A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Southcott, Joanna
SOUTHCOTT, JOANNA,
A fanatic, was born, in April, 1750, in the west of England. Her parents were poor, and she was for many years a servant early in life she indulged in visionary feelings; but when she was forty-two, she claimed the character of a prophetess. For more than twenty years from that time, she continued to pour forth unintelligible rhapsodies, by which she succeeded in making many dupes. At length, mistaking disease for pregnancy, she announced that she was to be the mother of the promised Shiloh; and great preparations were made for his reception by her deluded followers. She, however, died of the malady, December 27, 1814. Her sect is not even yet extinct.