Meet the faces behind the brand -
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SONS OF MARIA ELDRIDGE
Esther
McNally
02
Mistress of
Albert Sampson
Location:
Hartley Mauditt, East Hampshire, UK
Date of Birth:
February 17, 1767
In 1785, eighteen-year-old Esther McNally was buried at the churchyard adjacent to The Manor. Born into a Catholic family, she was snubbed by her parents when the scandal broke of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Found dead in the river with stab wounds to her body, Esther’s parents suspected she had ended her own life out of shame.
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They would never know that the child was that of the priest, Albert Sampson. Her parents would also never know that their daughter was drowned by Freya Sampson, the wife of the priest, who had never bore them a child of their own.
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Each night, Esther McNally’s apparition would move freely through The Manor, the noise of her whimpers waking her parents, reminding them of their new-found guilt. When satisfied with causing her parents discomfort, she would head to the river where she would see Albert and Freya, holding a baby. The baby that they’d taken from inside the girl, before drowning her.