The Drummer of Tedworth is one of the first reported poltergeist hauntings in England, recorded by the clergyman Joseph Glanvill in his book A Blow at Modern Sadducism. In Some Philosophical Considerations about Witchcraft (1668) and in his demonological treatise Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions, published posthumously in 1681.^[1][2]

Early accounts report that in March 1662 a local landowner who lived in Tedworth,^[a]Now called Tidworth. Wiltshire, John Mompesson, brought a lawsuit against an unlicensed vagrant drummer, William Drury, whom he accused of collecting money by false pretences. Mompesson had the man arrested, and his drum confiscated. It was turned over to Mompesson by the local bailiff, and Mompesson then found his house plagued by nocturnal drumming noises, which it was alleged that Drury was causing by the use of witchcraft.^[2][3] The family also reportedly experienced scratchings, sulphurous and other smells, strange lights and objects being thrown around the room.^[3]

As news of the phantom drummer spread, Mompesson received curious visitors from across the country, including the architect Christopher Wren and the clergyman Joseph Glanvill, who conducted an investigation into the haunting, marking him as one of the earliest ghost hunters.^[1] It is unclear how long the phenomenon persisted, but it seems to have disappeared in 1663. Mompesson had complained in his letters that the disturbances caused by his visitors meant that he was inhibited from going about his normal business, and he was reluctant to leave his wife alone in the house at night.^[2]

John Wesley refers to a possible explanation for the reported cessation of the drumming in his journal:

Interpretation

Charles Mackay, in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), considered the phenomena to be a hoax produced by confederates of the drummer.^[5] The American writer and sceptic Amos Norton Craft also suggested that the phenomena were the result of trickery:

The Canadian journalist and psychical researcher Addington Bruce argued that the phenomenon was fraudulently manufactured by Mompesson’s own children, especially his eldest daughter, a girl of ten. Bruce wrote that the noises and movement of objects were reminiscent of pranks, and often occurred in the children’s bedroom. Bruce noted that Glanvill “passed only one night in the haunted house, and of his several experiences there is none that cannot be set down to fraud plus imagination, with the children the active agents.”^[7] His suggestion was echoed by Andrew Lang of the Society for Psychical ResearchRegistered charity founded in 1882 to conduct scientific investigations into psychic and paranormal phenomena., who wrote that “the Drummer was suspected, but, consciously or not, the children were probably the agents.”^[8]