It would be interesting to know when groups of people first met in order to relate ghost stories, or to tell of exciting personal experiences in the realm of the occult. I should imagine it was a very long time ago! Lucian the Satirist (c. A.D. 120–180), that amusing sceptic whose works are full of exposures of frauds, humbug, superstitions, myths, miracles and miracle-mongers (did he not unmask Alexander the Paphlagonian, the ‘false prophet’ and ‘medium’?) tells us in one of his books (Philopseudes) of a sort of Ghost Club, whose members met to discuss apparitions, phenomena, and what we should now call psychical research. So nearly 2,000 years ago people took an interest in these things, and there were not only believers, but also scoffers and sceptics, of whom the Syrian satirist was one of the most critical.
There must have been many societies formed for the study of the occult since the time of Lucian, and one of the most important, and one whose records are available today, was the sort of ‘society for psychical research’ that met at Lady Conway’s residence at Ragley, Warwickshire, in the early months of 1665. Ragley Castle, or Ragley Hall, as it is now called, is one and a half miles south-west of Alcester. It is the seat of the present eighth Marquess of Hertford, who is also Baron Conway of Ragley.
There were some distinguished members of this society. Dr. Henry More, the Rev. Joseph Glanvill, Lady Roydon, and Robert Boyle were frequent visitors to Ragley Castle. It is chiefly through Glanvill that we know anything about Lady Conway’s circle, though Ferris Greenslet, in his biography1 of the philosopher, has gathered further interesting details of its proceedings.2 Glanvill was born in 1636.
Apparently, the members of the ‘Ragley S.P.R.’ met in order to relate personal psychic experiences, read reports on current or contemporary haunted houses, ghosts, apparitions, Poltergeists and ‘miracles’—just as we do today. They also—and this is very interesting—investigated and tested mediums, as we, too, do today. One of these mediums was Valentine Greatrakes, the well-known healer, whom Lady Conway imported from Ireland to be tested at a cost of about £155—a lot of money in the middle of the seventeenth century. Lady Conway suffered from chronic headaches, and it was decided that Greatrakes should demonstrate his alleged healing powers on her ladyship, and before the assembled ‘psychic’ house-party. This was in February, 1665. Greatrakes completely failed to cure Lady Conway’s headaches, though he appears to have had some success locally among the Warwickshire rustics. Greatrakes, known as the ‘Irish Stroker’, used methods comparable with the technique employed by the ‘magnetisers’ and faith-healers of a later date.
So the Ragley party having failed to be convinced by Greatrakes, contented themselves with recounting personal experiences of ghosts and haunted houses, mostly of a recent date. Among the speakers was Joseph Glanvill and he related the story of what he called the ‘Daemon of Tedworth’, now better known as the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’, and it has become a classic—if not the classic—amongst Poltergeist cases. Many years later the story inspired Joseph Addison with the idea of writing it up in the form of a play. This appeared (1716) as a comedy, The Drummer, or The Haunted House, It was not a success, and ran for three nights only. Miss Edith Sitwell has also written a poem, The Drum (Selected Poems, London, 1936), based on Glanvill’s exciting narrative.
The Rev. Joseph Glanvill was a very distinguished divine and philosopher. He was a chaplain to Charles II, a Fellow of the Royal Society, an author of great repute—and somewhat of a sceptic. He was also a collector of ghost stories, and did a little investigating himself. His account of the Drummer of Tedworth (a man named William Drury) was, therefore, well received by not only the ‘Ragley S.P.R.’, but by the public at large when the story came to be published.
The first printed account, in book form, of the Drummer of Tedworth3, appeared the year following (1666) the Ragley meeting. Glanvill published it in his Philosophical Considerations concerning the existence of Sorcerers and Sorcery. The story4 was reprinted in subsequent books written by Glanvill, who left an enlarged account of the case amongst his papers that were published after his death, which occurred at Bath in 1680. This posthumous work was issued in 1681, under the title of Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions. In Two Parts. The First, Treating of Their Possibility, the Second of Their Real Existence…. London, J. Collins, 1681. The second part of the book contains twenty-six ‘cases’ or ‘Relations’, similar to that of the Drummer, which were collected by Glanvill from various sources. The first edition of this work is very rare. I have two copies, and it is from one of them that I will now give, in Glanvill’s rather quaint idiom, the story of the Tedworth Poltergeist:
Mr. John Mompesson [a magistrate] of Tedworth, in the County of Wilts, being about the middle of March, in the year 16615 at a Neighbouring Town called Ludgarshal, and hearing a Drum beat there, he inquired of the Bailiff of the Town, at whose House he then was, what it meant. The Bailiff told him that they had for some days been troubled with an idle Drummer, who demanded money of the Constable by vertue of a pretended Pass, which he thought was counterfeit. Upon this, Mr. Mompesson sent for the Fellow, and askt him by what authority he went up and down the Country in that manner with his Drum. The Drummer answered, he had good authority, and produced his Pass, with a Warrant, under the Hands of Sir William Cawly, and Colonel Ayliff of Gretenham. Mr. Mompesson, knowing these Gentlemens Hands, discovered that the Pass and Warrant were counterfeit and thereupon commanded the Vagrant to put off his Drum, and charged the Constable to carry him before the next Justice of the Peace, to be further examined and punisht. The Fellow then confessed the cheat, and begged earnestly to have his Drum. Mr. Mompesson told him, that if he understood from Colonel Ayliff, whose Drummer he said he was, that he had been an honest Man, he should have it again, but in the meantime he would secure it. So he left the Drum with the Bailiff, and the Drummer in the Constables hands, who it seems was prevailed on by the Fellows intreaties to let him go.
About the midst of April following, when Mr. Mompesson was preparing for a Journey to London, the Bailiff sent the Drum to his House.6 When he was returned from that Journey, his Wife told him, that they had been much affrighted in the Night by Thieves, and that the House had been like to have been broken up. And he had not been at home above three Nights, when the same noise was heard that had disturbed his Family in his absence. It was a very great knocking at his Doors, and the Outsides of his House. Hereupon, he got up and went about the House with a brace of Pistols in his Hands. He opened the door where the great knocking was, and then he heard the noise at another Door. He opened that also, and went out round his House, but could discover nothing, only he still heard a strange noise and hollow sound. When he got back to bed, the noise was a Thumping and Drumming on the top of his House, which continued a good space, and then by degrees went off into the Air.
After this, the noise of Thumping and Drumming was very frequent, usually five nights together, and then it would intermit three. It was on the Outsides of the House, which is most of it Board. It constantly came as they were going to sleep, whether early or late. After a months disturbance without, it came into the Room, where the Drum lay, four or five nights in seven, within half an hour after they were in bed, continuing almost two. The sign of it just before it came was, they still heard an hurling in the Air over the House and at its going off, the beating of a Drum like that at the breaking up of a Guard. It continued in this Room for the space of two Months, which time Mr. Mompesson himself lay there to observe it. In the fore part of the night, it used to be very troublesome, but after two hours all would be quiet.
Zouche Manor, North Tidworth, Wiltshire (photographed in November, 1944), the Poltergeist home of Mr. John Mompesson. It was in this house, in 1662–3, that the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’ made so much noise. The place has since been altered, because Mompesson speaks of ‘cock lofts’ (i.e. attics). According to The Beauties of England and Wales (London, 1814, Vol. 15, pp. 396–97), the Manor ‘was formerly surrounded with a large park’.
Mrs. Mompesson being brought to bed, there was but little noise the night she was in Travail, nor any for three weeks after, till she had recovered strength. But after this civil cessation, it returned in a ruder manner than before, and followed and vext the youngest Children, beating their Bedsteds with that violence, that all present expected when they would fall in pieces. In laying Hands on them, one should feel no blows, but might perceive them to shake exceedingly. For an hour together it would beat, Round-heads and Cuckolds, the Tat-too, and several other points of War, as well as any Drummer. After this, they should hear a scratching under the Childrens Bed, as if by something that had Iron Tallons. It would lift the Children up in their Beds, follow them from one Room to another, and for a while haunted none particularly but them.
There was a Cock-loft7 in the House which had not been observed to be troubled, thither they removed the Children, putting them to Bed while it was fair day, where they were no sooner laid, but their troubler was with them as before.
On the Fifth of Novemb. 1662, it kept a mighty noise, and a servant observing two Boards in the Childrens Room seeming to move, he bid it give him one of them. Upon which the Board came (nothing moving it that he saw) within a yard of him. The Man added, Nay let me have it in my Hand; upon which it was shov’d quite home to him. He thrust it back, and it was driven to him again, and so up and down, to and fro, at least twenty times together, till Mr. Mompesson forbad his Servant such familiarities. This was in the day-time, and seen by a whole Room full of People. That morning it left a sulphurous smell behind it, which was very offensive. At night the Minister one Mr. Cragg, and divers of the Neighbours came to the House on a visit. The Minister went to Prayers with them, Kneeling at the Childrens Bed-side, where it was then very troublesome and loud. During Prayer-time it withdrew into the Cock-loft, but returned as soon as Prayers were done, and then in sight of the Company, the Chairs walkt about the Room of themselves, the Childrens shooes were hurled over their Heads and every loose thing moved about the Chamber. At the same time a Bedstaff was thrown at the Minister, which hit him on the Leg, but so favourably that a Lock of Wool could not have fallen more softly, and it was observed, that it stopt just where it lighted without rolling or moving from the place.
Mr. Mompesson perceiving, that it so much persecuted the little Children, he lodged them out at a Neighbours House, taking his Eldest Daughter, who was about ten years of age into his own Chamber, where it had not been a Moneth before. As soon as she was in Bed, the disturbance begun there again, continuing three Weeks Drumming, and making other noises, and it was observed, that it would exactly answer in Drumming any thing that was beaten or called for. After this, the House where the Children were Lodged out, happening to be full of strangers, they were taken home, and no disturbance having been known in the Parlour, they were lodged there, where also their persecutour found them, but then only pluckt them by the Hair and Night-cloaths without any other disturbance.
It was noted, that when the noise was loudest, and came with the most sudden and surprising violence, no Dog about the House would move, though the knocking was oft so boisterous and rude, that it hath been heard at a considerable distance in the Fields, and awakened the Neighbours in the Village, none of which live very near this House. The servants sometimes were lift up with their Beds, and then let gently down again without hurt, at other times it would lye like a great weight upon their Feet.
About the latter end of Decemb. 1662, the Drummings were less frequent, and then they heard a noise like the gingling of Money,8 occasioned, as it was thought, by somewhat Mr. Mompesson’s Mother had spoken the day before to a Neighbour, who talkt of Fayries leaving Money, viz. That she should like it well, if it would leave them some to make amends for their trouble. The night after the speaking of which, there was a great chinking of Money over all the House.
After this, it desisted from the ruder noises, and employed it self in little Apish and less troublesome Tricks. On Christmas Eve a little before day, one of the little Boys arising out of his bed, was hit on a sore place upon his Heel, with the Latch of the Door, the Pin that it was fastened with, was so small that it was a difficult matter to pick it out. The night after Christmas day, it threw the old Gentlewomans cloaths about the Room, and hid her Bible in the Ashes. In such silly Tricks it was frequent.
After this, it was very troublesome to a Servant of Mr. Mompesson’s, who was a stout Fellow, and of sober Conversation. This Man lay within, during the greatest disturbance, and for several nights something would endeavour to pluck his cloaths off the Bed, so that he was fain to tug hard to keep them on, and sometimes they would be pluckt from him by main force, and his shooes thrown at his head. And now and then he should find himself forcibly held, as it were bound Hand and Foot, but he found that whenever he could make use of his Sword, and struck with it, the Spirit quitted its hold.
A little after these contests, a Son of Sir Thomas Bennet, whose Workman the Drummer had sometimes been, came to the House, and told Mr. Mompesson some words that he had spoken, which it seems was not well taken. For as soon as they were in Bed, the Drum was beat up very violently and loudly, the Gentleman arose and called his Man to him, who lay with Mr. Mompesson’s Servant just now spoken of, whose name was John. As soon as Mr. Bennet’s Man was gone, John heard a rusting noise in his Chamber, and something came to his Bedside, as if it had been one in silk. The Man presently reacheth after his Sword, which he found held from him, and ‘twas with difficulty and much tugging that he got it into his power, which as soon as he had done, the Spectre left him, and it was always observed that it still avoided a Sword.
About the beginning of January 1662,9 they were wont to hear a Singing in the Chimney before it came down. And one Night about this time, lights were seen in the House. One of them came into Mr. Mompesson’s Chamber which seemed blue and glimmering, and caused great stiffness in the Eyes of those that saw it. After the light something was heard coming up the Stairs, as if it had been one without shooes. The light was seen also four or five times in the Childrens Chamber; and the Maids confidently affirm that the Doors were at least ten times opened and shut in their sight, and when they were opened they heard a noise as if half a dozen had enterd together. After which some were heard to walk about the Room, and one rusled as if it had been in silk. The like Mr. Mompesson himself once heard.
During the time of the knocking, when many were present, a Gentleman of the Company said, Satan, if the Drummer set thee to work, give three knocks and no more, which it did very distinctly and stopt. Then the Gentleman knockt, to see if it would answer him as it was wont, but it did not. For further trial, he bid it for confirmation, if it were the Drummer, to give five knocks and no more that night, which it did, and left the House quiet all the night after. This was done in the presence of Sir Thomas Chamberlain of Oxfordshire, and divers others.
On Saturday Morning, an hour before day, Jan. 10, a Drum was heard beat up on the out-sides of Mr. Mompesson’s Chamber, from whence it went to the other end of the House, where some Gentlemen strangers lay, playing at their door and without, four or five several Tunes, and so went off into the air.
The next night, a Smith in the Village lying with John the Man, they heard a noise in the room, as if one had been shoeing of an Horse, and somewhat came, as it were with a pair of Pincers, snipping at the Smiths Nose most part of the night.
One morning Mr. Mompesson rising early to go a journey, heard a great noise below, where the Children lay, and running down with a Pistol in his Hand, he heard a voice crying a witch, a witch, as they had also heard it once before. Upon his entrance all was quiet.
Having one Night played some little tricks at Mr. Mompesson’s Beds feet, it went into another Bed, where one of his Daughters lay; There it passed from side to side, lifting her up as it passed under. At that time there were three kinds of noises in the Bed. They endeavoured to thrust at it with a Sword, but it still shifted and carefully avoided the thrust, still getting under the Child when they offered at it. The Night after it came panting like a Dog out of breath. Upon which one took a Bedstaff10 to knock, which was caught out of her hand, and thrown away, and company coming up, the room was presently filled with a bloomy noisome smell, and was very hot, though without fire, in a very sharp and severe Winter. It continued in the Bed panting and scratching an hour and half, and then went into the next Chamber, where it knockt a little, and seemed to rattle a Chain; thus it did for two or three nights together.
After this, the old Gentlewomans11 Bible was found in the Ashes, the Paper side being downwards. Mr. Mompesson took it up, and observed that it lay open at the Third Chapter of St. Mark, where there is mention of the unclean Spirits falling down before our Saviour, and of his giving power to the Twelve to cast out Devils, and of the Scribes Opinion, that he cast them out through Beelzebub. The next night they strewed Ashes12 over the Chamber, to see what impressions it would leave. In the morning they found in one place, the resemblance of a great Claw, in another of a lesser, some Letters in another, which they could make nothing of, besides many Circles and Scratches in the Ashes.
About this time I went to the House, on purpose to inquire the truth of those passages, of which there was so loud a report. It had ceased from its Drumming and ruder noises before I came thither, but most of the more remarkable circumstances before related, were confirmed to me there, by several of the neighbours together, who had been present at them. At this time it used to haunt the Children, and that as soon as they were laid. They went to Bed that night I was there, about Eight of the Clock, when a Maidservant coming down from them, told us it was come. The neighbours that were there, and two Ministers who had seen and heard divers times went away, but Mr. Mompesson and I, and a Gentleman that came with me went up. I heard a strange scratching as I went up the Stairs, and when we came into the Room, I perceived it was just behind the Bolster of the Childrens Bed, and seemed to be against the Tick. It was as loud a scratching, as one with long Nails could make upon a Bolster. There were two little modest Girls in the Bed, between seven and eleven years old as I guest. I saw their hands out over the Cloaths, and they could not contribute to the noise that was behind their heads. They had been used to it, and had still some body or other in the Chamber with them, and therefore seemed not to be much affrighted. I standing at the Beds-head, thrust my hand behind the Bolster, directing it to the place whence the noise seemed to come. Whereupon the noise ceased there, and was heard in another part of the Bed. But when I had taken out my Hand it returned, and was heard in the same place as before. I had been told that it would imitate noises, and made trial by scratching several times upon the Sheet, as 5, and 7, and 10, which it followed, and still stopt at my number. I searcht under and behind the Bed, turning up the cloaths to the Bed-cords, graspt the Bolster, sounded the Wall behind, and made all the search that possible I could to find if there were any trick, contrivance, or common cause of it; the like did my friend, but we could discover nothing. So that I was then verily perswaded, and am so still, that the noise was made by some Dæmon or Spirit. After it had scratcht about half an hour or more, it went into the midst of the Bed under the Children, and there seemed to pant like a Dog out of Breath very loudly. I put my hand upon the place, and felt the Bed bearing up against it, as if something within had thrust it up. I graspt the Feathers to feel if any living thing were in it. I looked under and every where about, to see if there were any Dog or Cat, or any such Creature in the Room, and so we all did, but found nothing. The motion it caused by this panting was so strong, that it shook the Room and Windows very sensibly. It continued thus, more than half an hour, while my friend and I stay’d in the Room, and as long after, as we were told. During the panting, I chanced to see as it had been something (which I thought was a Rat or Mouse) moving in a Linnen Bag, that hung up against another Bed that was in the Room. I stept and caught it by the upper end with one Hand, with which I held it, and drew it through the other, but found nothing at all in it. There was no body near to shake the Bag, or if there Trad, no one could have made such a motion, which seemed to be from within, as if a Living Creature had moved in it. This passage I mention not in the former Editions, because it depended upon my single Testimony, and might be subject to more Evasions than the other I related; but having told it to divers Learned and Inquisitive Men, who thought it not altogether inconsiderable, I have now added it here. It will I know be said by some, that my friend and I were under some affright, and so fancied noises and sights that were not. This is the Eternal Evasion. But if it be possible to know how a Man is affected, when in fear, and when unconcerned, I certainly know for mine own part, that during the whole time of my being in the Room, and in the House, I was under no more affrightment than I am, while I write this Relation. And if I know that I am now awake, and that I see the Objects that are before me, I know that I heard and saw the particulars I have told. There is, I am sensible, no great matter for story in them, but there is so much as convinceth me, that there was somewhat extraordinary, and what we usually call preternatural in the business. There were other passages at my being at Tedworth, which I published not, because they are not such plain and unexceptionable Proofs. I shall now briefly mention them, valeant quantum valere possunt. My friend and I lay in the Chamber, where the first and chief disturbance had been. We slept well all Night, but early before day in the Morning, I was awakened (and I awakened my Bed-fellow) by a great knocking just without our Chamber door. I askt who was there several times, but the knocking still continued without answer. At last I said, ‘In the Name of God, who is it, and what would you have?’ to which a voice answered, ‘Nothing with you’. We thinking it had been some Servant of the House, went to sleep again. But speaking of it to Mr. Mompesson when we came down, he assured us, that no one of the House lay that way, or had business thereabout, and that his Servants were not up till he called them, which was after it was day. Which they confirmed and protested that the noise was not made by them.
Extracts, dated Tuesday, January 13 to Friday, January 16, 1662–3, from John Mompesson’s journal, hitherto unpublished. A strange voice, dancing chairs, disturbances in his daughters’ bed, and other phemomena, are recorded. Reproduced from the Corpus Christi College MSS. (No. 318) in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. (By courtesy of the Bodleian Library.)
Mr. Mompesson had told us before, that it would be gone in the middle of the Night, and come again divers times early in the Morning about Four a Clock, and this I suppose was about that time.
Another passage was this, my Man coming up to me in the Morning, told me that one of my Horses (that on which I rode) was all in a sweat, and lookt as if he had been rid all Night. My friend and I went down, and found him so. I enquired how he had been used, and was assured that he had been well fed, and ordered as he used to be, and my Servant was one that was wont to be very careful about my Horses. The Horse I had had a good time, and never knew but that he was very sound. But after I had rid him a Mile or two, very gently over a plain Down from Mr. Mompesson’s house, he fell lame, and having made a hard shift to bring me home, dyed in two or three days, no one being able to imagine what he ailed. This I confess might be accident or some unusual distemper, but all things being put together, it seems very probable that it was somewhat else.
But I go on with Mr. Mompesson’s own particulars. There came one Morning a light into the Childrens Chamber, and a voice crying, ‘A Witch, a Witch’, for at least an hundred times together.
Mr. Mompesson at another time (being in the day) seeing some wood move that was in the Chimney of a Room, where he was, as of it self, discharged a Pistol into it, after which they found several drops of Blood on the Harth, and in divers places of the Stairs.
For two or three nights after the discharge of the Pistol, there was a calm in the House, but then it came again, applying it self to a little Child newly taken from Nurse. Which it so persecuted, that it would not let the poor Infant rest for two nights together, nor suffer a Candle in the Room, but carry them away lighted up the Chimney, or throw them under the Bed. It so scared this Child by leaping upon it, that for some hours it could not be recovered out of the fright. So that they were forced again to remove the Children out of the house. The next night after which something about Mid-night came up the Stairs, and knockt at Mr. Mompesson’s door, but he lying still, it went up another pair of Stairs, to his Mans Chamber, to whom it appeared standing at his Beds foot. The exact shape and proportion he could not discover, but he saith he saw a great Body with two red and glaring Eyes, which for some time were fixed steadily upon him, and at length disappeared.
Another night strangers being present, it purr’d in the Childrens Bed like a Cat, at which time also the Cloaths and Children were lift up from the Bed, and six Men could not keep them down. Hereupon they removed the Children, intending to have ript up the Bed. But they were no sooner laid in another, but the second Bed was more troubled than the first. It continued thus four hours, and so beat the Childrens Leggs against the Bed-posts, that they were forced to arise, and sit up all night. After this, it would empty Chamberpots into their Beds, and strew them with Ashes, though they were never so carefully watcht. It put a long piked Iron into Mr. Mompesson’s Bed, and into his Mothers a naked Knife upright. It would fill Porrengers with Ashes, throw every thing about and keep a noise all day.
About the beginning of April, 1663, a Gentleman that lay in the house, had all his money turned black in his Pockets; and Mr. Mompesson coming one Morning into his Stable, found the Horse he was wont to Ride, on the Ground, having one of his hinder Leggs in his Mouth, and so fastened there, that it was difficult for several Men to get it out with a Leaver. After this, there were some other remarkable things, but my account goes no further. Only Mr. Mompesson writ me word, that afterwards the House was several nights beset with seven or eight in the shape of Men, who, as soon as a Gun was discharged, would shuffle away together into an Arbour.
The Drummer was tryed at the Assizes at Salisbury upon this occasion. He was committed first to Gloucester Gaol for stealing, and a Wiltshire Man coming to see him, he askt what news in Wiltshire. The Visitant said, he knew of none. ‘No,’ saith the Drummer! ‘do not you hear of the Drumming at a Gentlemans house at Tedworth?’ That I do enough’, said the other. ‘I,’ quoth the Drummer, ‘I have plagued him (or to that purpose) and he shall never be at quiet, till he hath made me satisfaction for taking away my Drum.’ Upon Information of this, the fellow was tryed for a Witch at Sarum, and all the main circumstances I have related, were sworn at the Assizes by the Minister of the Parish, and divers others of the most intelligent and substantial Inhabitants, who had been Eye and Ear witnesses of them, time after time for divers years together.
The fellow was condemned to Transportation, and accordingly sent away; but I know not how (‘tis said by raising storms and affrighting the Seamen) he made a shift to come back again. And ‘tis observable, that during all the time of his restraint and absence the house was quiet, but as soon as ever he came back at liberty, the disturbance returned.
He had been a Souldier under Cromwel, and used to talk much of Gallant Books he had of an odd fellow, who was counted a Wizzard. Upon this occasion, I shall here add a passage, which I had not from Mr. Mompesson, but yet relates to the main purpose.
The Gentleman, who was with me at the House, Mr. Hill, being in company with one Compton of Summersetshire, who practiseth Physick, and pretends to strange matters, related to him this story of Mr. Mompesson’s disturbance. The Physician told him, he was sure it was nothing but a Rendezvous of Witches, and that for an hundred pounds, he would undertake to rid the House of all disturbance. In pursuit of this discourse, he talkt of many high things, and having drawn my friend into another Room apart from the rest of the company, said he would make him sensible he could do something more than ordinary, and askt him who he desired to see. Mr. Hill had no great confidence in his talk, but yet being earnestly prest to name some one, He said, he desired to see no one so much as his Wife, who was then many miles distant from them at her home. Upon this, Compton took up a Looking-glass that was in the Room, and setting it down again, bid my friend look in it; which he did, and there, as he most solemnly and seriously professeth, he saw the exact Image of his Wife in that habit which she then wore, and working at her Needle in such a part of the Room (there represented also) in which and about which time she really was as he found upon inquiry when he came home. The Gentleman himself averred this to me, and he is a very sober, intelligent, and credible person. Compton had no knowledge of him before, and was an utter stranger to the person of his Wife. The same Man we shall meet again in the story of the Witchcrafts of Elizabeth Style, whom he discovered to be a Witch by foretelling her coming into an house, and going out again without speaking, as is set down in the third Relation. He was by all counted a very odd person.
Thus, I have written the summ of Mr. Mompesson’s disturbance, which I had partly from his own mouth related before divers, who had been witnesses of all, and confirmed his relation, and partly from his own Letters, from which the order and series of things is taken. The same particulars he writ also to Dr. Creed, then Doctor of the Chair in Oxford.13
Mr. Mompesson is a Gentleman, of whose truth in this account, I have not the least ground of suspicion, he being neither vain nor credulous, but a discreet, sagacious and manly person. Now the credit of matters of Fact depends much upon the Relatours, who, if they cannot be deceived themselves nor supposed any ways interested to impose upon others, ought to be credited. For upon these circumstances, all humane Faith is grounded, and matter of Fact is not capable of any proof besides, but that of immediate sensible evidence. Now this Gentleman cannot be thought ignorant, whether that he relates be true or no, the Scene of all being his own house, himself a witness and that not of a circumstance of two, but of an hundred, nor for once or twice only, but for the space of some years, during which he was a concerned, and inquisitive Observer. So that it cannot with any shew of reason be supposed that any of his Servants abused him, since in all that time he must needs have detected the deceit. And what interest could any of his family have had (if it had been possible to have managed it without discovery) to continue so long so troublesome, and so injurious an Imposture? Nor can it with any whit of more probability be imagined, that his own melancholy deluded him, since (besides that he is no crazy nor imaginative person) that humour could not have been so lasting and pertinacious. Or if it were so in him, can we think he infected his whole Family, and those multitudes of neighbours and others, who had so often been witnesses of those passages? Such supposals are wild, and not like to tempt any, but those whose Wills are their Reasons. So that upon the whole, the principal Relatour Mr. Mompesson himself knew, whether what he reports was true or not, whether those things acted in his house were contrived Cheats, or extraordinary Realities. And if so, what interest could he serve in carrying on, or conniving at a juggling Design and Imposture?
He suffered by it in his Name, in his Estate, in all his Affairs, and in the general peace of his Family. The Unbelievers in the matter of Spirits and Witches took him for an Impostour. Many others judged the permission of such an extraordinary evil to be the judgment of God upon him, for some notorious wickedness or impiety. Thus his name was continually exposed to censure, and his estate suffered, by the concourse of people from all parts to his house, by the diversion it gave him from his affairs, by the discouragement of Servants, by reason of which he could hardly get any to live with him. To which if I add the continual hurry that his Family was in, the affrights, vexations and tossings up and down of his Children, and the watchings and disturbance of his whole house (in all which, himself must needs be the most concerned person) I say, if these things are considered, there will be little reason to think he could have any interest to put a cheat upon the World, in which he would most of all have injured and abused himself. Or if he should have designed and managed so incredible, so unprofitable a Delusion, ‘tis strange that he should have troubled himself so long in such a business, only to deceive, and to be talkt of. And it is yet more so, that none of those many inquisitive persons that came thither purposely to criticize and examine the truth of those matters, could make any discoveries of the Juggling, especially since many came prejudiced against the belief of such things in general and others resolved before-hand against the belief of this, and all were permitted the utmost freedom of search and inquiry. And after things were weighed and examined, some that were before greatly prejudiced, went away fully convinced. To all which I add, that there are divers particulars in the story, in which no abuse or deceit could have been practised, as the motion of Boards and Chairs of themselves, the beating of a Drum in the midst of a Room, and in the Air, when nothing was to be seen; the great heat in a Chamber that had no Fire in excessive cold weather, the scratching and panting, the violent beating and shaking of the Bedsteads, of which there was no perceivable cause or occasion: In these and such like instances, it is not to be conceived how tricks could have been put upon so many, so jealous, and so inquisitive persons as were witnesses of them.
‘Tis true that when the Gentlemen14 the King sent were there, the House was quiet and nothing seen nor heard that night, which was confidently and with triumph urged by many, as a confutation of the story. But ‘twas bad Logick to conclude in matters of Fact from a single Negative and such a one against numerous Affirmatives, and so affirm that a thing was never done, because not at such a particular time, and that no body ever saw what this Man or that did not. By the same way of reasoning, I may inferr that there were never any Robberies done on Salisbury Plain, Hounslow Heath, or the other noted places, because I have often Travelled all those ways, and yet was never Robbed; and the Spaniard inferred well that said, There was no Sun in England’, because he had been six Weeks here and never saw it. This is the common argument of those that deny the Being of Apparitions, they have Travelled all hours of the night, and never saw any thing worse than themselves (which may well be) and thence they conclude, that all pretended Apparitions are Fancies or Impostures. But why do not such arguers conclude, that there was never a Cut-purse in London, because they have lived there many years without being met with by any of those Practisers? Certainly he that denies Apparitions upon the confidence of this Negative against the vast heap of Positive assurances, is credulous in believing there was ever any Highway-man in the World, if he himself was never Robb’d. And the Trials of Assizes and Attestations of those that have (if he will be just) ought to move his Assent no more in this case, than in that of Witches and Apparitions, which have the very same evidence.
But as to the quiet of Mr. Mompesson’s house when the Courtiers were there, it may be remembered and considered, that the disturbance was not constant, but intermitted sometimes several days, sometimes Weeks. So that the intermission at that time might be accidental, or perhaps the Daemon was not willing to give so publick a Testimony of those Transactions, which possibly might convince those, who he had rather should continue in the unbelief of his existence. But however it were, this circumstance will afford but a very slender inference against the credit of the story, except among those who are willing to take any thing for an Argument against things which they have an interest not to acknowledge.
I have thus related the sum of the story, and noted some circumstances that assure the truth of it. I confess the passages recited are not so dreadful, Tragical and amazing, as there are some in story of this kind, yet are they never the less probable or true, for their being not so prodigious and astonishing. And they are strange enough to prove themselves effects of some invisible extraordinary Agent, and so demonstrate that there are Spirits, who sometimes sensibly intermeddle in our affairs. And I think they do it with clearness of evidence. For these things were not done long ago, or at far distance, in an ignorant age, or among a barbarous people, they were not seen by two or three only of the Melancholick and superstitious, and reported by those that made them serve the advantage and interest of a party.15 They were not the passages of a Day or Night, nor the vanishing glances of an Apparition; but these transactions were near and late, publick, frequent, and of divers years continuance, witnessed by multitudes of competent and unbyassed Attestors, and acted in a searching incredulous Age: Arguments enough one would think to convince any modest and capable reason.
The affair of the Drummer of Tedworth is of great importance to psychical researchers for a number of reasons: It has become a classic, and the story prompted investigators to take a keener interest in, and to search ancient literature for, similar cases of Poltergeist activity. To use a colloquialism, it put Poltergeists on the map—though the word itself was not current in this country until many years later.
Another interesting feature is that the ‘prime mover’ or person alleged to be causing the trouble was not only known, but was actually arrested and charged with what amounts to witchcraft. Though perhaps the little ‘modest girls’ were the point d’appui on which the ‘drummer’ relied if, indeed, he had anything to do with it. Mr. Mompesson, in a letter to Collins, the publisher of Saducismus Triumphatus, says (August 8, 1674): ‘When the Drummer was escaped from his Exile, which he was sentenced to at Gloucester for a Felony, I took him up, and procured his Committment to Salisbury Gaol, where I Indicted16 him as a Felon, for this supposed Witchcraft about my House. The Assizes came on, where I Indicted him on the Statute Primo Jacobi cap. 12, Where you may find that to feed, imploy, or reward any evil spirit is Felony. And the Indictment against him was, that he did quendam malum Spiritum negotiare. The grand Jury found the Bill upon the Evidence, but the Petty Jury acquitted him, but not without some difficulty.’
Though acquitted of witchcraft, the Drummer was sentenced to transportation (probably as a rogue and a vagabond). He escaped (by means of magic?). The Elizabethan Act17 (An Acte for the Punishment of Rogues, Vagabonds, and Sturdie Beggars) of 1597 increased the punishment for what we should now call mediumship, and the penalty was transportation on conviction. If the offender returned to this country, the penalty was death. Cromwell’s Parliament of 1656 found that the Elizabethan fortune-telling Act was rarely administered, so a further Act was introduced by the Lord Protector to strengthen the statute made in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth. I presume that it was under this latter enactment that the Drummer was convicted.
The Drummer case created a great sensation and there were sceptics—as there are today! Mompesson himself was accused of all sorts of things, and felt constrained to send Glanvill a letter, for publication, denying that he had ‘confessed’ that a simple explanation of the disturbances had been discovered. I will conclude this chapter by reproducing Mr. Mompesson’s disclaimer. The letter is dated November 8, 1672:
Worthy Sir,
Meeting with Dr. Pierce accidentally at Sir Robert Button’s he acquainted me of something that passed between my Lord of R——and your self about my troubles etc. To which (having but little leisure) I do give you this account, that I have been very often of late asked the question, whether I have not confessed to his Majesty or any other, a cheat discovered about that affair. To which I gave, and shall to my Dying day give the same answer, That I must bely my self, and perjure my self also to acknowledge a cheat in a thing where I am sure there was nor could be any, as I, the Minister of the Place, and two other Honest Gentlemen deposed at the Assizes, upon my Impleading the Drummer. If the world will not believe it, it shall be indifferent to me, praying God to keep me from the same, or the like affliction. And although I am sure this most damnable lye does pass for current amongst one sort of people in the World, invented only, I think, to suppress the Belief of the Being either of God or Devil; yet I question not but the Thing obtains credit enough amongst those, whom I principally desire should retain a more charitable Opinion of me, than to be any way a deviser of it, only to be talk’t of in the World, to my own disadvantage and reproach; of which sort I reckon you one, and rest in hast,
Sir,
Your Obliged Servant,
JO. MOMPESSON.
Such is the diverting tale of the Drummer Poltergeist.18 There can be little doubt that the story as related by Glanvill at the Ragley party was highly exaggerated. That there was a good deal of truth in it is, I think, certain, as Mompesson himself confirms many of the extraordinary incidents. (See Appendix A.) Further Poltergeist stories from Ragley will form the subject of our next chapter.