How people believed Joanna Southcott and her mysterious Box.
Who would have thought that an illiterate, domestic servant , living at the end of the 18th Century, could attract over 100,000 followers with her apparent visions and prophecies?? Well take a look at Joanna Southcott. An interesting character, she leaves a legacy and followers to this day who still hold onto her teachings.
Devon born Joanna created her own religious teachings that lead to her mixing with all levels of society. People followed her announcement that she was to give birth to the 2nd Messiah in her 60’s and relied upon the mystery of her sealed “ Joanna Southcott’s Box of Concealed Writings”.
Joanna was born in April 1750 in Taleford in Devon, the fourth of six children , where her father was a farmer . She was raised in the small village of Gittisham, near Honiton, helping as a milk maid on the farm. Following the death of her mother, Joanna found herself in domestic service in Exeter. Later in her life, when Joanna was well known , she moved to London .
The whole story seems quite bizarre, but has some basis and indeed a lot of the artefacts of Joanna’s life are held at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, and also the Panacea Museum in Bedfordshire.
From Domestic Servant, Southcott declared herself as a prophetess . As was common in the late 1700’s, Joanna joined the church- finally settling with the Wesleyans and became persuaded she had supernatural powers. She announced herself as a prophetess, quoting biblical passages and making bizarre predictions – on the odds game, some had to come true.
Celebrities and wealthy Londoners were amongst those interested in Joanna and so she went to London at their request.
Joanna would sell small writings, – so-called “seals of the Lord” variously priced and all stamped with her seal. They were supposed to help smooth the path to the after life and often put into coffins of the deceased. These ‘passports to paradise’ were written on paper, signed by Joanna and sealed with wax, stamped with the initials J.C. Cynics have said Joanna found a seal in her younger days, when money was scarce. Rather than her own initials, Southcott spread the word the seal stood for Jesus Christ
Joanna’s prophecies became ever more trusted and her position elevated to someone of Cult status.
Probably her most well-known claim was that , at the age of 64 , Joanna was pregnant with the new Messiah . The baby was destined to be called Shiloh and was expected in October 1814. Understandably this generated much interest – by avid followers and Newspaper readers, but also mocking disbelievers and caricaturists of the day who made fun of her announcements. Even the Prince Regent followed this unconventional woman.
Upon word of the questionable pregnancy, the Prince Regent even sent a team of medical practitioners to examine Joanna – bizarrely, they could not conclude whether the pregnancy was in fact true. Southcott did, indeed, have a bloated distended abdomen, fuelling her followers excitement. But come the anticipated delivery date, no baby arrived. Questions were asked.
And to explain the baby’s absence, close followers suggested the birth had happened, but it wasn’t the right time for the Messiah to appear. Instead the baby, Shiloh, had been snatched straight to heaven at birth and was still waiting to reappear.
It is more likely Joanna had a distended abdomen from some other medical complaint, maybe something like a liver or ovarian cancer, since she was dead before the end of December of that year. Even then her followers retained her body for sometime, keeping it warm , in the hope that Shiloh would still appear.
Southcott was finally laid to rest at St John’s Wood, London in January.
But many across the country believed the miracle baby to the older mother would arrive. And indeed Joanna was showered with gifts, often by the wealthy. The Exeter RAMM Museum has a notable collection of these effects. There is a child’s cloak edged with swan down – of such quality the curators feel it was made in London by outfitters for the Aristocracy. Possibly this was for the missing baby’s christening.
There is also a blanket, or Christening Pane, with elaborate gold brocade edging and embroidered with Joanna’s words of teaching.
You may wonder why Joanna attracted such interest; there is no evidence she was particularly charismatic or engaging . Her visions would feed upon events like meteor strikes or storms and grand events in nature. And she also predicted the somewhat unexpected death of the Bishop of Exeter. When one idea got somewhere near real events, Joanna’s status grew.
Joanna had planned ahead though. Firstly she had insisted that , after the event of her death, all gifts be handed back to her followers. There was a multitude.
And she had planned her sealed box of writings – which apparently stands to this day . And was known about by much of the population – thanks to the regular adverts in Newspapers of the day.
This strange, wooden sealed box was said to contain the solutions for the future after a national crisis, long after Joanna’s passing. She had stipulated it could only be opened if certain conditions were met – most famously the gathering of 24 Bishops in a field as one criteria. There were times when the public begged the Bishops to open the box – the Crimean War and the First World War amongst them, with campaigns on billboards
Various reports said the box had been X-rayed and opened latterly and found to house oddments, random papers and a loaded horse pistol. Other’s disagree and say it remains closed and sacred
The last believed location for this box is with the Panacea Society in Bedford.
Historians like Shelley Tobin at Exeter have marvelled at the life of Joanna Southcott. They seem to think she was sincere in her beliefs and persisted with her views against all odds.
Perhaps society pushed her to where she ended up. Even Charles Dickens makes reference to Southcott at the start of his novel A tale of two cities.
Probably Joanna wasn’t just there to make money selling her books and ‘passport to paradise’ seals with a back story to them .
Mind you 144,000 people bought into that idea.