Ancestry PI, Panama City Beach, FL (2025)

09/11/2025

09/10/2025

Never heard this story before. Turville is a village close to where my ancestors roamed.

In the quiet village of Turville, England, Ellen Sadler was born on May 15, 1859—the tenth of twelve children in a working-class family. At just 11 years old, she was sent to work as a nursemaid in Marlow, but her health began to rapidly deteriorate. Ellen suffered from chronic fatigue, intense headaches, and disorientation. Doctors eventually diagnosed a cranial abscess, but after 18 weeks in the hospital with no improvement, she was sent home without answers. Then, on the night of March 29, 1871, Ellen had a series of violent convulsions. She curled up in her bed… and never woke up.

What followed was one of the strangest medical cases of the 19th century. For nearly nine years, Ellen remained in what appeared to be a deep, unshakable sleep. Her mother became her full-time caretaker, feeding her a mixture of milk, sugar, and port wine through a special teat, as Ellen’s jaw remained tightly locked. Though unresponsive, some visitors claimed she would twitch slightly or move her fingers. News of the “Sleeping Girl of Turville” spread across England, attracting journalists, skeptics, and even curious tourists. While some believed Ellen was suffering from an unknown neurological condition, others accused the family of orchestrating an elaborate hoax for sympathy—or profit.

In May 1880, after her mother’s death, Ellen was placed in the care of her sisters. Not long after, to everyone’s astonishment, she awoke. Disoriented and confused, she remembered nothing of the years that had passed. Her body bore the toll of her strange sleep—she had barely grown, her sight was poor, and her health remained delicate. But with time, she recovered. Ellen went on to marry, raise six children, and live a quiet life until her death in 1911 at the age of 52. Yet to this day, no one has fully explained what happened during those nine missing years. The small cottage where she lay dreaming remains a place of quiet legend—still known as the "Cabin of Dreams."