Upon returning to the home of his father, Thomas Dugdale, after a rushbearing in Whalley, Richard Dugdale's side is "suddenly seiz'd as with a burning pain, as if it had been whipt and stung with Nettles, or stab'd with Needles." Almost immediately afterward, "several Apparitions presented themselves, and after Vanish'd before him."(2)

Richard Dugdale allegedly saw "an Apparition of the Devil pointing at something which the said Richard had lately done," leading Mr. Jolly to assume that Richard Dugdale had formed some sort of malefic compact with the Devil.(3)