For some days past the household of Mr Newey, pawnbroker, Stafford-street, Wolverhampton, has been affrighted by unaccountable knockings, and other noises in various parts of the house, and, from the inability of the family to discover the cause, these unusual disturbances were attributed to a ghost, the presence of such a mysterious visitor being considered somewhat probable in consequence of a death having occurred recently on the premises. The noises were at length traced to the servant girl, who said she was instigated by a malevolent neighbour.
Oswestry Advertiser, 2nd November 1870.
Wolverhampton.
Laying a Ghost.
The family of Mrs Newey having been much annoyed by noises in the house and repeated knockings at the house door, when no one was to be seen there, proceedings which the servant girl and others attributed to the vagaries of a ghost, the police were communicated with and a search made and a watch kept, under the direction of Inspector Tomlinson.
For a time their vigilance were eluded, but eventually the servant girl admitted to the Inspector that his suspicion that she was “the ghost” was correct; and that she had been instigated to the mischief by a neighbour, who had “a grudge” against her mistress. The machinery by which the knocking at the outer door was produced was a thin wire attached to the knocker.
Staffordshire Advertiser, 29th October 1870.