"In an antiquated churchyard on the island of Barbados in the southern Caribbean sits a massive tomb, its white coral weathered to a dingy gray by the passage of the years. To the passerby, it looks like just another monument, as dead and ancient as the rest of the colonial cemetery in which it lays. But this vault has a story. It has been empty for 180 years, and to this day no one knows exactly why.
The story of the crypt that became the Chase Vault can be traced back to the early 18th century, with its construction by the Waldrons, a wealthy sugar plantation family. The vault was hewn from the very coral that the island is made of, sunken halfway into the ground near the entrance of the Christ Church Parish Church cemetery (below). A tombstone was once in place that indicated the burial of the "Honourable James Elliot, Esq., who died on May 14th, 1724, son of the Honourable Richard Elliot, Esq. and husband of Elizabeth, daughter of the Honourable Thomas Waldron, Esq." It is not known if Mr. Elliot was ever actually interred there or, if he was, what happened to the coffin. Nonetheless, the crypt was empty on July 31st, 1807 when it received its first occupant with the death of Mrs. Thomasina Goddard. She was buried in a wooden coffin; a large marble slab was used to seal off the entrance. Soon afterward ownership of the crypt passed to the Chases, another wealthy plantation family. The family patriarch was one Colonel Thomas Chase, a man with the reputation of having a bad temper and a propensity for cruelty to his slaves and family alike.
The first Chase burial was that of Mary Anna Maria Chase, who died at age 2 and was interred on February 22nd 1808 in a leaden coffin. Dorcas Chase, her older sister, followed on July 6th 1812, also in a leaden coffin. It was whispered that she had slowly starved herself to death due to stress from her overbearing father. A month later, Colonel Chase himself died. He was buried in the vault on August 9th in a wooden coffin placed inside a leaden one.
The eight pallbearers who carried Colonel Chase's coffin down into the vault were the first to notice that the two leaden coffins already in the tomb were not where they had been left a month earlier. Mary Anna's coffin was lying upside-down in the opposite corner from where it had been placed. The workers returned the coffins to their side-by-side positions and left that of Colonel Chase next to them. The smaller coffin of Mary Anna was placed on top of one of the larger ones. After the crypt was resealed with its heavy marble door, a curious murmuring started amongst the Bajans. The mourners soon resolved to place the blame on the slaves who had assisted in the burials. The alleged cruelty of Colonel Chase toward his servants offered an easy revenge motive. The case apparently having been solved, the crypt remained undisturbed for four more years.
It was opened for the burial of Master Samuel Brewster Ames, a young Chase relative aged 11 months, on September 25th 1816. The funerary procession was once again greeted by the macabre sight of a jumbled mess of caskets. A month later, on November 17th, the coffin of another Chase relative, Samuel Brewster, who had been killed by his slaves during a revolt the previous April, was removed from its original resting place in the St. Philip cemetary (a few miles northeast of Oistins) to be reinterred in the Chase Vault. The Reverend Thomas Orderson, Rector of Christ Church, was on hand along with a magistrate and two other men. Word had gotten around the island about the strange goings-on and a "flock of the curious" assembled to witness the opening of the vault. They got what they were looking for. The coffins had been shifted with such violence that Mrs. Goddard's wooden coffin had practically disintegrated. The Reverend Doctor ordered the vault thoroughly inspected for cracks in the walls, floor, ceiling, or hidden entrances, but the structure proved as solid as it ever was. The nervous mourners bundled the splintered pieces of Mrs. Goddard's coffin together and placed them between Samuel Brewster's coffin and the wall. The rest of the coffins were reorganized and the door sealed with mortar.
With the revolt still fresh in their minds, the baffled populace again looked at the slaves suspiciously, even though such accusations were difficult to justify. The slaves stayed away from the cemetary completely, fearing the work of malevolent "duppies" (spirits). If asked by curiosity-seekers where the Vault was, many would pretend not to know anything about it at all. A feeling of dread fell over the islanders.
The sunny tropical days brought thousands of visitors to the churchyard over the next several years, drawn by a certain morbid curiosity. The nights were a different story. "