GHOSTS & HAUNTINGS · UK HISTORICAL CASE
Location: Sampford Peverell village area, Devon, England
Period: Disturbances publicised from 1810 into the following years
At John Chave’s house, visitors stamped on a floor and heard answering blows. The disturbances later centred on beds, curtains and objects, drawing a clergyman, local professionals and hostile public attention into the case. C. C. Colton’s published defence made Sampford Peverell one of the best-known early nineteenth-century household hauntings in Devon.
A house near Tiverton becomes the centre of attention
Ingram’s compilation locates the events in Sampford Peverell, about five miles from Tiverton, in a house occupied by John Chave. Before the main outbreak, an apprentice is said to have reported a woman’s apparition and unusual night noises. The sustained disturbances begin around April 1810, with loud sounds heard throughout the house, including by day.
The noises appear responsive. Someone stamps several times upstairs and hears a louder sequence in reply, sometimes with extra blows. People in separate rooms report the response shifting between them. Dust rises from the boards and vibration is felt through their footwear. In the account, the disturbance is experienced as something which answers an action, not simply an intermittent creak or a figure seen once.
Knocking gives way to more alarming episodes
After approximately five weeks, the narrative shifts towards the sleeping rooms. Several women report violent blows while in bed. Ann Mills is named as having a swelling on her cheek and making a statement that she had been alone when struck. The account also names members of the Dennis and Woodbury families among those affected.
Chave describes frightened servants bringing their bed into his and his wife’s room. Once the light is out, a large iron candlestick allegedly moves and is thrown past his head. Another watcher, the gaol keeper Mr Searle, reports a sword thrown from a bed despite a large Testament having been placed upon it. Mr Taylor describes seeing a sword suspended before it falls. Each episode is attached to its reported observer rather than combined into one anonymous list of wonders.
Colton, the surgeon and the exciseman
Colton’s role goes beyond publishing a story heard from neighbours. In the account he attends the house, listens through nights and questions those involved. A surgeon named Govett and an exciseman named Sully appear among those before whom statements are made. Colton says he has heard hundreds of blows and observed the effects attributed to them.
He also describes the bed curtains being agitated even after they are tied into large knots. Rings rattle, the knotted material moves violently and a tearing sound is followed by the discovery of a rent in a new cotton curtain. Other witnesses are named for this episode. The household furnishings become both the scene of the reported activity and the material through which observers try to describe it.
An attempt to control the building
Colton’s voluntary affidavit says that he attended for six nights and sealed doors, cavities and possible routes of communication with a crest. He also questioned the domestics under oath. His stated aim was to discover the cause and check whether an unnoticed person could be producing the effects.
Mr Quick’s account gives a more immediate example. Hearing rapping from the opposite side of a partly open door, he suddenly opens it while carrying a candle and sees nobody. He also describes sounds like slippered footsteps descending the stairs. These are descriptions of what the watchers tried and what they perceived, useful details for understanding the investigation’s practical approach.
The argument escapes the house
A proposed explanation attributes the noise to a cooper using a broomstick and bludgeon. Ingram associates this with the landlord, Mr Talley, and records that those who made the earlier statements did not accept it. Public feeling became dangerous for Chave: the compilation says he narrowly escaped violence from a crowd in Tiverton.
Colton continued his defence in notes to Hypocrisy, a Satire. He challenged the suggestion that Chave wanted to buy the property cheaply, describing instead the family’s attempts to find another home. He also referred to a reward of £250 for information leading to discovery, including £100 he himself offered. The case became an argument about trust, motives and public reputation as well as an investigation of sounds and moving objects.
Following the published account
Ingram identifies Colton’s 1810 Narrative of the Sampford Ghost as the central source, supplemented by his later writing. This case follows that nineteenth-century source trail rather than treating every subsequent appearance in a ghost collection as another investigation. Its chronology includes both the original outbreak and the continuing public dispute.
The map marks the village area because the precise historic house has not been securely matched here to a current property. A modern village photograph provides geographical context. The fullest surviving interest is in the sequence: an apprentice’s early report, answering knocks, increasingly intrusive bedroom experiences, organised watching and a controversy which followed the occupants beyond their front door.
Timeline
Before April 1810 — apprentice’s reported apparition and noises in the later account.
Around April 1810 — sustained answering knocks begin.
1810 — Colton publishes Narrative of the Sampford Ghost.
Following years — further disturbances, disputed explanations and reward offers enter Colton’s later writing.
Later nineteenth century — Ingram compiles the narrative and named statements in Haunted Homes.
Sources and further reading
John H. Ingram, Haunted Homes, “Sampford Peverell”, pages 548–555
Public-domain compilation drawing explicitly on Colton’s 1810 pamphlet and later notes; named witnesses, affidavits, attempts at control and competing explanations.
Location note
Village-area pin. The historical Chave house has not been confidently identified with a present-day dwelling.
Map location source · Checked 4 November 2026.
Related cases
Stockwell, 1772: the flying crockery, the fleeing household and Ann Robinson
Willington Mill: the Tyneside haunting and Dr Drury’s night watch