Written by David Caldwell · 7 August 2025

The Sampford Ghost: An Investigation Into a Victorian Poltergeist Phenomenon

Based on contemporary accounts from 1810–1811 and later retrospectives

BACKGROUND

The events known collectively as the "Sampford Ghost" occurred in the village of Sampford Peverell, near Tiverton, Devon, in 1810. The phenomenon took place in a house formerly owned by a Mrs Bellamy and leased in 1810 by a Mr Chave. After moving into the property, Mr Chave reported a series of unexplained disturbances, including loud noises, violent knocks, and physical assaults experienced by his female servants.

The house, known locally as "Ghost House," was situated in Higher Town, Sampford Peverell. It was a cob and thatch building, believed to be one of the oldest in the village, with construction dating back nearly 400 years. It featured eight rooms and included a shop, and had previously been the home of a tenant named Bellamy, whose name was scratched into the windowpanes and perpetuated in parish folklore.

Map showing the location of the Ghost House (Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland)

The property stood in the shadow of St John's Church, a 13th-century building surrounded by cottages, walled gardens, and an old structure bearing a Royal coat of arms now embedded in the wall of a nearby outbuilding. A plaque on the wall commemorates a high cross removed before 1701, suggesting this location held religious or civic significance. The layout and age of the surrounding buildings, including ivy-clad houses and outbuildings with narrow passages, gave the village a natural atmosphere for ghost stories to flourish.

INITIAL ACCOUNTS

The Kentish Gazette (7 September 1810) reported the testimony of an 18-year-old servant named Sally, who claimed to have felt an invisible presence slap her through her bedsheets. She also reported seeing a "perfectly white" man's hand and arm emerge through the sheets. These phenomena were allegedly limited to times when the room was dark and when only women were present.

PUBLIC INTEREST

The case drew considerable public interest. Reports from the General Evening Post (18 September 1810) and Hampshire Chronicle (29 October 1810) describe investigators and clergymen visiting the house to observe the reported phenomena. One Reverend Charles Colton published a sworn affidavit in the York Herald (1 September 1810), claiming that he had witnessed and could not explain the events. He collected testimony from over 20 witnesses, many of them independent and unrelated to the Chave household.

One such account describes loud blows to the bed, pins being found stuck into bedclothes, and loud knocking sounds. A man named Mr Quick, described as physically strong, attested under oath that the knocks he heard could not have been produced by any person present.

MEDIA COVERAGE AND THEORIES

The Taunton Courier (18 October 1810) published an extensive account, including statements from clergy and lay witnesses. Some began to speculate that the events were the result of fraud. The newspaper included details of an inspection that found a hollow beneath a bed and a suggestion that a concealed individual may have been responsible for the noises. There were unsubstantiated and racially prejudiced claims of a hidden Black accomplice.

Despite this, no conclusive evidence of a hoax was found at the time. The Examiner (17 February 1811) noted that the tenant had still not vacated the property, despite commercial losses, and that the phenomena continued to occur in the same room.

One controversial theory, published decades later, accused Reverend Charles Colton, the same clergyman who had sworn under oath that he could find no natural cause, of orchestrating the events himself. A lecture reported in the Southern Times and Dorset County Herald (3 February 1855) claimed Colton had used an early electrical machine to simulate the ghostly phenomena. According to this retrospective account, Colton later published a pamphlet offering a £250 reward to anyone who could solve the mystery, possibly as a diversion.

The same article notes that Colton eventually left his post and became a wine and spirit merchant in London, where he fell into destitution. It also speculates that his intimate knowledge of electrical contraptions and solitary habits made him particularly suited to deceive.

If this account is to be believed, the haunting may have been an elaborate ruse, possibly intended to boost Colton’s notoriety, undermine a rival, or test the credulity of the public. The idea that the clergy, trusted moral authorities, could be the architects of deception gives this tale its peculiar sting.

THE RIOT OF 1811

The story of the Sampford Ghost took a deadly turn during the annual fair in April 1811, when tensions over the alleged haunting erupted into violence. A large group of labourers, many employed in excavating the Grand Western Canal, had gathered in Sampford Peverell, already riled up by disputes over unpaid wages. Recognising Mr. Chave, who had been actively investigating and exposing the ghost as a fraud, over 300 rioters marched to his home. Threats were shouted, windows were broken, and the atmosphere turned violent. In self-defence, Mr. Chave fired a pistol from within the house, killing one man instantly. Another man, severely beaten by the mob, later died. The coroner's inquest declared the shooting "justifiable homicide," and although tensions simmered, the riot marked a chilling end to the ghost story's hold over the village.

ECHOES OF OTHER HAUNTINGS: CALEB COLTON AND BOURLEY RECTORY

The strange case of the Sampford Peverell ghost was not an isolated incident in the haunted annals of early 19th-century England. The mysterious knockings, disembodied voices, and objects hurled across rooms echoed the disturbances at Borley Rectory in Norfolk, where similar poltergeist phenomena gripped the local clergy with fear. Rev. Caleb Colton of Tiverton became deeply involved in the Sampford mystery. Drawn by both spiritual and sensational interest, he offered a reward of £100 for the solution to the ghostly puzzle. In one published account, Colton described witnessing a sword fly from a man’s grasp, bedcurtains twisted into knots, and a candlestick flung across the room, all within Mr. Chave’s afflicted house. Whether true or exaggerated, such stories fed the growing hysteria that ultimately ended in rioting and bloodshed.

But Colton’s own story would turn out to be more tragic than spectral. Initially a respected clergyman and pamphleteer, he later fled England amid suspicions of involvement in the ghost fraud and other improprieties. He kept questionable company, criminal associates who would later be hanged for murder, and found himself drawn into the world of gambling and deceit. In 1832, facing the grim prospect of early surgery without anaesthetic, Colton took his own life in a Paris hotel. The man who once stood at the centre of the Sampford ghost inquiry had become a spectral figure himself, haunted not by spirits, but by disgrace, pain, and the company he kept.

Borley Rectory was largely destroyed by fire in 1939 but for the Sampford Ghost House the end came sooner.

THE FIRE THAT ENDED THE HAUNTING

On Wednesday, 11 September 1929, the house long known as "Ghost House" was destroyed by fire, bringing a dramatic end to over a century of local superstition and whispered tales. At the time, it was one of the oldest buildings in Sampford Peverell, a cob and thatch dwelling believed to be nearly 400 years old.

The blaze began around 10 a.m. and quickly engulfed the thatched roof. Despite the best efforts of the Tiverton Fire Brigade, the fire spread rapidly due to the building’s age and construction materials. Firemen worked tirelessly under the command of Lieutenant Hayley, drawing water from a nearby pond. The house was already well alight by the time the brigade arrived, and part of the roof had already collapsed.

Efforts were made to protect neighbouring properties, including the thatched roof of May Cottage. Firefighters had to climb onto narrow roofs and break through partitions to prevent the flames from spreading. Nearby homes were evacuated, and furniture from adjoining houses was moved in haste to avoid further losses.

No casualties were reported, but the complete destruction of Ghost House marked the final chapter in the Sampford poltergeist story. With the structure reduced to rubble, the last visible link to the mysterious events of 1810 was gone. Locals saw the fire not just as a tragedy, but as a symbolic cleansing, the haunting that had plagued the village for over a century was finally laid to rest.

LATER REFLECTIONS

A letter in the Western Morning News (15 March 1934) reflects on the Sampford Ghost as a folkloric tale. It describes it as a "goblin sprite" and notes the phenomena reportedly lasted for three years. No definitive explanation was ever produced.

CONCLUSION

The Sampford Ghost was one of the most widely reported poltergeist events in early 19th-century England. While a hoax remains the most likely explanation, no perpetrator was ever identified, and the case remained unresolved. It reflects the complex intersection of belief, gender, folklore, and social tension during a period of rapid societal change.

The suggestion that the instigator may have been a clergyman, and one who swore an oath of truth, adds an additional layer of intrigue. Whether Rev. Colton was a sincere believer, a victim of mass hysteria, or the mastermind of the entire affair, his central role makes the Sampford Ghost a unique episode in the history of English hauntings, and one of the most mysterious poltergeist stories ever documented.

SOURCES

• Kentish Gazette, 7 Sept. 1810
• General Evening Post, 18 Sept. 1810
• York Herald, 1 Sept. 1810
• Hampshire Chronicle, 29 Oct. 1810
• Taunton Courier, 18 Oct. 1810
• The Examiner, 17 Feb. 1811
• Western Morning News, 15 March 1934
• Southern Times and Dorset County Herald, 3 Feb. 1855
•  Tiverton Gazette (Mid-Devon Gazette), 23 September 1919
• Tiverton Gazette, 17 Sept. 1929
• Express & Echo, Sept. 1929

The house at the centre of the Sampford Ghost haunting stood opposite the Methodist Chapel and on the west of the school on Higher Town in Sampford Peverell. Though the building itself has since been destroyed, georeferencing old photographs and maps have confirmed the exact site.

The Sampford Peverell Society has a detailed article on the ghost and many excellent resources on the village’s history.