Colley, Thomas (d. 1912)
The archdeacon of Natal and rector of Stockton, a Church
of England parish, and an ardent English psychical investigator.
For a period of 40 years preceding his death in 1912, Colley
had many extraordinary psychical experiences. Although
he participated in the exposure of the fraudulent medium William
Eglinton in 1876, he was the firmest believer in the similar
phenomena of F. W. Monck. He issued a challenge to the stage
magician J. Maskelyne to produce phenomena like Moncks.
When the magician claimed to have won and sued for the
amount of their wager, Archdeacon Colley was awarded £75
and costs in the verdict. He lectured on Moncks materializations
before the church congress at Weymouth in October 1903
and gave memorable defenses of physical phenomena in the
annals of Spiritualism.
Archdeacon Colley first brought the mediumship of William
Hope, the spirit photographer, to public attention, and
later founded the famous Crewe Circle.
