When Immortals Die: Excavating the Emotional Impact of the Death of Prophets in Nineteenth-Century England

Abstract

This article explores the emotional aftermath of the death of two leaders of millenarian movements in nineteenth-century England who claimed immortality until their dying breath: John Nichols Thom (1799–1838) and Mary Ann Girling (1827–1886). How did communities that defined themselves by their belief in the imminent apocalypse and were infused by notions of death as a purely symbolic rite, cope with the death of their immortal prophet? By focusing on the impact of bereavement, this article analyses the role emotions played in society's marginalisation of millenarian cults. It applies a close reading of these communities' material, emotional, and spiritual practices by incorporating written sources—press articles, court records—to engage with shifting perceptions and norms about what constituted ‘appropriate’ and ‘inappropriate’ emotions during times of loss in Victorian England by honing in on communities already known for their ‘heightened emotionality’. As such, it suggests an answer to the question at its centre: How and why did reports on these communities’ emotional practices determine or reinforce their status as fringe phenomena?