These are not strictly my Ancestors, but those of my late wife. I thought they would be of interest.
Seven generations, back in the 1820s, John Thortell of Norton Hall, Fakenham, was an officer in the marines. His Father was an alderman of Norwich. In the words of an elderly member of the family; “John was a spoilt young man, who became mixed up with a bad crowd, gamblers and the like”. He and some friends got heavily into debt to one of their own crowd. They had no hope of paying off the money, and after a discussion they decided to kill him. In order to decide who should carry this out, they drew lots. Whether by design or not, the burden fell to John Thortell, and he duly committed the murder. He was very quickly apprehended and hanged at Hertford in 1824. The effigies of both himself and his victim are still preserved in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds.
Researching another branch of the family, the Legg family, a curious coincidence arose. In the late 1700s, two of Legg brothers went to Spain, and one of them married a beautiful Spanish lady. She was very badly treated by the Legg family, so she placed a curse on the family that haunted them for several generations. There is a sequel to this. When I was researching the Milnes’ family history, I was in touch with a lady member of the family now living in Holland. I sent her the above story, and on receiving it she phoned me and said that since a child she had experienced bad nightmares involving a Spanish lady, yet until my letter she had no knowledge of the family curse.