Now! Then! Prophet John Wroe is baptised on the Leap Day in the Aire near Apperley Bridge before an audience of 30,000

Excerpt

On the 16th of the 1st month, John Wroe arrived at Idle, near Bradford, where he occupied a room for forty days, and received visits from all persons, and held conversations and arguments with them; at the end of which he visited the Rev William Vint, Baptist Minister, and the Rev Thomas Howarth, Minister of the Established Church, and warned them. On Sunday, the 29th of the 2nd month, at one o’clock in the afternoon, he was baptized in the river Aire, a little above Apperley Bridge, by seven immersions, by Brunton of Bradford, preceded and succeeded by hymns and music composed for the occasion, by a good band of both vocal and instrumental performers from Bradford, and many other places; but chiefly, if not entirely, believers. Extensive notice had been given by printed bills, and the number in attendance was estimated at 30,000, deeply lining both banks of the river for a great distance above and below the place of baptism. A considerable portion of this vast assemblage were opposers and persons bent on creating disturbance. John walked from his residence to the place of his baptism (a distance of about a mile) alone, and although well known by many and threatened with death, he received no injury, the people making way for him.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

I haven’t read much about the Yorkshire Baptists, but Israel Roberts writes:

In my mother’s early days [born 1802], the Baptists used to baptise their new converts in [Bagley] Beck, which then, of course, ran with pure clean water.[ref]Strong: Farsley’s first Baptist Chapel was built adjacent to Bagley Beck in 1777.[/ref] I can remember very well when it was the custom to baptise in the River Aire at Newlay Bridge (Roberts 2000).

I think that Wroe’s choices of Idle and 40 days and 40 nights were designed to echo the Temptation of Christ and his baptism by John the Baptist. Here’s Matthew 4 (KJV):

[1] Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
[2] And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
[3] And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
[4] But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
[5] Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
[6] And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
[7] Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
[8] Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
[9] And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
[10] Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
[11] Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Let’s speculate wildly:

Stones into bread. 19th century quarrying at Idle/Wrose/Eccleshill, though valuable for quarry owners and workers, and for the builders of Bradford, had a devastating effect on (public access to) the hillsides. “Suffice to say that, near Bradford, good stone was cheap, and good eyes were rare; and that, except in the time of the rich corn harvests, what was Eccleshill Moor is now a hideous sight.” (Anon 1852) Wroe’s anti-industrial line was that man shall not live by bread alone: what about bilberries?!
Pinnacle of the temple. More thought required.
Mountain. The trig point on Eccleshill is at 212.244m. The views would have been 360º stupendous before mass housebuilding, and, while dodging the dog poo, you still get marvellous glimpses of Ilkley Moor, Airedale etc. But, like Jesus, Wroe affected a rejection of worldly dominion.
Ministered to by angels. Wroe believed, and managed for a while to convince his followers, that young girls were his just reward for withstanding the Devil’s temptations:

“Seven books – seven writers will I have – seven virgins temporal and spiritual; and until seven be found I will not cease my work.” Written from John Wroe’s mouth by William Tillotson. See how this has been fulfilled in part by the shepherds of the house of Israel agreeing to accuse John Wroe of unlawful actions, in the 10th month, 1830; which caused many of the flock who were then gathered to be scattered again; and on the 11th of the 4th month, 1831, at Bradford, when he was trodden under foot, and had three of his ribs dislocated (Wroe 1851).

One Jane Rogers has novelised these later events:

John Wroe, prophet of the apocalyptic Christian Israelite Church, made his headquarters in Lancashire in the 1820s. When God told him to comfort himself with seven virgins, his congregation gave him their daughters. Each woman in Wroe’s household, from brutalised Martha to saintly Joanna, has her own secret hopes of a new life – either in heaven or on earth – at a point in history when anything seems possible. And each has her own view of the prophet. Mr Wroe’s Virgins tells the story of the nine months of their life together, until accusations of indecency, and the trial that follows, bring Wroe’s household to a dramatic end (Rogers 2011).

Wroe surely improves dramatically, if not theologically, on Jesus by being baptised after his temptations rather than before. How does Joanna Southcott score in the Prophet Rankings?

The Quakers also number, rather than name, their months.

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Original

1824. On the 16th of the 1st month, John Wroe arrived at Idle, near Bradford, where he occupied a room for forty days, and received visits from all persons, and held conversations and arguments with them; at the end of which he visited the Rev. William Vint, Baptist Minister, and the Rev. Thomas Howarth, Minister of the Established Church, and warned them. On Sunday, the 29th of the 2nd month, at one o’clock in the afternoon, he was baptized in the river Aire, a little above Apperley Bridge, by seven immersions, by Brunton of Bradford, preceded and succeeded by hymns and music composed for the occasion, by a good band of both vocal and instrumental performers from Bradford, and many other places; but chiefly, if not entirely, believers. Extensive notice had been given by printed bills, and the number in attendance was estimated at 30,000, deeply lining both banks of the river, for a great distance above and below the place of baptism. A considerable portion of this vast assemblage were opposers, and persons bent on creating disturbance. John walked from his residence to the place of his baptism, (a distance of about a mile,) alone, and although well known by many and threatened with death, he received no injury, the people making way for him.

He asserts that he had a sign given him by the Lord, that at the time he went into the water the sun should shine: it rained from morning until after twelve o’clock, (within an hour of the appointed time,) and on the two days preceding there was a severe frost attended with snow. Having reached the place of baptism, and the sky being dark with clouds, and no sun appearing, he retreated from the water intending to walk a little along the bank, on which the people vociferated, he was running away, and that he durst not go in, and at the same time appearing to push themselves forward in the direction of the place where he was, saying they were determined he should go into the water. He however made his way: on this the clouds were dispersed, and the sun broke out, and then the performance took place described before.

Immediately before this, seven young men, who had placed themselves on the branches of a tree, cried, “Drown him.” John commanded them in the name of the Lord, to come down. One of them, named John Hudson, who had lived with John Wroe, as an apprentice, cursed him. On this the tree, with the tenants of its branches, fell into the river, and some of them had five or six miles to walk home in their wet clothes; and the one who cursed John died in a few days after. John, on returning to his residence, was thrown down, as also was a friend accompanying him, but neither of them received any serious injury; but it was said that some of the people did. After the baptism, a friend delivered a sermon on the subject, in the field, many stopped to bear him, and were very peaceable.

522 words.

Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

29 February 1824: Prophet John Wroe is baptised on the Leap Day in the Aire near Apperley Bridge before an audience of 30,000

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