Prime Minister Spencer Perceval
On the night of 3 May that year, a Mr John Williams, who was a banker of Redruth in Cornwall, had a vivid dream in which he found himself standing in the lobby of the House of Commons. In this dream he saw a small man dressed in a blue coat and white waistcoat enter the lobby. Moments later, another man in a snuff-coloured coat with yellow metal buttons suddenly drew a small pistol and fired it at the man in blue. The dream was so realistic that the dreamer could actually discern the ball from the pistol striking the left side of the victim's chest, where it left a little neat spot.
Shocked at the incident, the dreamer turned to a group of people in the lobby and asked them who had been shot, and someone replied that the victim was the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. The group of bystanders then charged at the murderer to apprehend him.
At this point in the dream, Mr Williams awakened and gave an account of the strange dream to his wife. She assured him that it was only a bad dream and Mr Williams went back to sleep. Almost immediately, the same dream replayed in his mind, and Mr Williams woke up feeling quite uneasy, and told his wife that he had just experienced the same dream about the assassination of Perceval. Mrs Williams assured him that it was only a nightmare an nothing more. Mr Williams turned over and later went back to sleep for a third time, and the same dream of assassination returned to haunt him.
On the following, Mr Williams began to think about the significance of the recurring dream, and wondered if he ought to travel to London to warn Mr Perceval. Later, at work he related the events of the bad dream to several business acquaintances and asked them for advice. His friends told him that he would be ridiculed as a madman if he were to go to London on the strength of a mere dream, so Mr Williams decided not to go to the capital, but all the same, he scanned The Times newspaper each day to see if there had been any shooting incidents at Westminster.
On the afternoon of Monday, 11 May, Spencer Perceval left Number 10 Downing Street and, seeing it was a pleasant sunny day, he dismissed his carriage and decided to walk to the House. At around 5.15 p.m., Perceval entered the lobby of the House, and a few seconds later, Bellingham drew his pistol from his right-hand breeches pocket. He stepped out from behind a pillar, raised his pistol, aimed at Perceval, and in full view of all the constituents, he fired. The ball blasted a small neat hole in the left side of the Prime Minister's chest. Perceval cried, 'Murder!' and staggered three paces, fell on his side, then hit the floor face-down. Mr Goodiff, an Officer of the House attacked the assassin and grabbed his arm. He asked Bellingham if he shot the Prime Minister, and the Lancashire businessman replied, 'I am the unhappy man who ha shot Mr Perceval. My name is John Bellingham. I know what I have done. It was a private injury, a denial of justice on the part of the government.'
Williams immediately traveled to London and purchased a coloured etching of the Prime Minister's murder. He was astounded when he examined the printed picture, because every detail depicted was identical to the details he had witnessed in his dream, from the colours of the coats and the exact position of the gunshot wound in the chest, to the facial features of the petite Perceval and tall, aquiline-nosed Bellingham.
