Paranormal record / 1682
Sunday, 11 June 1682. Night on Great Island, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Stones began to rain on the roof and walls of George Walton's tavern. They kept coming for about four hours. Then they came indoors, with the doors shut. Windows shattered outwards, as if struck from within. A hammer, a spit and a candlestick moved on their own. Some stones were "as hot as if they came out of the fire." It went on for about three months. One of those watching was Richard Chamberlayne, Secretary of the Province of New Hampshire. Sixteen years later he published his account. He called it Lithobolia: or, the Stone-Throwing Devil.
Great Island sits at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Today it is New Castle, New Hampshire. In 1682 its largest landowner was George Walton, a Quaker tavern keeper. He had enemies. His faith was technically criminal, and he was locked in a 30-year boundary feud with a neighbour, later named as the elderly widow Hannah Jones. His lodger was Richard Chamberlayne, Secretary of the Province of New Hampshire.