which she left her seat, and would not be prevailed upon to sit there any more. Whenever they began to mention Mr. S. it presently began to knock, and continued to do so till they changed the discourse. All the time my sister Suky was writing her last letter to him, it made a very great noise all round the room, and the night after she set out for London, it knocked till morning with scarce any intermission. Mr. Hoole read prayers once, but it knocked as usual at the prayers for the King and Prince. The knockings at those prayers were only towards the beginning of the disturbances, for a week or thereabouts. The Rev. Mr. Hoole's Account. Sept. 16. As soon as I came to Epworth, Mr. Wesley telling me, he sent for me to conjure, I knew not what he meant, till some of your sisters told me what had happened, and that I was sent for to sit up. I expected every hour, it being then about noon, to hear something extraordinary, but to no purpose. At supper too, and at prayers, all was silent, contrary to custom, but soon after one of the maids, who went up to sheet a bed, brought the alarm, that Jeffery was come above stairs. We all went up, and as we were standing round the fire in the east chamber, something began knocking just on the other side of the wall, on the chimney-piece, as with a key. Presently the knocking was under our feet, Mr. Wesley and I went down, he with a great deal of hope, and I with fear. As soon as we were in the kitchen, the sound was above us, in the room we had left. We returned up the narrow stairs, and heard at the broad stairs head, some one slaring with their feet (all the family being now in bed beside us) and then trailing, as it were, and rustling with a silk night-gown. Quickly it was in the nursery, at the bed's head, knocking as it had done at first, three by three. Mr. Wesley spoke to it, and said he believed it was the devil, and soon after it knocked at the window, and changed its sound into one like the plain ing of boards. From thence it went on the outward south side of the house, sounding fainter and fainter, till it was heard no more. I was at no other time than this during the noises at Epworth, and do not now remember any more circumstances than these. Epworth, Sept. 1. My sister Kezzy says she remembers nothing else, but that it knocked my father's knock, ready to beat the house down in the nursery one night. Robin Brown's Account to Jack. THE first time Robin Brown, my father's man, heard it, was when he was fetching down some corn from the garrets. Somewhat knocked on a door just by him, which made him run away down stairs. From that time it used frequently to visit him in bed, walking up the garret stairs, and in the garrets, like a man in jack-boots, with a nightgown trailing after him, then lifting up his latch and making it jar, and making presently a noise in his room like the gobbling of a turkey-cock, then stumbling over his shoes or boots by the bed side. He was resolved once to be too hard for it, and so took a large mastiff we had just got to bed with him, and left his shoes and boots below stairs; but he might as well have spared his labour, for it was exactly the same thing, whether any were there or no. The same sound was heard as if there had been forty pairs. The dog indeed was a great comfort to him, for as soon as the latch began to jar, he crept into bed, made such an howling and barking together, in spite of all the man could do, that he alarmed most of the family. Soon after, being grinding corn in the garrets, and happening to stop a little, the handle of the mill was turned round with great swiftness. He said nothing vexed him, but that the mill was empty. If corn had been in it, old Jeffery might have ground his heart out for him; he would never have disturbed him. One night, being ill, he was leaning his head upon the back kitchen chimney (the jam he called it) with the tongs in his hands, when from behind the oven-stop, which lay by the fire, somewhat came out like a white rabbit. It turned round before him several times, and then ran to the same place again. He was frighted, started up, and ran with the tongs into the parlour (dining room). D. R. Epworth, Aug. 31. BETTY MASSY One day came to me in the parlour, and asked me if I had heard old Jeffery, for she said she thought there was no such thing. When we had talked a little about it, I knocked three times with a reel I had in my hand, against the dining-room cieling, and the same were presently repeated. She desired me to knock so again, which I did, but they were answered with three more so violently as shook the house, though no one was in the chamber over us. She prayed me to knock no more for fear it should come in to us. Epworth, Aug. 31. 1726. JOHN and Kitty Maw, who lived over against us, listened several nights in the time of the disturbance, but could never hear any thing. NARRATIVE drawn up by John Wesley, and published by him in the Arminian Magazine. WHEN I was very young, I heard several letters read, wrote to my elder brother by my father, giving an account of strange disturbances, which were in his house at Epworth, in Lincolnshire. When I went down thither, in the year 1720, I carefully enquired into the particulars. I spoke to each of the persons who were then in the house, and took down what each could testify of his or her own knowledge. The sum of which was this. On Dec. 2. 1716, while Robert Brown, my father's servant, was sitting with one of the maids a little before ten at night, in the dining room which opened into the garden, they both heard one knocking at the door. Robert rose and opened it, but could see nobody. Quickly it knocked again and groaned. "It is Mr. Turpine,” said Robert: "he has the stone and uses to groan so." H opened the door again twice or thrice, the knocking being twice or thrice repeated. But still seeing nothing, and being a little startled, they rose and went up to bed When Robert came to the top of the garret stairs, he saw a hand mill, which was at a little distance, whirled about very swiftly. When he related this he said, "Nought vexed me, but that it was empty. I thought, if it had but been full of malt he might have ground hi heart out for me." When he was in bed, he heard as it were the gobbling of a turkey cock, close to the bed side and soon after, the sound of one stumbling over his shoes and boots, but there were none there: he had left them below. The next day, he and the maid related these things to the other maid, who laughed heartily, and said, "What a couple of fools are you! I defy any thing to fright me." After churning in the evening, she put the butter in the tray, and had no sooner carried it into the dairy, than she heard a knocking on the shelf where several puncheons of milk stood, first above the shelf, then below; she took the candle and searched both above and below; but being able to find nothing, threw down butter, tray and all, and ran away for life. The next evening between five and six o'clock my sister Molly, then about twenty years of age, sitting in the dining room, reading, heard as if it were the door that lead into the hall open, and a person walking in, that seemed to have on a silk night-gown, rustling and trailing along. It seemed to walk round her, then to the door, then round again: but she could see nothing. She thought, "it signifies nothing to run away: for whatever it is, it can So she rose, put her book under her arm, and walked slowly away. After supper, she was sitting with my sister Suky, (about a year older than her,) run faster than me." in one of the chambers, and telling her what had hap- Then |