Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume, 20 March 1833 – 21 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium. He was said to be able to levitate, talk to the dead, and cause rapping and knocking sounds in houses whenever he wished. According to his biographer Peter Lamont, Home was one of the most well-known men of his time. Harry Houdini called him “one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his type and generation” and “the forerunner of the mediums whose forte is fleecing by presuming on the credulity of the public.” Home held hundreds of séances, and many prominent Victorians attended them. Some eyewitnesses at these séances reported seeing conjuring methods and fraud that Home may have used.

Home’s mother, Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Home (née McNeill), was known as a seer in Scotland, as were several of her ancestors, including her great-uncle Colin Urquhart and her uncle Mr. McKenzie. The gift of second sight was often considered a curse because it predicted tragedy and death. His father, William Home, was the illegitimate son of Alexander, the 10th Earl of Home. Payments from the 10th Earl to William support this illegitimacy. Elizabeth and William married when he was 19, and they worked at the Balerno paper mill. They lived in one of the small houses built for mill workers in Currie, six miles southwest of Edinburgh. William was described as a “bitter, morose and unhappy man” who drank and was often aggressive toward his wife. Elizabeth had eight children in that mill house: six sons and two daughters, though their lives were not fully recorded. The eldest, John, later worked at the Balerno mill and eventually managed a paper mill in Philadelphia. Mary drowned in a stream at age 12 in 1846. Adam died at sea at 17 while heading to Greenland; Home said he saw this in a vision, and it was reportedly confirmed five months later.

Daniel was Elizabeth’s third child, born on 20 March 1833. He was baptised by Reverend Mr. Somerville at Currie Parish Church on 14 April 1833. As a one-year-old, he was considered delicate and of a “nervous temperament,” so he was given to Elizabeth’s childless sister, Mary Cook. She lived with her husband in Portobello, a coastal town three miles east of Edinburgh. Home said his cradle rocked by itself at the Cooks’ house, and he had a vision of the death of a cousin who lived in Linlithgow, west of Edinburgh.

Between 1838 and 1841, Home’s aunt and uncle decided to emigrate to the United States with their adopted son. They sailed in steerage because they could not afford a cabin. After landing in New York, they traveled to Greeneville, near Norwich, Connecticut. Home, who had red hair and freckles, attended school in Greeneville, where other students called him “Scotchy.” At 13, he did not join in sports but preferred walking in the woods with a friend named Edwin. The two boys read the Bible to each other, told stories, and made a pact: if one died, he would try to make contact after death. Home and his aunt soon moved to Troy, New York, about 155 miles from Greeneville (though Home’s own book said 300 miles). Home lost contact with Edwin until one night, according to Lamont, he saw a brightly lit vision of Edwin standing at the foot of his bed, giving Home the feeling his friend was dead. Edwin made three circles in the air before disappearing. A few days later, a letter arrived saying Edwin had died of malignant dysentery three days before the vision.

A few years later, Home and his aunt returned to Greeneville. Elizabeth Home emigrated from Scotland to America with the surviving family members, settling in Waterford, Connecticut, 12 miles from the Cooks’ house. The reunion was brief, as Elizabeth seemed to foretell her own death in 1850. Home said he saw his mother in a vision saying, “Dan, 12 o’clock,” the time of her death. After she died, Home turned to religion. His aunt was a Presbyterian who held the Calvinist view that fate is fixed, so Home embraced the Wesleyan faith, which taught that every soul can be saved. His aunt resented Wesleyans so much that she forced him to switch to Congregationalism, which she did not like either but found more acceptable. The house was reportedly disturbed by rappings and knockings similar to those heard two years earlier at the Fox sisters’ home. Ministers—a Baptist, a Congregationalist, and even a Wesleyan—were called in. They all believed Home was possessed by the Devil, though Home thought it was a gift from God. According to Home, the knocking did not stop, and a table began moving by itself, even after his aunt placed a Bible on it and put her full weight on it. Lamont says the noises continued and drew unwanted attention from neighbors, so Home was told to leave.

At 18, Home stayed with a friend in Willimantic, Connecticut, and later in Lebanon, Connecticut. He held his first séance in March 1851. A Hartford newspaper managed by W. R. Hayden reported that a table moved without anyone touching it and kept moving when Hayden tried to stop it physically. After that article, Home became well known in New England. He traveled around healing the sick and communicating with the dead, though he wrote that he was not prepared for this sudden change in his life because of his supposed shyness.