St. John Drelincourt Seymour was born in the second half of the 19^th century in Ireland.

Around 1913, he came to realize that although Ireland was replete with collections of folklore and fairy-tales, the country's rich tradition of ghost stories remained largely untapped. Working with friend Harry L. Neligan, Seymour set out to correct this. The two of them put out a request for anecdotes in the newspapers of the day, and compiled the stories they received in what is now Seymour's most well-known 'non-fiction' work, True Irish Ghost Stories (1914).

Around the same time, Seymour published his other more popular titles, Irish Witchcraft and Demonology and Haunted Houses in or Near Dublin.