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Paranormal record / 1591

The North Aston poltergeist: strange and wonderful accidents at Master George Lee's house (1591)

November 19, 1591 · House of Master George Lee, North Aston, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
25Thinly documented Paranormal Other 15 sources

North Aston, Oxfordshire. 19 November 1591. Inside the house of Master George Lee, stones began to fall at night, as if hurled through the roof. Yet when the roof was inspected, not a single tile was out of place. Over the months that followed, the household reported a great black thing like a dog standing upright at the door. A fire flashing into strange colours. Bedclothes plucked from a sleeper. Drops of blood that rose again on the hall table after being wiped away. A London pamphlet of 1592 told it all, illustrated with woodcuts and vouched for by the gentlemen of the county. It stands among the earliest detailed poltergeist accounts in English.

Context

In 1592 the London stationer Edward White printed a short anonymous pamphlet, *A True Discourse of Such Straunge and Woonderfull Accidents, as hapned in the House of M. George Lee of North-Aston, in the Countie of Oxford*. It carried woodcuts and claimed the affair was "well knowen to the honorable and worshipfull of Oxfordshire." According to the historian Piers Mucklejohn, who read it and retold it in 2025, the events were vouched for by Lee's family, the town's vicar and the county's High Sheriff. Only Lee himself is named.

Sources (15, most influential first)

  1. Three Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern England: From a Ghostly Lawyer to a Flying Devil · Early Modern Scribbling (Piers Mucklejohn)· 2025-04-21 · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
  2. A True Discourse of Such Straunge and Woonderfull Accidents... (catalogue record) · Folger Shakespeare Library · Academic / paper of record · academic
  3. Poltergeists (Overview) · Society for Psychical Research, Psi Encyclopedia · Research organisation · org report
  4. Poltergeists (Gauld & Cornell, 1979) · Google Books · Press, book, documentary · book
  5. North Aston · Wikipedia · Wiki, blog, podcast · wiki