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 |