T. VAUGHAN; GHOST STORIES

Tom Vaughan

Thomas Vaughan and his two sons

Thomas E. Vaughan
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Ghost Story:

Here is the Ghost Story http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=5255&pst=881584&archival= Hergest Court - Kington, UK February 05, 2007 6:19 AMHergest CourtKington, UKHergest Court is now a shadow of its former glory. It is a sad looking house of white walls and dark timbers that exudes a weary air of detached indifference. Yet for longer than anyone can remember it has held a reputation so sinister that, even today, there are people who will not walk past it during the hours of darkness has fallen fro fear of encountering the frightful entity that haunts it. Indeed so chilling is the legend of Hergest Court that it may well have provided the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes’s most famous adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles.Towards the end of the 15th century Sir Thomas Vaughan resided at Hergest Court in the days when it was a much grander and more heavily fortified property than the farmhouse that greets visitors today. Vaughan was the very embodiment of the archetype wicked squire, and was known in the district simply as so ’Black Vaughan.’ During the Wars of the Roses he fought originally for the Lancastrians but switched his allegiance to the Yorkist cause and was killed at the Battle of Banbury in 1469. According to one version of events, he was decapitated, but no sooner had his head hit the ground than a fearsome howling echoed across the field of battle. Suddenly Vaughan’s faithful, black bloodhound bounded across the blood soaked ground, scooped up his master’s head and set off at full pelt for Hergest Court, with the gruesome relic jouncing in its jaws.

Thomas Vaughan’s headless cadaver was subsequently buried in the rather eerie family vault in Kington church. But his ghost remained at large taking the form of a black bull that rampaged about the district accompanied by a fearsome black hound. So terrified did the inhabitants become that they refused to leave their homes to the detriment of the town’s economy. It was therefore decided that an exorcism must be performed and twelve priests came together and summoned forth Black Vaughan’s evil spirit. It took a great deal of shouting, chanting and bible quoting, but eventually they reduced him to the size of a blow fly and confined him inside a snuff box which was then buried under a heavy stone slab on the bed of the lake at Hergest Court.The spirit of their wicked Lord may have been laid, but ridding the district of his fearsome bloodhound proved an impossible task and in the centuries that followed it came bounding onto the pages of local folklore to strike terror into the hearts and minds of all who crossed its path. It was especially feared by the Vaughan family to whom remained a harbinger of death until the immediate family became extinct in the 19th century.

But, according to a local tradition, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle viewed the Hound of the Vaughan’s as source of inspiration rather than fear, and he wove the legend of the black dog and the evil squire into a wonderfully evocative tale, and having transferred the action to the bleak desolation of Devon’s Dartmoor, pitted Sherlock Holmes against his most chilling and fearsome adversary The Hound of the Baskerville’s.

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Anonymous notes: -- Thomas "Black Vaughan" Vaughan was the son of Sir Roger Vaughan (1385-1415) and Gwladys (GLADYS) Gam who founded Tretower. Thomas married Ellen Vaughan (her maiden name, probably a cousin). Thomas' son Watkin married Elizabeth BASKERVILLE (does that name sound familiar?), daughter of Sir John Baskerville. His effigy, along with his wife Ellen at his side, lie in St. Mary the Virgin Church in Kington, England. I have a picture of the tomb with their figures on top in Medieval fashion. Some say that Thomas wasn't really a bad guy, only that he had dark black hair and dark eyes and that was where the name "Black Vaughan" came from. His wife Ellen was a bit of a character -- she once dressed up as a man and went to an archery contest and shot and killed a man who had killed her brother. She then escaped in the confusion. Her nickname was Ellen GETHIN, which means "THE TERRIBLE". There is even some more data on the ghost exorcism -- apparently the ritual used had to have 12 candles, and a young mother carrying an infant in the procession. When they encountered Thomas' spirit, he blew out a candle every time they chanted the exorcism and so the final chant had to be read by a blind priest who had memorized all of scripture. It was only then, the legend goes, that the spirit would go into the snuff box. Of course this is all a bunch of silly stuff, as Hergest Court was lived in by his family for many years (actually centuries) following his death. The story about a black demonic dog is nothing new to European ears as it is a very old legend that still gets passed around today???

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