Ryan W. Owen, "The Real Ghost Story Behind Lowell Cemetery’s Witch Bonney", Forgotten New England

A modern narrative essay: good on the legend and on contemporary quotations; its account of motives and courtship is interpretation.

Statements this record supports

C-045 — Clara B. (Bonney) Lilley, only child of Arthur P. Bonney and wife of Judge Charles S. Lilley, died at one o'clock on Thursday 19 July 1894 at her home, 80 Sherman Street, Lowell, 'after a long and painful illness borne with great fortitude' (Lowell Sun, first edition, 19 July 1894). The monument inscription reads 'born June 19 1855, died July 19 1894'. Funeral from her father's house on Fairmount Street, 21 July; interment Lowell Cemetery. An infant daughter (born April 1894) survived her.
C-051 — A local legend calls the monument 'the Witch Bonney' and holds that the bronze figure's drapery slips lower each October, that her spirit roams on Halloween, and that the nearby Ayer lion stands guard; visitors leave coins and other offerings. Modern accounts (Atlas Obscura 2009; Forgotten New England 2020; Pollard 2023) record the legend's circulation; none establishes its origin or date. The 'Salem witch' element is impossible: the family lived in the nineteenth century and the cemetery was dedicated in 1841.