Sarah Tillinghast

In Exeter, Stukeley Tillinghast, nicknamed "Snuffy Stuke" for the brown color of the jacket he wore, had married, worked hard on his new farm, and produced a large family. By 1799, Snuffy Stuke had a prosperous farm and fourteen children. All was going well until the night that he dreamed he had an orchard, which indeed he did, and that exactly half of the trees died. At first, Snuffy Stuke could not decipher the meaning of his dream, but before long its meaning became clear. Sarah, his oldest and most beautiful daughter, died of galloping consumption. Soon after, a second daughter became ill, just as Sarah had. But there was a new and disturbing complaint from the second child: Sarah came at night and "sat upon some portion of the body, causing great pain and misery." So it went, until one after another of Snuffy Stuke's children had sickened and died. By the time his wife began to complain of Sarah's nightly visits, six of the Tillinghast children had died and a seventh was ill.

Text © Dr. Michael Bell