Ghost Stories for Christmas- The Highwaywoman of Markyate Cell

It’s Christmas time and once again the legends and folklore of the British Isles provide lumps of coal aplenty for all your players. We are again (we’ve done it twice so it’s a tradition now) looking at British ghost stories and picking out bits to adapt for Victoriana adventures. As before, all our tales come from the fabulous “Gazetteer of British, Scottish, & Irish Ghosts” by Peter Underwood, a terrific guide full of horrific hauntings.  So bring a torch Jeannette Isabella, we’re telling Ghost Stories for Christmas!

After English Civil War broke out in 1642, Parliamentary forces seized estates and incomes belonging to Royalist supporters, leaving many old families destitute. The patriarch of the Fanshawe family, Sir Richard Fanshawe ensured his family’s fortune by arranging the marriage of his nephew, Thomas, to his stepdaughter, Katherine Ferrers the heir of her family’s considerable wealth and lands.

The marriage of Katherine and Thomas in 1648 was not a happy one. The Fanshaws liquidated most of Katherine’s assets to support the Royalist cause, and Thomas left his young bride to join the war. Living alone in the Ferrer’s ancestral manor house, Markyate Cell, in the village of Markyate in Hertfordshire, Katherine sought to recover her money and her freedom through highway robbery.

By day, Katherine was the innocent mistress of Markyate Cell, but at night, disguised as a man in a tricornered hat and breeches, she rode to the main roads and hid in trees to drop down on passing coaches. The village of Markyate served as one of the major rest stops for travelers between London and Birmingham, providing Katherine with rich targets loaded down with loot. With the help of her partner in crime, a farmer named Ralph Chaplin, Katherine murdered and stole until the night of her death in 1660. Katherine ambushed a wagon and shot the driver, but a hitchhiker riding in the back shot back, mortally wounding her.
After her burial, villagers spotted her ghost racing on horseback across the countryside at night, or lurking high in the tree legendarily overlooking her buried treasure. In 1840, her ghost appeared at Markyate Cell during a mysterious and destructive fire in the house. Afterwards, the current owner, Mr. Adey, directed his hired repairmen to bash through a door long bricked up. After the demolition, they found a staircase hidden in the kitchen chimney leading to a secret room Katherine may have used to hide disguises, weapons, and loot.

Adventure Ideas

I should point out Katherine Ferrers’ reputation as a highwaywoman is almost certainly false. No records exist of Katherine’s accomplice Paul Chaplin in the village, or of their crimes. Markyate Cell was sold three years before her death, so Katherine almost certainly didn’t die on its grounds. After being captured in the war, Katherine’s husband Thomas returned home just four months before her death, which suggest a tragic early pregnancy ended her life instead of a gunshot. This can all be ignored for the sake of having the ghost of a highway-woman terrorizing the countryside.

If you have a thieving ghost, then obviously she has to steal from the player characters. No player character would ever “Stand and Deliver” their valuables to a highwayman, so I suggest having Katherine’s ghost take something more intangible: Quintessence. After each encounter with the ghost, a player character must pass a Resolve test or temporarily lose a Quintessence Die until they can put Katherine’s ghost to rest.

By the 1850’s train travel made the old coach lines obsolete. Goods, payroll, and passengers all ride the rails. If Katherine’s ghost manifests now, she might adapt to modern conveniences and learn to rob trains.

London served as a base for Parliamentary forces. Any Royalists fleeing London by coach could have encountered Katherine along their journey. Her lost hoard could hold any number of long stolen artifacts or secrets of the English Civil War.

Before Markyate Cell’s construction, its grounds housed a hermit named Rodger. A young lady named Christine sought refuge in the hermitage from a forced marriage, so Rodger hid her in a wooden shed. For four years, Christine endured in the cramped space growing in wisdom and piety. Her righteousness impressed Rodger, so he chose Christine as his successor. Under her leadership, the hermitage grew into a Benedictine Priory.
Markyate Cell has two legendary ladies in its past looking for freedom. Christine found hers in piety, and Katherine found hers in crime. It might be fun if the murderous phantom and the saintly specter fight over a woman’s soul as the players intervene.