One of the most fruitful sources of superstition, and that which has
been most productive of what are styled “well-founded and authenticated
stories of supernatural occurrences,” is that Protean monster known
in all its forms by the general appellation of “Remarkable or Curious
Coincidences.”
The frequent occurrence of events precisely similar in their details,
though perfectly simple and ordinary individually, is apt to be
considered, first, as remarkable, and, if again repeated, wonderful.
In a recent number of the Penny Journal mention is made of the curious
coincidence of three men having been found drowned at various times in
the course of the same winter, in the same river, and the same place, or
nearly, each with _two shirts_ on, having given rise to the belief in
that parish that it was unlucky to wear two shirts.
But if persons should allow themselves to be guided in their actions by
such observances, their lives would become perfectly burthensome from the
constant state of watchfulness in which they would be obliged to live;
for instance, the following anecdote would show the absolute necessity
they would be under of ascertaining the names of their fellow-travellers,
lest any one rejoicing in the name of Hugh Williams should be amongst
them.
The more juvenile readers of the Penny Journal must be informed that
the portion of the sea which flows between the island of Anglesea and
the coast of Wales, called the Menai Straits, which is now spanned by
the celebrated Menai suspension bridge, was passable, previously to
the erection of the bridge, only by boats, a regular ferry-boat plying
constantly at the place called Bangor ferry. On the 6th day of December,
in the year 1664, the ferry-boat, having eighty-one passengers on board,
was upset whilst crossing the Strait, and only one man was saved, whose
name was Hugh Williams. On the 6th day of December 1782, the boat then
plying, containing about sixty persons, was upset, and all were lost
excepting one passenger, whose name proved to be Hugh Williams. On
the 5th of August 1820, a similar fate befell twenty-five unfortunate
persons, one only of whom escaped, whose name was Hugh Williams!
We should hope that none could now be found so weak, but certainly
there have been those who, having heard this story, would fear to trust
their precious lives in a ferry-boat with any one of the name of Hugh
Williams, but a little local knowledge would go far in removing such
an absurd apprehension, as indeed there are few of the most apparently
extraordinary events, the origin of which cannot be traced to simple
natural causes.
The name of Williams prevails in the neighbourhood of Bangor, and Hugh
is a favourite Christian name throughout all Wales. It is very probable
that persons of the name of Williams, very possibly even Hugh Williams,
were lost amongst the passengers on each of those occasions, but these
were overlooked, whilst the coincidence of the individual saved being
each time of the same name, was observed and recorded; the circumstance
being simply accounted for by the ordinary rules of calculating odds
or chances, for where the name of Hugh Williams prevailed, there was
certainly a greater chance of one of that name being saved than one of
any other, and, as we have before remarked, no account was made of how
many Hugh Williamses perished.