Laura Wright 
Among the old ghost stories of Scotland, few were once as famous as the tale of Pearlin’ Jean.
Her ghost belonged to Allanbank, the home of a branch of the Stuart family in Berwickshire.
Jean had not always been a ghost.
According to the legend, she had once been a beautiful Frenchwoman and the mistress of a Stuart gentleman. Their relationship lasted for some time, but eventually Stuart tired of her.
He wanted to go home.
Jean wanted him to stay.
Their final meeting ended with her death.
And when Stuart finally reached Allanbank, Jean was already there waiting for him.
The French Mistress
Jean was said to have been French.
She was remembered as an elegant woman who favored beautiful clothing, lace, and jewelry. Later versions of the legend sometimes described her as a Sister of Charity or a woman connected with a religious order, although the details vary considerably between tellings.
Somewhere in France, she met a young Stuart.
The two became lovers.
For a time, they apparently lived together away from the Stuart family’s principal home.
Whatever promises passed between them have been lost.
What survived was the ending.
Stuart eventually decided that Jean no longer belonged in his future.
He intended to return to Scotland.
Stuart Abandons Jean
Jean discovered that her lover intended to leave.
She pleaded with him to remain.
It did no good.
Stuart packed his belongings and climbed into his carriage.
Jean followed him outside.
Desperate to speak with him one final time, she approached the carriage and placed her foot upon one of its wheels so that she could reach the window.
Stuart knew she was there.
Nevertheless, according to the legend, he ordered his driver to continue.
The carriage moved.
Jean fell.
One of the wheels passed across her head.
She was killed.
Stuart had solved his problem.
Or so he believed.
Something Was Waiting at Allanbank
The journey back to Scotland continued.
Eventually, Stuart approached his family’s home at Allanbank.
There was an arched gateway at the entrance.
As the carriage approached it, Stuart looked toward the arch.
Someone was sitting on top.
It was Jean.
Her head and shoulders were covered with blood.
The woman whose body he had left behind in France had somehow reached Allanbank before him.
Jean was dead.
But she had followed him home.
Pearlin’ Jean
From that time forward, the apparition became associated with Allanbank.
She became known as Pearlin’ Jean.
The name was connected with the fine lace or elaborate clothing traditionally associated with her appearance. Later accounts describe the rustling of silk as one of the sounds announcing her presence.
Jean wandered through the house.
Doors supposedly opened and closed by themselves.
Footsteps moved through passages.
Silk rustled along corridors when no living woman was there.
And occasionally Jean herself appeared.
The Servants Became Accustomed to Her
Perhaps the strangest part of the legend is that Allanbank’s servants eventually became accustomed to the ghost.
A housekeeper named Betty Norrie reportedly claimed that she and others had seen Jean so frequently that they were no longer particularly frightened by her.
Another servant, Jenny Blackadder, repeatedly heard Jean moving through the house but never managed to see her.
Jenny’s husband apparently did.
That detail gives Pearlin’ Jean a different character from the typical Gothic apparition.
She didn’t appear once and disappear forever.
She became part of the house.
The inhabitants learned to live with her.
Scotland’s Famous Ghost
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe later remembered Pearlin’ Jean as one of the great terrors of his childhood.
His old nurse had actually served at Allanbank and told stories about the ghost.
By the nineteenth century, Jean’s reputation had spread well beyond the immediate area.
The haunting was reportedly believed strongly enough that Allanbank sometimes became difficult to let to tenants.
A private tragedy between two people had become one of Scotland’s celebrated ghost stories.
The Family Banshee
In the tradition preserved by the original article, Pearlin’ Jean eventually assumed another role.
She became the banshee of the Stuart family.
Her appearance warned that a member of the family was approaching death.
That transformed Jean’s relationship with the Stuarts.
The young woman whom one Stuart supposedly betrayed became attached to the entire bloodline.
Generations born long after her death inherited the ghost.
They had played no part in Jean’s tragedy.
But according to the legend, that didn’t matter.
Pearlin’ Jean belonged to the family now.
The Ghost Who Would Not Be Laid
Attempts were supposedly made to rid Allanbank of its supernatural resident.
Later versions of the legend even claimed that seven ministers were summoned to lay the spirit.
They failed. A newspaper retelling from 1916 was still repeating the tradition that seven ministers had been unable to make Pearlin’ Jean rest.
Other stories involved a portrait of Jean.
According to one tradition, hanging her portrait between images of Stuart and his later love temporarily stopped the disturbances.
When the portrait was removed, the haunting resumed.
Jean apparently had no intention of being forgotten.
The Banshee Pearlin’ Jean
There are several versions of Pearlin’ Jean’s story.
The details change.
In some, Stuart deliberately allows the carriage to kill her.
In others, her death is presented somewhat differently.
Jean herself is variously described as a mistress, a Frenchwoman, or a woman connected with a religious order.
That is hardly unusual for a ghost story that circulated for generations.
The central tradition remains remarkably consistent.
A young Stuart met Jean in France.
They became lovers.
He abandoned her.
She died as he departed.
And when Stuart finally returned to Allanbank, the dead woman was already waiting above the gate.
From then onward, Allanbank belonged to both the living and the dead.
Servants heard Jean’s clothing rustling through empty corridors.
People reported seeing her.
Children were frightened with stories about her.
Attempts to remove her supposedly failed.
And in later tradition, she became something more than the ghost of a murdered or abandoned lover.
She became a banshee.
There is a grim justice in the story.
Stuart wanted to leave Jean behind.
Instead, according to legend, he brought her home with him.
And long after Stuart himself was dead, Pearlin’ Jean remained.
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