1808.

Rev. THOMAS THIRLWALL* to Bishop PERCY. "MY LORD, Mile End, London, Jan. 7, 1808. "When I informed your Lordship that I should do myself the honour to write within a week after my last, I was not aware of a labour that has been cast upon me, which has occupied every moment of my time, and prevented me from performing my promise. I have the honour to be appointed one of the directors (not in the recent upstart schemes) of the Amicable Society for Insurance on Lives, incorporated a century ago, Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, which has obtained a new charter for extending its benefits. Having been appointed one of the sub-committee for framing a code of laws and other regulations, I found myself engaged in a task the nature and extent of which I had no conception of. We have, however, by steady perseverance accomplished our object. We last Monday presented the result of our labours to a general court, and had the satisfaction of receiving their unanimous approbation. I most heartily congratulate myself on this discharge, and hasten to the pleasing performance of my other engagements. I forgot, I believe, to inform your Lordship that Mrs. Southcott receives nothing for her protecting seals; but she is comfortably supported by her friends. I shall send the trash of her productions to Vernor and Hood, to be conveyed to your Lordship this day.

I hope I shall be fortunate enough to meet with the first volume of Cibber's Lives of the Poets. The printer has at last completed the copy of Bishop Taylor's Holy Living and Dying,' with his Golden Grove." His Discourses' are also published. The former, which I have edited, has been lately reviewed in a monthly publication called the Christian Observer.' The works of this good man are becoming extremely popular. Having finished the part which I had engaged, it is my intention to publish his work of 'The Sacred Order of Episcopacy,' which, in these times, I hope will be thought seasonable. When I read it, before I received your Lordship's letter, the thought struck me; nor perhaps will it come with impropriety from me, who in the Life of Hale have asserted of the Church of England, that the jurisdiction of the

* See Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. p 67.

bishops constitutes the corner-stone of its venerable structure. The Life of Bishop Taylor, prefixed to his 'Manual of Piety,' is at length published by the Rev. Mr. Fellows. I waited to see whether he could furnish any new materials, or might supersede the necessity of my undertaking; but he has done neither. He has told us only what the Biog. Brit. tells us, and would almost persuade us that the Bishop was a Unitarian. He has shorn the Bishop of all his sectarian partialities,―meaning his doctrinal points, and the distinguishing articles of faith professed by the sons of our Church. It is in my judgment a libel on the memory of the Bishop. It is, however, far from my intention even to notice it in my account. Let error and mischief be consigned to oblivion. I hope early in the spring to be ready. Accept, my Lord, the compliments of the season, and many happy returns of them. I am, my Lord, your Lordship's obedient, humble servant, "T. THIRLWALL."

Mr. HENRY LINGEN to Bishop PERCY. "MY LORD, "My father has been favoured with your letter on the subject of Joanna Southcott, the pretended prophetess. As he is now but little in the habit of writing (though upon the whole, thank God, extremely well for his time of life), he considers the pleasure of answering your Lordship's inquiries as devolving upon me. Your tenant, Mr. Adams, of the Tower, called upon me a little before Christmas, which reminds me that I may appear remiss in not replying to you before; but I can assure your Lordship the only reason of my silence is this, that I consider myself as having no information which you may think worth my communicating to you. Your letter, I confess, adds to my information on this extraordinary subject; but I am apprehensive my letter will not put you in possession of any facts with which you have not been previously acquainted. I have been daily in hopes of seeing a gentleman from Stourbridge, who usually visits his brother in this neighbourhood at Christmas, from whom I expected to hear many particulars respecting Joanna, and of the nature of that encouragement and protection which she receives from Mr. Foley; but as this gentleman has been prevented by sickness, I believe, from coming as usual, Í venture to lay before you the few facts I have

Abberley, near Worcester, Jan. 4, 1808.

gleaned; and, should I gain any further information, I will take the liberty of communicating it in a future letter.

"Mr.John Watkins, rector of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, being at my father's house some time after he had received your Lordship's letter, I requested of him, as he was going to call upon a friend at Stourbridge, to procure me answers to the following queries, which he obligingly did. These I transcribe for your Lordship's perusal.

"Is Joanna Southcott* now residing at Stourbridge? -She has not resided there for a considerable time: is supposed to be now living at Exeter. Is she now supported as a prophetess by Mr. Foley?—Mr. F. supports her doctrines as much as possible.

"In his discourses from the pulpit does he advise his congregation to accept of her preservative seal, or in any shape to put themselves under her protection?—In his discourses from the pulpit he has occasionally mentioned the prophetess, but does not generally notice her.

"Is the time yet expired when the prophetess's seal, according to her predictions, was to deliver her followers from impending ruin?-This seems not to be known.

"Are her doctrines received by any people of information in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge (the rector of Old Swinford excepted), or only by the common people? -Her doctrines are received only by the lower class of people, including some inferior tradesmen in the town of Stourbridge.

"Does she seal her converts in any other parts of the kingdom? Certainly in other parts; her number of sealed converts amounting already to more than 14,000.

"Is her reputation as a prophetess on the decline in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge?-Rather on the decline of late, as far as I could learn.

"Has the Bishop of the diocese interfered with the peculiarity of Mr. Foley's opinions?—It is supposed that the very infirm state of the Bishop of the diocese has prevented his interfering in this extraordinary business.

"Does Joanna confer her protecting seal gratis ?—I could not learn that she had ever condescended to accept of any gratuity for the protecting seal.

"I have the honour to be, my Lord, your much obliged and very obedient servant, HENRY LINGEN.'

* This notorious religious impostor died in Manchester Street, Manchester Square, Dec. 27, 1814. See an account of her tenets and delusions in Gent. Mag. LXXXIV. ii. 136, 240, 678; LXXXV. i. 599, 601.

"MY LORD, Abberley, near Worcester, Feb. 23, 1808. "In replying to your last letter concerning Mr. Foley and Mrs. Joanna Southcott, I am not able to speak with certainty as to the general deranged state of that gentleman's mind; but I apprehend that he is perfectly rational on all other subjects but that unfortunate one, which has for a considerable time engrossed so much of his attention. With respect to his academical education, I have to observe to your Lordship, for the information of the Hon. Mr. Meade, that he was not of Wadham College, Oxford, but of Jesus College, Cambridge ;* and I have heard received a Fellowship from that society, from the circumstance of having taken a respectable degree in that university. His church preferment is very considerable, as he has another living beside that of Old Swinford, and, before this strange infatuation under which he now labours had taken possession of him, was looked up to as a very respectable gentleman. I do not understand that much, if any thing (especially latterly), on the subject of the prophetess, is delivered by Mr. F. from his pulpit. But your Lordship most probably, from your situation in the Church, knows more than myself the method he takes to promulgate her opinions; and I have been informed that he has sent her publications to many of the clergy (and perhaps others) in these, and in other parts.

"As your Lordship appears so anxious for information on this extraordinary subject, I will venture to communicate to you a history I have lately heard; and, at the same time that I cannot vouch for the authenticity, I believe it to be true. Mr. Foley some time since laid a wager (five guineas) with a Mr. Pidcock, one of his parishioners, that monarchy would not be restored in France within some certain given period. Upon the accession of the present Emperor of the French people to his new dignity, Mr. P. conceived he had won the wager, and, I believe, Mr. Foley did not deny it: but upon some doubts arising in his (Mr. Foley's) mind of the propriety or lawfulness of wagers of this kind, he applies to Joanna for information, and she bids, or perhaps commands him, not to pay the wager. Upon this Mr. Pidcock expressed himself in a way which much hurt Mr. Foley's feelings, and he (Mr. Foley) thought proper to read a statement of his case, or

The Rev. Thomas Philip Foley, B.A. as fourth Junior Optime 1779. He died in 1835. See a notice of him in the Gentleman's Magazine, N. S. vol. IV. p. 554, but for Trinity college, read Jesus'.

a vindication of his conduct, I am sorry to say, in his parish church, to his congregation there assembled. In one part of his harangue he was contradicted by a gentleman present (not Mr. Pidcock, I understand, who was not then in the church, but by a friend of his), and told it was not so. This circumstance could not fail to discompose the whole of his congregation, and must be matter of great grief to the more serious part of it.

A friend of mine informs me, that a publication has lately appeared in three volumes, and I believe is now coming out in a second edition, professing to be from a Spaniard in England, but the production of an English pen.* In this there is a letter or paper on the subject of Joanna Southcott, and the information it contains, my friend assures me, is authentic.

"I have not seen Mrs. Harper, but am told by Mr. Harper that her cousin, Capt. Gun, now resides in Worcester. "I have to apologise to your Lordship for the little information I have been able to furnish you with on this very marvellous subject. I am your very faithful and obedient servant,

1808-1811.

HENRY LINGEN."

Loddington, January 17, 1808.

Rev. EDWARD JONES† to Bishop PERCY. "MY LORD. "I have been prevented from having the pleasure of paying my respects to Mr. and Mrs. Ïsted, since their return, until yesterday; they had previously taken an opportunity to send me the papers which your former kind notices prepared me to expect; and have been so good to undertake the conveyance of my acknowledgments for your Lordship's favour in receiving so obligingly the thoughts, which I could not refrain from putting down on paper, and took the liberty of communicating to you; and for your farther striking contrast between competitors in popular publications, where a more accurate and disinterested memory proves both to be in the wrong.' I have not admitted a thought of transmitting a copy of the latter to Mr. Urban, though I think it would be accept* "Letters from England. By Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. Translated from the Spanish. 3 vols. 1807." The authors of these Letters were Mr. Southey and Mr. Duppa. See Monthly Review, LV. p. 380. The Rev. Edward Jones, B.D. 47 years Rector of Loddington and of Uppingham, a gentleman of extensive learning and great benevolence, died December 23, 1814, aged 74. See an account of him in Literary Anecdotes, vol. IX. 761; and notices of him in vol. VII. 605.