The Haunting of John Alford Tyng – Nashua, NH

If you’re looking for ghosts near Nashua, NH or Tyngsboro, MA (just south of Nashua), visit the haunted Tyng Mansion site. It’s next to a haunted cemetery, a haunted boulder with a Native American ghost.

So, you can investigate three haunted sites, all within several hundred yards of each other.

Here’s the true story.

John Alford Tyng does not rest in peace.

Perhaps he doesn’t deserve to.

He’s pursued by the ghost of Judith Thompson. Tyng secretly married and murdered her, and then buried her in an unmarked grave.

This true ghost story is one of several connected with the Tyng Mansion. (42°39’36.7″N 71°24’25.8″W)

If you’re going to visit it, it may be best to park at the side of Middlesex Road in Tyngsboro, close to Tyng Road.

Today the house is gone, but the site is marked with a sign and evidence of a foundation and front stairs.

Nearby, in the Tyng family cemetery, John Alford Tyng’s grave may be proof that he died a cursed man.

John Alford Tyng, the “black sheep” of the family

John Alford Tyng was a ne’er do well, even by the Tyng family’s standards. The Tyngs had always been a wealthy, self-indulgent family. Generally, their interests also served the community, but John Alford Tyng was clearly the black sheep of the family.

Tyng Family TreeEdward Tyng (born in England) | Col. Jonathan Tyng | Eleazar Tyng | John Alford Tyng

Edward Tyng was born in was born in Dunstable, England, in 1610 and came to the American colonies in 1639.

He purchased 3000 acres in Massachusetts, and named the area “Dunstable” after his birthplace.

(Many years later Dunstable was divided into three towns: Dunstable and Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, and Nashua, New Hampshire.)

Edward’s grandson, Eleazar Tyng, was a colonel in the Colonial militia. Eleazar married Sarah Alford, and John Alford Tyng was among their five children.

The trouble began when John Alford Tyng met Judith Thompson. Judith was the daughter of Ezra Thompson, who provided land for a church and the town meetinghouse.

(Source: A history of the Town of Dunstable, MA, by Rev. Elias Nasson, ©1877, p. 142)

Describing one church district, a town history says,”All the Second Parish on the great road from Mr. Ezra Thompson’s to Hollis up to Salmon Brook, living on, and to north of said road.” So, the Thompsons probably lived on the Great Road in Dunstable.

Judith was known as one of the most beautiful women in New England. She sometimes worked at the Tyng Mansion, helping with their large parties.

Before long, she caught the eye of John Alford Tyng.

Tyng made advances towards Judith Thompson, but – being raised in a religious family – she insisted on marriage.

Tyng decided he couldn’t marry a servant. Besides, he was already engaged to an heiress in Boston.

Tyng solved the problem with a pretend marriage.

John Alford Tyng knew a local quack and an itinerant physician in northern Colonial New England. The so-called doctor was nicknamed “Dr. Blood.” He’d do almost anything if you paid him enough money.

He was also a drunkard, a thief and a con artist.

Most of the time, Dr. Blood was on the road, looking for wealthy, vulnerable “patients.” He’d pretend to treat them, knock them unconscious, and rob them. Then, he left them by the side of the road. When they woke up, he was gone and so was their money.

John Alford Tyng knew that Dr. Blood was the answer to his problems.

Tyng hired Dr. Blood to pretend to be a minister. After a quick, secret marriage ceremony, John Alford Tyng moved Judith into his new home. It was in Dunstable (now Nashua, NH) a few miles from Tyng Mansion.

Judith soon gave birth to a child, and then another, and finally a third child was on the way.

Some say that John Alford Tyng had squandered his money and felt overburdened by his young family. Others suggest that Tyng was insanely jealous of others’ attentions to Judith, who grew more beautiful each year.

Tyng hired his old friend Dr. Blood to kill Judith and the children. Tyng waited in another room while the deed was done, and then buried his family under the hearth. That’s when Tyng’s problems really began.

Next: Judith Thompson returned from the grave to claim the lives of both Dr. Blood and her murdering husband, in our article, Judith Thompson – a vengeful ghost.