| AISVAX::JONEILL It's time to come out of the closet.....
"Hide and go seeking - seeking go hide, I'm seeking for you - you're
hiding for meeee."
(Famous quote from the big, Russian, female rabbit that was chasing
Bugs Bunny. For all the old saturday morning cartoon fans.)
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| well, it's probably been about three months since I started to
write this note (actualy something went wrong while typing and the
note was never entered) my first version was a little long and I'm
sure this note, being so old wont be read, I'll get right to the
main question. Has anyone ever heard of a tale that tells of a woman
I think from Maine called ocean born mary? The story deals with
a woman that haunted her single story house along the coast to protect
a treasure buried beneath the bricks of the fire place. Supposedly
two men were beaten to death with a shovel while trying to dig up
the fire place. Sorry for the wait.
Jim
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| Re: last
Don't know if you're still interested, but....
Yes, there is mention of an Ocean Born Mary in many folklore books, and
I remember my grandmother talking about her. It's been a long time
since I heard/read anything about OBM, but here's what I recall:
Sometime during the 1700s, a ship sailing from Europe was taken over
by pirates. On the ship was a woman who had recently given birth to
a baby girl. The head pirate was about to kill the people on the
ship, when suddenly he heard the infant crying. He had the baby
brought before him and, utterly charmed, told the mother that he'd
spare the passengers if she'd name the baby Mary, after his mother.
She agreed, and at some point he gave her a bolt of greenish, embossed
cloth from which the mother was to make a wedding gown when Mary was
old enough to marry.
The rest is a little foggy to me, but I seem to recall that Mary and
her mother eventually settled in Henniker, NH, and that the pirate
settled right near them. When Mary got married, she supposedly wore
a gown made of the cloth the pirate had given her mother. When the
pirate died, many years later, I think Mary had her sons bury him
somewhere near the house, and supposedly he had buried some treasure
near their house also. Anyway, Mary's ghost -- tall, beautiful, and
red-haired (she was Irish) -- still haunts the house (or at least it
did in the old book I was consulting...whether or not the house still
stands, I dunno).
Remember, this story has been embroidered on throughout the years;
how much of it is true (if any), I don't know. But if you're still
interested, you might want to look her up in NE-type books, or even
take a trip to Henniker. If you do pursue it, I'd love to hear what
you were able to verify.
Susan
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