ing to England in 1854. In 1856 he directed his followers to wear a gold ring. The rings supplied by Wroe were paid for as gold, but turned out to be base metal. His Melbourne followers found money for building him a splendid mansion, Melbourne House, near Wakefield, dedicated with great ceremony in presence of delegates from all parts of the world, at sunrise, on Whit-Sunday, 1857. He was again in Australia in 1859. On a final voyage (1862) to Australia, he dislocated his shoulder. He died suddenly on 5 Feb. 1863 at Collingwood, Melbourne. He had prophesied 1863 as the beginning of the millennium; his followers expected his resurrection. No portrait of him exists, pictorial art being rejected as a breach of the decalogue. J. E. Smith refers to his ‘savage look and hump back;’ Chadwick mentions his ‘very prominent nose;’ others note his haggard visage, shaggy hair, and broad-brimmed beaver.
Wroe's ‘divine communications,’ as recorded by his scribes and published by the ‘trustees of the people called Israelites,’ may be found in
- ‘An Abridgment of John Wroe's Life and Travels,’ 4th edit. Gravesend, 1851, 8vo (the incomplete first edit. Wakefield, 1834, 8vo, has title ‘Divine Communications’); vol. ii. 4th edit. Gravesend, 1851; vol. iii. 1st edit. Gravesend, 1855, 8vo; there is also the first volume of a fuller collection, ‘The Life and Journal of John Wroe,’ Gravesend, 1859, 8vo; a second volume, Gravesend, 1861, 8vo, is merely a fifth edition of ‘Abridgment,’ vol. ii.
- ‘The Word of God to guide Israel … containing the Afternoon Service,’ Wakefield, 1834, 8vo (finished 20 April).
- ‘The Laws and Commandments of God,’ Wakefield, 1835, 8vo.
- ‘Twelve Songs for Divine Worship,’ Wakefield [1834], 8vo (chiefly from the Song of Solomon); included in ‘Song of Moses and the Lamb,’ Gravesend, 1853, 12mo (several earlier editions of this hymn-book, which appears to be of mixed authorship).
- ‘The Faith of Israel,’ Wakefield, 1843, 12mo.
- ‘The Laws of God,’ Wakefield, 1843, 12mo.
Two sets of reports of Wroe's sermons are in
- ‘A Guide to the People surnamed Israelites,’ Boston, Massachusetts, 1847, 12mo, and
- ‘A Guide to the People surnamed Israelites,’ Gravesend, 1852, 8vo.
See also ‘An Abridgment of John Wroe's Revelations,’ 3rd edit. Boston, Massachusetts, 1849, 8vo; ‘Extracts of Letters,’ Wakefield [1841], 12mo (from Australian believers), and ‘Extracts of Letters … of the Israelite Preachers,’ 1822–9, 12mo (eight pamphlets).
There must have been some strange fascination about the man, for (apart from his remarkable code of discipline) his utterances are but fatuous insipidities with a biblical twang, having neither the pathetic earnestness of Joanna Southcott nor the crude originality of her other improver, John Ward (1781–1837) [q. v.] The appended notes, claiming ‘fulfilments’ of Wroe's prophecies, are childish. Any speciality attaching to Wroe's doctrine arises from the presence of a mysticism akin to that of Guillaume Postel (1505–1581), which demands a feminine Messiah to complete the requisites of salvation. The references to topics of sex are frequent, but not impure; it is said, but the statement may be received with caution, that there is a secret manual of the sect, ‘the private revelation given to John Wroe’ (Fielden), offensively indecent in its language; its subject is understood to be one which is common to all treatises of moral theology. The mode of administering the penance by stripes, as related by Fielden, is grossly indelicate; but there is not a tittle of evidence of immoral teaching. His community still exists in diminished number.
[Wroe's publications, above; E. Butterworth's Hist. of Ashton-under-Lyne, 1842, p. 69; Davis's The Wroeites' Faith, 1850; Fielden's Exposition of the Fallacies of Christian Israelites [1861?]; Letter to ‘Leeds Times’ on the Character of J. Wroe, 1858; Notes and Queries, 18 June 1864, p. 493; Smith's The Coming Man, 1873, i. 168; Baring-Gould's Yorkshire Oddities, 1874, i. 23; Glover and Andrews's Hist. of Ashton-under-Lyne, 1884, p. 306 (engraving of the sanctuary); W. Anderson Smith's Shepherd Smith, 1892, p. 44; Chadwick's Reminiscences of Stalybridge, in ‘Stalybridge Herald,’ 1897, Nos. xiii–xvi; extract from Bradford parish register, per Mr. A. B. Sewell; information from the Rev. W. Begley.]
WROE, RICHARD (1641–1717), warden of Manchester church, son of Richard Wroe of Heaton Yate or Heaton Gate in the parish of Prestwich, Lancashire, was born at Radcliffe, Lancashire, on 21 Aug. 1641, and educated at the Bury grammar school and at Jesus College, Cambridge, which he entered in June 1658. He graduated B.A. in 1661, M.A. in 1665, B.D. in 1672, and D.D. in 1686; and was incorporated M.A. of Oxford University in May 1669. Through the influence of Lord Delamere (afterwards Earl of Warrington) he obtained in 1672 a royal mandate for the next presentation to a fellowship of the college at Manchester. He was admitted in February 1674–5. His next promotion was to a prebendal stall in Chester Cathedral in March 1677–8. He had previously been appointed domestic chaplain to Dr. John
