The Sheep Street Ghosts.
A few mornings ago, shortly after the solemn, silent midnight hour – “When churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead!” – a terrible commotion was observed by our ever-vigilant borough police in a house in Sheep-street. On their going to ascertain the cause, they thought the inhabitants bewitched. One man who should be “used to war’s alarms,” had fainted (or made a feint), others in a state of undress were wildly chasing imaginary phantoms, and all in the greatest possible excitement caused either from spirits or by sprites.
The assigned reason for all this rumpus was this, that three headless ghosts had come down the chimney, capsized a sofa and its occupants (but so far as we can learn, had done no personal violence to any one), and after sundry fantastic feats, the trio vanished by the way they came. During the ghostly visit the flat irons performed a dirge in “A flat,” and the poker and tongs indulged in a domesticated “pas de bogie.”
Speculation was rife as to whether the ghosts came from Headless Cross, or if they had paid their “de”capitation fees. They were thought, however, to be mercenary rascals, as after their exit 3s. 6d. was missed, and it is conjectured that they retired to play a ghostly game of pitch and toss “Heads I win, tails you lose!”.
Stratford on Avon Herald, 23rd August 1867.
Extraordinary case of superstition.
At the Warwick assizes, on Monday, a singular case was heard. John Davis, a maltster, formerly residing at Stratford-upon Avon, was charged with having feloniously wounded one Jane Ward, with intent to do her grievous bodily harm. The prisoner, with his family, up to the time of his arrest, had resided in Sheep street, Stratford-upon-Avon, an dthey had laboured under an impression that the prosecutrix, who occupied an adjoining house, had bewitched them.
In spite of the efforts of friends to the contrary, they persisted in the delusion, and frequently narrated, with singular circumstantiality, visits which had been paid them in the night time by spirits. Some of these, they stated, entered the dwelling by descending the chimney, an dwhen they landed in the room they went through a variety of capers, such as seizing the furniture, and pitching it about the apartment, pulling the clothes off the bed, and even tossing the inmates up into the air.
One young girl, who was an invalid, and obliged to recline upon the sofa, solemnly declare dthat a man and a woman came down the chimney on one occasion, but being headless, and, taking her by the body, cast her violently upon the ground, then tossed her up into the air, and performed similar feats with the sofa.
The statement created so great a stir in the town that the police were called in to investigate the matter, and although they pointed to the accumulated dust around the feet of the sofa in proof that no such thin g could have happened, the prisoner and his family declared their firm belief that witches had been there, and the only way to break the spell was to draw blood from the body of the prosecutrix, who was suspected of having bewitched them.
A day or two after, the prisoner rushed into the house occupied by Jane Ward, the complainant, and inflicted a frightful gash in her cheek. He inflicted a wound half an inch in width and two and a half inches deep. When he saw the blood flowing dow nher face he exclaimed, “There, you old witch, I can do anything with you now.” At the station he said, in answer to the charge, “Serve her right; she can do no more for me now. I have drawn first blood.”
He was found guilty, and evidence was adduced showing him to be a respectable, industrious, and sober man. The learned Judge said it was most deplorable to see such a man found guilty of the commission of so serious an offence. Had it not been for the excellent character he had received, he would certainly have been sentenced to penal servitude. As it was, he would receive a sentence of eighteen calendar months, with hard labour.
Carlow Sentinel, 7th December 1867.
(much as above) … on Friday the man John Davis carried out his delusion by suddenly pouncing on the poor creature, and, seizing her firmly, he inflicted a frightful gash in her cheek, full three inches long. Having done this, the whole family felt relieved and assured that “the spell was broken,” for they told the superintendent that the following day they all slept well and undisturbed, which they had not done while the witch was left unexorcised…
Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette, 9th November 1867.