Ghosts -The Late Reverend Dr. Blomberg

 

THE PARISH CLERK. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.

  There is a far more traditional tale of a ghostly appearance and one that resulted in good fortune.  Try as I might, I cannot find a full account but the gist of the story was given by a Mr.William George in a letter to the Bristol Times & Mirror (1):

                            “THE LATE REV. DR.BLOMBERG.”

                   “Sir,--“Querist” asks, in Saturday’s Times and Mirror,

                   if the late Dr.Blomberg was rector of Shepton Mallet,

                   and when.  In reply I would say that the Rev. Frederick

                   William Blomberg, D.D., was instituted to the rectory of

                   Shepton Mallet in 1787, upon the presentation of his

                   friend and associate the Prince of Wales (afterwards

                   George the Fourth).  In 1790 he became a Prebendary of

                   Bristol Cathedral, and from the Dean and Chapter

                   received the living of Bradford-on-Avon in 1793.  The

                   Bristol Directory for 1805 gives his address as “Banwell,

                   Somerset”, of which parish he was vicar.  He afterwards

                   became a Canon of St.Paul’s, London, and received from

                   that Cathedral the valuable living of St. Giles’s, Cripple-

                   gate.

 

                   “Dr. Blomberg was the son of a Major Blomberg, who

                   died of a violent fever, in Martinique, during the Seven

                   Years’ War.  The major’s name has been preserved in

                   ghost-story annals for his having, after his death, ‘appeared

                   in the middle of the night,dressed in his regimentals’, to

                   Colonel Stewart and Captain Mounsey, when he asked

                   the former to take care of his “little boy”, and to see him

                   put in possession of an estate in England, the writings

                   relative to which, the ghost is reported to have said, would

                   be found in a certain ‘old chest”, in a house in York-

                   shire.’

 

                   “Of course the papers were found, and young Blomberg,

                   after a lawsuit, put in possession of his estate.  And what

                   was still more fortunate for him,the curious ghost story

                   reached the ears of Queen Charlotte, who became

                   interested in the youth and took him into the Royal

                   household, where he was ‘educated in intimate association

                   with the children of George the Third.’  So through this

                   singular story of his father’s apparition young Blomberg

                   appears to have been greatly indebted for the valuable

                   benefices he held in the Church….”

 

    Perhaps the appearance of Blomberg’s father had been of great benefit; it had guided friends to the hidden chest after all.  However, even with the friendship of the Royal household  he did not achieve the rank of bishop.  The reason for this was also explained by Mr.George in his letter:

 

                   “…had he not been been an eminent violoncello player,he

                   might, so it is recorded, have died a bishop; for upon Lord

                   Castlereagh suggesting Dr.Blomberg to George the Third

                   as one worthy of a certain vacant bishopric, his Majesty

                   exclaimed ’Tut, tut, tut; what, what, what make a biship of a fiddler! 

                   Never do, never do, never.’  So his proficiency in music proved

                   a “bar” to his promotion.” 

 

    Which, I suppose, just goes to show that your father’s ghost may well lead to a hidden chest with vital documents that earn you an estate and friends at the Royal household, but it won’t get you made bishop if you play the violin!