¹ William Freke, Elijah's First Appearance to the Several Churches and Nations of the Earth: Containing, First, A full Account of his Prophetick Mission from the Most High. And after, as exact a Relation of the several Particulars of his Great Office for the Benefit of Men (London, 1709), 4.

² Ibid., 10.

³ Hill, Christopher, Puritanism and Revolution (London: Secker and Warburg, 1958), 336Google Scholar. The best account of the continuing importance of millenarian prophecy is Johnston, Warren, Revelation Restored: The Apocalypse in Later Seventeenth-Century England (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2011)Google Scholar.

⁴ Korshin, Paul, “Queuing and Waiting: the Apocalypse in England, 1660–1750,” in The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought and Literature, ed. Patrides, C. A. and Wittreich, Joseph (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 242Google Scholar.

⁵ The Buckinghamshire Anglican clergyman John Mason and the London barber Thomas Moor both announced that they were Elijah in the 1690s. The French Prophet Elias Marion was proclaimed Elijah in London in 1708 by one of his followers, the Philadelphian Richard Roach. Hill, Puritanism and Revolution, 330; Burns, William E., “London's Barber-Elijah: Thomas Moor and Universal Salvation in the 1690s,” Harvard Theological Review 95, no. 3 (July 2002): 286CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Diary of Richard Roach, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson D1152, 107r (28–29 January 1708) and 115r (3 March 1708). I am grateful to Dr. Lionel Laborie for this last reference.

⁶ Bouldin, Elizabeth, “In Search of ‘Fellow Pilgrims’: Radical Protestants and Transconfessional Exchanges in Europe and the British Atlantic, c. 1670–1730,” Church History 83, no. 3 (September 2014): 591, 610–611CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Laborie, Lionel, Enlightening Enthusiasm: Prophecy and Religious Experience in Early Eighteenth-Century England (hereafter cited as Enlightening Enthusiasm) (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2015), 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸ The Registers of Wadham College, Oxford, ed. Robert Barlow Gardiner, part 1, 1613–1719 (London: George Bell and Sons, 1889), 316; and Martin Greig, “Freke, William (1662–1744),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).

⁹ Freke, William, A Vindication of the Unitarians, Against a Late Reverend Author on the Trinity (London, 1687)Google Scholar. Freke tells us the timing of his becoming an Arian in The General Idea of Allegorick Language, 49. For the origins of the Trinitarian controversy, see Greig, Martin, “The Reasonableness of Christianity? Gilbert Burnet and the Trinitarian Controversy of the 1690s,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44, no. 4 (October 1993): 633CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Freke, William, Essays Towards a Union Between Divinity and Morality, Reason, or Natural Religion, and Revelation. Calculated to the Meridian of our Present Differences in Church and State (London, 1689), 7Google Scholar.

¹¹ Freke, William, A Dialogue By Way of Question and Answer, Concerning the Deity. All the Responses being taken verbatim out of the Scriptures (London, 1693), 13–14Google Scholar.

¹² Clark, Andrew, ed., The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, antiquary, of Oxford, 1632–1695, described by Himself (Oxford: Oxford History Society, 1891–1900), 3:437Google Scholar; and Registers of Wadham College, 316.

¹³ Freke, William, A Full Enquiry into his Power of Faith, the Nature of Prophecy, the Translation of Enoch and Elias, and the Resurrection of Christ (London, 1693)Google Scholar, preface.

¹⁴ An Exact Collection of Many Wonderful Prophecies relating to the Government of England, etc. Since the First Year of the Reign of James I To the Present Time (London: Thomas Salusbury, 1689)Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Freke, A Full Enquiry, 7.

¹⁶ Ibid., 36. He reiterates his belief that Withers was a true prophet in Freke, William, The Pool of Bethesd watch'd: or, some of the Various Divine Monitions, Prophecies, and Revelations Of our Author, Fairly and Carefully Expounded, with their fullest Intents and Purposes (London, 1703), 264Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Freke, A Full Enquiry, 54.

¹⁸ Ibid., 62–64.

¹⁹ Ibid., 71–72.

²⁰ Freke, The Pool of Bethesda watch'd, 208.

²¹ Freke, The General Idea of Allegorick Language, 49–52.

²² Henderson, George David, ed., Mystics of the North-East (Aberdeen: Third Spalding Club, 1934), 16–17Google Scholar, 60. Bourignon's works published in English in the 1690s were: The light of the world a most true relation of a pilgrimess, M. Antonia Bourignon travelling towards eternity [ . . . ] : divided into three parts [ . . . ] / written originally in French, and faithfully translated into English; to which is added, a preface to the English reade, (London, 1696); The light of the world containing the last conferences which M. Antonia Bourignon had with the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort, priest, pastour of St. John's at Mechlin, superiour of the fathers of the oratory there, and directour of the Isle of Noorestrands: which deserves to be read, understood, and considered by all who desire to be saved / written originally in French, (London, 1696); The second part of The light of the world being a continuation of the conferences which Antonia Bourignon had with the deceast Mr. Christian de Cort: which deserves to be read, understood and considered by all who desire to be saved / written originally in French, (London, 1696); and An admirable treatise of solid virtue [ . . . ] by Antonia Bourignon; written in 24 letters to a young man, who sought after the perfection of his soul [ . . . ] ; translated from the original French (Amsterdam: Henry Wetstein, [1693 or 1698]).

²³ Garden, George, An Apology for M. Antonia Bourignon: in four parts (London: D. Brown, 1699)Google Scholar. The two attacks to appear in England in the 1690s on Bourignon were: Leslie, Charles, The Snake in the Grass: or, Satan Transformed into an Angel of Light (London: C. Brome, 1696)Google Scholar; and Cockburn, John, Bourignianism Detected: or, the Delusions and Errors of Antonia Bourignon and Her Growing Sect. Which May also Serve for a Discovery of all other Enthusiastical Impostures (London: C. Brome, 1698)Google Scholar. Cockburn was George Garden's brother-in-law.

²⁴ Eight of these twelve children were still alive in 1709: William Freke, Elijah's First Appearance, 25.

²⁵ Greig, “Freke, William.”

²⁶ Freke, The Pool of Bethesda watch'd, 201–202.

²⁷ Ibid., 158.

²⁸ Freke, Elijah's First Appearance, 27; and Freke, The Pool of Bethesda watch'd, 169–201. The Oxford English Dictionary defines monition as an instruction or a warning, both of which are appropriate meanings for Freke's usage of the word.

²⁹ Freke, The General Idea of Allegorick Language, iii.

³⁰ Freke, The Pool of Bethesda watch'd, 201–202.

³¹ Freke, William, The New Jerusalem: or, the Holy Methods of Divine Prediction and Monition seemingly promis'd, And most solemnly assur'd thereby in the Latter Days to the Churches, Rev. ch. 21, & 22 (London, 1702), 4Google Scholar.

³² Ibid.

³³ Ibid., 5.

³⁴ Ibid., 6.

³⁵ Ibid., 8.

³⁶ Ibid., 11.

³⁷ Ibid., 22.

³⁸ Ibid., 27.

³⁹ Ibid., 22–23.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 6.

⁴¹ Ibid., 28.

⁴² Korshin, “Queuing and Waiting,” 242.

⁴³ Christianson, Paul, Reformers and Babylon: English Apocalyptic Visions from the Reformation to the Eve of the Civil War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978), 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁴ Claydon, Tony, William III and the Godly Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 33–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁵ Schwartz, Hillel, The French Prophets (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 15Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Johnston, Revelation Restored, 191.

⁴⁷ Korshin, “Queuing and Waiting,” 245.

⁴⁸ Jurieu, Pierre, The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies, or, the Approaching Deliverance of the Church (London, 1687)Google Scholar; and Korshin, Paul, Typologies in England, 1650–1820 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982), 341Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Knetcsh, Frederik, “Pierre Jurieu and the Glorious Revolution According to His ‘Lettres Pastorales,’” in Church, Change and Revolution: Transactions in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch History Colloquium, ed. Van Der Berg, Johannes and Hoftijzer, Paul (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 158Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Ibid., 152.

⁵¹ Johnston, Revelation Restored, 202–205.

⁵² Burnet, Gilbert, A Sermon Preached in the Chappel of St James’ Before His Highness the Prince of Orange, 23 December 1688 (London: Richard Chiswell, 1689)Google Scholar. See also Claydon, William III and the Godly Revolution, 28–52.

⁵³ Plane, Ann Marie and Tuttle, Leslie, “Introduction: The Literatures of Dreaming; European Theories, Politics, and Experiences of Dreaming,” in Dreams, Dreamers, and Visions: The Early Modern Atlantic World, ed. Marie, Ann Plane and Leslie Tuttle (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 10–13Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ More, Henry, Enthusiasmus Triumphatus: or, a Brief Discourse of the Nature, Causes, Kinds, and Cure of Enthusiasm (London: J. Flesher, 1656)Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ For more on More and enthusiasm, see Fouke, Daniel, The Enthusiastical Concerns of Dr. Henry More (Leiden: Brill, 1997)Google Scholar. Numerous denunciations of enthusiasm appeared in print in the last decade of the seventeenth century and the first decade of the eighteenth. Probably the most widely read in this period was Hickes, George, The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised, 2nd ed. (London, 1681)Google Scholar. Based on a sermon preached in 1680, by 1709 it was on its fourth edition.

⁵⁶ Another visionary and prophet living in London in the 1690s was Ann Bathurst. She was part of Lead's circle and considered a prophet in the Philadelphian Society. It is possible that Freke had seen some of the accounts of her visions that circulated among the Philadelphians in manuscript form, but I have not included her in my discussion because none of her written work was ever published. Sylvia Bowerbank, “Bathurst, Ann,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

⁵⁷ Hirst, Julie, Jane Leade: Biography of a Seventeenth-Century Mystic (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005)Google Scholar, chap. 1.

⁵⁸ Ibid., 25–26, 31; and Hessayon, Ariel, “Lead's Life and Times (Part One): Before Widowhood,” in Jane Lead and Her Transnational Legacy, ed. Hessayon, Ariel (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁹ Ariel Hessayon, “Lead's Life and Times (Part Two): The Woman in the Wilderness,” in Jane Lead and Her Transnational Legacy, ed. Hessayon, 41–42.

⁶⁰ Hirst, Jane Leade, 89–99.

⁶¹ Durnbaugh, Donald, “Jane Ward Leade and the Philadelphians,” in The Pietist Theologians, ed. Lindburgh, Carter (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 133Google Scholar. However, Ariel Hessayon argues that the Philadelphians were really a more radical and heterodox group than they let on: Ariel Hessayon, “Lead's Life and Times (Part Three): The Philadelphian Society,” in Jane Lead and Her Transnational Legacy, ed. Hessayon, chap. 4.

⁶² Hirst, Jane Leade, 114.

⁶³ Ibid., 115–119.

⁶⁴ Dumbaugh, “Jane Ward Leade and the Philadelphians,” 133.

⁶⁵ Hill, Puritanism and Revolution, 328–333; and Schwartz, French Prophets, 43–45.

⁶⁶ Bouldin, “In Search of ‘Fellow Pilgrims,’” 611.

⁶⁷ Paula McDowell, “Enlightenment Enthusiasms and the Spectacular Failure of the Philadelphian Society,” Eighteenth Century Studies 35, no. 4 (Summer 2002): 516.

⁶⁸ Works on John Mason included: An Elegy upon the death of Mr. Mason late minister of Water-Stratford, near Buckingham, who departed this life on Monday last, the 12th of this instant May, at his house called the New Noah's Ark, at Water-Stratford, ([London]: A. Milbourn, 1694); Maurice, Henry, An impartial account of Mr. John Mason of Water-Stratford, and his sentiments, (London: Walter Kettilby, 1695)Google Scholar; and Some remarkable passages in the life and death of Mr. John Mason late minister of Water-Stratford, in the county of Bucks: with an account of what was taken by several that were at Water-Stratford, from Mr. Mason's own mouth, and others deputed by him / drawn up by a reverend divine, &c.; published to preveut [sic] false reports; with a relation of the present state of his followers; to which is added the letters Mr. Mason sent to several of his friends, tending to promote the power of godliness both in persons and families; as also many poems which he writ on special occasions (London: John Dunton, 1694).

⁶⁹ Freke, The General Idea of Allegorick Language, iii.

⁷⁰ Ibid., 20, 28, 31.

⁷¹ Ibid., 45–52. While he does not appear to have had any followers, Freke's brief reference here to having been sent some visions and dreams to interpret by a Wiltshire clergyman proves that at least some people were aware of his books.

⁷² Freke did not go entirely unnoticed at this time. In March of 1707, Thomas Hearne, the Oxford antiquarian and assistant librarian at the Bodleian, noted that Freke had published a book (the book to which he refers was actually published in 1693). He went on to characterize Freke as “a Whimsical Man.” In 1708, Hearne recorded that Freke gave a large collection of coins to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, along with a “curious cabinet” in which his collection was displayed: Noble, C. E., ed., Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne (Oxford: Oxford History Society, 1885), 1:338Google Scholar, 2:144.

⁷³ Schwartz, French Prophets, 17–22.

⁷⁴ Ibid., 22–30.

⁷⁵ Ibid., 72–85.

⁷⁶ Ibid., 79–86.

⁷⁷ Diary of Richard Roach, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson D1152, 107r (January 28–29, 1708) and 115r (March 3, 1708); and Leade, Jane, Elias, or the Trumpet Sounding to Judgment (London, 1704)Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ Bibliothèque de Genève, MS Fr. 605/7a, 8. I am grateful to Dr. Lionel Laborie for this reference.

⁷⁹ Henderson, ed., Mystics of the North-East, 59.

⁸⁰ Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson, D1153, fols. 267v and 278r. I am grateful to Dr. Lionel Laborie for this reference.

⁸¹ Bouldin, “In Search of ‘Fellow Pilgrims,’” 605n55.

⁸² Freke, Elijah's First Appearance, 4.

⁸³ Ibid., 10.

⁸⁴ Ibid., 30.

⁸⁵ Ibid., 12.

⁸⁶ Ibid., 10.

⁸⁷ Ibid., 15, 18.

⁸⁸ Ibid., 18.

⁸⁹ Ibid., 19.

⁹⁰ Ibid., 22.

⁹¹ Ibid., 24.

⁹² Ibid., 27.

⁹³ Ibid., 31–33.

⁹⁴ A search of WorldCat reveals, for example, that of the 117 copies of Elijah's First Appearance that are currently in libraries around the world, only seven of them are in Europe.

⁹⁵ Freke, Elijah's First Appearance, 10.

⁹⁶ William Freke, The Great Elijah's Commission Prov'd Divine: or, the first part of his Pool of Bethesda, Consisting of the various divine monitions [. . .] drawn chiefly from his several dreams, from 1695 to the present year 1709/10, Lib. II (London, 1710); and William Freke, The Great Elijah's commission extended to all people and nations throughout the whole earth: or, his pool of Bethesda manifested, as to the universality of its extent, Lib III (London: s.n., 1710). Neither of these books appear in the Eighteenth Century Collections Online, but both are listed in the British Library Catalogue.

⁹⁷ William Freke, A Second Introduction, With fullest Light Proposals and Representations, and that, if possible, so to move some to assist me in my Transcriptions and Print Publications, that I am forc'd on to by God the Great Jehovah, in pursuance of my late first Introduction, and the better so to Introduce all that are truly Good and Righteous into God's Presence, and so to make them all Prophets throughout the Globe (London, n.d.). The date of this, his last book, is 1736, known only because Freke adds a note at the end of it in which he states that he is 74 years old.

⁹⁸ Henderson, ed., Mystics of the North-East, 59.

⁹⁹ Dorset History Centre, Dorset Quarter Sessions Order Books, 1/5 and 1/7.

¹⁰⁰ State Papers 35/11 f. 1 (January 1, 1718), 147 (April 7, 1718). It appears that His Majesty did not reply to either.

¹⁰¹ Freke, A Second Introduction.

¹⁰² Greig, “Freke, William.”

¹⁰³ The one exception is his entry in the original Dictionary of National Biography, which also automatically qualified him for inclusion in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). His presence in the DNB was probably on account of the number of works that he published and the fact that he was a gentleman and a justice of the peace.