DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70300#0120
96 kirby’s wonderful museum.
REMARKABLE TOKENS BEFORE DEATH.
Mr. Zachariah Pearce, aged 21, died at Cranbrook,
Kent, October 17, 1786. The following remarkable occur-
rences are related as matters of fact, which can be attested
by many persons in Cranbrook. Mr. W. Pearce, the father
of the above Zachariah, died of a frenzy fever, November
30, 1785. Sometime before he died, a small bird, of the
dish-water kind, came often every day, and pecked hard
against the chariiber window where Mr. Pearce lay sick.
The window was set open, to try if the bird would enter
the room, but it did not; and means were used to catch it,
but in vain. The bird continued to come and do the same,
till Mr. Pearce died, and was buried, and then it ceased to
return. Since the above Zachariah Pearce was taken ill,
the same bird, or one of the like kind, frequented his cham-
ber window, and continued to do so occasionally to the
time of his death. A similar circumstance occurred in the
same parish, about two years and a half before. These are
real facts.
Something not dissimilar to this is related in one of
Howell’s letters, dated July 1, 1684. “As I passed by St.
Dunstan’s, in Fleet-street, I stepped into a stone-cutter’s to
treat with the master for a stone to be put upon my father’s
tomb; and casting my eyes up and dowm, I espied a huge
marble, with a large inscription upon it, which was thus, to
the best of my remembrance :—
4 Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in whose
chamber, as he was struggling with the pangs of death, a
bird with a white breast was seen fluttering about his bed,
and so vanished.
4 Here lies also, Mary Oxenham, sister of the said John,
who died the next day, and the same apparition was seen in
the room.
4 Here lies, hard by, James Oxenham, the son of the said
John, who died a child in his cradle, a little after, and such
REMARKABLE TOKENS BEFORE DEATH.
Mr. Zachariah Pearce, aged 21, died at Cranbrook,
Kent, October 17, 1786. The following remarkable occur-
rences are related as matters of fact, which can be attested
by many persons in Cranbrook. Mr. W. Pearce, the father
of the above Zachariah, died of a frenzy fever, November
30, 1785. Sometime before he died, a small bird, of the
dish-water kind, came often every day, and pecked hard
against the chariiber window where Mr. Pearce lay sick.
The window was set open, to try if the bird would enter
the room, but it did not; and means were used to catch it,
but in vain. The bird continued to come and do the same,
till Mr. Pearce died, and was buried, and then it ceased to
return. Since the above Zachariah Pearce was taken ill,
the same bird, or one of the like kind, frequented his cham-
ber window, and continued to do so occasionally to the
time of his death. A similar circumstance occurred in the
same parish, about two years and a half before. These are
real facts.
Something not dissimilar to this is related in one of
Howell’s letters, dated July 1, 1684. “As I passed by St.
Dunstan’s, in Fleet-street, I stepped into a stone-cutter’s to
treat with the master for a stone to be put upon my father’s
tomb; and casting my eyes up and dowm, I espied a huge
marble, with a large inscription upon it, which was thus, to
the best of my remembrance :—
4 Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in whose
chamber, as he was struggling with the pangs of death, a
bird with a white breast was seen fluttering about his bed,
and so vanished.
4 Here lies also, Mary Oxenham, sister of the said John,
who died the next day, and the same apparition was seen in
the room.
4 Here lies, hard by, James Oxenham, the son of the said
John, who died a child in his cradle, a little after, and such