This is one of the bleakest stories in Edmund Jones's book, and it needs to be read with care.
John Jenkins was a poor man living near Abertillery, then a scattering of farms in the Ebbw Fach valley. He hanged himself in a hayloft. His sister found him soon afterwards and screamed. Jeremiah James, who lived at Abertillery House and whom Jones calls a serious and godly man, heard her cry and looked towards the place where Jenkins lived. He saw what looked like a man coming out of the hayloft, violently turning over and over, upwards and downwards, topsy-turvy, as it went towards the river.
Jones, a Calvinist preacher of the 18th century, had no doubt what this meant: an evil spirit carrying its prey to hell. He devotes a long passage to warning against suicide. The Great British Ghost Tour retells the story more lightly.
Today suicide is understood very differently, and John Jenkins was a real man whose death was a real tragedy for his family. The record is kept because it is part of the documented folk belief of the Monmouthshire valleys, and because Jeremiah James's strange vision is one of the more vivid images in Jones's collection. If you or someone you know is struggling, Samaritans can be reached free on 116 123.
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