Aldburgh Hall, Masham

Aldburgh Hall appears here, not because it is haunted, but because several centuries ago, there were apparently local rumours that it was. The Aldburgh estate was historically the property of Fountains Abbey.  Following its closure in 1539, as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Aldburgh was granted to Sir Richard Gresham.  In 1597 it was purchased by Roger Beckwith (Born 1560 – Died 1635) and it remained in the Beckwith family until it was sold in 1743.  The current house dates from after this sale, however it would have been the original Beckwith Aldburgh Hall that the locals suspected was haunted.

In his ‘The History and Antiquities of Masham and Mashamshire (1865), John Fisher refers to an old local belief from the 1700’s that the hall was haunted by the ghost of Roger Beckwith.  A belief he himself did not share and which had died away by the time of writing.

‘Neither  does  it  say  much  for the  intelligence  of  the  parish  at  this  period.  We  know, however,  from  other  sources,  that,  not  only  at  this  time, but  long  afterwards,  great  ignorance,  not  unmixed  with an  incredible  amount  of  superstition,  very  much  prevailed throughout  the  parish,  and  that  ghosts  and  hob-goblins were  as  plentiful in  it  as  blackberries,  so  that there  was  scarcely  a  nook  or  corner  in  the  parish  which was  not  “haunted”  by  its  own  special ghost  or  boggle. The “Marfield  Boggle,”  “Jinny  Greensleeves,”  of  High Burton,  “Sir  Roger  Beckwith’s”  ghost,  of  Aldborough Hall,  and  “The  Woman  without  a  head,”  at  the  Dykes-hill, have  indeed  only  taken  their  departure  from  the parish  within  the  period of  my  own  recollection.’

The Roger Beckwith in question could be the first Roger Beckwith (1560-1635), who acquired the estate in 1597, or more likely Sir Roger Beckwith, 2nd Baronet (1682–1743) who shot himself.  His father, Sir Roger Beckwith, 1st Baronet (died 1700) also of Aldburgh, also shot himself, but at his father in-laws house in Ripon.  Maybe it was the nature of their demise that led to unfounded stories developing about a ghost.