With Halloween approaching the Watford Observer has again joined forces with Watford Museum to recall some spooky stories from the town's past.
Today's subject is, like yesterday, another member of the Capel family.
Arthur Capel’s son, also named Arthur, also found himself destined for an unhappy end. As a teenager he was kidnapped by the Roundheads and used to bargain for the release of their soldiers, held prisoner by the Cavaliers.
Read more: The headless ghost of Cassiobury Park
The devotion of his family to the crown was eventually rewarded. The year after Charles II was restored to the throne the King made Arthur the Earl of Essex.
Arthur became an important politician and married the daughter of the Earl of Northumberland. Arthur set about rebuilding and improving Cassiobury House, including the addition of lavish gardens and the famous staircase.
His popularity did not last and he was implicated in the Rye House Plot against the King.
Arthur was arrested at Cassiobury in 1683 and taken to the Tower of London. By a strange coincidence he was held in the very rooms where his father had awaited execution for the same charge of treason.
Arthur’s case never came to trial. On the 13th July he was found dead with his throat cut. Did he commit suicide or was he murdered?
His spirit is said to have returned to Cassiobury where his ghost appears on horseback each year on the 13th July.
This article was first published on the museum's Facebook page www.facebook.com/watfordmuseum
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