Defense Attorney: Do you want to tell us about any particular one? I prefer you to give us some idea as to the date, whether it was last year or five years ago?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I will give you last year if you like, my Lord. My father manifested; it has been my privilege to see two manifestations at the same time. While one spirit was manifesting in front of the curtain I was at the side of the curtain and my father came out from the side, patted me on the hand and spoke to me, and then came to the centre.

Defense Attorney: This was one of Mrs. Duncan’s sittings, was it?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: “Last year I saw my father”: is that right?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Quite correct, my Lord.

Judge: “At one of Mrs. Duncan’s manifestations”.

Defense Attorney: How do you know it was your father?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Well, no one can tell me whether it is my father or not; I know him; I saw him.

Judge: Did you touch him?

Mary Jane Blackwell: He touched me and I touched him.

Defense Attorney: Was it something you could hold?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Shall I put it this way? I was his favourite daughter and, as he passed me, the old man used to pat me on the hand and, as I sat there, the pat came on to my hand.

Defense Attorney: Did you touch him?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I touched him; I have touched spirits.

Defense Attorney: Did you touch him?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Did you touch him like you could touch that desk?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Was it something you could hold?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Something solid; it felt as if you were touching a statue. Shall I put it that way?

Defense Attorney: Do you mean something cold?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Something very hard.

Defense Attorney: Were you certain of the identification?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Absolutely certain. May I give the reasons?

Defense Attorney: No, I would rather you didn’t; I want to get on.

Judge: Was this at your flat?

Mary Jane Blackwell: At my flat, my Lord.

Defense Attorney: Were you certain of the identification in every case?

Mary Jane Blackwell: In every case.

Defense Attorney: Did you test it with your eyesight?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: And your hearing?

Judge: That is rather going into details. She said she was certain.

Mary Jane Blackwell: Absolutely certain.

Judge: So much for your father’s manifestation.

Defense Attorney: Who else was a close relation to yourself?

Mary Jane Blackwell: My husband.

Judge: Was this the same occasion?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No, a previous occasion.

Defense Attorney: How long ago was that?

Mary Jane Blackwell: About four months previous to that. I sat with Mrs. Duncan three times a year.

Defense Attorney: Was this at your flat?

Mary Jane Blackwell: At my flat.

Defense Attorney: Had you seen him before?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes, my Lord.

Defense Attorney: And since?

Mary Jane Blackwell: And since.

Defense Attorney: Always through Mrs. Duncan?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No, my Lord.

Defense Attorney: You have seen your husband both through Mrs. Duncan and other materialisation mediums?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: How close to your husband did you get?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Within two feet.

Defense Attorney: Had you any doubt of any kind of your recognition?

Mary Jane Blackwell: None.

Defense Attorney: How did it affect your mind?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I was overjoyed. He spoke of our daughter who is living.

Defense Attorney: Anybody else who was a close relation?

Mary Jane Blackwell: My mother.

Defense Attorney: How close to your mother did you get?

Mary Jane Blackwell: She was standing beside me.

Judge: Was this at the same time as your husband?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No, before that, within three months of her passing, and she passed in 1937.

Defense Attorney: You are going a long way back?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I am. I have seen her many times since.

Defense Attorney: Was your mother in full physical form?

Mary Jane Blackwell: In full physical form; my father was present.

Defense Attorney: Your father was also present at that time?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes, he was still living then; he was in the flesh.

Defense Attorney: Was there.any doubt in your mind about the identification?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No doubt whatever.

Defense Attorney: Were you satisfied that the light was good enough for you to see?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Quite; in fact I have taken a torch in, and Albert.

Defense Attorney: What other close relations?

Mary Jane Blackwell: At the time my mother manifested, my aunt, her elder sister, was beside me; I had two at one time.

Defense Attorney: Did you recognise her?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: By sight?

Mary Jane Blackwell: By sight.

Defense Attorney: By voice?

Mary Jane Blackwell: By voice.

Defense Attorney: Was there any doubt of any kind as regards the identification?

Mary Jane Blackwell: None whatever.

Defense Attorney: How close were you?

Mary Jane Blackwell: She was beside me, and she said, “Come here”.

Defense Attorney: You have told us of your mother, your husband, your sister and your aunt?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: What other close relations?

Mary Jane Blackwell: An aunt on the paternal side.

Defense Attorney: Did you know her well?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Very well indeed.

Defense Attorney: Did she appear through Mrs. Duncan?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Through Mrs. Duncan.

Defense Attorney: How close to her did you get?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I could have touched her.

Judge: Did you?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No, we do not touch them until we are told to, my Lord.

Defense Attorney: Are you quite certain about the identification?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Perfectly certain.

Defense Attorney: Any other close relations?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes, uncles; an Uncle Walter.

Defense Attorney: Was it an uncle that you knew well?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I know all my relations very well.

Judge: May we take it you have seen a large number of your relatives many times?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Through Mrs. Duncan and other mediums?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: And not only relations but friends as well?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Close friends.

Defense Attorney: Have you had any doubt of any kind with regard to any identification of which you speak?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Never.

Defense Attorney: In every single one of those cases could the form that you saw have been impersonated by Mrs. Duncan?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No.

Defense Attorney: In any single one of those cases as you have given them, could the voice have been simulated by Mrs. Duncan?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No.

Defense Attorney: How many different languages just think for a moment on this have you heard at different times. Give me the languages?

Mary Jane Blackwell: French, German, Dutch, Welsh, Scotch, pure English and Arabic.

Defense Attorney: The most interesting of all is the pure English. Have you heard pure English?

Judge: What does ‘pure English’ mean?

Mary Jane Blackwell: As we should speak it.

Defense Attorney: I mean English spoken as it should be spoken. I meant that and no more, simple English. (To THE WITNESS) To use a vulgarism, have you heard cultured English used?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes, very cultured.

Defense Attorney: Have you observed Mrs. Duncan’s own voice?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Would you describe that as cultured English?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No.

Judge: Is she not a woman who has been educated?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes, but she speaks with a broad Scotch accent.

Defense Attorney: That is quite possible, but is she a woman of education?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No.

Defense Attorney: Would you call her an educated woman?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No, I shouldn’t call her uneducated or educated; I should say she came between.

Defense Attorney: She speaks with a broad Scotch accent, does she?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I consider so; that is not to say I know much about Scotch.

Defense Attorney: You have heard her speaking naturally, have you?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: On many occasions?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Very many occasions.

Defense Attorney: Do you know the dialect she speaks in?

Mary Jane Blackwell: I should not recognise it, but I know it is Scotch.

Defense Attorney: Lowland Scotch?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: Have you observed different dialects of English?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Judge: Not too many refinements, please. We have got several languages. It is hardly necessary to go into dialects as well.

Defense Attorney: It makes my case still more subtle, my Lord.

Judge: Subtle?

Defense Attorney: If I can also prove different dialects of English.

Judge: (to THE WITNESS): Were there different dialects?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.

Defense Attorney: I have already had a dialect of Spanish. Was Welsh spoken?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Welsh was spoken.

Judge: She has told us that.

Mary Jane Blackwell: And English spoken with a Welsh accent or dialect, as I should call it.

Defense Attorney: I need not ask you about the variety of forms. Have the forms been of all sizes and all shapes?

Mary Jane Blackwell: No.

Defense Attorney: The forms that appeared?

Mary Jane Blackwell: The forms that appeared have been of all sizes and shapes; they have not been the same.

Defense Attorney: Including young children?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Tiny, tiny children.

Defense Attorney: As far as you have been able to observe, has the voice on every occasion corroborated the appearance?

Mary Jane Blackwell: Yes.