In the year 1764, the chaplain of Northampton Jail wrote of a very strange event that happened to him following the executions of four local men who had been convicted of murder in Guilsborough, England.
The four men were John Croxford, Richard Butlin, Benjamin Deacon, and Thomas Seamark. They had decided to rob a peddler - but the man (known as "Scottie") fought back, whereupon he was brutally murdered. His body was cut to pieces and, over the course of three days, burned in an oven. The bones, of course, would not burn, and were buried.
Unfortunately for the men, Mrs. Seamark and her ten-year-old son both witnessed the murder. Some time later, the local schoolmaster heard the boy threaten a schoolmate to "serve you as my daddy served Scottie." The truth came out; the woman and her son both testified in court (Mrs. Seamark relating that the murderers had threatened to kill her if she breathed a word of what she knew).
On August 4, 1764, the four men were hanged, all the while stating that they knew nothing of the murder, and were entirely innocent. After the executions, the chaplain issued a pamphlet; the following text is excerpted from the pamphlet.
" To this the phantasm instantly
responded that what I observed was perfectly right and requisite to
authenticate the truth of this affair ... therefore, in order to encourage
my perseverance in supporting the truth of this appearance and embolden me to
publish a minute detail of it, it would direct me to such a criterion as would
put the reality of it beyond all dispute; and it accordingly told me that in
such a spot, describing it as minutely as possible, in the parish of
Guilsborough, was deposited a gold ring which belonged to the pedlar whom they
murdered, and moreover in the inside was engraved this singular motto:
The four men were John Croxford, Richard Butlin, Benjamin Deacon, and Thomas Seamark. They had decided to rob a peddler - but the man (known as "Scottie") fought back, whereupon he was brutally murdered. His body was cut to pieces and, over the course of three days, burned in an oven. The bones, of course, would not burn, and were buried.
Unfortunately for the men, Mrs. Seamark and her ten-year-old son both witnessed the murder. Some time later, the local schoolmaster heard the boy threaten a schoolmate to "serve you as my daddy served Scottie." The truth came out; the woman and her son both testified in court (Mrs. Seamark relating that the murderers had threatened to kill her if she breathed a word of what she knew).
On August 4, 1764, the four men were hanged, all the while stating that they knew nothing of the murder, and were entirely innocent. After the executions, the chaplain issued a pamphlet; the following text is excerpted from the pamphlet.
“I shall now proceed without
further let or impediment to a plain and conscientious account of the ghost or
apparition which was the occasion of my troubling the world with this narrative;
unless I first observe that the behaviour of the prisoners, one of whom is the
subject of these pages, lately tried, condemned and executed at Northampton,
for the murder of a person unknown, upon the evidence of Ann Seamark and her
son, about nine or ten years old, was such as astonished every beholder....
"Clear and conclusive as the
evidence was against them, no arguments ... were able to reach their hardened hearts and prevail
for an open and unreserved confession of their guilt. Even at the gallows, in
their last addresses to the people, they insisted on their innocence in the
strongest terms imaginable; wishing the heaviest penalties an offended God
could inflict might be their portion in the next world, if they were guilty of
the murder that was laid to their charge and for which they were about to
suffer.
“Thus did they divide the
sentiments of the crowd that many were brought over to a full persuasion of
their innocence, while others were left halting between two opinions and
severely agitated with conflicting doubts.
"... on August 12,
1764, being the Sabbath, I returned as usual into my study, the door of which
is secured by a lock with a spring-bolt, and sat down to my accustomed evening
devotion ... I was on a sudden surprised with the
perfect form and appearance of a man, who stood erect at a small distance from
my right side.
"Conscious that the door was
locked and that there was no other means by which my visitor could have
entered, I was considerably surprised — surprise turning into abject terror —
when, glancing with irresistible fascination at the man, I perceived in him
something indefinably but most unmistakably Unnatural.
“Feeling sure that I was in the
actual presence of an apparition, I contrived, by an almost super-human effort,
I admit, to sum up sufficient courage to speak — my voice seeming dry and
unrecognisable.
“I addressed it in the power and
spirit of the Gospel; inquiring on what errand it was sent; what was intended
by such an application, and what services could be expected from a person of so
little note and mean abilities as myself.
“I must here state that although
the spectre had inspired me with so much awe, I did not associate it with
anything evil.
"Every second tended to
strengthen my composure, and when it spoke in a voice rather more hollow and
intense, perhaps, than that of a human being, my fears were instantly
dissipated. I was now able to take a close stock of it, and observed that in
features, general appearance, and clothes it closely resembled any ordinary
labouring man; it was in expression and colouring, only it differed — its eyes
were lurid, its cheeks livid.
“Raising one extremely white and
emaciated hand, it desired me to compose myself, saying that as it was now
strictly limited by a Superior Power, and could do no one act but by the
permission of God, I had no reason to be afraid, abrupt as was its appearance,
and that if I would endeavour to overcome the visible perturbation I was in, it
would proceed in the business of its errand.
“At this announcement my heart
fluttered with an excitement I found difficult to control. ... Eagerly promising to compose myself, and lost
to all else save the fascinating presence of my guest, I settled down to listen
to anything the phantasm might have to say.
"The room, I must here
state, was lighted by a single, though rather powerful, double-wick oil lamp,
which I had always deemed sufficient to illuminate the whole apartment, but
which now — and I could not help noticing the phenomenon — did not extend its
rays beyond the cadaverous face of my intruder, upon which the full force of
its light seemed concentrated.
“Commencing in clear and solemn
tones, the phantasm stated that it was one of the unhappy prisoners executed at
Northampton on the 4th of August, 1764.
“A cold chill ran down my back at
this announcement, which was intensified when I recognised for the first time
that the figure confronting me bore a startling likeness to one of the
prisoners it had been my unhappy lot to address prior to his execution ... it was indeed the ghost of one of those diabolical
miscreants that stood before me, and, despite the fact that I was brought up in
the strict Protestant faith, I inadvertently crossed myself.
"’It had been,' so it
proclaimed, 'the principal and ringleader of the gang, most of whom it had
corrupted, debauched and seduced to that deplorable method of life, and it was
particularly appointed by Providence to undeceive the world and remove those
doubts which the solemn protestations of their innocence to the very hour of
death had raised in the minds of all who heard them.'
"At this juncture, excitement
overcoming fear and aversion, I hazarded to inquire of the phantasm its name.”
“Its reply, delivered in the same
slow, measured, almost mechanical tones (as if it were only the mouth-organ of
some other and unseen agency) was to the effect that its name was John Croxford;
that it had express directions to come to me — directions it could not disobey;
it furthermore explained the reason the murderers had so persistently insisted on
their innocence, lay in the fact, that, while the blood of their victim was
still warm, they entered into a sacramental obligation, which they sealed by
dipping their fingers in the blood of the deceased and licking the same, by
which they bound themselves under the penalty of eternal damnation never to
betray the fact themselves nor to confess, if condemned to die for it on the
evidence of others, and that they were further encouraged to such measures,
since, as Seamark himself was a confederate in the murder, they concluded the
evidence of his wife would not be admitted; that as the child was so young,
they presumed no judge or jury would pay the least regard to his depositions;
that as Butlin had but lately entered into a confederacy with them, and no
robberies could be readily proved against him, they thought it would appear
impossible for one of his age to begin a career of wickedness with murder (it
being observed in a proverb that no man is abandoned all at once); that if they
could invalidate the evidence on behalf of Butlin it must be of equal advantage
to them all; that though disappointed of this view in court and condemned to
die upon the above evidence, they were still infatuated with the same notion
even at the gallows, and expected a reprieve for Butlin when the halter was
about his neck, and consequently, if such a reprieve had been granted, as the
evidence was as full and decisive against Butlin as against them, the sentence
for the murder must have been withdrawn from all, their execution deferred, and
perhaps transportation only their final punishment,”
"In the pause that followed its
last speech, more to hear myself speak than anything else (I could not endure
the silence of this thing), I asked if the evidence of the woman and child was
clear, punctual and particular; to which it replied, 'It was as circumstantial,
distinct and methodical as possible; varying not in the least from truth in any
one particular of consequence, unless in the omission of their horrid sacrament
which she might possibly neither observe nor know.”'
I then asked why they had behaved
with such impropriety, impudence and clamour upon their trial; to which it
replied, ”that they had been somewhat elevated with liquor, privately conveyed
to them, and that by effrontery and a seemingly undaunted behaviour they hoped
to intimidate the WOMAN, throw her into confusion, perplex her depositions,
thereby rendering the evidence precarious and inconclusive, or at least give
the court some favourable presumptions of their innocence.
I next inquired whether they knew
the name of the person murdered, whence he came, and what reasons they had for
committing so horrid a barbarity.
To which the phantasm answered, ”that
the man was a perfect stranger to them all, that the murder was committed more
out of wantonness and the force of long-contracted habits of wickedness than
necessity, as they were at that time in no want of money; that they first found
occasion to quarrel with the pedlar ... that the man, being stout and undaunted,
resented their ill-usage, and in his own defence proceeded to blows; that two
only — Deacon and Croxford — were at first concerned, but finding him resolute,
they had called up Seamark and Butlin ... that they then all seized the pedlar, notwithstanding which he struggled with great
violence to the very last against their united efforts; nor did they think it
safe to trifle any longer with a man who gave such proofs of uncommon strength;
that with much difficulty they dragged him down to Seamark's yard and there
committed the murder as represented in court.”
"I next asked if there was any
licence in his bags or pockets, that they might discover his name or place of
abode.
"It replied, 'No! that the paper
left behind in its (Croxford's) writing was of a piece with the rest of their
conduct in this affair, a hardened untruth, abounding with reflections as
false, as scandalous and wicked, suggested by the Father of Lies, who had
gradually brought them from one step of iniquity to another, beginning first in
the violation of morality, to the place of purgatory in which they now were,'
"It further declared (a statement
that interested me greatly), 'That though their bodies were unaffected with
pain, their souls were in darkness, under all the dreadful apprehensions of
remaining there for eternity, far beyond what the liveliest imagination while
influenced by the weight and grossness of matter, can conceive; that their doom
had been not a little aggravated by their final impenitence, impiety and
profaneness in adjuring God by the most horrid imprecations to attest the truth
of a palpable and notorious falsehood, and by wishing that their own portion in
Eternity might be determined in consequence thereof. Language,' the apparition
said, was too weak to describe and mortality incapable of conceiving a
ten-thousandth part of their anguish and despair even at present, and happy
would it be for succeeding ages if Posterity could be induced to profit by
their misfortunes and be influenced by this account to avoid the punishment of
the Earth-bound.'
"All this the phantasm delivered
with such increased distinction and perspicuity, with such an emphasis and tone
of voice, as plainly evinced the truth of what it spoke and claimed my closest
attention and regard; and as it seemed to hint that I was singled out to
acquaint the world with these particulars I told it that the present age was
one of incredulity and agnosticism, that few gave credit to fables of this
kind, that the world would conclude me either a madman or impostor or brand me
with the odious imputations of superstition and enthusiasm, that, therefore,
true credentials would be necessary, not only to preserve my own character, but
also to procure respect and credit to my relations.
HANGED HE'LL BE WHO STEALS ME,
1745
"'That on perusing it,' the
apparition continued, 'it (Croxford) had been smitten with grave apprehensions,
and, thinking the words ominous, had buried the ring, hoping thus to elude the
sentence denounced at random against the unlawful possessor of it ... that if I
found not every particular in regard to this ring exactly as it related it to
me, then I might conclude there was not a single syllable of truth in the
whole, and consequently no obligation lay upon me to take any further concerns
in the affair.'
"Engaged in this interesting and
all-absorbing conversation, I suddenly became aware it was very late — the
silence throughout the house for the first time appalled me, and I was about to
make a movement towards the door to make sure all was safe without, when the
light from the lamp once again became normal. With a startled glance I looked
for the phantasm — it was gone; nor was there any other means by which it could
have taken its departure save by dematerialisation.
"Bitterly disappointed, my fears
being now entirely removed, at so abrupt a disappearance, I sat down very
calmly ... and was induced to conclude from the
coherence and punctuality of the account that it was impossible it should be
fiction or imposture. I laid particular stress upon the circumstance of the
ring, the singularity of its motto, and the minute description of the spot
where it was deposited.
"I considered, moreover, from the
tests I had made by shutting my eyes and pressing the balls with my forefinger,
that I had been perfectly awake, had had the full use both of my senses and
reason, and was as capable of knowing the figure and voice of a man as the size
and print of the book I was reading at the time the ghost made its appearance.
"In short, firmly persuaded of the
truth of what I had heard and seen, I resolved on the morrow to search for the
ring, and thereby clear it up beyond all possibility of doubt.
"Accordingly on Monday morning
early, between four and five o'clock, I set out alone, making directly to the
spot the phantasm had described; found the ring without the least difficulty or
delay; examined the motto and date of it, which corresponded exactly with his
account of it, and fully convinced me of my obligation to communicate to the
world the particulars of the whole.
"With this resolution, immediately
on my return I sat down and drew up the whole conversation as near as I could
recollect, neither omitting nor adding any circumstance of consequence in the
manner you now see it, and trusting it will prove of use to the public for
whose benefit it seems intended.”
