ABSTRACT
On Wednesday, 1 June 1692, a young man, about fifteen years of age, went to his bed. He had no sooner lain down than he heard ‘a Hand sweeping on the wall’. Then it came ‘with a rushing noise on his beds-head’ and ‘stroaked him over the face twice very gently’. Opening his eyes he saw before him ‘an apparition of a woman cloathed in black apparel’. Following this eerie encounter, other members of his family reported seeing the apparition ‘in the same room with a lighted candle’. Perplexed by these unexplained visits, the mistress of this ‘Civiliz’d Family’ wrote to the editors of the bi-weekly periodical the Athenian Mercury. She desired to know ‘what should be the occasion of the disturbance’ and ‘whether it be advisable to ask the question of the apparition?’. 1 Samuel Wesley (father of John), Church of England minister and co-editor of the Mercury, advised the woman to speak to the ghost, find out its purpose and discover how it might be satisfied. 2
