Kitty Canham grew up in Thorpe Le Soken – a very beautiful girl and the Vicar at Thorpe fell in love with her. They eventually married despite the large age difference. After a few years, Kitty got restless and left for a more adventurous life. She eventually met an English nobleman in Italy and married him, but it was a bigamous marriage. Unfortunately after a few years Kitty died of a fever. Her bigamous husband brought her body back to Thorpe where she had expressed a wish to be buried. At her funeral both husbands followed her coffin to her grave in St Micheals graveyard.’
Legendary Essex Note: We looked into this story to find out more and the story continues after Kitty’s death in 1752 with some excellent haunting action! – There’s a great blog by Fenella J Miller at https://historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com/2013/08/an-essex-ghost-story-catherine-canham.html that tells of moving quiches and terrified guard dogs in ‘Kitty’s room’ at pub called The Bell in Thorpe Le Soken.
Postcard by Jessica Pearce
