Top five hauntings in history

Tales of ghosts and ghouls have, for centuries, captured the imagination. Here, Professor Owen Davies from the University of Hertfordshire, a historian who specialises in witchcraft, magic and ghosts from the ancient world to the modern era, shares his top five hauntings in history.

This article was first published on 31 October 2013


16th century


Anne Boleyn, whose headless ghost is rumoured to haunt the vicinity of the Tower of London and other locations, may be the most famous ghost of the 16th century. But instead I nominate a literary hoax ghost.

Following the Reformation, Protestant theologians dismissed ghosts as Catholic inventions, delusions and frauds. A good Protestant should not believe in ghosts. 

Published in the late 16th century, John Scogan’s Scoggin’s Jests tells how the eponymous hero detected a fraudulent ghost while in Rome (of course!)

The hoaxer intended to frighten a wealthy widow into leaving her money. One evening he “came into her house & lapped himselfe in a white sheete, counterfetting a spirit, thinking she would run her wayes.”

Scoggin catches him and beats him with a cudgel.

17th century

During the second half of the 17th century, a profound intellectual debate flourished about the reality of ghosts and witches.

For some, the possibility of modern miracles, and as a consequence the very foundations of Christianity, were at stake. Ghost sceptics were denounced as dangerous atheists.

The haunting of the home of John Mompesson at Tedworth (now Tidworth), Wiltshire, during the early 1660s, was a much-cited case in the debate.

The haunting consisted primarily of mystery drumming noises, but other sounds and spectral evidence were recorded.

Rather than attributing them to the restless spirit of a deceased person, those who believed in their reality explained that they were caused by a demonic spirit sent in revenge by a drummer that Mompesson had convicted not long before.

18th century

This has to be the Cock Lane Ghost. Few other ghosts attracted so much notoriety at the time and in following centuries.



Fanny’s ghost confirmed rumours that she had been poisoned by Kent.


19th century

In the age of the folklorist, medium and psychical researcher, there are so many cases to choose from.

I have plumped for a ghost that certainly never existed – the notorious and tragic Hammersmith Ghost.




20th century

For much of the century no man was more associated with ghost research than Harry Price (1881–1948). He was a larger-than-life character who loved the media, and assembled a unique library of rare works on the occult and paranormal.



