The Brothers Davenport



In 1864 a biography of two prominent brothers involved with public displays of unexplained phenomena was published in London: A Biography of The Brothers Davenport by T. L. Nichols, M.D.  The book was subtitled: "with some account of the physical and psychical phenomena which have occurred in their presence, in America and Europe."  The book also chronicles the reactions of people confronted with displays of unexplained phenomena beyond their previous common life experiences. 

The father worked in the police department and Nichols learned that "in the families of both father and mother had been observed many of those events which are considered supernatural by some persons . . . and which are both common and inexplicable."
 

Thus Mrs. Davenport, while a girl, heard, or imagined she heard, one day, a voice directing her to observe the time as marked upon a clock standing near her, which proved to be the moment of her mother's death at a distance.  The female relations of Mr. Davenport are said to have possessed extraordinary gifts of healing, similar to those formerly attributed to the sovereigns of England, and something of the second-sight, or prevision, which many believe to have formerly been common in Scotland.

 
The first unusual incident recalled by the Davenport family is a phenomenon that has been reported in many other 'paranormal' case studies: "In 1846 the family was disturbed by what they described as 'raps, thumps, loud noises, snaps, cracking noises, in the dead of the night' . . . but what could they do?"

 

In 1850 when knockings and other strange occurrences in the lives of the Fox Sisters in New York became the subject of newspaper articles, the marvels were discussed by the Davenport family residing in Buffalo of the same state with ten-year-old Elizabeth Davenport declaring her belief that if such things happened to anybody, they might just as well as happen to them.

The result was that in the evening the father, mother, and three children solemnly seated themselves round a table, placed their hands upon it, as they had read was done at Rochester, and waited further developments.

After a few moments a movement as of swelling or bulging was felt in the table; then cracking noises, tippings, raps, and finally very loud and violent noises.

They had prudently agreed to keep the matter a profound secret, not wishing to incur obloquy or ridicule; but Mr. Davenport‘s mind was too full of the matter, and, under an injunction of secrecy, he told a friend, who told it to another.  Of course it spread like wildfire.  ‘Knockings at the Davenports’!  Hundreds flocked to the house.

Five years older than Elizabeth, her brother Ira "was taken with a violent propensity to write, his hand becoming subject to extraordinary gyrations . . . These messages were believed to be quite beyond either his mental or physical powers, and contained matters known only to the persons to whom they were addressed, and quite beyond his possible knowledge."  Messages were also rapped out on the table by the method of "calling over the alphabet and having each letter designated."  Visitors to the house witnessed the Davenport children levitating among other strange occurrences.

On one morning, at this early period, the family was sitting around the breakfast table, when the knives, forks, and dishes began to dance around, as if suddenly endued with vitality.  In a few moments the table began to move, tipping up sideway, balancing itself on one leg; and, finally, rising clear from the floor, floating in the air without the least support, and moving in such a way that it was wonderful that the dishes upon it did not slide off, and come crashing upon the floor.

As the incident continued, brother William exclaimed that he saw a stranger "so tall that he can scarcely stand up in this room."  William also heard him speak and reported, "He says he is not of this earth; his name is William E. Richards . . ."  A message written by a levitating pencil directed the family to procure a large table for the better accommodation of those who were coming from far and near to see these wonders."

At the séances which now began to be held regularly, the manifestations already described were repeated.  Loud raps were heard; the table answered questions; spectral forms were seen in the flash of a pistol; lights appeared in the upper parts of the room; musical instruments floated in the air, while being played upon, above the heads of the company.

One day, at a private séance to which Mr. Davenport had invited several of his friends and persons well known to him, the table, by tippings and rappings, spelled out a message, which purported to come from one ‘George Brown,’ who described himself as a Canadian farmer, who had resided at Waterloo, W. C., where his family still lived, and who had been robbed and murdered, in a place which he described, by members of a notorious gang of robbers, on both sides of the border known as the Townsend gang.  These particulars were given by one of the boys, speaking in a sort of cataleptic or trance state, in which he became, apparently, the proxy of ‘George Brown.’  He named the sum of money—fifty-two dollars, the price of a yoke of oxen he had intended to purchase.

The boy in a trance also made known other circumstances that soon were confirmed as accurate by the county sheriff.  After Mr. Davenport hesitated to make further investigations in Waterloo although people offered to pay the expenses, ‘George Brown’ announced that he intended to take Ira to the murder scene.

Not much attention was paid to what was considered an absurd threat; but the boy, a few evenings after, while engaged in his daily task of delivering evening papers, first felt ‘queer,’ then lost his consciousness, and found himself standing in the snow, with no tracks around him to show how he had come there, in a solitary place, a mile and a half from home, on the right bank of the Niagara river.  ‘George Brown’ at his next visit, declared that he had carried him across the river, which is half-a-mile wide, and brought him back again, just as an experiment . . .

The Davenports' home continued to offer displays of marvels to visitors.  The public interest in the occurrences is reminiscent of what occurred earlier that century in the Bell Witch case in Tennessee, where the haunting presence is reported to have been nicknamed ‘Kate’ by local witnesses who flocked to the Bells' home.  However, some in the Davenports' community were displeased by the events.  When the family began receiving hostile threats, the boys had to relinquish their paper-carrying occupation.
 

At the morning and evening parties of curious investigators into these strange phenomena, there were now not only heard the ringing of bells, thrumming of musical instruments, movements of various objects without apparent cause, including the three Davenport children, but hands, seemingly human, were both felt and seen.  A hand and part of an arm would rise above the table, plainly visible, and allow itself to be felt for a moment, when it would dissolve, melt into air in the very grasp and under the eyes of the spectator.  Then a voice, coming out of space, at first inarticulate, but later condensed as it would seem in a large horn or trumpet provided for the purpose, spoke distinctly to them, conversed with them, answered their questions, and advised or directed their proceedings.

The voice was asked, among other things, what was its name.  It replied that names were of no consequence—one would do as well as another, and they might call it ‘John King,’ which they do to this day, or familiarly ‘John.’  This ‘John,’ the name of a voice, said to the father of the Davenports that he must take his two sons away from Buffalo, that it was dangerous for them to stay, and that they were needed elsewhere.

During winter 1853-54 when Ira was 14 and William was 12, another transporting event was described where the brothers suddenly found themselves near their grandfather’s house at Mayville, sixty miles from Buffalo.  Nichols related:

. . . when Mr. Davenport had seen and felt signs and wonders enough to satisfy him that he could no longer oppose the desire of the mysterious intelligence to give the people of other regions similar opportunities, the two Brothers Davenport, accompanied first by their father, and afterwards by other persons who acted as their friends or agents, commenced the journeyings which have now continued nearly ten years, in which they have visited most of the important towns of one Continent, and have begun a similar mission in another hemisphere.

The experience of one town or city was generally repeated in another, though the manifestations were varied, and new and more severe tests were proposed as old ones failed to detect what people thought must be imposture.

 

The brothers' exhibition show evolved during the course of two years of appearances in towns throughout Maine.  A newspaper piece by Swedenborgian carpenter/inventor Mr. Darling denounced the Davenport manifestations and challenged them to submit to a test in Bangor that he would provide without them having any knowledge about the circumstances.  When the appointed night came, Mr. Darling and six associates brought to the stage of a crowded concert hall an apparatus of wooden tubes and ropes for binding and securing the brothers so that they would not be able to move once they were seated and enclosed inside their cabinet.  The cabinet featured openings in the walls where during a typical show mysterious arms and hands would commonly appear while inside the cabinet were placed a selection of musical instruments.  There was also a bolt for the inside door.  When the preparations for the test were completed, members of the audience examined the fixtures.  The brothers were declared to be "in a tight place" and the announcement was received with immense applause.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen," said the agitated Mr. Darling, "they are secure."  The house was hushed to silence.  The two side-doors were closed and fastened, shutting in two-thirds of the cabinet, then the centre door was shut, and instantly bolted on the inside—by whom?

Mr. Darling heard the sound with a consternation he could not conceal, but began to seal up the doors with sealing-wax, as if anyone could open them unobserved, under his eyes and the eyes of the whole assembly.  Directly the instruments in the cabinet began to be played, hands and arms were displayed at an opening near the top of the centre door, the trumpet was thrown out of the cabinet, and then the doors suddenly opened, and the boys found as firmly secured as ever.  The doors were closed again.  A great rattling and whisking of ropes was heard for a few minutes; the doors were opened, and the brothers stood up as free as when they had walked into the cabinet.

Now the applause came from the other side, with mocking cries of "Darling, Darling!"  Mr. Darling gave it up like a man.  He had done his best.  If anybody could do better, he was welcome to try.

Their success in Bangor was of course triumphant, as it was generally throughout the State, and wherever the people gave the phenomena a fair, or even unfair examination.

Despite the success of the Davenport Brothers at their exhibitions, there were people who confronted them with what Nichols called "more or less violent opposition": "In large and orderly towns, the brothers were only denounced as charlatans, jugglers, and humbugs generally; in the smaller ones, and among ruder communities, they were sometimes assailed with open violence."

On one occasion, after "a rabble of drunken sailors and fisherman" was overcome, Ira Davenport was asked by Nichols if the brothers had gone away to "try some less belligerent neighborhood."  Ira was quoted in response:

"No; we stayed there. ‘Morgan’ told us to go on."

"But a while ago it was ‘John,’ or ‘ John King,’ who seemed to have the direction of your affairs."

"Yes, but at this time it was Henry Morgan, the buccaneer."

Here is one of the anecdotes about the voice of 'John.'

At Cleveland, a beautiful city on Lake Erie, a very obstinate sceptic, watching narrowly to detect some jugglery or imposture, was very suddenly and drolly converted to a belief in the genuineness of the manifestations.  He was sitting in the midst of the audience, when the voice which sometimes accompanies the manifestations was heard to say with emphasis, "No, I don't want any of that"; at which the sceptic burst into laughter, which he afterwards explained.  Taking a chew of tobacco, in a sort of bravado he held out the paper, mentally offering some to the voice or its owner — to ' John.'  The words heard by the audience were the instantaneous answer.

A "visit or mission to the state of Maine was made in 1857."  The brothers became acquainted with Luke P. Rand, who accompanied them for a period.  Rand later published a pamphlet about his observations and experiences A Sketch of the History of the Davenport Boys, Their Mediumship, Journeyings, and the Manifestations and Tests Given in Their Presence by the Spirits (1859).  Nichols commented: "I think Mr. Rand would have done better to have kept to his facts, of which he seems to have witnessed an abundance, and to have left alone both theories and Scripture." 

Mr. Rand, writing with great earnestness, and as far as I can judge with entire sincerity, says that "scores and hundreds were permitted to feel the kindly and intelligent clasp" of a large and strong hand, growing out of space, or coming out of darkness, which he believed to be the hand of "Henry Morgan," and of other hands similarly produced . . .


"Often, within three seconds from the time we have seen the boys pinioned to their seats, beyond the possibility of release by themselves, has that hand, at a distance beyond their possible reach, clasped my own with a firm grasp, and thus been thrust forth into the full gaze of the audience.  And many scores of others have felt the same grasp and had the same experience . . . The facts are so astonishing that we often find persons who are not only incapable of receiving the testimony of others, but unable also to rely upon the evidences of their own senses."

When the brothers were in Oswego, they were joined by William M. Fay, who would continue to be associated with them.  He was around the same age as the brothers.  Nichols wrote: "He was born in Buffalo, of German parents, and one of the first evidences he gave of being attended by extraordinary manifestations was, when playing with other boys, being raised bodily from the ground, and lodged in a neighbouring tree, in sight of his companions."

In Oswego, the Davenport brothers accepted an invitation to visit Phoenix, a nearby village.  There, while giving a private seance, they were arrested and charged with violating a municipal law requiring persons exhibiting shows to procure a license.  They were fined thirteen dollars and thirty-nine cents or in default to suffer one month’s imprisonment at the county jail in Oswego.  Nichols related that they opted to remain in jail for the period as "the intelligences who directed their movements . . . told them not to pay a farthing."

Nichols reported that there were eleven prosecutions in all — "a few of which resulted in small fines, and when these were resisted, in imprisonment."  As the brothers continued touring the United States, they were occasionally confronted with opposition yet always managed to avoid harm. 

 

Voyaging eastward to the Atlantic seaboard, the Brothers Davenport visited Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, the second city in the United States.  Here they met with violent opposition from several quarters—from the philosophers, from the religious bigots, the spiritualists, and the rabble who cared for nothing but to make a row.  It required fifty policemen to keep order.  In spite of this the most extraordinary manifestations were given, and many curious tests were resorted to.  One night a famous sceptic, in whose sagacity the people seemed to have great confidence, was chosen with remarkable unanimity as one of a committee to examine and report on the manifestations.  He had come fully prepared.  He tied them with the greatest care, and then, to make his knots secure, wound them with annealed wire, which he made fast by twisting with a pair of forceps. 

"Are you satisfied?" asked Ira.

"Yes, perfectly satisfied."

"Will you be satisfied if the manifestations take place as usual?"

"O yes, certainly."

"No, you will not; or if you are your friends will not, and before you leave this room somebody will charge you with being our confederate."

The man was indignant at such a supposition.  He knew his popularity, and believed that if he could be satisfied everybody who knew him would be also.  He was not long in finding the contrary.  When the audience was passing out Mr. Ira heard him having high words and almost coming to blows with a man who accused him of having aided in what he believed to be an imposture.

In 1864 the brothers went to England with Nichols appraising, "After the ten years of strange and wonderful experiences in America, here truthfully but briefly and imperfectly recorded, and while a sanguinary war is raging over their native land, the Brothers Davenport . . . received and obeyed the direction given them to cross the Atlantic . . . to continue in Britain and in Europe a mission in whose beneficent purposes they have an undoubting faith, and which may carry them around the world."

Nichols identified the men accompanying the brothers in addition to William M. Fay: Mr. Palmer, an experienced agent who handled the business portion of the undertaking; and Mr. J. B. Ferguson, "a gentleman of education and position, formerly a clergyman of Nashville, the capital of Tennessee."  Ferguson was further described as "the intellectual manager of the séances, in which powers and forces unknown to and unrecognised by science are demonstrated by incontrovertible facts."

The group arrived at Glasglow on September 9 and the first seance was given on the 28th, "attended by several gentlemen connected with the leading daily newspapers of London, and other distinguished men of science and letters . . . every daily newspaper excepting the ‘Morning Post’ published the accounts which were given as anonymous communications."  Nichols considered public incredulity to find it "wonderful that the editors of these leading organs of public opinion published them at all."  The following are excerpts from the London Morning Post account of the event.  The article apparently had been written by a staff journalist.

"Extraordinary Manifestations

"Yesterday evening, in the front drawing-room of a house in the immediate neighbourhood of Portland-place, a select number of persons were invited to witness some strange manifestations which took place in the presence, if not by the agency, of three gentlemen lately arrived from America.  The party consists of two brothers named Davenport, twenty-four and twenty-five years of age, and a Mr. Fay, a gentleman born in the States, but we believe of German origin.  They are accompanied by Mr. H. D. Palmer, a gentleman long and favourably known in New York in connection with operatic matters, and by a Dr. Ferguson, who explains the nature of the manifestations about to be presented, but who does not venture to give any explanation of them. It should be stated at the outset that the trio, who appear to be gifted in so extraordinary a manner, do not lay claim to any particular physical, psychological, or moral power.  All they assert is that in their presence certain physical manifestations take place.  The spectator is, of course, at liberty to draw any inference he pleases.  They invite the most critical examination (compatible with certain conditions to be observed), and those who witness the manifestations are at liberty to take all needful precautions against fraud or deception.

"A gentleman sits in the cabinet with his hands tied to the knees of the two Davenports, whose hands were bound behind their backs, and to the bench, and their feet securely fastened. The gentleman stated that "the instant the door was closed, hands were passed over his face and head, his hair was gently pulled, and the whole of the musical instruments played upon, the bells violently rung close to his face, and the tambourine beat time on his head.  Eventually the instruments were thrown behind him and rested between his shoulders and the back of the cabinet."

Here are the facts—two Davenports and a witness in a box scarcely larger than needed to contain them, and all securely bound — yet observe what happened:—

A dark circle was then formed, the Brothers bound to chairs, and the whole company, including Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Fay, taking hold of hands.  "The instant the lights were extinguished the musical instruments appeared to be carried all about the room.  The currents of air which they occasioned in their rapid transit were felt upon the faces of all present.  The bells were loudly rung; the trumpet made knocks on the floor, and the tambourine seemed to be running round the room jingling with all its might.  At the same time tiny sparks were observed as if passing from south to west."  Several persons were lightly, and one (the representative of the 'Times,') severely struck with the passing instruments.  Lights were struck from time to time, and the Brothers always found securely bound.

Mr. Fay was now bound to one of the chairs, with his hands firmly tied behind him.  As soon as the light was extinguished, a whizzing noise was heard.  "It's off," said Mr. Fay, meaning his coat, and on striking a light, his coat was no longer on, but lying on the floor, and his hands were still tied together behind him!  "Astonishing though this appeared to be, what followed was more extraordinary still. Dr. Ferguson requested a gentleman present to take off his coat and place it on the table.  This was done, the light was extinguished, a repetition of the whizzing noise was heard, and the strange coat was found upon Mr. Fay, whose hands and feet were still securely bound, and his body tied almost immoveably to the chair."  Several other manifestations were made, and some while the Davenport Brothers and Mr. Fay, instead of being bound, were held by those present, and all with similar results.

This manifestation of the taking off a man's coat, and putting on another man's, both garments being intact, with the wrists closely bound together behind the back, and the person securely tied to a chair, is undoubtedly one of the most astounding ever given.  It is simply what is called a physical impossibility.  It is as if two links of a chain should be separated without a fracture and then restored to their places.  That it was done on this occasion, and has been done scores, perhaps hundreds of times, there is no doubt whatever.

All this was done, it will also be observed, not in the presence of ignorant and credulous persons, but in a select company, which included some of the sharpest minds in England; not in a prepared theatre, but in a gentleman's drawing-room, where there could have been no deception had it been in any case possible.

. . . the writer in the ' Morning Post ' makes the following observations:—

"The séance lasted more than two hours, during which time the cabinet was minutely inspected, the coats examined to ascertain whether they were fashioned so as to favour a trick, and every possible precaution taken to bind the hands and feet of the persons whose presence appeared to be essential to the development of the manifestations.

"It may be asserted that all the illustrations above enumerated can be traced to clever conjuring.  Possibly they may or it is possible that some new physical force can be engendered at will to account for what appears on the face of it absolutely unaccountable.  All that can be asserted is, that the displays to which we have referred took place on the present occasion under conditions and circumstances that preclude the presumption of fraud.  It is true that darkness is in some cases an essential condition, but darkness does not necessarily imply deception.  But, putting aside the cabinet manifestations, there is abundance left to excite curiosity and challenge the attention of the scientific.  Learning, we know, is not a limited quantity; it is inexhaustible for all mankind, and here is a field for the investigation of the scientific world.

"In a little time we believe it is their intention to give séances at the Egyptian Hall or some other suitable place, when the public will be afforded an opportunity of witnessing some of the astonishing feats of which we have given an outline.  For the present it is sufficient to say that they invite the strictest scrutiny on the part of men of science, and that, whatever be the theory involved, they repudiate any active agency in the production of the extraordinary manifestations which take place in their presence. It is perhaps well for them that they were not in the flesh a century and a half ago, as, in the then state of human knowledge and social enlightenment, they would unquestionably have been conducted to Smithfield, and burnt as necromancers of the most dangerous type."

A Biography of The Brothers Davenport includes "The Testimony of Mr. Ferguson."  The director and lecturer of the England seances contributed an account of his experiences, commenting: "I had been for years familiar with phenomena and experiences of a similar character of those represented as attending the Brothers . . ."  Here are some excerpts from the statement by Ferguson, beginning with a description of his first experience attending an exhibition of the brothers among an audience of thousands at the largest lecture hall in New York City.

The entertainment—for such it may properly be called—opened, and a committee was chosen to secure the young men in the cabinet and report to the audience what occurred.


It is enough to say that I was convinced that the Davenports were no jugglers, and that the displays of power through them admitted of no explanation according to any known estimate of natural laws.  I called upon the Davenports in private, and attended their public entertainments for eleven days and nights.

When the Davenports appeared at Brooklyn, near New York, it happened that their representative before the public was absent; and they, through their friends, invited me to introduce them to the public of the city of Brooklyn.  In that city, at the time, I was solicited to meet the representatives of a highly respectable religious society, with a view to becoming their pastor.  I, however, consented to introduce the Davenports in "the City of Churches."  I did this in a spirit of candid enquiry and experiment respecting a subject which I hoped might prove of interest.  I did so knowing that, however desirable it might be that I should become the pastor of the church above mentioned, my action in this matter would put an end to all hope of such pastoral charge being entrusted to me.  I did so because I was fully convinced that the phenomena which occurred in the presence of the Brothers was a part of the supramundane evidence given to this age—evidence not to be measured by the conventional restrictions of time and men, however respectable the time or however religious the men.

When I saw and knew, for myself and not by another, that the evidences given through the Davenports were true, I accepted a proposition to accompany them to England and Europe—if, after three or four months’ experience with them before the public, I should find the work such as I could perform without detriment to them or to myself.  Accordingly, I spent three months in the interior towns and cities of New York state and New England, and a month in the chief cities of Canada.


During this time I resided with them at the same hotels, and we often occupied the same suite of apartments.


When they were, to all appearance, sound asleep, some of the most marked of the manifestations have occurred.


On extinguishing the light in my room, I have had my chair instantly lifted and placed upon my head, with the legs upward, and the cushion resting on the top of my head.  A voice — not mine, not that of anyone present — has directed me to feel the position of those present.  I did so, while the chair held itself, or was held, firmly where it was placed.  In distinct vocal tones I was invited to be seated, the chair being at the same time taken from my head and placed properly, that I might comply with the invitation.

I might record a volume of such and similar manifestations.  But with respect to all these evidences, expressions, or demonstrations from the invisible world, I would have one remark to make; I wish it to sink deep into the minds of my readers.  These are not given in response to mere curiosity, idle wish, or selfish desire.  They have come when and where they were needed, and where there was a degree of good faith in the individual to use the evidence for universal good.

 

 

For six months I have travelled with the Davenports, and in various conditions, advantageous and disadvantageous, I have witnessed the evidence of the power that attends them.


Many of my own friends, utterly unconvinced, and looking upon me with profound astonishment that I should be so duped as to become insensible to the charms of respectability and, I may add, to the attraction and use of the ‘almighty dollar,’ have witnessed these evidences, and have either become silent, or have acknowledged that no duty could be more sacred than the one I have assumed.


These evidences are entirely above and beyond the capacity of those through whom or by whom they are given, physically, intellectually, and morally.


It has of course been said that the Davenports have descended to tricks. I can only speak for the time I have known them.  Since my connection with them I know that they have not so descended, nor needed to descend.  It is to the fact of entire sincerity that I attribute their untarnished success in the New World and in London and England. They are mortal, and subject to temptation, like all of us; but as regards these evidences they can have no inducement to fraud any more than a man with a million of pounds has occasion to steal.  They need not to invent tricks when genuine phenomena constantly attend them.

The year after his biography of the Davenport brothers was released, a biographical book about Ferguson was published: Supramundane Facts in the Life of Rev. Jesse Babcock Ferguson, A.M., LL.D., including Twenty Years’ Observations of Preternatural Phenomena (1865) edited by T. L. Nichols, M.D.

A Biography of the Brothers Davenport also includes a description of a conversation with ‘John King’ that occurred at a private seance where Benjamin Coleman—"a careful observer of extra-natural phenomena in both hemispheres"—sat with the Davenport Brothers and Ferguson.  Here is an excerpt from Coleman’s statement.

The lights being extinguished we sat a short time in silence, when a startling bang was made upon the tambourine, which instrument, with the guitar, were instantly placed upon my knees.  A hand gently caressed me on the head, and a stream of phosphoric light passed across the spacious room, which was succeeded by another rising from the floor to the ceiling.  A voice then spoke to me through a trumpet which was brought within a few inches of my face; and in a clear, distinct and sonorous voice, I was thus addressed:—

"How are you, Coleman?"

"Oh!" exclaimed both of the Davenports, "that’s ‘John’— that’s ‘John,’—we have not heard him speak for a long time. Keep him in conversation, Mr. Coleman."

I then said, "You appear to know me, John."

"Yes, I know you in spirit."

"Have you ever seen me before?"

"Yes; I saw you in America."

"Do you think, John, that you will be able to convince the sceptics in this country?"

"Yes; we have power enough to make them surrender. There is a lady standing by your side."

"What is her name?"

"Kate."

At this moment, one of the Davenports said, "I hope you will be with us to-morrow night, John (the night of the press séance)."

"Certainly, certainly!"—then turning in an opposite direction, as I could easily detect by the sound, the voice said, "How are  you, Ferguson?"

After a few words more, the voice turned again to Mr. Coleman, a hand passed over his head, and patted him kindly on the shoulder, and the voice said, "I must go now; good night." 

In later firsthand testimonials of seance room phenomena, John King would be associated with Katie King.  The pair were alternately known as Sir Henry Morgan and his daughter Annie Morgan (a topic of February 2015 blog articles).

Coleman also described incidents of phenomena involving clothing similar to occurrences that were seen as a regular feature of the public exhibitions —

At a seance at the house of a friend, the coat of Mr. Fay was removed from his back in an instant, and my friend’s coat put upon him in the same space of time, Mr. Fay’s hands being firmly tied together behind him, and the knots of the cord sealed.  On the same occasion, the still more bewildering fact occurred of Mr. Ira Davenport’s waistcoat being removed while his coat remained, his hands being bound behind his back.  The waistcoat lay at our feet, with his watch in the pocket and the chain hooked in the button-hole, just as he had worn it a moment previously, the waistcoat remaining buttoned.

On another evening, the lights being extinguished, Sir Henry de Hoghton asked that Mr. Fay’s coat should be taken off.  He had scarcely uttered the words when Mr. Ferguson struck a brilliant light, and I saw the coat leaving the body of Mr. Fay, and all could see it in its flight in the air, until it reached and rested on the knees of Sir Henry, who was sitting in the centre of a large semi-circle some ten or fifteen feet from either Mr. Faye or Mr. Ira Davenport, who were both tied hands and feet to their chairs.  Sir Henry de Hoghton then took off his own coat, and placing it on his knee asked that it should be put upon Mr. Fay.  We instantly heard a rushing sound, and in less time than it takes me to say it—in fact not more than a second or two—Sir Henry’s coat was found not on Mr. Fay, but on Mr. Davenport, over his own coat, which had not been removed.

 T. L. Nichols concluded:

If they are ever so coarse manifestations of the existence of intelligences, ordinarily hidden from our senses, their use in overthrowing a coarser materialism is evident: if they give us palpable evidence of the existence of a universe of which we were in doubt, and of a life in the future, in which millions have no faith whatever, they are not useless.

These and similar manifestations seem to me to be rude and elementary lessons, adapted to ignorance and false science worse than ignorance; the first steps to the recognition of a higher life.

Another book available to be read online with anecdotes about the Brothers Davenport is Spiritual Experiences, Including Seven Months with the Brothers Davenport by Robert Cooper (1867).  Here are some of Cooper's concluding statements.

It will of course be urged that these things are physical impossibilities.  Such they undoubtedly are; they nevertheless take place; how they are accomplished we cannot, with our present knowledge of the properties of matter, even begin to understand.  They of course involve the passage of matter through matter and therefore seem to favour a theory that has been recently put forth that what we regard as matter is only force.

 

My own belief is, that these manifestations are the work of disembodied human intelligences, and that they are made for some great purpose; and though such work for spiritual beings, may not be in accordance with our preconceived notions of such beings, or the evidence afforded by the manifestations of such a description as their alleged purpose would seem to warrant, still it is questionable whether a more effectual and suitable method could be devised of combating the hard-headed materialism of the times and convincing men that there is something in the universe besides matter.