The King, The Mummy and The Fishwife: Ghostly Goings-on in Newcastle

The Old George yard

If you’ve ever gone for a night out in Newcastle, you may have had a drink or two in the city’s oldest pub The Old George. Opened in 1582, this former coaching inn is said to be haunted by a rather royal ghost, Charles I. This wasn’t his first time in the area, he had been in Newcastle for 12 days in May 1639 spending most of his time at the house of a Mr Lyddall in Pilgrim Street. In May 1646, during the Civil Wars; the king surrendered at Newark and was bought to Newcastle which was then under Scottish control. During his time in Newcastle, Charles was housed in The New Place, a mansion owned by the Anderson family. This stood at the top end of Pilgrim Street on the site of the old Franciscan friary and was demolished in 1835 to make way for the current Grainger Town. Although he was effectively a prisoner, Charles had a degree of freedom. He was allowed to go to Shieldfield with his retinue to play golf, or ‘goff’ as it was called at the time. Charles I wasn’t the only member of the Stuart family to enjoy a round of golf, his grandmother Mary, Queen of Scots was also a fan of the game. It is also said that he was allowed to visit The Old George, with the chair he is believed to have sat in still in the pub in the aptly named ‘Charles I Room.’ The Scots handed Charles over to Parliament in early 1647 and left Newcastle themselves a few months later. 

A more intellectually minded ghost is said to haunt The Great North Museum: Hancock. The ghostly figure of a mummy has been reportedly seen wandering around the museum at night. With origins dating back to around 1780, the collection of The Great North Museum: Hancock was originally part of the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1829 a scientific offshoot, The Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne was formed. The museum, which opened in 1834, was originally on Westgate Road until it moved to its’ current location in 1884. In the 1890s the museum changed its’ name to The Hancock Museum, being named after local naturalists Albany and John Hancock. In 2006 it closed for three years for refurbishment work reopening as The Great North Museum: Hancock in 2009. The museum holds two Egyptian mummies, Bakt-en-Hor and Irtyru. Irtyru was discovered in 1798 by the Louvre’s first director Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon. In 1826 John Bowes Wright purchased the mummy and gave her to the Lit & Phil, who unwrapped her in 1830, before putting her on display. Bakt-en-Hor, the unwrapped mummy that can be seen in her sarcophagus, arrived in Newcastle a few years before Irtyru in 1821. Like Irtyru Bakt-en-Hor was also given to the Lit & Phil, before ending up in the museum. The story doesn’t tell us which of the two mummies is the one in the story, but we can assume that the Egyptian exhibit is of particular interest to the ghost in question.

Jane Jamieson

Down on the Quayside, a murderous ghost can supposedly be seen around the John Wesley Memorial Fountain. In March 1829 Jane Jameson (or Jamieson) was executed for the murder of her mother, Margaret. The killing took place shortly after the New Year when Jane went to visit her mother, who was living in the Keelman’s Hospital at the time. During the early hours of New Year’s Day keelman and reported lover of Jane, William Ellison (or Bill Elley as he was sometimes known) arrived at Margaret’s with a gill of rum for the three of them to share. On the afternoon of the 2nd of January, an argument broke out between Margaret and Jane, with Jane stabbing her mother with a fire poker. Despite being badly wounded Margaret lived for another ten days. The two women’s accounts of what had happened changed several times in the days after the attack. Jane claimed that William Ellison had attacked her mother, whilst Margaret stated that her daughter had been responsible. A few days later their stories changed, they both claimed that Margaret had been picking oakum by the fire and that the heat had made her faint into the poker. Jane was eventually tried at the Guildhall on the 5th of March 1829. Somewhat ironically, the Guildhall would have been a very familiar place to Jane. As a fishwife she would have worked next to the building’s Doric columns.  She was hanged on the Town Moor on the 7th of March with a reported crowd of 20,000 attending. She was the first woman to be hanged in Newcastle since 1789, when Jane and Eleanor Clark had been executed. Jane Jameson was the last woman to be hanged in Newcastle, she was also the last executed prisoner to be given to the barber surgeons for dissection. The practice of using the corpses of executed criminals in medical training was stopped in 1832. Led by John Fife, a surgeon who later became Newcastle’s Mayor, two weeks of lectures were given. Medical students could attend for free, whilst for a small fee (10 shillings and sixpence for the full two-week course of lectures or 2 shillings and sixpence for a single lecture) the public could attend. What happened to Jane’s body following her dissection is unknown. She is now said to haunt the area around the Milk Market and the John Wesley Memorial Fountain where she calls out to William Ellison.

So the next time you’re out in Newcastle after dark, keep your eyes peeled for ghostly goings-on.