Bessie Williams

Late nineteenth-century British clairvoyant, trance and healing medium, later also known under her married names as Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mrs. Russell Davies. Her spirit control, "Dewdrop," claimed to be a Native American girl and played all the tricks of a mischievous secondary personality on the medium, such as controlling her in an omnibus and talking loudly in a foreign language until the other passengers thought that they were riding with a lunatic.

For a long time, Williams assisted a well-known spiritualist healer known as Dr. Mack in diagnosing medical conditions. She gave her services free. As she took on all the symptoms of the illnesses diagnosed, her failing health compelled her, after a while, to give up this pursuit. W. T. Stead thought highly of the medium's powers and included articles by her on the subject of haunted houses in his journal Borderland.

Sources:

Marryat, Florence. The Spirit World. New York: C. B. Reed, 1894.

——. There Is No Death. New York: Lovell, Coryell, 1891.

——, ed. The Clairvoyance of Bessie Williams. Related by Herself. N.p., 1893.