An 18th-century apparition

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Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here is a report of an apparition seen in 1713 at Castle Hedingham, Essex, in a letter written by Nicholas Jekyll. It is Essex Record Office's "Document of the Month":
http://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/d...hedingham/
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  • Ninshub
(2017-10-18, 07:40 PM)Chris Wrote: Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here is a report of an apparition seen in 1713 at Castle Hedingham, Essex, in a letter written by Nicholas Jekyll. It is Essex Record Office's "Document of the Month":
http://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/d...hedingham/

The web page notes that the handwriting is on the challenging side, and says that while the letter is on display in the searchroom there will be a transcript beside it! 

Here is my attempt at a transcript of the part about the apparition. Some of the words are a bit doubtful.

"I had a report lately of an Apparition of that wretched poor
fellow who lately drownd himself below my house, which
tho I despised with scorn knowing not one in 50 thousand
are true of such reports, yet upon unquestionable proof I
not only think it now true, but believe it to be some way or other
sent from God, or permitted by him, tho I cannot tell it may
be the true or secret reason of it: 'tis too tedious to tell you
in a letter; but it was seen in that place, acting like a fellow in
deep melancholly, and at last throwing himself into water,
with much more besides at that place [and: deleted] to which the person
went, to try if he could save the Man from drowning; And as he
was afterwards coming up the feild toward my house saw -
another Apparition of a Woman (all in the day time) to whom
he discoursed what he had seen (tho had no answer) for he 
thought it was a Woman: this he told at Mr Dawsons; and to Mr
Goodin of Gestingthorp at the funerall of the mans Wife, and to
all the company, and to many more, many Months before the -
wicked man murdered himself."

Interestingly, the apparition doesn't seem to have been a ghost, but a precognitive vision of the suicide, seen "many months" before it happened. Presumably the "unquestionable proof" the writer was given, was reliable testimony that the story had been told before the suicide.
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  • Ninshub
I know this case is Really Old and all that, but the more I think about it the more unusual it seems (assuming I've interpreted the sequence of events correctly).

Apparently precognitive dreams are one thing, but precognitive waking visions are different. I can't actually  think of another example. Can anyone else?
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  • Typoz

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