“Ignorance, Infatuation, and, Perhaps, Insanity!”: Jewish Restoration and National Crisis, 1793–1795

Crome, Andrew

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77194-6_5

Andrew Crome⁴

Part of the book series: Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World ((CTAW))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the development of restorationist prophecy in the controversy surrounding the prophet Richard Brothers (1757–1824) in the mid-1790s. The first part of the chapter provides an overview of Judeo-centric ideas from 1753–1790, examining particularly John Gill and Joseph Priestley. After providing background on Brothers, the chapter examines his followers’ use of restorationist ideas. In particular, Brothers’s concept that many of the English were “hidden Jews” is explored as a dynamic “point of encounter” between self and other. The chapter suggests that Brothers’s use of these ideas fits into the same logical framework as restorationist positions discussed in earlier chapters.

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Notes

1.
The Christian’s Diary; Or, an Almanack for One Day (Glasgow, 1793), cover page.
2.
Of course, it would be wrong to dismiss “popular” or “folk” religion as simple or unimportant. Sarah Williams’ use of oral histories of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Southwark have shown the depth of vernacular theology and personal meaning in beliefs dismissed by church authorities as “superstitious” (Sarah Williams, Religious Belief and Popular Culture in Southwark, c.1880–1939 [Oxford: OUP, 1999]). Recent studies of “lived religion” have also demonstrated the way in which ideas dismissed by religious authorities can powerfully influence the lives of believers in the same tradition. See, for example, Meredith McGuire, Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life (Oxford: OUP, 2008).
3.
Ragussis, Theatrical Nation, pp. 1–11.
4.
Richard Brothers, A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times, Book the First (London, 1794), pp. 62–64.
5.
Richard Brothers, A Letter from Mr. Brothers to Miss Cott (London, 1798), p. 36.
6.
Brothers, Letter…to Miss Cott, pp. 64–65.
7.
Neil Hitchin, “The Evidence of Things Seen: Georgian Churchmen and Biblical Prophecy”, in Bertrand Taithe and Tim Thornton (eds), Prophecy: The Power of Inspired Language in History 1300–2000 (Thrupp: Sutton, 1997), p. 134.
8.
See Clarke Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 152–154 and J.F.C. Harrison, The Second Coming: Popular Millenarianism 1780–1850 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), pp. 3–10. Susan Juster refers to “respectable” and “underworld” traditions (Susan Juster, Doomsayers, p. 15).
9.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, p. 154; Harrison, Second Coming, p. 5.
10.
Edward May, Remarkable Extracts, Selected from a Work Printed in the Year 1687, by Pierre Jurieu, Entitled the Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies, &c. (Henley, 1790).
11.
C.H., “On Prophetical Interpretations”, Universal Magazine 96 (March 1795), pp. 194–195.
12.
On the popularity of Newton see Hitchen, “Evidence of Things Seen”, pp. 120–123.
13.
Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Which Have Remarkably been Fulfilled, and at This Time Are Fulfilling in the World (London, 1789), Vol. 1, p. 114.
14.
Newton, Dissertations Vol. 1, p. 138. See also Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies, Which Have Remarkably been Fulfilled, and at This Time Are Fulfilling in the World (London, 1789), Vol. 2, p. 69.
15.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 2, p. 394.
16.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 1, p. 127.
17.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 1, pp. 139–140.
18.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 1, pp. 271–286; 409–412; Vol. 2, pp. 69, 82–121.
19.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 2, p. 397.
20.
Newton, Dissertations, Vol. 1, p. 408.
21.
Joseph Eyre, Observations upon the Prophecies Relating to the Restoration of the Jews (London, 1771), pp. vii–viii.
22.
Sharpe was master of the Temple, chaplain to the king, and a fellow of the Royal Society. See W. P. Courtney, ‘Sharpe, Gregory (1713–1771)’, rev. Emma Major, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25230]. Accessed 21st November 2016.
23.
Eyre, Observations, p. xi.
24.
Eyre, Observations, p. 37.
25.
Gregory Sharpe, The Rise and Fall of the Holy City and Temple of Jerusalem (London, 1764), pp. 36–38.
26.
Eyre, Observations, p. 123.
27.
Eyre, Observations, p. 140.
28.
Eyre, Observations, pp. 154–155.
29.
Mayir Vreté, “The Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought, 1790–1840”, Middle Eastern Studies 8:1 (1972), p. 24.
30.
Richard Hurd, An Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies Concerning the Christian Church (London, 1772), p. 174. Hurd preached the twelve sermons in this collection in his position as Warburton lecturer, where he was tasked to “prove the truth of revealed religion, in general, and of the Christian in particular, from the completion of the prophecies in the Old and New Testament which relate to the Christian church, especially in the apostasy of Papal Rome” (p. viii).
31.
William Hayward Roberts, Judah Restored: A Poem (London, 1774), Vol. 2, p. 118.
32.
John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity (London, 1769), p. 1005.
33.
Most notably the papacy and child baptism. See Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, pp. 711–713. On Gill’s millennialism see Gribben, Evangelical Millennialism, pp. 62–67.
34.
Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, pp. 970–1044.
35.
Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 716. His exegesis of the vials is on pp. 715–719.
36.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Books of the Prophets of the Old Testament (London, 1757), Vol. 1, p. 330.
37.
Gill, Exposition…of the Prophets, p. 331.
38.
Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 716.
39.
Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 717.
40.
Gill refers to prophecies that the millennium would commence in 1766 as “this very year”. A footnote confirms the date of the sermon. See Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 715.
41.
Gill, Body of Doctrinal Divinity, p. 716.
42.
Another notable use of the Jew Bill from the 1760s was published in 1765 by an author who identified himself as “Rabby Shylock”. The Jew Apologist, or, Considerations of the Jew Bill (London, 1765) was a Roman Catholic attack on Protestantism’s denial that St. Peter was the rock that the Church would be built upon, per Jesus’s statement in Matthew 16:18. The author claimed that Protestants’ argument that the Jew Bill would invalidate prophecy was patently invalid given their own ignorance of the clear prophecy in Matthew. He wondered why Protestants “make such a pother [sic] about the prophecies, which seem to denounce Jews for ever vagrants; whilst, in opposition to their own messia’s [sic] solemn promises, pledged for the perpetuity of his reigning successors, that continue at variance with them?” (p. vi).
43.
Juster, Doomsayers, p. 64.
44.
Great and Wonderful News to All Christendom (London, 1780), pp. 3, 7.
45.
On conversion narratives in the period see Katz, Jews in the History of England, pp. 202–204.
46.
For example: Richard Clarke, Signs of Times, or, a Voice to Babylon… and to the Jews in Particular (London, 1773) and A Series of Dialogues Addressed to the Jews (London, 1775).
47.
A Friend of the Jews, A Call to the Jews (London, 1783), pp. 9, 241.
48.
A Friend of the Jews, A Call, p. 3.
49.
A Friend of the Jews, A Call, p. 5.
50.
Levi produced his own Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament in Two Parts (London, 1793). On Levi, see Jack Fruchtman, “David and Goliath: Jewish Conversion and Philo-Semitism in Late-Eighteenth-Century English Millenarian Thought”, in James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin (eds), The Millenarian Turn, pp. 133–144 and Richard Popkin, “David Levi, Anglo-Jewish Theologian”, Jewish Quarterly Review 87 (1996), pp. 79–101.
51.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 129–133; Joseph Priestley, Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, Second Edition (Birmingham, 1782), pp. 420–429.
52.
Joseph Priestley, Letters to the Jews; Inviting Them to an Amiable Discussion of the Evidences of Christianity (Birmingham, 1786), p. 1.
53.
Priestley, Letters, pp. 42–43.
54.
Katz, Jews in the History of England, pp. 296–300; Endelman, Jews of Georgian England, pp. 220, 284.
55.
Joseph Priestley, Letters to the Jews Part II, Occasioned by Mr David Levi’s Reply to the Former Letters (Birmingham, 1787), pp. 8–13.
56.
James Bicheno, A Friendly Address to the Jews (London, n.d. [1787]), p. 24.
57.
Bicheno, A Friendly Address, p. 58.
58.
[Richard Worthington], A Letter to the Jews (Warrington, 1787), p. 17.
59.
Thomas Reader, Israel’s Salvation: Or, An Account from the Prophecies of Scripture (Taunton, 1788), pp. 81–90.
60.
National Archives Pro/30/11/59r-v.
61.
Richard Beere, An Epistle to the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews (London, 1789), p. 117.
62.
Beere, An Epistle, p. 134. Beere also returned to Thomas Brightman’s conception of the “threefold coming” (Epistle, p. 147).
63.
Beere, An Epistle, pp. 205–206.
64.
Gordon initially attempted to convert in 1784, but his request was refused by Rabbi David Tevele (William D. Rubenstein, Michael A. Jolles and Hilary L. Rubenstein (eds), Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History [Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011], pp. 358–359). For more on Gordon see Katz, Jews in the History of England, pp. 302–310.
65.
Robert Watson, The Life of Lord George Gordon (London, 1795), p. 79
66.
Gordon had fled England following a libel conviction, and returned to Birmingham, where he lived incognito amongst the Jewish community after his conversion. At his arrest he was surrounded by Jews “who affirmed that his Lordship was MOSES risen from the DEAD in order to instruct them, and enlighten the whole world” (The British Chronicle, or, Pugh’s Hereford Journal, 13th December 1787, p. 3).
67.
A Dissertation on the Existence, Nature, and Extent of the Prophetic Powers in the Human Mind (London, 1794), pp. 35–38.
68.
Robert Hawes, An Acrostical Tribute of Respect, to the Memory of the Late Right Honorable George Gordon (London, 1793), p. 4.
69.
Michael Ragussis, Figures of Conversion: ‘The Jewish Question’ and English National Identity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), pp. 122–124.
70.
“The Conversion of Lord George Gordon”, English Review 10 (December 1787), p. 481.
71.
“The Conversion of Lord George Gordon”, p. 482. Given that the author implies that Gordon converted out of lust for Jewish women, who subsequently rejected him, it is probable that he is employing a double entendre here.
72.
For example: Norfolk Chronicle, 15th December 1787, p. 2; Northampton Mercury, 15th December 1787, p. 1; Chelmsford Chronicle, 14th December 1787, p. 1. In private correspondence, Horace Walpole also evidenced a fascination with Gordon’s beard (Ragussis, Theatrical Nation, p. 39).
73.
Gentleman’s Magazine 58:1 (January 1788), p. 80.
74.
Ragussis, Theatrical Nation, p. 127.
75.
The Leeds Intelligencer, 5th February 1788, p. 4.
76.
Oliver, Prophets and Millennialists, p. 43.
77.
Juster, Doomsayers, pp. 7–15.
78.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 225–230.
79.
As Jonathan Downing points out, this risks distorting holistic understandings of self-identified “prophets” in the eighteenth century (“Prophets Reading Prophecy: The Interpretation of the Book of Revelation in the Writings of Richard Brothers, Joanna Southcott and William Blake” [University of Oxford: Unpublished PhD Thesis, 2015], pp. 48–62).
80.
“Kairos” refers to “God’s time”—a period when radical change appears to be possible and blessed by God. This contrasts with “Chronos”, or “normal” time. On using Kairos as a lens though which to view millennialism in the Revolution see Burdon, Apocalypse in England, pp. 90–93.
81.
William Jones, Popular Commotions Considered as Approaching Signs of the End of the World (London, 1789).
82.
Elhanan Winchester, A Course of Lectures on the Prophecies that Remain to be Fulfilled (London, 1789), Vol. I, p. 75.
83.
For example, he believed that the first covenant could have been literally fulfilled by the Jews. He also believed that the temple and full animal sacrifices would be restored, but as thank offerings rather than guilt offerings. See Winchester, Course of Lectures, Vol. 1, pp. 85–122; Vol. 2, pp. 245–271.
84.
Gentiles will treat Jews “as though they were their best beloved children”, placing them in a parental role. At the same time, kings, nobles and all ranks “shall seek with their utmost desire to serve them” as their inferiors. (Winchester, Course of Lectures, Vol. II, p. 295).
85.
Winchester, Course of Lectures, Vol. II, p. 295.
86.
Winchester, Course of Lectures, Vol. I, pp. 169–192.
87.
Winchester, Course of Lectures, Vol. II, p. 142.
88.
Vreté, “Restoration of the Jews”, pp. 5–6.
89.
May, Remarkable Extracts, pp. 22–24.
90.
Katz, Jews in the History of Britain, p. 315.
91.
Richard Beere, A Dissertation on the 13th and 14th Verses of the 8th Chapter of Daniel (London, 1790), pp. 34–41.
92.
Beere, Dissertation, pp. 42–43.
93.
Beere, Dissertation, p. 44.
94.
Jacob Barnet, Remarks upon Dr. Priestley’s Letters to the Jews (London, 1792), pp. 35–36.
95.
Richard Clarke, A Series of Letters, Essays, Dissertations, and Discourses on Various Subjects (London, 1792), Vol. I, pp. 145–154, 340–345.
96.
James Bicheno, The Signs of the Times: Or, the Overthrow of the Papal Tyranny in France (London, 1793), p. 51.
97.
Elhanan Winchester, The Three Woe Trumpets (London, 1793), pp. 54–56.
98.
Hawes, An Acrostical Tribute, p. 4.
99.
See, for example, N. Nisbitt, The Scripture Doctrine Concerning the Coming of Christ (Canterbury, 1792), pp. 91–96.
100.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 166–170.
101.
James Wright, God’s Long-Suffering Towards the Jews and His Goodness Toward the Gentile Christian (Glasgow, 1793), p. 19.
102.
Wright, God’s Long-Suffering, p. 29.
103.
Nathan Friend identifies Willison as a key figure in the Scottish revival, and the popularisation of postmillennialism in Scotland in the 1740s. See Nathan Friend, “Inventing Revivalist Millennialism: Edwards and the Scottish Connection”, Journal of Religious History 42:1 (2018), pp. 52–71.
104.
John Willison, A Prophecy of the French Revolution and the Downfall of Antichrist; Being Two Sermons Preached Many Years Ago (London, 1793), p. 23.
105.
Willison, Prophecy, p. 19.
106.
Willison, Prophecy, pp. 26–27, 44.
107.
Joseph Priestley, Discourses Relating to the Evidences of Revealed Religion (London, 1794), p. 238.
108.
Joseph Priestley, The Present State of Europe Compared with Antient Prophecies (London, 1794), p. 18.
109.
Priestley, Discourses… Revealed Religion, pp. 238–241.
110.
On the importance of Hartley for Priestley’s philosophy and theology see Jack Fruchtman, Jr., “The Apocalyptic Politics of Richard Price and Joseph Priestley: A Study in Late Eighteenth-Century Republican Millennialism”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 73:4 (1983), pp. 1–125; also Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 126–129 and Burdon, Apocalypse in England, pp. 105–119.
111.
Cecil Roth, The Nephew of the Almighty: An Experimental Account of the Life and Aftermath of Richard Brothers (London: E. Goldson, 1933).
112.
Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 57–85.
113.
Juster, Doomsayers, pp. 155–162.
114.
Downing, “Prophets Reading Prophecy”. Downing here talks about “pre-critical” approaches to the Bible.
115.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 38–41.
116.
As Ian McCalman argues, former soldiers and sailors were involved “in every insurrection plot in London from 1798 to 1820”. (Ian McCalman, Radical Underworld: Prophets, Revolutionaries and Pornographers in London, 1795–1840 [Cambridge: CUP, 1988], pp. 53–54).
117.
Richard Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, p. 57.
118.
Stephens responded to three letters sent in May, June and July on 10th July 1790 to refuse Brothers’s request. Brothers sent a longer letter demanding justice on 9th September 1790. These are reprinted in Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, A Calculation on the Commencement of the Millennium (London, 1795), pp. 45–54.
119.
Richard Brothers, Revealed Knowledge…Book the First, pp. 38–43. See also Revealed Knowledge…Book the Second, pp. 70–72 for his 1791 visions of the king of Sweden’s death. The Times added a facetious gloss that he had travelled to Sweden in the spirit to converse with Swedenborg’s ghost (The Times, 4th March 1795, p. 3).
120.
Joseph Moser, one of the governors, provides a thorough overview of Brothers’s interview prior to entering the workhouse and attempts the governors made to improve his condition. See Joseph Moser, Anecdotes of Richard Brothers in the Years 1791 and 1792 (London, 1795).
121.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge…Book the Second, p. 24.
122.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, p. 53.
123.
Richard Brothers, Wrote in Confinement. An Exposition of the Trinity (London, 1795), pp. 32–33.
124.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 54.
125.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge…Book the First, pp. 44–48.
126.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 88. US editions were printed in New York, Philadelphia and New London, Connecticut. The Paris edition is erroneously titled Prophéties de Jacques Brothers.
127.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, p. 187.
128.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, p. 8.
129.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, pp. 20–25, 84; Richard Brothers, Extracts from the Prophecy Given to C. Love (n.p., 1794), p. 3.
130.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, p. 102.
131.
On the popular reaction to Brothers and the government response see John Barrell, Imagining the King’s Death: Figurative Treason, Fantasies of Regicide 1793–1796 (Oxford: OUP, 2000), pp. 514–520.
132.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge…Book the First, pp. 30–36; Book the Second, p. 92.
133.
For Wright and Bryan’s journey to Avignon and conversion to Brothers see John Wright, A Revealed Knowledge of Some Things that Will Speedily be Fulfilled in the World (London, 1794) and William Bryan, A Testimony of the Spirit of Truth, concerning Richard Brothers (London, 1795). Their exploits caused controversy: defended by many of Brothers’s followers (e.g. Prophetical Passages Concerning the Present Times [London, 1795], pp. iii–iv) and attacked as false witnesses in others (Sarah Flaxmer, Satan Revealed; or the Dragon Overcome [London, 1795], pp. 9–12). For more on their backgrounds see Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 69–73 and Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 111–114; 159–161.
134.
On Sharp see Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 161–162.
135.
The Monthly Review, or Literary Journal 16 (March 1795), p. 339.
136.
Kenneth R. Johnston, Unusual Suspects: Pitt’s Reign of Alarm and the Lost Generation of the 1790s (Oxford: OUP, 2013).
137.
George Horne [i.e. Walley Chamberlain Oulton], Sound Argument Dictated by Common Sense, in Answer to Nathaniel Brassey Halhed’s Testimony of the Authenticity of the Prophecies of Richard Brothers (Oxford, 1795), p. vii. Oulton adopted Horne’s persona here, the late Bishop of Norwich being a noted defender of the church. See Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 153.
138.
McCalman, Radical Underworld, pp. 61–72.
139.
See A Summary of the Duties of Citizenship! Written Expressly for the Members of the London Corresponding Society (London, 1795). On Lee see Jon Mee, Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism in the 1790s: The Laurel of Liberty (Cambridge: CUP, 2016), pp. 149–167.
140.
The Times, 4th March 1795, p. 3.
141.
The precise charge against Brothers is unclear. Conflicting press reports suggest that Brothers was arrested for false prophecy, or for treason. John Barrell makes a convincing argument that the original charge was treason, which was then changed to false prophecy when it became clear that Brothers’s papers contained no treasonous material (Barrell, Imagining the King’s Death, pp. 519–520).
142.
For example, the rumour that a mob connected with the London Corresponding Society planned to spring Gordon from prison on 14th July 1791. See Mee, Print, Publicity, and Popular Radicalism, pp. 61–63. It is also interesting to note that Robert Hawes, who wrote An Acrostical Tribute of Respect, to the Memory of the Late Right Honorable George Gordon proclaiming the imminence of Jewish restoration was a regular printer for radical material (including works by Clarke and Winchester), and a member of the LCS.
143.
Ian McCalman has suggested the possibility of links between Priestley’s, Brothers’s, and Gordon’s views of Jewish restoration. Although this is persuasive, it is better to view all three men’s opinions as stemming from a shared cultural tradition, rather than directly influenced by one another. See Ian McCalman, “New Jerusalems, Dissent and Radical Culture in England, 1786–1830”, in Knud Haakonssen (ed.), Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge: CUP, 1996), pp. 312–335.
144.
National Archives PC 1/28/60 “Minutes of Examination of Richard Brothers, 5th March 1795”.
145.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 142–146.
146.
John Barrell, Imagining the King’s Death, pp. 504–547; Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 142–161.
147.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the First, pp. 9–10.
148.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the First, p. 15.
149.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, p. 72.
150.
Joseph Priestley, “Observations on the Prophecies Relating to the Messiah and the Future Glory of the House of David” (1786) reprinted in J.T. Rutt (ed.), The Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Priestley, Vol. 12 (Northumberland: George Smallfield, 1804), p. 412.
151.
National Archives PC 1/28/60 “Minutes of Examination of Richard Brothers, 5th March 1795”.
152.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 53–56.
153.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 226–228.
154.
National Archives PC 1/28/60 “Minutes of Examination of Richard Brothers, 5th March 1795”.
155.
Richard Brothers, Wrote in Confinement, pp. 24–27.
156.
It is important to note that Brothers did not view all Britons as Jews, or argue that they were part of the ten lost tribes—he claimed to be from the tribe of Judah. Harrison has argued for Brothers as a British Israelite (Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 79–83). Madden describes the link as “historically inaccurate” (Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 297–298). Downing finds it more persuasive, but recognises that Brothers did not believe all Englishmen were Jews (Downing, “Prophets Reading Prophecy”, pp. 147–149).
157.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the First, pp. 5, 20, 59.
158.
Moser, Anecdotes, p. 15.
159.
Richard Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. 65.
160.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. 93. Again, this echoes instructions God gave Brothers about his behaviour when revealed to the world (Revealed Knowledge…Book the Second, p. 72).
161.
Winchester, Three Woe Trumpets, p. 54.
162.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. vi.
163.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. 54.
164.
Brothers, Revealed Knowledge… Book the Second, pp. 33, 92. The certainty of judgement mingled with the potential for forgiveness. For example, the 1795 Wrote in Confinement proclaimed both the eternal fall of “the British empire” (p. 43) and offered an opportunity for repentance and averting of judgement based on the prophecy of Hezekiah’s death (and subsequent miraculous recovery) in 2 Kings 20 (pp. 46–47). In his 1798 “Address”, however, he warned that he had been told by God to no longer intercede for the nation if he continued to be mistreated (Brothers, A Letter, pp. 38–39).
165.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 278–280.
166.
The address was printed as part of the Brothers’s letter to Cott. Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott¸ p. 36.
167.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, pp. 36–37.
168.
Brothers, Wrote in Confinement, p. 27.
169.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. viii; p. 64.
170.
Brothers, A Description, p. 164.
171.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, pp. 47–62.
172.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, pp. 64–65.
173.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. 65. Madden notes the importance of mercantile arguments for Brothers in his vision of a restored Israel as a new marketplace for Europe’s goods (Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 225–227).
174.
Brothers, Letter… to Miss Cott, p. 66.
175.
Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 79–80; Bar-Yosef, “Green and Pleasant Lands”, pp. 166–167.
176.
Stephen J. Braidwood, Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London’s Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786–1791 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994), pp. 12–22.
177.
Harrison, Second Coming, pp. 69–71; Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 185–187.
178.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, p. 53.
179.
Henry Smeathman, Plan of a Settlement to Be Made near Sierra Leona, on the Grain Coast of Africa (London, 1786), pp. 19–22.
180.
Smith, Chosen Peoples, pp. 44–66.
181.
Richard Brothers, A Description of Jerusalem: Its Houses and Streets, Squares, Colleges, Markets and Cathedrals (London: Printed for George Riebau [e.g. Ribeau] 1801), p. 142.
182.
Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 46–56.
183.
Brothers, Letter, p. 35.
184.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 195. Brothers consciously makes this comparison at times “Look at London and Paris, those two great and wealthy cities, there are no such regular streets in either, or healthy accommodations as in ours…. But with us every house throughout the city has its regular portion of ground for a garden, where the poorest families may walk and enjoy themselves” (Brothers, A Description, p. 34). See Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 193–201; Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 53–54.
185.
On this see Harrison, The Second Coming, pp. 79–82.
186.
Nabil Matar, “The Controversy Over the Restoration of the Jews: From 1754 until the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews”, Durham University Journal 82:1 (1990), pp. 33–36; Bar-Yosef, Holy Land, pp. 51–56.
187.
See Brothers, A Letter, pp. 41–44; Brothers, A Description, pp. 18, 139.
188.
William Huntington, The Lying Prophet Examined and His False Predictions Discovered (London, 1795), p. v.
189.
A Freethinker, An Enquiry into the Pretensions of Richard Brothers (London, 1795), p. 3.
190.
Hereford Journal, 22nd April 1795, p. 3.
191.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 109.
192.
Juster, Doomsayers, pp. 134–142.
193.
William Dukes, Religious Politics: Or, The Present Times Foretold by the Prophet Micah (London, 1795), p. i.
194.
The Weekly Entertainer, 26th January 1795, p. 624.
195.
Mee, Print, Publicity, pp. 38–42.
196.
John Finlayson, An Admonition to the People of All Countries That Our Saviours Second Coming Is at Hand (Edinburgh, 1797), p. 25.
197.
Critical Review 13 (April 1795), p. 467.
198.
Critical Review 15 (October 1795), p. 217.
199.
Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Testimony of the Authenticity of the Prophecies of Richard Brothers (London, 1795), pp. 10–11. See also Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, A Calculation of the Millennium (London, 1795), p. 40.
200.
Halhed, Testimony, p. 40. His works reveal guilt over his previously voting in favour both war and the suspension of Habeas Corpus, see Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 79–80.
201.
A Country Curate, Strictures on the Prophecies of Richard Brothers (Oxford, 1795), pp. 39–40.
202.
Critical Review 15 (October 1795), p. 214.
203.
Halhed, A Calculation, p. 32.
204.
Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, The Whole of the Testimonies of the Authenticity of the Prophecies and Mission of Richard Brothers (London, 1795), pp. 70–71.
205.
Walter Churchey to Joseph Benson, Undated [Likely 1796], John Rylands Methodist Archive DDPr 1/16. Emphasis in original.
206.
J. Crease, Prophecies Fulfilling: Or, The Dawn of the Perfect Day (London, 1795), p. 3.
207.
Thomas Taylor, An Additional Testimony Given to Vindicate the Truth of the Prophecies of Richard Brothers (London, 1795), p. 7.
208.
Samuel Whitchurch, Another Witness! Or Further Testimony in Favour of Richard Brothers (London, 1795), p. 7.
209.
McCalman, “New Jerusalems”, p. 317; see also Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 110–113.
210.
Look Before You Leap, Or, the Fate of the Jews. A Warning to People of Other Nations, in the Case of Richard Brothers, the Prophet (London, n.d. [1795]), p. 16.
211.
G. Coggan, A Testimony of Richard Brothers, in an Epistolary Address to the People of England (London, 1795), pp. 30–31.
212.
Halhed, A Calculation, p. 60.
213.
Halhed, Testimony of the Authenticity, p. 36.
214.
James Gillray, “The Prophet of the Hebrews, or the Prince of Peace, conducting the Jews to the Promised Land”, 5th March 1795. British Museum 1868,0808.6420. On Jewish portrayal in this work see Felsenstein, Anti-Semitic Stereotypes, pp. 96–97.
215.
Henry Spencer, A Vindication of the Prophecies of Mr. Brothers and the Scripture Expositions of Mr. Halhed (London, 1795), pp. 30–31.
216.
Quoted in Madden, Paddington Prophet, p. 159.
217.
Malachi Moses, The Prophecies of the Times: A Satire (London, 1795), p. 10.
218.
Moses Gomez Pereira, The Jew’s Appeal of the Divine Mission of Richard Brothers and N.B. Halhed, Esq to Restore Israel and Rebuild Jerusalem (London, 1795), pp. 60–61.
219.
Huntington, Lying Prophet, pp. 10–13.
220.
Huntington, Lying Prophet, p. 13.
221.
Huntington, Lying Prophet, pp. 33–34.
222.
Look Before You Leap, p. 6.
223.
Henry Francis Offley, Richard Brothers, Neither a Madman nor an Impostor (London, 1795), p. 9.
224.
Taylor, Additional Testimony, p. 10.
225.
Taylor, Additional Testimony, pp. 6–7.
226.
James Bicheno, A Word in Season: or, A Call to the Inhabitants of Great Britain (London, 1795), pp. 12–17.
227.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 65–66.
228.
Garrett, Respectable Folly, pp. 167–178.
229.
England is portrayed as the nation sheltering the church in the wilderness. Antichrist in the French Conventions (London, 1795), pp. 13–33.
230.
Charles Jerram, An Essay Tending to Shew the Grounds Contained in Scripture for Expecting a Future Restoration of the Jews (Cambridge, 1796), p. 9.
231.
Jerram, An Essay, pp. 39–40.
232.
Madden, Paddington Prophet, pp. 289–291.

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Crome, A. (2018). “Ignorance, Infatuation, and, Perhaps, Insanity!”: Jewish Restoration and National Crisis, 1793–1795. In: Christian Zionism and English National Identity, 1600–1850. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77194-6_5

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