The Ocean Born Mary House is reputed to be the home of one Mary Wilson Wallace (July 26th, 1720 – February 13th, 1814) - better known as Ocean Born Mary. She takes her place in New England lore as one of its most enduring legends.
Mary was born on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the daughter of James Wilson and Elizabeth Fulton Wilson. The ship was hijacked on July 28th, two days after Mary was born. The pirate captain, Don Pedro, hearing the cry of a newborn child, asked Mrs. Wilson if the baby was a boy or girl. On hearing that it was a girl, he promised to spare the lives of the captives if the baby would be named Mary for his mother. She agreed. Pedro went back to his own ship and brought her many gifts, including some green silk to be made into a wedding gown for the newly-named Mary when she married.
Mary grew up in Londonderry, New Hampshire, where she married James Wallace and had four sons: Robert, William, Thomas, and James, and one daughter, Elizabeth.
Some claim that the story of the haunting was started by Louis Roy, who owned the Robert Wallace house. According to this version, Don Pedro reunited with Mary following the death of her husband, taking him into her home and caring for him in his old age. However, Pedro was murdered in the house by a pirate associate, so Mary buried him and his treasure under the hearthstone.
Following her own death, Mary haunted the house to protect the treasure. Witnesses allegedly saw a tall red-haired woman in colonial dress at the house, in the yard or walking on the road into town. No evidence of either treasure or human remains has been found at either Wallace house, and the story is considered by townsfolk and historians to be entirely ficticious.
Ocean Born Mary did not live in the house which has carried her name. It was built by, and the home of, her son, Robert. Mary lived with another son, William, about a mile away. Whatever, the facts, this remains a wonderful part of New England folklore.
Pictured left is the Mount Washington Hotel courtesy of rickpilot_2000.
