In his book 'Predictions for the Year 1708' a soothsayer who used the name Issac Bickerstaff made an unusually precise pronouncement: John Partridge, a cobbler turned astrologer and editor of a rival almanac, 'Merlinus Liberatus' would "infallible die upon the 29th of March next, about 11 at night, of a raging fever." On March 30 Bickerstaff published a pamphlet claiming that his prediction had come true and that Partridge had died within four hours of the time given by Bickerstaff; on his deathbed he had even confessed that he was a charlatan. Still very much alive, Partridge protested that the report was entirely false; he even advertised the fact in the newspapers. But Bickerstaff, together with other writers, continued to insist that Partridge had died and that the man who claimed to be Partridge was an impostor. Partridge lived another seven years but spent most of them struggling to prove his existence and discover the identity of Bickerstaff. The latter, it turned out, was none other than Jonathan Swift, the author who would later write 'Gulliver's Travels'. But Partridge died before knowing the truth.

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