Someplace in the Cotswolds, England
In December 1760, the landlord of the Ragged Cot, Bill Clavers, decided to rob the midnight stagecoach travelling to London. Before setting out, he gave himself Dutch courage and resistance to the cold with liberal helpings of rum. As he staggered from his bedroom with loaded pistols, his wife, with their young child in her arms, tried to dissuade him. In his anger he roughly pushed her aside and she fell downstairs. Delirious he fled the house.
After robbing the coach, Clavers returned to the Ragged Cot to find his wife and child dead at the foot of the stairs. In desperation, he put their bodies in a trunk. The local constables, following his tracks in the snow, approached the house and, after getting no answer to their knocks on the door, forced a widow. A shot rang out and the figure of Clavers appeared at the door.
As one of the constables prepared to fire, a terrified scream was heard as Clavers saw the ghostly figure of his wife and child silently crossing the floor and disappearing up the stairs. Unable to provide any resistance, Clavers was apprehended and tied to a chair. The constables began to search the premises. As they entered the bar parlour, they were confronted by the apparition, seated on the old oak trunk. Fearfully they retreated out of the house. As daylight broke, the body of Clavers’ wife and child were found at the bottom of the stairs and he was led away a doomed man. He was tried at Gloucester Assize Court, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
