Smith Street runs steeply up from the High Street in St Peter Port and was lined with merchants' houses. The de Jersey house at the top had one of Guernsey's locked-cupboard ghosts, a spirit confined by clergy in some earlier generation. Mrs de Jersey did not believe in it and insisted on having the cupboard forced. After that, the frightful noises all over the house meant no one could sleep and no servant would stay. The clergy were called in again. According to one of the maids, every outer door was locked, the gaps round the window sashes were wedged, every keyhole was plugged, and the minister of St James' and others prayed in every room and read something about "casting out devils". The ghost was then locked up with the key of the church door.
The second Smith Street ghost is a mother's. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a rich widower lived in the street. His first wife had been devoted to their many small children and spent hours in the nursery. After a short interval he married a pretty, frivolous girl who ignored them. Then, for a short while every morning, the first wife came back. The curtains of the children's beds were found pushed back, her silk dress was heard rustling up the stairs, and the children were found washed and dressed. When asked, they said, "Mamma dressed us." Carey heard it from Mrs Le Patourel, and Miss Le Pelley heard the same story from an old woman at St Pierre du Bois.
MacCulloch had already described the belief in general terms: "The spirit of the tender mother is seen bending over the cradles of her darling children... lamenting over the neglected state in which they are allowed to remain by a careless or unkind step-dame." Neither house is identified precisely, so the map point marks Smith Street.
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