{"id":53717,"date":"2019-10-31T10:49:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T14:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=53717"},"modified":"2024-10-31T13:00:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T17:00:27","slug":"writer-nathaniel-hawthornes-real-life-ghost-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/writer-nathaniel-hawthornes-real-life-ghost-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s Real-Life \u2018Ghost Story\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry tells an eerie tale about Nathaniel Hawthorne and a troubled spirit that came to him in a seance. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

When author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia prepared for their European trip in 1857, they needed a governess for their three children Una, Julian, and Rose. Horace Mann recommended Ann Adeline Shepard (1835-1874), a student at his school (Antioch College) in Ohio. The governess \u201cAda\u201d possessed a skill in the occult known as a \u201cwriting medium.\u201d It was a form of divination in which the medium holds a pencil over a piece of paper, then receives spirit communication through writing.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Nathaniel Hawthorne, c. 1860-1864. Credit: Mathew Brady; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1891 Julian Hawthorne\u2019s story \u201cPersonal Experiences in the Occult Recounted by Means of Pen and Ink\u201d ran in newspapers across the country.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Kalamazoo Gazette (Kalamazoo, Michigan), 23 March 1891, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ada\u2019s role as \u201cghostly pen driver\u201d during the seances the Hawthorne family held in Florence in 1858 was described in this article. The story also appeared in the Boston Herald<\/em><\/a>, with this drawing.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 22 March 1891, page 23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Julian was not the only one to record the seances. In Memories of Hawthorne<\/em>, Rose Hawthorne wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Shepard and I went to see some table-turning,\u201d and \u201cWe tried patiently for two hours with the table, but though it trembled and wavered, nothing came of it until Miss Shepard took up pencil and paper for the spirits to write, if they would. The attempt on Miss Shepard\u2019s part was now, and always afterwards, successful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One by one Ada channeled the ancestors of seance attendees. However, a \u201cnew, turbulent influence\u201d pushed in on the night of 25 August 1858. Ada\u2019s hand was overtaken and violently seized, and the message was communicated: \u201cI must speak with Mr. Hawthorne. I want his sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathaniel was humored and replied that she had his sympathy. The spirit conveyed that she was born in Boston, 100 years before, and died there in pain and misery, still a young woman. The source of her pain was caused by a member of the family. The spirit\u2019s name was Mary Rondel.<\/p>\n

As Julian Hawthorne wrote in his book Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife: A Biography<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom this time forth, Mary Rondel, violent, headstrong, often ungrammatical, and uniformly eccentric in her spelling, was the chief figure among the communicants from the other world. She would descend upon the circle like a whirlwind, at the most unexpected moments, put all the other spirits unceremoniously to flight, and insist upon regaling her audience with a greater or less number of her hurried, confused, and often obscure utterances.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The seances were finally abandoned and that was the end of Mary Rondel\u2026 so they thought\u2026<\/p>\n

After Nathaniel\u2019s death in 1864 Miss Ingersoll of Salem sent Julian a copy of Sir Philip Sidney\u2019s book Arcadia<\/em>. Written in the margins on a page was the name Mary Rondel, and among the pages of love sonnets was the chirography of Daniel Hathorne: \u201cPray, mistress, read this,\u201d and \u201cRead this as if myself spake it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Daniel Hathorne. Credit: Hawthorne in Salem (used with permission).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Daniel Hathorne was Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s grandfather; Nathaniel added the \u201cw\u201d to his surname sometime after graduating college.)<\/p>\n

Julian wrote to Ingersoll, and she responded:<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Cousin, A Miss Mary Rondel, of Boston, knew Daniel Hathorne. The story will not interest you; it is not creditable to either party. It ended unfortunately; there had been some talk of a marriage, but their relations were broken off, and I am unable to say what became of the young woman and afterwards Daniel fitted out a privateer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How the name \u201cMary Rondel\u201d appeared during the 1858 seances is a mystery; Ada certainly could not have known that 100 years earlier, a Mary Rondel was involved with Nathaniel\u2019s grandfather Daniel. Years later, Julian looked into this story and wrote in his biography of his parents:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe following facts were elicited: that, in 1755 or thereabouts, when Daniel was over twenty-one years old, he fell in love with a young woman named Mary Rondel, who lived in Boston. She returned his love; but, somehow or other, the affair ended unhappily, and Mary soon after died. No more than this was known; but this was enough to complete a singular and unaccountable story\u2026 The name of Mary Rondel is not a common one; the present writer does not recollect ever to have met with it, except in this instance. But, at all events, these are the facts, and the reader is free to deal with them according to the best of his belief or incredulity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel Hathorne (1731-1796) was a Revolutionary War hero celebrated for his bravery on the Massachusetts privateer Fair American<\/em> in a song written by a surgeon on board entitled \u201cBold Hathorne<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1756 Daniel married Rachel Phelps (1734-1813), daughter of Jonathan and Judith Cox Phelps. Years later, in 1804, Nathaniel was born at their home on 27 Union Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Many critics assert that the governess Ada had been the model for the character of Hilda in Nathaniel\u2019s novel The Marble Faun<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The copy of Arcadia<\/em>, sold for $35 in 1931, is listed in \u201cThe Stephen H. Wakeman Collection of Books of Nineteenth Century American Writers, the Property of Mrs. Alice L. Wakeman\u201d as Lot number 390. Mary Rondel\u2019s name is listed on page 10.<\/p>\n

An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors \u2013 the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers.<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

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