SOUTHCOTT, JOANNA (1750-1814), English religious fanatic, was born at Gittisham in Devonshire. Her father was a farmer and she herself was for a considerable time a domestic servant. She was originally a Methodist, but about 1792, be coming persuaded that she possessed supernatural gifts, she wrote and dictated prophecies in rhyme, and then announced herself as the woman spoken of in Rev. xii. Coming to London at the request of William Sharp (1749-1824), the engraver, she began to "seal" the 144,000 elect at a charge varying from twelve shillings to a guinea. When over sixty she affirmed that she would be delivered of Shiloh on Oct. 19, 1814, but Shiloh failed to appear, and it was given out that she was in a trance. She died of brain disease on the 29th of the same month. Her followers are said to have numbered over r 00,000, and are not yet extinct.
She left a locked box with instructions for it to be opened by all the bishops together assembled at a time of national crisis. The box was finally opened in 1928 in the presence of one of the bishops, but it was found to contain nothing of interest at all.
Among her sixty publications, all equally incoherent in thought and grammar, may be mentioned: Strange Effects of Faith (18or 1802), Free Exposition of the Bible (1804), The Book of Won ders (1813-1814), and Prophecies announcing the Birth of the Prince of Peace (1814). A lady named Essam left large sums of money for printing the Sacred Writings of Joanna Southcott.
See D. Roberts, Observations on the Divine Mission of Joanna Southcott (1807) ; R. Reece, Correct Statement of the Circumstances attending the Death of Joanna Southcott (1815).