Drummer of Tedworth

The Drummer of Tedworth is a report of supernatural activity by Joseph Glanvill in the West Country of England, in his Saducismus Triumphatus. The book's Latin title Saducismus Triumphatus means The Defeat of Sadducism or more accurately 'The Triumph over Saducism'. The Sadducees denied the existence of the soul and possibility of life after death, thus contradicting the doctrines of Christ. As anti-Christ, they were seen by Glanvill as the cohorts of Satan. Although Glanvill's opinions were close to those of a modern sceptic he was a firm believer in witchcraft, contrary to Webster's sceptical rationalism.

In 1668, Glanvill published one of the earlier versions of Saducismus Triumphatus, his A Blow at Modern Sadducism ... To which is added, The Relation of the Fam'd Disturbance by the Drummer, in the House of Mr. John Mompesson. The tale Glanvill told was that a local landowner, John Mompesson, owner of a house in the town of Tedworth (now called Tidworth, in Wiltshire), had brought a lawsuit against a local drummer, whom he accused of extorting money by false pretences. After he had won judgment against the drummer and confiscated his drum, he found his house plagued by nocturnal drumming noises. It was assumed that the drummer had brought these plagues of noise upon Mompesson's head by witchcraft. The story is considered by some to be an early account of the activity of a poltergeist, a mischievous spirit that makes noises unexplainable except by supernatural causes.

Charles Mackay, in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), considers the entire story a hoax. The story is more complex than Mackay suggests, and the way in which the narratives developed together with hitherto undiscovered extant sources by Michael Hunter demonstrate how the tale became a point of conflict between Restoration science and superstition.^[1]

References

1. ^ Hunter, Michael (2005) New light on the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’: conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England. Historical Research 78 (201) 311-353.]