“Sir,—Having already borne my testimony to the occurrences of the night of the 15th ult. in the Parsonage at Syderstone, and finding that ventriloquism and other devices are now resorted to as the probable causes of them (and that, too, under the sanction of certain statements put forth in your last week’s paper), I feel myself called on to state publicly that, although a diligent observer of the different events which then took place, I witnessed no one circumstance which could induce me to indulge a conjecture that the knocks, vibrations, scratchings, groanings etc., which I heard, proceeded from any member of Mr. Stewart’s family, through the medium of mechanical or other trickery:—indeed, it would seem to me utterly impossible that the scratchings which fell under my observation during the night, in a remote room of the house, could be so produced, as, at that time, every member of Mr. Stewart’s family was removed a considerable distance from the spot.
“While making this declaration, I beg to state that my only object in bearing any part in this mysterious affair has been to investigate and to elicit the truth. I have ever desired to approach it without prejudging it—that is, with a mind willing to be influenced by facts alone,—without any inclination to establish either the intervention of human agency on the one hand, or of super-human agency on the other hand:—at the same time, it is but common honesty to state that Mr. Stewart expresses himself so fully conscious of his own integrity towards the public that he has resolved on suffering all the imputations and reflections which have been or which may be cast either upon himself or upon his family to pass without remark; and as he has, at different times and upon different occasions, so fully satisfied his own mind on the impossibility of the disturbances in question arising from the agency of any member of his own household (and from the incessant research he has made on this point, he himself must be the best judge), Mr. Stewart intends declining all future interruptions of his family, by the interference of strangers.
“Perhaps, Mr. Editor, your distant readers may not be aware that Mr. Stewart has not been resident at Syderstone more than fourteen months, while mysterious noises are now proved to have been heard in this house, at different intervals and in different degrees of violence, for the last thirty years and upwards. Most conclusive and satisfactory affidavits on this point are now in progress, of the completion of which you shall have notice in due time.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
“John Spurgin.
“Docking, June 7, 1833.”
(Norfolk Chronicle, June 15, 1833.)
These Declarations were inserted in the Norfolk Chronicle, June 22, 1833:—
“Syderstone Parsonage
“For the information of the public, as well as for the protection of the family now occupying the above residence from the most ungenerous aspersions, the subjoined documents have been prepared. These documents, it was proposed, should appear before the public as Affidavits, but a question of law having arisen as to the authority of the Magistrates to receive Affidavits on subjects of this nature, the Declarations hereunder furnished have been adopted in their stead. The witnesses whose testimony is afforded have been all separately examined—their statements, in every instance, have been most cheerfully afforded—and the solemn impression under which the evidence of some of them particularly has been recorded, has served to show how deeply the events in question have been fixed in their recollection. Without entering upon the question of Causes, one Fact, it is presumed, must be obvious to all (namely): That various inexplicable noises have been heard in the above residence, at different intervals, and in different degrees of violence, for many years before the present occupiers ever entered upon it: indeed, the Testimony of other respectable persons to this Fact might have been easily adduced, but it is not likely that any who are disposed to reject or question the subjoined evidence would be influenced by any additional Testimony which could be presented:—