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Lead’s Life and Times (Part Three): The Philadelphian Society

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Jane Lead and her Transnational Legacy

Part of the book series: Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1500-1800 ((CTAW))

Abstract

This chapter covers the period from 1696 to 1704, that is from Lead’s first published message to the Philadelphian Society until her death and burial. It outlines how Lead’s little band of supporters intended to warn and prepare prospective believers of the coming Philadelphian age through a flurry of publications. Yet this coordinated publicity campaign abruptly fractured the Philadelphians’ precursor society, which hitherto had negotiated a path between secrecy and openness. Consequently, only the minority who favoured a public testimony owned the Philadelphian name. Wanting to expose her visions and teachings to public view Lead was given the opportunity to do so through a succession of mainly male patrons and amanuenses. Accordingly, she became synonymous with the Philadelphian Society. At the same time Lead’s principle supporters set about fashioning an image of irenic conformity and social standing for the Philadelphians at large. Hostile observers, however, readily compared Philadelphians with Quakers. Some even incorporated them within a catalogue of innumerable sects or else grouped them with foreign Quietists and Pietists. More damaging still was the allegation that Lead envisaged herself as the woman clothed with the sun (Revelation 12:1), indeed as the grandmother of a new Christ.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jane Lead, A Message to the Philadelphian Society (London: J[ohn] Bradford, 1696), pp. 3, 80, [87].

  2. 2.

    Lead, Message, pp. 7–14, 107.

  3. 3.

    M. Treadwell, ‘London printers and printing houses in 1705’, Publishing History, 7 (1980), pp. 15–16; Paula McDowell, ‘Sowle, Tace (1666–1749)’, ODNB.

  4. 4.

    Lead, Message, ‘Advertisement’; Jane Lead, The Tree of Faith (London: J[ohn] Bradford, 1696), ‘Advertisement’; Jane Lead, A Fountain of Gardens (London: J[ohn] Bradford, [1697]), ‘Advertisement’; Francis Lee, The State of the Philadelphian Society (1697), p. 31.

  5. 5.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 55r; Onesimus [pseud. = Richard Roach], ‘Solomon’s Porch: or the Beautiful Gate of Wisdom’s Temple’, in Lead, Fountain of Gardens, sig. *E2.

  6. 6.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 55r–56r, 64r.

  7. 7.

    Richard Roach, The Great Crisis (London: N. Blandford, 1725), p. 99; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 1262, p. 15, quoted in S. Apetrei, ‘Mystical divinity in the manuscript writings of Jane Lead and Anne Bathurst’ (this volume).

  8. 8.

    Jane Lead, A Fountain of Gardens (London: booksellers of London and Westminster, 1697), preface by ‘Timotheus’ [pseud. = Francis Lee].

  9. 9.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 55r, 63r, 80v, 82r.

  10. 10.

    Anon. Propositions Extracted From the Reasons for the Foundation and Promotion of a Philadelphian Society (London: booksellers of London and Westminster, 1697), p. 10; [Francis Lee], The State of the Philadelphian Society (1697), pp. 3, 7; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 6r.

  11. 11.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, p. 9.

  12. 12.

    Anon. Propositions, p. 9; LPL, MS 942 (130), Reasons for the Foundation and Promotion of a Philadelphian Society (1697), pp. 3–4; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 57r, 63v.

  13. 13.

    LPL, MS 942 (130), p. 4; [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, pp. 2, 6–7; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 57v.

  14. 14.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, p. 7.

  15. 15.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, p. 2.

  16. 16.

    Anon. Propositions, pp. 7, 10–11; LPL, MS 942 (130), pp. 2, 3; [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, p. 2; G & C, MS 725/752; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 87r.

  17. 17.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 54v, 63v–64v, 82r.

  18. 18.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 23r, 82v.

  19. 19.

    CSPD William III, 1697, p. 54; Bodl. MS Rawlinson B 243, fols. 9–10; CSPD William III, 1698, p. 339; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832, fol. 4r; TNA: PRO, Prob 11/476 fol. 281v.

  20. 20.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 27r–28v, 65r.

  21. 21.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 65v, 82v, 86v.

  22. 22.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, p. 14.

  23. 23.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 65v, 82v; Francis Lee (ed.), Theosophical Transactions by the Philadelphian Society (5 vols., 1697), vol. 5, p. 224.

  24. 24.

    CSPD William & Mary, 1693, pp. 119, 186.

  25. 25.

    Chetham’s, 3.F.3.46 (a), endpaper.

  26. 26.

    Joseph Besse (ed.), The Life and Posthumous Works of Richard Claridge (3rd edn., London: Darton and Harvey, 1836), pp. 31–33.

  27. 27.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 56v, 66r, 82v.

  28. 28.

    CSPD 1672, p. 273; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832 fols. 53r–v, 94r–95r.

  29. 29.

    Anon. Propositions, p. 11; Anon., The Declaration of the Philadelphian Society of England, Easter-Day, 1699 (1699), p. 6; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 56r–v, 65v–66r, 82v, 84r; Roach, Great Crisis, p. 99.

  30. 30.

    CSPD 1682, p. 609; Walter Wilson, The History and Antiquities of the Dissenting Churches and meeting houses in London, Westminster and Southwark (4 vols., 1808–14), vol. 2, pp. 557–58.

  31. 31.

    C. Garrett, ‘Swedenborg and the Mystical Enlightenment in Late Eighteenth-Century England’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 45 (1984), pp. 67–81.

  32. 32.

    Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz Handschriftenabteilung (Berlin), Nachlaß A.H. Francke, Kapsel 30—England betreffend, fol. 673; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832, fol. 45r; G & C, MS 725/752; T. Dixon, ‘Love and music in Augustan London; or, the “Enthusiasms” of Richard Roach’, Eighteenth Century Music, 4:2 (2007), pp. 193–94.

  33. 33.

    Anthony Horneck, Several Sermons upon the Fifth of St. Matthew (2nd edn., 1726), vol. 1, pp. viii–x; W.R. Ward, ‘Horneck, Anthony (1641–1697)’, ODNB.

  34. 34.

    Nicholas Fontaine, The history of the Old and New Testament (1691), title-page; Berlin, Nachlaß A.H. Francke, Kapsel 30, fol. 300.

  35. 35.

    Warren Johnston, ‘Beverley, Thomas (d. 1702)’, ODNB; W. Johnston, ‘Thomas Beverley and the “Late Great Revolution”: English Apocalyptic Expectation in the Late Seventeenth Century’, in Ariel Hessayon and Nicholas Keene (eds.), Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 158, 171–73; Warren Johnston, Revelation Restored. The Apocalypse in later seventeenth-century England (Woodbridge, 2011), pp. 193–94, 209, 215–18, 231–32.

  36. 36.

    Thomas Beverley, An Exposition of the Divinely Prophetick Song of Songs (1687), pp. 47–50; Thomas Beverley, The Prophetical history of the Reformation (1689), sig. a2v–2, pp. 64–65, 72–73, 78.

  37. 37.

    Anon. Propositions, p. 11.

  38. 38.

    Richard Roach, The Imperial Standard of Messiah Triumphant (1727), p. xix.

  39. 39.

    Thune, Behmenists, p. 127.

  40. 40.

    Edward Waple, The Book of the Revelation Paraphrased; with annotations on each chapter (London, 1693), ‘The Argument’, pp. 54–55, 210, 236, 241–43.

  41. 41.

    LPL, MS 1048a, fol. 20; G & C, MS 725/752; Harry Bristow Wilson, History of Merchant Taylors’ School (London, 1814), vol. 2, pp. 865–66.

  42. 42.

    TNA: PRO, Prob 11/527, fol. 239v.

  43. 43.

    Walton, Notes, pp. xxxii, 7, 329, 460, 491–92, 680–81, 684, 685; Charles Muses, Illumination on Jacob Boehme: the work of Dionysius Andreas Freher (New York, 1951), p. 15.

  44. 44.

    LPL, MS 1048a, fol. 147; FbG, Chart A 297, p. 12; Anon., The Vindication and Justification of the Philadelphian Society (London, printed for the Society, 1702), brs.; Thune, Behmenists, p. 134 n. 8.

  45. 45.

    Roach, Great Crisis, p. 99.

  46. 46.

    Walton, Notes, p. 203; John Pordage, Göttliche und Wahre Metaphysica (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1715), pp. 596–97, 669–73; Thune, Behmenists, pp. 65–66.

  47. 47.

    LPL, MS 942 (130), pp. 2–3; Anon. Propositions, p. 10; [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, pp. 1–2, 7, 9, 15.

  48. 48.

    Charles Leslie, A reply to a book entitul’d, Anguis Flagellatus (1702), ‘Advertisement’; Anon., Dissenters and schismaticks expos’d (1715), pp. 94–95.

  49. 49.

    Maximilien Misson, M. Misson’s Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England, trans. John Ozell (1719), pp. 236–37.

  50. 50.

    John Cockburn, Bourignianism detected (1698), sig. A2v; John Cockburn, A letter from John Cockburn (1698), pp. 21–22.

  51. 51.

    Cornelius Nary, A modest and true account of the chief points in controversie between Roman Catholics and the Protestants (1696), p. 50; John Newte, A Letter to a friend in the country (1698), p. 36; Stephen Nye, The grounds and occasions of the controversy concerning the unity of God (1698), p. 52.

  52. 52.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, pp. 11, 30.

  53. 53.

    Lead, Message, pp. 8–9; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 54v–55r, 59; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 1152, fol. 30r.

  54. 54.

    [Lee], State of Philadelphian Society, pp. 15–19.

  55. 55.

    LPL, MS 1048a, fols. 94, 118, 121–22, 124–25, 140–41, 184, 189.

  56. 56.

    Tatler, no. 257 (30 November 1710; reprinted, London: Nichols & Son, 1806), pp. 484–85; cf. FbG, Chart A 306, pp. 232–33.

  57. 57.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832, fol. 53v.

  58. 58.

    LPL, MS 1048a, fols. 93–94, 95, 118–19, 120–21, 127, 146, 149, 158–62; S.J. Baumgarten, Nachrichten von mertwürdigen Büchern (Halle, 1756), p. 324; Berlin, Nachlaß A.H. Francke, Kapsel 30, fol. 567.

  59. 59.

    LPL, MS 1048a, fols. 146–49, 163; Baumgarten, Nachrichten, pp. 324–25; Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek (Hamburg), Supplex epistolica (4°) 17, fols. 9r, 28r, cited in Arlene Miller, ‘Jacob Boehme: from Orthodoxy to Enlightenment’, unpublished Stanford University Ph.D., 1971, p. 624.

  60. 60.

    Theosophical Transactions, vol. 1, pp. 46–52; LPL, MS 1048a, fols. 150–53; T. Wotschke, ‘Der märkische Freundeskreis Friedrich Brecklings’, Jahrbuch für brandenburgische Kirchengeschichte, 25 (1930), pp. 208–09 n. 131; cf. Thune, Behmenists, p. 128.

  61. 61.

    G & C, MS 725/752.

  62. 62.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832, fol. 21r; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 6r–7v, 83r–v; LPL, MS 942 (141), fols. 1r–12v; Thune, Behmenists, pp. 87–89.

  63. 63.

    Bodl., MS Smith 48, fol. 349; London Evening Post, 432 (10 September 1730).

  64. 64.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 56v; Anon., The Protestation of the Philadelphian Society (London, 1703?) [BL, MS Harleian 5946].

  65. 65.

    [Roach], ‘Solomon’s Porch’, in Lead, Fountain of Gardens.

  66. 66.

    An Elegy, Upon the Philadelphian Society (London, 1703), brs. [BL, MS Harleian 5946].

  67. 67.

    [Francis Lee], Der Seelig und aber Seeligen Jane Leade Letzere Lebens-Stunden, ed. Johann Theodor von Tscheschen (Amsterdam: R. and G. Wetsteinen, 1705), pp. 40–41; Johann Wolfgang Jaeger, Dissertatio historico-theologica, de Johannæ Leadææ Anglo-Britan. Vita (Tübingen, 1712), pp. 28–29, 30–32; Thune, Behmenists, p. 135; Joanne Sperle, ‘God’s healing angel: A biography of Jane Ward Lead’, unpublished Kent State University Ph.D., 1985, pp. 17–18, 41, 49.

  68. 68.

    Swedenborg Society (London), MS A/25, fol. 4v.

  69. 69.

    DWL, MS 186 (1), p. 15.

  70. 70.

    LPL, MS 1559, fol. 1r–v; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 89r–v; Jaeger, Dissertatio, pp. 33–36.

  71. 71.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 89r–v. Halberts dated her disclosure 30 August 1704 and her premonition 14–15 August 1704. She was using the Gregorian calendar, which was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar (1704 was a leap year).

  72. 72.

    LPL, MS 1559, fol. 1r; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fol. 89r–v.

  73. 73.

    Sperle, ‘God’s healing angel’, pp. 43–46; Sarah Apetrei, Women, Feminism and Religion in Early Enlightenment England (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 270–71.

  74. 74.

    Jaeger, Dissertatio, p. 31; DWL, MS 186 (1), pp. 24–26; Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 833, fols. 27r–v, 56v, 57r–v, 65r, 65v; Jane Lead, The Wonders of God’s Creation Manifested (London: T. Sowle, [1695]), pp. 7, 39–40, 82–85; Sperle, ‘God’s healing angel’, pp. 18, 221–22.

  75. 75.

    Swedenborg Society, MS A/25, fols. 4v–5r.

  76. 76.

    Bodl., MS Rawlinson D 832, fol. 33r.

  77. 77.

    Roach, Great Crisis, pp. 96–99.

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  1. Department of History, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

    Ariel Hessayon

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  1. Department of History, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Ariel Hessayon

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Hessayon, A. (2016). Lead’s Life and Times (Part Three): The Philadelphian Society. In: Hessayon, A. (eds) Jane Lead and her Transnational Legacy. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World, 1500-1800. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39614-3_4

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