Manchester Mummy

Hannah Beswick ( – 1785), of Birchin Bower, Hollinwood, was a woman with a pathological fear of premature burial. One of her brothers, John, had shown signs of life just as his coffin lid had been about to be closed. A mourner noticed that John's eyelids appeared to be flickering, and on examination the family physician, Dr Charles White, confirmed that he was still alive. John regained consciousness a few days later, and lived for many more years.

When Beswick died in 1785 she left £25,000 – a sum equivalent to about £1.8 million in today's terms – to White, a pioneer of obstetrics and one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, on the condition that her body was kept above ground, and that periodically, in the presence of two witnesses, the veil was to be lifted from her face, to look for signs of life. Her body was embalmed with tar, and then all but her face covered in bandages. Initially it was kept at Ancoats Hall, the home of another Beswick family member, but it was soon moved to a room in Dr White's home in Sale, where it was stored in an old clock case. Following White's death in 1813, Beswick's mummified body was donated to the Manchester Museum, where she acquired the soubriquet the Manchester Mummy, or the Mummy of Birchin Bower. Her eccentric will had made Beswick a celebrity, and her body was put on public display in the museum's entrance hall. Her relatives were allowed free access to the museum to visit her whenever they wished.

The Manchester Museum was subsequently transferred to Manchester University, when it was decided that despite Beswick's fear of being buried alive, she was "irrevocably and unmistakably dead". She was buried in Harpurhey cemetery on 12 July 1868, with the permission of the Bishop of Manchester.

Gold

When Bonnie Prince Charlie entered Manchester in 1745 Beswick decided to bury her money. Shortly before her death in 1785 she promised to show her relatives where her treasure was buried, but she died soon afterwards, before she was able to do so. After Beswick's death, Birchin Bower was converted into workers' tenements. Several of those living there claimed to have seen a figure dressed in a black silk gown and a white cap, and described it as Hannah Beswick. After gliding across the house's parlour, the apparition would vanish at one particular flagstone. While digging in the parlour to fit a new loom, a weaver living there discovered Beswick's hoard of gold, hidden beneath that same flagstone. Oliphant's, a Manchester gold dealer, paid the weaver £3 10s for each gold piece, the equivalent of almost £200 in today's terms.

Birchin Bower was eventually demolished to make way for a Ferranti factory, but sightings of the apparition were still reported.

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