Author Archives: jennieb

Mabel Cecilia Atwood & Bewsey Hall

MABEL CECILIA ATWOOD & THE TALES OF BEWSEY HALL

Mabel Celia Atwood

Mabel Cecilia Atwood

The Legend of Bewsey Hall tells of the murder in 1463 of Sir John Boteler of Bewsey Hall by the son of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, who in 1485 at Bosworth Field had placed the English crown upon the head of the victorious Henry Tudor.

Having written the tale based on the Frank Hird and John Roby accounts, we realised that at the time of the murder Thomas Stanley’s son would have been an infant, and the real murderer was Thomas Stanley himself, twenty two years before Bosworth won him an Earldom. Moreover, we then discovered that Sir John Boteler’s widowed wife was in fact Thomas Stanley’s own sister.

So, the story was even murkier than Hird and Roby had recorded, and here was another tale demanding to be told. We traced the descendents of John and Margaret Boteler on a genealogy website, starting from the Sir John Boteler page , until we discovered this delightful photograph of Mabel Cecilia Atwood, 1879-1962, and we just had to have her in the book.

In about 1900, when we set the telling of the Tales of Bewsey Hall, Mabel Cecilia Atwood was a young woman of twenty one years living in Lancaster County, Nebraska. So, we brought her over to visit her ancestors and invited her to tell the murky tale in the chancel of St Elphin’s church Warrington, by the tomb of her forebears John and Margaret Boteler.

We want you to see Mabel’s photograph, and as it wasn’t possible to include it in the book, her it is instead. We invite you to explore her genealogy for yourself.

About Boggarts’ Blog

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Hello!

Welcome to our website celebrating the release of our book Lancashire Folk Tales. We’ll be using this blog to tell tales of our latest outings, events, and maybe a couple of stray tales that didn’t quite make it into the book (I blame the Rodney Street gambler).

Enjoy!

Jennie & David