Situated in a woodland named Maggoty Wood lays the grave of Samuel Maggot Johnson. The last Jester in the U.K. Alledgelly, his last request was to he buried alone in the woods as he did not want to be around women or his bones lay next to a woman!
Samuel Johnson was born in 1691, he earned a living in his younger years as a dancing master to local middle class families. He was quite a gifted person, known as a wit a poet and a musician, he went on to write many plays, one called the Supernatural played in London to rave reviews in 1729, in which he played the part of Lord of the Flame.
Samuel’s other plays were never as successful as the Supernatural and in the 1740s he moved to New Hall at Gawsworth, owned by the Harrington family, and to whom he used to be a dance master for.
The name Maggoty came from a term locals would refer to him being. Samuel liked the locals to refer to him as ‘Lord’, as in Lord of the Flame. However, “Maggotty”, this is an old term meaning one has maggots in ones brain and is regarded as being eccentric.
During his career, Maggoty allegedly had a quarrel with a lady named Hannah Bailey which carried on for some time, could this be the reason he chose to be buried in the woods rather than having a traditional burial in a churchyard?
Maggoty Ghost 👻
Over the years, there have been reports of Samuel’s ghost being seen. On one such occasion, the witness was walking past the wood where Samuel’s grave can be found when he spotted a dancing spectre, thinking that it was probably someone who was drunk they approached the spot, he found no one there and also found that whoever had been dancing at this spot had left no footprints in the freshly fallen snow.
Another story concerns a Sam Bailey who used to live in the area, he was driving home late one night along Maggotty Lane which runs alonside Maggotty Wood, when upon reaching the junction at the end of the lane a dark figure appeared in front of his car. He was unable to stop in time and ploughed into the figure. Unpon impact the windscreen turned black as if a sheet were placed over it. He got out of the car expecting to find the person he had just hit, but there was no sign of anybody or anything!
Another legend is If you called Maggoty Johnson’s name 13 times on Hallow E’en he will rise from the grave and perform for you.
If you run around his grave 12 times backwards, at midnight, he will rise from his grave and take you back into it.
