Category: ghost adventures

There’s Been a Cover-Up. A Royal Cover-Up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

There were clues.

Evidence of a cover-up.

Involving the Prince of Wales.

And a Roman Catholic widow.

They were secretly married.

Was it legal?

Were there children?

Legitimate children.

Then where were they?

I think I know.

It’s not where you think.

Buy my 236-page book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the paranormal adventure across 5 countries.

The Pope said, yes.

The British Parliament said, no.

Who was right?

Everywhere I looked the real evidence was not there.

Vital papers had been burned.

Identities were removed.

The true history had not been told.

I knew they were Royalty.

Yes, that was 250 years ago.

In Regency times.

In England.

But, incredibly, involving the very early days of British settlement in New South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand).

Who would know?

Certainly not the official line.

Not recorded history.

But I had the paranormal clues.

And they gave me enough, like the smoke, that is evidence of there being a fire.

In the end, after considerable research, I found enough smoke to show there must have been a fire.

The Prince of Wales had his position – and his head – on the line,

All good reason for the cover-up.

I understand.

Now, 25 years later, someone wants the truth to out.

Which is where my story becomes truly paranormal.

I can’t claim proof.

That’s been cleverly destroyed.

I can claim evidence like the smoke that gives away a fire.

Read my 236 page book and judge for yourself.

You’ll enjoy the fun and entertaining read.

You’ll ponder the spiritual wisdom as the Truth comes out.

In this sense, it’s a mind/body/spirit story (as well as an historical exposure).

With some romance along the way.

Reader’s Digest said, “You have discerned an amazing story.”

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” they said.

A Royal cover-up which, as you will see, all started with a ghost.

A ghost who appears at Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Granny Fitz’.

Buy the book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith
My Author Page

How the Paranormal Uncovered a Royal Cover-Up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Everywhere I looked the evidence was not there.

Vital papers had been burned.

Identities were anonymous.

The truth had not been told.

As if they were nobody.

I knew they were Royalty.

Sure, that was 250 years ago.

In Regency times.

In England.

But, incredibly, involving the very early days of British settlement in New South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand).

Who would know?

Certainly not the official line.

Not recorded history.

But I had the paranormal clues.

And they gave me enough, like the smoke, that is evidence of there being a fire.

In the end, after considerable research, I found enough smoke to show there must have been a fire.

The Prince of Wales had his position – and his head – on the line,

All good reason for the cover-up.

I understand.

Now, 25 years later, someone wants the truth to out.

Which is where my story becomes truly paranormal.

I can’t claim proof.

That’s been cleverly destroyed.

I can claim evidence like the smoke that gives away a fire.

Read my 236 page book and judge for yourself.

You’ll enjoy the fun and entertaining read.

You’ll ponder the spiritual wisdom as the Truth comes out.

In this sense, it’s a mind/body/spirit story (as well as an historical exposure).

With some romance along the way.

Reader’s Digest said, “You have discerned an amazing story.”

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” they said.

A Royal cover-up which, as you will see, all started with a ghost.

A ghost who appears at Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Granny Fitz’.

Buy the book ‘The Great Royal Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith
My Author Page

PS. Illustrated above. an anonymous painting of the ‘Mary Ann’ the only all-female convict to sail from England to New South Wales in 1792 with the Third Fleet.

The Mystery of the ‘Mary Ann’.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

The ‘Mary Ann’ was an all-female convict ship which had sailed to New South Wales (Australia had not been named yet) as part of the Third Fleet in 1791 “under strange circumstances.”

Strange circumstances?

Although officially one of the Third Fleet the ‘Mary Ann’ sailed independently of the rest of the fleet, leaving England forty days before the first of the other ships. The remaining nine vessels were mostly in a bad state of repair, “mostly old, and the Navy Board’s officers were less than vigilant than usual or had no alternative but to accept vessels that were in poor repair and ill-found.” 1

Under the command of her part-owner, Mark Monroe, the 298 ton vessel sailed from England on the 16 February, 1791, arriving in Port Jackson on 9 July. This was the fastest voyage yet made by any ship of the three fleets. Bateson reports a cargo of 150 female convicts but the records of ‘Shipping Arrivals & Departures, Sydney, 1788-1825′2show this to be incorrect. The ‘Mary Ann’ (officially) carried 141 female convicts, six children and one free woman. Six children and one free woman? She was the only ship in the fleet to carry exclusively female, and no male, convicts.

Read the full expose in my true paranormal mind/body/spirit adventure here.

There were a number of indications of a hasty departure. As reported by Collins, the Master of the ship “had not any private papers on board (but what added to the disappointments everyone experienced), he had not brought a single newspaper, and having been but a few weeks from Greenland before sailing for this country, he was destitute of any kind of information.” 3

Even more intriguing was an incident reported by Charles Bateson. After a grueling 143 days at sea “possibly because she called at only one port en route to refresh her prisoners with fresh provisions” a very strange thing happened.

“The Master landed a boat in a bay on the coast about 15 miles to the southward of Botany Bay; but no other observation of any consequence to the colony, than that it was a bay in which a boat may land.” 4

Notice it was the Master who landed the boat according to Bateson.

Puzzled by this I wrote to my genealogist in England asking for information about the ‘Mary Ann’.

“There seem to be no ships musters for the ‘Mary Ann’,” he wrote back. “Looked next the embarkations returns for 1791 but there was no mention of the ‘Mary Ann’ … I looked at the Home Office lists for the ‘Mary Ann’ but these give only the list of convicts, so there is something wrong with your data.”

I found the list of female convicts on the ‘Mary Ann’ but none for the free women and child.

So what have we got?

The Master of the ‘Mary Ann’, a female convict ship carrying six children and one free woman, lands a boat on the coast away from the main settlement about fifteen miles from their port of destination, for no apparent reason, even though there must have been many on board who were ill and in need of fresh food and water having stopped only once on the journey. Her departure does not seem to have been recorded in England. No ships musters could be found. She leaves hastily “under strange circumstances” without the usual papers, sailing over a month in advance of the other ships in the fleet and making the trip in record time. The captain also happens to be the part-owner.

Was something fishy going on here?

But that’s not all.

Bateson offers another interesting observation. “Of the ten sail of transports [the Third Fleet] lately arrived, five, after delivering their cargo, were to proceed on the southern whaling fisheries – the ‘Mary Ann’, ‘Matilda’, ‘William and Mary’, ‘Salamanda’ and ‘Brittania’. Two of the whalers, ‘Matilda’ and ‘Mary Ann’, came in from the sea the day on which the others arrived. The former found a boat in a bay on the coast six miles to the southward of Port Stephens …” 5

Port Stephens is some 200 miles to the north of Botany Bay.

Was there some kind of cover-up going on?

I know what was going on and it was a cover-up to save the Prince of Wales’ Skin.

Or maybe his neck.

I wrote the book to answer this and other big questions.

You can buy ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ HERE.

Love and Peace.

Neil the Smith

REFERENCES:

1 ‘The Convict Ships’ by Charles Bateson, Naval Historical Society of Australia. Page 131.

2 ‘Shipping Arrivals and Departures, Sydney, 1788-1825’, Roebuck Society, Canberra, 1977.

3 ‘An Account of the English Colony of New South Wales’ by David Collins.

4 Collins.

5Bateson.

Royal Cover-Up. Hush. Hush.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

There was a cover-up.

With paranormal clues.

So I followed the clues.

Had an adventure

Across 5 countries..

Did the research.

You won’t believe.

Then wrote the book.

Amazing.

Read the reviews here.

Order your copy here.

Enjoy the “fun and entertaining” ride.

236 pages of twists and turns.

It’s autobiographical and it’s fun.

Enjoy the great read.

Namaste.

Neil the Smith

Cover-up exposed by a ghost.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Has she returned as a ghost to be heard?

Is she seeking justice for unjust treatment 250 years ago.

They were turbulent times.

She was a Roman Catholic.

And Catholics were being targeted.

For example . . .

By the Gordon riots.

She was secretly married to the Prince of Wales.

Hush. Hush.

The Prince could lose his reputation.

Or even his head.

She was made to feel she didn’t exist.

That the truth didn’t happen.

I know what did happen.

From extensive research.

And a little help from the paranormal.

Ghosts if you like.

Now she wants to be heard.

Evidence has been destroyed.

Or burned.

The truth has been denied.

Officially.

All deemed necessary for the Prince of Wales to survive.

Then.

But now . . .250 years later . . .

It’s time for the truth to be told.

Maybe it’s not too late.

Because what if we knew that legitimate children survived.

And had families.

What if they continued their lives, not in England, but in Australia.

What if their legitimate descendants are alive today.

What if.

I’ve written the ultimate expose of her situation.

I’ve written a 236 page book to expose the mystery of Maria Fitzherbert and what has been covered up.

My book is called ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’

“You have discerned an amazing story”, says Writer’s Digest.

Read the book and decide for yourself whether she is a voice wanting to be heard.

Some 250 years later.

This is a fun and entertaining book.

Full of twists and turns..

Buy your copy now and enjoy a great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith.

Has a Ghost Busted a Prince of Wales From the Past?

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Her name was Maria Fitzherbert.

She lived 250 years ago.

She was the Prince of Wales’ mistress,

Or wife.

Depending on who you believe.

Parliament?

Or the Pope?

Parliament said no.

The Pope said yes.

For the ‘yes case’ the evidence seems to have been destroyed.

Of course.

I have paranormal evidence that could settle this.

If we’re prepared to consider paranormal evidence.

There’s a mystery.

A mystery from the past.

An historical cold case.

I have solved the case.

Many other have tried and failed.

Mine is a new angle.

A real ghost with a message.

Plus 3 other secret messages.

A paranormal secret,

Supported by tangible evidence.

New evidence that fell into my lap at a critical time in my life.

I was broke, living in an old caravan in the Aussie bush.

I’ve written the book so you can judge for yourself.

After reading my book it will no longer be a secret.

I followed the clues, the evolving mystery, across 5 countries.

At last you can read my secret revelations.

Which all started with a ghost.

You can buy the book here at ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.

“You have discerned an amazing story,” says Writer’s Digest.

“Readers will love this fun and entertaining manuscript,” says another review.

Read the 236-page book and decide for yourself.

And be entertained as well.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith

Was This The Ghost of The Prince’s Mistress? Or Wife?

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

There has been an unsolved mystery, and closely guarded secret, from the time of George the Fourth, Prince of Wales.

Was he married to this Roman Catholic widow?

Legitimately.

And did they have children?

Legitimately.

Heirs to the throne of England.

Would this have changed the course of history?

Two hundred years or so later there have been many attempts to answer those questions.

None very convincingly.

Have I uncovered a somewhat more convincing case.

Re-opened by a ghost.

A ghost whose story I stumbled upon while living, broke, in an old caravan parked by the roadside in a country town in the Australian bush.

Which led me on an amazing adventure across five countries seeking answers to the cover-up.

Here’s my true and shocking paranormal story.

Paranormal, yes.

About a ghost, yes.

Leading to genuine historical evidence to support the yes and yes case.

I’ve written the book called ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.

Order your copy now and see for yourself.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith

PS. Buy the book HERE.

Urban Nomad. Who is the Smith?

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

I am the Smith.

I am the author.

Why ‘the Smith’?

The smiths were the crafters, the metal smiths, the blacksmiths, the makers of Medieval Britain a thousand years ago.

I am the wordsmith.

I’ve written and self-published 8 autobiographical books.

Click or tap the image above to see.

This smith has lived everywhere.

Over 50 dwellings have been my home.

An ancient aboriginal corroboree ground in a wilderness area known as Fairy Hills where the creek met the river was my first memory of life.

And only a few kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.

I’ve just learned they’ve been digging up ancient aboriginal artifacts that suggest this.

I’ve lived with psychics and healers.

And sat with mediums or channels.

I’ve lived with a Reiki Master in New York.

With a Roman Catholic nurse in the north of Italy.

With a Buddhist in the UK.

My lawyer was an Atheist.

I didn’t live with him.

I ran my own freelance copywriting business. in the ’70s

In 1972 I won an award for the best television campaign of the year for a brand of meat pies and donuts.

I was a New Age hippie.

We knew about climate change 50 years ago.

A group of us started a commune on 40 acres north of Melbourne to become self-sufficient and live off the grid.

A year later we’d failed.

I helped launch Animal Liberation here.

Our patron was Peter Singer, who was then Professor of Bioethics at Harvard., and wrote the book ‘Animal Liberation’.

45 years later it’s still active today.

I was the first member of the Permaculture Association.

Which, started by two Tasmanian academics in the late ’70s, today is changing the world

Now there are over one million people certified in Permaculture in over 140 countries with more than 4,000 projects on the ground.

I went bankrupt.

An article I researched and wrote 35 years ago – about the Swiss and Italian gold miners who came to Australia in the 1850s – triggered the launch of a Swiss-Italian Festa which is still running every year today in a local spa resort town.

Their story is in my book here.

I ran a social group called ‘The Springs Whole Health Group’.

We never ran out of guest speakers on healing topics, from ley lines to chemical sensitivity, who I’d enjoy interviewing every month before our next meeting.

Then I would write an article for the local paper which they always published on page 3 or 5.

This while living frugally in an old caravan parked at the end of a street in the spa resort town.

Over 5 years I became known as the man in the van.

I studied many spiritual philosophies.

I studied Religious Experience as an off campus mature age student at Uni –

The Christian Mystics

The Hindu Bhagavad-Gita.

Australian Aboriginal Dreaning.

I practiced Yoga for 50 years from wherever I called home.

Briefly I joined the Theosophical Society in Melbourne, with headquarters in Adyar, India, with the motto ‘There is no religion higher than Truth’.

I met and befriended the Librarian of the Melbourne branch, a Wise Woman, who taught me how and where and why to search for Truth.

What is Truth?

For a time I was married and today have the pleasure of a beautiful family of 2 lovely daughters, 3 adorable granddaughters and 2 mischievous great grandsons.

I’m truly blessed

Visit my 8 fun and entertaining autobiographical books on my Author Page here.

You can find more of my adventures in my autobiographical books.

Namaste.

Neil the Smith (author)

PS. I recommend – ‘Our Thoughts Can Change The World’ (104 pages) and The Great Regency Cover-Up’ (236 pages). Buy both now and pay less P&P.

Cover-Up in British Parliament

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Faced with a scandal around the Prince of Wales – was he secretly married and were there children – in 1784 Opposition Leader Charles James Fox “warned that Maria’s situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage.” Get my book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’ to read my true mystery story. “A marriage with a Catholic would remove the Prince from the succession to the throne – if it were a real marriage – but that was just what it could not be … Fox went on to explain the anomalous position that any children of the marriage would be in; illegitimate when born, but possibly legitimized in later life, if the Prince were to give himself permission under the Royal Marriage Act to repeat the marriage when he became King.” The Prince ignored Fox’s warnings claiming that “there not only is, but never was, any grounds for these reports, which have of late been so malevolently circulated.” Then for some reason Maria did a complete about face and agreed to go ahead with the marriage and, in November, returned to England. “I have told him I will be his,” she wrote to Lady Anne Lindsay, her traveling companion who had returned to England ahead of her. “I know I injure him and perhaps destroy for ever my own tranquility.” In the light of her earlier insistence and against all the advice to the contrary, her high morals and staunch Catholic beliefs, I wonder what caused her to suddenly change her mind and reverse her original firm stand? Could it be that she was having his child? A legitimate child?

From page 105 of my book ‘The Great Regency Cover-Up’.

Love and Peace.

Neil.

Quotes from ‘The Most Polished Gentleman: George IV and the Women in his
Life’ by Cynthia Campbell, Kudos 1995. Page 83.

I’ve written a knockout book to expose a cover-up.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment
What was the secret of the ‘Mary Ann’ all-female convict ship in the Third Fleet to Australia?

Only a ghost could have known about it.

Because the truth was covered up and the evidence destroyed.

Then 200 years later a paranormal experience, quite a few in fact, fell into my lap and off I went on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Across 5 countries.

I was in Australia and the cover-up occurred in England.

Involving the Prince of Wales.

And his mistress.

They were married in a secret ceremony.

Officially it never happened.

I’m not so sure.

Back then a liaison between a Protestant and a Catholic was dynamite.

At the time the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots were causing fear amongst the population of London.

This happened in London.

I was in Australia.

The Prince of Wales and a Catholic widow.

That would have been dynamite too.

Officially it never happened.

My paranormal clues said otherwise.

And so, sensing an amazing story, I went for it.

I responded to the clues.

Which led me to Regency England, New Zealand and, yes, right back home to Australia.

I uncovered an amazing story

The writer’s magazine Writer’s Digest called it a “blockbuster”.

And more.

You can read the awesome reviews HERE.

Or buy my blockbuster 230 page book HERE.

It’s a “fun and entertaining” book says another reviewer..

See for yourself.

Love and Peace.

Neil.

It’s a Cover-Up!

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

. The evidence was destroyed.

But a ghost led me to paranormal clues –

* to unknown secret lives of some British Royals,

* the English Doctor banished to the antipodes for knowing too much,

* mystery ships like the ‘Lady Nelson’ and the ‘Mary Ann’,

* a secret Royal marriage,

* Australia’s only military coup,

* a sequel to ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ involving William Bligh,

* an unsung hero of the South Seas

* BUY THE BOOK HERE AND BE SHOCKED.

It’s a “fun and entertaining” book says one reviewer.

See for yourself.

Love and Peace.

Neil

I Didn’t See This Coming.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

Just when I was down-and-out, when my freelance copywriting business of 10 years had hit the skids, I went bankrupt.

Strange things started to happen.

What was going on?

You’d think I had started a new life without intending to.

New things, new ideas, new open doors were rushing towards me.

Which is where my story begins.

Right here.

My first thought was survival.

I needed a place to live.

Cheap.

I had nothing.

I’d been offered a small Victorian holiday flat in a quiet springs resort in the Wombat Forest about one and a half hours from Melbourne.

I packed all my stuff into my car and went to the Central Highlands.

My life, as I knew it, was over.

I arrived with nothing, to nothing, with nothing to do.

Soon I was offered an old caravan for almost nothing.

I moved in and lived there for the next 5 years.

Parked precariously outside my benefactor’s home in the hills I could relax at last.

He created evocative airbrush paintings under the house.

She was a devoted follower of Sai Baba, her Indian Hindu guru.

An interesting couple.

We had many inspiring conversations.

The kind of mental and spiritual stimulus I’d been missing in the corporate world.

It was my new life among the sweet smells of Nature and the soothing sounds of the birds and the waterfall outside the caravan.

I felt at home there to ponder my fate and, well, to recover from the stresses of the past.

Then something happened that woke me from my reflective mood.

A file of documents about an historical mystery fell into my lap.

There was a friendly ghost from the past.

I’d been given, very mysteriously, a new challenge and my mind was off again.

And that mysterious file was the start of a new adventure that had my mind racing in a whole new direction I had not anticipated.

No way.

Which is where the intriguing material from the mystery file grabbed my attention.

Which soon became the focus of a new and amazing true story.

A 250-page book, a true story.

I’ve given my book a knockout title.

A very different title for a very different kind of book.

Of survival without money.

Of the paranormal.

And of the romantic.

Of a hushed up secret from the early days of British exploration around Australia and New Zealand.

One reviewer calls it “fun and entertaining”.

It’s an exciting story that took me to the other side of the planet chasing clues to a true historical romantic mystery across 5 countries.

I’ll tell you more next time.

Watch for my next post or follow me at aussiescribe.com.

Love and Peace,

Neil

The Ghost Who Fooled Everyone.

~ neilwjsmith ~ Leave a comment

She was Florence’s companion for five years. That is, until Florence started at school then she mysteriously disappeared.

Seems like, she was a ghost who had fooled everyone.

To Florence she was her granny.

She was her friend and companion for the first five years of her life.

I think Granny Fitz was her only friend for those formative years.

Then she just disappeared.

Had she died?

Florence had assumed so.

But no.

Recently Florence decided to look into the family history and research her family tree.

When she tried to find her favourite granny there were her official records.

No trouble.

So she went looking for her gravestone which was located at the Melbourne Cemetery.

Success.

But there was a problem.

It seems like Granny Fitz died seventeen years before she was alive and well as Florence’s childhood companion.

Was she a ghost then?

Together Florence and I went though every other granny in her family, every relative, every family name, nut no Granny Fitz.

Was it a false name?

Was it a friend?

Was she a nanny?

To Florence it was none of the above.

I looked her straight in the eye and asked, who was Granny Fitz?

And she replied, quite annoyed with me for even asking, Granny Fitz was my companion.

So who was she?

Was the answer in her name?

Did she have a secret?

Was this really a ghost with a secret?

I think so.

I’ve set out the whole case for an explosive answer to that question.

There was a mystery here.

And I’m on to it.

See for yourself in my autobiographical book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’.

Read the rave reviews first here.

It’s a book full of twists and turns.

And a real romantic historical mystery.

Neil.

Visit my Author Page here.