ABSTRACT

Joanna Southcott, a Devonshire woman, became convinced that she was the vehicle of a divine revelation. Her adherents grew in numbers, and in 1801 she gained some attention in London, where she arrived in May 1802. In October 1802 she proclaimed that she was to give birth to the second Christ; and this is probably the period of Blake's poem, which was written of the Notebook. In May 1813 she declared that she was pregnant with this child, who was to be named Shiloh, but it was a phantom pregnancy; she died, perhaps of cancer, on 27 Dec. 1814. Whatever is done to her she cannot know, and if you ask her she will swear it so. Whether 'tis good or evil none's to blame; No one can take the pride, no one the blame.