Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

In the year 1830, a girl named Ann Holgate, daughter of Joseph Holgate, wool-sorter, of Union Street, Bradford, was afflicted with a strange malady: she was frequently seized with apparent madness; according to her own account she saw living beings in the form of men, coming towards her, which appeared to her to get smaller and smaller in size as they got nearer to her, till they entered her mouth, and went down her throat; at which time she appeared to be choking: during her agonies she was dumb, and appeared anxious to bite any thing she could get hold of; and made a very hideous noise, and lept off the bed on which she was laid, like a frog. She was in this state about four months, and continually got worse: she at various times said, John Wroe would be made an instrument to heal her, which her father told to John, but be said it had not been revealed to him that he would have the power of healing. On the 17th of the 6th Month, 1830, hearing that John Wroe was at James Laycock’s, adjoining the meeting house at Bradford, she urged her father to go there with her; her father accordingly went with her, and left her at the outside of the door, and told John Wroe. John Wroe said to him, “Where is thy daughter?” He answered, “At the door.” John said, “Tell her to go into the meeting room,” which she did, and John followed. She sat down, upon a form, round which she twisted herself, and also rolled on the floor like a ball. John Wroe said, three distinct times, “In the name of Jesus, the Son of the living God, I command thee, thou foul spirit, to come out of her, and enter no more;” and at each of the three times speaking, she said, something like a frog came out of her mouth, which turned into the form and size of a man, whose flesh was black; and they all three (spirits) stood together, in the room; apparently gnashing at John Wroe with their teeth. John Wroe, & Joseph Holgate, with his daughter and the others, then left the Meeting House. And from that time she has never been attacked with any thing of the kind.

Comment

Comment

Which epilepsy variant did Anne Holgate suffer from? What happened to her?

It is notable how the gory details of the exorcism disappear in the later, abridged version. Had people become less gullible in the intervening years?

On the 17th of 6th month, 1830, as John Wroe was at James Laycock’s house, adjoining the meeting-room, in Bradford, Anne, the daughter of Joseph Holgate, woolcomber, of Union street, Bradford, applied to him, accompanied by her father; she had been for some weeks frequently seized with fits of a singular description, in which she became speechless, appeared to be choking, and making a most hideous noise; she also evinced an inclination to bite any thing within her reach, and leaped from the bed in a manner resembling a frog, and appeared to become worse continually; she frequently said John Wroe would be made the instrument in healing her, and of which her father informed him; but John declined their solicitations, observing, that no revelation had been made to him on the subject, nor was he informed that he would be endowed with the gift of healing: but on the day stated at the commencement of this paragraph, John directed her father, (who had left her at the door,) to go into the meeting-room, which being done, John followed, the young woman was seated on a form, and twisted herself round it; she also rolled on the floor like a spherical body. John Wroe said three times, “In the name of Jesus, the Son of the living God, I command thee, thou foul spirit, to come out of her, and enter no more.’ All the parties then left the room. She never afterwards had another attack, but remains in perfect health. Witness of this fact, Joseph Holgate and William Muff, of Little Horton (Wroe 1851).

Something to say? Get in touch

Original

In the year 1830, a girl named Ann Holgate, daughter of Joseph Holgate, wool-sorter, of Union Street, Bradford, was afflicted with a strange malady: she was frequently seized with apparent madness; according to her own account she saw living beings in the form of men, coming towards her, which appeared to her to get smaller and smaller in size as they got nearer to her, till they entered her mouth, and went down her throat; at which time she appeared to be choking: during her agonies she was dumb, and appeared anxious to bite any thing she could get hold of; and made a very hideous noise, and lept off the bed on which she was laid, like a frog. She was in this state about four months, and continually got worse: she at various times said, John Wroe would be made an instrument to heal her, which her father told to John, but be said it had not been revealed to him that he would have the power of healing.

On the 17th of the 6th Month, 1830, hearing that John Wroe was at James Laycock’s, adjoining the Meeting house at Bradford, she urged her father to go there with her; her father accordingly went with her, and left her at the outside of the door, and told John Wroe. John Wroe said to him, “Where is thy daughter?” He answered, “At the door.” John said, “Tell her to go into the Meeting room,” which she did, and John followed. She sat down, upon a form, round which she twisted herself, and also rolled on the floor like a ball.

John Wroe said, three distinct times, “In the name of Jesus, the Son of the living God, I command thee, thou foul spirit, to come out of her, and enter no more;” and at each of the three times speaking, she said, something like a frog came out of her mouth, which turned into the form and size of a man, whose flesh was black; and they all three (spirits) stood together, in the room; apparently gnashing at John Wroe with their teeth. John Wroe, & Joseph Holgate, with his daughter and the others, then left the Meeting House. And from that time she has never been attacked with any thing of the kind.

Witness, Joseph Holgate, aforesaid, William Muff, Little Horton, and others.

401 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• 📌Bradford (72) ·
• Christian Israelite Church (3), Millennialist sect founded by John Wroe in 1822 in Ashton-under-Lyne. ·
• Epilepsy (3) ·
• Evangelicalism (7) ·
• Exorcism (2) ·
• Mental disorder (13) ·
• Messianism (3) ·
• Protestantism (25) ·
• Quackery (2) ·
• Textile manufacturing (59) ·
• Wroe, John (1782-1863) (3), Bradford prophet, founder of the Christian Israelite Church ·

All tags.

Similar

• 29 February 1824: Prophet John Wroe is baptised on the Leap Day in the Aire near Apperley Bridge before an audience of 30,000
• 12 November 1819: The first, nocturnal vision of Prophet Wroe in one of his fields at Tong Street, Bradford following his near-fatal fever
• 22 November 1839: Bradford rejects its new vicar William Scoresby’s proposal for a church rate by a huge majority, inspiring a curious letter
• 17 October 1887: John Hughlings Jackson, late of York, uses recollections of the minster to illustrate the double mental vision manifested by punsters
• 18 March 1650: Dorothy Rodes of Bowling (Bradford) blames witchcraft by Mary Sykes for the postpartum illness of her daughter
• 1 December 1851: John (65) and Betty (73) of Wibsey are at long last united in a “funny wedding” at Bradford
• 2 February 1806: John Yeadon helps a desperate sinner at a Methodist love-feast during the Great Revival at Yeadon
• 11 March 1974: Bradford councillor and would-be property developer John Foers denies trying to “Poulson” Gary Rawnsley, chair of the planning committee
• 30 October 1744: Landowners form a partnership to pipe water from Little Horton to Bradford, facilitating urban growth
• 25 November 1698: A scholar must also pursue a modern scoundrel like Dugdale the demoniac