The Moving Coffins of the Chase Vault
Each time a family vault in Barbados was opened, the heavy lead coffins inside were said to have been thrown about, though the door had been sealed.
What was reported
The Chase Vault is a tomb cut into the rock of the churchyard of Christ Church Parish Church, near Oistins. According to accounts written down later, every time it was opened between 1812 and 1820, the lead-lined coffins inside had moved: shifted, tipped over or standing on end, though the entrance had been sealed with a heavy stone slab.
In 1819 the governor, Lord Combermere, is said to have had the floor sprinkled with sand and the door sealed with his own mark. When it was opened the next year, the seals were unbroken, there were no footprints, and the coffins had moved again. The family then had them taken out and buried elsewhere, and the vault has stood empty since.
Explanations offered
Suggestions include flooding that floated the coffins, earth tremors, and people getting in some other way. Some historians doubt it happened as told: the first detailed accounts were published years later, and no record written at the time has been found.
- When
- 1812–1820
- Where
- Christ Church, Barbados
- Witnesses
- Mourners, and the island's governor
- Status
- Never solved
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.