---
title: "A 1960s Savary Island story recounts a ghost allegedly moved in an envelope"
url: "https://usubjects.com/article/a-1960s-savary-island-story-recounts-a-ghost-allegedly-moved-in-an-envelope-4042"
updated: "2026-10-09T16:02:04.873Z"
description: "A Tyee item recounts a purported 1960s story from Savary Island, British Columbia, in which a lawyer allegedly arranged for a ghost from a demolished house to be relocated in a sealed envelope to a castle built by two teachers. It also reports skeptic Richard Wiseman’s test of SORRAT using sealed ESP cards, which produced eight correct readings—an outcome not considered statistically paranormal."
sources: ["https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2026/09/18/Savary-Islanders-Imported-Ghost/"]
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# A 1960s Savary Island story recounts a ghost allegedly moved in an envelope

Published: 2026-10-08  
Source: [Anomalist](https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2026/09/18/Savary-Islanders-Imported-Ghost/)

### A Spectral Houseguest for Savary Island

A story recounted by *The Tyee* describes how a Savary Island family allegedly arranged to import a ghost from England—sealed inside an envelope and transported to British Columbia. The account centers on lawyer Michael Jeffery, who lived next door to Brian and Rosemary Boag, the teachers who spent decades building a castle-like cottage known as the Princess’s Palace.

The story is associated with Savary Island’s mid-to-late 20th-century folklore, although *The Tyee* places Jeffery’s delivery during the summer of **1986**, rather than the 1960s. By then, the Boags’ home featured steep gables, leaded windows and gargoyles, architectural details that Jeffery believed made it an ideal setting for a haunting.

### The Search for a Suitable Ghost

According to the account, Jeffery contacted the Society for Psychical Research in England to ask whether it could provide a ghost. The society declined. Stephen Jeffery, Michael’s son, recalled that the organization thanked his father for his interest but explained that it was **“not in the business of providing or supplying ghosts.”**

Tom Ruffles, a member of the society, told *The Tyee* that such a relocation would be highly unusual. “Alleged ghosts are generally place-centred,” Ruffles wrote, adding that the process by which a spirit could be transported was “a puzzle.” The society also said it no longer had a record of the correspondence.

A subsequent letter reportedly came from a woman named Edwina Longhorn, who claimed to have identified a suitable spirit: Adrian Marsters. The account says Marsters had served as boatswain aboard Captain George Vancouver’s *Discovery* and had been part of the expedition that encountered Savary Island in 1792. *The Tyee* noted that Marsters’ name does not appear on the ship’s crew list, although the claim was repeated in Ian Kennedy’s 1992 book, *Sunny Sandy Savary*. The publication was unable to verify the existence of the psychic who allegedly contacted Jeffery.

### The Alleged Journey to Canada

The legend holds that Marsters later retired to Devon, England, where he lived as a bachelor until his death in 1816. Afterward, residents supposedly continued to hear the sound of his boatswain’s call and associated it with good fortune. When the house connected to the story was slated for demolition to make way for a motorway, the spirit was said to face displacement.

Jeffery allegedly arranged for Marsters’ ghost to be enclosed in a sealed envelope and brought to Savary Island in the family’s yellow Volvo. Ainsley Bouveur, the Boags’ daughter and the self-styled “princess” of the palace, recalled that the ghost’s arrival coincided with severe weather. Kennedy’s book described the night as **“frightful” and “gale-driven,”** while Bouveur remembered boats capsizing and dragging anchor offshore. These details remain part of an oral and literary tradition rather than independently verified evidence.

### Belief, Testing and the Limits of Evidence

The same discussion of paranormal claims also refers to skeptic Richard Wiseman’s testing of SORRAT, a group associated with alleged psychic phenomena. In experiments involving sealed ESP cards, the group produced eight correct readings. However, the result was **not considered statistically paranormal**, illustrating the distinction between an unusual outcome and evidence that conclusively demonstrates extrasensory perception.

Together, the Savary Island story and the SORRAT experiment underscore the different ways paranormal claims are preserved and assessed. The ghost narrative survives through family recollections, local history and published anecdotes, while controlled testing demands measurable results that exceed what chance could reasonably produce. The envelope, the storm and the castle make for a memorable legend—but the available evidence does not establish that a ghost was actually transported to British Columbia.

## Provenance

This USUBJECTS page is a summary or digest of the linked original source. Any accompanying generated visual is an illustrative reconstruction, not evidence.