Lithobolia, or the Stone-throwing Devil, is a rare type of rock-throwing poltergeist most famously witnessed by Richard Chamberlain (1648–1706) in 1682. While serving as a royal secretary to the colony of New Hampshire, Chamberlain boarded above the tavern of George (1615–?) and Alice Walton at Great Island or New Castle, New Hampshire (settled 1623, incorporated 1693). During his stay, he alleged that several large stones were thrown at and around the tavern over a three-month period. His account of the experience was published in London in 1698.
The term lithobolia is derived from an ancient Greek festival that celebrates the sacrificial deaths of the stoning of two Cretan women, according to some versions, or the two goddesses Damia and Auxesia in other versions. One of the first written accounts of a lithobolia is attributed to the Roman historian Livy (59 BCE—17 CE). During the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (264–146 BCE), flaming stones descended from the skies upon the Roman soldiers (Livy 1628, Book XXII). In his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) relates the story of a sailor who claimed to have been assaulted with stones thrown by unseen hands. Believing he was being attacked by the man he had murdered, the sailor confessed to the crime (Scott 1834). A lithobolia can be distinguished from a kobold, another type of stone-throwing poltergeist, in that the latter generally occupies a mine or a subterranean cavern (Davidson and Duffin 2012).
The lithobolia described by Chamberlain in his sixteen-page pamphlet did not restrict itself to stones. Chamberlain credits them with pelting Walton’s property with “Stones, Bricks, and Brick-bats of all Sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Domestick Utensils, as came in their Hellish Minds” (1698). From June to September 1682, a decade before the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts (1692), Walton’s tavern, barn, and fields were assailed almost nightly with the flying objects. Walton attempted to rid his property of the supernatural force with a recipe of bent pins and urine, but the remedy was unsuccessful (Baker 2007). Walton subsequently accused an elderly woman, Hannah Walford Jones, of witchcraft; he was unsuccessful in prosecuting her for this charge. Other instances of lithobolia were documented in New England: Sharon, Connecticut, in 1754 and Salisbury, Connecticut, in 1802 (Summers 2014).
The legitimacy of the Walton lithobolia has been questioned by others. The Chamberlain pamphlet was initially read as a satire, mocking the superstitions of the colonials. Later readers noted that the ambitious tavern-keeper Walton was especially disliked or envied in his neighborhood. Walton was a Quaker at a time when it was still illegal to practice that religion in the New England colonies. He was also involved in an ongoing dispute over property boundaries surrounding the tavern, its grounds, and some neighboring land. Some readers of Chamberlain’s work contend that Walton orchestrated the entire episode in an attempt to destroy Hannah Jones and claim her property. In this scheme, Chamberlain might even have been his co-conspirator. Chamberlain reiterates the accusations against Jones in his published account: the acts were “maliciously perpetrated by an Elderly Woman … formerly detected for such kind of Diabolical Tricks and Practises [sic]” (1698). Other readers posit that Walton’s Puritan neighbors organized a campaign of terror to encourage Walton to sell the noisy and prosperous tavern and leave the area. Finally, it is possible that Chamberlain himself was the target of the town’s ire; as a representative of the British government, he may not have been welcome in the rural town. In this last scenario, Chamberlain might be viewed as a kind of ancestor of Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1819) by Washington Irving (1783–1859).
Ann Beebe
See also Bigfoot or Sasquatch; Blue Rocks Folklore; Irving, Washington; Mound Builder Myth; Salem Witch Trials
Further Reading
Baker, Emerson W. 2007. The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chamberlain, Richard. 1698. Lithobolia or the Stone-throwing Devil. London: E. Whitlook.
Davidson, Jane P., and Christopher John Duffin. 2012. “Stones and Spirits.” Folklore 123: 99–109.
Livy, Titus. 1628. Titi Livii Patauini historicorum Romanorum principis, Libri omnes superstites. Francofurti ad Moenum: G. Hofmanni.
Scott, Walter. 1834. Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq. London: William Tegg.
Summers, Ken. 2014. “A Rain of Rocks: The Curious Case of New England’s Stone-Throwing Devils.” September 22. http://weekinweird.com/2014/09/22/new-englands-stone-throwing-devils/. Accessed June 10, 2015.