At midnight, the spectre of Lady Frances Winchombe is said to ride with four headless coachmen past Michael and Carole Middletons’ new home, a £4.7 million manor, in Bucklebury, Berks.
The restless banshee, who died of a broken heart after her husband cheated on her, ended her life in the area.
Councillor Wynne Frankum said: “The story of Lady Winchcombe is well known around here. The ghost is a chariot drawn by six black horses driven by headless postillions and a lady clad in white.”
Michael, 63, and Carole, 57, invited expectant parents William, 30, and Kate, 31, to the Grade II listed Georgian house over the Christmas holidays.
And residents report strange noises coming from Lady Winchcombe’s coach, said to rattle along the lane there.
The parents of Kate Middleton, Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton, make a statement on the engagement of their daughter to Prince William, outside their home near the Berkshire village of BuckleburyPA
Historian Martin J Wayland has collected several sightings and reports for his book Kate Middleton Country.
He said: “Lady Winchcombe is a descendent of the Spencer and Churchill families and the British Royal Family, she is related to the Stuarts as well as a distant relation to Lady Diana Spencer.
“I can trace her haunting and first recorded sighting back to 1898.”
Lady Frances was married to Queen Anne’s Secretary of State Henry St John for 18 stormy years.
In 1715 he ran off with £13,000 from the estate to live with his mistress, the Marquise de Villette, in her French chateau at Marcilly.
Martin said: “She died of a broken heart and shock after starving herself in October 1718, at 37.
“She wasn’t buried until the December – which is why we think that she could never rest in peace.”
