The Mystery Of Reverend Abijah Hoadley

In March of 2006 I began an informal and personal study into whether any substantial amount of literature had ever been written about the lesser known figures which appear in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft or others who contributed to what has come to be termed the Cthulhu Mythos. After having made inquiry to several knowledgable individuals and Lovecraftian societies and discovered little, I had practically abandoned my pursuit when my church office phone rang and I began to hear the surprising tale that is related on these web pages.

As related on the several pages which follow, I made the acquaintance of a certain Mr. White of New England, who placed at my disposal some handwritten notes on which were recorded the last known sermon of the Reverend Abijah Hoadley¹ (d. 1747²) of the Congregational Church in Dunwich, MA. From these notes, my conversations with the wonderful Mr. White, and subsequent working photographs of the documents (which he graciously allowed me to take) I have been able to collect all the information that is presented herein.

The first leaf from Mrs. Whately's notes. Click on the image to see a larger version.

References In Lovecraft

'No one, even those who have the facts concerning the recent horror, can say just what is the matter with Dunwich; though old legends speak of unhallowed rites and conclaves of the Indians, amidst which they called forbidden shapes of shadow out of the great rounded hills, and made wild orgiastic prayers that were answered by loud crackings and rumblings from the ground below. In 1747 the Reverend Abijah Hoadley, newly come to the Congregational Church at Dunwich Village, preached a memorable sermon on the close presence of Satan and his imps; in which he said:

"It must be allow'd, that these Blasphemies of an infernall Train of Daemons are Matters of too common Knowledge to be deny'd; the cursed Voices of Azazel and Buzrael, of Beelzebub and Belial, being heard now from under Ground by above a Score of credible Witnesses now living. I myself did not more than a Fortnight ago catch a very plain Discourse of evill Powers in the Hill behind my House; wherein there were a Rattling and Rolling, Groaning, Screeching, and Hissing, such as no Things of this Earth could raise up, and which must needs have come from those Caves that only black Magick can discover, and only the Divell unlock".

Mr. Hoadley disappeared soon after delivering this sermon, but the text, printed in Springfield³, is still extant. Noises in the hills continued to be reported from year to year, and still form a puzzle to geologists and physiographers.' H.P. Lovecraft; The Dunwich Horror

Note: Reverend Hoadley has been briefly mentioned by other authors, but to no great extent. While it is rumored that he led a colorful life and wrote extensively, I have not yet been able to find a source from which to quote. Typically, references to him occur in Cthulhu Mythos timelines, and then it is only mentioned that he preached a sermon of note and then disappeared a short time later.

Footnotes:
¹Interestingly, the name Abijah means "his father is Yahweh."
²It is presumed that the Reverend died this year, for he was never seen again. His body was never discovered. By all accounts he simply "vanished."
³References such as this have become much more frustrating. Does a formal, published copy exist? This researcher has found that inquiries into this are invariably dismissed.

Next Page - The Sermon Revealed In Mrs. Whately's Notes

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