JOHANNA SOUTHCOTE

Southland Times, Issue 20228, 13 July 1927, Page 5

JOHANNA SOUTHCOTE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PROPHETESS DISCREDITED. MYSTERIOUS BOX OPENED. London, July 11. The mysterious box belonging to the prophetess, Johanna Southcote, which was sealed for 113 years, was opened in the Church House, Westminster, in the presence of Bishop Grantham, who described it as not illuminating. The first object found was a book dated 1796 entitled “Surprises of Love or Adventure in Greenwich Park.” Other contents were a dice-box, an old pistol, a pair of ear-rings, coins, and sundry books. The only one requiring study was a diary for the year 1715, with written notes. The followers of Joanna present ridiculed the whole proceedings. They admitted that the box was hers, but denied that it was the box containing the plan for the salvation of England, which they claim is in a secret hiding place and will only be opened in the presence of 24 bishops—A. and N.Z. Johanna Southcote (or Southcott), who died in 1814, was the founder of a religious sect known as the New Israelites or Sabbatharians, who expected that she would give birth to another Messiah. The mysterious box which she left was supposed to contain a plan for the salvation of England and not to be opened for 100 years.