Author Topic: Bride killed on church steps minutes after wedding leaves others fearing 'curse'  (Read 1726 times)

PippaJane

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https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bride-killed-church-steps-minutes-24410985?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_campaign=12at12_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

Bride killed on church steps minutes after wedding leaves others fearing 'curse'

The young woman's death has left a legacy that remains in the town until this day with a poem to commemorate her carved into the stone floor of the church

By Howard Lloyd

09:40, 28 JUN 2021

A legendary bride who was killed on the church steps minutes after her wedding still has flowers laid at her grave by newlyweds trying to ward off a marital curse.  The story of Mary Whiddon has haunted the small town of Chagford in Dartmoor since her death on October 11, 1641.  The young bride had just got married at the Church of St Michael the Archangel and was standing outside with her husband being greeted by cheering crowds.  Just then a shot rang out, piercing the dank, misty Dartmoor air, reports Devon Live.  Mary collapsed, a bright red spot of blood just above her heart shockingly visible through her pristine white wedding dress.  Within seconds, she was dead. Her husband, married for just a few minutes, cradled his dead wife in his arms.  The culprit is thought to have been a suitor she had apparently been courted by who possibly asked for her hand in marriage.  Mary refused and, with there being no shortage of admirers, she chose another man to be her husband.  This was received poorly by former suitor, who spent the coming months complaining bitterly to anyone who would listen about the match.  Despite his incessant complaining about his bad luck, many thought his ill-feeling towards Mary and her husband-to-be would subside once the wedding had taken place.  That day finally came in October, 1641. It was there, on the steps of the church, that he shot Mary dead with one bullet from a pistol.  Quite what happened to Mary's killer is not known. In fact, although the story is widely acknowledged as being true, there is little to confirm it definitely happened.  Mary's tomb records that she died 'a matron, yet a maid', meaning she was married but still a virgin.  However, with maid even now being a common Devon word for a young girl, this could just mean she was not very old when she died.  In that case, it would translate as 'married, but young'.  The church's marriage and burial registers for the Civil War period are lost, and the only contemporaneous record is Mary Whiddon's undated will.  It mentions no husband, but as her maiden name is also thought to have been Whiddon, potentially meaning she married a cousin, it might have been written before her marriage.  The young woman's death has left a legacy that remains in the town until this day.  In the stone floor of the church, this verse was carved to commemorate her:

“Reader wouldst know who here is laid,
Behold a matron yet maid,
A modest look, a pious heart,
A Mary for the better part,
But dry thine eyes, why wilt thou weep
Such damsels do not die but sleep.”

In 1971, a wedding guest staying at Whiddon Park purportedly awoke to find the ghostly apparition of a young woman dressed in a period wedding gown standing in the doorway of his room.  Many believe this is Mary haunting the area following her death.  Some say there is a secret passage from Whiddon Park House to The Three Crowns Hotel and that Mary's ghost haunts The Bishop's Room and upstairs corridors of The Three Crowns.  Her tragic death is said to have inspired RD Blackmore's fictional character of Lorna Doone, shot but not killed by Carver Doone through the church window in Oare just as the husband was about to kiss his bride.  What is known for certain is that now, newly-wed brides often lay a flower on Mary's tomb after signing the register.  This is said to bring good luck to the marriage, and ensure the ghost of Mary Whiddon does not haunt them for years to come.

Cocopops

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Regardless of how much truth is in this it's good  it's still a good one to pass on.