The Fourth Relation.
Giving an account of the Daemon of Spraiton in the county of Devon, Anno, 1682.
That which was published in May 1683, concerning the Daemon, or Daemons of Spraiton, was the extract of a letter from T.C. Esquire, a near neighbour to the place; and though it needed little confirmation further than the credit, that the learning and quality of that gentleman had stamped upon it, yet was much of it likewise known to and related by the Reverend Minister of Barnstable, of the vicinity of Spraiton. Having likewise since had fresh testimonials on the veracity of that relation; and it being at first designed to fill this place; I have thought it not amiss (for the strangeness of it) to print it here a second time, exactly as I had transcribed it then.
About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish of Spraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling house of his said master, there appeared unto him, the resemblance of an aged gentleman, like his master’s father, with a pole or staff in his hand, resembling that he was wont to carry when living, to kill the moles withal. The spectrum approached near the young man, whom you may imagine not a little surprised at the appearance of one that he knew to be dead, but the spectrum bid him not be afraid of him, but tell his master (who was his son) that several legacies which by his testament he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming Ten Shillings to one and Ten Shillings to another, both which persons he named to the young man, who replied, that the party he last named was dead, and so it could not be paid to him.
The ghost answered, He knew that, but it must be paid to the next relation, whom he also named. The spectrum likewise ordered him to carry Twenty Shillings to a gentlewoman, sister to the deceased, living near Totnes in the said county, and promised if these things were performed to trouble him no further; but at the same time the spectrum, speaking of his second wife, (who was also dead) called her wicked woman, though the gentleman who writ the letter knew her, and esteemed her a very good woman: And (having thus related him his mind) the spectrum left the young man; who according to the direction of the spirit took care to see the small legacies satisfied, and carried the twenty shillings, that was appointed to be paid the gentlewoman near Totnes, but she utterly refused to receive it; being sent her (as she said) from the Devil.
The same night the young man lodging at her house, the aforesaid spectrum appeared to him again; whereupon the young man challenged his promise, nor to trouble him any more, saying, he had performed all according to his appointment, but that the gentlewoman, his sister, would not receive the money. To which the spectrum replied, that was true indeed; but withal directed the young man to ride to Totnes, and buy for her a ring of that value, which the spirit said she would accept of; which being provided accordingly, she received. Since the performance of which the ghost, or apparition of the old gentleman, hath seemed to be at rest, having never given the young man any further trouble.
But the next day after having delivered the ring, the young man was riding home to his master’s house, accompanied by a servant of the gentlewoman near Totnes, and near about the time of their entrance (or a little before they came) into the parish of Straiton aforesaid, there appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man, the resemblance of the second wife of the old gentleman, spoken of before. This Daemon often threw the young man off his horse, and cast him with such violence to the ground, as was great astonishment, not only to the gentlewoman’s servant (with him) but to divers others, who were spectators of the frightful action, the ground resounding with great noise, by reason of the incredible force, with which he was cast upon it.
At his coming into his master’s yard, the horse which he rid, though very poor and out of ease, leaped at one spring 25 foot, to the amazement of all that saw it. Soon after the she-spectre showed herself to divers in the house (viz.) The aforesaid young man, mistress Thomasin Gidly, Ann Langdon born in that parish, and a little child, which by reason of the troublesomeness of the spirit, they were fain to remove from that house. She appeared sometimes in her own shape, sometimes in forms very horrid, now and then like a monstrous dog belching out fire, at another time it flew out at the window, in the shape of a horse, carrying with it only one pane of glass, and a small piece of iron.
One time the young man’s head was thrust into a very strait place, betwixt a bed’s head and a wall, and forced by the strength of divers men had to be removed thence, and that not without being much hurt, and bruised, so that much blood appeared about it; upon this, it was advised he should be bleeded, to prevent any ill accident that might come of the bruise.
After bleeding, the ligature, or binder of his arm was removed from thence, and conveyed about his middle, where it was strained with such violence, that the girding had almost stopped his breath and killed him, and being cut asunder, it made a strange and dismal noise, so that the standers-by were affrighted at it. At divers other times he hath been in danger to be stranged with cravats and handkerchiefs, that he hath worn about his neck, which haveb een drawn so close, that with the sudden violence he hath near been choked, and hardly escaped death.
The spectre hath showed great offence at the perriwigs which the young man used to wear, for they are often torn from his head after a very strange manner. One, that he esteemed above the rest, he put in a small box, and that box he placed in another, which he set against the wall of his chamber, placing a joint-stool, with other weight, atop of it; but in short time the boxes were broken in sunder, and the perriwig rended into many small parts and tatters.
Another time, lying in his master’s chamber, with his perriwig on his head, to secure it from danger, within a little time it was torn from him, and reduced into very small fragments.
At another time one of his shoe-strings was observed (without the assistance of any hand) to come of its own accord out of his shoe, and fling itslef to the other side of the room; the other was crawling after it, but a maid espying that, with her hand drew it out, and it strangely clasped and curled about her hand like a living eel or serpent. This is testified by a lady of considerable quality, too great for exception, who was an eye-witness.
The same lady showed Mr C. one of the young man’s gloves, which was torn in his pocket, whilst she was by; which is so dextrously tattered, and so artificially torn, that it is conceived a cutler could not have contrived an instrument to have laid it abroad so accurately, and all this done in the pocket, in the compass of one minute.
It is farther observable, that if the aforesaid young man, or another person, who is a servant maid in the house, do wear their own clothes, they are certainly torn in pieces on their backs. But if the clothes belong to any other, they are not injured after that manner.
Many other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the said daemon or spirit, in the view of divers persons: a barrel of salt of considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room to room without any human assistance.
A hand-iron hath seemed to lay itself cross overthwart a pan of milk that hath been scalding over the fire; and two flitches of bacon have of their own accord descended from the chimney, where they were hung, and placed themselves upon the hand iron.
When the spectre appears in resemblance of her own person, she seems to be habited in the same clothes and dress, which the gentlewoman of the house (her daughter-in-law) hath on at the same time. Divers times the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been so intangled about his neck, that he hath been loosed with great difficulty. Sometimes they have been so twisted about the frames of chairs and stools that they have hardly been set at liberty. But one of the most considerable instances of the malice of the spirit against the young man happened on Easter Eve, when Mr C. the relator was passing by the door of the house, and it was thus.
When the young man was returning from his labour, he was taken up by the skirt of his doublet, by this female demon, and carried a heighth into the air. He was soon missed by his master, and some other servants that had been at labour with him; and after diligent enquiry no news could be heard of him, until at length (near half an hour after) he was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire, where they found him in a kind of trance, or ecstatic fit, to which he hath sometimes been accustomed (but whether before the affliction he met with frm this spirit, I am not certain) he was affected much after such sort, as at the time of those fits, so that the people did not give that attention and regard to what he said, as at other times; but when he returned again to himself (which was about an hour after) he solemnly protested to them that the Daemon had carried him so high, that his master’s house seemed to him to be as a haycock; and that during all that time, he was in perfect sense, and prayed to Almighty God not to suffer the devil to destroy him; and that he was suddenly set down in that quagmire.
The workmen found one shoe on one side of his master’s house, and the other on the other side, and in the morning espied his perriwig hanging on the top of a tree; by which it appears he had been carried a considerable heighth, and that what he told them was not a fiction.
After this it was observed that that part of the young man’s body which had been on the mud in the quagmire was somewhat benumbed, and seemingly deader than the other; whereupon the following Saturday, which was the day before Low-Sunday, he was carried to Crediton, alias Kirton, to be bleeded, which being done accordingly, and the company having left him for some little space; at their return they found him in one of his fits, with his forehead much bruised, and swollen to a great bigness, none being able to guess how it happened, until his recovery from that fit. When, upon enquiry, he gave them this account of it: That a bird had with great swiftness and force had flown in at the window, with a stone in its beak, which it had dashed against his forehead, which had occasioned the swelling which they saw.
The people much wondering at the strangeness of the accident, diligently sought the stone, and under the place where he sat they found not such a stone as they expected, but a weight of brass or copper, which it seems the daemon had made use of on that occasion, to give the poor young man that hurt in his fore-head. The persons present were at the trouble to break it in pieces, every one taking a part, and preserving it in memory of so strange an accident. After this the spirit continued to molest the young man in a very severe and rugged manner, often handling him with great extremity, and whether it hath yet left its violences to him, or whether the young man be yet alive, I can have no certain account. I leave the reader to consider of the extraordinary strangeness of the relation.
Pandaemonium, or, The devil’s cloyster. By Richard Bovet, The first part is printed 1677 but this is in the second part… can see no date.