Memorable Relations
The Following singular dream and spiritual apparition, were related by members of the Society of Friends and were given to me by a near relative who vouches for their accuracy. — “One night, Hannah W.—said she dreamed that she and her sister Alice were sitting together in her parlour when suddenly she perceived her mother, sometime deceased, standing outside the window and looking at them. She then appeared to pass into the room through the window, and to walk to a table that stood in the middle of the floor. On this table their father’s desk was always kept, seemingly locked. But now to H. W\s. surprise, her mother opened it and took out from among the papers, a letter which she read with evident distress. Closing the letter and laying it back in its place, she shut up the desk and crossed the room to the door. There she looked around upon her daughters and beckoned with her hand to them to follow her; they did so. She led the way to the end of a lobby where stood an oaken chest seldom or never opened, containing cast off and unused articles. Lifting the lid she stooped, and thrusting her hand down to the back of the chest, brought up a bag which seemed to contain money. Looking at it for a few seconds, she replaced it exactly where she found it, then shutting down the lid and turning an affectionate look on her daughters, passed away.
In the morning, Hannah W—told her dream to-her sister, and believing it had an intention beyond an ordinary dream, they determined to test it Their first visit was to the desk, which, to their surprise, they found unlocked, and opening it discovered, apparently, the very letter Hannah had seen in her dream—a letter written to their father by their step-mother, previous to her marriage—indeed, during the lifetime of their mother, thus establishing a fact that had been too patent though never made known to them by their mother, to her the cause of much misery, and by many believed to have hastened her end. That their own patrimony had been wasted by this woman they well knew, hut they were patient and dutiful, and had no means of redress. Laying the letter in its place, they proceeded to examine the oak chest. Just where their mother’s hand had indicated, a lag was found containing a considerable sum of money, inscribed, ‘for my dear daughters,’ a legacy which they felt sure had been secured to them by much personal sacrifice. Of course they considered it sacredly their own, and shortly after left their father’s home for other homes.
A lady residing in Cumberland, related as follows:—
‘Jane P—, a ministress among us, the Society of Friends, a native of Broughton, whose name is probably mentioned in the Journal of James Dickenson, also a minister, and a native of these parts, with whom I believe she sometimes travelled in the ministry, lived here with her brother Peter P—, a friend of the yeoman class. Peter died, and was buried in the old burying ground between Maryport and Broughton, still belonging to Friends, known by the name of ‘The Sepulchre,’ Jane P—, and her sisters continual to live here, inheriting, in common with some other members of the family, the land left by Peter. Sometime after the death of the latter, a neighbor who, whether sailor or not I cannot say, bad been to sea. and who did not know of Peter—’s death, landed at Maryport, and set off to walk home to Broughton, some four miles or less. It was a moonlight night, and on passing a gate between ‘The Sepulchre’, and Broughton, the man saw Peter P, exactly as he had often done, standing at the gate; he not knowing of Peter's death, felt of course no surprise, but made some remark to him, on which Peter P, said. ‘Wilt thou tell my sister Jane I want to speak to her here, and I wish her to come immediately?’ I suppose it would be about hi teen minutes walk from the village. The man went on and gave the message, which was received by his sister with great surprise but with no fear. She merely replied, ‘Very well,’ dressed herself and went to the place indicated, and there remained sometime to the surprise of her family, who however do not seemed to have questioned her much. They were possibly accustomed to accept Jane's movements as right, without reason asked or given. A short time afterward a held was sold by Jane, and a sum of money paid by her to the person from whom her brother had bought the held, without further explanation than that the money was owing to bias, but she had not known it until the night in question. It was said by her family that Jane returned home in a very solemn and weighty spirit, but gave them no explanation or account of what the had seen or heard, only that she believed it was right to aet as she had done about the held.’
“This was told to me when a child by an aunt of my own on passing the said ‘Sepulchre.’ not as a wonderful story, but as a simple and undoubted fact, and as such I beard it and believed it"
Editor's notes
Sources
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Spiritual Scientist, v. 1, No. 22, February 4, 1875, p. 254