Thomas Baddy was a nonconformist minister in Denbigh in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, a serious man who translated devotional books into Welsh. The story told about him is short and odd.
One night he went into his study to work. As he sat reading or writing he heard someone behind him laughing, a sneering, grinning kind of laugh. He stopped. The room was quiet. Then it came again.
Baddy did not turn round. Instead he took a piece of paper and wrote on it a verse from the First Epistle of John: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." He held the paper up backwards over his shoulder towards whatever was there. The laughing stopped, and it never came back.
Elias Owen copied the tale from an older writer who clearly enjoyed it, adding that it would have dampened the Devil even more if Baddy had shown him James 2:19, "the devils also believe, and tremble". Owen placed it among stories showing how readily people once believed Satan could appear in a room. It is a traditional anecdote about a real man.
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