Mormon History
Fascination With Prophets - 1795
Possible Basis for Spaulding’s Prophet Character
Otsego Herald – June 12, 1795
From the TIMES, a London Paper.
We have already published several notices of a Mr. Brothers,
who is called in the London Papers a Prophet --
the following is a more particular account of him.
_______
The GREAT PROPHET of Paddington Street:
NEPHEW OF GOD.
Great
political convulsions have always been either preceded or accompanied by moral
revolutions, of which the factions of all countries avail themselves, to
ingratiate their revolutionary systems with those classes of society, that lay
most open to seduction and imposture.
Thus the French Revolution was preceded by a number of sects more or less
absurd, but all equally extravagant, which prepared the public mind for all
sorts of changes. -- Such were the Constitutionists, who played off their
tricks with great adroitness; the Martinists, who pretended to penetrate
into most hidden mysteries of the Divinity; the Mesmerists, who invited
all France to their banquets; the Somnambulists, &c. &c. When the French
Revolution was begun, the Prophet of Don Gerle, a Carthusian Monk, and a Member
of the Constituent Assembly, made her appearance; and under Robespierre, there
sprang up at Paris a number of other visionary dreamers. It seems that there are
men in this country, who propote to employ the same means to attain their end.
As a man of the name of BROTHERS, appears to be selected to act a prominent part
in these scenes, we have been induced to communicate to our readers the
following account of his printed prophecies, and the public conferences held at
his house, No. 27 Paddington street.
Mr. Brothers introduces himself as a prophet, the friend of God, his own nephew,
the chosen Chief of the Jews, and the Sovereign of the Universe. His daily
and nightly apparitions amount to about 600, and in all and in every one of
them, God reveals to him. that within a fixed time, which is to begin on the 1st
of June 1795 and to end in 1798, all Sovereigns shall be struck down and
destroyed forever.
Mr. Brothers, born at Newfoundland, is sent from the new, to overthrow the
ancient world. At first he was an officer in the navy. "Considering that
voluntary swearing which he was obliged to comply with, as a qualification to
receive his pay, was unjust, he requested permission to receive it without it.
The Earl of Chatham was so good, as to erase in his favor, the word Voluntary
from the form of swearing. But soon after Mr. Brothers requested from the
Admiralty, a dispensing order, that he might receive his pay but without taking
any oath; but they would not grant it. As it was evident that Brothers was put
of his senses, he was some time after taken to a workhouse," -- The very next
night, God informed him in an apparition, "That he will shake the English
Admiralty, as a man would do bread in a basket."
Brothers having heard that a friend of his had his ship seized in the West
Indies, by an undersigned infringement of the navigation act, wrote to the Earl
of Chatham to procure an indemnification for the poor man but was refused.
Therefore the Lord God told him at night, that he would truly enable him to
indemnify his friend, for he should be President of the Council and Chancellor
of the Exchequer."
Brothers having for some time been confined in Newgate, complains "that a small
penny loaf of bread was allowed him for the whole day to live upon," and states
that therefore God revealed to him that, since prisoners were so very
uncomfortably situated in Newgate, London must be a Sodom and Babylon,
and would be destroyed by fire and sword."
All the extravagant visions were anterior to the present. Brothers mind being
revolutionary exalted, he found himself, of course, in 1792, at the height of
the French Revolution. For this reason he wrote several letters to the King, the
Queen and Mr. Pitt, with a view of dissuading them from war against France,
because this war would be carried on against righteous people, chosen to execute
the plan which God had revealed to him. Since the beginnings of hostilities,
Brothers has written several other letters to the King and the Ministers, to
induce them to make peace, but his advice has been slighted, and therefore, the
King, the Queen, the Royal Family, the Ministers of Parliament, the town of
London, and every kingdom of Europe, are to be devoted to unavoidable ruin. This
destruction would have been delayed from a regard to his prayers; but as he has
been treated like a madman, and moreover Government persists in its perverse
intention of continuing the war, that universal destruction is to begin on the
1st of next June. At that period Mr. Brothers will be recognized as the
Sovereign of the Universe, the nephew of God, and the Chief and King of the
Jews. All the worldly powers are to bow before him, &c. &c. -- "Yet Isabella
Wake, who brought him a threepenny loaf every Monday, when he was in Newgate,
shall always have an apartment in his palace, and a seat at his table."
Mr. Brothers enjoys the greatest variety of visions and apparitions. In 1792, he
was transferred, to Stockholm, where he held several conferences with the ghost
of the famous Swedenborg, the chief of the Somnambulists. He there saw through a
window, a man walking round an empty elbow chair; and God told him, that this
man should murder the king. He would have informed that Monarch of his impending
assassination; but knowing that the king of Sweden was to take upon himself the
command of the armies destined to act against France, and that it was his
intention to penetrate thro' Normandy, and to burn the French fleet at Brest, he
abandoned him to his fate.
At the same time the Empress of Russia would have been assassinated, but for the
Prophet having been allowed by God to acquaint her with it. Her death is however
only delayed; and Mr. Brothers relates all the circumstances under which it is
to happen, which no doubt will afford much pleasure to the Conductor of one of
our Jacobin prints, who lately assured the Public, that the death of that
Princess would be a most fortunate event for humanity.
We forbear to enlarge any further on the visions of the Prophet BROTHERS, and
beg only leave to add, that he is daily visited by ladies and gentlemen, who
want him to have their fortunes told; by indignant French Emigrants, to whom he
professes his protection through his interest with God; and by different
descriptions of people, who delight in hearing, even from the mouth of a madman,
invectives against the present administration.
Note: Solomon Spalding was married to Matilda Sabin on February 21, 1795,
probably in New England. At about the same time the couple moved to Cherry
Valley, NY to take up residence near Solomon's brother Josiah, who operated a
retail store in that village. Solomon and his bride probably arrived in Cherry
Valley a few weeks before Elihu Phinney began publication of his Otsego
Herald in the county seat of Cooperstown (boyhood home of James Fenimore
Cooper). The literate and curious Spalding would have doubtless read the new
little weekly paper with great interest. What he may have thought of accounts of
the Canadian "Israelite Prophet,"
Richard Brothers is any body's guess, but a few dryly humorous pastiches of
prophetic impostors may be found in Spalding's Oberlin manuscript -- Brothers'
public image may have served as a caricature for those fraudulent oracles of
Spalding's imagination.