The Ghost of Appledore
© Virginia Marin
Approximately seven miles from the shores of Kittery, Maine and ten miles from downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire lie a group of sparsely inhabited, and little known islands--The Isles of Shoals. These islands are rich in folklore, and especially ghost stories, of early American settlers.
The largest of the islands was known as Hog. The attraction to this island was a fresh water spring on the south shore which attracted the first settlers. This was the population center of the Shoals until 1680 when forty of the resident families migrated to Star Island, south of Hog.
But in 1661, the entire archipelago had been named Appledore after the village of Appledore near Portsmouth on the southern shore of England. After the influx to Star, the preferred name of Appledore was restored, and has remained so until this day. Appledore is owned by Star Island Corporation, which leases it to Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire, both of which conduct formal undergraduate and post graduate marine science programs under the name of the Shoals Marine Laboratory.
Appledore did have its day, however. There were piers, tennis courts, cottages, studios and even the Appledore Hotel, built in 1847 by Thomas Laighton, the father of the authoress, Celia Thaxter.
And, there is Babb's Cove, named for one of my immigrant ancestors, Philip Babb, who flourished early in island history. He died in 1671, and his ghost, it is said, still walks the island. The ghost of Philip has been referred to the Ghost Research Society for investigation.
There is a superstition among the islanders that Philip Babb, or some evil-minded descendant of his, haunts Appledore. No timid soul can be induced to walk alone after dark over a certain shingly beach on the island, at the top of a cove bearing Babb's name--for it is there that his uneasy spirit is often seen.
He is supposed to have been so desperately wicked when alive that there is no rest for him in his grave. His dress is a coarse, striped butcher's frock, with a leather belt, to which is attached a sheath containing a ghostly knife, sharp and glittering. It is his delight to brandish it in the face of terrified humanity.
One Shoaler was perfectly certain that he and Babb had met, and he shuddered with real horror, recalling the meeting. His tale was originally penned by Celia Thaxter in 1873 and has undergone more than one nemesis. The following is my rendition of the tale, which is based on Miss Thaxter's. Since I wrote the story to use with my seventh graders, the vocabulary reflects that which I wished my students to learn--and some of the more sophisticated words were added by them. Third person was changed to first person to enhance use in a campfire setting. And now, meet my family ghost: family ghost!
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