Lady Katherine Ferrers - Legend

Legend

The legend is fairly well summarised on a number of internet sites, such as this one, often told with an emphasis on hauntings by Katherine's ghost. According to the legend, the well-bred Katherine was forced into a marriage at a young age, and her husband, who was often away at war or imprisoned, had sold off most of the family estates. Katherine came into highway robbery with her accomplice (and, some say, lover), Ralph Chaplin, but was shot during a robbery and later died of the wounds. The story holds that she now haunts Nomansland common and/or the ancestral family home at Markyate. Children growing up in this area the have always sung a rhyme "In the Cell there be a well, by the well there be a tree, under the tree the treasure be".