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On Saturday the 31st May 1788, Mrs Sarah Baber called on the Vicar of Temple, Mr Joseph Easterbrook, and told him that she had just returned from Yatton where there was a man afflicted with a most extraordinary malady.
He screamed in various sounds, which were inhuman in tone, cursed, swore and had fits. He had declared himself possessed by seven devils and that nothing but the united prayers of seven clergymen would deliver him from his affliction. In his own immediate neighbourhood no seven clergymen could be found to do this.
Mrs Baber implored Easterbrook to help and to get together some of his friends. If he consented to this she would bring the man to Bristol. Easterbrook consented to help in the matter but, however, upon sounding out his fellow clergy - namely the Rev Symes of St Werburgh's, the Rev Dr Robins, Precentor of the Cathedral, and the Rev Brown, Rector of Portishead, these three gentlemen declined the invitation to participate. In the case of two of these, their refusal is understandable, for they were involved in the Giles' manifestations ( Lamb Inn Old Market) twenty seven years before and, no doubt, discreetly abstained from involvement in a similar situation.
On the morning of Friday the 13th June, Easterbrook took the man - George Lukins - along to Temple Church to meet the following in the vestry room. John Broadbent - John Valton - Jeremiah Brettle - Benjamin Rhodes - T. MacGeary - William Hunt - Nathanial Gifford Esq. - J. Westcote - J. Lard - T. Delve W. Rees - Deverel - Tucker - Gwyer.
The most notable feature of the church, which owes its origin to the piety of the Order of the Knights Templars, is its leaning tower height. The top overhangs the base about five feet.
This singularity is first mentioned in 1568, when the Duke of Norfolk visited the city. It was then customary to show strangers that a stone as large as an egg thrust into a chink between the tower and the church wall would be crushed to powder when the bells were rung, and the Duke was a witness of the experiment.
The popular notion is' that it was built upon wool-packs.' This arises from the fact that nearly all the eminent men in the parish at the date of its erection were connected with the wool trade.
Once assembled in the vestry at Temple the following sequence of events took place.
(1) When the company began singing a hymn Lukins became strangely agitated; then began speaking in various voices of deep tones, each denouncing what was being done and emphasising that 'He' would never release Lukins.
(2) Lukins himself began to sing - still in the mysterious agent's voice - in a blasphemous manner.
(3) The voice changed to that of a female, scornful in tone and upbraiding Lukins for allowing the company to be there.
(4) Again the voice changed to condemn the gathering as before.
(5) The agent possessing Lukins declared itself to be the Devil and he defined his opposers. This was followed by a hunting song, at the conclusion of which Lukins appeared to be violently tortured and thrashed about so liercely that it was only with difficulty that two strong men could hold him. This in spite of the fact that Lukins was a small man. Sometimes he gave a demonical laugh, or barked in a frightening manner.
(6) The voice then summoned up help to drive the company away and while the ministers were engaged in fervent prayer, the voice sang Te Deum to the Devil in different voices.
It is said there then continued a dialogue between Lukins, the Devil and the dergymen which, eventually, led to Lukins dropping on his knees and praising God for his deliverance and saying the Lord's Prayer.
After the conclusion of the meeting, which had lasted two hours, Lukins was said to have been entirely delivered of whatever possessed him, the condition never returning.
The Bristol Mirror of February 1805 reports Lukins' death and mentions that for some length of time prior to this, he had been an out-patient at the Bristol Infirmary for a bad leg and hydrocondriacal affections. Towards the end of his life he was reduced to beggary and managed to scrape a scanty existence by the sale of little books, together with the contributions of those who still remembered his history.
Latterly he had lived with the famous 'fortune telling woman of Bedminster into whose money-getting trade he appears to have been initiated.
By then the woman, (possibly the White Witch of the Lamb Inn Old Market story?) had died and Lukins lived alone in the house 'surrounded by spells and incantations'.
The paper continues:
'It would, no doubt, be a matter of surprise if such a man could die in such a house, without something preternatural attending his departure. The good people who saw his growl, (not breathe) his last, assert that he barked like a dog, most vehemently, and that the howlings and lamentations (we presume exhultations) of the seven demons who were exorcised in the Vestry Room of Temple Parish, some years since, and laid in the Red Sea, were so terrible that the people could scarcely bear the noise'.
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