The churchyard of Christ Church, Barbados, stands on a headland overlooking St Oistin’s Bay and contains a small but strongly built tomb and is the sight of a mystery that remains unexplained to this day.
The widow of an English aristocrat vault built this family tomb in 1724 though there is no evidence that she or he was ever interred there. The first recorded interment occurred on July 31, 1807. This being Mrs. Thomasina Goddard.
The following year the tomb was purchased by Thomas Chase, the head of a wealthy family and on February 22, 1808, the small lead coffin of Mary Chase, his infant daughter, was interred in the vault. Four years later another daughter, Dorcas passed away. Her age is uncertain but she is believed to have been an adult and she was interred on July 6, 1812.
Up to this point nothing unusual was found. The tomb was constructed of large blocks of coral stone firmly cemented together giving a floor space of 12ft long and 6 ft wide. After each internment it was resealed with a large and heavy slab of blue Devon marble.
Things were very different only one month later when Thomas Chase died and was brought to the tomb on August 9th,. Those opening tomb discovered that the coffins of both his daughters had been violently moved. The smaller coffin of the infant Mary looked as if it had been thrown across the vault and lay head down against the wall.
Despite the alarm the coffins were placed back in their original positions and Thomas Chase was interred next to them. Additional care was then taken with sealing the marble slab and it remained closed until September 25th, 1816 when the coffin of Samual Brewster Amis, supposedly an infant relative of the Chase family was brought to the tomb top be interred.
When the tomb was opened all the coffins were once again in confusion. Only one like before, that of Mrs. Goddard, remained undisturbed. Another puzzling aspect to this case is that Mrs. Goddard’s coffin was a light weight wooden box which had started to disintegrate while the other coffins were all made of lead. The coffin of Thomas Chase, a large man when alive, was exceedingly heavy and it had taken eight men to place it in its position, yet this had been moved several feet to the left of where it had been placed.
The Chase family was extremely angry at this desecration assuming it to be linked to a recent slave rebellion. This had been brutally crushed with a lot of bloodshed, but African slaves were extremely superstitious about disturbing the dead and it is unlikely they would have been responsible.
The tomb was sealed again and this time the closing slab was cemented in place, but on November 17th the tomb had to be reopened. This time it was to receive the body of Samuel Brewster who had been murdered in the uprising and temporarily buried elsewhere.
Yet again all the coffins except that of Mrs. Goddard, had been disturbed. Two had been lifted up and were resting against the walls while two others leaned against these.
A large crowd had accompanied the coffin to attend this funeral creating a great deal of publicity. To try and get to the bottom of the problem, the minister and a local magistrate examined the vault thoroughly looking for any concealed entrance. They failed to find even a crack in the walls or floor. Once again everything was placed in order and the tomb sealed with cement.
A further three years past before the next and last coffin was brought to the Chase tomb. Because of the publicity the governor, Lord Combermere, the commander of the garrison and many hundreds of others attended to see the vault opened. This was on July 17th, 1819 for the funeral of Thomasina Clark. They were not to be disappointed.
The tomb was only opened after great difficulty because Thomas Chase’s heavy coffin had been upended and was lying against the door slab. This was six feet from where it had been previously placed. The coffins of the two children, which had been placed on top of the larger ones, were on the floor. The only coffin left untouched was again, Mrs. Goddard’s, the flimsiest of them all.
Lord Combermere had been a successful cavalry commander serving the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon and personally supervised a meticulous examination of the vault’s interior. When nothing was discovered he replaced the seven coffins and ordered that fine white beach sand be sprinkled over the floor to reveal the footprints of anyone who entered the tomb. The slab was then cemented in place. Lord Combermere and others also added their personal seals to the wet cement.
It was nine months later when Lord Combermere returned and curious to see what had taken place, examined the seals. Finding them unbroken he ordered the tomb opened. Mrs. Goddard’s coffin remained untouched but all the others had been moved. One child’s coffin lay on the floor against the door. Thomas Chase’s particularly heavy coffin had been completely over turned and now lay upside down yet there were no footprints left in the sand.
Lord Combermere was an experienced commander and it took a lot to frighten him, but concluded that the cause had to be something beyond his control. He ordered the coffins to be removed and buried elsewhere and the tomb remained empty ever since.
Earth tremors and flooding have all been ruled out as a possible cause and if it were one of these, why did Mrs. Goddard’s coffin remain undisturbed?
One aspect that might lead to an explanation is the fact that Thomas Chase was an extremely cruel man. Many say that he was the most hated man on the island and both he and his daughter Dorcas are believed to have killed themselves. Dorcas reportedly starved herself to death in despair at her cruel treatment by her father and these events started after her interment. Is her spirit restless because of her father’s cruelty that led to her suicide? Others contend that it was the spirit of Mrs. Goddard resenting the presence of two suicides in her hallowed resting place? Remember, her coffin always remained undisturbed?
