Sir,

I last week received a letter from a learned friend, the minister of
Barnstable in Devon, which I think worthy your perusal.  It was dated
May 3, 1683, and is as follows. (He was of my time in Queen’s
College, Cambridge.)

There having been many prodigious things performed lately in a parish adjoining to that which Bishop Sparrow presented me to, called Cheriton-Bishop, by some discontented daemon, I can easily remember, that I owe you an account thereof, in lieu of that which you desired of me, and which I could not serve you in.

About November last, in the parish of Spreyton in the county of Devon, there appeared in a field near the dwelling house of Philip Furze, to his servant Francis Pry, being of the age of twenty-one, next August, an aged gentleman with a pole in his hand, and like that he was wont to carry about with him when living, to kill moles withal, who told the young man he should not be afraid of him; but should tell his master, i. e. his son, that several legacies that he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one, ten shillings to another, &c.  Pry replied, that the party he last named was dead.  The Spectrum replied, he knew that, but said it must be paid to (and named) the next relation.  These things being performed, he promised he would trouble him no further.  These small legacies were paid accordingly.  But the young man having carried twenty shillings ordered by the Spectrum to his sister Mrs. Furze, of the parish of Staverton near Totness, which money the gentlewoman refused to receive, being sent her, as she said, from the Devil.  The same night Fry lodging there, the Spectrum appeared to him again, whereupon Fry challenged his promise not to trouble him, and said he had done all he desired him; but that Mrs. Furze would not receive the money.  The Spectrum replied, that is true indeed; but bid him ride to Totness and buy a ring of that value, and that she would take.  Which was provided for her and received by her.  Then Fry rode homewards attended by a servant of Mrs. Furze.  But being come into Spreyton parish, or rather a little before, he seemed to carry an old gentlewoman behind him, that often threw him off his horse, and hurried him with such violence, as astonished all that saw him, or heard how horridly the ground was beaten; and being come into his master’s yard, Pry’s horse (a mean beast) sprung at once twenty-five feet.  The trouble from the man-spectre ceased from this time.  But the old gentlewoman, Mrs. Furze, Mr. Furze’s second wife, whom the Spectre at his first appearance to Fry, called, that wicked woman my wife, (though I knew her, and took her for a very good woman) presently after appears to several in the house, viz. to Fry, Mrs. Thomasin Gidley, Anne Langdon, born in my parish, and to a little child which was forced to be removed from the house; sometimes in her own shape, sometimes in shapes more horrid, as of a dog belching fire, and of a horse,