allegiance, he was imprisoned in Appleby Gaol. In due
time, the judges of assizes tendered the same oath, but with the like
result, and evidently wishing to show him some consideration offered
to release him from custody if he would give a bond for his good
behaviour in the interim, which likewise declining to do, he was
recommitted to prison. In the course of his imprisonment, however, a
curious incident happened, which gave rise to the present narrative.
Having been permitted by the magistrates to go home to Grayrigg for a
few days on private affairs, he took the opportunity of calling on a
justice of the name of Duckett, residing at Grayrigg Hall, who was not
only a great persecutor of the Quakers but was one of the magistrates
who had committed him to prison. As might be imagined, Justice Duckett
was not a little surprised at seeing Howgill, and said to him, "What
is your wish now, Francis? I thought you had been in Appleby Gaol."

Howgill, keenly resenting the magistrate's behaviour, promptly
replied, "No, I am not, but I am come with a message from the Lord.
Thou hast persecuted the Lord's people, but His hand is now against
thee, and He will send a blast upon all that thou hast, and thy name
shall rot out of the earth, and this thy dwelling shall become
desolate, and a habitation for owls and jackdaws." When Howgill had
delivered his message, the magistrate seems to have been somewhat
disconcerted, and said, "Francis, are you in earnest?" But Howgill
only added, "Yes, I am in earnest, it is the word of the Lord to thee,
and there are many living now who will see it."

But the most remarkable part of the story remains to be told. By a
strange coincidence the prophetic utterance of Howgill was fulfilled
in a striking manner, for all the children of Justice Duckett died
without leaving any issue, whilst some of them came to actual poverty,
one begging her bread from door to door. Grayrigg Hall passed into the
possession of the Lowther family, was dismantled, and fell into ruins,
little more than its extensive foundations being visible in 1777, and,
after having long been the habitation of "owls and jackdaws," the
ruins were entirely removed and a farmhouse erected upon the site of
the "old hall," in accordance with what was popularly known as "The
Quaker's Curse, and its fulfilment." Cornish biography, however, tells
how a magistrate of that county, Sir John Arundell, a man greatly
esteemed amongst his neighbours f