A real-life story · England, 1885

“Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant

In March 1885, a servant dreamed that someone from her old village told her, “Mr. John Jarvis is dead.” The next morning she told another servant. Five days later the news arrived: John Jarvis had died in the early hours of that same night, at about two o’clock.

It is the best-documented of the 24 dreams the researcher Edmund Gurney gathered in 1886. Her account and the other servant’s signature were put in writing the same week. And the dreamer worked in Gurney’s own house. How did she know?

Step 1

1885 · Edmund Gurney’s account

A trusted servant works in the house of a researcher of these cases

Illustration from “Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant: “A trusted servant works in the house of a researcher of these cases”

Mrs. Humphry worked in Edmund Gurney’s house. In his words, she was “a most trusted and valued servant.” Gurney was one of the researchers gathering cases of people who said they had sensed someone’s death from a distance.

Before that, she had worked as a servant in Ticehurst, a village in the south of England, in the home of Thomas Jarvis. Mrs. Humphry’s brother still lived there.

John Jarvis, who had a farm, also lived in Ticehurst.

Step 2

The night of Tuesday, March 24, to Wednesday, March 25, 1885 · Mrs. Humphry’s account

Mrs. Humphry says she dreamed that a milkman told her, “He’s gone at last”

Illustration from “Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant: “Mrs. Humphry says she dreamed that a milkman told her, “He’s gone at last””

That night she dreamed of Fenning, a milkman who worked on John Jarvis’s farm. In the dream, Fenning said to her:

“He’s gone at last.”

“Who?” she asked.

“Why, Mr. John Jarvis is dead.”

She later told Gurney the dream was like no other she had ever had. In his words, it was “quite unique in her experience, for its vividness and the distress that it caused her.”

Step 3

Wednesday morning · Mrs. Humphry’s account

In the morning, she tells the other servant, Rose

On Wednesday morning she saw Rose Wade, the other servant in the house, and told her the dream.

She still knew nothing about anyone’s death.

Step 4

March 30, 1885 · Edmund Gurney’s account

Five days later, the news of John Jarvis’s death arrives

On March 30, the news arrived: John Jarvis had died.

Mrs. Humphry told her mistress right away and mentioned the dream. She was told to ask what day and time he had died.

Mrs. Humphry wrote to her brother, who lived in Ticehurst.

Step 5

March 31, 1885 · Her brother’s letter

Her brother writes back: he died on Wednesday morning, at about two

Illustration from “Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant: “Her brother writes back: he died on Wednesday morning, at about two”

Her brother, William Vidler, answered the next day with a short letter:

“Just a line to let you know that Mr. Jarvis passed away on the 25th—that was last Wednesday morning as near as I can tell you at 2 o’clock.”

William Vidler, letter to his sister, March 31, 1885

Gurney checked the date in the Register of Deaths. It was the same night as the dream.

Step 6

The following week · Edmund Gurney’s account

She writes down what she dreamed, and Rose signs it the same week

Illustration from “Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant: “She writes down what she dreamed, and Rose signs it the same week”

In the week after the dream, Mrs. Humphry wrote down what she had dreamed. At the same time, Rose Wade confirmed in writing that Mrs. Humphry had told her about it that morning.

Of the 24 dreams Gurney gathered, this is the account written closest to the events. Days went by, not years.

But the book doesn’t say whether they wrote it before or after the news arrived. From the way the book tells it, it seems they wrote it after.

Step 7

1886 · The book

Mrs. Humphry’s dream goes into the list of 24 dreams in “Phantasms of the Living”

Illustration from “Mr. John Jarvis is dead”: the shared-death experience of Gurney’s servant: “Mrs. Humphry’s dream goes into the list of 24 dreams in “Phantasms of the Living””

In 1886, Gurney and his colleagues published the book Phantasms of the Living. The book collects 24 dreams of death that happened less than 12 hours from the death. Mrs. Humphry’s dream is one of them.

On the page about the study we explain how those 24 dreams were gathered and what can be checked about them.

The question remains: how did Mrs. Humphry know, that night, that John Jarvis had died?

What does the evidence say?

What can be checked

We ask every story the same five questions. They don’t tell us whether someone is telling the truth. They tell us what can be shown today. Here we ask them about Mrs. Humphry’s dream: that someone told her John Jarvis had died.

3.5 of 5

Yes
Unconfirmed
No data

Did Mrs. Humphry tell anyone about her dream before the news of John Jarvis’s death arrived?Rose Wade, the other servant, signed a statement that same week saying that Mrs. Humphry told her about the dream the next morning. That was five days before the news arrived. But it isn’t known whether Rose signed it before or after the news, and it seems to have been after.
Is it known on which night Mrs. Humphry dreamed of John Jarvis’s death?Mrs. Humphry wrote that same week that she had the dream on the night of Tuesday, March 24, to Wednesday, March 25, 1885. But she probably wrote it after hearing the news, and nothing else pins down that night.
Is it known what time John Jarvis died?Yes. Mrs. Humphry’s brother, William Vidler, wrote on March 31, 1885, that John Jarvis died on the morning of Wednesday the 25th, at about two.
Is there a document that confirms John Jarvis’s death and its date?Yes. Edmund Gurney, the researcher, checked the Register of Deaths: John Jarvis died on March 25, 1885.
Could Mrs. Humphry have known that John Jarvis was ill or about to die?It cannot be fully ruled out. The news of the death reached the house where Mrs. Humphry was a servant five days after the dream. What is not known is whether she knew that John Jarvis was ill. The book by Edmund Gurney, the researcher, doesn’t say. In the dream, a milkman told her “He’s gone at last,” as if the death had been expected.

Why we ask each question

What is hard to explain

She told another servant the next morning, five days before the news. Rose Wade signed it that same week.
The Register of Deaths confirms that John Jarvis died that night. And Mrs. Humphry’s brother says in his letter that he died at about two.
Of all the cases on the list, this one has the shortest gap between the events and the written account. Days went by, not years.

What remains unresolved

In the dream, the milkman says “He’s gone at last,” as if the death had been expected. The book doesn’t say whether she knew John Jarvis was ill.
Most likely, her account and Rose’s signature were written after the news.
The dreamer worked in the researcher’s own house.
No one knows how many dreams of death people have that match nothing.

Where this story comes from

Books

Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Phantasms of the Living, vol. 2 (Trübner, London, 1886), case 428, pages 400 and 401, in the public domainRead for free

Case documents

Mrs. Humphry’s account, written in the week after the dream, with Rose Wade’s signed confirmation, in the book
William Vidler’s letter, dated March 31, 1885, copied in the book
The date of death, in the Register of Deaths, checked by Edmund Gurney

Learn more

The 24 dreams in “Phantasms of the Living”: how they were gathered and what can be checkedRead
Annie Harriss: a dream of her mother’s death, another of the six clear casesRead
More shared-death experiencesRead

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Our reading of the case in the original book and its score on our five criteria, as of October 21, 2026

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