Located in Oistins, Christ Church, Barbados, at the cemetery of the Christ Church Parish Church, is a tomb of moving coffins known as the Chase Vaults. The legend, which dates back to the 1800s, claims that each time this vault is reopened, the coffins inside are found in different positions than they were previously left. The claim is unsubstantiated, but has been reported on a few occasions.
The first account of this alleged phenomenon to be written down came from James Edward Alexander in 1833, who stated that when the vault was opened in 1812 to bury Thomas Chase, the caskets of his two sisters, Ann Maria Chase (buried in 1808) and Dorcas Chase (earlier in 1812) were out of place from where they had been laid. Prior to that report, the church's old Rector, Thomas H. Orderson, told the tales, but was said to give a different version each time.
Legend has it that the church sexton also discovered these events had happened in 1816 and 1819. A story that the family patriarch, Col. Chase, had actually murdered the girls, thus leading to a sinister force dwelling within the tomb, or the spirits of the girls being in a constant state of unrest, causing the coffins to move, began to spread. But, no evidence of this murder has been found to exist.
An investigation of the tomb was ordered. Sand was sprinkled along the floors to capture any footprints, and then the vaults were sealed for eight months. Locals reported hearing screams and disturbing sounds ringing out from under the concrete. When the vaults were reopened, the coffins had been found thrown about, more disrupted than before, yet no marks in the sand.
After this, the caskets were removed from the vaults and reburied elsewhere. But, people say that the restless ghosts of the children still haunt the tomb, screaming in the night to be released.
Although no official documentation has ever been submitted to validate these claims, it is still widely believed that the coffins do move. But, others believe that this story is allegorical, created around the Masonic myth of the "Secret Vault" which symbolizes death and the Divine Truth. The stories of the Chase Vaults' rowdy caskets is said to be loaded with freemason symbolism, and that other Masonic allegories about moving coffins surfaced in the 1940s.
Myth or reality, it sure makes for a good story to tell around a campfire.
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