Hey hey, my lore-loving weirdos… grab your lanterns, your lace bonnets, and your emotional support gin — because tonight, we’re heading back to 1803 London, where a ghost panic got so real it ended with an actual murder trial.
Before the Tube, before streetlights, and definitely before therapy, the sleepy village of Hammersmith found itself haunted — not by one restless spirit, but by a whole lot of mass hysteria.
It started with an elderly woman scared literally to death near the churchyard… then a brewer’s servant named Thomas Groom who got hands-on with the ghost (and lived to tell the tale)… and a pregnant woman whose brush with the apparition nearly sent her into early labor.
Cue the fog, the fear, and a full-blown neighborhood patrol of armed ghost hunters.
One of them, Francis Smith, set out to catch the phantom — and instead, shot a very real man named Thomas Millwood.
Welcome to one of England’s strangest true crimes — the first time someone in court tried to argue:
“I thought it was a ghost.”
From hysteria to homicide, from gossip to the Old Bailey, we’re unraveling how superstition, fear, and a good old-fashioned case of “maybe don’t shoot the undead” turned London upside down.
So grab your torches, charge your crystals, and let’s step into the fog… because this is Loreplay: where haunted gets hot and bothered with history.
📜 Show Notes & Sources
🧩 The Real Story
- The Hammersmith Ghost panic began in late 1803, when reports surfaced of a white-shrouded figure haunting the Hammersmith churchyard in West London.
- The Elderly Woman reportedly collapsed in terror after seeing the apparition and died days later (The Times, Jan 1804).
- Thomas Groom, a brewer’s servant, claimed the ghost grabbed him by the throat while walking with a friend near the churchyard (Annual Register, 1804).
- The Pregnant Woman was said to have been attacked by the ghost, collapsing in fright and falling dangerously ill — possibly going into early labor (Morning Chronicle, Jan 1804).
- Night Watchman William Girdler later chased the ghost down Beaver Lane, claiming it “threw off its shroud and disappeared.”
- Francis Smith, believing he was protecting the town, fatally shot Thomas Millwood, a 29-year-old bricklayer wearing white work clothes — mistaking him for the ghost.
- The case went to the Old Bailey in January 1804, where Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
- His sentence was later commuted to one year of hard labor, after public outrage.
- The verdict led to ongoing debates about “mistaken identity” and the legal definition of intent, influencing English criminal law for decades.
📚 Primary & Historical Sources
- The Times (London), January 1804
- The Morning Chronicle, January 1804
- Annual Register of 1804: “Extraordinary Occurrences”
- Old Bailey Proceedings Online (Trial of Francis Smith, 1804)
- London’s Ghosts: Strange Tales from the Capital by Peter Ackroyd (2007)
- Curious Cases and Ghostly Tales of Old London by Charles Mackay (1858)
- The Hammersmith Ghost and the Law of Murder — The Criminal Law Review (1958)
💀 Loreplay Deep Dive Topics
- Victorian ghost panics & moral hysteria
- Early 19th-century policing in London (pre-Metropolitan Police)
- The legal concept of “malice aforethought”
- Ghost lore in the Age of Enlightenment
- The class tension behind “working men with guns”
- The legacy of the Hammersmith case in modern criminal law
🔮 Fun Facts
- Some historians believe the “ghost” was actually a shoemaker named John Graham, who confessed to dressing up in a white sheet to scare apprentices.
- The story inspired numerous stage plays and penny dreadfuls in the 1800s.
- The Hammersmith ghost legend was revived again in the 1820s — because London loves a sequel.
