Legend has it that whenever someone's head is removed from their body, they cannot rest because their body and soul are not whole, so they cannot move on. The skull of Bettiscombe Manor is that of a Jamaican slave who was angered at being sold in slavery and taken away from his home and family; so on his death bed, he swore that he would never rest until his body was returned to his homeland. After his burial, there are many accounts of people who said that they could hear screams and cries from the graveyard. Other disturbances were said to come from inside the manor house where he was enslaved and for some reason, his skull is still there today. The rest of his skeleton has been lost. Perhaps he was in such a rush to get home that he forgot his head.
