Briggs's evidence may be condensed very much, as the learned Mrs.
Crowe quotes it correctly in her Night Side of Nature. In March,
1791, about nine a.m., Briggs was riding a horse that had belonged
to Harris. In a lane adjoining the field where Harris was buried,
the horse shied, looked into the field where the tomb was, and
'neighed very loud'. Briggs now saw Harris coming through the
field, in his usual dress, a blue coat. Harris vanished, and the
horse went on. As Briggs was ploughing, in June, Harris walked by
him for two hundred yards. A lad named Bailey, who came up, made no
remark, nor did Harris tell him about the hallucination. In August,
after dark, Harris came and laid his arms on Briggs's shoulder.
Briggs had already spoken to James Harris, 'brither to the corp,'
about these and other related phenomena, a groan, a smack on the
nose from a viewless hand, and so forth. In October Briggs saw
Harris, about twilight in the morning. Later, at eight o'clock in
the morning, he was busy in the field with Bailey, aforesaid, when
Harris passed and vanished: Bailey saw nothing. At half-past nine,
the spectre returned, and leaned on a railing: Briggs vainly tried
to make Bailey see him. Briggs now crossed the fence, and walked
some hundreds of yards with Harris, telling him that his will was
disputed. Harris bade Briggs go to his aforesaid brother James, and
remind him of a conversation they had held, 'on the east side of the
wheat-stacks,' on the day when Harris's fatal illness began. James
remembered the conversation, and said he would fulfil his brother's
desire which he actually did. There was a later interview between
Briggs and Harris, the matter then discussed Briggs declined to
impart to the court, and the court overruled the question. 'He had
never related to any person the last conversation, and never would.'
Bailey was sworn, and deposed that Briggs had called his attention
to Harris, whom _he_ could not see, had climbed the fence, and
walked for some distance, 'apparently in deep conversation with some
person. Witness saw no one.'
It is plain that the ghost never really understood the legal
question at issue. The dates are difficult to reconcile. Thomas
Harris died in 1790. His ghost appeared in 1791. Why was there no
trial of the case till 'about 1798 or 1799'? Perhaps research in
the Maryland records would elucidate these and other questions; we
do but give the tale, with such authority as it possesses. Possibly
it is an elaborate hoax, played off by Nicholson, the plaintiffs'
counsel, on the correspondent of The Opera Glass, or by him on the
editor of that periodical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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