Richard Brothers (1757-1824) British Naval Officer

     Richard Brothers was born in Newfoundland where his father was a gunner in the navy. Brothers went to England to join the navy himself in 1771. Having begun his naval career as a midshipman, he served as master’s mate in 1778 and was promoted to lieutenant by 1782. In 1786 he married Elizabeth Hassall, but returned to his ship directly after the wedding. Arriving home several years later, Brothers found his wife living with another man, the father of her several children. Brothers then went to live in London. (Harrison 58)

     In London Brothers developed an interest in “mystical and prophetical writings”. In 1790 he felt that he had been touched by God and became “convinced that the profession of arms was inconsistent with Christian teaching”. Brothers further embraced “the Quakerly doctrine” against oath-taking and consequently had trouble drawing “his half-pay from the Admiralty, as payment was conditional on taking an oath that he had not received any other employment under the Crown during the previous six months”. First placed in a workhouse, then later in Newgate, Brothers finally resolved the problem for good by agreeing “to sign letters of attorney authorizing his pay to be drawn on his behalf”. (Harrison 59)

     Dispirited by his stay in Newgate, Brothers had determined to leave England and give up his stake in prophesying when he found himself stopped en route and commanded by God to turn back (Harrison 59-60). Brothers now felt that he was called to prophesy and “busied himself with interpreting the dreams and visions which came to him with increasing force” (Harrison 60). Brothers understood his own surname as a sign “that he was descended from King David through James, one of the brothers of Jesus” and accordingly styled himself “the Prince of the Hebrews and nephew of the Almighty” (Harrison 60; italics in original).

     Brothers’ pamphlets, A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times. Book the First and Book the Second, came out in 1794 and brought to the fore Brothers’ claims as a prophet (Harrison 60). Brothers prophesied that the millennium would begin on November 19, 1795 and pronounced that he “was to lead the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and undertake the rebuilding of Jerusalem” in 1798 (Harrison 61). To this end, he had engravings made of New Jerusalem for his 1801 A Description of Jerusalem (Paley 273-77). According to J. F. C. Harrison, these Jews were the “‘invisible Hebrews’ who were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel” (61).

     People began to visit Brothers daily during 1794-95, and the popularity and wide circulation (including American and French editions) of his writings led to numerous pamphlets, both for and against him, as Brothers’ “followers began to declare themselves” (Harrison 60). Some of his more illustrious supporters included Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, “a distinguished oriental scholar and member of parliament” (Harrison 64), “a well-to-do Scots lawyer from Edinburgh” named John Finlayson (Harrison 66), and Captain Hanchett, “a wealthy ex-naval follower” (Harrison 66). Brothers also numbered followers from various trades, including a publisher, a surgeon, several Anglican clergymen, merchants, &c. (Harrison 66-67). Some of these later became Southcottians, namely William Sharp (engraver), George Turner (merchant), Peter Morison (cotton-printer), and John Wilson (coach-maker) (Harrison 67, 90).

     Harrison contends that “[t]he political mood of 1794-95 was such that the government viewed Brothers’ activity with apprehension” and accordingly arrested him in the spring of 1795, declared him insane, and placed him in a private asylum (60). This incarceration lasted 11 years and effectively reduced his devotees “to a handful” despite his continued prophetic output (Harrison 60). Brothers’ remaining adherents effected his release in 1806, after which he lived with friends until his death in 1824.

     Like Joanna Southcott, Brothers provided fodder for newspapers and was the subject of cartoons such as James Gillray’s 1795 piece “The Prophet of the Hebrews.” He also intrigued many of the poets of the day, including Blake, Coleridge, and Southey.

     Brothers’ works were unfortunately unavailable at our library, but for a good summary of the details of his prophecies and their reception, look at P. M. Zall’s article, which also points to some allusions to Brothers in letters by Coleridge and Southey (see especially Southey’s Letters from England, 1807), as does Peter Kitson’s note. Morton D. Paley gives a detailed analysis of “Blake in relation to the millenarian movements of his own time” (261), focusing his attention on Brothers and Southcott.

Works Cited

Harrison, J. F. C. The Second Coming: Popular Millenarianism 1780-1850. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1979.

Kitson, Peter.“Coleridge, Southey, and Richard Brothers: And Incident from Charles Lloyd’s Edmund Oliver.” Notes and Queries 37 (235) (1990): 405-07.

Paley, Morton D. “William Blake, the Prince of the Hebrews, and the Woman Clothed with the Sun.” William Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Ed. Morton D. Paley and Michael Philips. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973. 260-293.

Zall, P. M. “The Cool World of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Richard Brothers. The Law and the Prophet.” The Wordsworth Circle 4: 25-30.