A Johns Family Ghost Story

    In April 1928 Miss Ada M. Butchart of Rattray, Blairgowrie, in Perthshire, Scotland, on board the "Carmainia" coming to America, while talking with an interesting woman who traveled a great deal, was told the following story about the Johns family in Wales.  The conversation had been about monuments and the woman said that one of the most beautiful monuments she had ever seen was in Wales and had been erected in memory of a girl named Elizabeth Johns.  Miss Butchart said she was expecting to visit people named Johns in the United States, and the lady said by all means tell them the story!--

    It was in Aberystwith, Wales, that whe saw and admired the monument, and a man she met in the place, perhaps at the hotel, told her the story of it, and his own experience in that connection.  One day he had been invited to dinner at the Manor House, and as he approached it in the evening he saw a young lady in what seemed nunlike garments moving toward the house.  She disappeared within.  At dinner she was not present, and the man asked his hostess if there was not a young lady in the house.  She said there was no one in the family but those at the table.  "But on my way here I saw a young lady come in."  The host and hostess exchanged glances.  Then the hostess told that he had seen Elizabeth Johns, that she returned about every ten or twelve years;  it had been that long since her previous appearance; and that about a hundred years ago the manor house had belonged to the Johns family.  The daughter, Elizabeth, a beautiful girl, much beloved by her family and the people of the place, died at the age of eighteen or twenty.  A monument was erected to her memory.  The Johns family died out (Elizabeth may have been the last), and the manor house passed into other hands, but the spirit of Elizabeth returns.
 
 

(Quite a family ghost story)

(Ab - er - ist - with)

 

Source:  Typewritten note among the Chambless family papers, no indication of the typist, though it was likely Anne Durfee Gauss, who was a fine typist and family historian.  Transcribed to softcopy by Susan D. Chambless, 1999.