One of the ghosts that have begun to infect this district has been got rid of at Portmadoc. It turned out to be a servant girl who had been rattling the milkcans. People are ready for any sort of mystery.
Cambrian News, 17th February 1905.
Ghosts and other uncanny visitants from unknown spheres have lately been taking Wales by storm; but a Portmadoc domestic with a penchant for practical joking has been bringing the supernatural profession into very bad repute. The genuine spooks will, therefore, learn with joy that this young lady had been called upon to pay three pounds five shillings in solid, sordid, earthly pelf for her conduct.
It was bad enough to choose the unromantic precincts of a butcher’s shop for the sphere of operations, as if she were the ghost of some poor animal slaughtered for the consumption of the heartless public. But to scrawl a farewell message on the back of a tin can and send it with a clatter through the skylight was to go beyond the functions of any respectable ghost. It did not want the assistance of the Society for Psychical research to convince the matter-of-fact policemen of Portmadoc that this message was scrawled in no ghostly hand, and they put it to the degradation of a test, with the result that the servant-girl was fixed upon as the ghost. Miss Mary Hughes is certainly not likely, in the words of her ghostly message, to “trouble the occupants” again with this sort of nonsense. The fine of sixty-five shillings will be paid in her natural capacity, and not in her supernatural.
Western Mail, 25th February 1905.
Playing the Ghost.
Servant girl frightens a village.
For six weeks Portmadoc, Carnarvonshire, has been greatly disturbed by ghostly doings in a butcher’s shop. Night after night movable things, in an inexplicable way, were thrown about, and great damage was done. Watch parties and the police were utterly baffled, until one night a tin can fell into the back yard. On the can was scrawled a message to the effect that the ghost would trouble the occupants no more. The police tested the writing, and finding it similar to that of a servant girl named Mary Hughes, they charged her. The girl confessed to playing the ghost. She admitted throwing the can through a skylight window. The magistrates fined her 65s., including costs, for malicious damage.
The People, 26th February 1905.
The Portmadoc “ghost” story was solved in the Police Court on Friday, when a servant girl, aged 18, named Mary Hughes, was charged with, in the course of her impersonations of the ghost, causing malicious damage to her master’s property, and fined £3 5s. 6d. including costs.
Welsh Gazette, 2nd March 1905.
Servant girl plays the ghost.
The magistrates of Portmadoc had before them on Saturday a servant girl of 18, named Mary Hughes, who has been playing th epart of a ghost recently with somewhat destructive effects on her employer’s property. She was charged with malicious damage, and it was stated that her ghostly antics went on from January 2nd to February 7th. One night bacon would be removed from pickle and thrown into the garden. On other nights tongue and salt meat and meal and corn would be thrown about and crockery damaged. In all damage to the extent of £8 was done, and the occupants became frightened. Her employer, a butcher named David Thomas, as well as the neighbours and police, tried in vain to solve the mystery.
On February 2nd a tin can disappeared, and on February 7th it fell into the backyard. Mr Thomas found on the can words to the effect that the ghostly acts would finish that night, and that they were due to the black devil of a servant from Nantmoor. The prosecuting solicitor said the “ghost” evidently desired to cast the blame on a little servant girl.
A police-sergeant, named Jones, asked each occupant of the house to write in a book. Being suspicious of the defendant, who was the senior servant, he told her that he intended sending the writing to an expert to compare with the writing on the can. She then broke down, and confessed that she was the ghost. She could not say why she had played ghost.
The Bench imposed fines and costs totalling £3 5s 6d.
Coleshill Chronicle, 4th March 1905.
Domestic Servant as Ghost.
A ghost was summoned before the magistrates at Portmadoc, North Wales, on Friday, for disturbing the public peace. The spectre was nothing more terrifying than a trembling little servant girl named Mary Hughes, who had been playing pranks.
For weeks past there had been uncanny doings, night after night, in a butcher’s shop. Things were thrown about, and much damage done. Watch parties and the police were completely baffled, until one night a tin can crashed through a skylight. The can contained the ghost’s farewell message. In scrawling handwriting were the words, “The ghost will trouble no further.”
The police tested the writing, and finding it similar to that of the girl Hughes, challenged her with being the culprit. She then made a full confession, and on Friday the magistrates imposed a substantial penalty upon her for malicious damage.
Henley Advertiser, 4th March 1905.