and sugar cane plantations. The 1807 Act of Parliament had outlawed the slave trade, but it wouldn’t be illegal to own slaves until 1833, and this resulted in several slave revolts taking place on the island at the time, increasing hostility between the plantation class and abolitionists.

The plantation owners were mostly Protestants, and the island was divided into 11 different parishes that were each served by a church. It wasn’t uncommon for the plantation owners to own family tombs and mausoleums, a practice that was becoming increasingly fashionable all over Europe, and at least four tombs in the Christ Church churchyard date back to the 1640s. They also protected the family’s remains against the violent storms and vicious hurricanes that habitually battered the island, and which had resulted in the stone church that stood on Church Hill having to be rebuilt a total of five times between 1629 and 1935.

The vault known as the Chase Vault originally belonged to the Walrond family. It was built by digging a hole into the porous limestone, and then the walls were built up with red bricks and cut limestone. The roof is arched, and at its highest point, is 2 metres or 6.5 ft high. The vault itself is 3.7 metres long by 2 metres wide, or 12 ft by 6.5ft, and can only be accessed through the doorway and a narrow set of steps.

Some sources say that the first person to be buried inside the vault was a James Elliot who passed away on the 14th of May 1724, but according to a paper published by Professor Niall Finneran and Dr Christina Welch from the University of Winchester in 2020, the church records actually shows that James Elliot’s wife, Elizabeth, had him buried in the church itself. Elizabeth had been a Walrond, so the vault belonged to her family, but we don’t know how many members of the Walrond family used to be buried in the vault.

What we do know, is that by the time Colonel Thomas Chase bought the vault, it already had an occupant – the body of Mrs. Thomasina Goddard, nee Walrond, who’d been buried in the vault on the 31st of July 1807. It’s assumed that the remains of the rest of the Walrond family had already been removed, and according to Dr Welch – who specializes in Religion and Death studies - it wasn’t an uncommon practice to move coffins around at the time, as evidenced by the fact that Samuel Brewster’s coffin was moved to the vault six weeks after his initial funeral.

Now that we have all that sorted, let’s get into –

The Theories

One of the most detailed accounts of the legend of the Moving Coffins I was able to find, was in a book by Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe named “The World’s Greatest Unsolved Mysteries”. In the chapter titled “The Strange Case of the Barbados Coffins”, the Fanthorpe’s points out that -

A number of theories have been put forward over the years — the best of them are not entirely adequate: the worst are at least 180 degrees off target.

One of these theories includes an exploding mushroom. The person who first shared this theory claimed to have been distantly related to Samuel Ames, the baby who was buried in the Chase vault. He claimed that an ancestor of his had been told that the coffins had been moved as a result of exploding mushrooms that grew inside the Chase vault.

These mushrooms, commonly known as Puffball mushrooms, ‘explode’ when they’re fully grown, releasing their spores, and based on the videos I’ve watched, the whole effect is very underwhelming, and looks nothing like what you’d expect an ‘explosion’ to look like. It just looks like the mushroom is puffing a joint. So yeah, it’s very interesting if you’re into strange fungi, but not a probable theory.

The next super improbable theory that the Fanthorpe’s had stumbled across, is that aliens were responsible for moving the coffins because of course they were! I hope that the Fanthorpe’s were being sarcastic when they gave this theory “…the modicum of respect it deserves,” since they then went on to ask WHY the aliens would have thought it a good idea to move a few coffins inside a vault on an island in the middle of the Caribbean in the 19th century.

I couldn’t help but scoff at their claim that –

It’s not high on the scale of probabilities, but it’s not impossible given the great weight of pro-UFO evidence that has steadily accumulated over the centuries.

So I decided to mostly ignore the rest of the theories they put forward, and focus on the more commonly known ones that were discussed by my more reliable sources.

Let’s start with the least likely theory, shall we?

Bad Neighbours

One of the most popular legends surrounding the phenomenon of the Moving Coffins of Barbados, is that the Chase vault was haunted – because what is a good ghost story without some actual ghosts?

According to CJ Hinds, a Barbadian tour guide that Benjamin Radford interviewed for his 2019 article “Lightning or Legendary?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited” –

[The] family fought in life, and they fought in death. And the only way to separate the fighting, in the end, was to put them in different parts of the church cemetery…They were dabbling in black arts, and it went to the graves with them. They were fighting amongst themselves in life – over the land, over money, relations – it was always problems with that family, and they took it directly to the grave.

Though it is a great story to sell to tourists, it’s not too far off the main legends surrounding the Chase vault, who all claim that the ghosts belonging to the Chase family were ‘restless’.

As mentioned earlier, Col. Chase was said to have been one of the cruellest slave masters in Barbados, and he reportedly didn’t treat his family any better – although this spin on the story only made an appearance around 1860, 40 years after the vault was emptied. Some versions of the story claim that Col. Chase was responsible for the death of little Mary Ann, who passed away in February 1808, and that the 12-year-old Dorcas –

…had starved herself to death owing to her father’s cruelty, wherefore the other corpses were desirous to expel her.

One version of the legend claims that once Dorcas’s coffin was placed in the vault, the ghost of Mrs Goddard became restless because she was now sharing a space with a condemned soul, while in others, Dorcas is the one who started tossing the coffins around. This is because, in the major religions, self-emulation was considered to be murder. In Dante’s “The Inferno”, he explains that people who kill themselves are condemned to the seventh level of hell, where they will continue to exist as trees that are habitually cut and pruned, resulting in them experiencing eternal pain.

In Hinduism, these souls won’t be reincarnated, and are doomed to wander the earth for eternity. According to both Catholic and Muslim beliefs, these souls will suffer constant hellfire, and in some Catholic and Jewish societies, the religious leaders even refused to grant someone traditional burial rites if it was suspected that they’d killed themselves, with some historians explaining that these people were often buried at a crossroads instead.

But some people claimed that it wasn’t Dorcas who’d killed herself, but that Col. Chase was the one who’d ended his own life, supposedly because he’d been grieving the loss of his two beloved daughters. According to this version, Col. Chase is the one who haunts the vault, even though this doesn’t explain why the coffins had already been moved before Col. Chase’s burial.

Either way, Prof. Finneran and Dr. Welch point out in their article “Barbadian Gothic: The Moving Coffins of the Chase Vault in Socio-Cultural Context”, that there is proof on the island that at the time, anyone who killed themselves wasn’t granted a Christian burial. They explain that a Mr.

Terrills had offed himself, and was then reportedly buried in the cellar of his house, which at the time was known as Cabbage Tree Hall. According to local legend, the ghost of Mr. Terrills is restless as a result, and he still haunts the house and its grounds.

Based on this, it’s highly unlikely that either Dorcas or Col. Chase had ended their own lives, since church records prove that both of them were granted a Christian burial. Of course, this fact didn’t keep the locals from continuing to claim that the vault was haunted, and a pamphlet by an unknown author that made the rounds shortly after the closure of the vault would claim that –

No [black man] would approach the burying-ground near nightfall, women whispered wonderful stories of apparitions, and children were threatened with its horrors to insure their good behaviour.

Now, onto some of the more reasonable theories –

A Lot of Flatulence

One of the theories surrounding the moving coffins is that they might have been moved as a result of gas build-up in the coffins themselves.

The first time this theory was mentioned in the sources I could find was in the 18th edition of The Folk-Lore Journal which was published in 1907. It was compiled by The Folk-Lore Society, which – from my understanding – was a peer-reviewed journal of myths and legends from all over the world. Members of the Society would collect stories, fact-check them to the best of their abilities, and then analyse and debunk the more fantastical ones – much like we do here on Decoding the Unknown. The stories would then be read during their meetings, and copies of their journals would then be sent to their subscribers and registered libraries.

One of their members was Andrew Lang, a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, Master of Letters and historian who also made contributions to the field of anthropology – specifically relating to folk tales. During a Folk-Lore Society meeting on the 19th of June 1907, Mr. Lang presented his story ‘Death’s Deeds’, which details the mystery of the Chase vault.

During his research, he was able to get in contact with some of the people who had access to the original versions of the story, including eye-witness accounts and notes from some of the people who’d been there when the vault was opened – the Rector at the time, Rev. Thomas Orderson, Sir Robert Clarke, and Chief Justice Nathan Lucas. He even goes so far as to point out some inconsistencies between the several accounts, most notably of which is that there was only one Samuel Brewster buried inside the vault, not two, which would have increased the period between the opening of the tomb in 1816, and the one in 1819.

In his version of the mystery, Mr. Lang provides three different theories as to what could have caused the coffins to move, two of which we’ll discuss later. For now, I want to focus on the theory that the coffins had moved due to a gas build-up in the coffins, which would have resulted in them being flung across the vault and which would have explained why people allegedly reported hearing noises coming from the vault.

Mr Lang doesn’t go into a lot of detail surrounding the gas-buildup theory, only mentioning that it was a possible cause. The second person credited with bringing up the gas build-up theory is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote an article about the case for the Strand Magazine in December 1919 named “The Law of the Ghost”.

In the article, Sir Arthur mentions that it is entirely possible that ‘effluvial emanations’ (or unseen matter or gas that is released by the human body) could have caused the coffins to move, suggesting that when we die, we leave some form of matter behind (aka your spirit) which can be trapped in a glass ball or a spirit cabinet, and he then argues that this ‘matter’ might have leaked from the coffins into the air of the vault and would have been disturbed by the black slaves who opened the vault due to their overheated bodies, resulting in them moving the coffins around – I’m not even joking. But Sir Arthur was known for his staunch belief in the supernatural, and throughout the entire article, he only discusses the possible supernatural causes and how they tie in with what he believed mediums and psychics were capable of. As such, I don’t consider him a reliable source for the gas build-up theory.

BUT it is a fact that some coffins do explode and that it can cause them to move. It was – and still is – a common occurrence in cemeteries and mausoleums. I know for a fact that some of our viewers are familiar with Caitlin Doughty and her YouTube Channel Ask a Mortician, so here’s a little call-out to her!

In a video titled “Exploding Caskets”, Caitlin explains that during the decomposition process, there is a lot of gas buildup in the body, usually between two to three days after death. Usually, these gasses would escape into the ground after a person had been buried, but when someone is buried in a sealed coffin or casket, this can result in the coffin exploding due to a gas build-up.

Again, I say exploding, but from some of the videos and photos I’ve seen of where this has happened, it mostly means that the lid would come off, or in the case of older wooden coffins, some of the panels would come loose. One of the most well-known cases of this happening is when Henry VIII’s coffin burst open at the seams during his funeral procession, and his pallbearers had to hastily fix his leaking coffin back up before the procession could continue. (Yuck, I know. The full version of this story is 10x worse.)

Prof. Finneran and Dr. Welch even mention in their article that there was another incident of moving coffins that took place in Barbados in the 1930’s. In this case, however, the coffin was thought to have initially been moved due to gas build-up in the coffin, and as a precaution, a ventilation shaft was placed inside the vault to help these gasses escape, reportedly solving the problem.

In none of these cases I’ve read about however, is it mentioned that the coffin somehow catapulted itself and landed on its head several feet away, which is what supposedly happened to the coffins in the Chase Vault. At most, the coffins would have moved a few centimetres, not to the opposite sides of the vault, and the observers would have noticed that the coffins were damaged as a result.

Furthermore, natural decay also doesn’t explain why ALL of the coffins were impacted every time a new coffin was brought into the vault. If the coffins were exploding, only the most recent coffin should have been impacted. Mr. Lang goes so far as to ask –

Why should only the Chase coffins be so violently gaseous?

Mr. Lang explains in a postscript that Nathan Lucas confirmed in his eyewitness account that when they last opened the Chase Vault, none of the lead-lined coffins showed any visible damage, and as such, the witnesses at the time had dismissed the idea of gas build-up as a possible theory.

It is obvious that an explosion of gas in a coffin could not move it without exploding it, as in the case of the coffin of Henry VIII at Windsor.

In their article, Prof. Finneran and Dr. Welch agree with this conclusion, explaining that –

corpse gas as an explanation for the moving coffins is implausible.

Natural Causes

In the 1833 book ‘Transatlantic Sketches’, by Sir James Edward Alexander, Sir James points out that during his visit to Barbados in 1831, the theory at the time was that the coffins were moved by either an earthquake or a flood, and those two theories are still the main theories around today.

However, there is an obvious problem with the earthquake theory – Barbados doesn’t normally experience earthquakes. At least, not on the island itself, since some earthquakes do occur further out to sea, with the most recent one taking place on the 16th of July 2015, 135km northeast of the island.

For the earthquake theory to be plausible, there had to have been at least 5 very strong, localized earthquakes between 1812 and 1820. Furthermore, these earthquakes would have had to be strong enough to move a lead-lined casket weighing between 250kg and 317kg – or between 550lb and 700lb.

From what I could find out during a quick Google search, to move objects like heavy furniture or have them fall over, an earthquake has to rank between a 5 and a 7 on the Richter Scale. This would hardly have gone unnoticed, since the Mercalli Intensity Scale (a scale that measures the damage done by an earthquake) explains that this would also have resulted in chimneys toppling over and people waking up because their beds are shaking.

I couldn’t find any reference to a tremor that bad in any of my sources, though a Mr. R. Reece, a printer who was a child when this all happened, did say that –

[Col. Chase] was an immense man, and his coffin, which was of lead, was necessarily of prodigious weight, yet his was thrown to and fro with the greatest violence and turned topsy-turvy. Certainly no earthquake could have been so violent as to have effected it.

This suggests that even the locals at the time didn’t think that this was a likely theory. What was mentioned, however, was the intense hurricanes that Barbados experienced at the time.

In his book, ‘Transatlantic Sketches’, Sir James explains that he’d been in Barbados when the first hurricane of the season arrived, and describes how the branches were torn from the trees and houses were laid to waste. He then goes on to explain that just a few months earlier, Barbados had suffered one of the worst hurricanes to hit the West Indies since 1780.

On Wednesday, the 10th of August [1831], it pleased the Almighty Disposer of joy and sorrow to visit this island with one of the most destructive hurricanes ever known in the western hemisphere; and misery, irretrievable misery to thousands has been the dreadful consequence. The islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, St. Domingo, and Cuba, with the city of New Orleans, also came within the track of the destroying tornado, and suffered most materially.

On the morning after the hurricane it was truly said that Barbados, the gay, the prosperous, and the happy - one of the finest of the colonial isles - the Brighton of the West Indies - the mart of commerce - the home of hospitality - Barbados in its pride, was no more. Bridgetown, the capital, was a heap of ruins; and country, villa, and hamlet, were alike level with the earth.

In “Memoirs And Correspondence of Field-Marshal Viscount Combermere Vol. I”, Lady Combermere and their son explain that on the 21st of October 1817 –

…a tremendous hurricane occurred, causing an unusual amount of damage to the shipping in the harbour, as well as to the proprietors’ estates, on many of which the sugar mills were destroyed. At Bridgetown houses were unroofed, walls thrown down, and several lives sacrificed. At the great Military Hospital the roof of the building was carried completely off, without the inmates sustaining any material injury. At Scotland, near Sir R.

Alleyne’s estate, a landslip occurred, by which a large tract of land, a house and its inhabitants, disappeared in the sea.

Two iron twenty-four-pounders, standing in a battery on the edge of [Mount Fortune in St. Lucia], were lifted from their position, and, incredible as it may appear, were hurled some twenty feet distant beyond the base of the hill. The destruction of property in the town was enormous, many of the inhabitants having lost their all.

Now, as I’ve explained before, one of the reasons why some of the more wealthy inhabitants preferred to bury the remains of their loved ones in vaults, was because of the hurricanes. The vaults were all built into the ground and were sealed off with heavy slabs to keep the violent winds and rain from damaging the coffins or sweeping them into the sea.

What they didn’t do, was keep all of the water out.

You see, Barbados consists of what is commonly known as coral limestone, meaning that the island is an ancient coral reef. Without going into all the whys and hows, this means that the ground is particularly porous, and it isn’t uncommon for groundwater to seep up into cellars and burial vaults.

In fact, around the time when the mystery of the moving coffins was taking place, it was well-known that there were at least 5 other cases of moving coffins having taken place around the island. They were all known to have been caused by groundwater flooding the vaults, and according to Benjamin Radford, this still happens today, though the coffins would move a few centimetres at most.

What differentiated them from the coffins in the Chase Vault, is the fact that Church Hill, where the vault is located, is 210ft or 64m above sea level. According to many, this cancels out the possibility that groundwater is to blame, particularly since none of the other vaults within the churchyard was affected. Mr. Lang also explains that in Nathan Lucas’s version of events –

He denies that there was any trace of the presence of water,

Furthermore, if water had seeped into the vault, wouldn’t it have disturbed the sand that had been placed at the bottom of the vault, and have left at least a sign that there had once been water present?

Well, no. Because I had some time, too much coffee, and was enjoying myself wayyy too much writing this script, I decided to do a little myth-busting of my own. I collected a cup of my baby’s play sand, cut holes in the bottom of an ice cream container, and placed a piece of cardboard at the bottom. I then sprinkled some fine, dry sand on top, placed the ice cream container in a baking tray, and added water to the tray, ensuring that the water level was higher than the cardboard.

The idea was that the cardboard would act as limestone – it would slowly suck water up into itself, and the container would eventually fill with water. Instead, the cardboard floated, and I had to press it down so that it could be covered with water. I watched as the water slowly covered the cardboard, and noticed that the only thing that moved, was dust particles which floated on top of the water.

I lifted the container so that the water would drain out, and apart from being wet, the sand didn’t show any obvious signs that there had once been water inside the container. It wasn’t as if I’d poured water on top of the cardboard. Water hadn’t flowed in from the side. It had slowly trickled up and over the cardboard, not disturbing the sand in the slightest, and had left in the same way.

It’s my theory that the same thing could have happened inside the vault. After all, the vault was only opened every few years. The floor was covered in sand in July 1819, right at the start of the hurricane season, and then reopened in April 1820 – five months after the hurricane season ended. More than enough time for the water to drain away and the sand to dry out, since the top layer of sand in my baby’s covered sand pit dries out within a week after it had rained.

But then we have to ask ourselves – can lead-lined coffins float? Well, yes. Big-ass ships float just fine, don’t they? And we already know that floating coffins weren’t an unusual occurrence in Barbados’s cemeteries.

One legend of a floating lead coffin is the story of Charles Coghlan’s Floating Coffin. He was an Irish actor who passed away on the 27th of November 1899, in Galveston, Texas. The decision was made to eventually send his remains to New York so that he could be cremated, but until then, his lead-lined coffin was kept in a vault at a local cemetery.

Nine months later in late August 1900, the 1900 Galveston Hurricane hit the area, and became known as one of the deadliest natural disasters in United States history. On the 25th of September, the New York Times reported that Coghlan’s coffin had been lost during the storm, and for the next three years, the New York Actor’s Club put up a reward for anyone who could find his coffin.

Some claim that the Irishman’s coffin had miraculously floated 3,500 miles to his home on Prince Edward Island, where he would eventually be buried, but actually, it was found in 1907 just nine miles from Galveston, trapped in a marsh. It’s not clear what happened to it once it was found.

So yes, these coffins can float, but how much water would have to be inside the vault for the coffins to float? Some people have gone and done the calculations, establishing that in order to float, a lead coffin for an adult man like Col. Chase would have had to displace 1 cubic metre of water, which is 1000 litres.

The Chase Vault can hold approximately 37 cubic metres of water (not taking into account the fact that the roof is arched), and because my mathing skills aren’t the best, I consulted Simon’s bestie ChatCPT to help me with the calculations. We then established that the water inside the vault only had to be around 13.5cm or 5.3 inches deep for the coffin to float – which isn’t a lot!

So yes, there didn’t have to be a lot of water in the vault for the coffins to float, and this wouldn’t have caused a noticeable disturbance in the sand. And if groundwater can’t be to blame, what about rainwater?

The average rainfall in Barbados during the wet season is 168 to 216mm. Which doesn’t sound like a lot. But consider the fact that rainfall is measured with a rain gauge, which captures the rainfall in a 10 by 10 cm area. So how much water would fall in a 15m by 15m area during that time?

According to ChatGPT –

Approximately 37.8 cubic meters of water would fall on the 15m by 15m area during the measured rainfall.

That’s 37 800 litres of water - more than enough water to fill the entire Chase Vault! If just 3% of that amount of water seeped into the vault during the wet season, the coffins would float and push and shove one another until they were completely out of order, finally settling down on the untouched sand when the water eventually seeped away.

The question we’re left with, however, is why some of the coffins were turned on their heads. And why was Mrs Goddard’s wooden coffin unaffected?

We know that the placement of the coffins wasn’t just hearsay, since Rev. Orderson sketched the placement of the coffins when the vault was opened for the last time, which has been redrawn and printed numerous times ever since. In July 1819, the coffins of Mary Ann and Baby Samuel had been placed on top of Dorcas and Col.

Thomas’ coffins respectively, and Thomasina Clark’s wooden coffin was placed on top of Samuel Brewster’s, while Mrs. Goddard’s coffin was put aside. April 1820, the coffins of Mary Ann and baby Samuel were on the ground, not on the coffins of Dorcas and Col.

Thomas. It is possible that when water entered the vault, the coffins on the bottom became unbalanced and tipped over, dumping the smaller ones into the water. But this doesn’t explain how Dorcas’ coffin ended up against the marble slab, Samuel Brewster’s coffin ended up on top of Thomasina Clarke and Dorcas’ coffin, or why Mrs.

Goddard’s coffin still stood unbothered at the side of the vault.

And this leads us to the next group of theories –

A Bi-Located Story

One of the theories surrounding the Chase Vault mystery is that it was all made up.

“But Emma”, I hear you say, “there are sooo many historical accounts! Eyewitnesses even!” And that is true. But what if they were all Freemasons, and they conspired together to create this baffling mystery so that they could empty the Chase vault and use it to perform their Masonic rituals?

I’m not even kidding. That is one of the theories.

Joseph Nickel, an American author, self-proclaimed sceptic and paranormal investigator, seems to have been the first person to link the mystery of the Chase Vault to the Freemasons back in 1982, claiming that the story of the Chase Vault is filled with Masonic imagery and that it was most likely written in such a way that it would convey a secret message to other Freemasons. He specifically refers to the accounts of masons using hammers to test the walls and the floor of the vault, as well as the fact that the vault door was sealed with cement. According to Prof. Finneran and Dr.

Welch –

In 1 Kings 6:7 we find that the Temple of Solomon, the most perfect human construction, was built without the sound of hammers. Thus, in Freemasonry, the use of the hammer reminds adherents that they should try to perfect themselves, and divest their ‘hearts and consciousness of all the vices and superfluities of life’.

Additionally, cement… is symbolic in Freemasonry of ‘that which unites the brethren’. Nickell argues, therefore, that the tale is nothing more than an allegory relating to a secret vault for Freemason initiation rites.

And honestly, his theory isn’t too farfetched. The Founder of the Freemasons in Barbados, Alexander Irvine, was also buried on the island, and his tomb is still regularly visited by other Freemasons. And according to the Combermere Lodge in Victoria, Australia, Lord Combermere was a Freemason, and until his death in February 1865, he was the Provincial Grand Master of Cheshire in the UK.

The lodge is even named after him! So according to Joseph Nickell, it’s more than possible that the Freemasons were involved in not only conjuring up the mystery of the Chase vault but also in spreading the legend around the world in an attempt to ensure that their message was heard far and wide.

In his 2001 book, “Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal”, Nickell goes on to argue that –

At least two of the men involved in the alleged activities were high-ranking Freemasons. In 1943, another restless-coffins case occurred on the island, this time specifically involving a party of Freemasons and the vault being that of the founder of Freemasonry in Barbados!

Which isn’t actually true. According to the Exchange Interactive Centre, an interactive museum in Barbados, they explain that when Irvine passed away in 1743, he was buried in a wooden coffin inside a vault in the churchyard of St Michaels Cathedral Church in Barbados. In 1841, the lead-lined coffin of another Freemason, Governor Sir Evan MacGregor, was placed inside the same vault, after which it was closed.

In 1943, a group of Freemasons opened the vault but found that something was blocking the door. MacGregor’s coffin had moved at some point over the past 100 years and was standing half on a step that led into the vault, and half on the floor. As we know, it’s entirely likely that the vault had flooded at some point, causing the coffin to float towards the door, and that is the theory regarding what had happened to MacGregor’s coffin.

The real mystery was what had happened to Irvine’s coffin since there was no trace of it in the vault. Some of his remains were found scattered around the vault, however, and the theory is that his wooden coffin had simply disintegrated over time, resulting in his bones floating around the vault whenever it flooded. Mystery solved.

Furthermore, it’s my opinion that despite being a self-proclaimed sceptic, Nickell jumped a little too far down the conspiracy hole when he studied the case of the Chase Vault. He specifically points out that the use of the word ‘masons’ in the various retellings of the story is proof of the Freemason’s involvement, without considering the fact that stone masons are in fact people who work with stone, and as such are probably the most qualified ones to point out whether or not there is a cavity behind a stone wall. Besides, Lord Combermere only became aware of the mystery of the Chase Vault around 1819, since he’d only arrived in Barbados in 1817 – almost a year after the vault was opened to deposit the remains of Samuel Brewster. As such, he couldn’t have been involved in coming up with an elaborate conspiracy to create a secret vault for Masonic initiation rituals – not when they had a perfectly suitable Masonic Lodge in Barbados.

What is suspicious, however, is the fact that the Chase Vault isn’t the only legend of moving coffins that we know of. At the time, there was at least one other inexplicable case of moving coffins that is mentioned in Sir James’ ‘Transatlantic Sketches’ that is thought to have happened around the same time -

In England, there was a parallel occurrence to this some years ago at Staunton, in Suffolk. It is stated, that on opening a vault there, several leaden coffins, with wooden cases, which had been fixed on biers, were found displaced, to the great consternation of the villagers. The coffins were again placed as before, and the vault properly closed, when again another of the family dying, they were a second time found displaced; and two years after that, they were not only found all off their biers, but one coffin (so heavy as to require eight men to raise it) was found on the fourth step which led down to the vaults, and it seemed perfectly certain that no human hand had done this. As yet no one has satisfactorily accounted for the Barbadian or the Staunton wonder.

According to a quick Google search, the village of Stanton is located between Diss and Bury St Edmunds in West Suffolk. I found mention of the mystery in a document titled “Stanton – A very brief history”, but they just copied Sir James’ version of events and didn’t explain whether or not it happened.

Andrew Lang, however, looked into the story for ‘Death’s Deeds’, and he mentions that he hadn’t been aware at the time that the village of Stanton even existed, nor was he able to find anyone who could corroborate Sir James’ story. However, he did find a similar story that had most likely taken place in Stamford, Lincolnshire, around 1840 – well after Sir James’ visit to Barbados in October 1831. In November 1867 a Mr.

F. A Paley wrote a piece titled ‘Disturbance of Coffins in Vaults’ for a journal called ‘Notes and Queries’, and explained that it took place when his father was the rector of the parish of Gretford, which is near Stamford. In his piece, he included a letter written by a friend of his, who’d been there when the whole incident took place, though he omitted any reference to the family who’d been involved –

I remember very well the Gretford vault being opened when we were there. It was in the church and belonged to the [omitted] family. The churchwarden came to tell the rector, who went into the vault and saw the coffins all in confusion: one little one on the top of a large one, and some tilted on one side against the wall. They were all lead, but of course cased in wood.

The same vault had been opened once before and was found in the same state of confusion, and set right by the churchwarden so that his dismay was great when he found them displaced again.

We had no doubt from the situation and nature of the soil, that it had been full of water during some flood which floated the coffins. I daresay [name omitted] is still alive, and could give the date, and I almost think [they] saw what had happened. I feel no doubt myself that lead coffins could float. We know a large iron vessel will, without any wood casing, and I suppose the flood subsiding would move them. The vault had been walled up so that no one could have been in it.

It is of course entirely possible that this is the case that Sir James had been referring to, but even then, it isn’t the only one, since there is at least another case of moving coffins which reportedly took place on the Isle of Oesel – now known as Saaremaa, an Estonian island in the Baltic sea – in June 1844.

According to Mr. Lang, the story was originally told to Mr. Robert Dale Owen, who published the story in 1860 in the American edition of Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. According to Mr Owen, the Baron de Guldenstubbé was the one who originally told him the story, claiming that his father was one of the men who’d investigated the case.

His story was that, in June 1844, a chapel, that of the Buxhoewden family, in the cemetery of Ahrensburg, became noisy; that the noise frightened horses into fits, and that, when the chapel was opened for the burial of a corpse, the coffins were found displaced, and ‘lying in a confused pile’. They were replaced, and the chapel was locked. Baron Guldenstubbé with two of the Buxhoewden family, secretly visited the chapel, again found the coffins all in a heap, had them put in order, locked the chapel, and consented to an investigation. A Committee of the Consistory, including the Baron, the Bishop, the Burgomeister, an atheistic doctor, a Syndic, and a secretary, with two clergymen, were the Committee.

They reopened the chapel; all the coffins but three were ‘in a painfully dissolute state’. No robbery of jewels buried in the coffins had occurred. The pavement of the vault was taken up; it had not been disturbed.

The place was put in order once more, and the doors were locked and sealed with the official seal of the Consistory. Wood ashes were strewn everywhere, to detect footsteps, and a military guard was posted for three days and nights. The Committee then returned, and found all in order: seals undisturbed, ashes un-trodden, but the coffins were standing on their heads.

The lid of one was open, and a hand, that of a [self-emulation], protruded. An official report was drawn up, which ‘is to be found among the archives of the Consistory and may be examined by any travellers, respectably recommended, on application to the secretary of the Consistory’. The troubles continued, till the dead were taken out and buried in earth.

However, according to Mr Lang, there weren’t any official eyewitness accounts or any existing records of this ever having occurred, nor could they find anyone on the Isle of Oesel who could corroborate the story. He points out that apart from the dates, the events told in the story from Estonia are ‘precisely parallel’ to the famous mystery of the Chase Vault, and that this version is most likely made up.

The Dancing Coffins of Barbados

Even though we will never have a confirmed reason for why the coffins in the Chase vault had moved, I do think that the most likely cause was flooding. It seemed to have been the cause in every other confirmed case of moving coffins that we know of, so why not in this one?

When I told the story to my niece and explained that it’s possible that the vault flooded every year, disturbing the coffins, she asked the same question I asked myself every time I considered everything we know about the story: how did the coffins end up standing upside down?

I think that at the time, the people who recounted the mystery of the Chase Vault did the same thing every other person who’d recounted the story in the last 200 years has done – added their own little spin to the story. Instead of just moving, the coffins were flung aside. Instead of just standing slightly askew, they were standing on their heads, or on their sides, or on top of one another. Instead of belonging to a normal family, they now belonged to the cursed family of a particularly cruel man who’d caused the deaths of his own children.

And instead of just moving inexplicably, they were now haunted by restless ghosts before becoming a part of a conspiracy by the Freemasons. Because as Mr. Lang explains –

Good stories never die

We’re human, and we love stories, the more dramatic, the more shocking, the better. After all, it’s why you’re listening to this podcast – because we tell good stories, and Simon’s tangents just adds that extra special spice to it ☺

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the name of the plantation owner whose funeral started the mystery of the moving coffins?

Colonel Thomas Chase.

What was the date of Colonel Thomas Chase’s funeral?

The 9th of August 1812.

What was the name of the church where Colonel Thomas Chase’s funeral took place?

Christ Church on Church Hill.

How many coffins were initially in the Chase family vault before Colonel Thomas Chase was buried?

Three coffins: a little lead-lined coffin belonging to Mary Ann Chase, a larger lead-lined coffin belonging to Dorcas Chase, and a wooden coffin belonging to Mrs. Thomasina Goddard.

What was the reaction of the church officials when the coffins were found moved for the first time?

The church officials did not believe the black laborers who reported the moved coffins and punished them for tampering with the coffins.

Who was the Governor of Barbados during the time of the moving coffins mystery?

Lord Combermere.

What was the theory proposed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle regarding the moving coffins?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle suggested that ‘effluvial emanations’ (unseen matter or gas released by the human body) could have caused the coffins to move.

What was the most likely cause of the moving coffins according to the article?

The most likely cause of the moving coffins was flooding due to the porous limestone of Barbados, which allowed groundwater to seep into the vault.

What was the name of the other case of moving coffins mentioned in the article?

The case of moving coffins in the vault of the founder of Freemasonry in Barbados, Alexander Irvine, which was opened in 1943.

What was the name of the journal where Andrew Lang presented his story ‘Death’s Deeds’?

The Folk-Lore Journal.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: The Mystery of Barbados’ Moving Coffins
• Hero image source by thegetty / openverse, cc0.