By Kathy Murray
It was the early 1660s in Tedworth, now Tidworth, in Wiltshire, England. While his full name has been lost to history, the man known as Drury had once been a drummer in the army. Accused of forgery among other crimes, Drury was able to escape a prison sentence, but the presiding judge, John Mompesson, still confiscated Drury’s drum. Drury was outraged and demanded his drum back. However, the judge kept it and even took it home so that he could be sure that Drury wouldn’t be able to get his hands on it.
Bumps in the Night
After placing the drum in his house, judge Mompesson left his family at home while he attended to some business in London. When he returned, his wife immediately informed him that while he was gone, she and the children has been kept awake each night by all types of unexplainable noises. Not long after hearing this news, John Mompesson and the household were awakened by a loud knocking that came from one of the doors to the outside of the house. Armed with two pistols, John investigated, but as soon as he opened the door, the knocking ceased—only to start up again at a door on the other side of the house. John raced to that door and again, as soon as he opened it, the noise stopped. He found no one outside. When the family returned to their beds, the unmistakable sound of someone beating on a drum began. This time, the noise was coming from the roof!For more than a year, any time anyone in the house went to bed, even for a nap, the sound of drums would start. It turns out that this would be the least of the Mompessons’ problems.
Sleepless
Not long after the rooftop incident, the activity found its way into the house itself, starting with the room where Judge Mompesson had placed Drury’s drum. At first, the poltergeist proceeded to play numerous songs every night for hours on end, so loud that it would awaken people in nearby homes. Things progressed so that the poltergeist would raise and drop the beds of the children, while they were still in them, to the time of the drumming. Sometimes, scratching sounds could be heard from underneath the children’s beds, as if someone were lying under them and dragging long fingernails across the floor. Heavy footsteps could be heard throughout the house at all hours, chamber pots were emptied on beds, and sometimes, the Mompessons would pull back the covers to their beds, only to find a knife on top of their sheets.
Experiment
One day, as an experiment, John scattered ashes over the floor of one of the rooms. He locked it and came back later to find that the entity had left patterns, letters, foot and even claw prints in the ash. Horrible smells would also invade the house and objects would be hurled through the air by unseen hands. The servants were often attacked, and even guests who stayed the night regretted it. One woke up in the morning to find all the coins in his pocket had turned black. The story of the “ghost” of Tedworth spread and many people became witness to its antics while visiting the property. Eventually, Rev. Joseph Glanvil came to investigate the situation.
Voices from Nowhere
By the time Rev. Glanvil arrived, the poltergeist had already found its voice—literally. Not only could it make animal noises, it also delighted in singing. One night the voice appeared in children’s bedroom and declared itself, “A witch, a witch! I am a witch!” The voice repeated this exclamation for hours that night. The Reverend spent many nights at the house, but as hard as he tried to, he could not debunk the amazing things that played out in front of his eyes. If the Reverend asked the entity a question, it wouldn’t hesitate to reply out loud. For example, one night Rev. Glanvil asked the poltergeist what it wanted with him. A voice came from the air, replying that it wanted nothing from him.
The Firewood Incident
While there’s no doubt that thus far all of these events were baffling to anyone who witnessed them, perhaps the most head-scratching moment came one night when a piece of firewood began to levitate. John Mompesson raised his pistol and fired at the piece of wood. Suddenly the firewood crashed to the ground and drops of blood began to form a small puddle on the floor. As those in the room stood wide-eyed, the sound of running steps started from the spot where the blood was falling, making its way up the stairs and leaving behind not only the puddle of blood, but also a whole trail of it on the staircase.
His Fate Remains Uncertain
Drury, the man who had become so enraged when Mompesson confiscated his drum, was already a suspect in causing this mayhem. He eventually was found in a prison in another town. Drury was asked about his possible involvement, and he gleefully admitted that this was his revenge for having his drum taken away. But how could he have done these things? Even if he could make himself invisible during the nearly two years the Mompesson family was plagued by these events, Drury was confirmed to be either in jail or out of the country itself. Nonetheless, he was soon tried for witchcraft. As punishment, he was forced to leave England and to be confined in jail on one of its colonies. Some maintain that he never made it to the jail because the captain and crew of the ship that was supposed to take him there became so scared of him that they dropped Drury off somewhere along the way.