NATHANIEL BRASSEY HALHED : MYSTIC OR MANIAC ?

HIS ASSOCIATION WITH

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT
Author(s): J. Duncan M. Derrett
Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , 1979, Vol. 60, No. 1/4
(1979), pp. 229-233
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

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 NATHANIEL BRASSEY HALHED : MYSTIC OR MANIAC ?
HIS ASSOCIATION WITH JOANNA SOUTHCOTT

By
J. DUNCAN M. DERRETT

Dr. Rosane Rocher's learned and very recent contributions on the

early Anglo-Indian linguist, philosopher, and orientalist, N. B. Halhed,1 have
made it known for the first time that he was recommencing his researches into
the ( Persian ) Mahãbhãrata somewhere between October 1810 and July 18 13. 2
This will have been subsequent to his so-called ť second ' Indian career, viz.
at India House from 1809. Because Halhed is not entered in Dodwefl
and Miles' Bengal Civil Servants I am deeply indebted to Mr. Michael
O'Keefe of the Indian Office Library for researching details of his fir
career. It will be seen that Halhed was in highly controversial situation
long before he became fatally involved with the prophet Richard Brother
( on whom see Dictionary of National Biography ).
In 1772 he arrived as a writer in India, and was assistant Persian
translator to the Khalsa ( Treasury ). As is well known he acted as
translator of the Code of Gentoo Laws in 1774, when in fact he is casually
referred to as a translator in connection with a ť new Code of Mahomedan
(sic) Laws ' ( list of 15 March 1774). In a Gernerai Letter of the same date
is to be found mention of him as alderman of the Mayor's Court, Fort
William. In October-November 1772 we find him officiating as an inter-
preter in the Supreme Court, from which it appears that his linguistic
abilities were highly developed before he arrived in India. He was appointed
an alderman as early as December 1773, and there are traces of his acting
in that capacity until, apparently, 14 October 1776, when he was appointed
Commissary-General, to the annoyance of General Clavering, who had
favoured another candidate. Halhed fruitlessly asked permission to resign
because of ill healthy as early as July 1778. In that same year his grammar
of the Bangali language appeared. He published on Indian affairs between
1782 and 1783, returned to India in 1784-85, when the setting-up of the
Supreme Court occupied many minds in Calcutta, and ( after his second

* R. Rocher, ' Nathaniel Brassey Halhed on the Upanisads ( 1787 ), 5 Annals of the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 58-9 ( Diamond Jubilee Volume ) ( 1978),
279-89; 6 Nathaniel Brassey Halhed's collection of oriental manuscripts, ' Annals
of Oriental Rest) Silver Jubilee Vol., 1975, 1-10.
* A BORI i 58*-9 ( 1978 ), 285, n. 27.

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Ž30 Annals BORI, LX ( im )

return home ) published some literary material {Imitations of

1793, and then he became involved with Brothers.

It must be remembered that periods of intense instability

with widespread hopes of revolution on the part of illiterate, op
gave rise to ' fames ' ' rumours ' commotions ', and, last b
« prophecies '. The article in the Dictionary of National Biogra
to Halhed gives the impression that, as a Member of Parliament
damaged his reputation by defending Brothers, the prophet, w
matic utterances caused commotions amongst the lower clas
already a prey to a rash of prophets and prophetesses. The
realising that radical politicians would readily utilise and man
appeared to be religious movements, had incarcerated Brother
disgusted his fellow Members by campaigning for his release. T
literature in the nature of pamphlets attaching to this episode,
1795-6. It is not surprising that Halhed gave up his seat ( for
Hants. ) in that year, when the atmosphere became hostile. Th
was a radical is shown by his associates and his printed opinions
men ( unfavourable ).
He seems to have gone into retirement immediately, and
have expected that he would have resumed his beloved orien
once : his skills were then quite rare. On the contrary, evidenc
yet to be forthcoming. His spirits awoke again by the reappea
Spirit in a new vehicle. Dr. Rocher has shown that he connect
thers phenomenon with his Asiatic speculations. I believe ther
nuity with Joanna Southcott. Recent studies of Joanna3 conta
curious material, which I now offer as a startling appendix to
oriental studies in what cannot improperly be dubbed ' N
England.
Joanna's brother went to see Halhed on the 10th December -1304*
He said that he was a prisoner until she came to release him. The- Spirit
ť answered ' Joanna that she should go and see him, for he should be a
prisoner no longer.4 God speaks to Joanna : «...I will tell thee of Halhed. I
have invited him to come forward and judge of the calling and he has refused
thinking it was not of God because thou hast not been unto him and now Î

8 A. W. Exell, Joanna Southcott at Blockley and the Roch Cottage Relics (P.
Drinkwater for the Blockley Antiquarian Society, 1977 : available from Blockley
A. S., The Stone House, Blockley, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucs., England ).
* Blockley Collection 819 ( 37 ). 4A handlist of the contents of the Collection, from
which Dr. Exell kindly supplied me with transcripts, is available at the Record
Office of the County of Hereford an4 Worcester, at Worcester ( England ),

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 Derrett : N. B. Halhed , mystic or maniac ? 231

command you to go unto him if thou canst not this week go the following
week... '.5 On the 19th December Joanna went to see Halhed with her most
prestige- worthy supporters ! Halhed and his wife received them with
pleasure. 'Mr. Halhed said he had been a prisoner ten years and was
ordered not to go into any person's house but his own before she came
to free him and now he was at liberty to go where he pleased. '6 ' He said
concerning the Creation Man was made in the likeness of his Maker and the
Lord's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life was breathing into him
his own Spirit. The woman that was taken from him was given him for his
good was the Spirit of Christ in the woman. But when she eat (sic) the for-
bidden fruit the Spirit died in her. Therefore our Saviour was called the
Lamb and slain....' 7 The Spirit goes on to Joanna : ' Now I shall answer
the mystery of Halhed and the letter that was sent by Spring.8 Thou
knowest when I first ordered thee to come to London I ordered thee to write
to Halhed yet Halhed refused to come unto them ( ? thee ) and. waited in
silence thy going to him again. I ordered thee to send to Halhed when
thy writings were proved at Paddingtion....'9 Now when it came to the Trial
of Joanna's writings10 Halhed had not been involved.

It is sometimes said that a fortnight is a long time in politics. For

practically ten years Halhed had kept out of the limelight. There are no
published works of his during this period, at least none under his name or
attributed to him. Joanna began to prophecy about 1792. Halhed about
1795 began to advocate the return of Jerusalem to the Jews, a project which
figured right up to the Congress of Vienna. Joanna took up this notion ( so
it seems, for the exact date of her first prophecies on the subject is not known
for certain ) with vigour, for her supporters occupy themselves with this vision
tenaciously. It is not impossible that Halhed had Iiis eye upon Joanna from
soon after the débàcle of Brothers ( whose prophecies failed to materialise )
left him in need of ' compensation ' In 1804, at any rate, Joanna was at the
height of her fame. People will have been ready to credit the author and

« Ibid.
» Blockley Coll. 819 ( 38 ).
* Ibid.
8 James Spring was Joanna's initial contact with Halhed. He seems to have b
a ť well-connected ' person, as Dr. Exell reports a lettor from Ann Under
( Joanna's companion ) to Rev. T. P. Foley ( Joanna's leading supporter in
Anglican Church ) on the 14 November 18Í4, { The Colonel ( Harwood ), Mr. C
and Mr. Spring came of an evening...'
9 Blockley Coll. 819 (38).
*0 For the Trial of 1803 ( based obviously upon 1 Jn. 4 : 1 ; see John Tillotson, Woks .
containing Fifty Four Sermons... London, many editions, the 21st Sermon^ 4
April, 1679 ) see the strange story at Exell. op. ciU . 19, 26, 56.

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 232 Annals BORT , LX ( 1979 )

fomer Member of Parliament with discretion, and to suppose

had duped him. There was no love lost amongst the pr
supporters of Joanna were for the most part uneducated or s
persons, and every fashionable recruit was worth a great deal
ment.

That Halhed was actually recruited by Joanna can now be disclosed and
in the following extraordinary way. As Dr. Rocher has discovered, his
spirits had greatly revived by about 1810, and his work was considered well
worthy of publication in 1807 and 1809. 11 He was therefore already reha"
bilitated. In Joanna's Fifth Book of Wonders 12 she relates how the Spirit
ordered her to convene a meeting of her friends. She put a solemn question
to them, and they record equally solemnly their answer. The problem was
who was to be the father of the Shiloh, the child which Joanna was expecting ?
Joanna, with Mary I, was one of the two most celebrated cases of pseudo -
òyesìs in history. The Son that was to be born was to be an Heir ( Gal. 4:7)*
Common knowledge confirmed that if there was no father the child must be
illegitimate. Any common lawyer could vouch for that. More imaginative,
and at the same time, more respectable opinions were required. A certain
Col. WV Tooke Harwood gave his assent to the former opinion, but he
apparently was not respectable, or enlightened enough. Recourse was had
to Halhed and Spring. James Spring was neither an attorney nor a barrister.
Halhed was, of course, not a barrister. But his legal qualification can be
derived, not from his Code of Gentoo Laws ( ! ), but from his having been an
Alderman in the Mayor's Court at Calcutta, where no doubt he will have
become acquainted with many systems of law in general terms, and Commis-
sary-General of the East India Company ! Early correspondence with Sir
William Jones, whom he*will have known in. connection with the Supreme
Court, shows Halhed to have been an accomplished Persian and Arabic
scholar, a person who might well take a broad view of the electrifying deve-
lopments, almost ť messianic ', of Napoleon's conquests, and Britain's possible
heirship to them. Jones' scathing comments on that Code have, of course,
no relevance whatever to Halhed's qualities as a practical man or even a
jurist of sorts.

The Fifth Book of Wonders proceeds :

• The same question was sent to Mr. Halhed and he returned the
following answer signed by himself and Mr. Spring :
' We have maturely considered the question this day proposed to us,

1* E. Rocher : A BORI , 58-9 ( 1978 ), 281 n. 14T

+2 Londou, 1814.

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 Derreti : N. B. Halhed, mystic or maniac ? 233

relative to the actual situation of Mrs. Joanna Southcott, as described in her

late Book of Wonders, and as far as our own limited knowledge extends, are
perfectly agreed in the following answer :

" To constitute a capacity for inheriting as a legal Heir by the

laws of this country, and probably of other nations also,
the Child must be born in Wedlock. The laws of entail
indeed prescribe that the Heir to real property must be law-
fully begotten : but where there is a marriage the law
presumes this fact that • Pater est quem nuptiae demons-
trant viz. The existence of the marriage is the proof of
the personality of the father. And in this sense we say
that our Lord Jesus Christ was the legitimate Son of
Joseph, his Mother's husband, and rightful Heir to both
Father and Mother.

' This is all the answer we feel ourselves called upon by the terms of
the question to state as our opinion. '

Sunday, June 5th, 1814 Nathaniel Brassey Halhed

Jams. Spring

In 1814 Joanna died, after a hasty18 and clandestine marriage, without

the Shiloh having been born. She was not without successors in the way of
prophets. That Halded's connection with her was dearly treasured is certain
because in the famous Blockley collection14 there are several books of the
Hlahed-Brothers series of 1795, which could not possibly be there upon any
other hypothesis. It is not at all impossible that Halhed himself gave one or
more of them to Joanna or to her adherents.

It is still too early to say whether Halhed's successive relations with

Brothers and with Joanna ought to figure as a phase in his Asiatic Researches,
the mental treasures he brought back, after he eventually retired from ill
health, from India; or as a phase in his career as a radical politician; or as
an indistinguishable amalgam of both. Before we can go further into that
we must know more of what was expected at that particular millennarian
period of known adepts in the wisdom of the East ( sic ).*

18 Exell, op. cit., 38. * Mrs. Joanna ' ( above ) means of course 4 Mistress Joanna ' and
does not allude to her status.
14 See Exell, op. cit App. III, and n. 4 above.
* I am obliged to Dr Rosane Rocher, whose definitive book on Halhed is expecte
for some comments on this note. I have not seen the important work of Pro
John Harrison, The Second Coming ( 1979 ); and an important thesis on JoaD
Southcott ( which touches upon Halhed ) by Dr. James K. Hopkins of the Sou
Methodist University, Dallas ( Texas ) is still awaited.

30 £ AnnaU% BORI J

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