The Not-So Secret Possession of George Lukins

The Possession Diaries Part VII

The year was 1788, the place was Yatton village, in Mendip, county Somerset, England.

Sarah Barber was travelling through the village and discovered George Lukins, a tailor and courier who was afflicted by a strange illness.

On the 31st of May she sent word to Reverend Joseph Easterbrook, asking him to help Mr Lukins, who “sang and screamed in various sounds, some of which did not resemble a human voice; and declared, doctors could do him no service.”

Sarah had lived in the village of Yatton before and said that George Lukins was normally a man of good character who attended church regularly.

However, for eighteen years he had been suffering from odd fits, which George reckoned started while he was acting in a Christmas pageant and was knocked down by a “supernatural slap.”

After that slap that knocked him down, he was taken to the surgeon of Wrington – Dr Smith – and other doctors. They couldn’t cure him, even after he stayed in Saint George’s hospital for 20 weeks.

Various members of the community began to think of George as being bewitched by something, and George himself eventually claimed he was possessed by seven different demons, which could only be exorcised by seven different clergymen.

Reverend Joseph Easterbrook contacted Methodist ministers who agreed to pray for George Lukins:

“Some time ago I had a letter requesting me to make one of the seven ministers to pray over George Lukins. I cried out before God, “Lord, I am not fit for such a work; I have not faith to encounter a demoniac.” It was powerfully applied, “God in this thy might.” The day before we were to meet, I went to see Lukins, and found such faith, that I could then encounter the seven devils which he said tormented him. I did not doubt but deliverance would come. Suffice to say, when we met, the Lord heard prayer, and delivered the poor man.^“

— Rev. John Valton

The Bristol Gazette reported that during the exorcism, George announced that he was the Devil, made barking sounds like a dog, sung an inverted Te Deum, (a Latin hymn) and was incredibly violent.

On Friday June 30th, 1778, seven clergymen including Reverend Joseph took George to the vestry at Temple Church and performed an exorcism on him which included hymns and prayer.

The demons were banished eventually using the “Trinitarian formula” (the phrase “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”).

They sent the demons to Hell, Mr Lukins shouted “Blessed Jesus!”, spoke the Lord’s Prayer, and gave them his thanks.

According to the Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Mr Lukins was actually suffering from epilepsy and St Vitus’s Dance:

“This extraordinary case appears to have originated in a complication of epilepsy and St. Vitus’s dance afflicting a person of a weak mind, early impressed with the idea that the disease was the effect of a power which the devil had obtained over him.”

George’s case of “possession” was originally supposed to be kept private, but several bits of literature were published about it after the exorcism. Nevertheless, George Lukins was described as calm and happy.

Read more of the Possession Diaries:

Strangely enough, the case of George Lukins echoes with a short novella I penned many years ago, when I was starting out as an author. In the story, a man is possessed by seven dead people. It has yet to find a home though!