The Devil of Glenluce: the poltergeist in weaver Gilbert Campbell's house, Glenluce, 1654

Glenluce lies in Galloway, in the old parish of Old Luce. In the 1650s the weaver Gilbert Campbell lived there with his wife, Grissel Wyllie, and their children. Among them were a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Jennet.

The family traced their troubles to one man. Alexander Agnew, "a bold and sturdy Beggar", had threatened hurt to the household because he had not gotten the alms he required. After that, Campbell was often hindered in his work.

October 1654. Jennet went for water and heard "a shrill whistling about her ears". Then a voice. "I'll cast thee, Janet, into the well."

About the middle of November, stones came in at the doors, the windows and down the chimney. Great quantities, thrown with force. Not one person was hurt. The weaver's warp and threads were cut as if with scissors. So were coats, bonnets, hose and shoes, while the family wore them. At night their bedclothes were pulled away. Chests opened and their contents were strewn about. Twice the house was set on fire. Neighbours put out the flames.

Monday the 12th of February. The family first heard it speak, out of the ground from under the bed, in the proper country dialect. It quoted school Latin. It offered to name the witches of Glenluce. It called the gentleman Robert Hay "Witch and Warlock". "I have my Commission from Christ to tarry and vex this Family," it said. The minister, John Scott, answered: "A Permission thou hast indeed, but God will stop it in due time."

Only once was anything seen. A naked hand and an arm, from the elbow down, beat upon the floor until the house shook. Then a most fearful cry: "come up Father come up."

The minister held prayer meetings and sat up through vigils. In October 1655 the Synod of Galloway took up the case. In February 1656 a committee met at Glenluce for a day of humiliation. The family were told to speak only to God, never to the voice.

Agnew was hanged at Dumfries on 21 May 1656. The charge was blasphemy, not witchcraft. Asked whether he believed in God, he said "he knew no God but Salt, Meal, and Water."

George Sinclair printed the story in Hydrostaticks in 1672, then as Relation XI of Satan's Invisible World Discovered in 1685, as proof against atheism. His informant was a Campbell son studying philosophy at Glasgow. Andrew Lang later suggested the phenomena were produced fraudulently by Thomas Campbell. Thomas Frost blamed conjuring tricks. The voice knew grammar school Latin and could mimic a daughter. Yet the trouble went on while Thomas lodged with the minister, and Robert Baillie, writing independently in 1661, confirmed the stones, the fires and the cut webs. Even the informant is uncertain. Lang named Thomas. The historian Mark Jardine names his brother John.

Campbell lived several years more in the same house, in peace. Sinclair's book was reprinted again and again. And on mid-19th-century Ordnance Survey maps, east of the village, the names remained. Campbell's Croft. The De'il's Well. Ghaist Ha'.