The Epworth Poltergeist: 5 – Week 4(i)
Mr and Mrs Wesley experience startling paracoustic phenomena first hand and are now fairly certain of the “other-worldliness” of the strange happenings. They begin to take the children’s accounts more seriously, investigating when occurrences are reported and experienced. Compared with previous weeks, this week begins quietly and Mr Wesley seems unperturbed by it.
The children begin taking more interest in communicating with it and it responds accordingly, with activity beginning to focus around the Nursery (Green Chamber) where Mrs Wesley perceives an apparition. Typically, poltergeist behaviour begins to increase with more distinct audio phenomena, prompting a surprise response from John to his mother. Even their mastiff dog is becoming scared at this point.
Due to the amount of phenomena that occur at these later stages, we’ll only look at the evidence for a few days in this post.
A “Quiet” Night and a Telling Question
| Date | Saturday 22nd to Sunday 23rd December, 1716 |
| Sun Data | Rise: 08:19 Set: 15:54 |
| Moon Data | Rise: 22:41 Set: 10:59 Phase: Waning Gibbous (81%) |
| Phenomena | Audible: Six knocks Several deep groans and knocking – Nursery. |
| Locations | Nursery |
| Witnesses | Mr Wesley |
| Letter References | LI, FJ |
| Text Entries “The next night I heard six knocks, but not so loud as the former.” – Mr Wesley, FJ “Not much disturbed with the noises that are now grown customary to me.” – Mr Wesley, FJ “One night about six o’clock he went into the nursery in the dark, and at first heard several deep groans, then knocking. He adjured it to speak if it had power, and tell him why it troubled his house, but no voice was heard, but it knocked thrice aloud. Then he questioned it if it were Sammy, and bid it, if it were, and could not speak, knock again, but it knocked no more that night which made us hope it was not against your death.” – Mrs Wesley, LI | |
| Comments A fairly quiet night, the lull before the storm. It is probably this particular night that Mr Wesley enquired of the perceived spirit, whether it was his son Samuel (in London at the time). This guestimate of the timing is because it had to be after he was first alerted to the knockings by his own personal experience, nothing much happening this night, and then the following nights up to 28th December (after which it calmed down) being filled with lots of activity. Mrs Wesley’s fears that it was the spirit of her son Samuel are mentioned in her opening paragraph of LI to Samuel. It is now clear that the Wesleys’ pre-existing beliefs in the folklore “knock of doom” are feeding into their interpretation of events. In days when instant communication were not available and the turnaround time for receiving a response from a letter could be a week or more, this must have been quite tense times for the family. Mr Wesley certainly believes in the power of a human spirit to be able to communicate through knocks and / or speech. What is interesting here is that no response whatsoever was received after his request for a sign. This could mean that if it was a spirit, it was not wishing to deceive at this point (or was prevented by other spiritual powers), or if this haunting was trickery, the perpetrators were not cruel enough to inflict that heartache upon the family. | |
Testing for Sentience
| Date | Sunday 23rd to Monday 24th December, 1716 |
| Sun Data | Rise: 08:18 Set: 15:55 |
| Moon Data | Rise: 23:53 Set: 11:52 Phase: Waning Gibbous (72% Full) |
| Phenomena | Audible: “Clockwork sounds”, Triple Knocking – Matted Chamber Sentient, Mimicry Knocking – Nursery Visual: Apparition under bed like a “badger”, which appears to disappear under Emily’s petticoats. |
| Location | Matted Chamber, Nursery |
| Witnesses | Mrs Wesley, Emily, Nancy, Kessy, Patty |
| Letter References | LXI, FJ, M2J |
| Text Entries “I heard frequently between ten and eleven, something like the quick winding up of a jack, at the corner of the room by my bed’s head, just like the running of the wheels and the creaking of the iron work. This was the common signal of its coming. Then it would knock on the floor three times, then at my sister’s [Nancy] bed’s head in the same room, almost always three together, and then stay. The sound was hollow, and loud, so none of us could ever imitate. It would answer to my mother, if she stamped on the floor, and bid it. It would knock when I was putting the children to bed, just under me where I sat. One time little Kessy, pretending to scare Patty, as I was undressing them, stamped with her foot on the floor, and immediately it answered with three knocks, just in the same place. It was more loud and fierce if any one said it was rats, or any thing natural.” – Emily, LXI “I know not whether it was in the morning after Sunday the 23rd, when about seven my daughter Emily called her mother into the nursery, and told her she might now hear the noises there. She went in, and heard it at the bedsteads, then under the bed, then at the head of it. She knocked, and it answered her. She looked under the bed, and thought something ran from thence, but could not well tell of what shape, but thought it most like a badger.” – Mr Wesley, FJ “Besides, something was thrice seen. The first time by my mother, under my sister’s bed, like a badger, only without any head that was discernible.” – Emily, LXI “Soon after, about seven in the morning, Emily came and desired me to go into the nursery, where I should be convinced they were not startled at nothing. On my coming thither, I heard a knocking at the feet, and quickly after at the head of the bed. I desired that if it was a spirit it would answer me, and knocking several times with my foot on the ground, with several pauses, it repeated under the sole of my feet exactly the same number of strokes, with the very same intervals. Kezzy, then six or seven years old, said let it answer me too, if it can, and stamping, the same sounds were returned that she made, many times, successively. Upon my looking under the bed, something ran out pretty much like a badger, and seemed to run directly under Emily’s petticoats, who sat opposite to me on the other side.” – Mrs Wesley, M2J | |
| Comments At this point, curiosity is setting in and the family members are testing the sentience of whatever is causing the knocking. It is apparently responsive with intelligence that mimics them. Even the youngest child, Kezzy uses the response to scare her slightly older sister Patty. Kezzy probably doesn’t understand the potentially paranormal nature at this stage of her development, but Patty, being a few years older, is aware this is not a normal thing to occur and becomes scared by it. The apparition of the badger is curious. Mrs Wesley sees it and mentions it in her letters, with it disappearing under Emily’s petticoats. Whether Emily was wearing these at the time is unknown, though at seven in the morning, she may well have been washed and changed. However, Emily herself makes no mention of a creature going under her petticoats. Why? If she was wearing them, surely a creature disappearing underneath them would be worthy of writing in her letter to her brother? | |
A Quiet Christmas Eve
Strangely, the day and night of Christmas Eve see a break in activity. However, they resume on the night of Christmas Day with some very spectacular phenomena.
More Paracoustic Phenomena?
| Date | Tuesday 25th to Wednesday 26th December, 1716 |
| Sun Data | Rise: 08:18 Set: 15:58 |
| Moon Data | Rise: 01:03 Set: 11:46 Phase: Waning Gibbous (51% Full) |
| Phenomena | Audible: “Smashing bottles” – Under Best Stairs “Money Pouring” – Foot of Best Stairs Loud noises in every room of the house, except the Study. People walking up and down stairs. Visible: Room doors and latches shaking |
| Location | Best Stairs and every room except Study. |
| Witnesses | Mr and Mrs Wesley |
| Letter References | LI, LIV, FJ, M2J |
| Text Entries “The next night but one, we were awakened about one, by the noises, which were so violent it was in vain to think of sleep while they continued. I rose, and my wife would rise with me. We went into every chamber and down stairs; and generally as we went into one room, we heard it in that behind us, though all the family had been in bed several hours. When we were going down stairs, and at the bottom of them, we heard, as Emily had done before, a clashing among the bottles, as if they had been broke all to pieces, and another sound distinct from it, as if a peck [10-14lbs] of money had been thrown down before us. The same, three of my daughters heard at another time. We went through the hall into the kitchen, when our mastiff came whining to us, as he did always after the first night of its coming; for then he barked violently at it, but was silent afterwards, and seemed more afraid than any of the children. We still heard it rattle and thunder in every room above or behind us, locked as well as open, except my study, where as yet it never came. After two, we went to bed, and were pretty quiet the rest of the night. ” – Mr Wesley, FJ “it made such a noise in the room over our heads, as if several people were walking then run up and down stairs, and was so outrageous that we thought the children would be frighted, so your father and I rose, and went down in the dark to light a candle.” – Mrs Wesley, LI “When the walking was heard in the garret, Robert was in bed in the next room, in a sleep so sound, that he never heard your father and me walk up and down, though we walked not softly, I am sure.” – Mrs Wesley, LIV “All the family, as well as Robin, were asleep when your father and I went down stairs, nor did they wake in the nursery when we held the candle close by them, only we observed that Hetty trembled exceedingly in her sleep, as she always did, before the noise awaked her.” – Mrs Wesley, LIV “Just as we came to the bottom of the broad stairs, having hold of each other, on my side there seemed as if somebody had emptied a bag of money at my feet; and on his, as if all the bottles under the stairs (which were many) had been dashed in a thousand pieces.” – Mrs Wesley, LI “One night, Mr. W. and I were waked by some one running down the garret stairs, then down the broad stairs, then up the narrow ones, then up the garret stairs, then down again, and so the same round. The rooms trembled as it passed along, and the doors shook exceedingly, so that the clattering of the latches was very loud. Mr. W. proposing to rise, I rose with him, and went down the broad stairs, hand in hand, to light a candle. Near the foot of them a large pot of money seemed to be poured out at my waist, and to run jingling down my nightgown to my feet. Presently after we heard the noise as of a vast stone thrown among several dozen of bottles, which lay under the stairs: but upon our looking no hurt was done. In the hall the mastiff met us, crying and striving to get between us. We returned up into the nursery where the noise was very great. The children were all asleep but panting, trembling, and sweating extremely.” – Mrs Wesley, M2J “that night we rose, and went down, I was entirely convinced, that it was beyond the power of any human creature to make such strange and various noises.” – Mrs Wesley, LIV | |
| Comments Mrs Wesley is completely convinced of the paranormal nature of the sounds she’s experiencing at this point. Audio effects where destruction appears to be taking place, but upon investigation no destruction has taken place. There’s a repeat of the “smashing bottles” sound that Emily heard a fortnight earlier. A new phenomenon of the sound of money pouring at the feet of Mrs Wesley is heard. In Letter VII from Jack to his mother, he comments upon how it wouldn’t be true for so many people’s hearing to be deceived, but curiously gives a P.S.: “Have you dug in the place where the money seemed poured at your feet?” – Jack takes the phenomenon seriously and wonders if something may be buried at the foot of the stairs which may reveal the source of these occurrences. Mr Brown, the man servant to Mr Wesley (also installed November 11th, with Nancy), sleeps in the attic space. These passages reveal there must have been at least one bedroom up there which he was utilising. The mastiff has been sensing what’s happening and whilst barking at it, oddly becomes very frightened, attempting to get away from what it’s sensing ahead. It is well documented that dogs often respond to incidents of hauntings, sensing things which humans cannot. It’s noted that the children seem to be experiencing disturbances in their sleep. Some suggest, the sleep state is still a place where our dreams can be affected by both good and bad spiritual influences (as well as the “cheese pizza” / “chemical hormones” dreams) [2]. The book of Job gives a couple of insights into dreams: They can be from God to give insight into a situation (Job 33:15-18), or they can be influenced by other spirit beings and cause a physiological reaction (Job 4:12-21). If this is the case [3] this evidence suggest a spiritual source may be affecting them whilst their body rests in sleep and their spirit remains active. Please note, I’m not discounting there being a psychological element to this, where the talk of ghosts amongst the family would have impacted their dreams, but for multiple children to be experiencing this sounds odd. Some have used this to suggest Hetty was the prankster, who was stifling her laughter at having tricked her family. This was my initial suspicion upon first combing through the evidence. I now do not believe that she was consciously causing these effects through trickery, if indeed the effects are focused around her. | |
Overall, this first half of the week has become quite intense. It is clear that the family believes there may be some sort of narrative coming across with the phenomena, and Jack (John) the investigator believes that further exploration at the foot of the stairs may reveal what is attempting to be conveyed. Whether the family dug at the foot of the best stairs at this stage is unknown (perhaps further research of Wesley letters may reveal this). Indeed, has anyone subsequently attempted to see if there was anything being pointed to through this action? Often in investigations where there seems to be evidence that points to a particular object, either in plain sight or hidden, being the source of the haunting, appropriately dealing with the object can bring some healing to the afflicted persons and/or place.
On the other hand, the quietness over the house over the Christmas Eve may suggest people were too engaged in other activities to be playing tricks. Or perhaps the spirit of Old Jeffrey was taking a breather too?
What are your thoughts? Please leave your comments and thoughts below, we’d love to hear them.
Next Time – the remainder of the fourth week is full on with activity, including an all night vigil with a neighbouring parish priest called in for back-up and to witness the events.
Bibliography
Bulkeley, K. (1995), Spiritual Dreaming: A Cross-cultural and Historical Journey, New York: Paulist Press.
Driscoll, J. and Mapes, Z. (2010), Dreams – a biblical model of interpretation, Orbital Book Group.
Kelsey, M. (1991), God, Dreams, and Revelation: A Christian Interpretation of Dreams, Minneapolis: Augsberg.
Parsons, S. T. and Cooper, C. E. (2015), Paracoustics – Sound and the Paranormal, Hove: White Crow Books.
Southey, R. (1820), The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism, Volume 1, London: Longman, Rees, Orme and Brown.
Wesley, J. (1784), The Haunting of Epworth Rectory: An Account of the Disturbances in my Father’s House. Arminian Magazine, 7.
Footnotes
[1] Moon Phase information for Epworth on the dates shown has been taken from Moonpage.com; Moonrise / set taken from TimeAndDate.com (moon); Sunrise / set taken from TimeAndDate.com (sun).
[2] Bulkeley, Driscoll and Kelsey all discuss the influence of external agencies in our dream state.
[3] In my experience I can testify to my own dreams being affected by spiritual external influences, both good and bad. The bad ones ending up with me having disturbed sleep that my wife has commented upon, and I’ve awoken from in a disturbed state.
