This year’s annual Halloween Powerpoint presentation at our AGM was on the ‘supernatural life’ of the Reverend John Mill. Based on the stories from Mill’s diary, this presentation concentrated solely on his interactions with a world beyond our view, primarily his old foe the Devil. This, of course, presents a wholly unbalanced view of the life of the Reverend John Mill. We are very conscious of this and for those interested in a wider view there are resources listed at the end of the article, the very sources we used for this presentation.
The Reverend John Mill was born the 23rd of February, 1712. He spent the first six years of his life in the The Old Manse which may be Lerwick's oldest house. The middle child of nine, he was the son of the Reverend John Milne who died in 1718 when our Reverend John Mill was a mere six years old. Minister of Dunrossness, Sandwick, Cunningsburgh and Fair Isle from June 1742 until his death on the 13th of February, 1805, the Reverend John Mill attended his parishioners for 63 years.
‘[He was] a man of great strength of character, and of strongly marked individuality, and one who was calculated to leave a deep impression upon the society amid which his long life was passed’
~ A Shetland Minister of the 18th Century, Rev John Willcock
A Ghost
The ghost of a deceased proprietor of the land, whose ‘life had been none of the best’, appears to have followed the Reverend John Mill and a parishioner as they made their way from Sandwick to Dunrossness. They were suddenly joined by a man on horseback who spoke to Mill in an unknown tongue. The alarmed parishioner held tight to the reins of the Rev Mill’s pony. The stranger finally rode off and upon asking the identity, Mill told the parishioner ‘He was a roaring devil from Hell’. The ghost then began to make trouble around the manse until, fed up, Mill arose from his bed one night and made his way into the darkness outside. Upon his later return he declared to the household ‘that old sinner will trouble us no more’. He had seemingly laid the spirit to rest.
Demons
For the Rev Mill the devil was a very tangible entity, an entity that could be beaten. He had many dealings with him, often witnessed alone and in deep argument with his old foe. He claimed that throughout his life Satan would blow a constant wind in his face with Mill wondering aloud if that was the best that he could do? Using it to his advantage, he always sat with his back to the bow of a boat so he had favourable winds during his passage.
The devil might even appear as a black dog such as the occasion when riding his pony, his man Hector walking alongside. As they went Hector became more and more concerned about a small black dog that had been following them. When he expressed his uneasiness, Mill chided him ‘it’s not you he’s after but me’.
More often it was said Satan manifested himself as a black sheep or swine, frequently leading people to suicide by jumping off cliffs. When Mill was near and able to recognise his old foe at his usual mischief, he would intervene to save the person before their ultimate demise.
A distinctly odd case of Satan manifesting himself was in the form of a man dropping off cloth to be made into a suit at a tailor in Channerwick. The tailor, alarmed at the ever-changing colour of the cloth, sought counsel of the Rev Mill. Ordering him to cut up the cloth, Mill waited with him on the appointed time the man was to return for the finished suit. Meeting him at the threshold, a ‘terrible controversy ensued’ and the man was swept from the house in a cloud of blue, sulphurous flame. Striking his foot against the doorstep as he departed, the mark of a cloven hoof was imprinted on the stone confirming his identity.
Possession
There were also several accounts of possession during his time as minister. In one interesting case, a possession during childbirth meant the woman felt no pain. In another case, the possession was something quite out of the exorcist. It seems a young woman was acting strangely and had little speech. Getting a few words out, she believed she was possessed by the devil and he would not allow her to have voice. As Mill intervened, the devil began to speak through her using vile and blasphemous language and claiming her soul was his. After reading a few passages the devil exited her body and she regained her senses.
In a further occurrence of the devil at work, whilst strolling through Lerwick the Reverend Mill came upon a woman in a dressing gown down among the rocks on the shoreline with a lit candle in her hand. Asking why the woman was out as she was, she explained to him that she had sold her soul to the devil and the minute the candle burned down to nothing her soul was his. He calmly took the candle from her, snuffed the flame, broke it in two and promised to hold it in a safe place so Satan could never claim her soul.
The Devil & the Kirk
Our most ‘famous’ of Mill’s dealings with his old enemy was whilst delivering a sermon one Sunday. The devil came in the east door of the kirk and took a seat at the communion table. After conversing in several languages, ultimately arguing in what may have been Gaelic, Satan was finally gotten the better of whence he flew out the west door like a flock of pigeons. It was said many of the parishioners swooned at the sight of the devil in the flesh.
Resources
The Diary of the Reverend John Mill by Gilbert Goudie, 1899.
A Shetland Minister of the Eighteenth Century by Reverend John Willcock, B. D., 1897.
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