Enigma of Borley Rectory
Page 32
There is a mention of Bures. We have already looked at the role of Bures in the story of the nun, and pointed out the existence of Bures in Normandy as well as Bures in Suffolk. No evidence has come to light concerning a former convent in or near Bures in Suffolk, but as we know from Cottineau, Bures-en-Bray near Dieppe most certainly had a Benedictine monastery.
Now let's look at the response 'Haiv'. There is nothing like this near Bures in Suffolk, the nearest many miles away being Haverhill, which had no monastery or convent. But in the hinterland of Bures-en-Bray is a place called La Haye, and the results of my investigations into that aspect are contained in the chapter on the Borley nun.
The next planchette session we will look at took place at Borley Rectory on October 30, 1937. The sitters were the Rev. Alfred Clifford Henning, the Rector of Borley and Liston, together with Sidney Glanville.
440. Q Who is there?
A Jane.
441. Q What date did you live?
A (Indistinct reply).
442. Q Was your surname Foyster?
A (No reply).
443. Q How can we help you?
A Im.
444. Q Will you give us a message?
A (Indistinct reply).
445. Q Was there a monastery here?
A Yes.
446. Q Was there a nunnery here?
A Yes.
447. Q What happened to you?
A I died.
448. Q How?
A Murdered.
449. Q Who by?
A Henry.
450. Q What is your name?
A Marr.
451. Q What is your surname?
A Lairre.
452. Q Were you a nun?
A Yes.
453. Q Were you buried here?
A Yes.
454. Q Where?
A In the garden.
455. Q Do you mean garden?
A Yes.
456. Q What are you near?
A Fir.
457. Q Is it near the wall?
A Yes.
458. Q How can we help you?
A Light Mass ... (then indistinct).
459. Q Can the Priest help?
A Yes.
460. Q Through Mass?
A Yes.
461. Q Where?
A (Indistinct reply).
462. Q In Borley Church?
A (No reply).
463. Q Shall we stop now?
A Y ... (then indistinct).
The session ended at 11.50pm.
Questions 445 and 446 are of specific interest in connection with the monastery controversy. The entity, when asked whether there was a monastery and nunnery here, says 'Yes'. It can be fairly safely assumed that the sitters were asking about a monastery at Borley, but can we be sure that the entity, in replying, did mean Borley, or whether the entity, perhaps confused, was in fact thinking of Bures-en-Bray when it replied?
As we know, there is no evidence to date that there was a monastery in Borley itself, although there was one that appeared to have been close to the parish boundary ... Sudbury Priory!
We also know that there was a monastery in Bures-en-Bray in Normandy, but if we go back for a moment, to an earlier question in Helen Glanville's sitting at Streatham, question 437, we will notice something of a complication. In that question, Helen Glanville asked, 'Is the monk buried at Borley?' The entity replied 'Yes'.
There are two possibilities here. One is that a monk from Sudbury Priory might have been buried at Borley, perhaps a victim of the plague of 1349. If so, assuming that the answers to the Henning/Glanville session were coming from the nun, could she possibly know about a monk who died some 300 years before her death in 1667? Again, this throws up the query as to an elimination of any timescale among the spirits.
The second possibility is that at some time in the distant past, there was another monastic cell in Borley, of which all documentary trace has been lost.
The remaining questions of the Henning/Glanville session, particularly numbers 447 onwards, all seem to relate to the nun, Marie Lairre.
After the experiment at Borley by the Rev. Henning and Sidney Glanville, the next session was held at Helen Glanville's home in Streatham. The sitters this time were Helen Glanville, Mark Kerr-Pearse, Sidney Glanville and Roger Glanville. The sitting was held on October 31, 1937, and proceeded as follows:
464. Q Who is there?
A (Indistinct ... Mary).
465. Q What is your name?
A Lairre.
466. Q How old were you when you passed over?
A 19.
467. Q Were you a novice?
A Yes.
468. Q Why did you pass over?
A (No reply).
469. Q Are you under the wall?
A No.
470. Q Are you at the end of the wall?
A Yes.
471. Q Where did you hear Mass?
A (Indistinct reply).
472. Q Will you spell each letter?
A B O R L E Y.
473. Q Did you know Father Enoch?
A (Indistinct reply).
474. Q Will your repeat your last answer letter by letter?
A J E S U S.
475. Q Have you a message?
A Chant light Mass.
476. Q Do you want it for yourself?
A Yes.
477. Q Why?
A I am unha ... (two more letters, then indistinct).
478. Q Is it your own fault?
A No.
479. Q Whose fault?
A Waldegrave.
480. Q Were you murdered?
A Yes.
481. Q When?
A 1667.
482. Q How?
A Stran ... (one more letter, indistinct).
483. Q Were you strangled?
A Yes.
484. Q Will our Mass be sufficient?
A No.
485. Q What Mass do you want?
A Requiem.
486. Q Must it be a Roman Catholic priest?
A (Indistinct reply).
487. Q Will you spell answers letter by letter?
A N A P U P O.
488. Q Are you French?
A Yes.
489. Q Where did you come from?
A Havre.
490. Q Is it Havre?
A Yes.
491. Q What was the name of your nunnery or convent?
A Bure.
492. Q Did Waldegrave take you from Bures?
A Yes.
493. Q Do you want burial as well as Mass?
A Yes.
494. Q Have you ever given us a message in Latin?
A Yes.
495. Q Are we speaking to Marie Lairre?
A Yes.
496. Q Can you tell us the Latin message again?
A L O V U.
497. Q Was the first letter L?
A (No reply).
498. Q Do you want water?
A Yes.
499. Q What kind of water?
A Holy.
500. Q What else do you want?
A Incense.
501. Q And what else?
A W ... (indistinct).
502. Q Will you please try again?
A (Indistinct).
503. Q Will you please try once more?
A (Indistinct).
From this point, the replies in the Locked Book (HPL copy) do seem to suggest that contact with the nun was rather abruptly lost, and the next batch of contacts were with another entity, so we will just stop to take a look at what we have in questions 464 to 503.
This whole section shows very clearly the apparent contact with the nun. All the answers seem to revolve around here, and here we now get something of an indication that the nun might very well have come originally from Bures-en-Bray in Normandy and not from Bures in Suffolk. If she was brought to England, for some obscure reason, one obvious point of embarkation for the part of Normandy that includes Bures-en-Bray
would have been Le Havre, although as Bures lay not far from Dieppe, anyone embarking for England would surely do so at Dieppe.
It will be seen that if any such event involving a nun and a monk did take place, they could have embarked from either port, but the answers from the entity all seem to indicate Le Havre.
If this holy sister was brought from France to England, it is quite possible, is it not, that with her on the same boat might well have come a monk?
But for the present we will continue with the séance results, as follows:
504. Q Are you ever in Borley House?
A Yes.
505. Q Do you know Jane?
A No.
506. Q Do you know Caldibec?
A No.
507. Q Do you know any people called Bull?
A Yes.
508. Q Please spell their names.
A Henry.
509. Q Can we speak to Henry Bull now?
A Yes.
510. Q What does Henry say?
A (Indistinct reply).
511. Q Please spell his name.
A (Indistinct reply).
512. Q Mary, are you speaking for Henry?
A (Indistinct, possibly 'no').
513. Q Are you Marie Lairre?
A In answer to question 513, the entity crossed it out, and the planchette wrote ... 'Question me'.
514. Q Who are you?
A Henry.
515. Q Are you happy?
A No.
516. Q Who caused your unhappiness?
A (Uncertain reply).
517. Q Do you mean your wife?
A Yes.
518. Q Did you know Katie?
A Yes.
519. Q Please spell her surname.
A Boreham.
520. Q What year did she die?
A 18 8 0 9 0.
521. Q Please try again.
A 1888.
522. Q Can you tell us the month?
A April.
523. Q Where did Katie die?
A Kitchen.
524. Q From what?
A Child.
525. Q Was the child's father there?
A Yes.
In analysing these results, there is nothing really positive until one comes to question and answer 514. Here, the entity is either Henry Dawson Bull or his son Harry. In the light of what we know or suspect about the Bull family, it seems that where unhappiness caused by 'my wife' is concerned, this sounds more like Harry Bull than his father, remembering the possibilities as to friction between Harry and Ivy Brackenbury, vis-à-vis her daughter, who was a Catholic. So far as Katie Boreham is concerned, Harry would have been just as likely to have known about her as his father, so this could be either of them.
Looking at questions and answers 521 to 525, one can see immediately the links between these results and the known and suspected facts about Katie Boreham's life. The date of death, so far as the year is concerned, is correct, but Kate died in March, not April. The question of her dying in the kitchen is interesting.
We know that her death certificate says she died in Sudbury, but we also know that the lack of evidence for the Borehams having lived in or owned the house in Priory Walk make her death there questionable, and we also know that the stated cause of death as 'cerebritis' is also dubious.
But the possibility that she died in childbirth, or through trying to abort is not so doubtful, as Professor Knight shows us, and this relates to answer 524. As to question 525, asking whether the child's father was there, I would suggest that not only was he there, but that 'he' was Henry senior.
The results continue as follows:
526. Q Have you written on the walls?
A No.
527. Q Who did?
A Harry.
528. Q Do you know Mary the Nun?
A Ye or No ... (hesitant).
529. Q Do you know Caldibec?
A No.
530. Q Do you know Jane?
A No.
531. Q Do you know Henry?
A Yes.
532. Q Where are you now?
A Borley.
533. Q Do you know about the Latin message?
A Yes.
534. Q Will you write the first word of the Latin message?
A (Indistinct).
535. Q Can you spell each letter alone in English?
A (Indistinct).
536. Q Do you mean you don't know what the message is?
A Yes.
537. Q What is your wife's name?
A Jane.
538. Q What was her maiden name?
A Brackenbu ...
539. Q When were you married, the date?
A 1888 or 1889.
540. Q Where?
A Borley.
541. Q Will you repeat the date you were married. Important?
A 1889.
542. Q In which month?
A March.
543. Q Which day of the month?
A 13.
544. Q Which day of the week?
A Friday.
545. Q Do you mean Friday?
A Yes.
546. Q Was it registered at Borley Church?
A No.
547. Q Were you married in the church?
A No.
548. Q Were you married in the Rectory Chapel?
A (Chapel was crossed out) ... Yes.
549. Q Were there any witnesses?
A Yes.
550. Q Who?
A Henrie.
551. Q Henrietta?
A (No reply).
552. Q Who was she?
A Nurse.
553. Q Is she alive?
A Yes.
554. Q Where does she live?
A Sudbury.
555. Q Can you tell us her surname?
A (Indistinct reply).
556. Q Will you please try again?
A Weller (or Meller).
557. Q Can you tell us the road she lives in?
A (Indistinct ... possibly avenue).
558. Q Please repeat the word before avenue
A Bull e or s.
559. Q The number of the house?
A 23.
560. Q Who is Jane?
A Foyster (uncertain).
561. Q Whose wife is she?
A Henry Bull (very certain).
562. Q Did Jane Foyster have another name?
A Marianne.
In trying to sort out these results we have something of a problem, for many of the answers are either impossible or inaccurate!
Some of the replies seem to be coming from Harry Bull, in particular number 538, but he didn't marry in 1888 or 1889, but in 1911, and he wasn't married in Borley, but in Holborn, London.
As for the rest of this section, it seems difficult to assess who is producing the answers in the first place, quite apart from the fact that most of them are incorrect. Harry's wife Ivy was said to have been a nurse from Sudbury, but her name was Brackenbury, not Weller or Meller.
Henry Bull's wife was Caroline, not Jane Foyster, and Marianne Foyster's other names were Emily Rebecca, not Jane.
At this stage, there is no evidence that anybody in the Bull family was married in the Rectory itself. It is among these results, from number 526 to number 562, that one could find some sympathy with the views of those who claim that séance results are the product of subconscious manipulation by the sitters, and yet, within the overall picture, there are indeed some curious links with what we now know from other sources.
563. Q Who is there?
A Mari ... (rest uncertain).
564. Q Can we speak to Harry again please?
A Yes.
565. Q Is that Harry?
A Yes.
566. Q Can you tell us Marianne's full name?
A Jane Marianne Foyster.
567. Q Is she still alive?
A Yes.
568. Q Where is she living?
A Ipswi ... (rest uncertain).
569. Q Wil
l you please repeat?
A Ipswich.
570. Q Who did she marry?
A La ... (rest uncertain).
571. Q Is there another Jane?
A No.
572. Q Is Marianne in trouble?
A Yes.
573. Q What kind of trouble? One word please.
A Love.
574. Q Who?
A Edwin.
575. Q Do you know Pearless?
A Yes.
576. Q Was he called by another name?
A (Indistinct reply).
The reply to question 563 appears to come from Marianne, but those from 564 to 576 appear to come from Harry Bull.
There are some other interesting points to note. The reply to question 566 is partly wrong. Marianne's full name was Emily Rebecca, first Shaw, then Greenwood, then Foyster, and also possibly Fisher, though her apparent marriage to Fisher, while still married to Lionel, would not, of course, be recognised.
The name 'Jane' also cropped up in connection with Ivy Brackenbury, but one thought is that 'Jane' could have been the stepdaughter's name.
The reply stating that Marianne lived in Ipswich is rather curious. Is there some spiritual connection between a then living Marianne Foyster and a dead Harry Bull, perhaps through their having met during the Foyster's visit in 1924, or did one of the sitters know that Lionel and Marianne had moved to Ipswich? Somebody knew d'Arles' real name (note the question 575) and the name mentioned ... Pearless!
577. Q Do you know Santiago Monk?
A Yes.
578. Q Is he Pearless?
A No.
579. Q Is 'erel caedo blarnu ipse' correct?
A (No reply).
580. Q Who gave us this Latin message?
A Henry.
581. Q Do you mean your father?
A Yes.
So far I have been unable to identify Santiago Monk, unless there was some involvement by a Spanish Catholic monk, perhaps in connection with the nun. There is, however, one other possibility, that this is something to do with Sir Edward Waldegrave, for when he objected to the marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain, he was 'reassured' with a pension of 500 crowns.
In the course of any dialogue between Sir Edward Waldegrave and the Catholic establishment in Queen Mary's time, there may well have been some contact or conversation with those attached to the Spanish establishment.
In this section of questions the curious putative Latin message appears again. This time, Harry Bull, who appears to be responding to these questions, attributes the Latin message to his father Henry, which seems a trifle odd! But did the message come from Henry Bull, or is the Henry referred to Henry Waldegrave? Remember Mary Lycett's theory about Henry and Arabella Waldegrave.
The next few questions and answers had to do with the sitters, not the possible history behind the hauntings, so we will continue at the following stage: