Records from 1608 show a woman in Nottinghamshire was censured by her church for participating in St. Mark's Eve.
The ghosts of those who were to die soon would be the first observed, while those who would almost see out the year would not be witnessed until almost 1.00 a.m. Other variations of the superstition say that the watchers would see headless or rotting corpses, or coffins approaching.
"If the person is to be drowned, his representative will come as if struggling and splashing in water, and so on for other cases of premature death.
"[4] Tis now, replied the village belle, St. Mark’s mysterious eve, And all that old traditions tell I tremblingly believe; How, when the midnight signal tolls, Along the churchyard green, A mournful train of sentenced souls In winding-sheets are seen.
The ghosts of all whom death shall doom Within the coming year, In pale procession walk the gloom, Amid the silence drear.