Disappointment for the Southcottians

1814 Today is the day that self-proclaimed English prophetess, Joanna Southcott (1750 - 1814), fixed as the date that she would give birth to a son (the Shiloh of Genesis xlix, 10) who would be a great spiritual leader, in fact, the new Messiah.

Southcott, originally an English Methodist, represented herself as a spiritual leader and prophetess, gathering a côterie of followers. She said she was the “woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation xii, 1). There was no religious leader more discussed in 19th-century Britain than Southcott ...

Tagged: millennialism, southcott, religion, messiah, cults