Kitty Jay's Grave

Ok so everyone has heard about Kitty Jay or Mary Jay but its such an intersting and well knwo story I just had to post it:

Back in the late eighteenth century, 1790 some say, an orphaned baby was taken into the Poor House at Newton Abbot. The little girl was named, as was the custom, with a surname beginning with whatever letter the Poor House had progressed to, in this case 'J'. As many of the commoner names had been taken the baby girl ended up with 'Jay'. In those days the word 'Jay' was also a slang term for a prostitute so the Christian name of Mary was added.

Mary Jay remained at the Wolborough Poor House until her teens where she supervised the younger children. Then she was sent to Canna farm which was located outside Manaton. Here she was to be employed as an 'apprentice' which meant she would work both in the house and on the fields. This was to be a hard life as the task load was heavy, the days long and the rewards few. A decent meal and warm clothing were luxuries that many of these 'apprentices' learned to live without. It may have been at this farm that Mary Jay got her more famous name of 'Kitty'.

Not long after she had been at the farm she started to receive the attentions of the farmers son which at the time may have seemed a way of obtaining some security and a sense of worth. Sadly, as in many similar cases she fell pregnant and soon discovered that her meaning of worth was very different to that of the farmer and his wife. Clearly the girl had 'thrown' herself at their son and with the name of Jay, no wonder.

The end result was that she was thrown out of the farm and left with a reputation as a 'slut'. Kitty knew only too well that once word got around she would never find employment in the area and that only left the prospect of returning in disgrace to the Poor House. Tragically Kitty Jay took the only other option and was found hanging in one of the barns at Canna.

The custom of the day was that any suicide could not be buried in consecrated ground as so they were interred at a crossroads, some times with a stake driven through their hearts. This was to ensure that the restless soul of the departed could not return to haunt god fearing mortals.

This was the fate of Kitty Jay, she was buried at the intersection of a road and a moorland track. The grave soon became known as 'Jay's Grave' and it did not take long for strange events to start taking place. On certain moonlit nights a dark figure could be seen kneeling beside the sad little mound with bowed head and its face buried in its hands. Nobody has ever been able to say if the spectral figure was male or female because it was always wrapped in a thick, black cloak. There are two schools of thought as to who the ghostly apparition is, some say it is the spirit of one of those responsible for driving Kitty from the farm and others say that it is the soul of the faithless farmer's son who as punishment has been sent to stand vigil over the grave of his victim and his unborn child.

The other phenomenon associated with the Kitty's resting place is the daily appearance of fresh flowers on the grave, nobody is ever seen leaving them but no matter what time of year there are always flowers, posies or greenery sat on the lonely mound. Tradition says that the flowers are the work of the piskies who out of sympathy tend the grave throughout eternity.

That´s a sad story, but quite common for that time.

If Mary Jay is haunting the area around her grave, i´m not sure. One would think, that she would rather haunt the place where she hung herself or even the farm, where she worked and where the father of her child was still living. But her grave???
Well, to understand that theory, one has to know about the believes of these times. there were only a few things worse than not being buried in consecrated ground, because it meant that the soul of the departed person wouldn´t be able rise to heaven, but had to smolder forever in hell. It is quite understandable, that rumors about her soul haunting her grave would start spreading.

Well, i am a quite skeptical person, and have to ask myself: Mary Jay knew, that her soul would never be released, when she committed suicide. Why then should she haunt her GRAVE rather than the farm or the place of her death?

I like stories like that, they remind me of my childhood, of sleepovers or campfires with ghost stories. To me they belong to the category of folklore stories, based on rumors and gossip, with truth in the core, to make a sad, heart gripping story even more interesting. Just perfect.

It reminds me of a story about the white Lady in the chapel in the Ebersberger Forest in Bavaria, who is supposed to be the spirit of a woman, that got rum over by a car and was left there to die of her injuries. Now she´s looking for the driver of the car. We investigated the location and were able to debunk nearly everything. We loved it.

greets,
Hella

The whole Ghost by the graveside varies from town to town I have found some people say it is Kitty, others say it is the Grieving Lover, other people say its what the Pixies want people to see rather than them, themselves...I have a link to a Picture of the grave.

When I visted recently, I felt very very sick and light headed about a mile before the grave itself, and when we got there I found what was Locks of human hair, Pentegrams and Candles on the head of the grave which I did remove and as soon as i did that the air seemwed lighter and the sickness lifted, It was very strange! Anyway the link to the picture.....


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/3551876_68b4fb11b1.jpg?v=0

Hmmm.... the feeling of pressure in the air combined with nausea or sickness can be result of a few things. Maybe there is a strong electromagnetic field in the whole area, an underground river, travel sickness, hunger, etc. But maybe it is the area itself, which has a pressurizing atmosphere and you are sensible to it.
Obviously the grave became a place for pilgrims of whatever reason. You seem to believe that some kind of witchcraft went on.

In anyway, i might have taken the things away as well, because i don´t think they belong on a grave. It´s a matter of respect and if it was witchcraft, i don´t think that Mary Jay would have agreed with it. I wouldn´t have. Don´t get me wrong, i am not sure whether to believe in witchcraft or not, there are certainly things that i don´t know about and that i don´t understand, but i rather don´t mess around with things, when i don´t know what i am dealing with.

The picture gives me a kind of awkward feeling. The grave is in the center of two trodden paths.... it doesn´t look peaceful to me. But then in the end (if it´s really her grave and not a fake) after all these centuries she is still remembered.... nice thought.

WellI will try to find the report of exhumation of the grave, becasue alot of loacls did not believe it was human remain in the grave and a guy did actually exhume it and confirmed that the remains were acyually that of a young female, The area around the grave is as you say very well trodden and I dont think peaceful at all.

Regard
Amy