Case file · Haunting
Ocean-Born Mary
Mary Wilson was born at sea on 26 July 1720 aboard an immigrant ship; legend says pirates who captured the ship spared everyone on condition that the baby be named after the pirate captain's mother.
1720 CE · 43.18, -71.82 · status: legend
The account
She grew up in Londonderry, New Hampshire, married James Wallace and died in 1814. A Henniker house was later promoted as haunted by her ghost and as hiding pirate treasure.
The sceptical view
Her birth at sea is documented; the pirate story is family legend, and historians consider the haunted-house tale a 20th-century invention.