He came with a spade to Walton-le-Dale to dig up a corpse for necromancy - using black arts to communicate with spirits to predict the future.
Legend has it that Edward Kelley visited Lancashire in the 16th Century to raise a corpse at St Leonard's Church to discover the location of hidden treasure.
A convicted criminal and self-declared spirit medium, Kelley died aged 42, after a life trying to contact angels and convincing influential people he could produce gold.
The tale of the Walton-le-Dale corpse is the favourite Lancashire ghost story of a man who has helped compile a comprehensive list of paranormal activity.
Darren Mann began to collect stories for the national Paranormal Database in 1999 as part of a freelance photography project.
He said: "Before long the list far exceeded what it was intended for. Rather than sit on the information, I decided to share it with anyone with an interest in the subject.
"Most of the reports we have been sent from Lancashire are based around ghosts and haunted locations. We also have a few concerning UFO
sightings but these are probably experimental aircraft from BAE. Pub ghosts are quite common and many of the old halls and manor houses in the region also have legends or ghost stories attached."
And according to the database, Lancashire has the second highest density of paranormal places in the UK.
The county clocked up 402 entries, which equates to a paranormal place every 2.95 miles. The only area which was more paranormally active was London, with a paranormal place every 1.3 miles.
The report was based on 7,944 incidents which were extracted from the database on May 1 2008.
Darren, who is based in Ipswich, added: "Lancashire has more than its fair share of ghosts, myths and legends and the diversity of these stories is fantastic - from demonic dogs to dragon legends.
"It is not clear why there are such a large number of reports in the region though Lancashire's history is richly diverse, covering conflict and cultural change."
For more information or to make a report to the database, visit paranormaldatabase.com.
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