George Hodgson died at the ripe old age of 94 in 1715.

He was a well known figure in the small village of Dent, on the borders of the old counties of Cumberland and West Riding of Yorkshire (but now firmly inside Cumbria) and was buried without much deliberation.

But George's spirit, his essence, his smell, seemed to hang around the village even longer then George himself did.

Ugly rumours permeated about him. That he drank sheep's blood, that he was seen with a black hare, an animal that must have been a familiar, a connection between George and the devil.

Soon it became clear to the villagers of Dent that George, though his body was six feet under the ground in the local graveyard, his spirit, his restless, twisted and evil spirit, still roamed the grounds of Dent.

And they had to put a stop to it.

The life of George Hodgson

Hodgson is the most common surname in Dent. This small, seemingly insignificant village has a high density of Hodgsons and always has.

In 2008, the historian Geoffrey Hodgson alleged that this is due to an early norse invasion in the 10th century which also accounts for the village's name and dialect.

George Hodgson was just one of those people who inherited the Dent name.

Born in 1621, very little is known about George's life but we can certainly gleam some conclusions from what information we do have available to us.

St Andrews Church in Dent, Cumbria.

There is little indication that George was at all special. The parish records indicate that he was merely a 'pauper', a poor person living in squalor. There are no records of his job or profession and it is likely that he lived his life as a rural farmer or unskilled labourer.

in 1644, aged 23, he married one Elizabeth Greenbank. Elizabeth must have died at some point because George got married again to a woman called Barbery who would outlive him by five years (suggesting that he married her much later in life).  We also know that he had a son called John.

What was most unusual about George was his longevity. He lived to the ripe old age of 94 at a time when life expectancy in England hovered around the 40 mark, even for the rich and prosperous. Being a pauper living in rural Cumbria, George must have seemed like an ancient being.

However, it seemed that long life ran in his family. George's son John lived until he was 90 and James Hodgson, a nephew of George, lived until he was 85.

The Hodgson family were involved in village scandal that would later contribute in part to the rumour of George being a vampire.

John Hodgson (George's son) could have been privy to some rather sensitive information regarding Richard Trotter of High Hall, the primary noble in Dent that later erupted into a family fued.

The village of Dent in Cumbria where George Hodgson died aged 94 in 1715.

In 1671, Richard and seven other yeoman of Dent had purchased a house in the village. Richard wanted complete ownership over the house and tired to buy up the other seven shares. Despite heavy burrowing he was never able to achieve his dream.

Richard died in July, 1705 amongst litigations, legal problems and debt. His family claimed one last piece of real estate in the village, the burial plot on the Dent church porch. Only the rich and the prosperous were able to be buried in the church and even today you will see many old churches with grave stones set into the floor at the inside.

The smell of those bodies as they rotted away inside the place of worship inspired the saying: 'stinking rich'.

In June 1685, a young girl called Susanna Middleton was sent by her stepfather Richard Bullman, to 'table with' or live with, John. There is a suggestion that Susanna was Richard Trotter's illegitimate child, her upkeep was paid for by a one Will Atkinson who had been granted a peppercorn rent by Trotter in the same month Susanna had moved in with John.

Inside St Andrews Church Dent.

There is certainly a theory that John found out about the infidelity, he had worked on the Trotter estate as a stone mason, and it is likely he was paid off to keep his silence.

The two families fell out in 1701, with John apparently coming to blows with Richard's son. The two families were divided by bad blood and there is a theory that the Hodgsons later used the wild rumours about the long dead George to get one over on the Trotters.

George died on June 4, 1715 from old age and was buried in the corner of St Andrew's Church graveyard in Dent.

Although he seemed to have an uneventful life, rumours seemed to dog George in death.


Living to 94 did not go unnoticed. Rumours that George was a vampire or other worldly began to follow his memory due to how long he had lived with other odd aspects adding to the rumours.

Sources suggest that George, and his other Hodgson relatives, had big, over-large teeth. Some would have believed they were fangs.

Some said that George had begun rising from the grave to drink animals blood, others said he had drank animals blood in life, suddenly rumour of the phantom George haunting the village turned people's memories with more stories pouring forth about the frightful and unnatural things George had done before his death.

A woodcut image from showing a witch trial in Scotland, the villagers of Dent believed George might have a relationship with the devil akin to that seen with witches.

One farmer had seen him in the company of a black hare which the farmer had shot at, only to follow George home and see the old man tending to a gunshot wound himself. Relationships with animals like cats, rabbits and pigs that went beyond farm yard livestock were considered to be the relationship between a witch and a familiar, familiars being the messengers between the witch and the devil himself.

Others drew the conclusion that George could have only lived so long only by making a pact with the devil.

Something had to be done. The villagers of Dent were not going to let a little thing like death get in the way of a good witch hunt, or vampire hunt.


A town meeting was called in Dent.

The people could no longer stand George haunting them and they decided that his body had to be exhumed, the people believed they would be able to check the corpse for recent signs of life.

The Dent sexton was called to St Andrew's Church and ordered to dig into the soft English turf. George's coffin was hauled to the surface, uncovered and broken into.

George Hodgson's grave in the Dent church, you can see the top of the stake driven into his body.

George was certainly dead, there was no doubt about that but the villagers believed they had found evidence that he was coming back to life each night. A document described George's visage after the villager's exhumed him; "his hair and nails had grown and the flesh was glowing pink as though the corpse were alive."

The villagers were obviously unaware that the hair and nails of a corpse continue to a grow a little in death.

What the villagers saw provided them with enough evidence to believe that George had swelled the ranks of the undead.

Dead twice

George had to be reinterred. The decision was made to bury George under the church porch, where Richard Trotter had been interred.

Perhaps the villagers feeling was that the closer George's body was to the church the looser his relationship with the antichrist would be.

There is also a theory that the Hodgsons pushed for this rumour, so that George could be buried in place of Trotter, the pauper taking the place of the rich noble, it would be the final one over on the Trotter family.

George was buried and a brass stake driven through the corpse and the coffin, pinning him in place.

The top of the stake can still be seen poking through the headstone in the church.

George has not made an appearance since but the Hodgsons are still seen as a permanent feature in Dent.

The Trotters died out soon after.