“A most extraordinary sermon upon me, as if I was a God”

As I described yesterday, John Frith refused to let his lawyers delay his trial for treason in April 1790, so the judges decided to start by making the session a trial of Frith’s sanity.

Even before the jury was sworn in, Frith started talking about how various authorities had met him: “the king’s physician,” “Lord Camden” of the privy council, an “apothecary,” and “my own physician, Dr. [William] Heberden.” Those men said he was “fit to meet my trial.” He’d made memorandums of all those visits.

Justice John Heath replied simply, “The jury will take notice of that.” Whether he meant the reported opinions of those experts or Frith’s behavior in the courtroom is not clear.

Frith’s attorneys Samuel Shepherd and William Garrow then asked him some questions and let him express himself at more length. For instance:

Mr. Garrow. Will you have the goodness, Mr. Frith, to state to the jury the circumstance that took place on your arrival at Liverpool, about the clergyman.

Prisoner. When I first arrived at Liverpool I perceived I had some powers like those which St. Paul had; and the sun that St. Paul gives a description of in the Testament; an extraordinary power that came down upon me, the power of Christ; in consequence of my persecution and being ill used, the public wanted to receive me as a must extraordinary kind of a man; they would have received me in any manner that I pleased; when I went to St. Thomas’s church I was there surprised to hear the clergyman preach a most extraordinary sermon upon me, as if I was a God: I found my friends wanted me to support that kind of fanaticism in this country; this sermon was printed afterwards by [William] Eyre, the printer at Warrington; when I came to London to the king concerning some military business, I told him nothing about any supernatural abilities, or the power of God; when I went to the Infirmary over Westminster-bridge, to the Asylum, I was surprised to hear General [George] Washington’s late Chaplain, Mr. [Jacob] Duche, he said, I remember the words he said, “see him clothed in grace,” pointing to me; there were some supernatural appearances at that time, therefore I could wish the privy council, when I came to England, or the Parliament, might be witnesses that I did not want to set up any kind of powers to the public; but there are such extraordinary appearances that attend me at this moment, that it is singular; and all I do daily is to make memorandums, daily to prove myself in my senses: some friends in Cheshire wanted me to set up some kind of fanaticism, some new branch of religion.

The Rev. Jacob Duché (shown here) preached to the First Continental Congress, which included Washington. In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress elected him its chaplain. However, when Gen. William Howe seized Philadelphia, Duché switched allegiances and wrote to Washington at Valley Forge, urging him to surrender. The minister soon moved to Britain and stayed there until 1792. Though he had never been Washington’s personal or military chaplain, Duché was evidently known in Britain for that link. 

Frith’s counsel was particularly eager to have him speak about a pain in his ear:

Mr. Garrow. Would you be so good, Mr. Frith, to inform the Court, as you have an opportunity now, of the complaint you made to me of the effect your confinement has upon you, and the pain in your ear?

Prisoner. In respect to the body of people, St. Paul when he was at Jerusalem, the same kind of power then came down on the public; there is both a kind of good and evil power which we are all liable to in this world; in consequence of that I feel myself in a particularly disagreeable situation in confinement; I am under a state of suffocation almost, the divine ordinances weighing so very low down that I am entirely reduced to a shadow almost, that is all to me as if it was a death seemingly, I am so in a state of confinement.

Garrow asked twice more about the ear pain before Frith finally explained:

I supposed it merely as a triffling thing, but that complaint arises from a power of witchcraft, which existed about a hundred years ago, in this country; there is a power which women are now afflicted with; there is a power that rules now, that women can torment men, if they are in a room; over your head, they may annoy you by speaking in your ear; I have had a noise in my ear like speech; it is in the power of women, to annoy men publickly, even throughout the whole continent.

Mr. Garrow. Could you satisfy one of the Jury, that such a noise exists in your ear at this time?

Prisoner. That there is a noise in my ear at this time?

Mr. Garrow. Yes.

Prisoner. No, I am free from it now.

Mr. Garrow. Oh! you are free from it now?

Prisoner. Yes, but it is the power and effects, of what they call witchcraft, or some kind of communication between women and men; but I have remained such a chaste man for these four years, that it has fallen upon me particularly…

The defense attorneys thus established what modern psychiatrists would call multiple delusions.

TOMORROW: Hearing from other witnesses.