“Dear Sam.,—As for the noises, &c., in our family, I thank God, we are now all quiet. There were some surprising circumstances in that affair. Your mother has not written you a third part of it. When I see you here, you shall see the whole account, which I wrote down. It would make a glorious penny book for Jack Dunton; but, while I live, I am not ambitious for anything of that nature. I think that is all, but blessings from—your loving father, Sam. Wesley.”
This, however, was far from being the last of old Jeffrey’s tricks. At the end of March following, it made Mr Wesley’s trencher dance upon the table;[[221]] and, on the 31st of that month, after midnight, it opened the dining-room door, where Emilia and the servant-maid were sitting; then shut it; and then began to knock as usual.[[222]] Indeed, thirty-four years after this, Emilia, who was then Mrs Harper, speaks of still being visited by old Jeffrey, when she was about to be visited by any new affliction;[[223]] and it is reported that even as lately as within the last few years, the then rector of Epworth and his family were residing in London, owing to the repetition of the noises first heard a hundred and fifty years ago in the world-renowned Epworth parsonage.[[224]]
But who was old Jeffrey? At first, Mrs Wesley thought it was the spirit of one of her three sons, Samuel, John, and Charles, then at school in London and Westminster; then she believed it to be the rioting of rats; and, finally, she supposed it betokened the death of her brother, Samuel Annesley, at that time resident in India.
In reply to all this, it may be stated, that the three young Wesleys lived for many a long year after this; it was impossible for freakish or frantic rats to perform all the tricks performed by old Jeffrey; and, finally, the death of Samuel Annesley did not occur until about eight years after Jeffrey began his disturbances.
Samuel Wesley, jun., made the strictest inquiries, and evidently believed it to be a spirit, but for what purpose sent he was unable to conjecture. He writes: “As to my particular opinion concerning the events foreboded by these noises, I cannot, I must confess, form any. I think, since it was not permitted to speak, all guesses must be vain.”[[225]]
Some have suspected, that it might be all a trick performed by the servants of the family; but then the noises were often heard by the family when all the servants were present with them.
Miss Susannah Wesley, and her sisters Emilia, Mary, Mehetabel, and Anne, seem to have had no doubt that the whole affair was supernatural; and the youngest of these five sisters was now fourteen years of age, and therefore able to form something like a correct opinion.
The Rev. Mr Hoole appears to have thought the same, for he prevented Mr Wesley firing his pistol at the spirit, lest the spirit should thereby obtain power to retaliate and injure him.
John Wesley believed that it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet his father, for the rash vow he made, fifteen years before, and for his leaving his wife for a twelvemonth, because she refused to pray for King William.[[226]] We should not quarrel with Mr Wesley for thinking that old Jeffrey was a messenger of Satan; but the fact he mentions, on account of which the messenger was sent, is to a great extent fiction, as we have already shown; and, even were it true, to assign it as a reason for the coming of old Jeffrey, is simply silly and absurd.
Dr Priestley thinks the whole affair was a trick of the servants, assisted by some of their neighbours, for the purpose of puzzling the family, and amusing themselves;[[227]] but how is such a theory to be reconciled with the clashing of bottles beneath the stairs, the repeated appearances of the badger without a head, the sound of the peck of money poured from Mrs Wesley’s waist, the noises occurring not only at night but also in the day, the invariable thumping when Mr Wesley prayed for the king and prince, the dancing of Mr Wesley’s trencher, his being thrice violently pushed by an unseen power, the fact that the sound frequently seemed to be in the air in the middle of a room, and that however much the Wesleys tried to produce an imitation of the sound, none of them could succeed in doing so. These are difficulties, which those who adopt Dr Priestley’s opinion are bound satisfactorily to explain.