E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Sampford Ghost (The).
A kind of exaggerated “Cock Lane ghost” (q.v.), which “haunted” Sampford Peverell for about three years in the first decade of the 19th century. The house selected was occupied by a man named Chave, and besides the usual knockings, the inmates were beaten; in one instance a powerful “unattached arm” flung a folio Greek Testament from a bed into the middle of a room. The Rev. Charles Caled Colton (credited as the author of these freaks) offered £100 to anyone who could explain the matter except on supernatural grounds. No one, however, claimed the reward. Colton died 1832.
