Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/169

 10 s. XL FEB. is, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

137

JOANNA SOTTTHCOTT'S CELESTIAL PASS- PORTS (10 S. x. 405 ; xi. 16). I have two of Joanna's passports. The one now before me reads thus :

George Binns,

The

Sealed of the Lord,

The Elect precious ; Man's Redemption ;

To inherit the tree of life ; to be made

Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with

Jesus Christ.

Joanna Southcott,

May 3d, 1806.

To the above document is appended Joanna's seal in red wax. The seal has her initials and two stars. I think the passports are now very rare.

I have also the print of 'The Superb Crib presented to Joanna Southcott,' pub- lished by John Fairburn. 2, Broadway, Blackfriars, Sept. 9th, 1814. The motto on the rim of the canopy over the crib is : " A Free-will offering by Faith to the pro- mised Seed."

FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN.

537, Western Av., Albany, N.Y.

The following is from The- Western Anti- quary, vol. vii., February, 1888 :

"On a recent visit to the Roman Catholic College of Oscott, near Birmingham, I noticed in the very excellent museum of that institution a curious relic of this notorious personage, con- sisting of a passport to heaven, of which the following is a copy : ' Charles Billinge, the Sealed of the Lord the Elect, Precious.'Man's Redemption, to inherit the Tree of Life. To be made Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Jesus Christ. Joanna Southcott, December, 1803.' A note was ap- pended as follows : ' A passport signed by Joanna Southcott : only two others known to be in exist- ence with the original signature ' Kearley.

In a subsequent number of the periodical (March of the same year) Mr. George Hussey, of Torquay, wrote as follows : -

" I have one of Joanna Southcott's passports and signatures. The paper is dated January 15th, 1804, and has become very thin, as you may think, after so many years. There are two red seals in wax on the paper one a lions head and shoulder, and the other two stars, and a half moon, and what looks like the figure of a child."

In Devon Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 241, is a note on the passport by F. B. Dickinson, with an illustration of it. This passport was granted to Richard Hebbard, or Hub- bard, and is much worn. The letterpress (enclosed in a circle three inches and five- eighths in diameter, one seal missing) is the same as in Mr. Hussey's, but it does not contain the figures he mentions.

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

[MB. J. T. PAGE also thanked for reply.]

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT AND THE BLACK PIG (10 S. x. 509). The Northern Star (published in Sheffield in 1817-18), vol. i. p. 393, gives the following :

" The annals of superstition have hardly ever recorded a more extravagant instance of folly than the Sacrifice of the Black Pig by the South- cottians, which we extract from The Philanthropic Gazette. A correspondent of that respectable paper (an eyewitness of the fact) writes to the following effect : That on Tuesday, the 14th instant [i.e., Oct., 1817], above one hundred persons (men and women) of that deluded class assembled in the wood at Forest Hill, near Syden- ham. After forming a circle they commenced their rites by singing and praying ; this pre- liminary form concluded, a small live Black Pig was introduced, and the poor animal was imme- diately attacked with choppers and sticks, till every symptom of life had entirely disappeared, each female giving nine distinct blows on the head with the former instrument, while the men belaboured the little beast with the latter. It was now bound in an iron chain and suspended over a large fire, where it remained till it was reduced to ashes, which they scattered over their heads and trampled under their feet. This done they then proceeded to pray and sing again. The spectator of this barbarous ceremony, anxious to know its meaning, was induced to approach the principal speaker (apparently a blacksmith), and express his fears that they must be labouring under some unhappy delusion. He was informed that then? doctrine of worship was founded on Scripture authority. The types and shadows used in the Mosaic dispensation, they said, were figures of the promised Redeemer, and his miracles were types of the Shiloh they were all looking for. The burning of the Pig therefore was explained to be the binding and burning of Satan, and ' intended the miracle in the 8th of Luke, so that that morning their prophet had cast out the evil spirit out of each of their hearts and it had entered the swine.' When he would have endeavoured to convince them of these absurdities they only laughed ; so with branches in their hands and bows of ribands on their breasts they turned towards London, triumphing in their folly. They all consisted of poor working men, and the man they called their prophet or the shadow of Shiloh was apparently a discharged seaman."

A. H. ARKLE.

Elmhurst, Oxton

"RAISED HAMLET ON THEM" (10 S. xi. 65). An analogous expression is used in some part of the United States. I noticed " Mamma '11 raise Cain " (p. 165) and " Of course she raised Cain " (p. 191) in ' Patience Sparhawk and her Times,' by Grace Atherton.

ST. SWITHIN.

I am not acquainted with the expression " raised hamlet on them," but I have fre- quently heard a somewhat similar one, viz., " play Hamlet with." The phrase has always seemed to me to be used in the sense of " play the very deuce with," or " play havoc with."