Thomas Everitt (1823–1905) and Mrs Thomas Everitt (1825–1915) were prominent British spiritualists.[1][2]

Mr and Mrs Thomas Everitt
Born1825, 1823
Died1915, 1905
OccupationSpiritualists

Biography

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Thomas Everitt was a successful tailor living in Pentonville with his wife. Mrs Everitt operated as a private medium and gave séances beginning in 1855. She was alleged to have produced automatic writing, direct voice mediumship and physical phenomena such as the movement of objects.[3] Descriptions of her séances were published in Morell Theabold's book Spirit Workers in the Home Circle (1887). However, as she operated as a private medium she was not scientifically tested by researchers.[4] For example, a sitter Edward Trusted Bennett from the Society for Psychical Research noted that "the seances at Mr. Everitt's were conducted in an exclusively religious tone, and afforded no opportunity for obtaining scientific evidence."[5]

According to their spiritualist friend Samuel Carter Hall, Everitt and his wife were committed Christians and members of a non-conformist church. After retiring from his job, Everitt and his wife worked as teachers at a Sunday school.[6] Mrs Everitt has been described as one of the earliest British spiritualist mediums and the first medium in 1867 to practice 'direct-voice' mediumship.[7][8] Frank Podmore noted that there were suspicions of trickery about Mrs Everitt but she had managed to impress many of her séance sitters.[3]

Thomas Everitt with Edmund Dawson Rogers and others, formed the British National Association of Spiritualists (BNAS) in January 1873.[9] Everitt and his wife had supported the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (SAGB).[10] He was the president of the SAGB from 1880 to 1905.[11] He died on 5 August 1905.[1]

In her later years, Mrs Everitt practiced psychometry.[12]

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Lobb, John. (1909). The Busy Life Beyond Death, From the Voice of the Dead. London: L. N. Fowler. p. 20
  2. ^ Anderson, Rodger. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies. McFarland & Company. p. 55. ISBN 978-0786427703
  3. ^ a b Podmore, Frank. (1902). Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism. London: Methuen & Co. p. 64
  4. ^ Shepard, Leslie; Spence, Lewis; Fodor, Nandor. (1985). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Gale Research Company. p. 436. ISBN 978-0810301962
  5. ^ Bennett, Edward T. (1907). The Physical Phenomena Popularly Classed Under the Head of Spiritualism. New York: Brentano's. pp. 34-35
  6. ^ Hall, Samuel Carter. (1884). The Use of Spiritualism? E. W. Allen. p. 55
  7. ^ Gauld, Alan. (1968). The Founders of Psychical Research. Routledge & K. Paul. p. 73
  8. ^ Aykroyd, Peter H; Narth, Angela; Aykroyd, Dan. (2009). A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters. Rodale Books. p. 217. ISBN 978-1605298757
  9. ^ Lavoie, Jeffrey D. (2014). Search for Meaning in Victorian Religion: The Spiritual Journey and Esoteric Teachings of Charles Carleton Massey. Lehigh University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1611461848
  10. ^ Stemman, Roy. (1972). One Hundred Years of Spiritualism: The Story of the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain, 1872-1972. Spiritualist Association of Great Britain. p. 66. ISBN 978-0900697142
  11. ^ "Gallery". Spiritualist Association of Great Britain
  12. ^ Tabori, Paul. (1966). Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghosthunter. Living Books. p. 27
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