An aristocrat ‘fainted’ after being visited by the ghost of his dead mother, according to an unearthed 239-year-old manuscript.

The ‘haunting’, which was said to have taken place in a stately home in 1785, has been discovered by auctioneers going through an old box of legal deeds and papers. The official papers described how aristocrat Francis Eld was visited by the spirit of his dead mother Catherine around the time she died - unbeknownst to him - 150 miles away.

The manuscript told how Mr Eld was in his infant daughter’s bedroom in the early hours of March 29, 1785, when the apparition appeared. He experienced a “puff of air” across his face and saw “a sort of cloud or vapour”, which took on the appearance and voice of his mother.

The ghost said: “My child, be not grieved, I am dead, but happy.” The spooky visitation is said to have taken place at Seighford Hall, near Stafford, Staffordshire.

Jim Spencer, Director at Rare Book Auctions, in Lichfield, came across the papers while carrying out a valuation.

He said: “It was quite eerie discovering these papers during the run-up to Halloween. I found it in a box full of old indentures relating to the Whitby family of Shugborough and Haywood.

“It’s the sort of thing I see all the time but the word ‘visitation’ just caught my eye. As soon as I realised they were talking about a ghost, I genuinely couldn’t read quickly enough, my eyes were racing ahead of my brain”…