Reverend Trask

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This article is about Reverend Trask from the 1795 storyline. For the 1897 character, see Gregory Trask.

A charlatan witch hunter from Salem, Mass., Trask was an over-powering presence in the Collins house. He was brought to Collinsport by Abigial Collins to exorcise the estate from a witch, Victoria Winters (385). His passion for the case eventually resulted in Victoria being wrongly found guilty (437) and sentenced to death by hanging. He later confessed his error (441) and wrote a letter to this fact before being immured in a supporting basement wall in The Old House by the newly risen vampire, Barnabas Collins (442). The letter was dismissed by the court as inadmissible evidence.

In 1968, Professor Stokes and Julia Hoffman summoned his ghost (510) in order to exact revenge on Angelique (who was masquerading as Cassandra Collins, wife of Roger Collins), reasoning that since she was the real witch and she had deceived him into persecuting Victoria Winters, and she was the one who made Barnabas a vampire, she was more responsible than he for Trask's death. The shade of Rev. Trask destroyed Angelique (519) by performing the same rite of exorcism on her that he had performed on Victoria Winters in 1795 (385). This was undone when Nicholas Blair came to Collinsport (521) posing as Cassandra's brother and resurrected her (526).

Nicholas used his powers to summon Rev. Trask's ghost to extract information about Barnabas Collins (523). At first Trask refused, but had no choice when Nicholas threatened to force Trask to spend eternity wandering without being able to return to his grave.

Rev. Gregory Trask told Barnabas Collins that he was the great-grandson of the Rev. Trask who traveled from Salem to Collinsport in the late 1790s and disappeared mysteriously on his return home (725). Later Barnabas admitted to Gregory Trask that he killed his great-grandfather at the Old House and vowed to Gregory would he meet a similar fate.