EXPERIENCE OF MRS. ELIZABETH DIGGES(1); Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 4, No. 1

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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 EXPERIENCE OF MRS. ELIZABETH DIGGES(1).

                         BY KATE MASON ROWLAND.

   In a letter from the Rev. Henry Miles, D.D., and F.R.S., to the President of the Royal
Society, "containing observations of luminary emanations from human bodies and from brutes,
with some remarks on electricity", published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society of London, Vol. 43, 1744-'45, No. 476, p. 441, occurs the following:

   "In the late edition of the works of hte honorable Mr. Boyle, Vol. V., p. 646, is a letter
from Mr. Clayton, dated June 23, 1684, at James City, in Virginia, in which he gives Mr. Boyle
an account of a strange accident (as he calls it), and adds that he had inclosed the very
paper Col. Digges gave him of it, under his own
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   (1) Wife of Col. William Digges, of Virginia and Maryland, eldest son of Gov. Edward Digges.
See Vol. I., pp. 147, 213, revised edition.  Col. Digges married Elizabeth Sewell, daughter of
Henry Sewell, and Jane Lowe, his wife, who married 2dly, Charles the 3d Lord Baltimore.

Page 23.

hand and name to attest the truth, and that the same who also asserted to him by Madame Digges,
his Lady, sister to the wife of Major Seweall, and daughter of the Lord Baltimore, to whom this
accident happened.  This paper very unhappily came not to hand till after Mr. Boyle's works
were printed, and therefore could not be inserted with Mr. Clayton's letter.  But having since
met it, I present the following exact copy of it to you, and if you judge fit, by your hands to
the Royal Society".

                                                   MARYLAND, ANNO 1683.
   "There happened about the month of November to one Madam Susanna Sewall, wife to Major Nic.
Sewall, of the Province abovesaid, a strange flashing of sparks (seemed to be of fire) in all
the wearing apparel she put on, and so continued till Candlemas.  And in the company of several,
viz.: Captain Edward Poulson, Captain John Harris, Mr. Edward Braines, &c., the said Susanna
did send several of her wearing apparel, and when they were shaken, it would fly out in sparks,
and make a noise, much like unto bay leaves when flung into the fire, and one spark lit on
Major Sewall's thumb nail, and there continued at least a minute before it went out, without 
any heat, all which happened in the company of Wm. Digges.

   1My Lady Baltimore, her mother-in-law, for some time before the death of her son Caecelius
Calvert, had the like happened to her, which has made Madam Sewall much troubled at what has
happened to her.  They carried Mrs. Susanna Sewall one day to put on her sister Digges'
Petticoat, which they had tried beforehand and would not sparkle, but at night when Madam 
Sewall put it off, it would sparkle as the rest of her own garments did."
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   1The additional lines are not in Col. Digges' hand, but seem to be in Mr. Clayton's.