The Prophet of the Hebrews. . .

As the moon cracks, the sun drips blood, and London descends into a fiery pit among other signs of the apocalypse he had predicted, self-styled prophet Richard Brothers is shown leading British Jews back to Jerusalem, trampling over the many headed monster of pope and kings. But in making such outrageous claims and predictions, Gillray suggests, Brothers is (whether intentionally or not) serving the interests of French racicals and sans-culottes, including some familiar members of the British opposition.

The Prophet of the Hebrews. . .

The Prophet of the Hebrews. . . [March 5, 1795]
© Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

On February 17, 1795, a notice of the publication of a pamphlet by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Member of Parliament, appeared in the Morning Post and Fashionable World. The pamphlet, advertised for one shilling, was the Testimony of the Authenticity of the Prophecies of Richard Brothers and of his Mission to recall the Jews. Two days later it was followed by the publication of the extraordinary letter to Halhed from Richard Brothers which, among other things, had prompted Halhed's testimonial. It read in part:

In obedience to the sacred command of the Lord God whose Servant and Prophet I am, I inform you that you are descended from his ancient people the Hebrews, of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, King of Israel. His sacred commands delivered to me by revelation for you are: That you publish and declare to the world in writing, without the least fear of any human power whatever, that the revealed knowledge of his judgments given to me, and published by his sacred command in two books (called A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times} for the information, warning, and benefit of all nations, is from the Lord God, and is true.

Richard Brothers had been a successful officer in the Royal Navy, but, like other religious extremists at the time, he had begun to see in the turmoil of the French Revolution, a sign of the Biblical end of days. But unlike most others, by 1791, his increasingly frequent "visions" convinced him that he was the Lord's special prophet, designed to warn the British of their imminent destruction as foretold (so he claimed) in the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation, and to lead the lost tribes of the Jews residing in England back to Jerusalem.

In other times and situations, this might have been dismissed as harmless lunacy, but in the midst of an increasingly global war, exorbitant taxes, and food shortages, Brother's view of a world gone horribly awry gained traction among those members of the working class who were most affected by the shortages. But what was perhaps most disturbing to the press in the weeks before Gillray's print appeared was Halhed's endorsement of Brothers' views.

Nathaniel Brassey Halhead was a respected Orientalist, linguist, and scholar, a close friend of R.B. Sheridan until they found themselves on opposing sides over the trial of Halhed's mentor and friend, Warren Hastings, and in 1795 he was also a member of Parliament. Halhed had become an admitted follower of Brothers in January of 1795.

After his testimonial, the London newspapers exploded with announcements of reviews, commentaries, and refutations, including (from The Monthly Review, March 1, 1795)

This last publication concluded (according to the Monthly Review) that Brothers was a madman, but chiefly considered him "as the instrument of dernier ressort of the most desperate enemies of this country, for poisoning and inflaming the minds of the multitude, and possibly in the event, bringing them to act on [those false prophecies]."

Gillray goes even further. Showing Brothers without breeches (sans-culotte) with his pockets stuffed with French Assignats (the Revolutionary currency), he suggests that Brothers may be in the employ of France, carrying with him in his mania the English opposition personified by Fox and Sheridan in the Commons and Stanhope and Lansdowne in the Lords. But Gillray also suggests that the supposed path to Jerusalem is really a road to the gallows and fiery perdition. And indeed on March 4th, the Pitt government, having heard enough of the inevitability of Brothers' ascension to rule the world, had him arrested for sedition. And though he was never executed, Brothers spent most of the rest of his life in an asylum preparing for an apocalypse that never happened.

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