| Mr Mompesson was a magistrate who lived in Tedworth, as Tidworth was then known.
In March 1661, while on business in Ludgershall, he heard a drum beating and, wondering what was happening, sent for the local Bailiff to find out. The Bailiff informed him that the town had been plagued in this way
for some time by a vagrant with a drum who had once served in Cromwell’s army. |
| When questioned, the drummer indignantly insisted that he had every right to play his drum since he had a warrant entitling him to do so.
Mr Mompesson saw at once that the warrant was a forgery. He ordered the drummer to be arrested by the Constable and
the drum to be confiscated and kept by the Bailiff. The drummer begged to be able to keep the drum, but his request was denied. |
| The following month, the drummer was released from prison but his drum was taken to
Mr Mompesson’s house in Tedworth. When Mr Mompesson returned home from business in London he found his household upset by strange
drumming noises, knockings and disturbing incidents which continued,
unexplained, for a couple of years. |
| These strange events were witnessed and meticulously recorded
at the time by a Dr Joseph Glanvil. Stories of ghosts and poltergeists
spread like wildfire. Charles II even sent a special Royal Commission to the house but it failed to discover the cause of the ghostly disturbances. There was talk of witchcraft, a serious crime in those days. |
| The strange drummings at the house mysteriously ceased when the Drummer was again arrested in 1663 on charges of stealing. He was found guilty at Salisbury Assizes and sent to Gloucester gaol where he
unwisely boasted to a visitor that it was indeed he who had been causing the disturbances to occur at
Mr Mompesson’s house because he had confiscated his drum. |
| At the trial there were many witnesses to what had happened. The drummer was found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to be transported for life. |
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But there is no record of what happened to the drum ... ...
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Find
out more about the story at the Library !
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Stay with the beat ! |
