#henniker

[unteriors]

Rush Road, Henniker, New Hampshire.

[americanbuildings]

GENERAL VIEW - Ocean Born Mary House, Route 202 vicinty, Henniker, Merrimack County, NH

[daysinayear2015]

Day 208: July 26, 2020

Pleasant Pond. Henniker, NH.

[unteriors]

Rush Road, Henniker, New Hampshire.

[archivist-crow]

OCEAN-BORN MARY

Ocean-born Mary is alleged to be a six-foot tall ghost who dresses in white and has red hair and green eyes. She is said to appear in a house near Henniker, New Hampshire and is believed to be the ghost of a woman who once lived there.

Mary Wilson was born at sea on 17 July 1720, soon after her parents had set sail from Ireland aboard a ship called the Wolf. As the ship approached Boston harbour, it was attacked by pirates, led by the ruthless Captain Don Pedro. Just as Captain Pedro was about to order his men to kill everyone on board a baby's crying was heard. When he discovered that the baby had been born that very morning to Mrs James Wilson, the young wife of the captain, and was yet unnamed Captain Pedro promised to spare the life of everyone if he could name the baby Mary, after his mother. The Wilsons eagerly agreed, and Don Pedro honoured his promise.

However, before his ship sailed away, Don Pedro returned to the Wolf with a length of Chinese silk. He told the Wilsons that the fabric should one day be used for Mary's wedding gown. And so it was, when Mary and Scotsman Thomas Wallace married, in Londonderry, New Hampshire, just before Christmas in 1742. Within 10 years Mary was the mother of four sons but became a widow soon after the birth of the last child.

Don Pedro heard about the tragedy and began to visit Mary on a regular basis. He would often take her to watch his new house being built near Henniker in New Hampshire. When the house was completed he asked Mary to become his housekeeper; in turn he would support her and the boys. For the next ten years Mary and her children lived in a grand style.

One night, Mary heard a curse from outside her window, and then a groan. Recognizing the voice of Don Pedro, she rushed to the garden and found him alone, dying with a pirate's cutlass in his chest. Before he died, he told Mary where he'd hidden his gold, and asked her to bury him beneath the hearth in the home they'd shared so happily.

Mary honoured Don Pedro's wishes and lived a long and comfortable life, never leaving the Henniker home. After her death in 1814 at the age of 94 the house remained in the Wallace family's hands for a hundred years. In 1916 it was bought by the Roy family.

The Roys soon noticed that when the house or its occupants seemed in some kind of danger something would always happen to avert it. For example, a passer-by once stopped a group of boys from burning the house to the ground. And Louis Roy, the son of the first Roy family occupants, survived 17 near-fatal accidents while living in the house. In 1938 when a hurricane struck New England Louis attempted to drive out in the storm but found the road washed away. On returning home he saw the garage swaying and worked to prop it up. When he finally found shelter in the house his mother told him she had seen a tall lady in white helping him. Roy had, of course, seen nothing.

Later on, the house was opened to the public, and visitors have often reported seeing Mary's old rocking chair mysteriously sway backwards and forwards. She has also been seen walking down the staircase. Psychics have claimed to sense Mary's presence near the hearth she tended carefully after it became the final resting spot of Don Pedro. Some believe the body of Pedro—who allegedly may have been an English Lord who didn't want his family to know about his pirate ways—is buried there. Two state troopers claimed to see Mary one night, crossing the road in front of her house. It is also said that every October she makes an appearance at midnight in a phantom coach.

Even though he never saw her for himself, Louis Roy cherished the belief that Mary's ghost visited the house and protected him from harm because he cared about the house as much as she had done. Subsequent owners have also reported feeling as if a power was watching over them and the house. In 1963, there were claims that a potentially damaging fire was suddenly and inexplicably put out.

Text from The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts & Hauntings by Theresa Cheung (HarperElement, 2013)

[gian42]

A covered bridge is flanked by autumn leaves beginning to change color along the Contoocook River in Henniker, New Hampshire, on October 6, 2023. #

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[doug-peabody]

Stone Arch Bridge - Henniker, NH #bridge #bridges #bridgesofinstagram #bridges_of_our_world #henniker #hennikernh #newhampshire #nh #newengland #filtered (at Henniker, New Hampshire) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDumLx0DezN/?igshid=1351cjbh1n3wc

[peachykeenmorphine]

Driving to work yesterday was so beautiful #nh #henniker #rt202 #driving #snow #603 https://www.instagram.com/p/B-KCAgDl5TL/?igshid=hyuuq087da3v