Sixteenth Century Knockings.
A recently issued volume bearing principally upon the household events of an old English Catholic family, and principally recording their troubles in the difficult days of the Reformation period, is hardly the place one would look to for any reference to spiritualism. A short extract, however, from the volume bearing upon the point will be of interest in view of what has been written upon the knockings at Barton, Upholland, and other places.
In the year 1828 some workmen at Rishton [Rushton, surely] Hall, Northampton, were engaged in pulling down a very thick partition wall in a passage leading from the great hall when they came across a large recess or closet, in the centre of which was deposited an enormous bundle of papers. These were household accounts, family memoranda, etc., dating between the year 1576 and 1605. They were carefully collected and preserved, and a writing was placed upon the bundle recording the circumstances of their discovery.
Recently the papers have been overhauled by a competent person and calendared and a summary of their contents has just been printed and published.
The owner of Rishton Hall suffered much persecution for his religion, and many incidents in this direction are recorded in the papers. But in his quieter moments he entered upon a number of improvements in the hall, and operations upon a large scale were undertaken. One portion was the decoration in a most elaborate manner of a room for religious worship for the household, and it was upon the completion of this work that mysterious knockings were heard.
Ending a long document recording this fact the owner of the hall proceeds: “Lastly, if it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and praises of Jesus Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is one powerful instance, thereof, that at my last being committed, and I having my servants about me, and one reading in the Christian Resolution in the treatise of proof that there is a God, there was upon a wainscot table, at that instant three loud knocks, as if it had been with an iron hammer, to the great amazing of me and my servants.”
Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 14th September 1904.
A writer, in Notes and Queries, vol. viii. p. 512, gives the following example of an early instance of this kind in England:
Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important character in his time by reason of his great welth and powerful connexions. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half a mile from the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over, within and without, with emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a bundle of books and papers, inclosed since 1605 in a wall of the old mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following relation of a “rapping” or “knocking,” is extracted from this letter: –
“If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance thereof: that at my last being hither committed (referring to his commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent), and I usually having my servants here allowed me to read nightly an hour to me after supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the Christian Resolution in the treatise of Proof that there is a God, etc., there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks (as if it had been with an iron hammer) given, to the great amazing of me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton.”
In ‘Spirit Rapping No Novelty’ in The Spiritual Magazine, January 1861.