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New light on the 'Drummer of Tedworth': conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England*

2005; Oxford University Press; Volume: 78; Issue: 201 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1468-2281.2005.00226.x

1468-2281

Michael Hunter,

Historical Philosophy and Science

This paper presents a definitive text of hitherto little-known early documents concerning 'The Drummer of Tedworth', a poltergeist case that occurred in 1662-3 and became famous not least due to its promotion by Joseph Glanvill in his demonological work, Saducismus Triumphatus.On the basis of these and other sources, it is shown how responses to the events at Tedworth evolved from anxious piety on the part of their victim, John Mompesson, to confident apologetic by Glanvill, before they were further affected by the emergence of articulate scepticism about the case.The case of the 'Drummer of Tedworth' is one of the most famous episodes in the history of witchcraft.It involved a poltergeist which, in the early 1660s, haunted the house of John Mompesson, a landowner, excise officer, and commission officer in the militia, who lived at North Tidworth on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border. 1 In March 1662, Mompesson intervened in the case of a drummer, William Drury, who had requested money from the local constable at the neighbouring village of Ludgershall on the basis of pass which turned out to be counterfeit.Mompesson had the man arrested (though he was later freed) and his drum confiscated; subsequently, in April, it was sent to his house at Tidworth.Thereafter, he and his family were assaulted by thumpings, tattoos of the drum and other noises.There were also scratchings, panting like a dog, sulphureous and other smells, and strange lights; in addition, objects were thrown around the room, beds elevated, horses lamed and the like.These disturbances continued over several months into 1663, despite the fact that for part of this time Drury was incarcerated at Gloucester on a charge of theft.Meanwhile, the case became well-known, and many people visited Mompesson's house to witness the strange occurrences for themselves.The notoriety of the case stems largely from its central position in one of the most famous works on demonology ever published, that by the divine and apologist for the new philosophy, Joseph Glanvill.A lengthy narrative of the Tedworth case first appeared in the version of Glanvill's book entitled A Blow at Modern Sadducism.In Some Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft, published in 1668, and it remained equally prominent in the omnibus Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions (1681), brought out after Glanvill's death by his mentor, the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More, who had encouraged Glanvill in his investigation of the case in the first place. 2Not only was the case prominent in the various editions of Glanvill's own book.It was further propagated by subsequent, more derivative demonologists, such as the New England cleric, Increase Mather, in his Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684) or the Scot, George Sinclair, in his Satans Invisible World Discovered (1685). 3 The significance of the case was increased by the attacks to which its verisimilitude was subjected.We will encounter verbally expressed scepticism about the case in the course of this paper, but a scathing attack appeared in print in John Webster's Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), in which the 'strange tricks related by Mr Glanvil' were dismissed as 'abominable cheats and impostures', and to which the posthumous recension of Glanvill's book was intended as riposte. 4Later, the case was criticised at greater length by Balthasar Bekker in his classic exposé of witch beliefs, The World Bewitched (1692-4), again inspiring discussion, notably by John Beaumont in his Historical, Physiological and Theological Treatise of Spirits, Apparitions, Witchcrafts, and other Magical Practices (1705). 5 Thereafter, the case formed the inspiration of Joseph Addison's sceptical play, The Drummer, or the Haunted House (1716), while its continuing notoriety is illustrated by William Hogarth's famous print, 'Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism: a Medley' ( 1762), in which a thermometer calibrating enthusiasm is surmounted by the figure of a drummer with the legend, 'Tedworth'. 6 Hogarth there associated such beliefs with Methodism, and the Tedworth case was indeed championed by John Wesley, whose family had been the victim of a similar poltergeist in 1716-17, and who reprinted Glanvill's account of it in The Arminian Magazine in 1785. 7 In the nineteenth century, The Tedworth incident continued to be the subject of a mixture of curiosity and scepticism.Glanvill's account of it was reprinted by the antiquary, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in his History of Ancient and Modern Wiltshire (1826), and by the spiritualist, Robert Dale Owen, in his Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World (1860), while it was lampooned along with comparable cases by the graphic satirist, George Cruikshank, in his Discovery concerning Ghosts, with a Rap at the 'Spirit-Rappers' (1863). 8Subsequently, the episode received renewed attention in connection with a debate over nature of poltergeists between A.R.Wallace, Frank Podmore and Andrew Lang in the publications of the Society for Psychical Research in the years around 1900, in which various documents relating to it were reprinted. 9Further lengthy accounts were published in a comparable context by Harry Price in 1945 and by Alan Gauld in 1979. 10It has also featured in books on the history of witchcraft, such as Wallace Notestein's classic History of Witchcraft in England (1911) or, more recently, Rossell Hope Robbins' Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (1959), in which it merits a full-length entry, or Darren Oldridge's The Devil in Early Modern England (2000), which includes a long extract relating to it. 11Such accounts of the case have usually been principally based on that published by Glanvill, but, since the early twentieth century, certain ancillary published sources have also been well-known.One is a ballad about the case by Abraham Miles that evidently came out in February 1663, A Wonder of Wonders; Being a true Relation of the Strange and Invisible Beating of a Drum, at the House of John Mompeson, Esquire, at Tidcombe [sic] in the County of In addition, a report on the case appeared in two newspapers in April that year, Mercurius Publicus and The Kingdoms Intelligencer.13 These, together with a handful of brief references in contemporary diaries, letters and the like, will be alluded to as appropriate in the course of this paper. Hee, it is worth noting that the drummer's name is known only from the report in the newspapers, being nowhere given by Glanvill; this also reveals