Other Ghosts Haunting the Regency

Step aside, Hammersmith Ghost. There were other specters who spooked Regency imaginations and inspired the popular press. Here are a few noteworthy examples:

Queen Elizabeth I

Here’s a phantom that must have haunted Napoleon’s nightmares in the early years of the 19th century while he was  planning to invade England.

In this 1803 print published by William Holland, the soon-to-be Emperor of France recoils against the ghost of Queen Elizabeth I, who reminds him of Spain’s failed attempt during her reign to invade England. Napoleon’s planned attempt at a British invasion will be defeated, she appears to tell him, just as surely as she defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.

He must have paid heed, because by 1805 he’d abandoned his plans and decided to pursue other military goals. (Of course, Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar might have had something to do with Napoleon’s change of heart, as well.)

Admiral Byng

This 1808 hand-colored etching by Isaac Cruikshank features the ghost of Admiral Byng, a Royal Navy officer who was court-martialed for failing to “do his utmost” to relieve a British garrison during the Battle of Minorca in 1756 at the start of the Seven Year’s War. There were extenuating circumstances influencing Byng’s actions, but they didn’t matter under the harsh provisions of the Articles of War.

Byng’s trial and the death sentence that followed were seen as highly political and generated a lot of controversy. A plea for clemency and an appeal to King George II was denied. In what was considered by some to be “the worst legalistic crime in the nation’s annals,” Byng was executed by a firing squad in 1757.

Repercussions (including guilt and a sense of injustice) from Byng’s trial and execution lingered for decades. No wonder the army officer (General Whitelocke) in the cartoon is terrified by the Admiral’s ghost!

Byng was the last officer of his rank to be put to death for this type of crime. In fact, 22 years after Byng’s death, the Articles of War were amended to allow alternatives to capital punishment in situations such as Byng faced.

And now for a more light-hearted haunting:

Tom Tack’s Ghost

Tom Tack’s Ghost was a popular sea shanty; both Isaac Cruikshank and Thomas Rowlandson published prints illustrating it in 1808. (Rowlandson’s version is pictured above.)

The song tells the story of two sailors who were both in love with the same woman, “Polly from Spithead.” When one of the love-struck sailors discovered Polly was also being courted by fellow shipmate Tom Tack, he shot his rival.

However Tom, who “com’d from Boney-Ayrs,” wasn’t dead. He revived enough to put on a white sheet and pretend to be a ghost, to torment the sailor that shot him.

But that sailor wasn’t about to be intimidated by a ghost.  He threatened to tie “ghost” Tom up with ropes, before figuring out that he hadn’t killed his romantic rival after all.

It just bears out my theory that the most troublesome ghosts are the ones who are still alive!

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*If you are interested in all eight verses of Tom Tack’s Ghost, you can find them here.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons