This feature first appeared in May 2025 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.
What’s the last thing you expect to happen to you at church?
“Mr. Goodson, a master-taylor in Craven-buildings [Drury Lane], being at the late Mr. Whitefield's chapel in Tottenham-court road, was struck dead by a flash of lightening; the studs in his sleeves were melted, his shirt was burnt, and the hair on one side of his head.” - Caledonian Mercury (syndicated), 30 March 1772
Bartholomew Goodson was struck by lightning, during divine service. Not only that, but his fate seems oddly specific — a master tailor getting fried until his buttons melted. Not only that, but one of the world’s leading authorities on atmospheric electricity died that very same day (22 March 1772), a couple of miles away in Spitalfields. God moves in mysterious ways.
The lightning strike was no idle hearsay. Three gentlemen of the Royal Society were in attendance and even got a scientific paper out of it, complete with diagram. They found that the lightning bolt had been attracted to a pineapple-shaped finial on the roof, which was “shivered into very small fragments.” The electricity then conducted down through the building into the unfortunate tailor’s head. He left behind “a wife and two children in distressed circumstances, who were entirely dependent on his labour”. Goodson was buried in the churchyard just metres from the scene of his electrocution. He might lie there still.
